8.8 years

A question about : 8.8 years

morning all,
I've had to swap names to protect the innocent....
DD off to school , thankfully. MSEing nicely, washing on drier, whoopsied mince (Ј3.87 down to 45p) out to defrost for tonight's spaghetti Bol.

On the upside, I still have Ј60 petrol money left for 8 days thanks to the snow.

On the downside, I c&cked up my blind order for DDs room. The blinds have arrived and are gorgeous, but unfortunately don't fit.

So....blinds being returned and altered to fit different window, I shall now have to find another Ј150 for blinds for DDs room. Which I don't have. Bum.

Best answers:

• hi october girl, sometimes its one step forward two steps back grrr, but eventually you will get there , good luck
  so is the 8.8 years the current time you have left or the time you are aiming for?
• Hi !lan tan, ( ooh, my predictive thingy has made you all posh)
  8.8 months to go - similar timeframe to you, but I need to work in smaller numbers
• yep chunking down makes things much easier ,
  i have started a new thing where every month i figure out how much i owe then divide it by the months left, it makes it easier than it was previously with the totals going up and down and i didnt have a clue what was going on
• another spreadsheet in the making:
• Hi octobergirl.
  Sorry to hear about your mishap with the blind order. How old is your DD and what kind of blind did you choose for her?
• Hi Lois, she's 7. It was Wells silver something or rather from Roman Bli@nds Direct. I've had a few from them now, lovely quality and very reasonable, I was quoted more than double the price from local
  shops.
  Figured silver (pale silver stripes) would go with most girly colours; pink, lilac, purple, blue etc as she gets older. they were a present from my mum for Christmas, so I can't get cheapie s instead!
  Had a fair few NSD days this week, so should be able to absorb some of the cost from my other 'jars'.
• Sadly, I'm waiting here in great anticipation for a Tes@o delivery- it's almost like Christmas
  I have decided to put DD onto a gluten free diet- she has CP, SPD with a few ASD and ADHD traits thrown into the mix. (Never a dull moment here)
  I'm on an American forum, where many children with SPD are doing brilliantly on gluten free, helping speech develment.
  However.....Ј2 for a loaf of bread, Ј1.40 for a packet of pasta....ye Gods, how do people with coeliac disease afford to eat? Fortunately most of our food is from scratch, meat, veg etc. I've decided to trial it for a month to see if there is any difference. Sandwiches are going to be a luxury here from now on
• Wow! That's a mouthful of letters, and I bet a lot of extra things for you to sort out. I really hope the diet helps her.
  The others I know at least a little about, but what's SPD and how does it affect her? (I've googled and guess is stands for sensory processing disorder, but am not very much the wiser for that.)
• Yes, sensory processing disorder. It comes in lots of guises, with DD her vestibular system is damaged, she is sensory seeking, spinning mainly, she has to do everything harder/ faster/ louder to feel it. her balance is carp, loud noises hurt, she doesn't have volume control so lots of shrieking....it's getting better as she gets older, or maybe it's my norm now ironically I used to teach sen kids, my cv is now VERY impressive
• Sounds challenging. All the more reason to hope the gluten free things helps, then.
  Are you going to cook separately for her, or eat gluten-free yourself, or a mixture of both? Do you have a partner and/or other kids who might object to such arrangements?
  Good luck, anyway - with the gluten thing and of course the mortgage too.
• OH and DS don't eat bread, it's my downfall so I might end up like twiggy (ahem) as gluten free is too expensive to be making late night snackettes with. I think we'll all have a go, see how it goes financially.
  the Tes@o delivery was very disappointing. None of the half price meat offers we're included, the main reason i did it. Ј40 spent on lots of bits that won't make a meal grr.
  DS 4th birthday in 5 weeks,his first birthday party which he wants to be dinosaur themed. It's outrageously expensive for themed tableware....so need to start thinking creatively. Opened my Ј1 tin and have managed to save Ј85, which should cover most of the costs. Present already bought....love it when a plan comes together:-)
• Had a couple of NSD days, OH has been taking the car to work, so saved huge amount of petrol money - which shall go to the new blind fund.
  The fridge and freezer are decidedly bare. I've frozen the extortionate gluten free bread and only take out the slices DD needs in the morning. As a result I'm not able to make my 8pm sandwich snackettes and have lost 2lb this week
• is there any way you could make your own gluten free bread? dove organic (I think!!) do a gluten free flour. you can also use stuff like xantham gum as a thickener eg in sauces, cakes etc. you might need to get this online though!!
  for my son's birthday I just used ikea plates and cups which we already had!! nobody noticed what was on the plates- just think if you were going out somewhere for a party they would only use plain plates. your children are similar ages to mine- how much do you owe on the mortgage??
• Ј150 for blinds for one room - yowlch.
  I don't think the blinds in our whole house cost Ј150.
• Hi BBH,
  Mine are 7 and nearly 4. I read you're thread and saw you did your birthday for Ј12, which was amazing. It made me think twice about what I'm doing (hiring village hall and bouncy castle for Ј45) but I really don't want the stress of getting my house in order and tbh it's too small for 15 lively 4 year old plus parents
  DD has had a few 'big' parties and i feel its only fair DS gets the opportunity- he has to play second fiddle to her a lot of the time because of her disabilities.
  I've bought 20 craft sewing kits for Ј13 from yellow moon for the party bags. I've budgeted Ј20 for food, Ј10 for cake and Ј5 for sweets and balloons -you're right, ill just get cheap white paper plates.
  I bought some gluten free flour yesterday, just need to dig the bread maker out and give it a go over the weekend. DD is not overly impressed with shop bought and it should work out the same price as a normal loaf. It's things like Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, stock cubes that I'm going to have to look into as they all have gluten in.
  Very pleased as m & s have 3 for Ј10 on meats today and have 20 chunky sausages as part of the deal which happen to be gluten free. So, 2 meals for Ј1.50 each which is good. Spent total Ј60 on a shop including Mr Ms and have enough for 9 days
  We have Ј83k left on the mortgage and reduced the term from 20 years to 10 years, it's Ј1k a month mortgage which is stretching us as I'm a SAHM. I'm hoping to start making some small OPs after the summer.
• Well, attempting to make gluten free bread, however it is just a slop at the bottom of the bread maker, not convinced its going to work. Rechecked the recipe and did as it says.....however, it does say to put in 6 tbsp of oil in which seems a heck of a lot, wondering ir it is a typo and should be 6 tsp?
• Well, it's been a good month, I've stuck to my budget, the jars are definitely working.
  According to my spreadsheets, I should be overdraft free in May, and can start saving/ overpaying again in July. The dilemma is how to split the Ј300... I'm thinking max overpayments on the mortgage (Ј200) and Ј100 to the family loan.
  Our fixed period ends oct 14, I could get it down to Ј71k for then with frugal living.....
  My only dilemma is that we promised DD that we would go to disneyworld when she's 10..... It's 3 years away, but I would much rather be paying off the mortgage memories v mortgage free ?? Eek
• I've been playing around with my spreadsheets again
  If I stick to my strict budget....
  I should be able to pay my overdraft off by April and make my first overpayment in June
  That feels better on the progress front, now I need to recalculate mortgage payoff date
• Yay! Playing with spreadsheets is fun. And motivating. Which are both good.
  Hope your plan works out. That first OP in June (or whenever it happens) is going to feel GOOD. (But not as good as the final one, of course.)