it’s the What’s-been-going-on episode.

Well, as you know, it was a lovely, amazing summer. A summer we could afford when we booked it because I was overflowing with children. By the time summer arrived I was contemplating a hose-pipe ban as the children were becoming scarce but by September that ban was fully in place. Lyf went to full time preshool, using all his allocated 15 hours, leaving me with two Lyf days a week. Then eb was offered her full time preschool place – ie full days five days a week. She had been offered just mornings so I was going to pick her up and have her for the afternoons but they had someone drop out leaving me in the lurch with a week’s notice.

This leaves me with not enough children to make enough money but also in a position in which I am trying to get a ‘real’ job so I don’t want to lead potential families on but, on the other hand, who knows how long that will take.

Then, to add insult and all that cliche malarky, we got a letter from the tax credits. Because of my bountiful six months last year we earned £100 over the threshold for getting tax credits and they wanted all £3000 tax credits back. NOW.

And then I discovered that something had got buggered up in my credit card account in which my “pay full amount each month” option was switched off and suddenly found I owed them £1600! This was mainly the girls’ new Ikea beds and holiday car hire but both should have been and gone. Yes, I should have been more vigilant but since I hardly use the credit card and it should automatically pay the full amount, I hadn’t looked at it… So, in one day I had to fork over both of those bills to their respective payees. I removed a large proportion of our savings and, as the building society is next to Thorntons (chocolate shop), I went in there on the way to the post office.

I said to then bloke in there “l’ve had a shit morning and I need chocolate.” He asked what was up, I told him and he gave me five Sicilian lemon mousse’! The money thing had made me stressed but he made me cry – not in front of him, it may have freaked him out, but once I left I really had to hold it together as I walked up to the post office.

I paid the money into the accounts and walked past a drunk man in a sleeping bag in the car park.

Yeah, handing over £4000+ was shit, but at least I had it to hand over.

So, it turned out we really, really couldn’t afford our holiday but I wouldn’t change it for the world because it was amazing.

*sigh* I either need a job or short term childminding.