First timer seeking accountability

Sarahwithlove

Agreed maybe move to 1st of month. Or have a different account for spending and leave enough in account to cover DDs

HearThem

So this week we have had the littlest one’s 4th birthday which was lovely. Weather didn’t hold out for the beach but we had his friend round for a mini birthday party. Aka games and sweets. All good fun. 

9yo and 4yo’s both had physiotherapy appointments yesterday (both are seen every 3 weeks currently) and the 9yo had a massive meltdown and refused to go in. She’s plucking her eyelashes out lots at the moment as a form of stimming and is becoming quite distressed by it ☹️ 4yo is also hyper mobile and his elbows extend 30 degrees beyond typical! 

4yo then had an orthotics appointment today and turns out he also needs to wear insoles. 

At both appointments I was asked if he was on the waiting list to be assessed for ADHD/ASD (he is). It really drives home how real this is. 

3 for 3, with the eldest being from a past “relationship”. Beginning to think I may be the missing link. 

HearThem

Debt balance update £12600 split as follows :

£8600 Lloyds 0% until July ‘25
£4000 MBNA 0% until April ‘26

Will take 27 months to clear both if we stick to our current payment schedule. I’m hoping to clear sooner 🤞🏼

HearThem

Lovely day at the village festival with the little two this afternoon. Most things were free so spent £22 in total on food/drinks. 

The 9 year old has arranged to volunteer at a local stables during the week. Going with her tomorrow to see what jobs they have in mind and which day works for us/them. Horses are life for her 🐴

weenancyinAmerica

Did you find the stuff to make slime. Maybe this recipe will work for you.

Slime

 There are several recipes for making your own slime. This one is safe but isn’t edible. Take a 4-ounce bottle of glue and mix it with food colouring to get the colour you want. You can use Kool-Aid® if you remind children not to eat it. It does make it smell better. Then add 1 teaspoon baking soda and 2 tablespoons of contact solution (with borate) (also called saline solution) – the stuff for contacts for your eyes. You can buy a travel size bottle of contact solution at many stores. Stir till mixed. Then knead until no longer sticky. There are recipes using borax on the Internet, but this recipe is safer.

HearThem

I’m back, absolutely hammered and a bit broken. 

We were thinking about getting our 9 yo a pony of her very own once we were debt free and started putting feelers out a few months ago because we know great pony club ponies are hard to find. A friend sent us an advert of “the perfect therapy pony” available for sale now, over 400 miles away and 4.5K. 

We talked it through and decided it would be absolutely worth it to take the leap now, for the right confidence building pony, bearing in mind we’d be funding the pony’s upkeep with her own CDP. Also, since we are now home educating it would be a great focus for her. 

We very very foolishly borrowed the money, hired a trailer and traveled down, had the pony vetted etc and brought her home. 

To say it was a disaster was an absolute understatement. We are not horsey people but we’re assured this was the safest pony imaginable. We were keeping her on a friends farm with their horses but it quickly became apparent we were mis-sold. I then managed to contact a few previous owners who confirmed the issues we were experiencing were long standing and not settling in behaviours (threatening and dominating behaviours in and out the field). Our daughter was almost kicked at one point and saw the pony charge at and try to kick an experienced handler. She is terrified. Absolutely crushing experience for her. 

We’ve had a few weeks for emotions to settle so now back to try clean up the financial mess. We managed to get a refund for the pony minus the deposit but still ended up being 2.5K down all in, from vets/livery/deposit/trailer hire etc. 

Our littlest was recently awarded CDP and is awaiting further assessment but is expected to be ADHD/Autistic. 

Mentally struggling. Realising we parents are both likely ND too.

Trying to break generational curses wondering if it’s inevitable for our children to make similar mistakes regardless of how self-aware we become because we are wired differently. 

Trying to push that thought aside. Debt balance below. 

Lloyds CC - £5000 0% until July ‘25
MBNA CC - £2450 0% until April ‘26
Barclaycard - £4481 0% until June ‘26

Total - £11931

Currently paying £800pm to this meaning if our income stays the same we should be debt free in 15 months. January 2026. 

HearThem

Paid a little extra to the Barclaycard because I don’t like the way the number looked 🫣 so total balance is £11850 

Our budget resets on the 25th so anything leftover will go toward the Lloyds card since it has the shortest 0% promotion left. 

HearThem

The husband’s pickup is jumping out of 3rd gear. He has called a few garages and it’s looking like a repair will come to in excess of 1K. Really frustrating as he only purchased a new vehicle this year because his old van needed hefty repairs and assured me paying more upfront would in theory = less maintenance. I’ve tried suggesting we sell it and move to one vehicle but that isn’t being well received. He has suggested he sell a couple of his bikes. He is an avid cyclist and has 3(?!) different types but little time to use any of them. Unsure how much they would go for.  

HearThem

DH has done some extra work to fund the pick-up repair pending an MOT pass at the end of the month 🤞🏼

He says the bike he is looking to sell is worth £400 but I’m not sure it will sell anywhere near that. 

Debt balance update £10,850. 

Every spare pound we have is going to this which, while having 2 ASN young children and an adult ASN son at home full time is testing. Really looking forward to the day it’s £0 and we can start to think about making other plans. 

I’d love to do Disneyland Paris with the children next year if we can fund it in cash but our eldest doesn’t want to come and we would have to drive for various reasons, including the fact we have to provide all safe foods from home for the 9yo as she has ARFID. 

I think we could make it happen but it’s whether it feels worth it given the extra effort involved all round 🙈

HearThem

Spent the day babysitting our three nephew’s today which was lovely. They are 12,10 and 3 so close in age with our younger two. 

Tomorrow is weekly shopping day. We have DH’s cousin and her three children (9,3 & 7 months) coming to stay for a few days this week from Wednesday onwards. We don’t see his family often as they are up North and our eldest won’t agree to travel so it should be fun, albeit a bit of a squeeze! Can’t decide whether to shop as usual for the week ahead or shop for a couple days then pick up other bits on Wednesday so we have fresh shopping for guests. 

We don’t usually have guests so I’m not used to hosting at all!