You dirty rat.....

Over the last few weeks we've been blaming the squirrel's for eating up the bird seed and fat balls we've been putting on the bird table each day.  Well, surprise surprise today we've found out it's not the squirrel's at all...it's a big fat rat!

Hubby has suggested getting an air rifle, I've managed to talk him out of it...just!  I, know rats are pretty much everywhere nowadays but I really don't want them on my bird table thank you very much.  We live fairly close to the railway tracks and I understand that it is quite common for them to live near the tracks.

Today I have purchased some proper bird seed feeders that will hopefully mean the rats will not be able to eat the food now and in time will leave our garden.

Stern words were had with the cat this morning, who is clearly not doing his job very well.  He's 16 this year so I'm guessing his past all that rat-catching malarkey!  Not surprising really as he spends most of the day asleep on my bed....lazy little git.

Weather has been lovely this weekend.  Spring is in the air that's for sure.  We loose an hour next weekend too as the clocks go forward, so we will have the lighter evenings to look forward too also.

We had our first jumble sale as work yesterday.  It took weeks of arranging, collecting items, sorting through them and most of the morning laying it out before the doors opened at 2pm.  Let's just say we won't be doing another in a hurry!  Very poorly attended, even though we advertised it well.  Now, what to do with all the stuff left over!!

Hubby hit me with a bombshell when he got home from work last night.  He's given it alot of thought and decided that we could really save money if we got rid of one of the cars......MY CAR.  He realised that it would mean making compromises but he's sure WE could manage it (WE!!!!!) It could save us nearly £1000 a year if we did.  He'd sell his car as it's older then mine and then he'd use mine to get him to and from work.  He would drop me at work each morning as it's 5 miles away and I would get the train home at the end of each day.  Sounds easy doesn't it.  But I would have an hour round trip walking to school to collect Alex each day after work, would not have the car for shopping in the week as he doesn't finish work till 10pm each day and wouldn't have it on Saturday either as he works most of them.  He couldn't understand why I was a bit pee'd off by his suggestion and the fact that he'd given it so much thought - even found out the cost of the train fare AND the timetable.

I gave it some consideration and made a few suggestions myself.

If I was too loose the car then I would have to cut my hours back at work by 3 hours a week (12 a month), I would not be able to do any overtime as and when work needed me too.  This would mean a big drop in my salary.  Also, he would have too get up really early in the morning to take me in and he could no longer fall out of the bed at 8am.  I also suggested that we could save more money if in fact he got a scooter/moped (like he had a few years back) as in all fairness he only uses the car to drive to and from his work place which is nearer to home then my work place.  I said that at present I am spending around £150 a month on fuel but if I walked a couple of nights a week to school to collect Alex now the weather is getting better it would reduce this bill by around 15%.

He sat there, very quiet and starting rubbing his chin.  The upshot of it is ......we are keeping both cars for the time being !!!! Bloody men.

Only 3 more weeks left of this term.  Wow, doesn't time fly!

Hope you have a great week.

Sue x x x