MY journey with debt, being a mummy and starting my own business !!

please-let-me-be-lucky

smarties84 wrote: »

What do you other mummys do with ur children to entertain them without costing money?

Some ideas:-

1)Let the kids use chalk to draw on the patio/paths and then if it's warm, give them water pistols to wash them off. I say if it's warm as my 2 would rather soak each other than wash their pictures away :rotfl:.
2) Take a bag or empty shoe box when you go out for a walk and tell the kids they need to find 20 different things (a pretty leaf, a coloured stone etc) to put in it before they can go home. You can then use what they have gathered to make a picture, or at least talk about them when you get home. Also, you could take a pen and paper and write down all the animals you see (ladybird, snail, magpie, seagull etc).
3) Make cakes or decorate digestive biscuits with couloured icing and sprinkles etc.
4) Make cards for family members.
5) Visit free museums in your area
6) Do you have a surestart in your area? They provide free activities for under 5's and in the holidays siblings over 5 are welcome too.
7) Have a lego/duplo building competition.
8) Does your local cinema have a kids club? You can normally get in for around £1 each for showings of films which are recent but not the most current. If you take your own snacks its a cheap day out. Alternatively just use a dvd at home.
9) Get the kids to help with the gardening/weeding or go a step further and plant some seeds which are their's to look after. Local garden centres sometimes have a kids club which give away freebies.
10) Go to the library and let them choose their own books.

Hope this helps Xx

please-let-me-be-lucky

smarties84 wrote: »

My oldest is so fussy, for example today - she had chicken breast and rice with a few bits of cucumber ( she ate that) but the chicken was to white, its not the same color as nannas apparantly. ( nannas always has gravy on) and she doesn't like the rice coz its "plain" unlike nannas !! which is egg fried ( from the chinese) my mum has a lot to answer for!!!
I did bribe her with grapes for afters if she ate some, she did but not as much as i would have liked.

I make 'egg fried' rice simply by scrambling eggs in a pan and mixing cooked rice in when almost set. A little bit of soy sauce will give it the look of takeaway rice. You can then mix small bits of vegetables through that as well if you think she would eat it.

I know you are pushed for time but would she maybe try more things if she had helped you make them? My eldest always thinks vegetable soup etc tastes better when he has helped make it, even though it's usually the same when he hasn't!!

smarties84

Wish i hadn't added it up now, esp coz were going on holiday this week

dawnybabes

Are you near the end of your O2 contracts ? You could phone them up (think when contract is 6 months old) and ask for it to be reduced.

My Orange contract has just ended and I told them I was leaving to go to GIff Gaff at £10 a month and they offered me 250 mins, unlimited text, 600mb Internet and 18 photo messages a month for £10.50 on a rolling 18 month contract .... I didn't want a new phone as waiting for the iPhone 5 so will stick with this till mine breaks.

Have u any old phones u could sell ? Same for jewellery, u might be able to pay a small credit card off. Old CDs / DVDs - music magpie ....

If I am cooking rice I always add either peas or sweetcorn and finely chopped onion to it.

We are off to Legoland today and tomorrow so I've been via aldi for crisps water fruit and choc, having z huge breakfast before we go so will "graze" all day and have a big tea .....

Enjoy your day xx

mummytogirls

Hi Smarties,

Well done on starting your new diary and also adding everything up! Thats the hardest part done!

Re DD eating, our DD2 was horrendous at eating, and we were at a loose end as to what to do. We ended up making a reward chart for both of them. As soon as she saw that DD1 who is a fantastic eater was getting her rewards she soon pulled up her socks and started eating her meal.
She would say she didnt like what I put in front of her, but I knew she did as she would have eaten it a few weeks before. We now onto a behaviour chart with her... :cool:!

I think someone mentioned about chopping up celery and carrots in sauces, I used to that too. Another is a homemade tomato sauce for pasta. I used onion, garlic, celery, carrots and passata or you could use tinned toms and then blitz up in the blender. Mummy 1... kids 0 hahaha! You can also freeze this in portions.

Re the days out I know of are you might have seen on superscrimpers that there are certain charities that sell off craft stuff cheap. You can get a basket full for like £2. Perhaps you could google of theres something like this in your area?

Do you have a spread sheet with all your DD's and incoming payments on? I find this helps me keep on top of everything as I log in everyday and mark off in a bright colour when this has gone out! All my coloured squares equal the bank account.

Hope all this helps xx

natsplatnat

Hi Smarties! No time to stop now - just to say "subscribed" and "good to have you back!"

hannahroberts1985

Hi :wave:

Just had a good read throught your diary. Sounds like your getting on top of things. I don't have kid's but do love cooking so any help you need I can assist..

Good luck with OH feel a bit sad reading it *(virtual hug)*. I have the same with BF our work schedules clash then I moan that we never see each other then the time we do spend together is sometime spent with me being moody. But life is to short and i'm getting better as I don't want to be annoying him all the time. When was the last time you went on a date? Maybe could be an idea to spend some quality time getting to know and enjoy each other again? I know it won't be very MSE planning extra outings etc but could save the relationship? I've seen a few friends and even my own parents drift appart because all they do is work then look after the kids and forget to spend quality time together .

xx

hannahroberts1985

OOhhh just thought you should do a snowball calculator. Google it, all you do is pop in all your CC's, store cards etc the interest rates and how much you can afford each month of debt payments. It works out on a spread sheet what order you should pay the off so you pay the least interest. Also gives you a debt free date. It only takes a min if you have all the debts and interest rates hands. I took a screen shop of mine and use it each payday Very handy :j

smarties84

Hi thank u ever somuch for ur reply - I'm on holiday at the mo but il reply when I get home - might b tomoro night or fri x

mummytogirls

Oh no smarties, what a nightmare that could have been with the car! Im glad you got a brand new car to cruise around in though haha!

Im glad youve got the TC sorted out xx