No Money - but BIG ambitions

Weronika

frugalfrog wrote: »

5 weeks to go! Maybe baby will turn up early? I was still working & commuting on the London underground up until 36 weeks (still having to stand quite often as people dont offer up their seat!:mad:) then moved house the weekend I went on Maternity.

It must be difficult when you are in pain and having to look after a toddler. Have you got anyone living near you to help?

Last time I was working till a week before birth (I planned a month off but had to go back as replacement I trained run away, job was too difficult for her so I had speed train next person).

****RANT ALERT**** (read at your own risk;))

This time I'm just having so much difficulty moving it's unbelievable - going back from playgroup I have to take a bus for 2 stops (which is a robbery at £1.5), which normally would be a 10-15 min walk, but I still can barely make it home and I think next week we'll probably skip it altogether.

I don't have anybody living near me unfortunately.

To add to it, I haven't heard anything about getting my Maternity Allowance yet, so I just increased my hours (I can work from my sofa on a laptop) to get at least one more project done and build up a little buffer in case I have to dispute MA claim and we got delay in getting the money. (That's why I started monkey on a playgroup as well, so I got free mornings).

I wish I just could put my feet up and relax, but I rather have this £500-£700 extra just in case, and that's how much I'm hoping to get for this project - I've started the presentation yesterday, hopefully finish today and present it on Monday. If they are happy and will approve the design and price I can finish it in a week or so.

If not I'll have to just shrug it off and hope the MA money come quickly. I dread to think I won't get it at all and would have to work with baby and toddler in a house!

Oh,I didn't mean to moan but I'm just a bit scared money wise at the moment. We can live on OH wage, but it would be very tight and means no savings in case of emergency!

The emergency fund £4000 I got is for the worst possible scenario If my OH wage disappeared, so I'm not touching it for anything else.

I feel so useless and unproductive and stuck as a whale on a beach!

Weronika

I'm totally useless, lazy and "£$$!"!!!
I haven't done one bit of work, proposal not ready so good job I haven't set appointment for Monday, we just agreed on vaguely next week.I must do it tomorrow...

I read loads of diaries here though:rotfl:

Apart from that VERY pleased with shopping for baby stuff this morning: £50 worth of goods paid with vouchers, nectar points and only £12.49 cash!

Sainsbry got a great offer for huggies nappies half price (bought 4:D packs)and wipes buy 1 get 2 free(got 9:D).

Also after checkout they printed voucher for new gillette blades extra 600nectar points, so we went back for them as they seem to be never on offer on their own(£16.99 for 6:eek:)
They are just as good as advertised though so I can't begrudge my OH for liking them as I do nick them as well to shave my legs (much, much better than ladies ones:p)

Conclusion is, I'm much better at saving money on shopping than actually earning them at the moment, which used to be other way round!

Next week to do list: (Maybe posting it here will motivate me to do at least half)

1. Buy slippers (for hospital)
2. Wash my handbag used so far as airport handluggage
3. Pack hospital bag (see above) (OMG! I'm going to have a baby in couple of weeks!!!)
4. Open reg saver - done
5. Open M&S ISA to get £10 in points
6. Finish proposal for new project
7. invoice for the other job -they can't pay you otherwise you lazy !"££"
8. invite people and plan the 2 yr old birthday (from sofa, can't walk anymore) sat 3/03
9. buy cake, funny things, plan meals for toddlers - see above
10. doctor appointment to repeat prescription :mad:
11. pay in £1000 req by new Santndr account
12. call about Maternity allowance to check if they have at least received my claim
13. cancel equfax trial - my credit report is fine:p
14. take iron tablets TWICE each day
15. 1hr playgroup trial on thursday (must pack snacks and a book, as sitting on a corridor outside just in case) hmm maybe a pillow for my back as well:cool:
    
16. clean the house spotless coz my mum is coming on 27th March
17. check account if £90 cashback from Npower boiler care arrived
18. look out for Amazon voucher for switching accounts - & buy 2nd Wii Remote:D
    
19. 1000's other things I can't remember now

Weronika

CathT wrote: »

Thanks for using my link. You could refer your OH and get a bonus from him, check for daily surveys (under free cashback heading) as the newvista one is worth 70p a day.
It's at insurance renewal times the site can really be of benefit. Our car insurance was worth £67 cashback. Anytime you want to purchase online just go through the search bar in TCB first and then it takes you to the website. It's even worth going through it for ebay. Hope that helps

Hi CathT, you seem to be using this TCB for a while - I'm not keen on surveys, but do you think it would be against TOS to post 2 vivastrtt ads per week at £1.61 that direct to your own ebay listing or something like that? Or just post any 2 ads per weeks (as that seems to be amount allowed)? It couldn't be that easy?

Weronika

Not a very good day.
Sorry, massive rant below:(

Every time we save up some money, something is coming up!

In my OH family there was break in and around £3000 worth of damage. So of course 'hey,we got savings' he send them 'some' money so they can get back on their feet quicker. £1000!!!!
And not as a loan either, mind you. :mad:

And than the same day I get told off by him that I want to spent too much on new mattress for our toddler and maybe it would be enough just to put a duvet on top of the old one to make him comfortable enough!!! :mad::eek::mad:

What's the point of saving? If I have spent the money we would at least have something to show for it (other than feeling good for helping others, but I'm not feeling very Christian at the moment, sorry). WE got huge mortgage and they have their house and business building paid in full to rub salt in my wounds!

frugalfrog

Weronika wrote: »

Not a very good day.
Sorry, massive rant below:(

Every time we save up some money, something is coming up!

In my OH family there was break in and around £3000 worth of damage. So of course 'hey,we got savings' he send them 'some' money so they can get back on their feet quicker. £1000!!!!
And not as a loan either, mind you. :mad:

And than the same day I get told off by him that I want to spent too much on new mattress for our toddler and maybe it would be enough just to put a duvet on top of the old one to make him comfortable enough!!! :mad::eek::mad:

What's the point of saving? If I have spent the money we would at least have something to show for it (other than feeling good for helping others, but I'm not feeling very Christian at the moment, sorry). WE got huge mortgage and they have their house and business building paid in full to rub salt in my wounds!

Question, do they not have insurance? Its their own silly fault if they dont! (sorry that sounds a little mean). I would be annoyed too if my DH sent £1000 of our hard saved money when you have other priorities ie baby coming V soon & you being on MA, so will be a drop in wages.

I'm quite lucky as my DH has no idea about money/budget I do it ALL. So I have complete control (over both our home budget and his business finances) and if he wants to spend something he asks me or I give him some pocket money

Weronika

frugalfrog wrote: »

Question, do they not have insurance? Its their own silly fault if they dont! (sorry that sounds a little mean).
I would be annoyed too if my DH sent £1000 of our hard saved money when you have other priorities ie baby coming V soon & you being on MA, so will be a drop in wages.

I'm quite lucky as my DH has no idea about money/budget I do it ALL. So I have complete control (over both our home budget and his business finances) and if he wants to spend something he asks me or I give him some pocket money

No, unfortunately they don't have insurance - couldn't afford it:mad:
And it wasn't even 'our' money - it was from savings pot that was supposed to be used for paying off the 0% CC in July.

Thanks for support, I was feeling very mean for ranting out on something that was beyond their control to some extent, they work very hard and it's not like they gonna use the money for holidays - but it still annoyed me!
I had a very mean thoughts all evening yesterday, including giving up on idea of saving and just spending all his wage so at least it would go towards our family:o

I think the problem was that as long as he has a positive bank balance he keeps forgetting that those money were already spent on CC! It's easy to think yeah, we got nearly £4000 in a bank so we are surely doing well - when in fact if we had to pay all the cards tomorrow we would be in trouble now! Nothing adds up, and where it should be £4000 is only £2200!

I trust him with my life and love him very much, but it looks like I'm better at managing money front - apart from shoes, I'm rarely reasonable when it comes to shoes:rotfl:

On the positive I received my MA award notice so at least I can count on that money showing up once the baby is born. BUT of course it comes with it's own BUT - it's the wrong amount:mad:

On spending money front I took my monkey today to playcentre to meet with 2 other mums that's £3 for entry and £1.70 for bus ticket home. I was saintly good and didn't bought myself a hot chocolate or anything while being there:A

See? Even when I'm mad and deciding not to save anymore I'm still saving:rotfl:I think I would be one of those crazy people who win lottery but are so used to the way they are living that they wouldn't splash out on anything anyway:rotfl:

getmore4less

I think the problem was that as long as he has a positive bank balance he keeps forgetting that those money were already spent on CC! It's easy to think yeah, we got nearly £4000 in a bank so we are surely doing well - when in fact if we had to pay all the cards tomorrow we would be in trouble now! Nothing adds up, and where it should be £4000 is only £2200!

Pay off the CC with whats left it is not worth the risk of having the money hanging around, the savings are just a few £.

Another option is to prepay the mortgage overpayments and redirect all savings to rebuild the CC pot.


Does he have the same feeling over the emergency fund(ie if the CC pot was empty would he have raided the emergency pot?),

The risk here is that some of that is not for emergencies, it's also for unplanded/underbudget known expences like running the car.

Weronika

getmore4less wrote: »

Does he have the same feeling over the emergency fund(ie if the CC pot was empty would he have raided the emergency pot?),

The risk here is that some of that is not for emergencies, it's also for unplanded/underbudget known expences like running the car.

Thanks, we have 2 new separate bank accounts now - to get 2 sets of cashbacks:D and the emergency pot is in saving account in my name so hopefully no nasty surprises for me in the future!

My cunning plan to avoid straining our relationship with future money-worries is to keep anything I can in my name, all savings, emergency pots and such - and use his card to pay for fuel, groceries, insurance etc - as I can barely walk at this stage it will come naturally coz we will be at the shops together.:p

If he can't see all those money I'm saving on his statement it will be less tempting to share:T

We keep balance of £2500 in each account as it pays 5% so it's around £10pcm extra.

Weronika

My monkey had a 1hr trial at the playgroup this morning and he couldn't be happier there, so from next week I'm going to have 2.5hr to myself twice a week:j I probably will catch up on sleep as I have less than 20 days before next monkey arrives to keep me awake all night long:rotfl:

I can't afford more days at the moment but still I think having part of the morning twice a week for me and new baby only - will be a great treat!

I received £50 in vouchers for gas/elec switch so will keep that to treat myself after loosing some of the pregnancy weight.:j

I also got £6off£40 spend voucher for Tesc so will be heading there on weekend to buy baby stuff I need anyway:)

Weronika

I'm debating with myself right now: about the hair

+When 2nd baby comes I won't probably have a possibility to get highlights done for at least 3 months (planning BF)
+I'm going to have loads of pictures taken with 2nd baby as somehow I am not on any of the early ones with first :mad:
+my hair looks awful right now, needs something doing anyway

-But it costs £73! at my salon

So I'm trying to convince myself that this would have been paid by switching bank account cashback (£100) but if I didn't have my hair done I could put this £100 as OP....

So I'm battling with myself if I actually deserve this treat or maybe I could shove it in on a budget as a necessity and have internal fight over, what do you think?