Author: Oana

#KnowYourMoney

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I have been a single mum for four months now and I’ve learned more about how to manage my money in this time than I had in the 10 years I was married. Being responsible for our budget, expenditure and savings was a very scary thing when I started at the end of October last year but slowly yet surely, I’m getting the hang of this, I think. The first thing I did was keep a very close eye on our bills and reduce them whenever possible. I changed my mobile phone provider and the gas provider as soon as we moved in as I found better deals with competitors. This resulted in a saving of over £20 per month, with very little effort. Keeping a close eye meant also eliminating unnecessary direct debits. In October we still had both Netflix and Now TV billed to my account but upon realising that we rarely used the Now TV I decided to cancel our monthly subscription, saving another £10 per month! I decided to keep my …

Parenting Super Powers

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I have been invited by npower(@npowerHQ) to write about my own parenting super powers in view of their new #familysuperpowers campaign that’s being promoted at the moment. As a recently “knighted” single mum, my super powers have to cover a huge variety of needs: from being Emma’s protector and provider to being her playmate, role model and educator. From being her nurse when she is ill to being her encourager when she feels down. But the thing is my super powers find their strength in the very person I am meant to “prove” myself to. Emma motivates me every single day to be the best mummy and super woman I can be. We have learned a lot about each other in the past three months. We have become thicker than thieves, as they say, and we have continuously drawn strength from each other’s beauty of soul and resilience. We have had some terrible lows but the highs are the things we cherish and will always remember. We have grown together, in our grief journey, on …

Safety in the work place

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I have worked in all capacities in the past 10 years, both as employed and self-employed, for big schools and small families and from home. I have never seriously considered safety at work until I read the new research by personal injury solicitors, Hayward Baker, which reveals the unsafe and unsanitary working conditions that are putting the health of millions of British workers in serious danger.    The in-depth study discovered a staggering 69% of British workers – 21 million of them – claim their workplace to be a health hazard. Please see the above attached infographic for more research findings although top level figures here: ·         35 percent of working Brits have picked up an illness from their place of work – with 18 percent claiming to have been struck down with food poisoning or caught a stomach bug because of dirty conditions. ·         A further 39 percent have even suffered an injury at work – with two in ten (20 percent) Brits having been to hospital due to a work-related illness or injury. ·         Shockingly, almost half (46 percent) of those polled complained to their bosses about the state …

To uniform or not to uniform?

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I’ve been challenged by the lovely people at 4imprint to give the idea of uniformity some thought and create a blog post around my thoughts about what it is to wear printed t-shirts as a uniform. I have been wearing uniforms all my life, from when I started primary school in Romania at the age of six, many, many moons ago. I remember disliking the feel of the plastic onto my skin but cherishing the identity the uniform gave me. I was a big girl, going to school on my own (those were Communist times still and both my parents had to work in order to be able to provide for us) and I belonged to a community of little people, all dressed up more or less in the same fashion as myself. Fast forward six years and me being in my first year of grammar school, when monumental things happened to the leadership of the country and Romania achieved its “democracy” from 45 years of dictatorship. People were elated and they demanded freedom in …

Bidvine – The App That Helps You Find The Professionals You Need

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Emma and I have a wide variety of apps on our iPads, from reading ones to energy supplier’s ones to games and catch up T.V. ones. Apps have become part of the day to day life of any contemporary technology user so I was not surprised when Bidvine approached me about their professional services bidding app. It only makes sense to me that in a world where we access entertainment, banking, T.V. programs and so much more via an app, to be now able to find professional services by the same means. So, what is Bidvine? Bidvine is a service which offers easy access to professional services, from domestic cleaning to interior painting to lessons of any kind (piano, photography, personal training). After the easy sign up step and choosing the service you are interested in, Bidvine sends your request to professionals in the area and within 48-72 hours quotes would arrive into your inbox, from up to 5 local providers. Since I live in Northern Ireland, I chose to test photography services through the app, …