Everything is easier when the sun is shining.

So I think I am doing quite well with my budget. Considering it is the school holidays and we have done quite a lot already I haven’t spent too much.

Last Sunday we went to Brean (seaside). I worked on Saturday night and went home to sleep but stayed up for a bit and Chris was saying to the kids "shall we go to Brean?" He is pretty good at taking them out on days when I need to sleep. Well I was thinking how long it has been since we had a family day out together. I was really tired but thought well the sun is out and I wanna have a nice day with my family. So I thought sod it, sleep can wait and we all went to Brean together. We had a really nice day. We stopped at Sainsburys and bought a few bits to have lunch on the beach. I bought loads of flavoured water too. This saved us loads of money cos usually we would have lunch out and drinks etc if we went to the beach. Once we got settled on the beach and had some food it was about 2.30pm. I drifted off to sleep and Chris played football on the beach with the kids. I must have slept for around an hour in the sun – it was really nice. It gave me the little boost I needed to get through the rest of the day. We wanted to go to Brean Splash which is a big swimming pool. It has an indoor and an outdoor part – lots of slides etc. It has been revamped recently and we wanted to try it out. By the time we got off the beach it was 4 o’clock so we went to check the pool out. It was £35 for the five of us!!!! I thought that was really expensive so we were dithering about whether to bother or not. e decided ok we would spend the money but then the woman said that it was shutting in under an hour and the slides were closing in ten minutes. ell it would have taken a good 15 mins for us all to get changed etc if not longer. I said no way then  – far too expensive.  (I was releived in a way) So we went to the fun fair instead and let the kids have a couple of rides which worked out much cheaper. It was a lovely relaxing day all in all and didn’t break the bank. The only problem was that on the way home our car started playing up!!! Kangarooing and cutting out. It diod this before and needed a new coil pack which cost £120 . It was working perfectly until this trip. It started misbehaving when we were in a lot of stop and start traffic. Not good. Chris is going to try to get it sorted as soon as he has a day off. We are meant to be travelling up to Sunderland in this car on Thurs!!! We won’t be going if it is like this (again I wouldn’t mind not going) It is for our friends’ wedding. Sounds bad but part of me can’t be assed to travel all that way! We are going to see Chris’ family while we are there too. I must be a bad person but I don’t like making pleasantries with people I barely know. I am quite shy and socially awkward in those situations! Would much rather go to Haven with the kids and have fun in the sun!!!! Chris has already paid for the hotel though so would be a shame if we can’t go – we really can’t afford to throw cash away!

We have had a nice week – the sun has been amazing. I am not going to say it has been too hot but it kind of has. We had so much rain for so long though I refuse to complain about the sun!!! I am always in a much better mood when the weather is nice. It is something I have noticed more and more. Even my friend, Janine, said so today. She said "you are always in such a good mood when the sun is out". I reckon I might seriously have a medical condition relating to it!!! I can handle anything when the sun is out. I feel so mush more positive and optimistic. I can survive on no sleep, no food etc…all I need is the sun!!!

I have two weeks off work soon. It is looking unlikely that I will take the kids away anywhere during that time. I want to but finances dictate otherwise. Oh well In do have a ticket for tonight’s Euromillions which is promising to create 100 UK millionaires so you never know – my next entry may well be saying I am going on an all inclusive trip around the world!!!!! HA! Some hope!

I am going to use my two weeks off to look for another job. Chris and I have been chatting about it alot. This is the master plan!!!

• Chris can go onto a permenant set late shift pattern if he wants. This is 1pm – 9pm Mon – Fri. It isn’t a particularly nice shift but at least it is the same every week. It also means he would get away from the team of bitches he is dealing with at the moment which is a nice added bonus.
• Liam starts school in September which means all 3 kids will be at school – Mon – Fri 9am – 3.15pm.
• This means I could get a job starting early in the morning.  The only hinderence is that I can not drive so it would need to be local or on a bus route. (Buses don’t start until 6am)
• I could potentially work full time in this scenario. I could do 7am – 3pm or 8am – 4pm for example.
• Obviously that would leave a problem for picking the kids up from school but my mum says she would not mind having them for a couple of hrs and Chris’ mum says the same so between us all we could work it out.
• School holidays would pose a problem but to be honest we have child care issues week by week now and we always get it covered so it wouldn’t be much different. When Chris had Weds and Thurs off it was different but that is out the window now.

This plan would mean if I got a Mon  – Fri job we would have weekends together as a family which would be lovely.  Alternatively I could work a couple of days in the week and also weekends which would minimise the childcare needs.

I am 99% sure we are going to lose our tax credits from this month because they have lowered the threshold etc so it won’t make a difference to that. I earn £700 a month for working 3 nights a week so as long as I got a job earning more than that we would be better off. If I could get something full time earning £15k then that would be around £1000 clear a month which would be great. I want to get back into office work or call centre work like I used to before. I was a Team Manager before I had kids and earned a decent enough wage. I am not expecting to walk back into such a role after 7 years out of the loop but it would be nice to work my way up again. The job I am in at the moment is going nowhere fast. Ok I only do 3 nights a week but it messes up my body clock to such an extent I may as well be doing 5 days instead. I am quite excited at the prospect of doing something a bit more mentally challenging. Something I can actually get my teeth into.

There is only one obstacle now = finding this mythical job that ticks all my boxes!!!!! There must be something like that out there somewhere right???? The time feels right, I am going to go for it!!!! Wish me luck.

I can’t think what else I wanted to say in this entry because the kids are fighting non stop and I am addled! We can’t go out at the moment because a man is here fixing our fences! The wind broke them a couple of weeks ago. I am glad we are getting new fencing but he has been here all morning! Wish he would hurry up. God knows what he thinks of my kids fighting! They are bored – what can I say? They are sitting colouring in nicely now so fingers crossed!

Ah that is hat I was going to say! Chris is a jammy sod. He won his company’s top 100 thing they do. He got sent to Manchester with colleagues from around the country. They went on a river boat and had a buffet lunch in the day time. Then they had a posh ball room function thing in the evening. A 3 course meal with drinks and entertainment. They stayed in a posh hotel as well. Chris said he used the gym and the swimming pool and had a generally lovely time! Jammy swine! See this is why I want to get back into working in an office. Sainsburys would never send anyone away like that – they think they are being uber generous when they give us a pack of teabags!

That is it for now really. 1 week of the school hols down – 5 to go!!!