OK, confession time

loobyloo1980

crawley_girl wrote:

With regards to the prescription costs - is that for the one person? Would it be worth looking into those prepaid certificates? I don't know much them... just that they exist!

:heartpuls CG :heartpuls

It is at the moment, coz I'm on a maternity exemption at the moment. Have looked at one of the prepay things but never seem to have enough spare cash to splash out on one, lol.

loobyloo1980

lynzpower wrote:

When the kids are growing out of the clothes, get them on ebay or for a bootsale asap. Im sure you have a £100 worth of unused kids clothes there which would clear your topshop card & give you a boost? The topshop card i think is about 26% apr, check on thier webiste.

Whatever you can sell, sell.

I closed down my ebay account after loads of problems, so will I be able to open a new one????

loobyloo1980

Thanks for all your advice guys. I'm just going to wait until I have some proper spare time to sit and digest it all and try and put some in to action. Baby is crying now so must dash.

Have made a start by paying a chunk off the catalogue so there will be no spare money to waste :T

Sallys_Savings

Hi, I'm sorry to hear about your situation..and wish you all the very best in the future. We had four children and we had to be really careful over the years.
Car Boots are great for childrens clothes and I've brought hundreds (yes hundreds) of presents from car boots. Lots of brand new items in boxes, toiltries, candles, gift boxes. slippers, planters, videos etc. All items that people have been brought and havent wanted. I have a cupboard where I just stash presents. Look out for gifts for when your daughter gos to friends parties too. I never paid anymore than £1.50 for any present and they were probably worth between £5-£15. If you start now you'll be set up for christmas too. Some weeks you go along and theres nothing, but other times I come back with lots of items when I've been lucky.
If you can't afford the £80 for a party I'd definitely cut it down to a house tea party and spend far less. You can do food really cheaply, the kids don't care. I know that you wish your children to have a party that they wont forget but its still possible if you're really organised.
We've had lots of fun over the years on different parties...
we've decorated T shirts with fabric paint (t shirts..approx £1 each and fabric paint approx £3 from wilkinsons/tescos )..this means they've got something to take home too so just gave them a mixed penny sweet bag to take home with it. It means they can spend time decorating at the party (less party games and less prizes). ((I used to just cover the whole floor with a plastic sheet /bin bags/newspapers, brought a basic colouring book so they could either copy pics or trace them onto the t shirt. But please don't forget to put cardboard (old cereal boxes) in the t shirt where they are painting. You can also do the similar decorating straw hats (I brought mine from poundland)
and theres theme parties...i.e. hawai, everyone wearing pink, circus...if you link the games to go with the theme ..i.e. pink cakes, pink mousse, etc. Make banners from old wallpaper you have left etc. Pop into the library for books on party ideas..theres normally lots there.
*sigh* i wish my children were little still
Have you tried the freeads for bundles of childrens clothes?
The age your children are if you changed the amount of money you spent on them, they'd never really know if you did it now...perhaps you could start now? I've never paid more than £10 for a birthday and £50 for christmas because the money just wasn't there. If you continue paying the amount you are to the children they will begin to expect it as they get older.
I also made an agreement with members of the family that we would not buy for adults once they had children, we would just buy for the children. This cut my pressie bill down by a lot (I'm one of 5 kids).

Good luck and all the very best

Sallys_Savings

oops sorry missed the post that you've already organised the party.

loobyloo1980

Sallys_Savings wrote:

oops sorry missed the post that you've already organised the party.

Yes, it is already organised and invites gone out etc as it is in 2 weeks time. However, my other kids aren't having parties as they're too young so it's only my eldest this year.

We have cut down already considerably with the amount we spend on gifts for everyone, including the kids. We used to be even worse!!!

Luckily this year she doesn't want much other than clothes, and with a huge family she will get loads of pressies even if we dont spend as much as normal.



Just checked on the driving licence thing and hubbies convictions expire next month as it will be 4 years since offending. So next year insurance should be a lot cheaper as we won;t have to declare them then with it being 5 years passed. Great news :j