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Old 02-05-2008, 10:22 AM   #1
bluediamond
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Default How many hours do you work?

Life is really hard at the moment, first of all my wife needs to study English, one term costs around £800

Secondly, im finding it more and more difficult to work normal hours and earn enough to keep Inga in college (so she can get a job) and pay the bills which are going up all the time.

Its really a circle of hell, basically if you claim benefits you can live quite comfortably, you dont work, sit on your arse all day and sponge from the government, however, if you work and you try hard NOT to claim anything and you try to pay your own way in life you end up with loans, credit card bills, increasing oil prices and life becomes incredibily hard. Ok, so morally your doing things the right way, and not asking for help and trying to find your own way in life..........but it simply dosent work.

Now, after all my working life i am having to look for an extra job in the evenings just for us to be able to survive each week on £20 !

We dont spend anything on going out or buying expensive things, and yet if we claimed benefits we wouldn't be in the situation we find ourselves in.

I currently work 40 hours a week, i get good money, but why the hell do i find myself having to work in the evenings now as well which would pay me an extra £100 per week but it means my total working hours is now 60 hours.

If we have any millionaires amongst us please send me money!

Seriously, how many hours should a person reasonably be expected to work to have a 'normal' standard of living?

lalalala
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Old 02-05-2008, 07:49 PM   #2
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That is really tough Dave. To answer your question I guess 40 is the number pulled from the ass of The Powers That Be to reflect how much we need to earn to live comfortably. As you are proving that is no good for you. It is so frustrating that honest, hardworking people have such a hard time making ends meet when dishonest or lazy people get to sit around all day and get paid for it. I understand there are many people are in situations where benefits are the only option but in my experience benefits are taken advantage of an awful lot.

For example my mother is a teachers assistant in a school in a disadvantaged area (I also worked there as a sub when I was job-hunting). Kids of mothers with no jobs have to get themselves out to school. Sometimes the mothers leave the kids at school wearing pyjamas (the mothers that is) and collect tham at the end of the day still in them. They have no jobs, live in council houses (which I have no problem with) yet they drive brand new cars (when I work 50+ hour weeks and drive a 7 year old Fiat Punto). Recently the government decided to run a 12 session childcaring class in the school. The parents are getting paid e25 per session and a fried breakfast! The children get breakfast and lunch for free at school. They never pay on school trips or for books, stationery etc. They have "homework club" (sort-of like a supervised study) after school supervised by the teachers assistants which is basically an extra few hours free childcare per week. The parents get rent allowance, childrens allowance, medical cards, single parents allowance and much more.

I have a lot of admiration for what you are doing Dave and I'm sure it will pay off in the long run when Inga starts working, not only financially but she will have such a sense of independence when she does it will do her the world of good.

Oh, I'm not a millionaire but if I was I'd send a few quid your way!
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Old 02-05-2008, 08:44 PM   #3
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I work about 60 hrs a week. In december alone I did 75 hrs of overtime that month. And I'm actually supposed to be at work now I forgot that I picked up a shift. OOps. Bye.
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Old 02-08-2008, 06:37 AM   #4
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50+.....I like overtime. And really, I almost HAVE to work overtime to afford to live in Florida. It sucks. Cost of living just keeps going up, up, up, and my pay stays the same.
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Old 02-08-2008, 07:01 AM   #5
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I am working 8 hours a day.
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Old 02-08-2008, 11:33 AM   #6
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Dave, I know how you feel! I really do. The house prices in Ireland are truly shocking which means my mortgage is ridiculous not to mention just the cost of living in general. If anyone has been to Ireland, you'll know how expensive even a cup of coffee is in a café. Energy bills get more and more expensive and because we couldn't afford a house anywhere near where we grew up, we have to commute an hour to and from work or our families and that means lots of petrol which is also really expensive.

And of course now we have a little baby. The cost of childcare is going to be MORE than my mortgage per month. It's absolutely ridiculous. But because of the cost of living, we can't afford not to work because if I give up work, I am not entitled to any benefits so I have to work and have to pay the ridiculous childcare costs.

Also, she is constantly growing which means new clothes every couple of months.

After our mortgage, car payments, food shopping, childcare, pension and bills, we have pretty much nothing left. We have to budget really hard. Holidays are a thing of the past I think. Can't see us going anywhere for at least a few years unless we win something!

When I go back to work, I will be sticking with the 8 hours a day but before I went on maternity leave, I worked a lot of extra hours to just to get things done but sadly didn't get any extra pay for it. I won't be able to do that as I'll be tied to times when I will need to pick up Seryn.

It's hard! I understand and it's not fair but what I have found is that things like this do not stay like this forever. And besides, you'll appreciate the time you have together more and will look back and hopefully see the fruit of all that labour!

Chin up buddy - it's not forever!
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Old 02-13-2008, 04:12 AM   #7
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I work 40 hours a week, and living in Chicago (the actual city) it gets kinda hard to do alot of the things you want to do without having to pick up extra hours. I had a job once where I was working about 110 hours every two weeks...yeah, that sucked, but it was "mandatory" overtime. The money was good, but I was too tired to enjoy it.
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Old 02-16-2008, 06:13 PM   #8
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I used to work 30 hours a week at night slinging pizzas as an extra job, it was PATHETIC, Joe can make more in one night doing a door installation job on the side than I made in a 2 week pay period, or even in a month, and to top matters then we were less qualified for help
Right now I go to school 3 times a week, Joe works, goes to school 3 nights a week and has 2 internet courses the other 2 days, besides working part part time at a group home he will be hired at...eventually
It will be never endeingly maddening seeing these people in falling down trailers driving fricking new cars while I slog around in a dilapidated looking minivan, but that is how the world works eh
One day things will get easier, maybe
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Old 02-17-2008, 09:01 PM   #9
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OMG tell me about this! I work for a bank, and I see people coming in with checks for thousands of dollars that they can just cash from the government... and I HAVE to cash them just because they are backed by the government. I see this all the time, meanwhile me and my fellow employees have to work our asses off not making enough to save and handing thousands of dollars in cash over the desk to some slough waste of space... makes me sick. :-( Sorry I rambled, but the lazy sob in me wants to answer the question, I work about 45 hrs at the bank and then I spend my weekends driving cars for $5 dollars a pop.
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Old 02-22-2008, 03:35 AM   #10
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24 7 7 days a week....Don't ask.
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Old 02-22-2008, 12:43 PM   #11
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I suppose if you look at my new job...being a Mum - then that's 24/7
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Old 02-23-2008, 07:55 AM   #12
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overtime got cut down a lot at my job it sucks, how are people supposed to make a living man
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Old 02-23-2008, 03:58 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Little Bird View Post
I suppose if you look at my new job...being a Mum - then that's 24/7

That's a really difficult job, but it's gotta be rewarding!
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Old 02-24-2008, 09:40 AM   #14
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I work 40 hours/week. I tried a second job one time but I was tired all the time.....
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Old 02-25-2008, 11:53 PM   #15
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I have a Blackberry. I check my e-mails obsessively everyday, and even on vacation. I find myself typing away on it in the middle of the night when I can't sleep.

I suppose that's not working more than 40 hours per week, but I am always reachable. For example, on my last cruise, I took my laptop with me so that I have access when I don't have Blackberry access. It helps me keep my e-mails under control, the office moving without me, and this Jewel Kilcher Forum moving (OK, maybe not the last one).
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