May 2025 Newsletter

What’s been going on

Thank you for being a reader here at What Did She Say? I am so pleased to have you here! If you enjoy this post, please share it. And if you would like to be a free or paid subscriber I would love that. Your support means I can spend more time writing here.

In my head

Trigger/boredom warning: talk about money, or lack of it.

We are racing into our first set of ‘proper’ exams in this house and it’s bringing back a lot of memories.

Somewhat predictably I’ve been reliving my own GCSE’s through the power of my dreams. Good Lord, even after all these years the memory of opening my results sends me into a tail spin. I recall everyone (mainly my mother) being worried because despite being reasonably academic, I’d prioritised hanging out with my older boyfriend in his Mini Metro over revising. The lure of the bearded, ponytailed 17 year old with his Malboro reds and promises of marriage and a life on the Rainbow Warrior was just too much for me. I was dropped from triple science to double and even then there were concerns. It all worked out okay in the end. Some results were great, others less so. I don’t think I’ve ever had to produce my certificates.

Another big preoccupation here is money. Yes that dreaded thing. When my eldest son was a toddler I remember thinking how I must, must, must save for his university fees at some point. It was ‘on my list’. Life got in the way and spending was mainly allocated to Pom Bears and zoo trips and then pocket money to spend on Robux and Duke of Edinburgh kit like walking shoes. Cut to 2025, and here we are, thinking about where he might want to study in just two years time, and I have nothing saved. Not for university. Not for a rainy day. As I worried about this in bed the other night, trying to sleep, I sought to soothe myself with the thought that there was still plenty of time.

Here’s the thing; there isn’t. The years have crept up on me. I am now faced with quite a big financial hill to climb. And yes he will have to get a loan, but there’s still going to be a shortfall. I’ve just signed off on my brownies tax return for next year (yes I am THAT early getting it done) and it is no longer a goer. The price of chocolate is bonkers.

I am fascinated with how other freelancers and mums of kids with additional needs make money. Jessie Cave (Harry Potter alumni and freelancer) has started an Only Fans selling photos and videos of her hair. The content isn’t sexual, okay maybe a hint, but no exposing of bits (and bobs). She’s doing it to pay to re-wire the house her and her partner have bought. I’m agog reading her Substack about the journey.

Not in a mean way I hasten to add, in an ‘I wish I had long hair and a Harry Potter credit’ fashion. Perhaps I could sell videos of my trotters using my Bake Off background? My feet aren’t especially nice but they’re not gross either. I do have very long toes. Is that a particular fetish? It must be. There’s a fetish for everything. It’s just getting the right peccadillo with a reasonable amount of subscribers. How many folk get off on long toes and baking? Not many. A quick google brought up a cake maker who bakes bits of her feet into her patisserie. YES YOU READ THAT RIGHT and no I will never ever do this.

This is reader supported, which means that the more of you who subscribe the more time I can spend writing. If that sounds like a good thing then there’s a handy button below. There are free and paid options. Paid means I won’t be FORCED into selling videos of my long alien toes squish into soft butter on Only Fans. The future of my feet is on your hands:

There’s also the small issue that Jessie’s kids are younger than mine, so she hasn’t yet come up against teenage friends giving their point of view about her to her children. In primary school I recall this being cute and mainly coming from the girls of the class. They were fans of the Bake Off and wanted help with their piping. In secondary school