Lulabelle's MFW Diary

lulabelle1

CathT wrote: »

Well done on reducing food spends, it's one of the few areas we have control over! Summer holiday sounds fab, we typically spend £1000 on a week away in the UK so should take the plunge and venture abroad. Hope DS's blood sugars stabilise. You soon become expert following a diagnosis don't you.

Thanks for your input on my diary too, been very helpful during a stressful time!

Hi Cath - thanks for popping in! You do - we literally went from knowing nothing to feeling like we know quite a lot in the space of 24 hours! But then, you have to as the little one depends on us knowing what we're doing Do you have someone with T1 Diabetes in your family? xx

lulabelle1

gallygirl wrote: »

Hope you're having a good trip

Thanks GG, I leave for it on Sunday afternoon, gotta be honest, I'm dreading the flights, I've never travelled so far..

lulabelle1

Cra88y hand mixer broke - I seem to go through one every 6 months. Debating finally "investing" in a stand mixer. But so expensive!

lulabelle1

Well, what a few weeks...

Worky trip went well - but was totally exhausting. Away from home for one week - two nights of which were spent on aeroplanes. Had a few nights in Bali and a few nights in Hong Kong. The joys of working with clients that are further afield

Seemed to take forever to get over the jet lag, but am finally there now!

We went crazy and bought a stand mixer - it's all kinds of awesome. Cakes are not mixed up in minutes and we've been using the blender attachment to make smoothies every morning. I took some of my TCB funds in the form of an amazon gift card to part fund it. The price also dropped a few days after purchase and they gave me a refund for the difference (after my cheeky email request).

I've just called and amended the DDM on the mortgage so that it will be paid off at the end of the 10 year fix that started in August. I had grand plans of saving/investing the equivalent overpayment value but after reading some other diaries and giving it some thought, I really just want it to be paid off in that timeframe and a regular DDM straight to the mortgage is the only sure way to make it happen (assuming nothing drastic happens in the meantime).

We'll continue to squirrel away to hopefully fund a couple more B2L's over the years etc, but that seems a way off at the moment.

DS's blood sugars are doing alright - however, they were a bit all of the place whilst I was away, nipped that in the bud as soon as I was back. Think he's been having a growth spurt the last 2 weeks, so his insulin requirement has gone up significantly, but seems to be dropping again now. I'm sure he'll be needing new clothes soon as he gets taller and taller !

Any plans for a little holiday this year are currently on hold as we're thinking about getting a dog. I never thought I'd see the day, but we're giving it some serious thought... We're currently focusing on all of the negative aspects to see whether we think it would be right for us... the lovely thoughts of companionship, family walks etc will come later if we think we can cope with muddy foot prints, dog hair and intensive training.. Watch this space.

TT's are up to around £20.

TCB is at around £56 (after taking £80 towards my mixer) - this will do nicely for DS1's birthday gift. We've enough in the pipeline to help fund Christmas presents for the boys too.. Can't recommend TCB highly enough - funny thing is that outside of this forum, people look at me like I'm mad when I tell them to join up or send recommend a friends etc.... As though I'm the weird one for getting all of this cash back!!!!

London birthday trip with my BFF a week on Saturday - I'm taking care of the plans this year. Decided to have a mothers day treat at Selfridges first thing (make over - it's a £30 booking fee and then redeemable against product and we get a gift too) and then for a lovely late lunch at a place I've been fancying trying. If there's time we'll go to the V&A but being totally honest it's more likely that we'll have a few drinks instead!

Happy weekend peeps

CathT

London trip sounds great. Agree with you about tcb, I've encouraged my mum to sign up but she is reluctant. I then find out she books her holidays through a company on there and could probably be earning 10% cash back. Why is it so hard to convince people to earn free money?????

lulabelle1

CathT wrote: »

London trip sounds great. Agree with you about tcb, I've encouraged my mum to sign up but she is reluctant. I then find out she books her holidays through a company on there and could probably be earning 10% cash back. Why is it so hard to convince people to earn free money?????

Pleased I'm not the only one to experience this... I just don't understand it. Many of these people also complain that they are skint all of the time (thinking about my sister now.... Yet, she won't sign up for free money!)

lulabelle1

Lovely weekend although spent most of it nursing a cold

Supermarket spends finished at £469 for the month of Feb - our lowest yet, but it is a shorter month, so may not be a true best ever month.

A few birthdays coming up in March - mine, DS1's and then DH's early April. DS1's paintball party has been paid for, just need to find extra paintballs for DS1 & DH (friends are paying for their own) and fund the food on the day too, although DH may take pack up for part of it which will keep the costs down a bit.

Have requested the Amazon gift card from TCB to pay for DS1's main present.

Still no holiday plans for this year, really depends on the dog situation and whether we get one....

lulabelle1

Morning!

Raining and miserable here today... roll on Spring

TT'd the flex accounts. Made payments to the 2 Reg Savings and rolled my eyes and sighed when I saw the CC bills.... always too much spending. Maybe I just under budget for everything which makes me disappointed when we never stick to it.

Each month is the same - I save everything in to various pots once payday arrives (and the first of the month for the Reg Saves) and then spend the whole month watching every penny spent and panicking that I don't leave enough to cover us. And every month I think right I'll save less next month and just leave extra in the flex to give us a cushion, but I can't bring myself to do it. And usually I have to pinch bits and pieces from other accounts as we approach pay day. Sound familiar to anyone? Maybe it's just me!!

Rcvd a discount for Forest Holidays today of 15% for school summer holidays. Still expensive for what it is, but I guess it's an option if we're going to have a puppy with us. They have hot tubs on the balconies and the lodges are in the forest so it's really lovely.. we went last year for a mid week break and the boys loved it.

Friends have suggested weekend in Centerparcs in June and to share a cabin - I'm sure it will be lovely, but Mrs isn't keen on dogs and has already said that she wouldn't want to stay in a pet friendly one, so if we have a dog, it will rule that weekend out... Could put the money towards the 4 night mid week stay instead.

Muser1

Sounds exactly like me! OH just spent £6 out of the joint account on medicine and I was flapping about which pot it should come out of. Crazy.

lulabelle1

Still tidying the pennies and watching the spends.... of which there seems to be too many... same old story.

We've decided against a dog Would have been nice but too many niggling worries (chewing, mess, hair, smell, muddy/wet dog, vets bills, training, commitment, being tied....) and it was stressing me out.

We've decided against and actual holiday this year but will have some breaks away and days out - need to start planning them in. Hopefully we can have a "big" holiday this year, we'll see how it goes on the money front.

I think March may end up being an expensive month - it was DS1's birthday, my birthday, we've got Easter coming up and we had Mothers Day, it's surprising how it all adds up. Actually - not that surprising at all!

So good to see that the kids JISA's are slowly going back up in value - my CTF transfers seemed to go through at a time just when the stock market seemed to be plummeting, but thankfully they're now showing a small profit... as is my S&S ISA and Sipp... I know that it could all change tomorrow though... must stop checking so often, but its kind of obsessive!!