Second Time Lucky

Right, you've all convinced me, a regular payment it is. That way, if we want treats, it will HAVE to come from the savings account and I'm much less likely to spend it.

Pound Shop Wars was hilarious as usual. Loom band mayhem!! I don't really use Pound shops as they're all in town, but we do have a Poundl£ss, or something like that. A variety of prices but mostly cheap!

The new router arrived but my ruddy books didn't! I got an e-mail yesterday saying they would be delivered so I waited in all day yesterday and today. Not impressed. Now I don't know if it's lost or they just got it wrong (Royal Mail).

Had a headache all day today so didn't get the hoovering done but did manage the ironing and paperwork. I mostly watched TV like a lazy bones. I'm possibly the only person adopting who loves One Born Every Minute. I generally cry at least once, and grimace at least once. OH can't get his head around what's so fascinating as "it's the same plot every week":rotfl:

I also watched the School Swap programme. I've been thinking recently about the "youth of today". Everyone is always so negative about them, saying they have no respect etc etc, but from meeting young people at work and seeing them on TV, they're really impressive. A lot are far more eloquent and confident than I ever was, and I'm quite glad that we're not bringing up a generation of automatons who follow authority blindly. Maybe they will have the balls to question the established government and actually make change.

Just needed to get that out.

The books came! They're great. I get to open boxes of new books regularly as I work in a library, which is mildly exciting, but far better when you picked them yourself!

I also used the £10 argos voucher from buying the PC to get some hula hoops, scatch (the velcro thing) and a space hopper. I was very excited to discover that there's an Argos in a shopping centre I didn't even know existed just 10 minutes drive away - and it's free parking on Sundays! The downside is that there is also a B&M so we parted with £8 there. Probably half things we needed and half things we didn't. There's a card factory too, which is good to know.

A busy weekend of working (had a very good day at work on Saturday - fully staffed, lots of nice customers, and got loads of work done), shopping, filming and running around with 2 very sweaty children. My sister made me lunch yesterday then had dinner at the in-laws so a very good washing up day. Oh and I did some washing, which all got rained on.

I'm already eyeing up the spreadsheet to guess how much we can overpay. Must wait a bit longer though.

Hi DFOD - we have another panel in September, then a horrible 9 day wait before it is made official!!!

I did the stupidest thing just now. I spent about 2 hours editing the video for our potential daughter, and just as I went to click save, it crashed!!! :mad::mad::mad::mad: It'll have to wait until tomorrow now as I can't face it!! Hopefully it will be quicker second time round at least.

In other stupid news, I'm so bad at driving. I think I'm actually getting worse by the week now. It really isn't helped by having a 20 minute traffic jam at the start of every ruddy lesson, although I am getting very good at clutch control as a result. I did the dumbest thing today (drove into a kerb as I was concentrating on traffic rather than the actual street) and felt so embarrassed. These are very rookie errors and after so many lessons surely I should be somewhere near ready for the test by now? I'm miles away! I guess I could just keep having lessons forever, but the money will run out pretty soon. I reckon I have about 10 weeks worth left and then I'll have to start using the savings. I suppose it will be worth it in the end, even if it takes another year. I had really hoped that I would be good.

Anyway, I got home and felt like crying but I decided that that was ridiculous so I got my Hula Hoop and decided that learning to hula hoop might be easier than learning to drive and I might get slightly fitter in the process. I've gone from half a second to 2 seconds, which is progress!

I also found a quiz about english counties and decided to try to learn them. I'm one of those people who hasn't a clue other than my own local area so it's been quite fun. I didn't even know Rutland was a county!! It will no doubt help in quiz shows in the future.

Payday for OH tomorrow and then I can see if we can overpay much this month.

Need to make some kind of plan for the bank holiday or I'll end up just washing and ironing.

Goals for September


There's a very good chance that September will be my last month of work before becoming a full-time mother so it will probably be my last full pay. :eek:

Big expenses for September:

Car Insurance - I need to shop around as usual and will no doubt find the cheapest quote within 2 minutes but then spend an hour checking it definitely is. It was £346 last year so will hopefully beat that.

Driving lessons - should still be able to get by on my little pot of money without dipping into savings

Night away - I'm hoping we can find time for a last night away as a couple before we have to go away during school holidays for the next 13 years.

Boiler service - need to find somebody new to do this as the people we always use are terrible for turning up on time.

Prescription card - usually about £105

Looking at this, it looks like any overpayment for September will be a miracle!!! The good news is that we shouldn't have any more big expenses (apart from Christmas) for the rest of the year.