Morning Fillyjonk, my brother and his wife live and work in London, they earn a lot more than us but their rent is sky high!!!! Good thing about London tho is there is lots going on free, all year round so they always seem to do really cool stuff but take picnics and travel on the buses.
We did look at doing just afew days somewhere but now it's school holidays, not a chance with the prices but it's a really busy time at work for me so he idea of taking time off and coming back to piles of stuff fills me with dread!!!! Plus we are trying to clear debt and save.
I went for a "review" at my bank (when I say review I mean them trying to sell stuff or so I thought) and I struck gold with the chap doing my appointment. He was extremely helpful and we talked through ideas on saving money, reducing the overdraft, looking at outstanding debts and trying to pay them off and looking at which ones were more expensive interest wise, like some store cards and he even gave me general hints and tips on household budgeting which really helped.
I have decided from now on, if I haven't got THE CASH in the bank, it's not being bought until we have saved up. We went for a mosey round mothercare the other day, (I cannot believe some of the prices!!!) just to get an idea of prices and the lady said if I put it on a store card (probably about 19% apr!!!!!!!!) I could spread the cost which to me, if you are going to be buying stuff while pregnant potentially going on mat leave and returning part-time, seems like a bit of a silly idea, surely better to try to save. I am also not ruling out buying some stuff secondhand either, lots of my friends already have little ones so many they'll be able to sell me some of their things which will help us both.
Not having a holiday is not the end of the world, and as the guy at the bank said, once you have cleared everything up even if you choose to work part-time, you'll not notice the wage drop in fact, you could be better off!!!