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

wendz86

I thought my nights are bad Dinah . She is usually up every 1-2 hours from 2am. Hope you manage to get some sleep soon.

clearmydebts

Congrats Cinny. A little boy. You must be chuffed!


Glad to hear the girls are doing well Wendz!


Birdie - sounds like you had great fun!


Dinah - sorry to be the one to say it but are ye on holiday again? Surely the debt busting must take priority over holidays (unless this was a freebie). You're only back from Italy a little while.

Birdie85

Cinny91 wrote: »

That's one good thing about using your youthfulness in those situations - people just think you're hella artsy and individual The design did really fit the plate well though!

You could probably argue the cocktail hat course could be for Christmas?! Don't they do the course again later on in the year/again next year?

Off to London in my swishy not-maternity-but-big-enough-to-grow-in cape tomorrow! Hoping to keep it MSE and not spend too much other than travel + food, so we'll see how that pans out

Next year's courses haven't been released yet but there must be another one in the spring so I'll hold out for that, or they may have other courses that I want to do even more!

Was London fun? Did you go to see Jinxx Monsoon?

Dinah93 wrote: »

So glad the scan went well Cinny and you got what you were hoping for, I think most people have at least a small preference one way or another, although once they're here you love them or just who they are anyway. So it's a baby S - I thought Fox was the name you were going with for a boy? Can you pm/fb me your address again please, will be ecstatically sending you a big box of boy clothes once we're back from Center Parcs.

Worn out, Ben has started waking at between 1.30-2.15 every morning and then sobbing every half hour or so after that. Nothing seems to settle him, not milk, not the dummy, not cuddles, not coming into our bed, not getting up. Been going on a few weeks now and it's always me who gets up unless it's a Sunday night as I teach all Monday, the work from home stuff doesn't buy me a lie in! Grace at chocolate chefs this morning, left NIM and Ben in the house, I'm in Starbucks nursing an orange juice to use the wifi to get Quidco stuff done. There are a LOT of screaming, and I mean screaming children in here though so concentration is shot. Sadly laptop battery doesn't last for more than 20 minutes so can't go work outside.

Bit of a 'Duh' question maybe, but why is it just you doing all of the nighttime get-ups? When we were getting up in the night we took shifts so we both got at least 5 hours sleep and it was fair. DH got up until 3, then I took over. The only issue was when he woke up at 2.50... technically it was still DH's shift but getting up would take him well into mine! BIL is already trying the whole 'I go out and graft whilst the missus will be at home all day doing nothing with the baby so she can be the one getting up all night'... the baby hasn't been born yet and I really hope he changes his ridiculous views of maternity leave/women's roles etc. I told DH that if he spoke to me like and refused to pull his weight with our child that I'd be kicking him out, and he totally agreed!

Back at Centre Parcs again?! I feel like you've just been there?! Is it good? Whenever we've priced it up it's just seemed too expensive, we're not very good at finding deals!

It's day one of the 'get rid of as many items as the date' game... we need a catchier title! Must remember to get rid of something tonight!

starnac

Birdie it's called the minsgame on Twitter.

Dinah I have to agree with Birdie. I don't see why you are doing all the night get ups? Yes I get that NIM works but staying home looking after two young children is not a walk in the park either. DH and I took turns. He did one night, I did the next. We did take into account if one of us had a big day the next day, be it a big meeting for him or lots of appointments for me etc the the other one would do the get ups regardless of who's turn it is.
I don't want to over step the mark but you are supposed to be a partnership, a team. You both made a conscious decision to have children and therefore both of you need to pull your weight and do your fair share of the child care.

clearmydebts

starnac wrote: »

Birdie it's called the minsgame on Twitter.

Dinah I have to agree with Birdie. I don't see why you are doing all the night get ups? Yes I get that NIM works but staying home looking after two young children is not a walk in the park either. DH and I took turns. He did one night, I did the next. We did take into account if one of us had a big day the next day, be it a big meeting for him or lots of appointments for me etc the the other one would do the get ups regardless of who's turn it is.
I don't want to over step the mark but you are supposed to be a partnership, a team. You both made a conscious decision to have children and therefore both of you need to pull your weight and do your fair share of the child care.

I agree with the others too. My OH has always done more than his fair share with the kids too, getting up with them, minding them etc etc

Cinny91

Hey Everyone!

Thanks for all the extra congrats Getting much more excited now I can kind of picture things better?! Seem to be getting presents at every turn now too, which is always welcome :cool:

Did have a lovely time in London! Little issue of there being no seats at the bar, so I had 4 hours stood in admittedly high but normally comfortable shoes.. I didn't even make it to the end of the set before taking myself from the front to sit at the bar with a drink Was very well behaved moneywise, even called around for different taxi companies to get the cheapest fare to the pub (went from £22.50 :eek: to £5!), only spend was £15.99 in Hamleys for things for Baby S :A

Was even well behaved on Saturday when I spent two hours trooping around a shopping centre with my Sister so she could find herself a winter coat. Only spend was dinner! Wound up there again yesterday, but still didn't spend any money :j Going again tonight (why is this happening!) for tea before we go to the cinema, but OH is paying so I'm going to strike out

Ooh, I didn't know we were doing a certain amount of items for the date! I've just been clearing But our "done" list from Friday and over the weekend..

1. Emptied and got rid of a shelving unit.
2. Filled the recycling bin with accidentally hoarded cardboard boxes.
3. Filled an ikea sized blue bag for the skip.
4. Gave away an old coffee table.
5. Cleared shelves in bathroom and gave some unused lush soaps away.

Roll on next Thursday when the sofa gets collected, have sections of it dotted around the house atm and it's whats getting in the way of reorganising rooms and clearing out more things

Did everyone have a nice weekend?!

Birdie85

Morning! My weekend whizzed past far too quickly! Went to a papercraft fair on Saturday with MIL but just bought some papers for Christmas cards and behaved myself otherwise. I was looking at some stalls and admiring things then realised that I'd bought the same stuff back in March and still haven't had chance to use it! Same thing happened to MIL! We have agreed that we need to push each other into working on our projects!

Went to an American Diner/Ice Cream Parlour/Play area yesterday for lunch and met friends for a play date... lunch was lovely but in the diner there's a big yellow school bus that you can sit in and they put us in there (kids love it so I'm sure they thought they were doing us a favour!) and although it's set into the floor, it still wobbles when people move about so by the end of the meal I was feeling pretty claustrophobic and travel sick, despite not actually moving! Next time I will be requesting a regular table!

I managed to do things for the 'Mins Game' on Thursday (a pack of plastic bowls that Zach pulled out of the cupboard in his 'lets empty the cupboard' game and I realised we didn't need them) and Friday (2 broken chains) but need to catch up on Saturday, Sunday and Today! :eek: So that's 12 things that need to go out tonight! I will easily do that by simply opening the Drawer of Doom and grabbing random junk so will hopefully have a positive update later!

Glad you enjoyed London Cinny, annoying about the lack of seats though! After being to a few standing-only gigs with my friends we've agreed that it's seated or nothing now, we're all too knackered to stand for so long without our knees giving up (we've all got dodgy knees!) Well done on spending so little too, great willpower there! :T

Cinny91

The bus idea does sound awesome for the kids, but I don't blame you for already mentally booking a table next time :rotfl: Some things are just better in theory

Kind of in theme with the clearing out - used up a bottle of shower gel and a lush bubble bar yesterday. Putting our old sofa back together tonight to put it on ebay too. That'll be one big thing gone!

OH took a big step yesterday in taking out a singular, collectively lower interest, loan to pay off his car and student debts. Was kind of alarming how within 5 minutes of us finishing the maths to decide if it was a good move our not, he had the money sitting in his bank ready to go?! Ultimately if he doesn't pay it back early, he'll be saving 1k over the course of the loan (as well as being £100 a month better off) hoooowever, he's hoping to double/triple the monthly payment to get it paid off within just over a year :beer: Keep kidding to him about how I could never marry into such debt. I'd lose my MSE badge

Dinah93

Debt is going down, quite quickly weirdly considering NIM has had no wage except SSP for 5 months. We're about £4k lower than where we were 5 months ago, not a bad rate.

NIM and I have a system, of one child each in the night. This is because Grace used to wake up every night and sob for daddy, during the day it's all about me but at night she wants daddy. So I would do all the wake ups with Ben. But Grace has been sleeping better in the summer with fewer chest problems whereas Ben has given up on sleeping. So it's swings and roundabouts I guess. But yes, me always doing the morning get ups isn't cool!

All change on the house arrangement front, we've been planning to put Grace into the large double bedroom upstairs for months, now we've decided to put Ben into the single up there that's currently the study, and move the study downstairs to the slightly larger single. They have a play room anyway, bedroom is just for sleeping, but it would help me a lot to have an office down here now I'm starting to work so much and upstairs just means Ben won't be woken from naps by every loud lorry, postman or the takeaway guy for the street opposite (every week! Learn the difference between Avenue and Close!). I worked out I have my 10 hours for Quidco, around 12-15 hours for dad (could easily be more), I now have 14 hours Yoga teaching, rising to 17 by the end of half term - that's a full time job now. That's before I even count the hours I'm spending on building the feed, which I'm really excited about and can't believe how quickly it's growing. Which means I need to find a spot in the diary to build a website. Focussed on finding affiliate linking software first so I can make a small bit of money to pay for the site/advertising so the feed can be money neutral as it grows, obviously the hope is one day I might make a small income from the site/brand.

Booked CP back in March, no, we shouldn't have gone again. It was the first lift in NIMs depression for months though, and we got a bit caught up in that we had a happy time as a family. It was £220 for 5 days so obviously a LOT cheaper than a weekend, from next year there will be no holidays as Grace will be in school and we definitely can't afford anything in school holidays. Grace, Ben and I are away for a week at half term too, with mum, but this is 100% paid for by mum, she pays for the cottage, entrance to places, food, petrol, last time I had to 'pay' her in one tea and cake in a coffee shop - which is a lot less than I'd spend in a week feeding the three of us, fueling the car etc at home! Good thing about being self employed is I can keep working while I'm away and still be paid, although I guess the downside is I never really have time off. If I go away in term time now I do lose money by not teaching yogabugs, which is probably my biggest income stream although it's all close now.

Started my adult yoga teacher training last weekend, really enjoyed it, few years until I'm fully qualified but however that pans out it will be a great experience.

Anyone have any tips to make more time?! I have lots of energy and enthusiasm at the minute and I'm already doing some form of work almost all the time unless I'm kiddy occupied or tidying up, feel like my head is spinning yet I want to be doing more.

Cinny91

Good news about the debt reduction :j Will you be keeping a running total in your signature like you used to?

Tips for more time? Hard drugs? Not really more time per se.. but less time sleeping, and that's pretty much the same thing. But I totally get you about feeling like you've got endless energy and not quite enough time?? I'm constantly going atm, we have a million things we want to do and I'm genuinely surprised that instead of ignoring it completely.. we're actually getting things done?!

We've actually decided to be in the same boat as you next year in terms of holidays We really want to crack down on the loan now, so while a holiday isn't really out of budget it's the same as two months payment and it isn't like life at home won't be interesting enough with Fox! Actually started MBing last night, found a website that takes out all of the leg work which has made it much less daunting and probably 10x quicker!

Your doing so well with all the jobs! Hope NIM is at least making you a brew in the mornings before he goes to work Well done on getting over 400 likes :j