Starting again, again...

rising_from_the_ashes

zepsgal wrote: »

We have made our spare room upstairs into a workshop for DH to fix machines and guitars, but that work has almost dried up I'm thinking of making him tidy it up and move stuff so I can use it to sew. Feel a bit bad cos I'm actively pointing out that he isn't bringing in money, but...... I want a sewing room! (insert smiley for stamping my feet lol)

Hehe - is there no way you could have a corner of the room so you could both use it?

zepsgal wrote: »

Just got the puppy insured, £11 a month with £70.70 cashback.

Ohhh that's good - who with?

zepsgal wrote: »

£50 for the class, bring your own fabric and machine etc. I would love to go, but well, I cannot justify the cost. Especially not as I could make an apron myself at home, I've just never actually done it before. Maybe I will do it this weekend, instead of spending £50 I could save £50 by just getting on with it and doing it!! :j

Give it a bash - if you start doing things (and honestly, those decs are fab and I'm sure would sell well) - you could do things for different seasons .... the profits could be put aside to buy the expensive machine!;);)

StressedSteph

The names on my childrens Swim bags are cut out fabric and then stitched on, not embroidered so you could do it that way to save money on the embroidery machine. I think I paid £17 each for those bags.

If I could find a way to put up a photo then I would show you.

I will see what I can do xx

StressedSteph

Think I have done it.

They are Draw-string bags with this on one side:-



And their names on the other. Not sure what this stitch is, but think its just done on a regular machine.



Just an idea xxx

mummybearx

Ooooh they are lovely! I should attempt to make stuff like that, people love buying personalised stuff, you could make that in any sort of fabrics....... Ideas ideas!

Pet insurance, I went with MoreThan. I know it wasn't the ones your suggested RFTA, but it was less than half the price of the Petplan one (and cashback on top).

rising_from_the_ashes

zepsgal wrote: »

Ooooh they are lovely! I should attempt to make stuff like that, people love buying personalised stuff, you could make that in any sort of fabrics....... Ideas ideas!

Get going girl!

I'd buy them - I love stuff like that!:D

zepsgal wrote: »

Pet insurance, I went with MoreThan. I know it wasn't the ones your suggested RFTA, but it was less than half the price of the Petplan one (and cashback on top).

mmmmm OK - if it fits with what you need, that's fine but AFAIK it's a £limit in total (as I was mentioning earlier) and not a renewable amount each year (and believe me, they can get used up really quickly)

Also, I think that as well as the excess, you pay a % of treatment with More*Than?

Might not seem a lot but if you have a bill of £3,000, I would have to pay my excess of £65. But with MT, you'd have to pay the excess (say £65) + 10% - which increases it to £365 - that's how many of these policies are cheaper..... as long as you've got the money to cover this, that's fine (I don't!:o)

mummybearx

Oh. When you put it like that.... Might not have made the best decision there

Will need to redo my budget, see if I can get both dogs put onto better insurance. Or keep my fingers crossed that they both stay healthy....

rising_from_the_ashes

zepsgal wrote: »

Oh. When you put it like that.... Might not have made the best decision there

Will need to redo my budget, see if I can get both dogs put onto better insurance. Or keep my fingers crossed that they both stay healthy....

Don't be - I've moved Maisie's insurance 3 times since I got her (May) - trying to get it as cheap as I can but still ensuring it's a fully renewable lifetime cover one....

Pet insurance is a nightmare - it's a real "thing" with me as I've seen so many people be caught out and find out that their pets arthritis isn't covered after 12 months etc:( and you then can't move (well you can) as the new insurer would exclude that condition:mad:

There's a lady on one of the pet forums just now who hadn't realised when she took out her policy that her £7k amount was in total & didn't renew each year. Her dog's had one hip replaced which used that (and more) ... it was only when she went to discuss the 2nd one being done (in the next policy year) with her insurers that she found this out .... and now has to try to find £7k to have the other hip done

Same with the ones that add a % of treatment on - some of them are excess + 20% .... that would bring the £3k bill up to £665 and getting to be a lot of money ....

Also, at the end of the 1st year, these sorts of premiums often jump huge amounts - I did a quote through Sains*burys which was doing cashback offer - and it was something like £294 (more than I currently pay even with 3 months free :eek:) but that would jump to over £400 at renewal :eek::eek: - if she'd had any treatment for anything during this time, I'd be stuck with that huge amount or have the condition excluded if I moved insurer.:mad:

I just hate to think that some pet won't get treatment because their owner has fallen foul of T&Cs when they've taken the policy out.

As it is Maisie has an excluded condition - she (bloomin' typically) fell ill 3 days before the exclusion period ran out on the 1st policy I'd taken out for her. As that's already excluded, I had nothing to lose by moving .....

It really should be made more straight-forward and easier for people to see exactly what they're getting (sorry for rant:o)

mummybearx

No no, rant away! Most people wouldn't even think about all the things you have said, I know I didn't really when I looked at the price. I didn't even consider that a condition wouldn't be covered if I moved insurers

I'm looking at how healthy Bear has been (touch wood!) and thinking Buddy will be the same. But he is currently sitting ripping the stuffing out his teddy and spitting it out, while my girl is curled up on the couch looking at him like he is daft :rotfl: Really nothing like each other!

Need to look more closely at insurance I think!

Just found a doily I bought on eBay, it's a series of circles joined together. Just about to cut the circles out and sew them onto felt circles, another Christmas decoration in the making will post pics when it's done

rising_from_the_ashes

zepsgal wrote: »

No no, rant away! Most people wouldn't even think about all the things you have said, I know I didn't really when I looked at the price. I didn't even consider that a condition wouldn't be covered if I moved insurers

That's the problem ... how is "joe public" supposed to know these things.:mad:

If you do decide to change at any point, check the exclusion period of any new policy (they will all have one - usually 14 or 21 days) and keep the old policy running until that's up before cancelling!

zepsgal wrote: »

Just found a doily I bought on eBay, it's a series of circles joined together. Just about to cut the circles out and sew them onto felt circles, another Christmas decoration in the making will post pics when it's done

Ohhhhh, that sounds lovely - just shows how different we are as that wouldn't occur to me in 1000 years!:o

cazmanian_minx

It's a minefield - I've just insured our new dog with More Than, but because we're in the middle of nowhere and our vets only have limited facilities, bills never get too astronomical because they simply don't have the equipment to do expensive scans, tests and so on, so a percentage isn't too much of a problem. Our last dog was a rescue who was 10 with a permanent cough when we got her, so basically uninsurable, and 3 years of quarterly x-rays, scans, blood tests, antibiotics (for months at a time), a couple of weeks as an in-patient, two operations and eventually euthanasia came to a little over £2,000.

(Hello, by the way! *waves*)