Nearly 6 months.

On Wednesday my beautiful daughter will be 26 weeks old. 

The last 6 months have flown by and I feel incredibly blessed.

I'm sitting here at 6.13am breast feeding my little girl who I have to be honest smells vaguely of poo. I'm happier than I have ever been. Motherhood has been a joy to me. I have been lucky, she's been a good sleeper from the beginning and breastfeeding came easily.

I'm 40 in just over a week, apart from the mortgage I'm debt free and life is pretty good folks!

I decided not to share my daughters photo online, but just one today I think.

Oh and did I mention The Chap asked me to marry him on Valentine's Day?

Yours frugally

Abigail X

It's 3.21am

Thank you for all your good wishes! 

A few weeks ago BB (before baby) I probably still would have been awake about now, the difference being that I would have needed the loo. The Chap's snoring  may have stopped me from easily returning to sleep, but never mind I could and did just migrate to the spare room for the rest of the night.

Now I'm stuck. I'm here with a newborn on me. I'm so concerned that she doesn't choke that we have an upright cuddle for at least 30mins after a feed day and night. Besides who doesn't love a snuggle with their new daughter? 

So here I am at 3am blogging. 

I've been thinking about what I can talk about as having a baby is not cheap. But there are ways of bringing down the cost not just on your pocket but on your sanity too.

So here are a few topics I thought I would cover soon.

Aldi baby range

The birth

Visitors

What do I actually need before the birth?

Coping in hospital

eBay for the baby

The perfect change bag

The essential list

Financial preparation for the baby.

Crass comments that have been made.

I will state now that being a mum is the most rewarding thing I have ever done so I wouldn't change it for anything. 

Frugally yours 

Abigail

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New Life

Our  daughter born 2 weeks ago. 7lbs11.

You can't understand how your parents feel about you until you have a child. I see that now. 

I have never felt love like this.

The Chap has fallen head over heels in love.

The first words I said to my little girl after a pretty traumatic birth were "hello little bird. I've waited 39 years to meet you and I promise I will be the best Mummy I can possibly be. I will love you forever"

I've thought long and hard about I want for her and decided I wish for my little bird good health and happiness. 

Frugally yours

Abigail

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It's a ...

Little girl!

🎀🍼

So, Where Was I?

Hello

I would not blame you if you had long since given up reading this blog and moved on to other bloggers.

I haven't posted in over 6 months and my last post told you we were having some problems.

We spent the months before and after Christmas going through investigative procedures which resulted in February being told that The Chap has super sperm. Yes, seriously that's the term the Consultant used! Super Sperm! I bet you are imagining sperm wearing y front over tights now aren't up you as they frantically swim towards an egg?

His were plentiful, of a good quality and going in the right direction. Bless Him, he was so proud of his swimmers. He even told his parents over Sunday lunch recently. That wasn't awkward  at all love..

So why weren't we we pregnant with his determined little heroes ?

No matter how wonderful his sperm is at 42, if there are no eggs then there is nothing to fertilise.
The problem is all mine. I had hardly any eggs left.

So very very sad.

I had been using a fertility monitor which cost £100 new and I bought second hand from eBay. The sticks were then about £30 a month. Getting pregnant is not cheap.

I knew I wasn't ovulating all the time but thought that sometimes you could miss it, as you ovulated after taking the morning test but the it had gone by the next morning.

No, no egg, no happy fucking smiley face for me on the machine. (sorry for the swearing)

We are lucky we could have one round of NHS funded IVF where I live if we could give up smoking for three months. I smoked my last cigarette on 3rd of January before we had been told we couldn't conceive. The Chap a few weeks later after our consultant appointment.

TC sole contributions to the process is a twenty minute happy time in a locked room with some mags, me? Well mine involved needles blood work and a lap and dye. That's a process of injecting dye into your Fallopian tubes to check for blockages.  Don't let anyone tell you it will be a bit sore. Forcing one's cervix open is a painful but quick procedure the dye hurts like hell and then you wait with your FooFoo out for all in the X-ray department to examine.

IVF was booked for April as we had to start before my 39th birthday to qualify for free IVF. Honestly we were really lucky to get it hardly any NHS districts offer it so it was liked being offered hens teeth.

So the beginning of feb we learnt of my barren status and settled down to see if our IVF would be lucky. Would it?  What would happen?




I'm writing this now 20 weeks pregnant, and fat with knickers that roll down as I'm too tight to buy maternity knickers wearing eBay bought maternity clothes with terrible indigestion and Yet I couldn't be happier.

Two and a half weeks after being told the devastating news about our pregnancy prospects and I can't tell you how many tears later I was going to bed and couldnt find my pjs. Whilst searching for a clean pair I came across an old test and took it. I don't know why there was no smiley face again on my ovulation machine.

I thought I saw the faintest of faint lines. I didn't say anything to TC. What was the point? I cannot have kids. The next morning The Chap left at 6am for an early meeting and I was at the store by 20 past six in jogging bottoms and hoodie sans underwear. I bought one of every test. I mean damn the cost right? All were positive. Cue more tears and then a 14 hour wait before my handsome and loving Chap returned home to the good news.

No child will ever be more cherished and more loved than ours and I cannot wait to meet my baby on Halloween!!

Thank you for reading, it's been a journey hasn't it?

Frugally Yours
Abigail
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In Which I Am A Paragon

Afternoon All

Hello Mrs G, thanks for your kind comments.

So it is a good thing that I write a frugal blog isnt it? It means I always watch the pennies and make do and mend.

It means we live always conscious of the pennies and constantly save toward the future.

Do we bollocks..

I am so sorry to burst your bubble, but I dont live like Frugal Queen or Mean Queen. I think they are brilliant, but I could not live like that.

TC was about 9 months ago made a Partner of his firm and so we do want to enjoy some jam now, but not on credit.

Anyway in a week we are going on holiday... on a cruise no less and have splurged on an outside cabin with balcony. We travel around visiting Toulon, Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Genoa. I am so excited and cannot wait. I have also been very lucky and TC put in £250 toward the coast of my holiday too. It is all full board, but we will have to pay for the drinks and any extras we want.

After 4 years together we have only ever been to Spain to his parents villa or for a weekend in Amsterdam when he got really sick.

So its a proper holiday with waiters and room service etc.

Of course I needed to get some new clothes, so after work I hopped to Tamworth and their retail park which is open until 9PM buying two tops and two pairs of trousers, I also ordered a multiway dress a few weeks ago thinking i could wear it for the two formal nights.

I got home and The Chap wanted to see what I had bought him to go away with as he has now surrendered all buying of clothes to me. I had not got him anything as he only needed shorts and they were in pretty short supply in October. Gloves and hats no problem, but not shorts.

"No worries" says he "I will grab some from town on Saturday"

ME "Where in town? as everywhere has sold out of shorts and only has winter clothes in"

HIM "No Screwfix has shorts in"

Screwfix, I ask you?? Thats where he is buying his holiday clothes from now. I really do give up, no one is ever going to think he is a Metrosexual as he grunts his way through life in a Star Wars Tshirt and Air Max Trainers.

No seriously I bought him a tshirt for Christmas and as he had had such a bad day at work I gave it to him early.



It has not been off his back since.

Bless his cotton socks.

So what I am longwindedly trying to say is I am not someone to look up to as a frugal blogger, but I am trying my  best, however I do occassionally think "Stuff this for a game of Soldiers" and go and blow cash on unneccessary purchases, plus in the last 12 months I have increased from a size 12 to a 14 and so nothing fits and I constantly look like I am popping out of stuff. Oh dear!

Frugally yours
Abigail
xxxx

The Big Shop

When I get paid, which was today, I always immediately go shopping and buy all our food for the month.

Here it is..

The whole process took 2 hours today and I spent £150. I will need to go back and buy more vegetables and milk during the month, but all these bags and boxes that fill the boot and spill onto to the back seat also include toiletries and cleaning products.

I start thinking about "shopping day" about 5-7 days before I get paid, and write a list as I check cupboards and start thinking what we both need for the next four weeks.

I then rewrite it, according to where I'm going to buy each item from. 

Aldi is always cheapest, but my girls won't eat their cat food and I swear by Catsan so that has to be done somewhere else along with, for example, curry sauces as I don't like Aldi ones. 

So "shopping day" always means visiting 2 supermarkets, I do one straight after the other, but today I did 3 separate transactions. 

Why?

Well on Thursday The Mirror newspaper was offering a £5 off a £40 shop at Aldi, so I bought two copies of the paper to get 2 vouchers and then split my shop into two separate transactions. That meant I walked around on the first shop writing down prices and adding them up on my calculator to make sure I didn't exceed £40 by too much so I had a chance of making the next shop to £40 too. I don't mind looking a prat to save.

It meant I got £10 worth of free food which covered all the chicken I bought and more.

Then Lloyds bank are offering 10% cash back on all food purchases from Morrisons for the next 10 days, meaning I got paid for the final transaction too. 

I always start with Aldi though so I can double check that everything I still have on my other supermarket list is not available in Aldi.

It really pays to prepare, food costs so much today that I want to make sure my money is going as far as possible.

The only downside is when I got back the last thing I felt like doing was cooking!

Frugally yours

Abigail

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