Hi all, happy new year! Hope everyone had a good Christmas, I dropped off the thread not long before it really. Sooo much illness here! Me and DS were both unwell for basically the whole of December tbh, with DH and DD both being ill for some of that month too. All my friends and family have been ill loads the last month or so as well, it's been totally grim, is anyone else finding that?
Frugal-wise, I feel quite optimistic tbh, we are doing better than expected. Contacted an insurance broker local to us to arrange an appt to discuss life assurance. I did an online price comparison which made me realise we haven't a clue so we need to speak to someone who does. Not sure how we are going to arrange an appt with him though as will be extremely difficult to find time and also childcare for the kids, but so important I know.
We also really should open a savings account as we have a small-but-not-totally-insignificant amount of cash reserves atm and it's really not doing anything for us at all. Any suggestions on where to look for info about this?
Today was an NSD with the kids. Blagged free lunch at my generous DPs and then we went to the library afterwards. Was a bit tricky with DS as he was a bit noisy and even though he absolutely LOVES books at home, he hasn't been to the library in so long he couldn't remember it so he had no interest in looking at books, he just wanted to crawl around everywhere at the speed of light. The floor was filthy as well but he's too big and heavy to keep hold of all the time now (and he would tantrum if I tried), I hope he doesn't catch something from it bleurgh...also we have managed to book a slot at a local zero waste thing where they distribute food the supermarkets are going to bin. So DH going to collect it later, intruiged as to what will be in it and how much, hopefully if it's useful we can become regulars and save money on our food shop, the cost of which has absolutely rocketed.
TheSky Your degree sounds soo interesting! The comment about the 30 plus year relationship thing I think is interesting because in the past, didn't people often marry very young though? So if you got married at 16, 30 yrs marriage would only take you both to 46. Which of course life expectancy was lower but most people lived until later than that like for ages I think?
Wolf I've had a few of those food disasters before, like you very rarely but it's still so annoying isn't it?! I've been looking at foreign holidays too, DD asking to go on a plane, I think we probably could afford it in the strictest sense of the word, but it probably wouldn't be a sensible financial decision and who knows what the future holds. So I don't think it's doable really from a sensible point of view. Which is sad as she starts school in September so then we definitely won't be able to go abroad for the foreseeable due to the extra inflated costs on top 
we do have a UK break booked for the early summer though that my DPs are generously paying the (expensive) accommodation cost for us.
Kessie Sorry to hear about your MIL. You may remember my DM who is also a cancer patient was recently in A&E for two whole days, the first 24 hrs without a room.
Sorry to everyone with parent stressors too 