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

Lara44

Thanks, Tink Sold a perfume on fleabay and got a couple of bits of furniture ending on Sunday. Amazing what little bits are to hand to make money when you really start looking around. I forgot the DFW mantra of how every little £ adds up eventually.

It seems there is a London-wide shortage of Baby on Board badges! Luckily I'm mostly on the bus at rush hour and my stop is just a few from the bus garage so not too much of a problem. I *did* have a "tidy" bump for a while now, and kept my waist but not so much in the last few weeks. Partly because I'm small and partly because I can't stop eating cakes I'm 26 weeks now, baby due on 24th June. We decided not to find out the gender, so it will be a surprise. I think it might be a girl, but good odds of 50/50 :rotfl: Hoping so - as boys names are far more difficult!

How are you getting on, Star?

Hugs to all xx

starnac

We struggled with boys names on DS. We wanted a welsh name like DD but not too "welshy" that DH (who's English) couldn't pronounce or spell :rotfl: took us forever to find one we both liked!!

Things are good thanks for asking. I've taken a second job so things are pretty busy at the moment. Hopefully it'll just be for a year but we'll have to see.

I didn't realise you were small lara I've always imagined you similar to Tete

Birdie85

Boys names really are difficult to pick! We really struggled and argued about it for ages!

My little baby bird is still snotty and snuffly but seems a little better today. I seem to be coming down with it now though!

Sounds like people are doing lots of positive money things! Well done!

I went to a work do last night and they had a casino with fun money - I got totally addicted to the roulette table and was there for ages! Also got given my 10 year service pen - can't believe that I've been working for the company for 10 years (I'm not old enough to have done that, surely?!) or that all we get for 10 long years is a pen with the company name engraved on it!

tinkerbel

I think boys names are easier than girls names! Kind of..!

Birdie glad baby bird is okay and hope you don't come down with the cold too badly! How is it going with your hubby back at work? Hope you're managing to settle into routines etc! Well done on the ten years! That's crazy I couldn't imagine working anywhere that long! Shane there's no nice cash bonus though! Who did you leave baby with while you were out?

Lara well done for getting on eBay etc! I think Dinah is the prime example that when you really try, you can raise cash from things you thought were junk or being extra careful etc

Birdie85

It's going OK Tink, I'm getting into a bit of a routine with him and finding it a little easier every day. OH took a half way on Wednesday when I went out so he could look after the little man, he just wants any excuse to take time off work ATM as he really misses Zach when he's working! Don't think he thought he'd find it as hard as he has done, keeps suggesting we do a shared maternity/paternity leave now!

Have you ladies got nice plans for the weekend?

Birdie85

Oooh double good money news for us today! Got paid £800 from our medical cash back plan for Zach's birth and OH got a letter from his bank about a PPI claim he sent them saying they're going to give him £1091! :T He was only expecting a couple of hundred so very pleased with that!

wendz86

Woohoo fantastic news Birdie!

Lara44

Wow, mini windfall Birdie! That will help with SMP

Dinah93

clearmydebts wrote: »

What is the situation with your job now? Have you officially been made redundant or are you still on sick leave? How are the debt repayments going? And how is the business? Has it launched yet?

1st of April is my first official week of freedom. They've ignored my emails about paying my holiday pay, but I have made contact with a solicitor so waiting to see if they think it's worth proceeding with a claim.

Debt repayments are going very well, I hope to have a total next week. Paid another £839 off today. Suffice it to say we were somewhere in the ballpark of £18-£19,000 in debt on January 1st and we should be down to in the region of £6500 by the end of April. By the end of May or early June it will be sub £3000 but I'd like to push that a bit more if we can. All staggering numbers to me, both that it was that high again, and also that we'll have cleared so much in so little time, although obviously the £4800 redundancy helps.

Business is at a standstill, finding the funding to get it going is an ongoing struggle as NIM couldn't come to terms with borrowing it so now we're just trying to find any other way to do it, but realistically I think I'm now having to look at a longer time frame as I don't want to be launching as I give birth and if I were to get the money today I think it would be about 16 weeks until I could launch.

Poolie wrote: »

Morning everyone,

Dinah & NIM - Congratulations
Birdie - I hope the little one is feeling better soon.

Finally, secured a new job just waiting on the paperwork, I will be working local so a 30 minute walk to work is fine by me so no travelling costs. Only been unemployed for 2.5 months when I start on 1st April

Brilliant news, congratulations!

Birdie85 wrote: »

Glad to hear your pregnancy is going well Lara! Just read on the pregnancy thread that you got a bouncy chair with an owl on, is it this one because that's what we've got. The tunes it plays are stuck in our head at all times!

Zach is still snotty, so fed up for him even though he's not really that bothered. I suppose he assumes this is just what life is! Wendz, I've got a sling but can't seem to get the hang of tying it, every time I put him in it he just seems really uncomfortable!

Sounds like some nice weekends have been had. I went to a papercraft fair with MIL on Saturday morning then Zach and I went to watch OH play rugby in the afternoon. We had a random drive out yesterday that ended in York for lunch but it was annoying cold there so we had to abandon the plan of having ice cream!

Will check that book out Cinny, not that I get much chance to read- will have to have my Mum around again so I can sneak off to the bath for a read again!

Birdie if you look here you'll find some sling consultants, they often run meet ups where you can attend and get advice for free, alternatively you can usually get a 1-2-1 appointment for £15-£20. It's well worth it imo as especially when they're little you can just sling them on and get on with your day while they nap there. Also very practical if you go somewhere with cobbles or steps.

Swapped our gas and electricity supplier today as our fix ends soon, only gone onto a one year fix this time, very surprised though that we'll save £10 a month.

Had to see my consultant on Friday, he was out of office so saw his registrar. She told me I had trace protein (anything higher is an indication of pre-e) and I had a bit of a meltdown as it's just far too early. Turns out she thinks its either a uti or dehydration (I did go there after an overnight flight and less than 2 hours sleep) but I'm seeing my midwife tomorrow to be retested, fingers crossed. To calm me down she gave me a quick ultrasound so I could see the baby moving. S/he was having a right boogie in there, was brilliant to watch. Now I just want to have an ultrasound every day! I go to Italy on the 7th-14th, and we have our next ultrasound on the 15th so will find out then what our family is going to look like, although as NIM says 'it's going to have an extra very small person with pale skin and very dark hair in it' - true but I still want to know if we're going to drown in pink or if I need to learn about little blue people. I was so desperate for a little girl last time, but this time I'm very happy either way as I can see positives to either completing our family, but I'm just so so curious to know! We do have the same issue Lara, all the boy names I like are already taken, we can't come up with one we love.

What you going to do with your windfall Birdie?

Birdie85

Glad baby's doing well Dinah! Exciting about the scan coming up too, I have a feeling you've got a boy in there. My little blue person is currently sneezing and crying in his sleep, odd little thing that he is!

Thanks for the link to the sling people. I'll have to find someone to get in touch with because I know it'll be much easier to get things done if I can get the hang of the whole baby wearing thing!

Well done for paying so much off your debt! You're right, those figures are staggering!

As for our windfall, the cashback pretty much covers OH's lost wages from his paternity leave which helps out! We're also looking to go away in June with the rest of the money, just 3/4 nights in Spain or somewhere but we only want to spend ~£500 and the rest will just make my ML a little less painful!