On a Mission

Mummy_bear

Managed a good sleep last night thankfully.

Today has been a lovely spring day but I've been stuck in work. Whilst walking through my garden this morning I saw how desperate it was looking and needs a good tidy up.

Earlier in my diary I mentioned how I'd acquired a free allotment spot at the local community gardens. Sadly I've not be able to do anything with it and probably won't be able to any time soon. I do however, have a few sections of my garden that just needs a little sort out where I can grow some vegetables. So I hope to do that this year.

Just need to get some compost in. I've decided that any Ebay earnings and Qmee earnings will go towards things for my garden therefore, not eating into my maternity savings budget and baby things budget. Might take a while though!!

Only up to £3.53 in Qmee. I need around £25 for the compost I want. I've already got the vegetable seeds. We'll see how well I can hammer the surveys and get things sold on Ebay. Got a few watchers at least. Would like to get planting by beginning of May... now there's a challenge.

MB

Mummy_bear

Afternoon diary,

Ploughing through the surveys, slowly. A few, from different sites, have crashed part way through :mad: so I've lost some money.

So far I've got £8.35 in VO so pretty confident I'll achieve £10 again this month with that.
PA has been rather quiet the last few days for me. I have £3.68 approved and £5.38 pending.
Qmee has £4 in there now
Recently relogged into OnePoll and have £13.20 - quite a way to go until £40 but I'll keep going.

Had a bid on one of my Ebay lots and a few watchers on the others. As mentioned they're low value items so not expecting a huge amount.

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DH has been at the hospital today due to issues with his back. Back in September he had a really bad problem whereby he'd collapsed and couldn't get up. Fast forward to Jan this year and he's been to hospital for scans etc. But he's heard absolutely nothing back - no letters, no correspondence whatsoever to let him know what the specific issue is and how it can be resolved. All he's been told is that there is some nerve damage

He's still got major back issues. His Dr's couldn't get him in for an appointment until next week (he phoned 2 weeks ago!) He'd continued to call since to see if he can be seen earlier. They refuse to discuss over the phone what if any updates the hospital have sent from the numerous scans he's had!

So today he took himself to A&E and he's been prescribed 3 x different meds to help with the pain. However, because he had scans at a different hospital they can't access the results and so can't tell him what the issues are! They advised that the next time he needs to go hospital to go to the one where he had the scans - one which is much further away from where we live! Not very good service at all and I'm normally one for champion the NHS.

So now it's a waiting game until next week when he see's his GP. Problem is DH is not always outspoken, or he struggles to get his point across. So I'm not so sure how the Drs appointment will go.
The other concern is whether or not the issue will require surgery in which case he's now worrying about his new job as he's not sure what their sickness policy is, whereas his current job provide full sick pay! I fear he'll make a stupid decision and stay put in his current job and remain unhappy doing that if only for the security.

MB

misstara

Congratulations on your news Mummy_bear :T. Twins :eek: sounds like you've got lots of good plans in place.

Sorry to hear about OH's back and the NHS drama. Can you go with him to the drs for support?

Mummy_bear

misstara wrote: »

Congratulations on your news Mummy_bear :T. Twins :eek: sounds like you've got lots of good plans in place.

Sorry to hear about OH's back and the NHS drama. Can you go with him to the drs for support?

I've considered this but at the moment I'm taking so much time out of work for scans every other week that I'm not sure I'll be allowed to nip out and support him with this matter.

Thanks for the congrats BTW. Don't think I'll fully believe it until they're here!

Mummy_bear

Well today is payday.

Paid some debts as noted below. Some other payments will be coming out on Monday so I'll update again then.

Got some overtime tomorrow and keep putting myself forward for more. Had more knock backs than uptakes due to my pregnancy status! But I can but try whilst I'm feeling up to it.

I'm now 27 weeks pregnant and in theory I only have 11 weeks left until induction. Had a scan yesterday and they're growing very very well, my bump looks like I'm full term with a single baby!

Totals as of 13th APRIL

Lloyds CC £5553.11
MBNA CC £4173.15
Barclaycard CC £1352.64 £165 paid off. :T
Tesco Loan £8521.96
Santander Loan £5440.7
TV -DH purchase £152.02
M&S Loan £6824.8
Littlewoods £157.99 £32 paid off
Next £96.52 £20 paid off

Total debt as of 1st April £32751.11
Total debt as of 2nd April £32480.89
Total debt as of 6thd April £32489.89
Total debt as of 13th April £32272.89



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List 10 items on EBay 5/10
I will be listing more today and over the weekend. I was sent an offer for maximum £3 fees on items listed this weekend. This is useful for the bigger items I want to sell that should fetch bigger prices. DH wants to sell some of his bigger items to fund a new laptop

Earn £30 payable from survey sites £46.91/£30 :T
Got another VO £10 voucher! already up to £2.35 again there so maybe I can achieve another £10?

PA currently has £9.18 payable and £6.09 pending. Maybe I can get to the £25 I usually try to achieve for payout by the end of the month

Onepoll currently has £13.75 in there. This is the slow burner.
Yougov currently has 4725 points in there. So very close to the 5000 needed for payout. Just not really getting any surveys through
Rediscovered E.Rewards the other day. I currently have 2400 points in there. I need to get to 4500 points for a £10 amazon voucher.
Qmee has £4.82 in there


Reduce debt by £1000 £478.22/ £1000

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My fund to get compost for my garden looks like this £6.82/£25
Achieved so far from the Qmee earnings and £2 profit from selling 2 Ebay items (after all fees)


MB

Mummy_bear

Morning,

So yesterday was an easy 8 hours of overtime. Put myself forward for some more whilst I can do it so we'll see if I get it. Every little helps and all that. I will likely split the OT payment into 3, a third to Mat savings, a third to debt and a third to baby items.

Been searching on loads of sale sites for various things. I need a chest of drawers for the baby clothes, 2 bath supports, another baby rocker for the living room. Hopefully I'll locate some good bargains.

Started packing a bag for hospital - only the babies things. They say twins can come whenever so I'd better get prepared.


After my update on Friday I got on to putting some items on Ebay

List 10 items on EBay 10/10 :j
I've not included items relisted here.

I'm hoping to get some more things on this afternoon and DH is going to list some items also.

Earn £30 payable from survey sites £46.91/£30 :T

VO is now up to £2.60
PA currently has £9.18 payable and £7.09 pending.
Onepoll currently has £14.10 in there.
Yougov currently has 4825 points in there.
E.Rewards currently has 2400 points in there.
Qmee has £5.12 in there


Reduce debt by £1000 £478.22/ £1000

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My fund to get compost for my garden looks like this £7.12/£25
Achieved so far from the Qmee earnings and £2 profit from selling 2 Ebay items (after all fees)


MB

Mummy_bear

Ooo I nearly forgot.

I'd set myself the challenge to keep my groceries to £250 this pay month.
Due to where my paydays are falling and the fact I do my weekly shop on a Friday it means there are 5 weeks worth of shops to get from this budget....it might be a squeeze.

So far it's at £60.14/£250. The first shop did include nappies, laundry tablets, toilet roll etc, so some pricier items that I don't need to get every week. Really hope I can stick to it as I don't actually intend to increase it much when the babies are here - only to £300 .. is this mad/unrealistic/fanciful? I suppose not for the first 6 months whilst the babies are only on milk....hopefully breastmilk

MB

Mummy_bear

Last post today- honest

I've been reading some older diaries where debts were at similar levels to ours.
What I realised was that sometimes the author would mention updating their signature - but of course the signature only reflected what it is now, not what it was then.

Therefore, just for me at least to be able to track progress over time....

Since creating this diary in June 2017 We've paid off £4866.97/£37139.86 13.1% paid
Seems small - but when we've added to the debt over these months due to circumstance I still think it's good. I mean at least overall debt hasn't gone above and beyond that original amount.

I hope to get the debt down to £25000 by the end of 2018. This would be a total of 32.6% paid. Oh I really hope we can do this or more despite being on Mat leave.

MB

Rachel24

That's amazing mummybear considering you've got the debt down and you're having to buy for twins coming as well. It's just so hard sometimes.

wishingthemortgaheaway

She you aren't closer mummy bear - ive got a bath support!

Also, thinking about breastfeeding twins, why don't you get in touch with the breast feeding support workers in your area before the twins are here, say you are looking to breast feed twins and build a relationship with them before you may need them?
Also, I think Bf can be a bit mind over matter, when it hurt it the early days, I knew it would get better, but I also worked out how much each extra week/day/Feed was saving me in formula costs - for me, it worked out as an extra month's mat leave.