Onwards & Upwards - Part 2

taxi73

Great to hear from you.I was wondering where you were.We all have months like that..march has been the same for me and can't wait to see April.

Bad_Weather

very belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY purple tea!!! Sorry so late! Not been on for a while! x

[Deleted User]

Another new month, nearly half way through the year already!!! Count down until DH’s payday (15th) and to my mum’s birthday party (10th).

This month is going to be a tricky one despite my best efforts as the kids are off school for the first half of the month and DH is off for the first week of that half.

On the upside I have redeemed a voucher from Pigsback via DH’s account so that can be put away for someone for Christmas or birthday.

I had an e-mail from Quidco yesterday to say that £6.30 will go into the account soon and we are due the Child Benefit to come in too.

I’m not going to do the NSD’s this month as I will be lucky if I have any. March was hard enough, in the end I managed about 17 after totalling up in my diary and I upped my target to 20…at the wrong time I think.

One benefit of DH being off work is that what petrol is left in my car will remain there for at least a week as we will use his car.

Took DD to see the consultant last night and he said that developmentally she is perfectly normal but agrees that she does need some speech therapy, so £100 excess to be paid there in due course but will be worth it in the long run to get her sorted.

Also DH has the nurse come to see him on behalf of the insurance company and he passed the medical as far as she was concerned and told us to expect to hear from them with the next 7 days, if the insurance company agree we will be better off by £50 a month.

Need to think about my ‘goals’ for the month and will post them when I have a better idea.

Jo_R_2

I was thinking the same thing about next week and the kids being off - the second week DDs are on hols with their dad so that'll cut down school holiday spends! I've phoned up the children's centre for activities and got one down on the calendar for next week, next port of call is the local library, and also going to arrange some playdates hopefully with schoolfriends - I always figure if I can have at least one thing planned for each day, even if it's just a half an hour storytime at the library, it helps avoid those whole-days-stuck-at-home-oh-god-I'm-losing-the-will-to-live-now days:D

So those should be interspersed with some trips to the park and was thinking possibly (this may be me being crazy!) getting DDs involved in a bit of gardening now it's getting ever so slightly warm - though whether that lasts is anyone's guess!

Lula-Hula

Morning Tea & all,

First day of the hols here & having just dragged DD round Tatco she's happy to gaze at SpongeBob for a while until the library opens - clever teacher has given them a holiday challenge to see who can read for the longest time (in one go) .

I am hoping for many hours of peace & quiet

Glad to hear that your DDs speech can be sorted with some therapy & that all else is fine

taxi73

Very clever teacher that..lol
Am so glad my lot are grown up now as school holidays can be expensive.

[Deleted User]

I have been away from here for a few days and I am happy to say that I am glad to be back! The weekend before last DH had an accident in his car and so that needs to go and get fixed so £300 excess needed to be found there. DH gets paid on Thursday and I need to sort out the finances quite substantially.

We went to see my mum for her birthday and we got properly spoilt! The hotel we were staying in was lovely too. The kids have ended up with yet more clothes lol, the night of her party she said that she’d ordered a taxi for us and it turned out to be Lincoln Limo…very nice it was too, we even got to drink champers in the car and the kids got to have Fruit Shoots.

Back to reality, the insurance company have cleared DH so that helps. The bad news is that the weekend has been put on the credit card but as I don’t get to see my mum that often and it was a special occasion, I refuse to beat myself up about it.

On to the next few weeks and this week. This week I am going to try and have as many NSD’s as possible, the kids and I are going to yet another museum on Thursday so I think that I may have 4 NSD’s in total this week.

The kids go back to their respective places on Monday, so I will get my sanity back properly then. I need to utilise the time properly and get my butt in gear and get the house and other areas back on track.

On the money side of things, this month starts the reduction in DH’s salary so much thought is needed to enable us to survive. It will be a test of sorts as we will be able to see where we have gone wrong and where we will need to improve due to the lower money.

Oh and I am an Auntie or Great Auntie depending on which angle of the family line you are looking at, if you have kept up with my previous diaries you will understand that line but suffice to say I have not been officially told and it is unlikely that I will be or that we will see the child anytime soon.

[Deleted User]

Morning…nearly part way through the end of half term and it is nice and sunny here which is a bonus in my book

I’ve just had a phone call from DH, his Line Manager (he’s called something else but can’t remember what but this is close enough) has been in touch to say that they are going to put him on another site when this one finishes; the only down side is that he will be required to ‘lodge’ away for four days :think: He has a meeting with the guy on Monday at Head Office. His company do fantastic packages when their employees lodge away and as much as I and the kids would hate it; at least they’re not making him redundant :cool:

In other news, DH was on the phone to Virgin last night and we have now ditched Sky as it will save us some money.

DH’s deal on his credit card is due to run out next month and as such we have been looking at another deal, Egg seem to have the better deal at the moment and as we’ve had no trouble with them in the past we are likely to apply for another card with them.

ETA: I've also started my diet again, no chocolate, crisps or biscuits; I am 5' 4" and weigh 10 stone and really would like to get back down to 9 stone. I have also stopped drinking during the week as I think this will help me on the calories side of it and also the bank balance.

[Deleted User]

Morning peeps

I was having a read back through my diary and I am shocked that I’ve sort of lost my way again! I really need to sort this out; we are never going to get rid of this debt if I don’t get my butt in gear

So enough lolling about, time I got to grips with things. Okay it could be the lack of chocolate, sweets, crisps, biscuits and alcohol talking, but I really want to get sorted.

So I need a plan and I need to try harder! :cool:

Today we have the shopping being delivered, £263.62 which leaves £36.38 left for the month shopping wise.

April is proving to be a bit of a write off like March but I think in theory I can manage 9 NSD this month and I can possibly achieve 17 in May, I have two birthday’s coming up of which presents for one have already been bought and the other one just needs a card sending.

Plan for the rest of this month is as follows:

• Catch up with the Flylady thread
• E-bay
• Surveys
• Cushion covers, napkins and Facebook page needs updating
• No unnecessary spending
• Go through my stash and see what has been bought for the kids for Christmas/birthdays and see what needs to be put aside for them money wise.
• Keep walking and not using the car when I can
• Meal plan and stick to it
• Dump the rubbish hanging about
• Sort finances out again

DH’s wage slip has come through the post, so I can theoretically work out the budget for April/May, so that’s a good thing.

Have a good day everyone and I’ll try to update later.

Jo_R_2

I really like the idea of shopping for the month, I think it gives a lot more freedom with being able to bulk buy and buy up offers. We shop weekly as OH gets paid weekly and I find it a struggle at times to be able to take advantage of special offers or buy saver packs of things because it a) impacts on the rest of what I need to buy and b) would impact on the rest of his weekly money. So I think you're quite lucky there!:)

I always have a vague plan for the month but writing it out is good, you have some achieveable targets there. Hope all goes well with the NSD days!