When I asked for luck I didn't mean the bad variety!!!

poohbear59

Yay to your NSD on 27th! School holidays are the hardest for NSDs. The seaside is great for the family and sometimes you have to have a treat. It makes great memories for the boys too. If they had treats every day they wouldn't appreciate them.

it sounds like you couild do with an afternoon nap to catch up on your zzzzzzzzs. Any chance MIL could take the boys to the park or something? Wish I was nearer then I could babysit for you whilst you slept

liltdiddylilt

See, positives You're one of those glass half full types naturally. I'm what is called a Realist :rotfl:

Sorry about 3 days of little sleep. I know how hard it can be to not get enough! Hope you get a good nights sleep tonight, and maybe a little nap!?

I need your help. Did you say you're with First Utility for your leccy? How do you register with them for the £140 in March? I signed up with them MONTHS ago and never heard anything. Assumed they had not bothered to sign me up but was happy as new boiler etc & DD being reduced. Now, today, I get emails welcoming me and giving me 14 days notice. I signed up for a product which only has a year left to run now after all their faffing. So is it worth it? Should I cancel? I've since had emails from the energy club telling me I could save more anyway!

Thanks for your help as always Hugs!

millionaire_in_training

PLMBL I am terrible at NSD's . I think I might need to start a wee mini challenge for my self and at least get a couple in every month

please-let-me-be-lucky

I got a decent sleep last night :T, but thank you for your lovely thoughts of baby sitting Pooh.

Lilt I signed up for Warm Homes via 1st Utility's website and got an email of confirmation that I'd been accepted pretty quickly afterwards. Nothing else then happened until the payment was due, at which point they sent me a cheque for the amount as my balance on my utility account was zero. I'd imagine you can switch supplier as long as you stick with one that supports the scheme. Perhaps a call to them will iron out any questions you have?

MiT I used to be really good at NSDs but I've been pants recently. It's super hard when the kids are off but I do try.

Today has been nowhere near a NSD! We went to the cinema to see the new Transformers movie (which was fab!). Even though tickets were cheaper as it's saver day Tuesday, I was free with DH's carers card and I took our drinks from home, it still cost £17 :eek:. Weekly budget blown already and it's only Tuesday!! Will try to keep things cheap for the rest of the week.

Lost 2lbs at fat class :T. Despite the chips yesterday . However DS2 and I baked chocolate brownies today which may have a serious impact on my weight next week:rotfl:!

I've been looking at all the things we've got coming up that we need to pay for, not least the squillions of birthdays we have in September, and I've made a bold decision to reduce my direct debit to the S@nt@nder credit card. I normally pay £100 per month despite the minimum only being £18, in the spirit of trying to clear it before the 0% ends. For August I've reduced it to £50 to give us a bit more breathing room and I may well leave it that way for September too. There is plenty of time to play catch up before the 0% ends.

please-let-me-be-lucky

Feeling a wee bit pee'd off and unappreciated today . There have been some positives, which I'm trying to cling to, but overall I'm feeling a bit fed up of trying to keep everyone happy, pleasing no one and getting wound up in the process.

DH thinks MiL is upset because we didn't invite her to go places with us much so far these holidays, including to Edinburgh. Not sure if this is true or not but the fact is that we have invited MiL but she's had lots of plans recently which have caused her to turn us down. MiL has also had 2 separate holidays (without us!) recently so I didn't even consider she'd be upset if we went to Edinburgh for one night on our own! Anyway, we had discussed all of us combining a trip down south to see relatives at the end of August (as one of them is due a new baby :j) with a trip to Leg0land for the boys, so I revived this conversation with MiL to make her feel involved again. It's in lieu of a summer holiday for my boys so we were going to make the most of it by driving down one day, staying at a hotel that night, having the full next day at Leg0land, staying at the hotel again the second night before visiting family the third day and then travelling home that night. I have enough Tesc0 Clubc@rd vouchers to get 3 Leg0land tickets for DH and the boys and then I can get in free as carer, MiL can then get her own ticket via her own Clubc@rd. I was then hoping to get the hotel and diesel for about £200 all in, with MiL paying for her own room. I'd found some deals on hotels for about £130-£140 for the 2 nights for the 4 of us, admittedly in budget hotels and without breakfast included. MiL found a deal in a rather more luxurious hotel for £260 for 4 of us including breakfast, and it has a pool which will keep the boys happy, particularly on the first day we arrive. Her own room would be £210. She offered to pay the £60 towards our room so that ours would be £200 which was lovely of her but has already blown our budget without the diesel so more panic to get the money together. I'm sure it will be fab though.

The boys practically begged to go back to the beach today, so despite the weather not being as good as Monday, and despite me having thought of other things to do, off we toddled to the beach. They had a great time swimming in the sea. We then called in to Mr T's to get some bottles of pop for the house and both boys had individual kick offs over wanting something and me refusing them. DS2 (aged 4) actually said "you always say no Mummy, I never get anything or go anywhere" :mad::mad:. I practically wiped the floor with him! He got a new t-shirt on Monday that he was desperate for but didn't need, he went to the beach today because that's what he wanted, we've done something fun every day of the holidays, been to Edinburgh and are going to Leg0land!! I spend my whole life trying to keep them happy and that's what thanks I get.

Then DH came up with selling some old (but named) sunglasses on eb@y that belonged to his Dad. He's already had an offer of £50 on them and he was over the moon because that means 2 hours of tattoo :eek:. What happened to him having 25% for the tattoo fund and the family getting the rest?!?! I give up.

I've won £25 on the lottery tonight though :T This can of course go in the diesel fund for our trip at the end of next month unless I take a leaf out of everyone else's book and spend it all on myself and then whinge that I get nothing!!!

Nicky_Noo_Na

Do it Lucky, spend it on yourself! It was unexpected money after all and it sounds like you certainly deserve a little treat!

satchmo1

You know what, Lucky, those hotel prices are pretty good - I've just looked on Lateroom and if there was availability, the rates were higher. Asda have dropped their diesel prices, so you'll make some savings on that side. MIL is very good at contributions, and may help with incidental costs during the trip.


I agree that you should earmark the lottery win for some essential PLMBL stress reduction pampering.


Mr L needs to be reminded of his agreement ref % of income to (yukky) tats, he'll have forgotten. It's human to be frustrated at having to always be the big bad wolf as a mum, but you also have that frustration with Mr L.


You reminded me that DS2 once observed that when I said "we'll see" I actually meant "no" ... he was right!


Hugs x

please-let-me-be-lucky

Oh dear, my last post was rather whingey sorry . DS2 said this morning (without prompting) "I love you Mum because you 'bring' me to nice places". So my rant obviously went in yesterday .

Thank you for being kind Nicky, but the honest truth is I don't need anything really and it would make me happier to be able to balance the books and be able to pay for everything we've got coming up. I just wanted a little bit of appreciation for doing so! DH has inspired me to get on with finding more things to eb@y to help myself out so that's going to be one of my jobs for today.

Things to pay for (or make money to cover!)

£60 Engl1sh Heritage. This still hasn't debited, nor have our new member cards turned up despite me chasing them a couple of times and our old cards run out today :mad:. If they don't arrive soon I don't think I'll bother!

Leg0land trip, including spending money for being away.

Birthdays - mine (which we will just forget about!), DS1's, my Sister's 30th all in September.

A few more bits of back to school stuff, mainly shoes etc.

The rest of the summer holidays.

Christmas!! (though I do have a bit put away for this to start us off).

So debt busting may have to be a bit of a slow burner at the mo while I tackle the rest but will see what I can do Xx

please-let-me-be-lucky

Sorry Satchmo, cross posted. You are spot on about everything I was just in a tizz and couldn't see it. I just struggle with not wanting the boys to be concerned about money as they are still very young, but conversely with them learning from the outset that you can't have everything. I also struggle with the big bad wolf label as you rightly say Xx

liltdiddylilt

I could say a million things Lucky. But I will settle for just this:

You are, and always will be, incredible. An incredible wife and mother, and daughter in law. Lots of hugs to you. And a clonk on the head to remind you so.