Only freedom will do

Alchemilla

Lovely.♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥

sweetdaisy

Hope you enjoy the rest of your Paternity Leave Ed. It is very hard not to pick up things for the children, especially when they are things that you remember as a child.

My Boys are 6 and 3 years old and it feels like a lifetime ago that they were babies. I miss the days when they were young babies and I could sit on the sofa and they would fall asleep in my arms. Now . . . I can't even go to the bathroom without one of them knocking the door or walking straight in :rotfl:.

in_need_of_direction

The b00kpeople do really good deals on children's books and you can also get cash back via relevant sites.

Busymumofthreeplusdog

edinburgher wrote: »

I am finding it very difficult not to spend money as a new parent! Today's purchases included copies of The Tiger Who Came To Tea and The Hungry Caterpillar and a big pack of nappies... TBH, I can't imagine a childhood without either of those books, but it all adds up.

Loving the cuddles, being off and making myself useful.

Books are an investment in children! Hungry caterpillar was one of my favourites as a child. Can I also recommend "the Gruffalo", in fact anything written by Julia Donaldson:j:j (except maybe "stick man" )

TimmySaver

edinburgher wrote: »

Sleeping goes no better, but DD's jaundice has cleared up nicely, we're no longer seeing the community midwife and we will be going out as a family to register the birth tomorrow.

Glad to hear the jaundice has cleared up. Baby saver had to be on a billiblanket for a night and it was quite worrying.

Enjoy registering the birth. We did ours at the local library and were given a library card for him as a bonus!

AlexLK

edinburgher wrote: »

A cracking list of Financial calculators and tools from Monevator :beer:

Thank you for the link. I'm going to have a play with a few of those over the next couple of days as I've another wave of enthusiasm for trying to sort my finances out. Realised it's somewhat pathetic relying on my parents at 34.

edinburgher wrote: »

I am finding it very difficult not to spend money as a new parent! Today's purchases included copies of The Tiger Who Came To Tea and The Hungry Caterpillar and a big pack of nappies... TBH, I can't imagine a childhood without either of those books, but it all adds up.

Being better behaved on the food front, we are largely eating from the freezer and meal quality has started creeping back up after the initial lapse. We had a beef and ale stew using beer from a brewery near my office yesterday and I've started a new batch of the Thomas Keller confit pork that went down so well recently

Sleeping goes no better, but DD's jaundice has cleared up nicely, we're no longer seeing the community midwife and we will be going out as a family to register the birth tomorrow.

Loving the cuddles, being off and making myself useful.

The library is your friend. We bought all the "classics" and I often take my son to the library to find other books, the benefit being it costs nothing but a bit of petrol and he's really starting to develop an enthusiasm for books. Not sure if your library does this but ours has a summer children's reading challenge, last year my son couldn't read at all (he's starting to get there this year) but I read the books to him and he still received his award (perhaps that was a little undeserved but we both really enjoyed it).

I also write books for my son and my wife binds and illustrates them. Not sure if either you or your wife would enjoy that but it's been an activity we've really enjoyed.

Food sounds too nice for parents with a days old baby ...

Glad to hear your daughter is well and that you'll be registering the birth together, I went on my own and really hadn't imagined it to be like that.

edinburgher

The library is your friend.

I was a librarian for several years, I hear you

Karmacat

Great idea from Alex - great ideas from you too, Ed, my word that food is very posh for people with such a tiny baby :rotfl:

I'm so glad you're loving the paternity leave. Carry on (said in a gruff RSM voice) :rotfl::j

turtlemoose

like inod said, the book people are great. I got 10 x Julia Donaldson books for £10. Bargain. We particularly love Room on the Broom. (little tm loves to shout "BUZZ OFF DATS MY WITCH!")

Laura2014

edinburgher wrote: »

It's only a problem if you expect me to be a genius :rotfl:



I wouldn't worry, you're paying quite a lot into pensions. Mrs E and I pay in c. £645/mth between us (including a top up through our ISAs). Without knowing all the assumptions made by your pension provider (i.e. predicted rate of return, present value, whether or not that includes a lump sum etc.), we would be remiss in commenting further.

That said, looking at pension statements is often a sobering experience and sometimes it can be downright depressing. The first thing to do is to have a long, hard, honest think about how much money you will need in retirement and whether or not you're on track for that. Remember pension income, ISAs, savings, income from any other assets, reduced expenses (paying off mortgage etc.) Are you heading in the right direction? If not, you either need to save more, get a better return, reduce your pension (and real life) expenses, or save for longer. Downsizing may also be an option.



Don't let the white hairs fool you - I'm 32, Mrs E is younger

Thank you for your advice - you have gave me a lot to think about and investigate. :money:
Im 31 and DH is 33 - unfortunately we are only heading in one direction :rotfl: