New Year, New start.....

HarrysMummy

Thanks Lilt and Levi - it's nice sometimes for somebody else to look at the situation and confirm that you are in the right. I know I do often think, 'was that just me'.

Not much to report today, waiting on my min payment for NW to go out and then I can look at whats left. Nearly Payday too yay!

Lilt regarding the nappies, I never thought I would like something that caught poo!! It's an addictive world and I should have stayed clear. My only reason for trying cloth in the first place was to save money. To begin with they did save me a fortune as my parents bought them all for me haha. I have since found prints and pretty nappies and I guess I have no other excuse that I have an addictive personality. To be fair most of mine are the cheaper ones and I have heard of people paying over £100 for a nappy, that is going way over the top. My most expensive one is the one just ordered for £26ish (£6ish is being refunded as the company have given a group discount:T) and it's a lovely embroidered one. Washing wise it's not as bad as you don't need a full scoop of powder or you'll get 'build up' and a scoop of sanitizer stuff that gets rid of nasties. However now if i put dude in a 'sposie' he instantly seems to get a rash so maybe he's just sensitive, I have quite sensitive skin so maybe we would have had to go down this route anyway.

But I totally do get why people don't use them, hubby looks in despair. Another reason is everybody told me its a fad and once baby arrives you'll never keep up with it, so in all honesty most of this is probably just a finger up moment to them :rotfl:

Jelly falling asleep at her desk sounds so cute, I love watching little ones when they are so utterly exhausted they just drop where ever they are, dude is so funny when he does.

liltdiddylilt

Hello!!

No it isn't just you; you're one of us we are never wrong

I too save lots and lots of money getting my parents to bulk buy me pers1l and toilet rolls and suchlike... then they won't let me pay :rotfl:

I have had 2-3 friends who have said they would go with those type of nappies and I have wondered how long they would stick at it. One friend started off for the first 8 weeks with disposables despite having size 1 cloth ones. She said it was impractical as he pooed so often. Then when she tried him, he had outgrown them, so she bought the next ones up. he wore them once and that was it! But one other friends son is in cloth nappies and she is fine with it, and another friend just started her daughter on cloth size 1s at 3 months so far so good! She uses one of those washing eggs with no wash powder though and I have to wonder.

Jellytot gets the most horrifying reaction to certain brands. And wash powders, and pretty much everything. At the moment her bum is like one big open sore from the most recent sick/poo problems. it is like she poos acid :(:(:( and it just burns her in seconds. Has dudes nursery got the hang of his cloth nappies? I would be wondering if they put him in them all day :eek: or just snuck him into disposables... But then you would know with him being so sensitive..

I couldn't work out how to share the video! And it is too big/long for instagram. So adorable though! She hasn't done that in... well over a year and a half!!!! xx

HarrysMummy

Poor little jelly that really sounds awful.

His old nursery got the hand if cloth really quickly and so far so good with his new nursery. The owner of the new nursery actually used cloth when she started training apparently. But the folded terry nappies. She was really keen on them. She had hundreds of questions and was so enthusiastic about them. I told them if they couldn't get the hang of it we could switch to disposablea but just use a fleece liner so they dint actually touch his skin. But I think they enjoy the challenge between the staff of who can do it and get a nice fit etc.

liltdiddylilt

Hahah bless them. A challenge Jelly has one dedicated person who changes her bum!! Because she knows her and she can get quite freaked out especially if she has a sore bum at the time. her key worker knows what is normal and what isn't and raises issues and stuff quickly. it is very good. The old place used to just leaver her in the same one all day unless she pooed and her bum was continually awful! The only thing that was better about the old one is that they used the cream, and the new one 'can't' unless it is prescribed. And with creams.. well we go through so many it isn't practical trying to get prescriptions for a tube of cream! The solution we have is to cream the inside of a few nappies. Weird but it works!

Hope you're ok today?! xx

HarrysMummy

As if a nursery could leave them in a dirty nappy, that's just wrong on way too many levels.
Touch wood, but luckily dude has been in 2 nurseries ams both have been great. His new one have just got new staff (its only recently opened) and one of them was very interested in his nappies today when I picked him up. I literally couldn't leave!! OH was stood outside wondering why I was taking so long.

So savings account I up to £45.04 and my yearly bills account stands at £10 ( I don't actually have any personal yearly bills, but it will probably go for birthday or something!) it's payday tomorrow and I have £40 in my personal account. Sooooo not really sure what to do with it! Do I whack it all on an extra cc payment, do I half and half it with savings? I have OH, brother, sister, best bud and parent birthday all in May before may pay day (well one is just after) not really doing presents so will just be cards apart from OH.

I treated dude and me to a sneeky McDonalds on Saturday. I'm not 100% sure if it was to treat us or because all my account were at round figures so I couldn't move any odds to savings!! Anywho, they have the monopoly thing going at the moment and in my meal alone I won nuggets, a drink and £10 with the code thing so waiting for that to land too. Yay. As soon as that comes it will go straight to cc.

New (to me) phone arrives tomorrow. A friend is giving me their old one as they have upgraded contracts. Its a fairly new phone (only released last year) and much better than my current one and best of all its free!

Hope everybody is good. Not been around much as we've been making the most of the weather and having lots of picnics on the beach and in the park so not a lot of time spent in on the pc!!

HarrysMummy

Hello everybody

Sorry I've not been around much. Dude got a sickness bug, it cleared up and then I cam down with it 2 days later!! Typical.

So just catching up with everything now. Nothing debt wise to report really, emergency fund has crept up to £48.19 so thats a step in the right direction. However also had to put £250 on a card to cover a stupid car repair!:mad: But it's done and dusted and need to move on.

Sold a fair few things on e of bay over the weekend so that should hopefully they'll pay up quickly and I can whack some on to the card. Need to do a fresh food shop tomorrow and a little top up. I looked in freezer and think we should be able to make so with whats in there if I get a couple of little bits, that should hopefully mean the food shop bill will be at a minimum this month. I've decided to pay dudes nursery fees monthly instead of every week, less hassle every Monday morning and I'll know where the accounts stand easier. First ayment went out today, eeek big hit, but at least its done and dusted.

Nothing else to report really.

liltdiddylilt

Hey you

Sorry to hear you've both not been well. Nothing like being poorly when your children are with you... nightmare scenario.

Don't worry about the car, these things happen and are precisely why you are building up that fund

I pay the nursery fees monthly too as I just can't keep track and lose a spend free day each week if not! They like me but then again mines usually a maximum of £60 a month!! Used to be that a week and that wasn't fun but lots better now!! Nursery is so good for them we can't really begrudge it. jelly loves it!xx

HarrysMummy

So i seem to have gone awol again. Been a really busy week and not had much time for anything really.

I've been busy listing lots on e of bay and touch wood seem to be doing ok with them. They all finish in the next few days so should have a little bit from them to go towards the cc. I've also been rounding down my account and now have £51.37 in my emergency fund account :j it's very slowly building up, really suprised how just moving those odd little figures over adds up so quickly. I've also started doing this with the joint account into our yearly bills account. Then hopefully we will get to the target figure in no time and have a little spare cash to throw at the cc.

Not really spent anything on food yet this month (we work 15th-15th as thats pay day) as we're trying to eat out of the freezer/cupboards but will need a small fresh shop soon as we're running out of a few things.

So not much else to report really. Oh got £60 in £co that should be free at the end of may so that will be a nice chunk to throw somewhere.

There was other news..... big news...... i can't believe I forgot to tell you all. My NW card is gone. cleared, done and dusted.
Basically clearing out the house and trying to declutter we've come across a lot of things to sell on e of bay etc, whilst we were sorting the paper work out we found some old bonds. Cashed them in and they came just short of the total NW card balance. So we topped it up and paid it off. So I just have my MBNA one to go, this now stands at £1853.57 (this months minimum has already gone out and also made a tiny extra payment). I chose the NW card to go as some of the MBNA is on 0% until next year (around £1000 of it) so hopefully will be able to get this shifted by the end of the year.

liltdiddylilt

Hey there

Amazing news on finding those bonds!! You're as bad as my friend; when she moved house she was going through paperwork stashed everywhere and she had dozens of unopened or opened and forgotten about cards for various occasions all with cash, gift cards etc in. She had hundreds and hundreds in them!! Then there was the spare change everywhere in piles which when put together came to a staggering £182. Insane!! Wish I could find something so interesting!!

Well done on clearing that card; amazing news! And yay for bay of e, I really need to start trying to sell some stuff on there again as have only had the odd thing up every now and again and have a giant box of stuff. Need to do gumtree as well!

Am really impressed with you sticking out no food shopping till so far. I've obviously had your spend!

And woohoo :j for the emergency fund. That is brilliant news! Above £50 already. So if a small/medium appliance breaks, you have it covered so far without a CC or dipping in to your monthly cash! You'll soon have a washing machine sized amount saved that is how I always look at my fund lol. xxx

HarrysMummy

Thanks Lilt, I'm very pleased to have a card gone. Hopefully get the remaining one shifted quicker now.

I can't believe your friend had cards with cash still in them... mine either a) never have cash or b) are spent before I've seen it haha.

I'm feeling very pleased with the emergency funds too, mines over the £50 mark and our joint on (mainly used for yearly bills, ins, tax etc) is nearing the £200 mark. We only really started putting money in there this month, have always had a bit of cash to fall back on before I went on maternity so didn't really think it through long term if money was readily available. Car tax is due in July, then nothing until September ( Cat insurance) then it's all November/December. We have budgetted enough to cover these and if we carry on at this rate we'll have double the amount. :rotfl: Doubt we will be able to keep it that way but aim high and all that...

We had to do a food shop yesterday as ran out of some fresh. Only spent £35 so I think thats pretty good so far. Got lots of fresh fruit and veg in there as well as cat food so all good. Nearly half way through the month and only £35 spent on food shopping... if only every month could be like that!!

Should have enough in freezer to stretch out until payday, or very close if not.

In a very upbeat and positive mood today (and yesterday actually) even though I'm working. Got a real get up and go kind of attitude and getting lots of things done at work, even cleaned round the office and chucked a load of old stuff away........