The Force Be With Me on my Debt Free Journey

choogirl

Hi Jediteacher

I've just read your diary, you're doing so well especially with a 4 year old and newborn. Congratulations on baby. It took me back reading your diary about sterilising bottles and juggling attention between your little girl and baby. My kids are now 8 and 10 and the time has flown past since they were babies so enjoy them they don't stay little long enough.
School uniform is a pain to buy I've bought bits from all over, I don't know where you've tried but these are all the places that I can think of that sell uniform

M&S - free delivery at the moment
BHS
Next
Sainsburys
Tesco
Asda
Matalan

Hope this helps, I've nearly finished buying ours - just a few more bits to pick up now

Choo xxx

jediteacher

Choo many thanks for your recommendations. I've had to order online from Next and M&S in three different sizes to see which is a best fit. I have elastic at home so will redo the waist if need be.

Quiet in the house today as the little girl is with her grandparents until the weekend. I really miss her when she's not here but she is such a social little girl and loves going to places and being with other people. She's been that way from the word go - never a clingy child. Infact she cries when I stay with her as she wants me to go away. I joke that it's that bad at home!

Completed several more mystery shops and hopefully the money will come in soon. I've got 3 reports to write and will get them done this afternoon.

There's a funny smell in the house and cannot find the source - cleared & cleaned the fridge, threw out rubbish, checked the fruit, no dirty laundary as all done. Will have to locate it as it's disgusting and driving me mad!

Loving the rain today and went for a little walk with my baby boy.

Finally picked up my Morrison vouchers and when I did the health visitor said there was one space left for baby massage and would I like it. I wanted to do this with my daughter but never got a place so really happy about this. It's meant to be good for babies with reflux and pain so will wait and see. There are only 6 babies in a group so should be nice. Will have to take a pillow with me for the baby boy as he is always sick when lying down flat.

Right I'm going to take advantage of the little girl being away and sort out her room.

jediteacher

Just had a coonversation with my sister about her girls birthdays. Ever since they've had their 1st birthdays seems to think we need to have really expensive birthdays that we all pay for. This year she has organised a farm visit for her soon to be 3 year old which is going to cost us £29 plus present plus petrol cost. My soon to be 5 year old nieces birthday is going to cost us £171.14:eek: plus present plus petrol. Needless to say we're not going to the eldests as we just cannot afford it. I'm not even going to spend that much on my own daughters birthday and I'm certainly not going to expect people to pay to come!
I'm really quite cross about this as she just seems to think this is ok to do and then gets upset when many people say that they're not coming. It is a real shame as my niece and daughter are the same age and they get on really really well and I don't want to miss out on her birthdays but we cannot justify this amount of money.

Rant over.

Off to go and get some shopping in as my daughter has eaten us out of house and home of fruit. It is so expensive but at least she's not eating junk all the time.

Starting to pack for our holidays and I'm really having to think about what to take as there's not enough room in the car for everything. The problem is the pram - it takes up the whole boot. We have no roof rack or trailer so need to fit it into the car which is only a Vauxhall Meriva.

My lovely neighbour popped in yesterday and has given me a whole bag of Bramley apples. My daughter eats these raw but I'm saving some to make some apple pies, sauce and crumble.

Right off to feed the baby boy again!

jediteacher

Will come by and update later been hectic here.

Need to sort out finances now and get everyone ready for the new school term.

jediteacher

Well we've had a nightmare time here.

Two Sundays ago our little baby boy developed a very high temperature and was generally out of sorts. Rang NHS direct who made an appoitment for us to see an out-of-hours surgery at 3:00am on the other side of the county where we live. From there we were refered to another hospital (Luton & Dunstable - I mention only because the staff there were angels:A). As soon as we got there my baby boy was assessed and straight away admitted into the children's ward. Within half an hour he had an IV drip in his head (couldn't get a line in anywhere else) and was on all sorts of drugs. He had viral meningitis!:eek: The staff were so quick to treat him and so kind. He has made a full recovery but we were told that if it wasn't for our quick thinking in contacting the GP and getting him into hospital within hours we may have been looking at a different picture - especially as he is only 3 months old.

It has been very stressful and we did have to cancel our holiday which was a real shame but my babies health was far, far more important. Luckily we hadn't told our little girl so she is none the wiser about missing it. We are trying to get away for the October half term now.

I would say it was very OS being in hospital but that would be a lie. Had to pay for all our own meals - not the babies though the hospital provided his milk. They also let us park or free and even cancelled the charges from the night I was admitted. Will need to sit down and figure out how much we did spend as we need to seriously budget this month due to the extra expenses.

Anyway, little girl started school today. Shed a few tears myself but she was very, very excited. I just think that we start children at school far too early and expect structured lessons too quickly and I'm a teacher!

Right best get a move on and get something done at home before we have to go out and pick the little girl up as she only does half days for the first two weeks.

jediteacher

Well I fell off the wagon and have spent way too much - trying to justify spend did not work so will have to just chalk this up to experience and get back on the OS wagon.

I have decided that from now on I will only go out with cash in my purse and leave the cards at home. That way I will hopefully not spend too much. Also need to stay away from the grabbit board and online shopping.

Had a coffee morning with the other parents whose children have started at school with my daughter. They all mostly live in a very affluent area and their houses are at least three times as big as mine. I admitted today to a few that I was ashamed of my house and would never invite anyone back to it - because it is so small my living room could only fit another two people in it (no extra children) and it's in such a mess! They really do not understand how the other half live. Most of them are lucky enough to be stay at home mums whose husbands earn a huge wage. One mum was saying how they've just bought a house with 7 bedrooms and a swimming pool and was complaining that they could not move in properly until the kitchen was refurbished at a cost of £20,000! :eek: If I had that money I would refurbish my entire house, garden and get a new car!

Anyway, envy gets you nowhere and I will just have to double my efforts to get debt free so we can get a bigger house and not have to live ontop of each other. One day..........

I have been doing some more mystery shopping and last month was quite profitable with good earnings. Will need to knuckle down more to get as much in as possible before I go back to work without compromising my time with my son.

Back to the never ending grind of washing.