Sashybo - Back Again

Went out today with DH & got a few things done. We managed to get 2 2kg bags of seed potatoes for £6 in B&Q which isn't bad. Got Maris pipers & Arran pilot new potatoes, so will start the new potatoes soon. Need to chit them & also waiting on big pots arriving.

Also got some bargain pots of dwarf daffodils - 2 big pots for £1.50 each :j & 2 small pots of yellow crocus for 50p each. We bought some primroses to brighten up the front border & stocked up on compost.

Got a light shade for the baby's room, reduced from £14 to £9. It has robots on it but we didn't think it was too boyish so will do a boy or a girl - not like the baby will care anyway.

We dropped into B&M & bought some raspberry canes as well, hopefully we'll get some fruit from them. We already have a tayberry plant in the garden but only got a handful of fruit from it in the first year so hoping for more this year.

Got a peppa pig board book as part of a present for one of my younger nieces, was quite pleased as it was only £1.99. Now have her present ready for March as had already got her peppa pig PJs in the bargain lot I got online last week.:T

By the time we got home the rain was bucketing down but we had to get the plants in as both back to work tomorrow. So we looked like the neighborhood crazies out planting flowers in the pouring rain. :rotfl:

Planning on a Spanish omelette for dinner shortly.

Hi paws, good to know about the Arran pilot, this will be our first go at potatoes so fingers crossed.

To be honest both DH & I are still novice gardeners and just have a go with plants we like the look of. We both seem to have green fingers & a bit of luck.

With Verbena I think you can just take cuttings & grow them in a pot but haven't tried it myself - I always mean to, then forget all about taking cuttings :doh:

When I grew my African violet cuttings, it was really just a case of taking a non-flowering side shoot & making sure there was a decent length of bare stem to insert into the compost in a small pot (7-10cm ? Rubbish at sizes of pots ). I put 4 cuttings into each pot & kept them watered and warm until they established roots (took several weeks) & then re-potted each cutting separately.

Think I'll try this myself later in the summer, will get the plants from B&Q when they're discounted as they mark them down very frequently from spring & throughout the summer.

Hi Bob, yes the Spanish omelette was lovely, DH is very good at it. :T

Got my Quidc0 money through today, £11 so paid that off loan 1 along with my usual £1 a day. That payment takes loan 1 into the 2300s. :j

Also got the last finance payment to my old car refunded which was a nice surprise so £122 we weren't expecting. :j Have put this into the baby fund as still have a few bigger things to buy.

Yesterday we bought the isofix bases for the car seat (DH insisted on one per car) as they were reduced from £145 each :eek: to £99 in a sale at M0thercare. So a good saving but still a lot of money - we do have the money set aside though.

Also got a letter through from the work HR dept about my maternity pay & it's worse than I thought. I thought I got 3 months full pay & 3 months half pay, then 3 months SMP but it's actually only 3 months full pay & then 6 months SMP. :eek::mad: On the SMP my wage drops by over two thirds. :eek: We are really going to have to be strict with our budget as that is a huge drop. I'm really quite worried now and definitely won't be able to afford the full 12 months off as the last 3 months are not paid at all.

Better move soon as need to do my 15 mins on the cross trainer and have a shower then get ready for work. Back on late shifts for 7 days now. :cool:

Thanks guys, I spoke to one of my managers and they reminded me that I can use my 4 weeks annual leave as well when I'm off but I'm unsure whether this will be at my full pay or not (probably not looking at the rubbish overall maternity pay). I feel like I'm being financially punished for having a baby - sick pay is 6 months full, 6 months half pay!

DH & I are going to have to sit down and go through the budget again. DH has already cut a few small things out and is in the process of looking for a car that will cost less each month. Unfortunately we need 2 cars due to the shift work we both do - even when I'm on mat leave it wouldn't be ideal to be without a car when DH is working late nights/early mornings and I would need my own car when I went back to work anyway.

My car insurance is up for renewal in either March or April (need to check) so will hopefully get a small reduction on that & maybe some cashback. Our energy deal finishes soon as well so that's another bill we can look to cut & hopefully get cashback on. I know we can cut our food bill a lot by meal planning - just need to get my bum in gear and actually do it.

I think DH probably has a few things he can sell - he's very into his tech and usually has a few gadgets that he no longer needs lying around.

We don't really need too much more for the baby so hopefully the money we have put aside will pay for the bigger things we do need and we can save extra money for my mat leave whilst I'm still working full time. I still have 3 more paydays on a full time wage (on the last of those I'll be 38 weeks so fingers crossed everything keeps going well) and then I'll receive my average earnings for 13 weeks. I'll then go onto SMP for 26 weeks.

I need to check out the annual leave and see if I'm due to get full pay for that or not - I'm meant to have a week off in March but can defer it and add it to my maternity leave but not sure if this is counted as another week of full pay or not (I think it should be?). I then have another 3 weeks annual leave throughout the year but not sure what pay I'm entitled to for these, will try and clarify with my manager later today.

So lots to think about but no time to really speak to DH properly until next week as he's working day shifts and I'm lates. Just feeling a bit down about it now.

Still need to find out about job share etc as the company are so uncommunicative it's unreal. I feel quite uncomfortable even bringing it up and it's as though they're just pretending I'm not pregnant & nothing's happening! :eek:

Will try & speak to some other girls who have gone through the process as I know in some places you have to apply whilst off on mat leave as it can affect your pay if you apply beforehand but in other places you apply before going off.

Managed to go on the cross trainer before work yesterday which is good as really didn't want to but forced myself. Work was tiring as a bit frantic with disruption over rush hour & felt like I never really caught up. Did a couple of surveys as well yesterday, 0nepoll up to £7.30.