Looking for the silver lining

Sun_Addict

Thank you all. You've all played an important part in keeping me sane.

Re the burgers - I've been buying him M&S Aberdeen Angus ¼ pounders but am thinking of making my own. I think his craving is maybe partly to do with he hasn't had sausages and burgers for 9 months in hospital and partly to do with his brain damage as he gets fixated on things. Pity it wasn't something healthy!

We would like to aim to go on holiday for his birthday in April which would take us to where we left off last year when I had to cancel the April holiday and he spent his birthday on a neuro ward. I got an insurance quote declaring his condition and it was less than £30 for the two of us for a week for the top cover. I was expecting it to be sky high. However, I know we'll never be able to buy annual insurance again and I've read that they won't cover you if you book your holiday too far in advance. He'd like to go to the place we had booked last year, I've had a look and its available. Scared to book it though, I know his consultant said it would be ok but so nervous about it. We'd have to take the bulk of the money out of our small pot of savings and we'd have to tighten the budget and debt busting strings. Dither dither!

tunathe_cat

wow impressed with travel insurance quote mahmouds to paris for 4 nights just over £450, can you name or pm me there name. xx
glad to hear news from Doctors. Have they said if when hubby needs to be seizure free to be able to apply for driving license?

Sun_Addict

I just got the quote off Money Supermarket, can't remember their name, had to fill in loads of information about his condition. Staysure are advertised as being cancer friendly. Re the driving - consultant said no driving until a year after the shunt was put in which will take him to August - counts as brain surgery. He didn't have any more seizures after he was taken into hospital last Easter. Not rushing him because I can't afford to run a car on top of everything else!

tunathe_cat

thanks for info xx andrea
Have a good weekend

Sun_Addict

Payday at last!!:j And got my pay rise - a whole £20 a month better off!

And now I'm on a proper computer I can put in a extra :j for Mr SA's good results!

So what have I achieved in January?

Weight
I've lost 2½ lbs this month. Only 5 to go to my goal weight.

Debt
Really need to pay £233 a month to clear by Christmas but due to me overspending in December I had to make clearing the Tesco card a priority. Have now cleared this. So only £50 has gone off the debt this month. So it now stands at £2750. However, this has only been achieved due to no council tax this month.

What would I like to achieve during February?

Weight
Would be lovely to lose the 5lbs but realistically I'll be happy with another 2½lbs off.

Debt
Aiming for paying off £250 to bring it down to £2500. Probably won't do it but it's worth a try!

Holiday savings need to start coming into the equation as well! Oh and I need to set a realistic budget and stick to it!

Mr SA complaining of a pain behind his ear last night. He was quite tearful with it and ended up going to bed at 8.30. This has made me realise I can't book a holiday until nearer the time as I know from experience how quickly things can change. I also need to put more research into the travel insurance as some don't cover for his lymphoma. I have read on the internet that sometimes you have to agree to pay a high excess or have to accept that there is no cover for a pre-existing condition.

Sun_Addict

Just a quick post before I go to bed. Had a boring day today ( don't knock boring days given my "interesting" year last year) as Mr SA tired and didn't want to go anywhere. Got my cleaning done and had a fairly low spend day as just picked up a few bits of food from local shops. Mr SA still pressing for me to book a holiday (with my elastic wages!!!) but refuse to think about it until at least March when I can see he's ok and I have a chance to get some money together. He wants to go away in April for his birthday and all I can think is we had a holiday booked for April last year and this time last year he was perfectly healthy and look what happened! Apparently his type of lymphoma comes on within 3-4 weeks and is fatal within 6 unless treated. How scary is that. I think he was close to that 6 weeks last year.

Anyway enough of the depressing stuff! Off to bed now. Goodnight all!

scaredy_cat

SA, if you book a holiday in the uk, you might need to think about insuring that as well, so that if you have to cancel you may be reimbursed as the hotel might not.

Buffythedebtslayer

Sun_Addict wrote: »

Just a quick post before I go to bed. Had a boring day today ( don't knock boring days given my "interesting" year last year) as Mr SA tired and didn't want to go anywhere. Got my cleaning done and had a fairly low spend day as just picked up a few bits of food from local shops. Mr SA still pressing for me to book a holiday (with my elastic wages!!!) but refuse to think about it until at least March when I can see he's ok and I have a chance to get some money together. He wants to go away in April for his birthday and all I can think is we had a holiday booked for April last year and this time last year he was perfectly healthy and look what happened! Apparently his type of lymphoma comes on within 3-4 weeks and is fatal within 6 unless treated. How scary is that. I think he was close to that 6 weeks last year.

Anyway enough of the depressing stuff! Off to bed now. Goodnight all!

terrifyingly miraculous. don't quite know how to process that so God knows how you are.


Big hug. times a thousand.


in other news I recommend cocoa with peanut butter. very nice.


sleep well and more hugs XXXXXXXXXXX

Sun_Addict

Some good news today courtesy of Mr SA opening my mail by mistake. I've been awarded the £200 carers one off payment. They will be contacting me shortly to get my bank details. Can't think what to do with it at the moment the list of things I'd like is so long! Might just put it to one side and use it when I really need something or see something otherwise it will just get chipped away at until it's gone.

Need to get myself more organised. The weekend just flew by and I've achieved nothing. I seem to spend all my time looking after Mr SA and getting nothing done. He spent most of Saturday watching Top Gear on the bed and dozing. I was up and down the stairs checking up on him. He woke up about 4pm and said he couldn't remember a thing about Saturday night. Told him that's because it was only Saturday afternoon! He thought it was Sunday. He's still getting confused like that, it upsets him.

Sunday we went to our local pub for lunch. Spent a scary £29 as no offers on at the weekend. Could have done without spending that amount really but we are so stuck at home without any transport and limited to how far Mr SA can walk. It was very nice though but must pull in the purse strings a bit tighter this week.

Mr SA is still going on about a holiday. Told him all being well we'll go in April but now he wants to go sooner in case he gets ill in the meantime. I'd rather wait, save some money up and give him the chance to get a bit stronger.

The current plans are to get back on track with Fly Lady-ing as I've gone a bit out of the loop with this and get back to doing some exercise at night. I was under the impression that I would have all this free time once the hospital visits stopped. What a joke! Where has all this "free time" gone? Need to make a plan!

debtfreewannabe321

Hi SA, is the carer's payment cash? Perhaps you could put it towards some holiday clothes or the holiday itself? I hope you get some downtime soon xx