Candyfloss & Dreams

Category: Lifestyle

lifestyle blog posts focusing on home, lifestyle, parenting, pregnancy, family life and home and style. Home decor and working at home, working at home as a self employed freelancer and blogger. Family lifestyle blog posts including family reviews, family products and saving money as a family. Being a more eco friendly family.

  • Journey To Debt Free – November 2019

    Journey To Debt Free – November 2019

    Becoming debt free has been a real focus this year and it will continue to be a focus for next year too however I am pleased to say I have done really well this year. We have paid of, I would say, at least half of our debts and hire purchases now which is fantastic progress. I gave myself two years to be completely debt free so we sill have until 31st December 2020 to reach that goal. I think we’ve made great progress.

    In July this year we completed a hirepurchase agreement which was costing us £17 a week. It was one of those quite big spends that we couldn’t really change which was quite frustrating. The second hire purchase will finish at the end of this month which is about £6 a week. It’s not a big difference but it’s a completed hire purchase and it will finally be done.

    I have now closed around six debt accounts too of varrying amounts and I currently have three left. I’ve had to continously adjust the amount I can afford to pay back each month but I am still on track to close two more debt accounts in December as they are both under £200. It does make me feel a bit sick still thinking that I have to pay out £400 between now and the end of the year as the payments are a little bigger than I can afford but the feeling I get when I see those debt accounts completely closed will trump that feeling.

    Earning more money through self employment is a big goal for next year. I want to earn around £25,000

    That will then leave me with four credit cards and one last debt, which has been the biggest one for ages.The biggest debt is our water rates and every six months has around £200 or so added to it from the water company. It’s currently about £1400 and I’m only able to pay £5 a week right now as I focus on bigger payments for the other debts. I am then going to focus on my smallest credit card which has a balance of around £175 before increasing my weekly payments to £15 a week.

    The credit cards are hard because there are times when we need to use them however, the balances on them is now quite high and I am keen to spend 2020 clearing those balances as much as possible. I do want to close the water account though so I will have to do a new budget at the start of the year and work out exactly what I can afford to pay where.

    Here is my update:

    Credit Card 1 – owe £175
    Credit Card 2 – owe £650
    Credit Card 3 – owe £950
    Credit Card 4 – owe £2400
    Debt 1: £140
    Debt 2: £199
    Debt 3: £1400
    SimplyBe Account: £150 – currently paying £50 a month back on this one which I’m happy with as it’s clearing it nicely and I have a balance should I need any clothes – being plus size means my size isn’t usually stocked in stores.

    I really want to organise my tax accounts better too so that I can keep track of what I’m earning and what I’m spending

    The amount has fluctuated through the year as I expected it would. I’ve had credit limit increases on my card which seemingly have come at the right time for when we’ve been short and frustatingly that balance has increased because of the smaller, regular purchases. We also have not stuck to some of my budgetting tips, meal plans, shopping lists and have had some more extravagant purchases which we really shouldn’t have done. However, I don’t want to feel guilty about that because there’s no point to it. What I want to do is celebrate the fact that I have closed some debt accounts, we have closed hire purchases agreements and will have another two debt accounts closed by the end of the year.

    It’s been really hard some months and I want to make it much more mangable for us next year. I am going to start putting money into a savings account each week again from the start of the year. I think I will start with £5 a week at first and then as more debt accounts and credit card balances come down I will increase this. Ideally I’d like to have saved around £250 by September to go towards Christmas.

    I have two big financial goals for 2020. The first is to get rid of the water account debt of £1400 and the second is to clear the balance to within £100 on Credit Card 3. We have a cruise booked in December 2020 and I really want to put Credit Card 3 as my cruise account card. I won’t use the entire balance but I think it will be better to budget if I have some spare funds. Adam is going to link his own credit card to his cruise account so we can take it in turns paying any extras.

    My other financial goals for 2020 are as follows:

    Earn an average of £2080 a month through self employment, freelancing, blog and social media work
    Pay off my two smaller credit cards and keep the balance under £50 on Credit Card 1 and £100 on Credit Card 2
    Stop spending on Credit Card 4 and gradually increase payments as and when I can
    Have £500 saved for Christmas
    Add an additional £300 to my private pension fund throughout the year

    We want to try and clear everything as much as we possibly can between now and the end of 2020 so we can start 2021 with as clean a slate as possible and focus the first six months on saving as much money as we possibly can to be able to move house. I would absolutely love to be able to save £6000 in those first six months of 2021 as it could make a huge difference to moving house. This would be enough to cover the first three months rent on our ideal type of property, deposit and fees, and then hopefully some moving costs too. In an ideal world, we would want six months worth of rent saved but e will just have to see how much we can clear next year first.

  • Decorating the Home for Christmas – Ad

    Decorating the Home for Christmas – Ad

    I have seen everyone debating on when the perfect time to put up the Christmas decorations is. I personally don’t think there is a perfect time. For us, it’s a weekend when we are all together as a family as close to the start of the month as possible. We try to keep all the decor up until the first weekend after New Years Day when it all comes back down again and lovingly placed back in the box.

    I don’t have a theme for Christmas decor really but as time goes on we have collected some really lovely decorations. Long gone is the day where I had to get everything from Poundland. We now have the freedom and flexibility to design our festive theme exactly how we like. I’ve considered temporary Christmas wall murals this year as they look absolutely stunning. Removable wall paper and murals are a great addition to the family home and I’ve been looking at peel and stick wallpaper from Wallsauce for some inspiration.

    Image from Wallsauce. Peel and stick wallaper can give make a huge difference to a room this festive season

    Of course peel and stick wallpaper doesn’t have to be a temporary thing. It’s a great way to transform a room and ideal for those in rented accomodation, like me, as it can be removed easily and won’t damage the landlord’s walls. It’s a great way to create a festive backdrop or feature wall in your own living space.

    I can’t deny that I am super excited for Christmas this year. We are just fitting in our festive plans and finding out which Christmas markets to visit. We are hoping to book in a festive afternoon tea before the big day too. I have written my Christmas food shop which covers 22nd until 2nd January and just need to get that booked in now. We’ve already sampled our first few festive coffees and I have to say we have put our Christmas tree up too. I am really looking forward to Christmas this year and I hope you have a very happy, festive season.

  • A Creative Workspace – #Ad

    A Creative Workspace – #Ad

    This is a collaborative post.

    I’m really limited in where I can work at home as I only have one living space. I don’t like working in my bedroom so have everything crammed onto one desk that looks very cluttered most of the time. I want to sort it out and make it a bit more accessible and hopefully that will help the creative juices flow a bit better.

    My desk at home is a little bit on the busy side!

    I’ve often thought what it would be like to have an actual office and how I’d want it to be. I think think coworking spaces might work a bit better or actually having an office to go to would be quite lovely. The only thing is I’d like a bit of a say in how it’s designed and that kind of means I’d have to own it or at least collaborate on it’s design with a few other creative people. Working from home can be quite lonely though so perhaps collaborating on a shared creative workspace would be the way forward.

    Obviously it’s important to have a desk for my work and a decent computer but I also like doing a lot of things handwritten too. Extra desk space, some shelves to keep books, notebooks and planners and a good selection of decent pens. I’d also like to be able to make use of natural light and have a place where I could easily record videos when I need to. It’s something I really wish I had here in the flat really!

    Having some creative breakout areas could help with brainstorming ideas and collaborating

    Sharing office space with others would also call the need for a place to make a decent cuppa and to work together and collaborate or brainstorm. Having some good quality and comfortable breakout furniture could really help with this. There are a lot of cool and creative solutions to make office spaces really personal these days. I think you need the right amount of private and group spaces when you work creatively. Areas to discuss and brainstorm, and then areas to just get the work done.

    One thing I find quite tough about working from home is the background noise of kids TV but it helps to occupy Felix and I can get some work done. That being said if it’s not Kids TV then it’s a video game or Eastenders and I often get distracted then! I would really like my own little space where I can close the door and get stuff done but ultimately I work at home because of the flexibility it offers. Maybe in the future I’ll be able to look into an office space or maybe even get myself a decent laptop and go and work in a coffee shop from time to time!

  • Could At Home Cervical Cancer Tests Help Increase Screening Rates?

    Could At Home Cervical Cancer Tests Help Increase Screening Rates?

    Cervical cancer is one of the more common cancers affecting women (or anyone with a cervix, really) and is screened from the age of 25. I’ve now had two, I’m due my next one around March 2020. I recently read a news article about at home self sampling cervical cancer screening tests possibly increasing and becoming ‘the norm’ within the next five or so years. You can read the full article here. I can’t comment on the science but I can comment on how I feel about cervical screening.

    Cervical cancer is incredibly serious, and, according to healthcare professionals, in many cases be prevented or dealt with early enough should you attend your regular cervical screenings. I had a conversation with my nurse about it last time who said the reason it’s every three years is because that’s usually the time it may or may not take for cell changes to become present on the cervix. I’ve had a baby since I last had a screening so my cervix has been through quite a bit! If any cell changes are detected, further tests are offered. I have had both tests come back clear but there’s always the chance they won’t and further screening is offered. I’ve read stories from friends who have also had further screening and whilst it doesn’t sound pleasent, I’d argue that it’s better than cancer.

    Why Don’t We Attend Cervical Screenings?

    I’d say the most common reason is embarressment. By the time I’d had my first cervical screening I’d already had a baby. Enough midwives and doctors had already seen everything down there but that didn’t really help because I didn’t know what to expect. Does talking about our experiences help encourage others to go? It might do, but it might not. I mean, it’s not something that comes up in conversation is it. Even though it’s a regular screening that’s really important, any kind of health care check to do with genitals, or unseen bits, makes us feel uncomfortable. There’s a huge element of self-conciousness about health care checks that involve our bits.

    I can tell you that the two screenings I’ve had have been minutes long. I’ve had privacy to get undressed and dressed again. It hasn’t really been painful but I’ve had a few cramps afterwards and felt a little delicate. I’d say thats probably more mental than physical though. It’s something that you don’t really want to do and well the vagina doesn’t really like it when you’re not completely relaxed. My advice is to take a few long, deep breaths before, counting for 4 as you inhale and then 8 as you exhale. Another tip I’ve learned is relaxed shoulders means a relaxed pelvis so trying to keep your shoulders down rather than up at your ears might make it a little bit easier.

    The fact is cervical screening is not easy for everyone and I can completely sympathise with that. I don’t doubt that victims of rape and sexual assualt find this to be incredibly difficult to experience. I understand that for some people the screening is really painful. I know first hand what it’s like to be fat shamed during a cervical screening and yes, it has made me doubt having another one because my weight has nothing to do with my screening and everything to do with the fatphobic attitude of the healthcare professional doing the screening. Perhaps cervical screening is incredibly uncomfortable and difficult for intersex, transgender or individuals at war with gender dysphoria. There are so many social constructs that make cervical screening hard and why so many people put it off.

    How Could At Home Tests Help?

    I think it could make a huge difference actually. I think this would see cervical cancer screening rates rise hugely. If women were taught more about there bodies and actually encouraged to look at themselves down there to check things where okay perhaps the embarressment might fade a bit. It seems that the test is a urine sample and a vaginal swab and I am sure many, many people would prefer to do this at home. It looks like the inital use of self sampling would be for those that don’t attend after being invited to their screening or in countries where routine screening is not offered. In the long term, it could be that at home self sampling is the way forward.

    So far more than 600 women have taken part in a study for this who had either abnormal smear results or tested positive for HPV (the virus known to cause the cells to change cancerous). Of course there is the vaccination offered too but with the anti-vax community growing there is probably less uptake of this too. Women were asked to self sample with a vaginal swab and it correctly identified high risk pre-cancerous cells in 96% of samples. This is encouraging to know that it has been successful because it sounds much less invasive than the cervical screening at the moment.

    Dr Nedjai added: “We are currently working on new markers to try to improve the accuracy of the classifier even further, but these findings represent an advance in cervical cancer screening, especially for women who do not attend the clinic, such as older women, or women who find the smear test too painful or who do not have access to a screening programme in their country. We think it’s promising.”

    https://news.sky.com/story/home-urine-testing-kit-could-make-cervical-cancer-smear-test-obsolete-11854461

    Would I use self sampling in the future?

    Absolutely. I don’t like going to the doctors and being fat shamed. I would self sample and if I needed further tests then of course I would go. I would prefer the results to be a little more accurate but then even the initial screening isn’t going to be 100% accurate. Sometimes the cervix is too high, the patient needs to stop for whatever reason or the cells simply aren’t good enough. Self sampling could be the cost effective and time saving breakthough that would encourage more screenings and is a change I would welcome.

  • Felix at 13 Months

    Felix at 13 Months

    Celebrating Felix’s first birthday at the start of the month was really nice. We had a great day at Legoland as a family and got on a few rides. The weather was nice too which was great. This last year has been so busy and watching Felix grow, change and develop has been a real priveledge. He is such a happy little boy and has a lot of love to give.

    Physical Development

    Felix isn’t walking yet. I thought he might be by now but I think he just realises how quick he can get places by crawling. I know he will get there when he’s ready but it does make going out quite tough sometimes as he wants to be out of the pushchair, highchair or not being held. However, it’s not always safe to pop him down. He can cruise around the furniture with ease. He can pull himself up, reach down for things he drops with one hand, squat and get back up again. He is now climbing up and down the sofa. We are trying to teach him to climb back down backwards to keep him safe. He can also get himself out of his highchair straps and tries to get out of there too.

    His pincer grip is getting stronger and he has mimicked clapping two objects together. He loves to knock down towers of bricks too. He very much plays with his toys now and of course one of his favourite games is throwing something down for you to pick back up again. He will hand me objects or try to put his dummy in my mouth which often ends with him punching me in the nose! He now likes to discard things by throwing them behind his back and is starting to try and put things together like putting the lid on his bottle.

    Social Development

    He is making lots of funny noises with his mouth at the moment like clicking his tongue and doing a sort of fish face. He has also started giving kisses to his teddies and to me, usually in the morning when I get him out of bed. Felix is constantly chattering away which is so lovely to hear. He is really practising all the sounds and shouts, screeches and has had more moments of that big belly laugh. He sometimes nods and shakes his head if we ask him questions but it’s usually with a smile and then the opposite reaction straight away. He does make us all laugh.