Debs' debt-free dreams

Hovel_lady

dooberrywoo wrote: »

It's not karate so that's got to be a bonus? Right? What've I let myself in for?

I do look forward to seeing how it goes

Lemon_Tree

good luck hope you have lots of pain killers in to help with the bruises lol

miggy

Hi, I've only just discovered you have a diary and I'm enjoying catching up! However I'm interupting myself half way through or I will forget a couple of things that came to mind. (Sorry if someone else has suggested these and I've missed it).

£20 on kids' haircuts could be reduced: you can get hairclippers for about £7. My kids were quite little when I spent about £25 on clippers with accessories which are still in working order now the kids are bigger than me! Even if you've never cut hair you can get good results.

'Holey' jeans and school trousers... you used to be able to get stick on patches for the inside of school trousers and I cut up old jeans to make patches for jeans. The knack is to stick the patches on the inside of the knees early, before they even begin to stretch. If you can't buy them, cut up old trousers and use the iron-on stuff called Bondaw*b or similar - only it's scratchy when used so don't let it spill over the edges. If you make patches generous-sized and put them in new trousers, they don't show. Use matching material, of course, because kids will inevitably wear through to the inner layer at some point.

Back to my reading...

Skint_but_Optimistic

Well hats off to you with the martail arts.

Nice way to get fit and a good bit of bonding with your boy.

Radox is on offer in Tescos at the moment. for soaking away the aches and pains!

mrsmoneybee

Why do I set myself up for it? I'll show you all when I'm a super tough ninja ha ha :rotfl::rotfl:

Miggy - thanks, I should look at patches for the boys jeans, I'm trying to only let them wear non holey ones for best now. My 3yo's nursery must think we're really mean as he only goes in real scruffs as he is 'creative' and paint and mud stains are wrecking everything!

No can do with the hair cuts though, DS1 has an irrational, but very real fear of having his hair cut. I have clippers and in the past have had to pin him down and shave it which is so traumatic. I know 4 hairdressers and 3 gave up trying, for some reason he will let the 4th do it now but it's taken till nearly 7 to achieve this. He's such a well behaved child but it's like flicking a switch and seeing him change, at one point he refused to go in with m-i-l while she made an appointment for her! £10 is for both of them and it's worth every penny!

miggy

dooberrywoo wrote: »

Miggy - thanks, I should look at patches for the boys jeans, I'm trying to only let them wear non holey ones for best now. My 3yo's nursery must think we're really mean as he only goes in real scruffs as he is 'creative' and paint and mud stains are wrecking everything!

I don't understand parents who send children to nursery in 'good' clothes - nursery paint seems to be some special indelible stuff that ruins clothes permanently! I can remember staff at my kids' playgroup worrying about kids' clothes.

Incidentally my older boy was at school when his little brother started to crawl, and thought it was fun to copy him - which is how I happen to know about patches for trousers! One of the uniform suppliers - BHS maybe? - used to supply a matching patch with each pair of school trousers, LOL.

dooberrywoo wrote: »

No can do with the hair cuts though, DS1 has an irrational, but very real fear of having his hair cut. I have clippers and in the past have had to pin him down and shave it which is so traumatic. I know 4 hairdressers and 3 gave up trying, for some reason he will let the 4th do it now but it's taken till nearly 7 to achieve this. He's such a well behaved child but it's like flicking a switch and seeing him change, at one point he refused to go in with m-i-l while she made an appointment for her! £10 is for both of them and it's worth every penny!

£5 each is pretty good. I hope your 6.y.o. grows out of the fear of hair cuts eventually, it must be very stressful for you both. If it's any consolation my teenage boys are fussier about their hair than their sister so maybe it will just come to him when he's older. Wouldn't like to have to hold them down for haircuts - they're both bigger than I am!

mrsmoneybee

miggy wrote: »

I don't understand parents who send children to nursery in 'good' clothes - nursery paint seems to be some special indelible stuff that ruins clothes permanently! I can remember staff at my kids' playgroup worrying about kids' clothes.

Incidentally my older boy was at school when his little brother started to crawl, and thought it was fun to copy him - which is how I happen to know about patches for trousers! One of the uniform suppliers - BHS maybe? - used to supply a matching patch with each pair of school trousers, LOL.

I see kids going to nursery who look so smart, then there's the little man (aka hand-me-down baby) who looks like a tramp! I give up though, that paint is more effective than Dylon!

Funny you say that, my older one took up crawling round like his brother and has ruined more pants since DS2 was born than he ever did before! Problem I have with him is he is so so skinny (and eats sooo much) that I've only found one shop that sells 'skinny' fit school pants! the ones with the pull in waists end up far too big on his bum! The upside of these is they're better quality than the tesc* ones he had so last longer.

mrsmoneybee

Evening all, I feel like I'm sneaking in at the back of the class after skiving off and not doing my homework! I guess I kind of haven't though, I don't think I've made a teeensy dint in the old debt this last week but I haven't made it worse

Been a busy bunny trying to tidy up this week, still haven't got round to tackling the ebay mountain but have at least dumped more stuff out of this overfull house! I thought I'd have all the time in the world with OH working away but at 9pm I've just put the oven on for tea... that's what happens when you tackle a 6yo's bedroom in anticipation of more[STRIKE] junk [/STRIKE] presents appearing in a couple of weeks! Could just do with 3yo's room being bigger than a shoebox so I can hand down toys... reminds me every time why I want to get out of debt!

Started Monday in a real grump, not wanting to go to work till I passed the new play park near the office, too early for the kids to be 'hanging out' I see a group of pensioner lurking round the tyre swing where one of the gang was trying it out! Put a real smile on my face!

Pondering... is it wrong to be proud that in the 10 out of 11 weeks OH has been working away I haven't killed any of his fish??? :eek:

Lemon_Tree

of course you should be proud for not killing the fish, that's quite a long time for fish to go i think they're notorious for popping their clogs a lot.
well done for doing some decluttering, i've got some to do as always but just don't know where to start as i've got to try and keep our place tidy in case of viewings and knowing my luck i'd have someone turn up during one of the 'make everything worse before it gets better' stage

miggy

Another person fighting the tide of overwhelming 'things'? If you read the book/have seen the latest Harry Potter film, remember the security system at Gringotts? I think we have the same at my house, and I don't mean dragons.

I have never seen fish in clogs, but yes they do seem to pop them rather too easily especially if you are looking after them for someone else. So well done.

No repayments made... but nothing added to what's owed, either. Surely you should have a pat on the back for that? It shows you're in control.

And I love the pensioners story! I hope I shall be like that when I get there.