I’m really proud of the fact that I have 5 jobs !!! (my freddin‘ tax bill is bigger than most people’s wages!) 1. Head of English in a Secondary School 2. One to one tutor for literacy. 3 Landlady of Roger the Lodger. 4 Exam marker for AQA exam board and 5. Home boarding for dogs.

Making himself at home on my lap is Scamp the westie! He’s settled in immediately and he really wouldn’t suit kennels as he loves company, I love dogs and I get paid! Everyone is a winner. Below is his friend, Hollie the Golden Retriever, also totally unstressed, relaxed and at home. Last year, I cleaned six caravans every Saturday and although it was fun, it was badly paid so this year, my life carries on as normal, with a few doggies in my house and I get paid. It’s not much, but it will pay for the paint and bits and pieces I need to carry out some house maintenance this summer. No one should moan ever if they have a job in the current job climate and I consider myself really lucky that I’ve been able to increase my income this year and slay a few debts. 5 jobs and counting my blessings.

The marking continues, nowadays we have to upload the grades onto the e-marker website and it’s good to see the numbers decreasing and the totals in my head increasing. I’ve earned £180 so far this morning and I’ll double that by lunch. It’s really mind numbingly boring but I need to do justice to these students incredible efforts………….so back to work! (I deleted the photo as I realised, if I enlarged or if anyone enlarged, then candidate confidentiality could be breached, so no photo today.)

I’ll be back soon…………school work and planning has shut me away for a while. I’m surviving on toast, Marmite, low fat spread, strong coffee and gritted teeth. It’s going to be a long weekend and I may have nothing to show for it at the end; but a teacher’s job is never done. Normal service will resume shortly; plus Dearly Beloved is very ill so I’m attending to him.

Look what the lovely people at AQA sent me! 400 exam scripts! I’m off to mark some now! There’s going to be some llllllooooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnggggggg nights!

I’ve just signed up with a couple of rent a room websites. There are people looking for somewhere short term to rent in my area and I may get some one who wants my spare room. I discovered the tax loophole, which allows the income from renting a room to be untaxed!!

I’ve got a lodger at the moment but his rent has built up and I’ve not been paid. I’ve been direct….texted, emailed and asked and I know he’s short of money but aren’t we all? So if he doesn’t pay me this pay day then I’m going to ask him to leave as I’m sure I can rent the room out. He is the ideal lodger as he complains when the heating is ON! and all he wants from us is the wireless broadband! So in many ways he’s perfect and he’ll let the dogs out but he’s no use if he doesn’t pay his rent. (He only stays for 3 nights in the week and pays - or doesn’t! £10 a night and now owes £300!) Bless him, he even had the nerve to go on holiday in the school break when he owed me money! Anyway, I’m either going to be better off or better educated by pay day!!! In future, I want the rent in advance!!!

Here’s the quote from the HM website! so it’s official! “Under the Government’s Rent a Room scheme, you can rent out one or several rooms in your home, to one or more tenants. The rooms must be furnished, but you cannot modify your home to make the rented area self-contained with its own front door.

Rent a Room allows you to receive up to £4,250 a year tax-free. If you get more than that, you must nominate to pay tax on either the overall profit after utility bills and wearand-tear costs are taken into account, or on the rental income above £4,250.”

It’s Easter holiday and I’ll be working through it! I have four private students to tutor this term and I had seven last term, which was really twice as many as I could cope with. This is a new venture for me and brings in valuable extra income. Due to the economical down turn dearly beloved’s industry (housing benefit!!) is booming and he’s having to work an extra day a week to keep up with demand so we’re both ‘working two jobs’ as our own scales of economy demand.
In the summer term I will become the proud owner of 500 GCSE exam scripts which I will mark (sigh in disbelief and even groan at too) over 20 days!!! I almost go blind marking 25 full scripts a day and I spend about three hours a night marking those scripts! It’s a killer as most examiners are retired and haven’t usually worked a normal week at school. So many people are having to step outside the parameters of their usual working hours to take on more just to keep up with life and I know this short term pain will have a long term gain as we march, head down into life’s prevailing gusts of bills, debt repayments and the rising cost of living. I do count my blessings too as I not only have a job but the means to diversify in other ways. Roll on debt freedom and a day off!