(02-20-2012 01:16 PM)flyingswoosh Wrote: (02-20-2012 12:32 PM)Bull_In_Exile Wrote: (02-20-2012 12:28 PM)RobertN Wrote: (02-20-2012 12:18 PM)Bull_In_Exile Wrote: (02-20-2012 12:07 PM)flyingswoosh Wrote: these days i feel like teachers deserve it. they're asked to do so much more than they're supposed to. I'm not saying my job doesn't give me a lot of work, but at least I don't have to discipline a bunch of brats who don't get disciplined at home, and then have parents come at me and say that isn't my job.
Swoosh... If I could make 100K teaching I would be out the door where I am before I could hit "post reply"
Every work place has its own little aspects of hell to deal with.
THen move from Minnesota to Illinois and become a teacher. Stop bitching about it and do it.
I agree with the second part. You are the "little aspect of hell" in your workplace.
Unfortunately Teaching is one of those seniority driven pyramid schemes... I have three kids, the wife wants two more and we are a single income family, those first couple of years are whats keeping me out of the field.
The fact I have an engineering degree, 15 years of experience does not matter to the teachers unions.
BTW the second part, the personal attack on me... what was that for?
you're a single income family and your wife wants to bring the child total to 5? Your comment a few posts up leads me to believe that you don't make 100K. How can your wife think a family that makes <100K could support 5 kids?
Well 100K would be a raise for me but not a hugggeee one... I'm parked somewhere in the 80-85% household income range (80-95K). But we are planning for me to eventually make less. IT is going away and if it does not the hours/stress are not something I care to endure long into my 40's.
Hopefully in 5 years or so we will be positioned for me to leave the field and go into teaching (which has been kind of a dream since I started having kids). So the plan is to work ourselves down to living on 45K over the next two or three years and to pocket the difference into savings.
Growing up in a family of seven kids who for many years had just one income, and one substantially lower than what I make now has taught me how to live tight.
You don't have to deprive your family.
1) We have just one car. On the days when my wife wants it she drops everyone off (me at work, kids at school) other days I do it. Saves us about 200 dollars a month in car payments and insurance.
2) Being good stewards of toys/cloths.. My oldest kids share all their cloths, they are about the same size. Every year they get two dresses that are their own (Christmas and Easter), evenrything else is common property. Plus a lot of the cloths they do get are hand me downs from my sister (and her daughter) back east.
When my kids start to outgrow an article of clothing, or a toy, it either gets donated to the good will or carefully packed. My newborn will not want for cloths or toys for at least 18 months.
3) Food: My wife is a couponing fiend. I have gotten 100$ in groceries for 30 or 40$. We actually invested in a stand alone freezer so that when meat goes on sale we stock up. Over the month of January I purchased enough steak for one meal a week until may and did so for about 40 cents on the dollar for what it usually cost
Plus you make due. I buy on rotisserie chicken a week and get two dinners and a lunch out of it for the kids. (1) Chicken (2) make stock with the bones for soup (2) leftover chicken salad lunch.
We don't eat out a lot and I've gotten pretty handy in the kitchen (She shops, I cook)
Couponing extends to toys. My wife just bought about 70$ in new toys for 15$ and we put them away. The Girls can either buy them with their 'salary' (they get about a dime a day depending on how many chores they do) or wait until xmas, easter, birthdays at which point they will be given. They can also buy them cheaper if they want to give them to their friends.
4) Entertainment: We don't have cable and have the cheapest broadband we can get 27$ a month. With that we subscribe to netflix 10$. Usually we find one or two free redbox codes a month. So our 'digital entertainment' budget is about 37$ a month.
Also there is a ton of free things to do with kids. We took them to the MSP chamber orchestra 'mother goose for kids' performance Saturday. It was free, then we went for a walk in the park near out home that afternoon.
I do the build and grows at Lowes and Home Depot with my kids, free toys plus quality time building something with them.
Really the only entertainment money I spend is during the summer when family visits and we take the kids to movies / amusement parks. Or when my wife and I get a sitter so we can go out on a date.
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Our house payments run us about 1,200 a month but that's a long term investment so Ill suffer the expense now. Eventually rents will exceed that around me (they are already pretty close for a nice three bedroom apt)
Suffice it to say that not only do we get by but my wife takes half of her couponing money and puts it in a vacation fund for the summer. I scrape up a few bucks a month on 'bull run' that get split between my kids saving accounts and my investment account(s).
And there is still waste, my wife and I struggle with it all the time. So much that we have decided to start fully tithing and living without that money.
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Chicago Teachers Want 30% Raise in 2 Years
Thanks. I am quite sure that those PE teachers are also sports coaches thus make more. I had an a-hole PE teacher at my high school who also coached football. Keep on trying SOAF. As to why they are asking for that big a raise, thats what you do when you negotiate. You go high, you don't go low and negotiate up. THey know damn well they aren't getting a 30% raise or anywhere near that.
or a