No good Sulking!!

So I have had a stern talking to with myself and decided I was being very stupid to throw the towel in on my SAHM dream. It will be extremely tough, even tougher now Aidans free Nursery hours don't start until April, but it is still possible.

I've thrown myself back into a wonderful website called Moneysavingexpert, I know a lot of you know about it as I've 'met' you there! I first discovered it when I was about to go onto Maternity leave, the site itself is a wealth of useful info but its on the forums where you really learn alot. There is also an amazing amount of support and friendship there also. I've spent the last few evenings reading the Old Style moneysaving threads and have picked up several tips and I've now begun to read the preparing for Winter thread.

All in all I feel happy and positive again, I've got my Mojo back!!!

:-(

Feeling a bit grumpy today as I thought Aidan would qualify for his free Nursery hours in January but actually he will have to wait until Easter. This means we will have to continue to find £300 a month for 4 months longer than I thought. It has put all of my plans into chaos so feeling quite miserable at the moment and foolish that I made such an oversight.

Not giving up on the dream yet though, December is a while away yet so still time to earn more and pay more off. I have begun to stockpile dry goods, Toiletries and also cleaning materials. My plan is to to pop an extra item into my trolley each week so by December I should have a nice stash.

Any other tips you can think of?

TTFN x x

Sorry!

I am so, so sorry I have not been around. As you know I am now working Full Time from the new site, an hours commute each way, and to be honest it is absolutely killing me. By the time I get home I am only spending 45 minutes with Aidan before he goes to bed, once he has gone I have my chores to do and then finally sit down to something to eat and a rest.

BUT...............................

On Friday I was told that my request for Redundancy was approved should I still wish to take it. I thought long and hard over the weekend, was I mad to even think of leaving a job in this climate, would I be better off sticking with it, would I regret my missed time with Aidan?
In the end I decided that I have never heard anybodys deathbed words to be "I wish I had spent more time at work" so I told my boss on Monday that I would like to take Voluntary Redundancy. All I am waiting for now is my leave date :-)

Its going to be scary, at times it may be quite hard financially. No matter how hard life gets, I will have a life and not just an existance spent on Motorways and missing my family. Aim initially is to be a stay at home Mummy, getting bump number 2 is a work in progress! If that doesn't work out then I will get a part time job, I've looked through some job sites and theres actually quite a few things I could do.

Will keep you posted!

Difficult Decisions

Hello Everybody

Feeling sad today as we have had to have Derek ,our Cat, put to sleep. Last night he began gagging and we presumed he had a fur ball, this morning he was still doing the same so we took him to the vets to be checked over. The vet anaesthetised him and found he had a large, very unusual tumour connecting his soft pallete and hard pallete. It would not have been possible to operate and although he could have had chemotherapy the outlook was not good for him. We decided it was kinder to put him to sleep now as he would have had a poor quality of life while being treated and the longterm prognosis was poor.

Aidan of course does not understand and keeps asking where he is, it's so hard to try to explain to a 2.5 year old. For the moment we are saying he is poorly and has gone to live with pap, who passed away last November, who will take care of him.

So that was our hard decision to make, I hope you are all having a weekend free from tough choices x x

Cupcakes

I have been reading "Meet me at the Cupcake cafe"by Jenny Colgan
Heres the blurb:

"Issy Randall can bake. No, more than that - Issy can create stunning, mouth-wateringly divine cakes. After a childhood spent in her beloved Grampa Joe's bakery she has undoubtedly inherited his talent. So when she's made redundant from her safe but dull City job, Issy decides to seize the moment and open up her own cafe. It should be a piece of cake, right? Wrong. As her friends point out, she has trouble remembering where she left her house keys, let alone trying to run her own business. But Issy is determined. Armed with recipes posted to her from Grampa, and with her local bank manager fighting her corner, Issy attempts to prove everyone wrong"

I really enjoyed the book all the way through, every spare moment I had I would pick it up and read a bit even if just a few pages. The character was believeable and you could easily relate to her, she is made redundant which is something I am experiencing at the moment. The writing style was easy going and flowed nicely, enjoyable at the end of a hard day.
Then I got to the end and have to say I was very disappointed. It seemed to just end.

Don't you hate it when that happens?

Epic Mummy Fail!!!

A poster went up at Aidan's Nursery advising that on Friday they would be having a Pyjama day to raise funds for a Childrens brain injury charity. This morning I dressed Aidan in fresh, clean PJs and he happily walked to Nursery with his Daddy. Upon arriving at Nursery, Aidan and Daddy discovered that Pyjama day is in fact NEXT Friday!

TGI Friday!!!

Operation Flat Stanley!!

I began to tell you in my last post about an exciting project that Aidan and I have been invited to participate it and then I left you hanging! Well do you all remember the story of Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown? For those that don't, Stanley Lambchop and his younger brother Arthur are given a big bulletin board by their Dad for displaying pictures and posters. Stanley hangs it on the wall over his bed. During the night the board falls from the wall, flattening Stanley in his sleep. He survives and makes the best of his altered state, and soon he is entering locked rooms by sliding under the door, and playing with his younger brother by being used as a kite and one special advantage is that Flat Stanley can now visit his friends by being mailed in an envelope. A few of us in the group are going to make a flat version of ourselves and our Children! We will then post them, accompanied with a journal to whoever is next in the chain, at the same time we will receive someonelses flat selves! We will then fill in the journal and take some photos of the Flats enjoying some adventures and forward it on to the next in chain. This will continue until we receive Flat Vicky and Flat Aidan back and can read about their adventures from all over the World! I am so excited and already cannot wait to receive the journal back again. I know a few of you work with young Children so I will post the Offical Link to the Flat Stanley Project here in case it could be useful to you as an Educational project

I will let you know when our first Flat Visitor arrives!