Good afternoon Junies... had playgroup this morning then had lunch afterwards with an increasingly large group of mums/kids in a nearby cafe courtyard. We all felt a bit "off" today, none of us could quite put our fingers on why... for me it was a lack of sleep last night (I was up bringing in clothes off the line at 2am then I crept back to bed only to be woken by Verity who was scared because she thought she heard a burgular! I said "It was me"... I would have thought she'd be used to hearing me up and about at all hours by now LOL poor girl was petrified).

Nickel: Regarding second-hand clothing: Verity has never known anything different, she's spent her life with me rummaging through Op Shops... she knows that it's just part of the deal. It's just what we do to afford to send her to private school. We can still afford to buy her some key items (jeans/joggers etc) that are popular brands and new but they only constitute about %20 of her wardrobe.... the rest is second hand. Kids just need a few items to feel like they "fit in" you don't need to spend a fortune. For about the past 2/3 years she had developed a good understanding of money. She was stunned when she learned that her school blazer alone was going to be $220 this year... so I know she will look after it! Verity doesn't usually get caught up with competing with other girls materially. Infact even though she goes to a private girls' school I'd say about half the girls are like Verity: their parents are sacrificing a lot and they don't generally wear expensive brands either. Infact when I took a group of her friends to the Cinema recently we all got talking about Savers and the girls all sounded very interested! LOL They said they were going to ask their mums if they could go there! LOL I hope the mums don't feel too proud. So it sounds like Verity is making the whole concept of Op Shopping appealing.... unlike when I was her age, she is popular enough to make it The Thing To Do... I was just too shy and suffered in silence as i wore very untrendy homemade items.

Bit of a woohoo: Niall is now giving himself a bottle of EBM or formula (when my boobies are just too sore) and drifting off to sleep when he has finished I think he's just drifted off now... gonna check... ETA: yep, tossed the bottle aside, rolled over and went to sleep yay!!!

Rory: DH and I are a bit like you and your DH, don't generally disagree on expenditure... although we do kinda have the odd meltdown about once a year that goes along these lines:

DH: "OMG our Visa cards are full!!! WTF are we going to do!?! What if the car breaks down! We're stuffed! You don't know how this affects me I can't sleep!!!"

Me: "Calm down, just DO THE BLOODY TAX and we'll get a huge rebate which will help... we can survive on our pantry stores if need be... we don't NEED to do grocery shopping this week".

DH: "You don't understand (panic-striken rant)...and we need a proper holiday!"

Me: "Oh Ye of little faith... all will be well....this too will pass... God will provide (LOL)"

DH: "Pffft!" (storms off and sulks until about 3 days later when, sure enough, some windfall befalls us and all is saved).

This usally comes in the form of some forgotten work expenditure claim or a timely performance bonus, or the discovery of some forgotten shares that we are able to cash in etc. We've been living this way for nearly 13 years too... and I expect we will live this way for another 18 afterwhich we would have finally paid all the school fees for all the kids and all of a sudden we will have so much freed-up income we won't know what to do with it!!!! LOL So in terms of fighting, we are more likely to argue over slightly differing parenting styles than anything else... that's our biggest issue... thank God money isn't a biggie. I reckon it's a nice balance to have one partner "serious" about money and the other a "Pollyanna"... I think it would be a lot worse if you were both one way or the other.