The 300k debt-free diary!!!

chocaholic110

pandapaws wrote: »

All's good with the pregnancy apart from the fact I've now been told I've got SPD (must have caught it from Choco!).

I'm happy to share anything like that - you only have to ask!

Seriously though, hope it doesn't get too bad. I seem to have good days and bad days, sometimes it's just a mild ache, sometimes HUGE shooting pains!

pandapaws

If you're sharing any of your Xmas leftover chocolate, I'll help with that, otherwise you can keep all other ailments entirely to yourself, thanks all the same for the offer!

(Did I say leftover chocolate? As if!)

chocaholic110

Actually, I'm not too fussed about chocolate at the minute but I always go off it when pregnant. Have got a massive interest in mince pies though - not sure what I'll do when Christmas is over.

pandapaws

Bulk buy them on boxing day when they're all half price! Just get enough to see you through until the end of Jan plus a few extra boxes in case he's late arriving!

As for all that unwanted chocolate...!

hypno06

Hey there guys, sorry to hear you are suffering, I hope it doesn't get any worse and that you can enjoy Christmas in some sort of comfort.

BTW did someone mention leftover chocolate

pandapaws

Chocolate?
Nope, nothing to see here :whistle:.

hypno06

Damn, too slow.......

pandapaws

Phew, thank goodness for my previous inability to pass a bargain without buying it!

A couple that we know just called in out of the blue to hand in a Christmas pressie for DS! They don't live around here, and only come up to visit his parents occasionally, and we weren't expecting to see them at all this year, so I hadn't bothered getting anything for them. But thinking quickly I said 'oh, haven't wrapped yours yet - let me just pop up and do it'. Grabbed a little Brio train set out my 'things I've bought for no apparent reason' pile that I got in TK Maxx in the summer, only because it was reduced to £7 (toy shop price would be about £25-30) and hey presto, instant quality present! I'd thought about giving it to DS as a Xmas extra, but he's got enough trains, and I didn't want to start another collection. She went on to tell me that their 2-yo loves trains and always plays with his little wooden train set, so it even looks as though it was a gift that I'd thought about!

They didn't bring any chocolate though.

hypno06

pandapaws wrote: »

They didn't bring any chocolate though.

That is why you described them as "a couple that we know" rather than "friends of ours" :rolleyes:

pandapaws

Can I just have a minor rant about my sister-in-law? Sorry - please skip this post if you're not in the mood to listen to someone moaning about something extremely petty!

She's got 3 kids aged 10-14, we only have DS, who was 3 last week. For as long as I've been with OH, we've always given her kids either a decent pressie or £20 in a card for b'day and Xmas, totalling £120ish a year. When we had our son, while we don't give to receive, we noticed that she was only spending about a fiver a time on him, totalling £10 a year! She always claims not to be able to afford to buy gifts etc, but she spends a fortune on designer stuff for herself - she must have at least 8 pairs of shoes that cost (well) over £100 each, which she justifies buying because her partner buys vinyl records at a rate of about 10 a week, and has just bought a really flash cooker for about £4k. So it wouldn't be too much to ask just for a half-decent gift for our son from his only auntie - a £7 Brio train set for example!

Anyway, last year when money really did get tight for us, we decided to cut their gifts down to £10ish each b'day/Xmas, simply because we couldn't get anymore out the bank. It felt a bit awkward the first time, but the little brats have NEVER said thanks once for anything we've ever given them, so I soon got over it! One of her kids has a b'day the day before my son, and I gave a tenner in a card, plus a little pair of pink pyjamas that I'd got in TK Maxx reduced loads to £2. Our son got a little jigsaw (which I know was £2.99 in TKM) and a fiver in his card - fair enough.

She's been telling my mother-in-law that for Xmas she was going to get our DS Premium Bonds, and sure enough there's a wrapped up envelope for him for his Christmas, that came with instructions that we had to be very careful opening it. I don't know much about them, but I was sure you could only buy them in multiples of £50, so said to DH that maybe we should just open it in case his sis had gone mad and spent a fortune out of guilt for the tight b'day gift last week! Have just done so...

In it is a leaflet about premium bonds and a cheque made out to the Post Office for £20. The leaflet says that the minimum you can buy is £100 at a time!!!!!!!

So her apparent generosity is going to cost us 80-flippin-quid if we do as intended with it!!!

I'm sure she did it all in good faith - she just wouldn't have noticed the £100 min spend (although she's bought these for her own kids in the past...), but it's just typical that the time she decides to be generous she goes about it in a way that would cost us a fortune! Any ideas what I should do about it? Mention to her that we don't really have a spare £80, or just spend the £20 cheque on postage stamps for myself, put £20 in his bank, and pretend that we bought the bonds?

Sorry if I sound ungrateful about it, I don't mean to be. I know there are loads of more serious problems around than this. It just niggled me when I opened the envelope - glad I didn't leave it until Xmas day to do! Incidentally, DH finds it hilarious! Maybe it's my hormones that are failing to see the funny side of it.

Sorry, rant over! I did warn you it was petty!