The Ultimate Incentive part 10. The only thing holding you back is you.

Dinah93

I've always offered juice, had a cup available to her, but shes always just sobbed until I produced milk in a bottle for her. She appears to now be able to get into the fridge, she just brought me a carton of apple juice and then the carton of milk!

kavics17

Toddler Kavics was 3 days early but nearly all my friends went overdue. There was one due a week before me, giving Birth the week after me. She hated me.

She has bottles morning and evening. She can't have the bottle out, as soon as she sees it she demands milk just like Grace. She can't see the milk in the fridge either, same reaction. She drinks water well but if I'd offer her milk and water, she'd choose the milk. We use bottles too but cup and beaker for water. She hasn't had any juice yet, won't introduce until it's a must.

Dinah93

We were encouraged onto the juice, told it has some calories in it, whereas water doesn't and poor titch needs every calorie we can cram into her. Plus on the few occasions she has had water she squirts it out again like a fountain. She loves ice though, strange thing. Pleased to say she's finally now out of the 6-9 month clothes and into 9-12 though.

kavics17

Home made ice lollies made from juice than when she wants milk?

wendz86

I have a money question. My ISA rate has dropped loads. Can I transfer it now (i have had same one for about 2-3 years) or do i have to wait till april?

Dinah93

Nope, transfer it now.

Dinah93

Ready to get your money geek on? Good.

This morning I paid another £959.72 off the debt. This comes mostly from Amazon sales (BIG clearout going on, I'm adopting a mentality of 'if the house was flooding and I only had 10 mins to grab my most important belongings, what would get washed away?' The washed away stuff is ALL getting sold. It's very liberating tbh. And I haven't even tackled the cookbooks yet.), but also £190 from an old cash ISA I found, and £329 from a tax refund (finally got the damned form to work). The only exceptions to the washed away mentality are things like our furniture, the crib and old baby clothes we have in the attic, and other things being kept for a very practical reason.

I've then gone to our Amex for a bit of spending analysis. So far this month (bear in mind this is the 12th day of the billing period, so nowhere near a full month) £78.79 on food, but a truly shocking £372.53 on fuel. That's £31 a day we're spending on running the cars, compared to £6.57 a day on feeding 3 people. Only £62 of that fuel spend is mine (and the car is still about half full. That's coming to over £25 a day in NIMs car, and he only works 5 out of those 7 days. Where is all the petrol going?!?! For £21 a day we are by FAR better off buying a diesel on finance. We need to put some very serious and immediate thought into his car as it looks like its a very major outgoing atm.

We do have another spend coming up, in that my car needs new brake pads (and possibly disks) on both back wheels. Need NIM to book it in with his guy.

Lara44

Ouch that seems like a lot on petrol. Definitely sounds like a moment for some creative thinking - public transport, smaller diesel car, car pooling, lift shares? Cycling or walking for local journeys? Tbh, if I had a car in weather like this I'd be using it for every little journey instead of freezing and getting soaked . Right now I'm just waiting for the rain to stop before I head out to do the food shop. Aren't there also some different driving techniques you can learn to use less fuel? (Sorry I'm a non-driver ).

Still, £960 is a phenomenal amount to pay off the debt :j :j

Dinah93

He already does the careful driving, the not carrying excess weight. On dry days he should be on the bike to his care home job, but its never really happened. A diesel car is definitely something we need to cost up though, he only gets about 39-40mpg out of his, and when you do over 100 miles a day that can really make a difference.

Dinah93

Right, money geeked out a bit more. Since NIM started work on 18th October he has paid approximately £1070 to get to and from work. This is allowing for one tank of fuel per month on non work milage, and deducting known long journeys (Nottingham, Leeds, York, Stratford-upon-avon). That's 52 days worked, working it out as £20.58 a day in work milage. Which is a bloody huge amount of money to be quite literally, burning.

To put this a scarier way, if I sent him on a 5* all inclusive holiday to Turkey for a fortnight, he would have £27 spending money and still not be worse off than a normal 2 weeks of going to work. Obviously this is using holiday time and isn't really a solution, but you can be fully fed and spend 2 weeks in the sun for less than going to work!