Sashybo - Back Again

sashybo

Have had a fairly productive morning so far, changed DS's bedding (cot sheet & sleeping bag) & put a washing of his things on. Have made chilli & stuck it in the slow cooker, will make baked potatoes later to go with it. Might do rice pudding in the oven whilst it's on too. DH doing an OT shift today, he should be home for 5pm. I'm working late shifts tomorrow & Tuesday.

Have been 5p off cash out on OP for about a week - finally hit that, so now waiting on £25 coming through. Think it will be next month before I see this though. I have some survey money that I'll put towards Christmas spending on the CC we use & clear every month (for cashback).

Have reduced the DD to the 0% CC from £100 to £50 this month (assuming I've altered it in time) to help out with Christmas. This will still take the total down to £300 so we can clear it by March as long as we put the DD back up.

I bought a cook book for my 12yo nephew as part of his Christmas using a voucher from surveys as he's started showing an interest in making his own lunches/snacks etc. Hopefully it will be good, it was written by a teenager for teenagers so we'll see.

Also got a box of simple jigsaws for DS that I can use for his present from Santa at the playgroup Christmas party (again using the voucher). Need to wrap & label it then hand it in at the party so Santa can give him it. Will be interesting to see what he thinks of Santa.

Might watch a Christmas film with DS in a bit, not that he'll watch most of it but he will pootle about playing & I can watch it.

sashybo

Forgot to mention the bargain winter flowering cactuses (cacti?) that I got in Mr M's the other day. They were only £1.88 each so I got two, one with light pink/white flowers & one with dark pink flowers.

The only problem is that my kitchen windowsill is now very crowded with 3 African violets & 2 winter flowering cactus. :rotfl: I need to get some pretty pots for the cactus. I love having houseplants, they cheer me up.

Have cleaned out the cat litter trays & just going to put the rice pudding into the oven.

I watched a very cheesy Christmas film earlier too.

sashybo

Had a bit of a falling out with DH on Sunday when he came home from work. He said he was going upstairs to get changed so naturally I assumed he would be back down in 5 mins or so.

I put out dinner & then waited....and waited. :mad: DS had finished his dinner & I had almost finished by the time DH re-appeared. :eek: I had also shouted up the stairs for him to come & get his dinner because it was going cold (like he was a child! :rotfl:).

I was actually raging & he went in a huff because I had shouted up the stairs at him (?? Men *roll eyes emoji needed here*). When I asked what was wrong with him I got told to F off. :eek::mad:

Apparently I was the one in the wrong for not psychically knowing he was going to take half an hour to get changed! He said he needed to shave - why didn't he tell me that & I would have known to leave him to get his dinner when he came back downstairs.

He didn't like me saying why didn't he shout down & tell me because he knew I was right! I did also say he always does this (which he does) - Just gets up & wanders off and doesn't come back for half an hour or an hour at a time or longer. :mad: He's usually playing on the computer upstairs or in the garage but doesn't actually tell me!

Irritates the hell out of me. He said "Why should I have to tell you where I am every minute of the day" :rotfl: Err, no just letting me know if you're leaving the room/house for more than half an hour would be nice rather than wandering off & me having to come searching for you. :mad: I feel like I have a big child as well as a small child at times. :cool:

Worked two late shifts so am feeling a bit tired today. Will try & take DS for a wee walk after lunch to tire him out a bit for his nap.

We wrote all of our Christmas cards yesterday & DH has posted them this morning. Cost nearly £14 for 24 second class stamps. :eek: We still have 6 left over as I'm hand delivering 6 or 7 cards to save a bit of money.

Need to wrap the remaining presents but there's not too many. Promised my shift at work that I would make dumpling between now & Hogmanay but will need to buy some dried mixed fruit as seem to have run out.

sashybo

It's freezing here today, so cold that DS didn't even try to pull his woolly hat (complete with giant bobble) off! I had to defrost the car at 12 o'clock before going to Mr Al's with the boy for some supplies.

DS had a bit of a screaming fit when he realised we were going into a supermarket. Right when I was trying to get a trolley so of course I was blocking everyone else with DS kicking & screaming & me trying to wrestle both him & the trolley. :eek: A kind lady spoke to DS & distracted him long enough for me to wheech him into the trolley & do up the belt so he couldn't escape.

I managed to distract him from screaming all round Mr Al's with some mini chocolate fingers & by giving him things to hold. He then realised there were lots of people to look at & flirt with so he was mostly really good actually. :rotfl:

When we got home I took him down to the play park down the hill from us. There's only a see-saw, 2 baby swings & another wee toy but it's fine for DS at his age. He climbed onto the see-saw himself so I pushed down on the other side - didn't want to sit on it in case I sent him flying. :rotfl: Then he wanted on the swing so we did that for a while but it was bitter cold so we only stayed 10 mins or so. There was another tantrum on the way back up the hill as he wanted to walk on everyone's grass. :eek: He was picked up surfboard style as there was a lot of kicking. :eek:

Have done a couple of surveys today & got £20 m&s vouchers through the post from one of my panels. I forgot I'd ordered them. It means I should have £40 m&s vouchers to put towards some Christmas food. Should really go to the local butcher & order our steak pie for the new year, will probably do that next week though.

sashybo

Made soda bread, dumpling & a chicken, coconut & lemongrass soup yesterday. My dumpling was a bit dry which was annoying but took half into work today anyway. DS enjoyed some of it with custard for his pudding last night.

Also did a few washings yesterday & tidied a bit but not much else in the way of housework. Really need to hoover so might try & do that when I get home from work tomorrow. DH might do it before work though as he usually does it.

Wrapped another few presents, including the small one that DS will get from Santa at the playgroup Christmas party later this week.

Work was fine today & I got quite a lot done which I was pleased about. DH is working lates so I won't see much of him for the next few days as I'm early shift. We are swapping DS tomorrow, he was at my mum's today for a few hours & my sister will have him for a couple of hours on Tuesday to cover the cross over in our shifts.

Need to take DS to get his feet measured again, pretty sure he needs bigger shoes. Going to do this on Wednesday & then get most of our Christmas food in. Will try to go early as pretty sure it will be busy. :eek:

I still need to drop off 3 Christmas cards, I should be seeing 2 of the people later in the week & need to give the other a birthday present for her DS that I have as well as her card but not sure when she will be free. I might be able to post the present through her door though, I think it's flat enough.

sashybo

Finally took DS to get his feet measured on Wednesday, he has gone up half a size but the shoes we bought were a full size bigger than his existing ones as he was walking well in them & we didn't like any of the smaller ones. Cost us £17 & that was in the sale. :eek: DS was wanting to run about & generally not co-operating until the ladies were measuring his feet & talking to him which intrigued him.

He was very unhappy in M&S & there was a lot of screeching, DH kept getting annoyed with me because I "wasn't paying attention" to him when he was talking/looking at things. :mad: AARGH, I was trying to stop DS having an even bigger meltdown than he was already having.

Seriously don't know what planet DH is on at times, was half expecting him to lie down & have a tantrum as well. I was literally standing in a hoaching M&S food hall with a screeching toddler & a near-tantruming husband and wanted to run away. :rotfl: I was getting lots of pitying looks from the older ladies. :rotfl:

Funnily enough DS was very well behaved in Mr M's, he seemed to enjoy it there more. Anyway that was most of the food shopping done and we used vouchers which saved some money. :T

On Thursday we had the playgroup Christmas party which was very busy, I nearly fell over several kids & DS was fascinated with a baby again but thankfully just looked (as in was an inch away from the baby's face staring at it & laughing whenever it moved :rotfl:) rather than trying to maul the child's face this time. DS was very confused by Santa & nearly cried which I wasn't expecting as he usually likes meeting people.

I went out for a work Christmas lunch after that & had a good time although there were only 7 of us there.

The weather has been so wet & miserable the last 2 days that DS & I have just stayed in. I cleaned the bathrooms today & that was about it. Need to take DS out for some fresh air tomorrow, hopefully it will be drier.

Aaleigha

Found your diary two nights ago about three in the morning
Finished early hours of the the morning

I just wanted to wish you all a happy birthday

I am now 61 but gave been just where you are now, things got so desperate for us we nearly lost our home thank goodness neither of us could drive at the time

Hopefully I will be able to help a little with your budgeting and generally support you on your journey

I am starting a diary at some point today I do hope you will visit

Xxx

sashybo

Hi Aleigha, thanks for visiting. :hello:

DS was very grouchy on Christmas Day & DH was very tired. I was tired & fed up as have a bit of a cold now on top of everything else. We went to see my sister & her kids and picked my mum up on the way. Also saw my brother, his gf & the girls then went home for our dinner.

DS was really not interested in any presents as he's too young to understand what's going on. He liked his little tikes car though & ran straight to sit in it. I think I bought too much for him considering how young he is but at least I didn't spend too much. His little tikes car was paid for in survey vouchers & probably spent £40-50 on a few other toys & books.

I need to sort out his toy box & remove things he doesn't play with or has grown out of. Toys are taking over our living room as my brother bought a car & track for DS and my sister bought a train plus track!

Also need to sort his clothes out as he's grown out of a few things & need to re-organise his drawers. We managed to buy a bigger size coat for DS in Mr M sale on clothes, so paid £10 instead of £16.

I've been working the last two days so feeling pretty exhausted & DH was also working. Hoping I'll get over the cold soon & that DS doesn't get it too badly.

We collected our steak pie from the butcher today & went to Mr M's to get a top up shop. My best bargains were 8p for 5 plain bagels (I bought 2 packets) & 5p for 6 pitta breads (again 2 packets) as they're easy enough to freeze & defrost. Also got a chocolate Yule log for 38p! :j :T

We then went to visit our friends & their 2 wee girls and they had bought DS a toy pirate ship which he loves. He was playing with it quite nicely alongside the girls. We had some mulled wine & cheese and crackers which was nice.

Back at work on Sunday for one late shift then off until the following Friday.

The z0pa loan is now under £1K & the last payment will be in May. :T The vet bill CC is under £300 and will be paid off in March. :j Will try & use survey money to overpay DH's car loan as it's the biggest amount owed now. DH is gradually selling bits off from his collection of tech in the garage. He said he'll use the money to also overpay his loan, so we'll see.

Need to go through my present box & update my list on here so that I know what I need to get over the year.

sashybo

Updated present box contents;

x1 S&G mini tube of foot cream
x1 Carmex lip balm
x6 assorted younger children's books
x2 men's t-shirts (1 for my brother's birthday & 1 for DH's friend)
x1 small handbag

So managed to use most of the contents over the year. :j Will have a browse at toiletry sets in the B0ots sale for nieces' & nephews' birthdays later in the year. Need to look for some bargain Christmas wrapping paper too.

Need to think of something to get MIL for her birthday in January & DH in February. :cool:

sashybo

Had a reasonably lazy day today, did a small amount of tidying in the living room, including DS's toy box & have removed some stuff upstairs. The only problem is that I have nowhere upstairs to put the stuff so it's been dumped in the guest room for now.

Had a quick sort of DS's outgrown knitwear & have bagged it up. Still got to re-organise the drawers & check the other ones for too-small stuff. Ordered some storage bags using a SB voucher from DH so will move the clothes into one of those when they arrive.

Going to save some survey vouchers for a decent humidifier for DS's room, we will take the oil diffuser I ordered before realising that a humidifier would be better for DS when he has a cough or cold. Then want to save vouchers for some stacking toy boxes in a bid to save my house from becoming a toy pit of doom. How can one small person have so much stuff?? We didn't even buy most of it, we've just acquired it from friends & relatives trying to get rid of their stuff! :rotfl:

Did a quick hoover in the living room, cleaned out the cat litter, sorted out the recycling into the bins outside (we have four different types now :eek:), hung the washing up & sorted the underwear & socks out then put them away.

Working tomorrow so having a relaxing evening now DS is in bed.