This is my…Super Shop

Consider yourself raided Boots.

The nice people over at HiPP Organic furnished me/Kal with lots of vouchers for my collection, but before I could get to attached to them, I decided to go on a mini shopping spree in the baby department at Boots.

• Jar of Sweet Potato & Chicken (Free)
• Banana & Rice pots (40p off)
• Banana & Apple Pureé (30p off + 40p of any other HiPP product)
• Buggy Buddy Drink & Stuff Storage (Free with Boots points)
• ELC Wooly Sheep Squeaker Rattle (£2 off rrp as they’d overstocked or something)
• Scratch mitts (Free, because I’d bought 2 other baby items in their 2 for 3 sale)

All in all a saving of £16.88. Not bad if I do say so myself.

After all that came home to 50p of Plenty products, set of Tesco vouchers totaling another £20 odd and something about saving money on fuel.
Win.

This is my…Best Text Message, EVER!

I’ve had some good texts (excluding any sent in txt speek. No. Just No.) in my time from a marriage proposal (probably not meant for me) to death threats (almost certainly meant for me)

But here’s another surprise for the books, the nice people at the DWP have got back to me in regards to my claim for Maternity Allowance.
By text.
I mean, I hope they still send me some paperwork, because I can’t function without paperwork to know exactly what’s going on. And I need that paperwork to let other people know what’s going on. And they haven’t actually paid me anything yet, but they’ve given me an estimate of 5-10 days for the (quite considerable) back payment and when the fortnightly payments will be happening & it’s nice to get a heads up as to our future finances.

Other than that, I’ve been super busy today (I know, get me!) sorting out all the clothes I snatched from parents yesterday. It’s a good job I have a cold because the smell coming from some of them is not exactly appetising.
So I’ve sorted out the 3 bags (black sacks) I brought over, one is full for the car boot, which will probably happen Tuesday, half a one is sorted for the cash-4-clothes lot, and the rest appears to be staying. God knows where, but they are.

So those I’m keeping are in the wash first, 2 loads done before lunch and another 2 after with a few days to do a couple of loads for the car boot too, because I wouldn’t buy any of them with their current funk, so I can’t really expect anyone else to. I just hope the rag bag people won’t mind too much, they’re not in bad condition just bad smell…

Also got the desktop computer all up and running, though it seems to have developed some sort of virus since I last used it as it keeps trying to install something on start-up, but it also pops up with a version of MS Word that’s not registered to my name. I have no idea what this is or how to stop it, but it doesn’t seem to be doing any harm to my computer, not even slowing it down. Once you’ve got past the annoyance of closing down word and this install pop-up the computer is fine.
What intrigues me more, is that computer has never been connected to the internet. How do you get a virus on a stand alone computer? (Answers on a postcard please)

Only other smug thing for the day is my home grown tomatoes taste great.
Now I just need a cow grazing in the back yard for cheese and butter and I’ll be practically self sufficient.

This is my…Money, gone!

I always seem to manage that.
Day of bugger all followed by day of madness.

I think I prefer it like that because it takes me a whole day to recover after half a day of doing stuff, so I may as well do a whole day of stuff then take a whole day anyway.

I wasn’t planned as a mental day, I pretty much thought I’d be sitting and waiting for the mattress all day, but as it happened it turned up at about 11, helpfully just after PopMaster finished. so I managed to get into town to try my luck with the Job Center.
Turns out, also sorted with minimal fuss, just asked for a number from the front desk, phone up that number from the job center phone just gave the man a few of my details and he said if I’m lucky they’ll be with me tomorrow and if I was unlucky right after the Bank Holiday on Tuesday. Not holding my breath, but at least it should be sorted soon enough.

So after all that & lunch, it was only 2pm.
And being such a lovely day, I didn’t really want to waste it (even though I thought it may have been wasted with the delivery, it’s nice to be granted some extra time) so I persuaded my lovely taxi service to do a quick run to Norwich to raid some more items from the list.
With this list, it was brilliant, 2 shops, 2 checkouts at the tills, in and out of the city in less than 2 hours, and back with

• Nursing Bra
• Nursing top
• Nursing pads
• Pack of Flannels
• Changing Mat
• Pack of bibs
• 2 T-shirts (For Bumpy)
• More Baby wipes
• Dressing Gown (For Hospital)
• Nighty (For Hospital)

And overall managed not to spend too much money, considering how much more is sorted.

Just don’t expect any sense out of me tomorrow.

This is my…Bashing head against brick wall day

Bleugh.

Having to sort money out when pregnant should be illegal.
Or at least they should supply women with an accountant for a month just to get everything sorted.

I mean, I did well getting the Maternity Grant sorted, and I was feeling very pleased with my little self that it all went so smoothly, but turns out that was just the tip of the iceberg with dealing with the Depo of Work & Old People (something like that).

Because of me moving in with Chris, we’ve had to change all of his bits of money, and update all the various departments, all of which have to be done on bits of paper, all of which run the risk of being left on someone’s desk for the next few months and all of which have to stop before they can be re-assessed and started again.

Apart from that end of things I was looking to apply for Maternity Allowance, as I had a nice shiny job for 6 months out of the last year, and as I didn’t leave a job to go on maternity I’m not due Statutory Maternity Pay, I though that would be a good thing to go for and to get a little bit extra into the house as it doesn’t totally knock out what Chris was claiming.
Oh boy. Again, not only can you not phone up and give them your details, but you get a 41 page form with notes to fill in every mortal little thing about you and bump. Most of the questions were easy, but where I hit a brick wall was them asking for the payslips for the 6 month “Test Period” of my claim.

Ah.

With all my stuff getting shoved into boxes ready to move to Chris’, I have NO idea where anything is. After a quick snout through some of my paperwork, I found my P60 & 2 payslips, aka, 2 months out of 6, but where in the blue hell the rest might be…Pass.
So, simple enough, phone up employer, ask for copies right?

Wrong.

The department I worked for ceased to exist, hence why I was out of a job when I was. As I worked for a government department, I know I’ll still be on file somewhere, but who and how to contact anyone to get them is a little bit beyond me as every number I had for there is either for people who don’t work there anymore or have moved about 600 desks away.
All the phone numbers I found online are centralised 0845 ones that will probably put me through to someone in Glasgow who doesn’t even know where Lowestoft IS, yet alone who I need to speak to.
My only (and last) resort is literally to walk into the Job Center (even though I didn’t work for the Job Center, I worked for the Contact Center that was attached to it) and hope that someone there knows the name and/or number of someone who works in HR and can possibly print me some stuff off.
Hell, I still remember my username and password if someone would let me within 100 foot of a computer I’ll print them off myself!

Wish me luck…

This is My…Awesome Shopping Day

Having nearly ran myself into the ground yesterday I wasn’t exactly an early riser today, even to the point that I had breakfast and went right back to bed again. So sleepy.

But after I actually got up for lunch and dad came round to put up some more shelves we decided to vacate the house before the drilling started and destroyed our heads completely.

So to kill some time, we disappeared off into town without much of a plan, but some how came back with £40 worth of things. Basically just stuff for the house that we keep thinking we need and never actually getting around to.

• Laundry Basket
• Chopping Board
• Drinking Glasses
• Saucepans
• Mop
• Bucket
• Box for Chris’ E-bay sales
• Radiator Airers
• Baskets for Changing Table

So with all these bits sorted, we now might actually have a home!
By the time we’d got back, dad had sorted the shelves and already constructed the (massive) cot bed and was in the process of getting the changing table into one usable chunk. I’m still amazed at the condition of both of them, just goes to show there really is no point spending 100s of pounds on

things that not only will the baby grow out of in a matter of moments, but are just as serviceable 2nd hand. All we have to buy to complete them is a mattress for the cot and mat for the changing table, which I think are legit things to have to buy really, then I think that’s bumps room soooorted.

Good job I got that £500 grant, eh?

This is my…Run Around Like A Headless Chicken Day!

I should probably have added “Part 1” as I can see quite a few more coming up in the near future, but anyway after PopMaster it was all action stations to get as many things sorted as possible.

11AM: First stop was to pick up a free megadrive from a very nice lady just up the road, I think we’d bought some stuff from her before as I remembered the address, but as this one was free, couldn’t really sniff at the price.
She’s also said if she ever gets anymore she’ll let us know, which is a good contact to have too.

11:20AM: From there, the plan was to dash into town and drop off one parcel (that really needed to have been sent yesterday, but some lazy butt didn’t move very far) grab some jiffies then head to my mums. However with the STUPID amount of traffic floating round Lowestoft, we decided to skip that bit and just try and head across the bridge. We managed it with just enough time (11:45AM) to take the uberparcel to a smaller post office near me and get to mums for a coffee.

12:00PM: Good job I then convinced my sister that we needed to leave half an hour to get back across the bridge to her Orthodontist appointment as it took pretty much all that time again. Chris then managed to dart off to get jiffies whist we were in there, before going back across the bridge to take Jessamy home. (12:45PM)

We then decided to stop for lunch at Desmonds Coffee Shop (1PM) (Seriously, if you’re ever in Lowestoft, make a point of going in there, great place, great prices.) managing to finally get back home for 2PM to package some more parcels to take back into town and so I could sign off (hurrah!) before 3PM.
Chris dropped me off then went to go find a parking space, and I was done in the job center in about 10 seconds flat, so I phoned him to find out where he was. Nothing. Then wandered into the high street to find him. Not in the post office, not in Cash Generator, not in the charity shops. Phoned him again. Nothing. Went back into Cash Generator to have a look round and buy myself a game. Phoned him again, got him, only to find out he’d gone home as he’d left his phone there and not managed to find a parking space. Grr.
By the time he’d come back into town and found a space, it was nearly 4PM in fact it was just gone 4 by the time we’d made it home again.

Only to find that the kitties are possibly not very well, they seem so much more hungry than normal, like constantly howling for food, and god forbid we put them outside as they practically try and scratch the doors down to get back in. So we figured they may have worms (to go with their fleas) so a mad dash down to Pets At Home to get some more flea and worming stuff before just managing to get back for 5PM

We then set up our Xbox up in the spare room so Chris and his friend could have the TV downstairs. I then hid away in there for the next few hours till Chris went out and I could move my backside back to the sofa at 10PM before going to bed about 1AM (No idea how my body lasted that long. Must have been good TV) and sleeping like a log.

Phew. Again.

This is my…Even Lazier Day!

Guess how much I’ve done today.
Go on, guess?
I’ll give you a hint, I’ve not got out of my PJ’s!

However, I feel today is actually quite a momentous day in the life of little old me as it’s the day I can finally change my address on everything and officially move in with Chris! Won’t go into all the boring paperwork side of things, but basically the thing that was holding us up, isn’t any more.

I knew one way or another this would get sorted before bump arrived, but the closer it got to D-Day the more I worried about it, so it feels like a great weight has been lifted and a whole new chapter can begin.

Phew.

In other money related news I got my Sure Start Maternity Grant through today. I hoped I’d get it, after working for the Social Fund for 6 months, I was pretty sure I knew all the dos and donts from other peoples mistakes.
Sure Start Maternity Grants (Or SSMGs) are payable from the Department of Work & Pensions for people 11 weeks before expecting their first little one or up to 3 months after the little one is born.
This sum of £500 per child (ie, if you have twins you get £1000 etc) is paid to people who are in low income houses:

• Income Related Job-Seekers Allowance
• Income Related Employment & Support Allowance
• Income Support
• Universal Credit
• Child Tax Credits (Higher than the family element)
• Working tax credits (If includes a severe disability element) or
• Pension Credits (though the mind still boggles at a pensioner having their first child that late in life. Whatever floats your boat I guess)

There is a LOT of other provisos, for example this has to be your first child, you wont get it for a second child even if you didn’t claim for the first child (or as I remember at least one family saying, even if the first child wasn’t born in this country) unless that first child is either over 16 or not dependant on you, ie lives with another parent or is in care. You can also claim if you’re adopting.

Anyhoo, as I’m a fairly standard case (I’m on Job-Seekers and this is the first one) I didn’t think there would be a problem other than the time frame they take to process, but actually I only sent the form off on the 5th and it’s getting paid into my account tomorrow, so not a bad turn around at all, even allowing for everything being sent 2nd class.

So even though I’ve been lucky enough to have bought some of the big things already, this will mean I have enough for all the finishing touches and a bit of breathing space once bump is actually here and I’m not working or claiming.

Now if I can just stop being sick for 5 seconds I might actually be able to enjoy the rest of my lazy day!

This is my…View Today (6/8/13)

So, as promised, my backside was dragged out of bed at half 6 this morning to sell some of our surplus tat at Corton Carboot.
Not a bad day for it despite the rain (and thunder apparently, though I couldn’t hear it) yesterday, didn’t put of many stall holders or punters.

As usual, slight gripe about people (read, dealers) hovering round the car, or worse actually taking stuff out the back of the car before you’ve even put the handbrake on. Worse even still than that, is being cheeky enough to offer on it.
Er, no, if you’re that desperate to climb into my car to get it, then I know you’re desperate enough to pay full price. Cough up.
I don’t think we undersold anything in those first few minutes, but it would have been nice to at least take 10 seconds to take stock.
After that we had a few dribs and drabs of sales, including a cute little girl who bought one of Chris’ retro calculators with a till role for “When we play shopping”, which to me is brilliant, an item that’s probably older than I am, yet alone her, actually getting used rather than sitting on some collectors shelf. Good on ya girl!

Overall we made somewhere around £60, could be more because bacon sarnies were bought, and Chris kept stealing money for more games quicker than I could sell the old ones.

In addition to that I managed to pick up a few things, a new Hello Kitty (50p) the one and only Wilbur Smith book I didn’t own (50p) but best of all, a Tommee Tippee Bottle warmer (£1) and a John Lewis bouncy/musical chair (£4).
Slightly gutted I didn’t get a Tommee Tippee electric breast pump on two counts,
1) Because it might be useful &
2) Because she was selling it for £7 and they go for about £30 on ebay.
The bottle warmer seems to make about £10 too.
I may be moving into a side business selling mother and baby stuff!

So all in all not a bad day, a few bits crossed off the list for bump & some more money to spend on him!

This is my…Quiet but productive day

So even though there’s not really much to write home about (I scored really rubbish on BBC radio 2’s Pop Master this morning) I feel as if things are starting to get sorted.
Well I made a list and that’s the next best thing to actually being sorted, in my mind anyway.
Got another freebie pack from Argos (UK, should be in the bounty pack with all the notes and available from week 27 of pregnancy, not that the woman at the till checked the due date or any other details for that matter) and has some Aldi nappies and baby wipe trials, some breast pads (yay) and a whole heap of vouchers for things I’ll never use.
Also sent of my maternity grant form as I’m 11 weeks before due date tomorrow and I figure with it being sent 2nd class there’s no way they’ll get it before tomorrow. I’ll do a whole blog on that when/if it comes through.
Other than that I apologise for any mistakes on , today as I am sans charger for my laptop and am having to time-share with Chris leaving me without a laptop to blog on.
Will see anyone who’s about at Corton Carboot tomorrow 🙂

This is my…Healthy Start Voucher!

I hope all my (UK) pregnant people know about this one?
If you’re in a low income household and receiving one of the following benefits, you could be entitled to Healthy Start Vouchers too!

• Income Support
• Income Based Job Seekers Allowance
• Income Related Employment & Support Allowance
• Child Tax Credit

If you are on one of the above and you’re between 10 weeks pregnant and the child being born you can receive £3.10 per week (increasing to £6.20 when the child is born up to 1 year old) to spend on fresh or frozen fruit, veg & milk AND vitamins to help you through your pregnancy.

I’m only on this a short time as I was working, and I will (hopefully) be again once bump is here, but even for a month or so this is a big help, so don’t miss out, ask your midwife or go to http://www.healthystart.nhs.uk to see if you qualify!