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

Dinah93

'The one' doesn't have to be what you expect.... just like with husbands I guess. Do you know the name of the dress? Mine was £1650 from a shop near me where I tried it on, but I bought it direct from a shop in Surrey for £840. You can also get copy dresses from China which are under £200 and everyone swears you can't tell the difference from the 'real thing' - it's still a dress so it's pretty real to me, but I guess they mean in quality of finish and fabric type etc.

My rant for the morning - Ben had his injections at 8.40 this morning. I got there at 8.45, you have 10 mins leeway. However I got stuck behind a lady who appeared to have never encountered the wonders of a touch screen arrival system before, took 4 mins to get through and then they said they'd marked us as none attending so we would have to make a new appointment! I know we shouldn't have been late but we were within the allowed time, even with the confuddled lady. So NIM took him back down an hour later and the nurse was most frustrated that they should have just stuck their head in the door, she was sat in there without a patient anyway, it only takes 3 mins, how ridiculous to make us go and come back etc. He seems okay after them, if a little crankier than normal.

Grace at nursery this morning, and NIM is off today instead of Thursday for once, so we're going to go and drop the plants off for the nicu nurses this afternoon. Be nice to get that done as its been hanging over me for a month now.

Tesco_points_addict

Dinah

I haven't caught up on your diary for a while. You are obviously loving being a Mummy, it is lovely to read and I feel your happiness. The debt can wait a bit longer, keep enjoying your beautiful family :-)

TPA x

Birdie85

Dinah93 wrote: »

What time does Zach go down to bed? Just thinking on an evening you should get some time after bedtime most nights

He used to go down around 8, give or take 20 minutes but for over a week it's been so difficult to get him to sleep. A few nights he seemed to be in pain with teething, which is fine, gave him some Calpol and he settled once it kicked in; but other times, like last night, he's just playing up! I thought that he'd tire himself out with all the crawling, but it seems to have given him more energy! :undecided

Dinah93 wrote: »

Had a nice time at the festival of thrift with the lovely Birdie yesterday. Maybe there was a thrift side somewhere we didn't get to, it was so crazy busy! On our side it just felt a bit vintagey with people selling a loaf of bread or jar of jam for 4x what the supermarket charges, but at least it was free entry!

LOL, very true! Maybe we were missing something! Seemed a bit chaotic and poorly planned and trying to figure out where everything was just wasn't going to happen with 3 babies in tow! Nice pulled pork and chocolate muffin though!

Ruby- I think it's very rare that women actually end up with the dress that they thought they'd wear for their wedding! I was expecting to have a simple chiffon grecian style dress for my wedding and even bid on a couple on ebay, then ended up getting a big gold satin number! Have you tried any other dresses on in a similar style? It might be that you love the look rather than *that* dress IYKWIM so you may find a more budget-friendly one. If you do want that dress, keep an eye on ebay, Preloved, Gumtree etc and also call around different shops as you might find a good deal.

wendz86

Morning ,

Birdie my niece has just started crawling and her sleeping has got worse as well so might be a development thing. Fingers crossed you get your evenings back soon.

Glad you two had a nice time at the thrift fair even if it wasn't thrifty.

Hope Ben is OK after his jabs.

Ruby - definitely have a look around and see if you can get it cheaper. I know it is only one day but i think you need to have what you think you look great in.

CMD - you have made me feel better as I was a bit worried about Poppy night training. I am a bit frustrated though as she had a few dry nights and is now weeing loads at night. I am going to have to cut down her drink a bit i think as she guzzles loads at bedtime.

clearmydebts

Ruby - At least the dress is at the upper end of your budget, so not out of grasp for you. That's a positive. I would have a look around and see if you can get it cheaper. Or could you cut back on a few other things to make your budget look healthier. At the end of the day you do want to look amazing on your day so if it's the one for you I would say go for it!

Birdie - Max's sleep always went to pot when he was going through something developmentally. It didn't affect Evie at all but then again she was awake at 5am every morning until she was 12 months the greedy guzzler. This book was a lifesaver for me when I was getting no sleep, at least I could understand what he was going through:

http://www.thewonderweeks.com/

Wendz- Evie is dry 90% of the time in the mornings. I think I will just have to bite the bullet and ditch the night-time nappies. Along with the soother and bedtime bottle. It's not going to be fun in our house over the next few weeks.

ruby_eskimo

Thanks for the advice ladies. I'm not going to think about it too much (even though it's all I've been thinking about the past few days). A lot that I tried on were the same style because that suits me the best but this was the perfect one as no lace or tulle at the bottom for people to tread on and rip, the right amount of cinching around the waist and the perfect neckline. Will go ballistic when I'm in Manchester and try on anything and everything I can, then have an appointment on the 26th October at a different store to try on a few more and they stock the dream dress too. If that's still the one I want then I'll see what deal they can do me otherwise I'll start phoning all the stockists. Thanks for letting me vent, I feel a lot more happier today about it all.

Tete_en_l'Air

Oh CMD, sorry to hear about your Dad but from your wording of 'scare' I presume all is OK?

I'm still having good days and bad days - I feel like a schizophrenic! Today was awful with two boys walking out of one class. Some of them are such little gits, they don't seem to grasp the idea that school isn't meant to be their chill out time. All I could think about on my way home was that I could get a 9-5 office job, have a two hour cleaning shift beforehand, a four hour shift as a barmaid every evening plus a Saturday job in a shop and I'd be working the same hours, be a lot let stressed and probably earning more! Really wanting to quit again tonight.

Hope everyone else is well! Ruby I think your plan to shop around before deciding is a good one, at least then if you go for it you'll know it's definitely The One and not feel (so) bad about the price tag!

ruby_eskimo

Tete_en_l'Air wrote: »

I'm still having good days and bad days - I feel like a schizophrenic! Today was awful with two boys walking out of one class. Some of them are such little gits, they don't seem to grasp the idea that school isn't meant to be their chill out time. All I could think about on my way home was that I could get a 9-5 office job, have a two hour cleaning shift beforehand, a four hour shift as a barmaid every evening plus a Saturday job in a shop and I'd be working the same hours, be a lot let stressed and probably earning more! Really wanting to quit again tonight.

I can't remember what years your teaching Tete, but my mum is in Year 2 at the moment and having the same problems! There's one that apparently has to be carried into the classroom by his mum and she has to practically run out the room at the same time my mum is closing the door otherwise he'll "escape" and then he throws a fit for at least an hour every single day. And now there are other kids that are copying him. Big hugs to you and all the teachers, because it's a wonder there are any left!

clearmydebts

Tete_en_l'Air wrote: »

Oh CMD, sorry to hear about your Dad but from your wording of 'scare' I presume all is OK?

I'm still having good days and bad days - I feel like a schizophrenic! Today was awful with two boys walking out of one class. Some of them are such little gits, they don't seem to grasp the idea that school isn't meant to be their chill out time. All I could think about on my way home was that I could get a 9-5 office job, have a two hour cleaning shift beforehand, a four hour shift as a barmaid every evening plus a Saturday job in a shop and I'd be working the same hours, be a lot let stressed and probably earning more! Really wanting to quit again tonight.

Hope everyone else is well! Ruby I think your plan to shop around before deciding is a good one, at least then if you go for it you'll know it's definitely The One and not feel (so) bad about the price tag!

He had a stroke Tete He was in hospital for over a week and is home now and doing really well. He is just tired but there doesn't seem to be any major damage. It was a huge shock because he eats well, and is fit and healthy.

A good friend of mine found teaching extremely hard at the beginning but loves it now. She was talking about quitting a few times but found her groove with the kids and never looked back.

Dinah93

It's been a while but how does anyone feel about starting some challenges again? I was thinking we might start with an easy one, no money this month just a bit of a life declutter:



(bigger version here if that's too small)

I know I'm a day late for the start but I bet there is at least one day that falls into the 'not applicable' category for everyone (garage, kids stuff, craft items, linen closet all strike me as not things everyone has) so maybe slip yesterday into one of those random slots?

Maternity back pay has been paid, although not the September payment yet, Medicash called yesterday so that payment should go through in the next few days, and NIMs NHS pay for his consultancy work should be going through a week on Friday. Between the lot of them hope to get about £5k off the debt. We also heard from tax credits, and taking my redundancy into account our monthly award has been adjusted from £20 to £400 a month!

I need to contact Amex and cancel our card, it's £125 a year and while we've been getting £400+ in vouchers a year so technically it's well worth it, I feel like we'll spend a lot less if we have to account for the money as it's spent straight from the current account, rather than finding a big lump sum at the end of the month.