Eager Elephant's Effective Everyday Excursion ...

Eager_Elephant

mary_hinge wrote: »

:j:j All sounding very psoitive EE! I'm glad Mr EE if feeling better and helping out more.

Sometimes life gets in the way of posting here fr all of us, Thats what I love about MSE you can dip in and out and everyone pops in as and when they can!

We are doing good thankyou EE, Superman is loving his new school and will be learning the drums after the holidays :rotfl: Missy Hinge's joints aren't liking the colder weather but she is trooping through! Master Hinge is as mischievous as ever and we have inherited a tiny kitten :eek: well whats another animal in the grand scheme of things?! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Take care EE

Mrs H x

I am so pleased to read that Superman's new school is 100% better than his other one:T


Poor Missy Hinge, DS' joints do not like the cold either but our house is quite warm and until he starts getting dressed every day I won't be putting the heating on.


He has started swimming 3 times a week:eek:. DS decided that it was better for me to pay £20pm for a monthly swim card than to pay £42 for each session of Osteopathy.
He has been going for nearly a month and is loving it - the first time he went he text me afterwards to say how good he felt, not just physically but mentally as well. His mood has definitely improved - I think because his joints aren't hurting all the time plus the exercise releases all those endorphins. Also he is going to bed earlier as he is tired so the house shuts down at a reasonable time rather than 2am:T


Lovely to hear Master H is keeping you on your toes plus a kitten
I can't say anything, I often add to the menagerie without meaning to :rotfl:

Eager_Elephant

DH has had last week off work, he was due to decorate DD's room - at the moment it is only half finished but luckily this is not DH's fault:D


DD wanted white furniture for her room which Argos sell - 2 weeks ago I tried to order it for delivery but it was out of stock. I kept checking back and it was still out of stock.
Then earlier this week DH spotted that Homebase had it in stock and with 25% off so I brought it and arranged delivery for Thurs as knew DS would also be at home to help make it.


Weds evening I get a text to confirm delivery but on Thurs am I get a text and automated message to advise that the delivery won't be coming:mad:. I then get a call from Argos (even though I ordered via Homebase, I know they are same company but they could at least pretend:rotfl:) to say next delivery is 2 weeks away:eek:
I had a moan and got the delivery charge refunded but it doesn't help the situation at home when DD had nothing in her room but her bed and all her belongings were boxed up in our room [strike]for us to trip over[/strike].
Then when I get home from work one part of the order has been delivered :cool:
My only worry is what actually will be delivered on the next delivery date:rotfl:




Lots of spends which have come from my account - there wasn't enough in the household account and I know YNAB says we must not buy things we have not budgeted for but I brought it anyway:rotfl:
I will have to take it back gradually from the h/h account but it might hinder my debt free date:(




DH has self-referred to The National Migraine Centre - they are a charity but take consultations which they charge for (DH claims not to have known this when he referred himself). Too be honest I am so fed up of them and this has been ongoing for nearly 5 years without any real answers so we are going to see them this week - so we are heading to London for a day out.


DH does get PIP and I save most of this each month into a separate account to cover days off sick that DH has unpaid and also to cover treatments not covered by NHS so I think this is a good use of money especially if we can have answers.

Eager_Elephant

The last week has been quite busy.


We went to London so that DH could have an appointment with The Migraine Centre - the consultant was fab.


DH's previous 'diagnosis' was not actually a proper diagnosis but a description of his illness. This consultant has given us 2 potential diagnosis's - one is easy to rule out as it only responds to 1 type of medication so DH will be trying this once his GP has prescribed it.
I hope it is the first one as it is easily managed although I will be mighty peeved with the NHS for not diagnosing this.


If it is the 2nd diagnosis then this is not as easy to treat and is trial and error to find a medication that helps although DH could have botox injections as he has already tried a lot of different medications.


It was quite a high spend day as tickets to London cost £94 for 2 of us plus the 'donation' we gave to the charity.


My car is definitely kaput - it will cost too much to repair so I am on the look out for a new car:mad:
I hate car shopping and I hate spending money even more:rotfl:
This may push back my clearing of the credit card as the money I have saved up to pay it off may need to be used for a car plus if I don't have enough money to buy the car I may have to put it on my empty credit card:eek:


Last week we also had our delivery of oil - we still had about 200 litres left but thought best to order while I thought about it rather than when we run out.
The delivery has filled the tank to the top and hopefully it will last over a year. I checked back on my receipts and the last oil delivery was in Aug 2014 - I think having a mild winter helped.
The good thing about the oil this time is that the cost has come down, we paid 32.80p per litre this time, back in Aug 14 we paid 49.45p per litre and in March 13 we paid 64.95p per litre :eek:. The last time oil was this low was in 2007.


Money for xmas and oil is saved in the same account so now we have more for xmas and birthdays:T

Eager_Elephant

Oops - over a month since I came on my own diary!!


So what's been going on...............


DH - by some miracle for which I will always be grateful, DH's head problem is under control :T:j. The first potential diagnosis he was given which only responds to one type of medication was the correct one. He started on the lowest dose and within minutes of taking it, the pressure in his head was removed and then a few days later he upped the dose and within a few days of that slightly higher dose the head pain he has had for nearly 5 years had gone!!!!!
Obviously I am so pleased but also angry with the NHS for not diagnosing him correctly - there are only 2 headaches with the symptoms DH had so why did the NHS not mention these.
I know a lot of people suffer more than he did but it feels like 4.5 years of his life has been wasted for no reason.


He is like a whole new person - he is like the husband I had 5 years ago before he got ill.
He is really motivated and positive and just different - it is lovely but also slightly odd. I'm used to him laying on the sofa all the time and just leaving the house for work or to walk the dog - now he is up and about and enjoying life again.


The most scary thing is that we were watching :money:show the other day about Help To Buy ISA's and DH mentioned us saving in one each - I was :eek:. This from a man who has never saved in his life and would rather spend, spend, spend!!!


The only possible downside is that the medication he takes can cause serious stomach problems so he will have to be monitored regularly - he is suffering a lot of stomach acid at the moment but has been prescribed omeprazole to help with this.
I just hope he can keep on these tablets for life.


Car - I have purchased a new-to-me car, I put down a deposit of £100 using my credit card (so I get the protection) and then paid the rest in cash - I had to borrow some money from DH and DS but will pay them back over the next few months.
My old car is still at the garage as I have had to take the private plate off via DVLA and wait for that to be done before I could do anything. I am hoping to get it picked up by a scrap yard next week and they said they will give me £120 for it:D


To buy the car I had to raid the debt payoff pot so I have not been able to clear my S card and the0% ran out on 31/10 so I need to move that to my H card which has a balance transfer offer on. I meant to do it a month ago but life seems to have got in the way and now I will have been charged interest


Xmas - Nothing sorted for this yet but DD has at least written a list whereas DS has not. I have their birthday presents brought and we don't spend as much on Xmas so it will be fine.


I have my work do tomorrow night so once that is out of the way I will start my Xmas shopping.




Not sure what else has been going on apart from I got behind with YNAB - I am nearly caught up now. I can't believe how much I missed it when I wasn't using it:rotfl:




Heating came on a few weeks ago, I think 14/11 - we had it on all that weekend as it was so cold but as the thermostat is set to 17c or 18c it only comes on sometimes as it has been so mild. The other morning I woke up sweating and was cussing the family for moving the thermostat but when I touched the radiators they had not even been on:rotfl:


Think that's it for now but will report in regularly (she says hopefully:p)

please-let-me-be-lucky

That is awesome news re DH!!! I agree it's annoying that they didn't solve it years ago but thank goodness they have done so now. Xx

Eager_Elephant

Thanks PLMBL, unfortunately it was not the NHS who diagnosed him - we have gone 'private' via a Migraine Charity and the consultant there diagnosed him.


We had to give a donation of as much as we could afford bearing in mind each consultation costs the charity £300.


DH was searching the internet one night and came across them so he self-referred but claimed not to know we would have to pay but once it was booked I felt we should go and pay and I am so glad we did!!!

please-let-me-be-lucky

Some things are just worth paying for! Xx

Skinnylatte

Happy new year to you :snow_grin

Eager_Elephant

to all my readers!!

Eager_Elephant

I'm back and feeling calm and serene as I have just done the budget for 2016.


Things are a little up in the air as one of my contracts at work ends at the end of March so if it does not carry on then I will only be at work 2 days a week and of course with a much reduced salary. If this happens then I may try to get a cleaning job but will also be able to run the smallholding as a business and grow lots of things on my allotment so I will end up with a patch work income.


DH is still on a temporary contract which should finish at the end of March but it probably won't and in May he will have been there 2 years and they should make him permanent.


DH is still doing really well - his head pain had gone completely but over Xmas he ended up with an upset tummy and ended up all bloated and in pain and this in turn brought the head pain on:(
I am dosing him up with Golden Paste and his has helped with the bloating etc and today he said he does not feel as bloated and no pain and the pain in his head has gone also:T


We have to go back to see the consultant in London this month for a review so hopefully he will stay on the same medication although there is some research that suggests after a while on the meds you can come off them and the pain does not return for months/years - DH is not at that stage because if he is a few hours late with his meds the pain starts coming back.




Apart from the past week when he has been poorly DH has been up and about doing things - he is like a changed man.


2 weeks ago he told me he had looked at Help2Buy and he was going with Virgin, I mentioned that :money: recommends Halifax and I was going to go with them. Then 2 days ago I opened my Halifax H2B and told DH and he told me that he had opened one last week as he had read :money: guide and opted for them - I was:eek:
Then he asked for a budgeting chat - I was :eek::eek::eek::rotfl: