The final countdown... and a newbie in the DFSD house!

Chocforever

Hi DFSD

I hope you are all OK and just busy with life. Nothing very exciting to report here. I am slowly getting back on the MSE wagon. I made an Ebay sale at the weekend - a mistake purchase of shoes where I decided to bite the bullet and just get rid rather than try to convince myself they would be OK. I must have had swollen feet from shopping for too long when I bought them - they are just too big and make my feet look enormous! Unfortunately, I threw away the box they came in so I could not return them. It is looking like I will get almost all my money back if the Ebay sale proceeds smoothly which is great. I'm even doing a couple of MSs tomorrow which are just down the road so very handy.

Take care x

debtfreesomeday

Hi all

Been a little AWOL again for a while - mostly due to DS not being very well with his silent reflux - it is proving very difficult and distressing at the moment. He will grow out of this eventually but it is heartbraking in the meantime.

Not been able to save as much money as we would've liked this month, ML savings account now at £3800 which isn't great, but will help in the coming months when I'm earning much less. My salary drops to SMP only this month so I have no idea how we'll manage.

DS wanting my attention so will try and get back to this later!

Chocforever

Hi DFSD

Nice to see you back - we have missed you!

I think a work colleague of mine had a son with silent reflux and had a lot of sleepless nights and distress with it. I recall they tried all sorts of aids to no avail and, as you said, eventually he grew out of it and was suddenly OK. Not much consolation for you now though; it must be very difficult.

I am back after a nice break away and I am feeling more positive. I really need to take care of myself and try to eat more healthily and rest enough rather than work, work, work. I overspent in May so will try to cut back this month. It would be nice not to have to dip into my savings too much.

Best wishes xx

P.S. Good to see the number of loan payments under 30.

debtfreesomeday

Hi Chocs, I've missed you!

Yes, we're on our fourth type of medication with DS as nothing's worked yet. This one is a tablet which we have to crush and try and get him to swallow - not easy at 4 months as he choked terribly the first time which scared the life out of me - but tonight we have had partial success by mixing it with a little bit of baby yoghurt. Not sure how much of the drug he took but hopefully some of it got in him.
We see the paediatrician again tomorrow so I'm hoping she will have some more suggestions, thankfully she is very pro-active.
It seems DS is also teething too so it's a double whammy at the moment!

Glad to hear you have had a nice break and are feeling more positive. Also glad to hear that you shall be taking care of yourself and resting as needed, rather than over-working! There's nothing like a break away to re-assess things eh?
I had a mini-break with my Mum recently as we both needed a break. We took DS to see some friends and had a few days away, it was lovely and just the medicine we needed. I also went home for a few days, so it was good to see other family members I hadn't seen for a while.

Yes, great to see the loan payments under 30! It's still over two years away but we're getting there, albeit slowly.

DS wanting feeding now so will catch up again soon!
Hope all is well with everyone xx

debtfreesomeday

Still struggling on with DS and his reflux, taking each day as it comes at the moment.

Today I picked up a few more Christmas and birthday gifts in the TK Maxx sale and a father's day present for hubby. One item was £5.99, reduced from £22, another £3 from £6.99 and some books for DS were just £1. I also bought a pressie for a friend's little girl for £2.50, reduced from £5. All have been wrapped and labelled already! :rotfl:


Yesterday I made enquiries about my salary when I go back to work part time. The finance dept of my employer were really helpful and gave me a rough estimate of what my salary will be after tax & NI. I am pleased to say that it is about £275 a month more than I had estimated, but will mean we working 3 days a week. If I work 2.5 days a week I will be earning £125 less a month and will only be saving £54 a month in nursery fees so it will pay me to work the extra half day a week. Basically, all this means that, for the next two years until the loan is paid off, we will have about the same every monthas we do presently with me being on maternity leave. Not a lot, but it's manageable, especially with the little bit we have saved to help.

DFSD

Chocforever

Hi DFSD

Hope you are having a good week. You made me smile at the thought of wrapping Xmas presents in June!

That's good news about your salary. When were you planning on returning - was it later this year?

Not much to report here. Still seem to be getting through a lot of cash, but it has been on essentials and repairs etc, so I guess these things happen. I have done a few MSs this month so will have a little extra come through next month. I have picked up a nice job for next week which means I get to pick a free item worth £30 in a gift shop - I can always sell it if there is nothing I fancy for myself.

I am visiting my family this weekend which will be a welcome break and change of scene. I seem to be averaging two hospital appointments a week at the moment and it is getting tedious. It is going to be a while until I see any improvement so I just need to be patient. I'm just not good at this waiting around in the meantime. In the past, I have tended to stop going to the appointments and just hope it all sorts itself out. But experience tells me it won't and I need to be sensible and keep attending this time.

On a more cheerful note, what is your DS up to now? He must be 4 months old.

Best wishes x

debtfreesomeday

It's been a long time since I posted on this diary, I really need to get back to doing so as it helps keep me on track. Life has been a struggle as usual in our household - DS's condition is wearing me down so much, he hasn't been sleeping since we changed his medication back in the first week of June, so I'm pretty exhuasted to say the least. This medication hasn't worked well either, so he has to have a barium meal test this week to determine whether there's something more serious wrong with him. I'm dreading it, but at least it should give us some answers.

Financially, I just haven't had the energy to keep track of things as well as I should be. I am on SMP now and it's a real struggle. We had to transfer a large amount from the savings last month to keep us from being overdrawn and have already done the same this month. The savings will be gone in no time if we don't reign things in soon, then we'll be in real trouble.

The debt continues to go down, it's now at just over £12K. It's a shame we can't pay off more to reduce it faster but that's the way things are at the moment.

oops - ds awake again, will have to finish this later.
DFSD
x

Chocforever

Hi DFSD

Sorry to hear DS is still poorly and I hope he is OK during the test. Poor you - you must be so tired. I am not trying to belittle the reflux problem, but is he doing OK other than that?

I seem to have had another expensive month - there is always something to pay for, isn't there? I confess I have not been so good at budgeting recently, or even knowing where my money has gone, and need to start getting back on top of things.

Take care xx

debtfreesomeday

Hi Chocs

DS appears to be doing ok other than the reflux, but seems to suffer from colds/congestion a lot which, I think, reflux babies are prone to. He's not right today after being very sick on Saturday. We've also had to change his formula this weekend as the SMA one we used has recently changed ingredients and this seems to be making him very constipated which also isn't helping things. There's always something it seems.

Sorry to hear you've overspent this month, we too are in the same boat and are vowing to cut expenses and spending this month for sure!

debtfreesomeday

It's pay day today and I've transferred £100 to the car & house pot this morning - that was previously empty as the car tax and two new tyres at £60 each had more than wiped those funds. We now need to save for the house insurance due in November and the AA/RAC cover due in September. Hopefully we won't need anything else doing to the car in the meantime.

I've moved £150 to the groceries e-saver to move back to the main account after each grocery spend. This method seems to work for us, even though we regularly overspend in this area. I can't believe the prices of certain foods now, especially the basic staples, it's shocking. We spent nearly £50 in Mr S on Friday so have allowed for that already by only moving the £150 over rather than £200.

This month we HAVE to stick within budget and not overspend, or our savings will run out before the end of the year at this rate. I am doing well on the Christmas present front - loads bought already - but am aware that we have two birthdays to buy for in early September which I haven't got anything for yet.

Once this month's loan repayment comes out our total debt will be under £12k, which I guess is good. It still feels like a huge amount though as progress is so slow now. I guess we have to be content with plodding along for now though...

DFSD
x