Catch up
Well things are slowly getting back to normal here Brads behaviour seems to be calming down a little and I have been fortunate enough to have only suffered one MD attack in the last 2 months. Brandon is receiving disabilty now that we have a formal diagnosis of his Autism. So I now officialy have 2 autistic children. Although we have known this for years its nice to have it recognised professionaly and hopefully he will now start recieving the help he so badly needs. A while ago I wrote a post on the cut backs I would be making in my household with our media and telephone packages. Im pleased to say the changes have now taken place and we should start seeing savings on next months bill. I was paying £55 a month for our internet, landline, and t.v package. I have now got that down to £10 a month by getting rid of the landline as we never used it anyway, purchasing a mobile broadband dongle where you pay in advance £30 for 3 months internet usuage, and we have got rid of the tv package and are having freeview installed in 2 weeks time. I am lucky enough to have a very talented step father who can turn his hand to anything he will be installing it for me free of charge and the freeview box itself I had in the shed from several years ago so all I will need to buy is an ariel. In the meantime we are making do with videos and dvds and watching the odd bit of tele online. With my mobile phone I was going to cancel my contract with them and go onto pay as you go. However when I called to cancel my contract with them they offered me an awsome deal that will match what I would have payed on pay as you go. I was given a brand new touch screen phone with lots of apps and internet access and I now recieve 100 mins talktime, 350 texts, unlimited internet usage for just £7 a month. Of course with vat added it will work out to about £8.50 a month providing I dont go over my allowances. I was paying £25 - £30 a month for my mobile service so this is a saving of £21.50 a month. In total I am saving myself £66.50 a month which works out a whopping £798 a year an awsome saving.
Xmas preperations
I have been preparing for xmas the last few weeks and am hoping to make this one the best yet for the children, myself, and Lee. It is our first xmas all together so its going to be a special one. I have almost finished buying all the presents I still have a few more to get and will take care of that this week. I have been doing an hours present wrapping every night and will continue with this so that it will all be done in time avoiding a mad present wrapping session xmas eve as I have ended up doing the last few years. I seem to be a lot more organised this xmas than I have been in the past I think its because I have Lee in my life now and he helps out with chores whenever he is here decreasing my workload by half. The xmas decorations were put up on the 1st of December a combination of old and new. I had to buy a few new ones as some of the old ones were broken. We did put up our tree but have had to take it down again as baby kept climbing up it and pulling it down. Lee and I will put it back up xmas eve and keep baby out of the front room little monkey she is. As far as the xmas shopping is concerned we dont go overboard like a lot of families do. I will do my normal weekly shop but include the ingrediants needed for xmas dinner with a choice of christmas cake, mince pies and cream, or chocolate cake for pudding. On boxing day we usualy just have a buffet laid out for the day and a box or 2 of sweets so I will be buying this in addition to my normal weekly shop again I will take care of that this week. It does make me laugh the way people food shop for xmas the amount they buy is crazy. I know my mum is the same she spends a small fortune and ends up eating a lot of the treats she buys well into January or throwing a lot of it away which is a terrible waste and as good as throwing money directly into the bin.
I have also been working on my xmas house clean I always give the house a good decluttering and clean in time for xmas. The boys have a total of 5 toy boxes and a very big book basket which has hundreads of books in. I went through all the toy boxes and threw away any toys that were broken. I also sorted out the toys that they no longer play with and sent them to the charity shop. So there is now plenty of space for all the lovely new prezzies they will get for xmas this year. I also did a general decluttering of the whole house throwing away things that were broken and sending anything we no longer use but is in good condition to the charity shop. The house is looking a lot more tidy and spaceous now which is lovely. I have also taken down and washed all my nets and curtains and will be stripping and washing my sofas this week also. Which will just leave washing down the walls, doors and paintwork again I will take care of that this week as a friend is going to give me a hand doing this for an hour sometime this week. Providing all goes to plan I should be on top of xmas by Friday this week which will then leave me free to enjoy the festivities with my beutiful family.
Hope everyone elses preparations for xmas are going as well as mine and if I dont get to post again before xmas
From me and my family we wish you all a very merry xmas.
Much Love
Claire xxx
