Maria's 2012 i will bring baby up on a budget! Keeping my head above water diary

mariagti

Well as suspected we're having a bad night. Woke 9.15pm! Gave him a bottle because he hardly ate much dinner time. Then he went back off fine at 10pm. But then woke 2am and has been waking every 15 mins since then. So 3.45 I've got up with him as I left the Calpol and gel downstairs. I've given him another bottle which he downed. Im now gonnalet him play toys for another 15 mins then hopefully he will settle again before we need to get up at 7.:-(

wendz86

You poor thing with the teething, we have only gone through one tooth and is horrible! Hope he went back to sleep for you.

Owen and Poppy do sound very similar , Poppy doesn't want to miss out on anything.

I am not doing too bad on ebay with the bits i put on although they are just little cheapy bits.

missymoo81

eek sorry maria, was loumac that is on slimming world. oh dear about OHs mum, if im honest i think i'll have the same problem!

mariagti

Evening,

The monkey went back to sleep and i had to wake him up at 7am to go and pick up my mum. Poor lil man wasnt best pleased being woken up and shoved into my cold car in his pj's and coat! (my mum cant drive)
Mum said he didnt eat his lunch and didnt have a nap all day. I hate teething! Anyway, i managed to get some dinner down him and he went off ok at 7pm. But im preparing myself for another wakeful night and a few more to come until toothy cuts through.

I couldnt get back to sleep though as kept thinking about our lack of money...well more my lack of money. OH worked out his bills and out of his £1500 take home which is after 8 hours overtime he is left with £165. Im spending around £500 a month just on food, my petrol, and my bills i pay. but i only earn £360 plus £80 child benefit so £440. So spending more than im earning!:(

Ive had a chat with the OH about Sky as he demanded we have it when we moved here in May as our picture for freeview was rubbish. Plus he wanted sky sports. He said he would pay it, but i found out his paying £60 a month with sports, music channels, and movies. Ive begged him near enough to remove movies at least as he never gets a chance to watch any! Does anyone know if were in contract if we can remove Movies?

We are also both stuck in 24 months contracts that dont end until march 2013. Were each paying £26 a month and dont use our minutes we get which is a waste but i checked to see if we could cut down to a cheaper line rental but we cant as in contract

wendz86

Hope the tooth doesn't take too long to cut through.

That sounds really tough with the money. I would have thought you could cut your package down with sky but i'm not with them so not sure how it works. Worth ringing them anyway and asking?

Nichelette

Maria! Nice to see you on here again, looks like we both started a new diary on the same day, though I've hardly posted on mine . Hopefully this will be a good year for everyone .

mariagti

They normally take so long with him to come through

I just saw on another thread sainsburys Save Up To Half Price On Baby starts 11-17th January 2012 on nappies, wipes, food, etc....so time to stock up on wipes me thinks as im getting low from the last time....................and of course ive got a link to a printable couher to take that little bit more off....£1 off a 4 pack johnsons wipes....dont forget to click it didnt print properly or the back back to print a second coupon.

http://www.babycentre.co.uk/johnsonsbaby/coupon_baby_five_months

Im off to bed now, last night has caught up on me.

Night all x

mariagti

Nichelette wrote: »

Maria! Nice to see you on here again, looks like we both started a new diary on the same day, though I've hardly posted on mine . Hopefully this will be a good year for everyone .

Hello Nichelette!:D good to see were near enough all still on here!...minus hayley..is the i want it now thread still running? i will have to have a look.

I will track down your diary 2moz as i cant keep my eyes open atm. Yes here's hoping we all have a fab 2012:D

xx

Nichelette

I think it gets a post every now and again... I want a house NOW please! My diary makes quite depressing reading at the moment but hopefully my posts will become a bit more chirpy in the future lol. Hope you get some sleep tonight, I'm in the same boat but it's insomnia related so I can only blame myself! x

oliviarosejackson

Hi Maria,

I hope you and your little man are well? Do hope you don't mind me posting in your diary. I stubbled across it whilst I was browsing the site and we are similar ages and our LO are the same age too and we are trying to bring the kiddies up on a budget

Hope you manage to get your TC sorted. Is there any way that you can up the number of hours that you work to maybe 20? That would bring in some extra pennies each week. I work 22.5 hours over 3 day. I am there for 8 hours and get paid for 7.5. I work at the hospital and am moving wards soon and there may be the option to do longer days, so that I can get an extra day off.

Sorry to hear that your poor little man is teething, there is nothing worse. Have you ever looked at Amber? It is a natural pain releif. My LO has an amber anklet for his teething, he wears it all the time. We haven't suffered too much with teething yet (touch wood) We even have one molar too. You can get a necklace too. They are not expensive, I paid £10 for mine off dino daisy.

Nap time, lol. I was adamint at the start that he was going to go to sleep on his own without any assistance. My DD was awful at getting to sleep (she never went to sleep on her own until she was 3). At the start, with the stress of having a new baby I did end up feeding him to sleep (which I hated doing, but it was the easiest option I was so tired) We moved house when he was 2 months old, so we got a new HV. She was great and told us that we needed to get him to drift off on his own, without relying on me. So I used my own method of controlled crying when he was 4 months old, some people may say it is cruel, but it did work for us and very quickly. I never left him to cry himself to sleep. I ensured that he was fed, changed, comfortable and put him into his cot. If he started to cry I would go into him straight away and comfort him, but once he settled I would put him back into his cot and leave the room (so I was there for him when he was upset and left him when he was fine). I didn't have much crying at all though, mainly moaning and within a few days hey presto he would happily go down in his cot on his own, have a chat to himself and then drift off to sleep. He has his naps in his cot in the day, means I can get jobs done then too. He also sleeps in a cot at nursery in a seperate room. But I do know that a lot of nurseries put mats onto the floor and they all sleep together. I don't know how he would cope with that, as he likes quiet and darkness when he sleeps. He can't fall asleep in your arms and he doesn't sleep properly in his pushchair.

Another tip I will share to save money. With toys, buy second hand. If you look on netmums local sale pages you will find stuff on there, your local paper and carboot sales. You can get some fab toys for next to nothing. I wasted so much stuff on things for my daughter that hardly got used and this time round we are not doing it. We can't afford to do it either. This xmas I got LO a pile full of presents for around £60, all top branded names that looked brand new, expect there was not packaging. Would of cost triple the prcie to buy it all new. He did have a few new toys, but they were mainly all second hand. I got him a little tikes police rocker which makes lots of noises for £5 from the carboot sale, there was not a mark on it and all stickers still in tack. I looked on their website and it retails at £39.99!!!!! He loves it too. I give them a good scrub down with anti bacterial spray and they are like new They don't know or care where their toys come from, so I am doing it whilst I can. I got a fisher price little people areoplane still in the packaging brand new from a charity shop for £6.50, cheapest I could find it for new was £16.99. DD had lots of second hand board games for xmas too. When I come to sell all of the toys, I should hopefully make my money back, if not make some profit ( I have done with a few baby bits I got second hand ).

Anyway, enough of my ramblings, lol xxx