Only freedom will do

edinburgher

Feeling a wee bit overwhelmed - so many things to do - where to start?

HM venison casserole with HM beef pho stock (is that fusion cooking?) Will serve with fried polenta and spinach.

I think there's a max £1 listing weekend on eB@y at the moment, will probably list my old Kindle and possibly the cloth nappies as they're just sitting around making me feel guilty

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Save the nappies for the next one.....!

pavlovs_dog

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

I am prone to the bargain thing with our grocery shopping too, so about two or three years ago, I started working with an annual budget which includes a 13th "monthly" pot. This is my bulk buy/bargains pot and while not totally trouble-free (tendency to hoard), I do buy my snob-brands when they are on offer and fund any bargains out of this without the same impact on paper.

I like this idea, particularly thinking ahead to when we end up hosting Christmas. bournefree's suggestion of £300 sounds like a huge amount compared to normal food spends, but if you have a crowd round it quickly adds up.

edinburgher wrote: »

I do neither PD, I probably should as we're on reduced income these days. Do you have a card that you can recommend?

I used a Te$co Clubcard CC for years (despite not being a Te$co shopper). We then used the vouchers for cheap days out. The rate of return is now so poor that I am in the process of getting rid of the card.

I opened an Amex cashback card just before new years. The application process was very slick, and using the card has thus far been painless. We went for the free version knowing that we would definitely achieve any spending thresholds for cashback on normal shopping. £5 odd cashback through Quidco sweetened the deal too.

Once the dust settles on my credit rating I plan to apply for the A$da cashback CC to replace the Te$co one for transactions where Amex isn't accepted. Based on what is out there, that looks like it will offer the best rewards for us.

(despite my wanderlust, as we are tied to school holiday times I doubt any kind of airline reward scheme would actually save us any money vs shopping around for the best deals).

In the grand scheme of things I think the rewards will be pretty small but as we treat the CCs like debit cards it is a little something extra for nothing. I've never bothered with stoozing before, and given how poor saving rates are at the moment, it just doesn't seem worth the effort or the headspace of having to remember when to repay, shuffle money around etc.

edinburgher

Secret_Saving_Squirrel wrote: »

Save the nappies for the next one.....!

There won't be a next one

pavlovs_dog wrote: »

Once the dust settles on my credit rating I plan to apply for the A$da cashback CC to replace the Te$co one for transactions where Amex isn't accepted. Based on what is out there, that looks like it will offer the best rewards for us.

Thanks for the input PD, Amex does look like the likely candidate. The one with a fee is odd - I can't really see any benefit over the free product. Granted, the total cashback is higher, but this only cancels out the annual fee. Very odd, possibly just a marketing gimmick.

We're not big spenders (usually) and I honestly can't remember why I went for an airline miles type product. I was probably in the micropayments mindset of so many MFWers (who all seem to be obsessed with TTs, Mr T Points, N3ctar and surveys)!

Dinner was nice, but afternoon somewhat crappy after visiting the Cuningar Loop. Wet, muddy, depressing and smack next to huge amounts of travellers and assorted neds. There we go, out comes my latent snobbery. Might have got a little more out of it if DD was a little older, but seriously, pants. Found myself wishing it was Vikingar, as there was at least a chance that a beardy viking would decapitate me to save me walking back round :rotfl:

Saw the funky looking houses that formed the Athletes' village from the Commonwealth Games across the river, but surrounded by their security fence, it looked for all the world like something out of the Walking Dead. Reminded me why we considered the East end for all of 5 seconds while house hunting.

A_Frayed_Knot

edinburgher wrote: »

there won't be a next one

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

choccielover

A_Frayed_Knot wrote: »

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Can I ask why you think that AFK?

Purely out of interest? I have several friends who have bucked the old trend of 2 kids and have anything between 3 and 5.

We have 1 and will be sticking with this yet I'm often faced with the question of when the next one will be coming, or given knowing nods or winks when I say 1 is enough for us.

Is having 1 child and being happy with this such a social "non norm" these days (perhaps it always has been?)

Honestly just a question out of interest, please don't think I have taken offence or mean offence..

Sorry to hijack Eds

Chocs

A_Frayed_Knot

choccielover wrote: »

Can I ask why you think that AFK?

Purely out of interest? I have several friends who have bucked the old trend of 2 kids and have anything between 3 and 5.

We have 1 and will be sticking with this yet I'm often faced with the question of when the next one will be coming, or given knowing nods or winks when I say 1 is enough for us.

Is having 1 child and being happy with this such a social "non norm" these days (perhaps it always has been?)

Honestly just a question out of interest, please don't think I have taken offence or mean offence..

Sorry to hijack Eds

Chocs

I don't mean to offend anyone, and certainly hope Ed & MrsE haven't, but -

A whole host of reasons.

How many times have you heard that statement. And how many times has it came true. All I can say is its early days, and maybe I used to hear it more than most, just after parents having their 1st born. Only to find they are back after a couple of years (give or take) to have their 2nd/3rd or even 4th.

What if they (meaning the couples - not Ed) are trying and its not happening, then the comment would be exactly that.

I can only say, it's early days. All but 1 of my friends have said this and went on to have 1 or 2 more.

Even my own parents were along these lines, till I harped on about my "little sister" (although not sure if this changed their minds ) but I eventually got a "little brother (and promptly told them to take him back, and wait till they were giving out "little sisters") with nearly 7 years age gap. Wouldn't change him for anything now though.

When I hear someone saying ~ 1's enough, I normally, just think . . . . . . we'll see. Didn't mean to cause a stir.

Karmacat

edinburgher wrote: »

Dinner was nice, but afternoon somewhat crappy after visiting the Cuningar Loop. Wet, muddy, depressing and smack next to huge amounts of travellers and assorted neds. There we go, out comes my latent snobbery. Might have got a little more out of it if DD was a little older, but seriously, pants. Found myself wishing it was Vikingar, as there was at least a chance that a beardy viking would decapitate me to save me walking back round :rotfl:

If beheading is an alternative, its got to be bad

I did an image search, but the first linkie that came up before I pressed the image button really says it all: a new woodland park! To me, that says nearly all the trees are less than ten feet tall, there's landscaping that isn't big enough to be lush yet, and it's completely soulless and I don't think you're being a snob, Ed - "travellers" today aren't what they were, not by a long shot. Don't know what neds are, but I'm afraid I can imagine only too well :eek:

Saw the funky looking houses that formed the Athletes' village from the Commonwealth Games across the river, but surrounded by their security fence, it looked for all the world like something out of the Walking Dead. Reminded me why we considered the East end for all of 5 seconds while house hunting.

Oh dear :rotfl: When I wrote my first para, I was thinking of the Olympic site in London from 2012, so I'm with you on this one too:rotfl:

Save

choccielover

No please don't think I was implying that you would cause offence, it just Interests me why people won't always assume one is never the number.

Please don't worry and I am similarly sorry if I have offended you by asking.

elantan

We had one ourselves and when mentioned one was enough we would get the knowing nods the oh we will see''s and the we are just being selfish comments ..

Thankfully we decided how many kids we would have an didn't let others opinions come into play. Our son is 25 now and now we get the oh do u regret just having 1 and the bet you wish you had more

Eh no 1 was the right number for us, no regrets

Everyone is different though

I have friends who for them 0 is the perfect number of kids to have ... the abuse they get is ridiculous