www.iva.co.uk

[:(!]Doesn't it drive you MAD!!!!

You get your wages , you pay out all your bills and then WALLOP!!!
another Birthday crops up!!!
I don't mean this as being nasty ,but it is so frustrating!!!
You get to the weekend and you think i will take the kids for a family swim and then you realise that it is someone's Wedding Anniversary so you hav eto buy them a present and then it is someone elses birthday like a nephew or niece and then it is an In- Laws birthday.

IT DRIVES ME MAD!!!!!![:(!][:(!]

It's just like all those birthday collections and leaving collections you are asked to contribute to at work..

Every other day...

Tell me about it - my friend's daughter was 3 a couple of weeks ago and another friend's little girl was 1 the weekend just gone and was christened yesterday. It's cost me a fortune! Don't get me wrong, I don't begrudge any of them anything, but I wish it was all a bit more spaced out!

oh and the sponsorship collections..

i feel a tight@ss everytime i have to say no (

I don't ask for sponsorship now - when I did the Race for Life last year I let people know that I'd set up a fundraising page on Justgiving.com and if they would like to sponsor me the address is...

I actually found that I raised more that way, and it took the embarrassment out of people feeling they couldn't say no, and also for me asking for the money after the event, and people who did want to pay by cash or cheque still could.

totally agree. It's just a nightmare when you get about 20 links to that site.

Maybe i am just too popular and will have to dump some "mates"

lmfao! ;o)

I just pick out a few to sponsor - luckily my friends aren't particularly active!

On the subject birthdays, our worst month is December - both me and hubbie and my step-son - all just before Christmas!!!!! Have three in November as well!

At work, as it is such a small office, some of the girls buy each other presents costing about £10 a time. I was dreading it this year, but one of them decided it was time to knock it on the head. I was definitely in agreement there!!!!!

i thought we were all lazy B'trds too.

Seems they have all gone healthy on me!!

TRAITORS!! ;o)

We have about 26 members in our immediate family (not too mention the couple of friends I buy for) so we can guarantee at least 1 birthday a month. April is a really bad time for us as we have 5 birthdays and Christmas - what a nightmare!!! Wish we had the same rule as China - only one child per family haha only joking!!

Andrea

Hi all, well last christmas was extremely tight for me as i have 2 birthdays the 28th and 30th of Novemeber (my partner and my son) and my grandaugher's the 9th of Decemeber then Christmas, so I explained the situation to my friends at work and said i simply cant afford to "Swap" presents this year, as my immediate family came first - I would just get them all a nice card and I gave them all plenty of notice so they knew my situation. They all said they understood and when Christmas came a few of them still brought me a small gift anyway which made me feel very special but a bit guilty. They told me not to as it was nice to give and not expect to recieve. I guess that shows genuine fiends:)

Helen x

It is so frustrating ,especially when we are stuck in this IVA thing.
All the time people want Sponsorships for lasting a Marathon or doing some kind of Parachute Jump, Bungee Jump Whatever.
They should swap roles , Let them do an IVA and i do a Parachute Jump and see which one is Toughest.

I've stopped taking money to work, that way they can't get you!!
We do have a birthday collection which is £3 each which isn't too bad.
When I started the IVA last year I worked out all the expenses I would have during the year which included birthdays and xmas. I divided this into a monthly figure, added a bit for contingency and basically deduct this figure into a seperate pot every month. Whatever's left pays for food and petrol.
This system seems to work for me and I've never ran out of money at the end of the month!

january a really bad month for us, daughters, father in law, aunties and uncles! november is quite bad too!

am afraid money spent on presents now has been cut right down, something i should have done years ago instead of sticking it on the flexible friend!

barb x

We've cut right down as well.

We've never bothered with anniversarys unless it is a special one. We don't even send each other a card (hubbie does not like to be reminded that we married on Friday 13th!). Likewise, when my daughter was born, my parents were told that they could chose either mothers day and fathers day or grandparents day, not both. Most of these things now are just a rip off. Flowers double in price and unless you find a nice cheap card shop, the cost of those is just extortionate!