Page 10 | Marching into May, packed lunches all the way ! Join the frugaleers for frugal tips and friendly chat .

Loveabaconsandwich · 30/04/2018 17:10

By the end of this week, I promise your DH will really appreciate everything you have got done during the day whilst being off em

But yes, lower housework standards will come into place now and until DS is about 10

Loveabaconsandwich · 30/04/2018 17:14

And yes, the next few weeks will be awful adjusting, for both of you. Sorry, but true!

SunnyLikeThursday · 30/04/2018 17:56

I just took ds to jazz dancing classes and that worked out okay. Yay!

ChristmasSeacow · 30/04/2018 18:03

Em that’s my nightmare with naps at the moment and it’s been going on for weeks. So tiring and frustrating for everyone 😫. And hence why I find myself mopping the kitchen floor at 11pm... Nursery routine will knock it out of your DS in no time. I think my dd will improve when she drops her morning nap and thus stops napping for just 10m on the school run and ruining all other naps

DD has just rejected cous cous and sea bass with broccoli. Wishing I hadn’t saved her a chunk of my fish now... sigh.

Mozza I am really impressed by how you are getting a grip of your debt. It is a big chunk but you will get there if you are disciplined and systematic and I am sure you will be. It’s really inspiring to hear from people who've already done it... I don’t have debt but am soon to have crippling childcare costs (I have an ASD child who will need wraparound care at home, a proper nanny seems to be the only option ££££££). We may even have to run at a loss for a few years . I will have to find a job in the autumn as I left my job for a career break to get to grips with DS’s ASD when he was diagnosed (and have since rolled this into a maternity break having baby DD). However, I was previously the main earner, we can’t live on just DH’s salary. I am feeling the pressure to come up with ‘the solution’ and make it all work 😕

Just £3 on a coffee today during a meet up with other school mums. And at least this time I remembered to get my loyalty card stamped

lifelongfrugaleer · 30/04/2018 18:04

Bookmark - the dots at the bottom of each post. Click and select bookmark. Will keep your place

ememem84 · 30/04/2018 18:05

Thanks love I think....

Mummingainteasy · 30/04/2018 18:05

fluffy yes it's by direct debit. The CC is in my husband's name so even though it comes out of the joint account it has has be him to sort it out. I've told him about the SO trick and he's going to try and swap it over when he gets chance!

Xxx

Fluffycloudland77 · 30/04/2018 18:11

Ok, set him a date so he doesn’t forget. The mumsnetter who devised the spreadsheets reckons it takes a cc debt from decades to about three years.

It shouldn’t take long to set up online. They might try and say dd only but they can’t actually stop you.

ememem84 · 30/04/2018 18:11

seacow I knew ds would stop sleeping at some point due to teething just hoped it wouldn’t be before I went back to work. Nursery + germs + teething = grumpy baby and very absolutely exhausted Mummy.

Dh is at a work thing and I’m ashamed to say he just called to check in and I cried and begged him to come home. Or at least bring me some night nurse. I need something to make me sleep. Even if it means I’m groggy tomorrow. I just need to sleep-a-deep-deep

ChristmasSeacow · 30/04/2018 18:13

Em will it be an option to get a Cleaner when you are back at work? When DH and I worked full time with DS that was an essential really - we each commuted for about an hour each way and on top of long hours it just wasn’t possible to spin that plate too. It was either clean house ourselves /eat shit or cook properly /get a Cleaner. My DH can’t cook at all either.

LonelyOversharer · 30/04/2018 18:27

Sorry em and I know dh is at a "work thing" but not very impressed with that. You are clearly knackered, you don't usually complain. I hope he pitches up home early with gifts and meds.

Your going back to work is massive. He does know that everything has changed now, right? And poor ds. Sometimes they just cry all day. Not that is any comfort when it's your baby that has cried all day.

Spends today £12. Co-op for tins of tuna, and chocolate. We could have done without the choc, but everyone was hungry after school. May is get myself back on track month. With make some oaty banana things tonight, and some buns for school lunches. We have no lunch box police. Just as well, as ds has a nutella sandwich, cake (usually homemade, care of mr kipling today), actimel and a yoghurt. Every day. Will not eat the free meal he is entitled to as he's y1.

Tuna pasta bake tonight, using up what we had, so cubed butternut squash and sugar snap peas chopped small in it, rather than the sweetcorn and peppers I usually put in. It was really nice actually.

Taytocrisps · 30/04/2018 18:37

em I know you wanted everything sorted before you went back tomorrow but tbh your main concern should be dropping DS off at nursery and then getting yourself to work on time. If you're smartly dressed and don't have baby sick on your clothes or your skirt caught up in your knickers, that will be a real bonus. The house can wait until the weekend. Give it a few weeks and see how it goes. DH may have to step up a bit. Or you may have to consider a cleaner. Or you may have to lower your standards. But go easy on yourself for the first few weeks.

Unescorted · 30/04/2018 18:42

sea sorry to hear that the visit to your dad was hard. Our solution was for me to work and DH to be the primary parent..... It kind of works if we don't think too hard about our housework standards.

Lonely fanks..... It is like a Christmas present.

Em I can dig out ear plugs designed for construction sites..... They squash in so you can't see them your dh will have no idea why you are sleeping so soundly.

Tayto have you got an urban sketching group near where you are? My DD loves going.

Speaking of DD she got her coursework mark for her resistant materials coursework (60% of final mark) she got an A.. one mark off A* so now she is super motivated for her exams. After all the faff of having to re do most of the year's work because one of her classmates copied her work makes it even more of an achievement. I am so proud of her.

Taytocrisps · 30/04/2018 18:57

No Unescorted - nothing like that here.

Wolfcub · 30/04/2018 19:12

Unescorted it seems so unfair that your dd has to redo her work because someone else cheated

How do I get rid of off milk smell in my coffee maker? I just discovered that h had left milk in the milk heater/frothed and I hadn’t noticed because of the airtight lid. The milk inside was black. Now the lid is off the smell has permeated the entire house I’ve rinsed and scrubbed and boiled and used washing liquid and vinegar and it is still the worst and most pervasive smell I’ve ever smelled in my life not envy

lifelongfrugaleer · 30/04/2018 19:20

Bicarbonate soda?

Wolfcub · 30/04/2018 19:23

Annoyingly I haven’t got any (first time ever) and I’ve a long London day tomorrow so it’ll be Wednesday before I can get some :(

ememem84 · 30/04/2018 19:24

seacow yes - cleaner when we move house. Little point now as we may only be here for a few more weeks and then at dm’s so makes sense to do it once we’re settled.

All of this is in part my fault. Dh has had a cold too so instead of him doing around the house he’s been resting and I’ve been doing. I should have insisted on resting. The house is the keastnof my worries at present.

He’s home now. I went to pick him up. I have never been so relieved to see him home. I cried in the car al the way back.

ememem84 · 30/04/2018 19:25

White vinegar?

ChristmasSeacow · 30/04/2018 19:31

Unescorted financially that would be the most viable solution for us but wouldnt be either of our choice for a host of other reasons. If it comes to the wire and it’s that or move/downsize... I’m not sure. We’ll give it serious thought.

Wolf . Is it just in a reservoir or also in pipes? Can you replace that part and send the old one to DH ? I also reckon bicarbonate might be worth a try but you might not win this one...

Loveabaconsandwich · 30/04/2018 19:41

Urrrgh. DP had a financial planning meeting at work today to look at ways of coming in on budget. It got mooted that downgrading HIS job would be a way of doing this (about £15k paycut). He’s always said from a business point of view his current job is hard to justify idiot so i hope he didn’t say that out loud . The board is off to consider their options....

Unescorted · 30/04/2018 20:05

wolf that is gross. Dishwasher tablet disolved in hot water. Fill to the brim. Vinegar or lemon to rinse out... Washing powder works well for burnt on gubbins. Not sure it would work for a milk frother.

Yes it is really unfair that she had to redo here... The teacher was really apologetic and in the end I think DD has benefited from having to do it again. It could be argued that the time spent doing it could have been used to revise other subjects but all her other subject teachers have been running extra revision classes and giving her an additional hour or 2 on a 1:1 basis as well. She has been looked after by them.

Sea it wasn't our first choice but we couldn't make it stack any other way. I went back to work when DD was 5 weeks old. It broke my heart...but she hasn't suffered. Dh is an amazing parent.... I am not sure I would have had the ability to do such a job.

Tayto look on Facebook ...search urban sketching and your nearest city. I live in the sticks but loads of members for Manchester live in the next village to us.

MeadowHay · 30/04/2018 20:05

Em We are getting a Ewan the dream sheep second-hand from DH's aunt. Hope you're ok re: going back to work.

Seacow The midwife said she will write my birth plan with me at my 36 week appointment. She advised me to go to the active birth workshop before then but I couldn't get booked on until I'm 38 weeks. DH has been calling for weeks and leaving messages but the woman never got back to him and finally he actually got through to her today. Very annoying. Baby could actually be born before I get to go to the class .

Ahh that's naff Love !

Today is a NSD. Have not been having many of them recently so I am quite pleased!! My exercise ball has arrived. I am looking forward to trying it out.

My DM has got really clingy over the last couple of weeks. I usually see her about once a week anyway but she's just constantly WhatsApping me all the time now like many times a day! I've stopped responding to half her messages because otherwise it just encourages even more messages. Although I feel sly. But it doesn't seem to be putting her off as she just continues to send more and I can't really ignore all of them. She's never been this bad. We lived for years in a different city and abroad and I only spoke to her once a week on the phone with a couple of intermittent WhatsApp messages in-between, now I see her every week yet she's constantly messaging me. I am lucky to have a great DM don't get me wrong but it's a bit suffocating!

Does anyone know if there is any banks that will take old £10 notes and old £1 coins still or do I have no option but to post to Bank of England now and hope for the best? Got given 4 old £1 coins the other week and I didn't notice, I think it was a taxi driver and I'm always anxious in taxis so that will be why. And I have also found an old £10 note when I was clearing stuff out.

Loveabaconsandwich · 30/04/2018 20:12

I paid an old £1 into Lloyd’s a couple of weeks ago fine meadow. I have an old £5 now to pay in, will try and do it tomorrow and let you know if no one else knows

Unescorted · 30/04/2018 20:22

Apparently the post office will accept them if you are paying into a UK bank account. They won't exchange them ...

That is annoying about not getting a birth plan in place until 38 weeks - although as wolf says they tend to do their own thing with the clinical staff easing the way. I didn't have a birth plan for DD but found that everyone explained things to me if I had the village idiot look on my face. I didn't have the heart to explain it is my resting face.