Hit by the recession yet? We have...

Richard's just got home from lunch (we live behind the factory he works at) and they're going to be dropping everyone's hours from 5 day to 4 days..... which means noone will get made redundant, but just before Xmas everyone's money will drop....

We'll manage if we're careful, but I think quite a few will struggle....

At least everyone will keep their job. We've definitely had to tighten our belts this year

Is the factory JCB? I heard about the short time on the news. I am originally from Burton-on-Trent and my Mum had a very good friend who lived in Rocester and who worked there. Before joining the Navy, I worked for Conder who were the firm who built the factory so I have been there myself. It's massive.

Nope, though I think that gave them the idea - we are in Ashbourne - not far away, and my little boy likes walking around the JCB lake - it's easy coz it's paved!

At the moment we must be the only people to be saving money.

The child minder let us down so we are saving £150 a week there. SInce we are splitting time off to do child care we are saving £35 a week on travel expenses to and from work Shoppingon line means we are saving between £30 and £50 a week because I am not getting all the impulse buys and not paying a cab home (although I do have to pay for delivery). We are also saving around £25 a week on eating in subsidised staff resteraunts.

Happily we finished paying the mortgage early last year...