Inconsequential CV stories

[baargain]

There is a peacock who lives in the garden of my GP surgery. It's closed, so my mate could have broken in and nicked the babies.

[Ella77]

[Toast]

This thread has taken a very sinister turn.

[Disco]

I just really wanted to squeeeeeeeeze all the round miniature brown hens. Too weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

[Ella77]

You and your flipping squeeeeezing.

[Jet]

The lovey folk who ran afterschool at S’s old school do camps and birthday parties and things (but are small scale, small business run by a fantastic group) - they decided today to hand out craft kits for drive by pick up. Good for two kids and instructions posted on their website. We missed going as I was working but it’s so lovely.

[smalex]

That's nice of them Jet.

On the (small) plus side, I've realised we're going to save some money during this. At least £25 a week for W's activities, and untold amounts of coffee/lunch/dinner out (although we'll hopefully have takeaways sometimes) , random shopping trips etc. No holidays or weekends away. Less petrol. I reckon at least £150-200/month. I'm sure somethings will go up but I'm not thinking about that at the moment.

[baargain]

We were thinking the same, especially petrol. We don't often do takeaways etc, so we're putting our petrol money into that kind of thing.

[Kenickie]

We'll save on petrol as P isn't commuting, and about £15 a week for baby activities. I'm trying to replace our eating out with takeaways to keep the local places going. We're already having to spend more on supplies though (eg branded nappies as the supermarket brand ones are all unavailable) so I'm not sure it'll be much of a net gain.

I'm also a bit torn about the baby classes. Some are groups that are just stopping, but a couple of music ones are moving online instead so want people to keep paying. For one the cost is the same which seems a little cheeky but then again, they obviously need to keep making money to pay their own bills etc. Although I guess they're not paying hall hire costs. the other one has just put some stuff up on YouTube and then is doing an optimal fundraising thing which I'm more inclined to contribute to.

P's just been told there's a pay freeze for the whole of next year because of Corona which seems a bit early to decide. Plus they're still paying shareholder dividends, obvs.

[smalex]

We very rarely have takeaways normally either, but we eat out often, so it's a decent swap.

Ken it is really hard to work out what is 'fair', isn't it.

[Kenickie]

I know someone who signed their child up to ruby tots classes, at £12 a week, and they've only had two weeks of a ten week term (paid in advance). Apparently the owner just emailed them to say 'obviously it's cancelled, bit I'm a small business so can't afford to refund'. :eek:

[smalex]

I don't know what to think. The business could well sink immediately if they refund everyone, I guess. But equally the people they're refusing to refund might also be struggling. If I were the business owner I think I'd be trying to refund as much as I could and/or offering to defer it.

[Princess Morripov]

It’s difficult isn’t it. Tupac’s football (which we pay monthly for) have said that the monthly payment correlates to 47 sessions and they don’t normally do two weeks in August, so they will reinstate those and the next two weeks are cancelled. The week after that is Easter and that wouldn’t have been a session and the week after that they will run something virtually. I guess beyond that they will run it virtually if they think that works (I’ll give it a go but I am a bit unconvinced. I think it would possibly be fair to reduce the DD to keep people onboard but we will see.

It is really hard as obviously you’ve got to get the balance right between wanting to support businesses that are going to struggle, but equally we’ve all got our own personal concerns about job stability etc so it’s difficult to know what to cut out or keep, isn’t it?

[smalex]

I said yesterday but my sister is going to chop nursery unless they offer to radically reduce fees while the kids can't attend. It's £1500 a month. It's a HUGE amount of money. She feels sad about it, and shes hoping they offer some retainer arrangement or something instead, but you just can't wave goodbye to that sort of cash, esp in uncertain times.

[Kenickie]

God, I hadn't even considered what people would do about nursery. That's a hell of a cost. Surely the government must have a solution?! I mean, I bet they don't, but they really should.

[smalex]

It's massive. They're relatively well off (in theory) but they just bought the new house and did the renovation so their savings are low. BIL works in the rail industry and so there's some job risk there. They just can't spunk that much money on nothing.

[Princess Morripov]

I had to give notice to my childminder yesterday which has made me feel really shit and quite sad but I think it’s the right thing to do. As well as her updated policy of not accepting even a runny nose, she sent out an update yesterday saying she’d still expect full payment if she closed because (presumptuous!) “you’ll still be being paid by the government”. Well, actually, I’m not as my piddly SMP is nearly over, and if A had to go onto SSP that wouldn’t even cover her weekly fees and we’ve got other bills to pay. Plus (first world problem) I have a lot of mortgages to cover and tenants have already stopped paying me rent.

She then backed down and said she had agreed 50% with other parents (oh, but not offered that to me?) and that maybe she shouldn’t have included runny nose in her policy but I think I’ve made the right decision. She’s always been over enthusiastic at the best of times with her sick policy and I think going forward it could be a nightmare having two children with her as perhaps she’d insist on both being off if one has been sick etc. But I still feel overall quite horrible and sad about it all as this time just a week ago everything was so different. :(

[wendy james]

Whilst P and I are in the massively fortunate position that we're in (I'm able to WFH, he's doing extra shifts to help out, we wouldn't be massively financially impacted by self-isolation), I plan to keep up all payments where they'll let me e.g. gym memberships, tennis lessons, brownies, etc. There's nothing like that amount of childcare cost (for nothing) though.

As I said in the theatre thread, I'm starting to get refunds and where the smaller venues have asked for a donation, I'm making one. I'm saving massively on petrol so am using that for relevant charitable donations, and I need to look into how I can support some of the local businesses.

[Texaco Shirley]

The company that runs one of A’s football sessions have said they will do refunds if desperately needed but asked people to leave it with them if possible to be used as a credit when they start up again.

[smalex]

Ws a/s football haven't been in touch, I'd be inclined to paying them, local authority swimming lessons are being refunded (less inclined to pay them anyway). Most the other costs are to do with school related a/s clubs or school dinners, so I wont pay them . I'm telling my nail girl today I'll pay her come what may. They just bought a new house, I don't think her husbands job will be secure, they're Romanian, her family all live in N Italy.