The Ultimate Incentive Part 11 (or 10B) It's The Final Countdown

Birdie85

You can join me in the spendy week woeful corner Cinny! The car ended up costing £560 and that doesn't include the service it still needs (£160) and then yesterday we got the notification for road tax (£110). :eek:

It's so annoying, when we booked the holiday last year we did the sums and knew we'd have it all paid off and a good chunk of spending money saved up so although it seemed like a big splurge, it was within our budget as long as we lived sensibly. Just before Christmas we got a £500 boiler bill and now we've got this massive car bill! Those 2 bills combined actually equal the cost of our holiday!

Anyhoo, glad you've got the car back! How are your aches and pains now? Good news that your scan has been brought forward, even if it turns out that the MW is wrong, it just means you get to see the baby again!

I think Zach must have sensed me telling people how good he is at bedtime, took over 3 hours to get him to settle down to sleep last night! At one point I just left him 'organising' the Tupperware whilst I cooked my breakfasts and lunch for next few days (magic egg muffins since I'm back on the wagon). He just wasn't interested in sleep for some reason! I left him in his sleeping bag the whole time because I got a little too much pleasure watching him waddle around like a penguin!

Cinny91

Yikes That's the reason we've put buying our house off now I'm pregnant, having to pay for repairs ourselves. Even though my Brother would do any work on our boiler for us, parts still cost £££!

How did you get your holiday so cheap?! I'm amazed :money: Can imagine the annoyance though, there's always something unexpected that comes along to knock you off kilter! At least you can do road tax monthly now if you need to?

That sounds so cute about Zach, you can't be mad at penguin waddles

I'm generally feeling a lot better now. Get a little pain when I'm sat at my desk at work for too long, but it's nothing too serious really

Birdie85

The holiday was a major bargain! It was a good deal anyway (just staying at a hotel on the main straight, not a Disney or Universal one) but when we booked it Virgin was doing an extra x% off (can't remember exactly, think it was about 20%?) so was mega bargainous and cheaper than booking just flights alone! Of course, we've added to the bill because our 'free' child has made us upgrade to a family suite with a room for him as I'm not sitting in a quiet, dark room every night until we're ready for bed (although it was £600+ to add it to the booking online but DH rang up and they added it for £180?!) and we've decided to hire a car this time ('free' with the booking but ~£200 to upgrade to a suitable model with decent insurance and a car seat). At least we haven't had to buy him park tickets!

Glad the pain is easing now, just make sure you keep jumping up and wandering about.

kavics17

It's the time of spending lots on cars I guess. Mine had mot, lots of routine checks, air con cleaned and the insurance for the whole year this month. Lots of money paid but now I'm happy to drive knowing that it's all serviced.

Tete_en_l'Air

Hello hello! Well we have finally reached the end of the school year and I've jacked in teaching and am feeling like a normal human being again! *happy dance* So normal that I was just booking my airport parking through Quidco and it felt like such a throwback to a time when I actually had time to use sites like Quidco, let alone actually go anywhere, and it got me wondering how you were all doing!

I've only read back a few pages but it sounds like you've all been procreating like rabbits! Huge congratulations Cinny, you are going to make such a fab mum! Congrats to you Wendz on little Heidi, she is a total poppet.

Great news on the extra cash ROTE, you must be over the moon.

Kavics, fab news about the fella, I need to get my finger out in that department, I finally feel back in the right headspace to entertain the thought of a relationship after my twtty ex, my Dad's cancer diagnosis and then being in the teacher bubble.

Dinah - has NIM been paid yet?? How is the yoga going? I really want to give it another go - I never liked it as all the breeeeeaathing makes me light-headed, but so many of the runners I know do it and they swear by it for stretching their muscles. And how is the running going? You seem to be going great guns from what I see on I-forget-which-social-media-site.

Right, off to alter some trousers for an interview tomorrow. No rest for the wicked. I'll more than likely be taking a bit of a pay cut with whatever job I end up with (IF I end up with any job!), but it's so so so worth it, I can't tell you how RELIEVED I am to be out of that job and that environment! I have my life back! *happy dance* *deranged laughter* *sleep*

Cinny91

Tete!!! So happy to hear from you Had the biggest grin on my face reading you've packed in teaching! You're such a bright spark and all-round lovely human that I'm sure you'll get a new job in no time. Even with a pay cut, there's a lot to be said for steady hours, free time and the ability to forget work as soon as you leave the building. Good luck with your interview!

Also, just being nosy. Where were you booking flights to? :cool: Hope your Dad is doing well

That is a really awesome deal on the holiday, Birdie! Swirly Martin's for life :money::money: We've been looking at an all inclusive kind of package to go to Greece next September with Fox in tow. Was all levels of excited to see that under 2's are free?!

Trying to get back into my MSE habits from today. Work is a little quiet so I'm going to meal plan and get a list together for Aldi

Tete_en_l'Air

Thanks Cinny, you're absolutely right, and if you work it out to hourly pay I think I'll probably be getting a huge pay rise!

I'm off to Dublin to do the Rock n Roll Half and catch up with friends, can't bliddy wait! Could really have done with a fortnight on an exotic beach to recharge my batteries but that wasn't to be this year

PS Birdie I meant to say yesterday, your BiL sounds like a right charmer. Those iWatches are pretty naff anyway from what I've seen - nothing works properly unless your phone is nearby, and it doesn't do much that your phone doesn't do better anyway.

Birdie85

Great to hear from you Tete, I was going to give you a nudge for an update actually! Really glad that you've finished teaching now, must feel like a whole new lease of life! What kind of job are you looking to do now? It's really nice to find something that finishes at 5pm and you don't have to worry or think about it again until the next morning. You'll have free time again! You're also doing amazingly well with all the half marathons, I'm so proud of you! Especially to have fit them in around the crappy teaching!

Oh and DH (who is actually getting more and more cross with his brother each day - he's a stewer when it comes to things like this) upset BIL yesterday as he was taking the mick out of the iWatch, it's so naff compared to pretty much every other (cheaper by far!) smart watch out there! And who the heck buys a gadget as a wedding present to yourself anyway?! My Mum made a comment that maybe he thinks the watch and the marriage will have the same lifespan! :rotfl:

We're not having masses of luck with either family right now TBH; FIL is 60 on Tuesday and is being a massive grump about it (don't know why, he thought he'd have died in his mid-50s going by his family history, you'd think he'd be delighted to have made it this far?!), he refuses to celebrate. All he does is complain that if we go out he'll have to pay and he doesn't want to fork out any money. For his family. He doesn't even want to go out and have everyone pay their own way, so nothing's happening. Great! I wouldn't be *that* annoyed but other (nice) BIL has his birthday on the same day so by FIL being a d!ck, BIL doesn't get a birthday do! :mad:

On my side, my Mum has just announced that in September they're going to Florida for 3 weeks. So that's 3 weeks that we have to sort out childcare cover for her days, and one of those weeks the in-laws are away too! Gah! Going to cost £100+ to stick Zach in nursery, right before we go away and need that cash! Don't really get how Mum and Dad can bear to even be away from the grandbabies for so long, and that they haven't even thought about the fact that they're dropping me and my brother in it by going away for so long without even checking that the dates are OK?! Also quite annoying that yet again, they have booked a 'last minute' trip to Florida for the month before we go! They keep making a habit of this?!

Luckily my little family of 3 is lovely!

Lara44

Loving these updates! :j :j :j Hugs to all xx

shrimpy_80

Tete - hurrah for end of term! So lovely to hear your update. How is your dad doing? How many half marathons are you up to so far now? I've signed up for a 10k in Sept and am petrified about it so I can't even fathom what you've achieved this year!