A pound stretching maternity

MrsSave

Didn't update yesterday. Was too tired by the time I sat down last night. I didn't manage a nsd, actually spent around £11. It was all on junk as well. Food and magazines. Not proper food though, treats. Didn't use the £5 I had here, instead I paid on my card. Oops! At least it was only £11 and not a lot more.

I don't think anyone's been sick here since lunch time yesterday. I still seem to be fighting it off and have no signs or symptoms of catching anything.

Today I will do what I've been intending to do all week and pay ds's money in. Still didn't manage it yesterday, but I've checked and they're open until 1pm today. I might take ds with me, as he seemed to be ok yesterday, which will give Dh a break. Though they spent yesterday afternoon watching cartoons on the sofa together! I didn't pick up any toner yesterday again. I did look in Tesco (even though it was more expensive) but they were out of stock. Will look today in Boots.

I didn't eat the casserole. I'm too scared! I may freeze it for another day! I told Dh he could eat it again when he's feeling better :rotfl:

I think this weekend's going to be pretty quiet. We've got a busy week next week with appointments, days out and meeting friends so I think a quiet weekend will be a good plan.

MrsSave

Paid ds's birthday money into his account. I also picked up the face toner, hand wash (the one in the bathroom has almost run out) and I was naughty and picked up a bottle of Diet Coke. Diet Coke is the biggest treat I can have (even better than chocolate!!). Total came to £3.50, and then I paid 50p for car parking (no street parking available today, but parked in one of the further away car parks as the nearby one started at £2.20!!). I paid with cash so nothing has come out of the accounts.

I checked YNAB this morning and reconciled. Everything balances which is always good news!

Tomorrow I think we'll all go out somewhere for a walk, because other than me popping up quickly, we've been in the house since Thursday. I also want to pick up some fruit so may pop to aldi on the way/way back.

MrsSave

I can't believe how fast the weeks are going. It's Sunday morning again!

Today

We are planning on heading down to our local beach for a walk this morning. It's more of a 'kick a ball and run around' beach than a 'sunbathing and sandcastles' beach, with a castle within walking distance. The castle is up a hill (I know, strange!!! :rotfl:) which I managed with no problems during early pregnancy, but have a feeling that it may be a bit of a struggle now. Will give it a go and hope my pelvis behaves!!

We're then going to pop to Aldi to pick up some fruit, and then possibly pop to Tesco to see whether they have any decent meat/bread reductions to stock up the freezer a little. If I'm lucky I can find some fab bargains at times.

Food

Lunch will be a sandwich, probably at home but may take one out with us depending what time we go out. Dinner tonight is toad in the hole with mash and veg. I love toad in the hole and definitely don't make it often enough. I use sparkling water which makes the batter lighter.

Baby

We're completely stuck on baby names at the moment. It's such a massive decision. Naming our first born seemed a lot easier than this!

We've got 3 bouncers here at the moment (don't ask) so I'm going to see if I can sell one of them on fbook. I'll see if I can get a tenner for it, which I hope is a good price. It's a very old style one, but does vibrate (well did........I'm going to make sure it still works first!!). Will then keep 2 bouncers (one for upstairs and one for downstairs!).

MrsSave

After a quiet morning, we went down to the beach this afternoon, built sandcastle and Dh and ds kicked a ball around. We also popped to a Tesco for a bit of a top up shop. We were going to go to Aldi but I decided to nip into Tesco first to see whether they had meat/bread reduced. No meat unfortunately, but did manage to get 3 loaves of bread, a pack of baps and some pitta breads for 89p.

As we were already in Tesco I picked up our fruit from there. I like the idea of shopping in Aldi as it is cheaper, but when I used to shop there I found the fruit and veg went off much quicker than from Tesco. Our complete shop, including the bread came to £7.75. I got lots of fruit for that.

Got home, we had an ice cream (money saving from the freezer instead of the shop) and then whilst Dh was bathing ds I went to start our toad in the hole, only to find we had no eggs difficult to make a toad in the hole without, so off to co-op. Chocolate did find its way into the basket as well (must start the healthy eating tomorrow!). Spent £2.48 there.

Total spends for today: £10.23

Now we've got eggs in the house, I'm thinking of some nice recipes to make otherwise they'll end up being thrown away in a month's time. I've never in my life made a frittata (I think that's the one I mean, with egg and potatoes) so that could be an idea for lunch tomorrow!

MrsSave

I thought that I'd avoided the stomach bug my ds and Dh caught. I was wrong. I've been feeling rough since dinner time and then started being sick around 9pm. I've dozed a bit this evening but keep waking feeling rough

Add to that the Braxton hicks!

Yes, I'm feeling sorry for myself! I am officially the worst patient out of the 3 of us, though Dh did say it must be worse for me as I'm pregnant. Brownie points awarded there (but definitely not eaten _pale_ ).

MrsSave

Urgh!

It has not been a good night!

Luckily I'm home alone today as ds is at nursery. Hopefully I'll catch up on loads of sleep and stay out of the bathroom!!

That's all for my to-do list today. :rotfl: Oh, I need to phone up to cancel my dentist appointment tomorrow. I don't think going there would be wise!

MrsSave

Well today I've mainly slept and avoided food. I did have a bath and put clean pj's on this afternoon :rotfl:

I've just updated YNAB from my Tesco credit card statement. Everything looks ok there. I haven't checked the other accounts today, we'll call it a day off.

I cancelled the dentist. It's rebooked for next week.

I really need to eat something tomorrow. At least I've drunk quite a bit of lucozade today so have had something in me. It's just food doesn't appeal at all at the moment. Maybe by the morning I'll be hungry!

MrsSave

8 hours uninterrupted sleep last night. I think that's a pregnancy record for me :rotfl: :j

A bit of food today and I'm sure I'll be feeling back to normal.

Another quiet day, though. Ds is with my mother. I'm going to check my banking and YNAB. Other than that I don't intend on doing very much.

I forgot to mention that yesterday was a nsd!! :j One positive to being ill! I'm aiming for another one today.

I hope everyone has a good day.

MrsSave

Well I'm definitely feeling better. I'm still in bed, but have been going through all the accounts, particularly the Tesco credit card to look at our spending patterns over the past 10 months!

Over the past 10 months we have spent on average £1174.37 a month on our Tesco credit card. Now, everything we buy gets put on this card, but this still needs to reduce. Whilst I'll be on maternity leave, our income will only be around £1700. Over £600 of this will be our mortgage, which shows we cannot be spending that amount any more. This month will be under average, it is currently at around £985, but will probably add £60 to that between petrol and food. Then we need to get it below £1000 per month (under £900 would be ideal!).

I then looked at eating out over the past 4 months. The cheapest month was July where we spent £53.17. The most expensive was June at £123.67. I never budget those amounts for eating out so I'm obviously moving money around during the month to make up the shortfall. I think cutting this to zero would be silly and unrealistic for us, but for September I'm challenging £25 which would be one Indian takeaway and one either chippy or McDonalds. Both we'd eat at home, which is far cheaper than eating out when you add the drinks, and we could do them a fortnight apart so that we're having a treat every 2 weeks. I think that's very fair!

Oh, I then watched a pregnancy video. The one that Giovanna and Tom Fletcher made when they were expecting their first baby. I cried. Hormones!!

MrsSave

I've managed all day without a sleep! That's completely unheard of if I'm poorly, even more so when you add pregnancy to the mix. I, hoping that means another good night tonight!

I've eaten a little more today. Not back to normal quantities but I've nibbled on some fruit throughout the day, and ate a plateful (the same quantity as my 3 year old son!!) of dinner. Hopefully by tomorrow things will be even better.

We have planned a day out tomorrow. At the minute I'm saying that we will go, but I've warned Dh I may get tired easily. Especially as I've had quite a few Braxton hicks today so I'm definitely not wanting to overdo it. We'll take a picnic with us, but then eat out for dinner. That money is budgeted for, it's what is left over of what I budgeted for the summer holiday treats.

I had a whinge at Dh earlier. It seems if I'm unable to do something, it doesn't get done. I'd cooked dinner, which is normal, and then Dh usually washes up. As I'd gone to sit down this evening straight after putting ds to bed, he did the same. Hadn't touched the washing up. Add to that the clothes that had been on the clothes horse since Sunday, the kitchen floor hadn't been swept this week (crumbs everywhere - toddlers are messy eaters!) and the fact that he'd put toilet cleaner down the toilet downstairs Sunday evening, but hadn't wiped it over since. It was quite disgusting. On top of being unwell, I finished cleaning the toilet for him (the one he'd been throwing up in), sorted the laundry out, made dinner, bathed and put our son to bed. I know they're not big jobs, but surely he could've picked up the slack a little! I refused to stand over the kitchen sink, though.

There's so much more that could be done here (laundry basket is full after the weekend for a start) but I feel that unless I'm running around doing things, they don't get done. Grrrrrrrrr! I'm sure hormones are playing a part in my annoyance, but surely he could have washed up just to let me sit down.

And breathe.............

Back to the Braxton hicks. I've had quite a few today. Reading up about them they can be more frequent if you're dehydrated or overdoing things. After the sickness bug I'm going with dehydrated. I thought I'd been drinking enough, but obviously not. The heartburn has also started (I had it with my toddler, though later on than this) and I've had bad pelvic pain whilst walking this afternoon.

I'm a proper whinge tonight, aren't I??

At least it shows I'm better...........an essay complaining instead of a couple of lines!

I've had some surveys today, earnt about £1. Not much, but it all adds up. Dh is supposed to be getting a bonus at the end of the month, which will be a nice little bit extra for the baby/maternity fund. All extra pennies will be saved at the moment, and not paid off the loan. Hopefully, when I'm back in work, things will be more stable financially and we'll be able to know a few months of this loan. 48 payments left at the moment! Oh, I've also converted eon energy rewards to Tesco clubcard vouchers today. It was 256 points, which will be over £10 in eating out or days out vouchers.