To my baby girl...

To my baby girl on the eve of your second birthday,

 

Today is the day before your second birthday and i'm finding it hard to believe that by this time tommorow two whole years will have passed since we met for the very first time.

 

So much has changed in the past two years, twenty four months, one hundred and four weeks, seven hundred and thirty one days - however I say it it still doesn't seem real! No longer are you the small 7lb 11.5oz bundle that the midwives passed to me on Friday 13th May 2011 at 21.03pm instead I am faced with an all walking, all talking, all singing, all dancing and I would be lying if I didn't say the occassional temper tantrum throwing toddler. I look at you some days and think to myself 'Wow, this little person is mine, I made her and she belongs to me'

 

I love to watch you play, so independent and so confident, you know what you want and you will do anything to get it. I love to listen to you sing, you have a great love for One Direction and enjoy listening to their CD especially when in the car (I honestly don't even know where your love for them came from!) you are not even two, yet you proudly sing along to their songs, almost word for word.

 

You love playgroup and being around other children, you love taking part in the sing a long at the end and especially love the 'Hokey Cokey'

 

You love animals, especially bob- bo's and you got so excited when you see them, I hope to take you horse riding one day when you are older.

 

You love kisses and cuddles, and I love that you love them, you can be so gentle and affectionate, if you think someone is upset you automatically go over to them and put your arm around them and will tell them "shhhh don't cry"

 

If you hear people arguing you will shout STOP - you want people to be happy, just like you!

 

You have taught me more in the past two years than I think I have learnt in my life, you have taught me to laugh at the small things, you have taught me to be patient, you have taught me to show affection and to not be afraid to express myself and to say I love you, you have taught me to sing and dance like no one is watching.

We (Me and Daddy) are so lucky to be blessed with such a wonderful little daughter, I hope you know just how much we love both love you.

Lots of love

Mummy xxx

 

 

You on your first day in this world.

 

 

 

Silent Sunday - 12th May 2013

30 Ways to save £1...

MoneySupermarket.com have challenged bloggers to come up with 30 ways to save a £1, you can read all about it here.

 

Having set a personal challenge at the start of the year to live the life of thrift throughout 2013 I thought this would be a perfect challenge for me to take part in, especially as we approach midway point and motivation is dipping slightly. 

 

So here it goes...

1. Save all loose change - 1's, 2's, 5's they all add up!
2. Collect £2 coins.
3. SELL SELL SELL - If you don't need, want or use it then get rid.
4. Remember to use loyalty cards at all your favourtie shops and cash in the rewards.
5. Use cashback sites when shopping online.
6. Search for discount codes when shopping online.
7. Remember to price match. A lot of companies will now match prices if you can show the same product at a different shop for less.
8. Use PetrolPrices.com to find out where to get the cheapest fuel in your area.
9. Take a packed lunch to work and save money on buying dinner each day.
10. Meal plan and always make a shopping list - this helps avoid those impulse buys!
11. When doing the weekly shop, go down a brand or consider going to a 'cheaper' supermarket. We love Aldi in our house!
12. Use coupons - cut them out of papers, magazines or print them off the internet.
13. Search Groupon for cheap days out / products.
14. Challenge yourself to have a no spend day,
15. Batch cook food and freeze it to avoid it going to waste.
16. Enter competitions, you never know you just may win!
17. Consider a second / part time job.
18. Buy Christmas presents throughout the year, you can pick up some fab bargains in the sales this way and spread the cost.
19. Suggest doing Secret Santa to family and friends this Christmas.
20. At the end of each day transfer the odd pence in your bank account into a seperate savings account and watch the amount build up.
21. Visit a college salon to get your hair cut.
22. Instead of having a take away enjoy some yummy shop bought treats such as pizza, wedges etc.
23. If eating out look out for 2 for 1 deals or 2 for £10 etc.
24. Shop around for utilities such as gas and electric and make sure that you are getting the cheapest insurance available.
25. Car share where possible.
26. Buy second hand - you can get some good quality stuff on selling sites, at carboots and in charity shops etc.
27. Search Freecycle for any wanted items.
28. Swap unwanted clothes, bedding, rags etc for cash. Search online for the nearest clothes for cash store near you. 
29. Keep a spending diary to keep track of your money and to see where it goes, chances are after a few weeks you will see a pattern and will be able to cut your spending somewhere.
30. Always ask yourself do I NEED this - if not you can probably leave it and save a bob or two!

 

Can you think of any more ways to save a £1?

 

 

 

Working in an office is...

EXPENSIVE!

 

I work in an office and my colleagues are genuinely a lovely bunch of people who I enjoy working with however on Tuesday I returned to work after the bank holiday weekend and my first thought was "Oh I must pay my tea and coffee money" not an unusual thought as I have been paying £1 a week for tea privileges since I started back in July.

 

Part way through the morning the lady who runs 'birthday club' approached me, "we have three birthdays in May" she told me, so I handed over 3 more pounds, while doing so another colleague announced that she was leaving on Friday. It will be sad to see her go however she is off on a new adventure to Sunny Spain! So after paying my tea debt, and my birthday money I sat back down in front of my computer when suddenly "ping" I have a new email so I open it up. Its from another colleague, she has heard about the colleague that is leaving and thinks it would be lovely if we could club together and get her a card and some nice flowers, maybe even go out for goodbye lunch? So back into my purse I go, trying to scramble together the last of my change to put into the 'leaving fund' and also a table has now been booked at the local pub for a nice Carvery lunch.

 

After emptying my purse I then go into the kitchen to make a brew (might aswell get my monies worth) as I open the cupboard to get a mug I see something stuck to the door. I look at it and realise its my manager's sponsor form for a sponsored walk he was doing. I had put my name down but was yet to pay (damn it!) luckily he is on annual leave so that can wait till next week!

 

Finally I sat back down and it dawned on me... working in an office is expensive! we never had this when I worked in the Supermarket or when I was a Support Worker. I looked back on my 10 months and so far and I have contributed towards...

 

8 leaving gifts.

6 birthdays (including a 50th).

2 get well cards / gifts.

2 sponsorships / fundraisers.

1 New baby gift.

10 months worth of tea and coffee.

 

In addition there is also the number of meals I have attended in order to say goodbye to someone or wish someone a happy birthday, not to mention the Christmas meal we had too. Not sure my purse can keep  taking the battering!

 

 

I NEED to know... are all offices like this?! Or is it just mine??

If you work in an office (or in any setting for that matter) do you find you are always paying out for something?

 

Thanks for reading! xx

The discovery of Creswell Crags...

This weekend me and my husband wanted to find something nice to do that wouldn't break the bank. After thinking about where we could possibly go that was cheap, outside (might as well make the most of this sunny weather) but not too busy we decided to check out 'Creswell Crags' - baring in mind we have lived in our village for almost 6 years and that it is only a mile (if that) away from our home we had never been! So off we went, toddler and dog in tow too and we were so pleased by what we found.

 

We had a lovely walk around the gorge, the hubster and toddler enjoyed looking into the caves, we fed the ducks, stroked the bob-bo's and had a wonderful little picnic.

 

Needless to say now we have discovered this little gem we will be visiting more often.

 

Hope you all enjoyed your bank holiday weekend!

 

 

 

Lets try this again...

So here I am again... I haven't blogged for almost three months. Not sure why really? I think its a combination of things, 1) Sometimes I just feel I don't have the time to blog, 2) I don't feel that blogging comes naturally to me and 3) I don't always know what to blog about? All this aside there is a little something inside me that WANTS to blog. Not for anyone else, but for myself. I love reading other people's blogs, in particular parenting ones, the stories they tell and the memories they hold is amazing. I would love to create a space that in a few years time I could share with my daughter, somewhere she can soak in all the memories herself. So here we go again... I'm back... for how long? well that's anyones guess really but for now I am here :) xxx

Thirty before thirty...

Just before Christmas I wrote a blog post called '30 before 30'. I then got a bit cocky and thought I would 'blog on the go' using my mobile... long story short I accidently deleted the post *sob sob*

 

Anyway I have just about got over it and decided to re write the list which was originally insipired by Emma @ Crazy With Twins whose own 30 before 30 list can be found here.

 

As the title suggests the list contains 30 things I would like to complete / achieve before turning 30 (June 2016). Assuming I don't go and delete the post again I will update it as time goes on.

 

So here's the list (in no particular order)

1. Host a dinner party.
2. Give someone a homemade gift.
3. Clear my debt.
4. Visit lapland.
5. Move house.
6. Go on a hot air balloon.
7. Learn to play an instrument.
8. Have another baby.
9. Make over my garden and have a garden party.
10. Lose weight.
11. Raise money for charity.
12. Go to a west end musical.
13. Go horse riding.
14. Join the library.
15. Volunteer.
16. Make Christmas dinner.
17. Learn to bake.
18. Learn to use my sewing machine.
19. Visit Scotland.
20. Win an award.
21. Give blood.
22. Do a weekly shop and take it to the food bank.
23. Take Gracie to Disneyland.
24. Be in a live television audience.
25. Swim with dolphins.
26. Vist the South Coast of England.
27. Sing on Karaoke.
28. Carry out at least five random acts of kindness.
29. Go to New York.
30. Keep blogging and have at least 100 followers.

Who else has got a 30 before 30 list (or similar) what kind of things are on your list?