Ever decreasing circles...

I was finally due to spend a day at home and walked the dogs early. Still really tired and pissed off and my shoulder is really painful. I had breakfast and went to the COOP to buy some cheap food and baked beans have been put up to 75p each. I seem to remember that they used to be 10p a tin, not so very long ago - and being rather sniffy about it.

Dealt with a few emails, none of them cheerful. The postman came and I had a white envelope from Leeds which I assumed was from the mortgage company. It wasn't. It was from a Solicitor telling me that they are taking legal action against me for £4000. I don't actually owe them that - I've been paying about £140 too much tax every month for two years - but they can't get their head around it. This is on top of having my power bill ( red ) water rates ( red ) and Council Tax ( overdue ) - and only having £80 in the bank until next pay day.

I want to invoice a client but they have dragged all the detailing out so much that I can't - it will be at least 2 weeks before we finish - and that will be far too late. They are the only client I have left after I started teaching and couldn't juggle anything else. If I stopped teaching it would take at least 6 months to build up a client base in an over crowded freelance market and I'd have nothing to live off.

I also had an email from the college which just reinforces their intention to cut our pay by two weeks and 2% ( as a fractional, that effectively means nearly 4% ), even the government admit that in the last two years the cost of living has effectively seen a cut in the value of our pay packets of 10%. I went through my records and found that we actually earn slightly less per hour for teaching H.E. now than I did for teaching F.E... 18 years ago.

I have absoutly no idea how I'm going to get through this month. I would be financially more secure and have more money in my pocket if I was a long term unemployed waster in a rented flat, rather than a highly educated professional who works all the hours in education and tries to juggle a freelance career on the side.

To say that I'm pissed off is an understatement - I'm not even sure if I can be bothered any more.