A pound stretching maternity

MrsSave · 22 September 2016 at 6:55PM

Argos has been sorted. I've ordered 3 items.

One item is from the old catalogue (apparently) and was being sold at £39.99 (still is in a lot of places). That was £19.99.
The second item was reduced from £29.99 to £14.99
The third item was/is £19.99.

At full price I would have paid £89.97. With the reductions and the 3 for 2 I paid £39.98. Oh, and I asked for free delivery and they gave it to me without any questions. They should be arriving on Saturday. Woohoo!

My anti d happened (as did the blood test). It was much less painful than last time. I actually barely felt it. I'm feeling all brave this evening now!!

I've had another survey which pushed me up to the withdraw limit on Prolific. I've cashed that in and once it hits the account I will have £13 in the 'envelope fund' for all the extra bits we've got on next year. I'll take £10 of that out, and put it in the first envelope (which is bedding/lights for our bedroom once it has been painted).

I need to contact my work agency tomorrow to let them know I'm available to work next Tuesday. I'm aiming to do 3 extra days next month, which will be an extra £200 ish by pay day. That's my aim!

I'm desperate to hear from hr now about my maternity. I really want to know that I'm getting it and would love to see if I'm getting any extra (please, please, please).

My mum is having ds for the morning tomorrow to give me a break. I'm so grateful as I've had the worst sleep ever this week and I'm completely shattered. 4 toilet trips and leg cramp last night! The biggest problem is that I struggle to get back to sleep once I've woken. I may even start wrapping tomorrow (or just standing in the nursery and staring at all the little clothes and feeling all broody!!).

MrsSave · 22 September 2016 at 7:18PM

I've just logged on to the next sale. It was awful. I'd made a list of a few bits for the baby. All gone, nothing at all left. There wasn't anything I wanted for ds anyway, so all in all that's probably the cheapest Next sale I've ever been to !! :rotfl:

MrsSave · 23 September 2016 at 8:14AM

I can't believe it's Friday already! Ds is at my mums, Dh is at work, I am still in bed! I have checked the bank accounts, though, and have been paid! :j Dh's wages have also gone in. I usually move the money around on my big pay day, but I'm going to leave it in the wages account for a few days to see how far we can stretch what's left in the accounts. I would love to be able to stretch it to the 1st October, but think I may need petrol and a food top up before then.

Today won't be a nsd. I'm treating ds to a happy meal this evening. He's swimming after school and we don't get home until 6:30 afterwards. Dh usually makes us all dinner by the time we get home, but he'll possibly be later home tonight. Ds's usual bedtime is lights out by 7, so if I made him dinner after getting home he would be pretty late getting to bed. I'll make something for me and Dh later so it's only the happy meal I have to pay for.

I'm thinking of starting to wrap some Christmas gifts today. I didn't watch Eastenders last night, so I think I'll put that on the tv and wrap!

I've checked my topcashback account, and the whole lot from Asda is in there waiting to be paid. :j I currently have just over £100 in topcashback. I'm just waiting for the money to become available (that could take weeks!!). The £5 survey money is already in the account so I'll need to take £10 out to pop in an envelope. I also need to take some out for this weekend's spends.

I'm popping to a baby selling event on Sunday (well, clothes not actual babies!!). I may see if I can pick up a few vests/sleep suits as 'spares'. I also want to get a grobag for the baby. I've got a couple after ds, but he was born in the middle of a hot summer (we had one once) so they are a lighter tog than I'd like for the baby. I found the grobags fantastic.

Right, I need to change the ink on the printer now. I've bought a cheaper, refurbished (do you call ink refurbished?) one so fingers crossed it will work! I'll then see about selling the old, empty one on eBay. I had a few here a while ago and they went well on eBay!

MrsSave · 23 September 2016 at 11:53AM

I've wrapped the baby's gifts from Santa (though to be fair there actually weren't that many! I'm sure the little one will make up for it next year!!). My mum is coming to collect them later to put up her attic until Christmas. I'm pleased I'm only doing a little at a time. I'm aching and tired after just a few! Back to bed for an hour before I need to get sorted for the rest of the day!

MrsSave · 23 September 2016 at 9:15PM

LSD today. I took ds to his swimming lesson this evening, but we arrived super early so went for a walk around the shops. I saw a book in poundland called 'I'm a big brother' and was all about what a big brother does when the new baby arrives. It was so cute I had to get it, and at a £1 it was a bargain! I did also take ds to McDonalds (but me and Dh ate too!). It came to under £9 for the 3 of us, so today's spends were under £10.

My lower back is aching like mad tonight. It should be back to normal (whatever normal is!) by morning so not worried, just uncomfortable. I've had a message asking me to do extra teaching on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I already work Mondays so that's out of the question, and I have no childcare for ds on Wednesday so that's a no as well. I've told them I can do Tuesday, but haven't heard anything back so we'll see. 7 1/2 weeks until maternity leave starts!!

MrsSave · 24 September 2016 at 11:03AM

I've been having a think this morning about Christmas 2017 :eek: I've been trying to decide the best way to save where there is no risk of me dipping into funds. Money is going to be pretty tight for the next year now so I'm worried there are months where I'll 'borrow' from the Christmas fund.

The first option I looked at was Park vouchers. I've never done these before but see that people rave about them. The problem I'll have is that I buy gifts when I see a good offer/discount all year round, so by doing this will actually end up spending more/having less. I did notice one which was a combi between tesco and love to shop, but £300 was the minimum and only £50 of that was tesco, the rest shopping. That's no good.

I then thought about a supermarket Christmas saver. The Asda one looks good. You put money on the card as and when. If you manage to top up £144, you'll get a £6 bonus. The only problem is that my nearest Asda is around an hour away and you can't do it online.

The Tesco Christmas saver with clubcard means tying up tesco clubcard vouchers for the year. I was happy to do that until they announced they were stopping the double up boost. I now prefer to use the clubcard vouchers for days/meals out.

The Tesco stamps are ridiculously old fashioned, the machines are regularly out of stock at my local store and where on earth do I find that many pound coins from? I usually pay for things on my card so that wouldn't work well.

Morrisons is my other close by supermarket, but again they do the stamps.

So.........I've decided to pop into Poundland and pick up one of their tin money boxes that you need a tin opener to open. I thought I could put the money I want to save for Christmas food and Christmas days out in there each month. I know I won't get any interest on it, but it seems to be the option that will work best. I'm going to need to be desperate for that money to open the tin early, whereas if I just put it in an envelope, that's too easy to access.

Back to 2016 :rotfl:

I've been struggling to know what to buy our eldest nieces and nephews who are nearing teenage years. I've had a good think this morning, and I may get them cinema gift cards each. I know they enjoy going to the cinema so it will be something they use. It's so much easier when they're younger to buy toys!!

If anyone has another plan for this saving money business, please help!!!

hannahroberts1985 · 24 September 2016 at 12:22PM

You have been having a big think haven't you. I have a seperate instant acess saving account which a dd goes into each payday. That was
When I see bargains I buy them and transfer thenkney straight to my normal account. I haven't really thought about planning for food shop but we don't go crazy at Christmas I always buy a few extra bits each shop in the run up the just the pimped up Sunday dinner shop and a bit of cheese etc normally does us. X

MrsSave · 25 September 2016 at 10:05PM

Where on earth has this weekend gone? The time I've been at home I've been planning, budgeting and sorting for a new month (I just can't do nothing, I've got to be doing something all the time!!).

We've been to a baby market. I went with the intention of buying vests, sleep suits and a baby sleeping bag. I bought vests, sleep suits and a baby sleeping bag! I'm so impressed with myself that I didn't go off the shopping list at all! I got one sleeping bag that was Disney for £2.50 and then got 5 lots of 0-3 month vests and 14 lots of 0-3 sleep suits for £12. 20 different items for £14.50. 6 of the sleep suits were brand new next ones that I know retail at £16 for a pack of 3. Very pleased and Dh was very impressed!

I popped to poundland afterwards to get a money box, and I did pick up some Halloween decorations at the same time. We reused 2014 ones last year and there isn't a chance I'd be able to reuse them again........they were probably thrown in the bin straight after Halloween. I spent £5 in poundland.

We had a christening to attend this afternoon. I was expecting drinks to be expensive. Thought Dh would have a couple of pints, and soft drinks cost just as much as alcoholic ones. We ended up spending £1.50 though! We'd given someone a lift to the christening, so they'd insisted on buying us a drink each to say thank you. I'd offered a drink back but they didn't want one. They're not big drinkers anyway, so the afternoon was far cheaper than I thought!

I've messed about a bit with YNAB again since getting home. I noticed the petrol was getting close to the red again and thought with me traveling a good distance to work once or twice a week, as well as a couple of trips into town during the week and then going somewhere over the weekend, £80 a month isn't going to be enough. I've moved money around, and managed to up it to £100. Hopefully when I start maternity and am not travelling to work it'll be easier to stick with our £80 budget.

Work for me tomorrow. Still haven't heard whether I'm working on Tuesday or not. Half of me hopes I am for the money, the other half would love not to! I do need to get some overtime in before half term, though.

Right, time for bed before tomorrow arrives!

MrsSave · 26 September 2016 at 4:54PM

Today was a tough day at work. I felt very pregnant and uncomfortable. I've actually got home and crawled into bed. Will have to move again in a bit to make dinner! I had comments that it looked like my tummy had grown over the past week, so I think there may be a growth spurt going on which could be why I'm so uncomfortable. Walking has been painful and I've just felt stretched all day!

I still haven't heard anything about work tomorrow. Dh has told me to turn it down and take the day to chill if I do get offered anything. We'll see if I get offered something first, and if I do where it is!

I've been watching the mpg in the car today. I've never really paid much attention, but I guess you can save a little. I've managed to increase it by 0.2 mpg since leaving work to come home!

I'm just going to make some sort of pasta dish for dinner tonight. Something nice and simple. I may try and make enough so that we've got some for tomorrow as well.

Today has been a nsd. We are running out of bread, though. I think I'll manage to wait until tomorrow before buying but I definitely won't last until shopping day (though I haven't decided when that is even yet!!). Not feeling very organised!

debtaghh · 26 September 2016 at 5:55PM

Hope you manage to have a nice relaxing evening and feel more comfortable. What's your due date?

A pound stretching maternity

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