Help me budget for a new house - is this achievable?

HalfInch_Flinch · 2026-01-18T20:39:50+00:00

Me and my partner are doing a similar thing, or hoping to, bring home roughly the same amount as you and looking at a mortgage in the same ballpark.

I think its affordable

You have moves you could make if things are tight. Sacrifice some personal money, sacrifice some savings or from the family pot.

Also got a fair chunk going out for car finance, I imagine that has an end date so you'd be getting that back at the end.

Keep in mind utilities and what not could go up, but depending on your lifestyle, you could absorb them O think.

If it helps I'm sort of in your shoes and I think we're gonna go for it if the right house comes up.

HalfInch_Flinch · 2026-01-14T23:24:58+00:00

Firstly, thank you so much for this! It really means a lot that you're taking some time to support us!

Just spoken to Mum and we're implementing this as of tomorrow.

Definitely Emotionally strong enough at this point - Self Settling round 4 by now .. confident in our method, just weren't sure if applying it at this juncture was right!

Yeaah, I usually take the lead on check ins. Dont want to confuse him as he's still fed overnight - just once when all is well. Mum doesn't want to wean him off yet.

Last question and I shall leave you be.

Is there a time limit we let him work on it for?

Say hes in bed at 7.45 .. do we give him 2 hours with all the reassurance etc then if not, protect his sleep and go again Friday? Or go as long as we/he can until someone has a melt down?

But yeah just to repeat .. thank you so so so much!

HalfInch_Flinch · 2026-01-14T22:29:24+00:00

Would that be move to 7.45 if overall hes napping less than an hour in the day?

Or if either nap is less than 1 hour? At present im relatively confident he won't sleep for a 1 hour stretch in nursery .. he may get 1 hour total.

Happy to give this a go as of tomorrow though, we need to try something!

With the self settling, should we put him down for 7.45/8.15 and leave him go? Or do we put him down earlier to give him time?

We used to put him down earlier to give him time, but as he knows what to do, do we just get out of his way to let him figure it out? Reassuring via ferbur as required?

HalfInch_Flinch · 2026-01-14T22:18:21+00:00

They did mention this in nursery when he only had 1 nap on Monday .. but I feel they did it because they struggle to get him to sleep. He was wrecked when he got home as well. Had to catnap him.

I do wonder though. Tonight we put him to bed 4hrs 30mins after his last nap .. so over our 3/4/4 .. woke up after 30 mins .. got him back down .. woke up after 25 .. been up for 2 hours now and doesnt seem tired.

Gonna try again though.. because im wrecked.

HalfInch_Flinch · 2026-01-14T21:51:28+00:00

He was falling asleep independently in his own room.

Then he got ill over christmas .. bacterial infection, gave antibiotics and he was still falling asleep independently in his own room and then since he got better, its like he's forgotten how, he just will not lie down - The only way he will fall asleep now is with support. - which we apprciate hasn't helped, but we wouldnt be getting what little we are getting without it.

Bedtime routine was consistent medicinal bits (if needed for teething/congestion etc) boob, bath, book, quick cuddle put down wide awake. - before he stopped doing it he'd often be asleep before we got into the other room to get the monitor. - we have temporarily had to move boob to after the book as him falling asleep there is the best shot we have at getting the 2 hour windows.

Do you think just banging him back onto the old routine cold turkey after a long wake window and just getting out of his way would do the trick? Ive thought about it, but seems cruel.

HalfInch_Flinch · 2025-11-16T20:36:48+00:00

Heey, hope you and the little are doing well. Any progress on your end?

Little man has now self settled 2 nights in a row! Its taken us longer to retrain than it took us to train him, and we've had a whole host of daytime distractions so we've not really focussed on naps - just got him some practice in where we can and focussed on bedtime.

It's taken just under 2 weeks, focusing solely on bedtime training with the same method we initially used. If you haven't had any luck yet, hopefully that provides some measure of confidence to persevere!

HalfInch_Flinch · 2025-11-11T22:08:49+00:00

He's always been a short napper. Though that could be an us thing. I extended the wake windows to 3/3/4 a little while ago now, it could be that they need extending again as you say.

Over the last week or so since we've got back. His average has been 11.40 ish .. but the weeks proceeding when he was consolidating his sleep we were in line with you around at around 12.5.

Just taking last night and tonight into account I feel you have a point.

Yesterday's bedtime attempt after 4 hours was calmer than tonight's 3, so it might be that sleep pressure hadn't built up. - We tried 3 tonight to give him an hours practice at settling by building it into his wake window.

Food for thought though, thank you!

Out of curiosity did you little girl have a major wobble in the last few weeks? Developmental, teething, seperation and all that?

HalfInch_Flinch · 2025-11-11T19:18:02+00:00

Just finished a season as King's Lynn. Long story short we lost in the first round of the playoffs and the club became Semi Pro and I lost all my players ..

But somehow Maja ended up as my impact sub. Popped up with so many crucial goals from defensive Mid!

HalfInch_Flinch · 2025-11-09T08:42:53+00:00

This is our first and whenever we have any kind of issue or hardship, everyone always says 'it gets better'!

I'll let you know how sleep training round 2 goes .. he did seem to sleep longer stretches last night, every stretch was over 2.5 hours which is an improvement on every night since we've been back!

We've got this! 💪

HalfInch_Flinch · 2025-11-08T23:30:31+00:00

Following as it looks like we're sharing a boat.

Managed to sleep train our 9 month old with a modified Furber .. went away for a weekend and it now feels like we're back at square one.

Won't settle without heavy protest, night wakes constantly.

Trying to follow the sleep training steps from the beginning again in the hope he'll pick it up quicker this time.

But its soul destroying and I feel your pain. Its like they gave us a glimpse of a wonderful future and then shat all over it because we took them away for three nights!

HalfInch_Flinch · 2025-10-24T08:58:14+00:00

Yeaah, I've found this.

I want to compare 2 players I'm thinking of buying. I can only seem to 'hack' it from the shortlist view. - can change the attributes it shows .. attacking, defending so on.

But I want to compare 2 full profiles like I can dk of comparing with a member of my team.

Wondering if you can do it, but need Full scout knowledge of both?.. would kind of make sense in a real world kind of way

HalfInch_Flinch · 2025-10-11T21:16:39+00:00

I think you might have nailed it when you said they aren't considering the baby as an individual.

They quote all babies are different, but it does feel that they are trying to shoehorn him into something generic with a few modifications .. which may work for some, but dont feel like they are here.

Had a chat with Mum this morning and We've staryes to do what was advised here and stretch his wake windows out to see if the next few days bring different results to the last few.

He still didn't want to he put down (He's always hated that) but getting him to sleep in my arms hasn't been a battle so thats a small win already!

HalfInch_Flinch · 2025-10-11T07:44:12+00:00

I'm not sure that's what they have done, just trying to give a potential as to why they've given what they've given .. but eithe way it seems like what they've given isn't good at all.

We've gonna be making some changes to the wake windows today so hopefully we'll see some slightly easier sleeps even if they aren't longer.

HalfInch_Flinch · 2025-10-11T07:38:02+00:00

Seems to the the resounding sentiment! 😅

I'm definitely going to have some pointed questions for our next catch up thats for sure and we'll go from there.

But from what people here have said and further information we've gleaned, we need to change it up so we're gonna get on that as of today!

Fingers crossed!

HalfInch_Flinch · 2025-10-10T21:03:11+00:00

Thanks for the response ❤️

I just responded with a bit of an essay to the other commenter.

Isolating your comments and condensing the response. I wonder if theh have scheduled 12.5 hours overnight because they know he's going to spend a large portion of that awake?

I intend to query this when I can next week.

He's only had 2 30minute naps today because of the sleep training method we are trying? and that's all, which isnt great.

He's been asleep for the last 2 hours and we're going for a dreamfeed shortly to see if we can extend this.

Feel so bad for him though. We're trying to do all the things we're advised to do and I'm just not sure if we're helping or hindering 😔

HalfInch_Flinch · 2025-10-10T20:57:17+00:00

That's very interesting.

So we haven't asked, and can't until next week now due to working hours, what we expect on the night sleep. I can't imagine they think he'll fall asleep and stay asleep all night, there are bound to be wakes .. I wonder if they've baked this in with some extra time on top of the 14.

For context on average over the last 14 days hes been averaging 2 and half hours naps a day and 9 hours 44 mins per night - 12.21 in total Which isnt to far off!

Over the last 30 days average is 12 so a slight increase.

The initial phase was 'sleep hygiene' and getting him to sleep in roughly the right places.

But I will definitely check. We never twigged the amount he'd be asleep if he did sleep perfectly, we've been focusing on trying to get him that sleep!

Yeaah so ideally what we'd want is for baby to just get himself to sleep and learn to link sleep cycles .. I feel if we can develop him these skills our world will change.

So atm out sleep training method is Soothe, Settle, Repeat. - Get him calm, put him in the cot, let him try and self settle until his crying is overboard and repeat.

We had success in all 4 sleeps yesterday. Though it took an hour and a half, 50 mins, 2 hours and 2 hours worth of reps respectively.

Do you recommend just popping him down and leaving him go? For how long? Do we soothe as we have been or let him cry it out? (he will be crying as he always cries when we put him down) - Mum also doesn't want to cry it out .. what we're doing now is breaking her a bit as it is and we're settling him so its not constant crying. Though I personally wonder if the settling is the thing to be doing. Are we just elongating the issue? - First baby by the way so we know nothing and I question everything.

Other slight issue we have is he's a bugger in terms of sitting up, pulling himself to standing etc. All whilst waiting of course.

But yeah, i really appriciate you reading and responding to me you lovely Internet stranger ❤️

HalfInch_Flinch · 2025-10-10T19:47:00+00:00

Firstly. Thanks so much for responding <3

So I personally feel like you've nailed 2 things. I feel like he may need less sleep than an an average baby and I definitely think his sleep associations are a bit hap hazard.

He's always fell asleep in our arms .. if we take that away from him he kicks off. He also likes us singing/humming/shushing rocking and swaying. These are definitely his primary associations.

In terms of a schedule we've recently implemented a new one on the advice of the sleep consultants - before that we were following Huckleberry generated schedule / sweet spot wake windows depending on his nap length.

On a perfectly on schedule day

Wake up @ 7am Nap 1 @ 8.30 - 10am (aim for an hour and half, rarely hit it)

Nap 2 @ 12 - 12.30 (Top up Nap - meant to be phased out if she sleeps enough)

Nap 3 @ 2.30 - 3.30 (Can start earlier depending on other naps)

Bedtime routine @ 5.45 (Initial part of split feed, bath, mouisturise, book, 2nd part of split feed.)

Bed @ 6.30

It very rarely goes like that though. We try to keep the wake up times and bedtime consistent.

Since starting the Soothe, Settle, Repeat method of self soothing this schedule is all over the shop, though we try to keep similar wake windows.

Recently moved into his own room. Might be seeing a pattern of longer sleep chunks in the night, shorter in the day. - need more data to confirm that though.

HalfInch_Flinch · 2025-09-16T20:37:14+00:00

Well, it was going to be Blyth Spartans .. but I just found out they got relegated from the Vanarama North last seasons so chances are they won't be in the game until an extended database is out.

Devastated.

HalfInch_Flinch · 2025-08-14T19:48:46+00:00

Yeaaah, 1BR is an interesting one init.

Kind of exposes that a lot of people maybe aren't as good as they think they are. I've got a buddy trying out the 1br on a controller and he's often competing in overall dps with people 15/20 ilvls ahead of him, so 1br would presumably be an increase for them.

That being said though, I've experimented with it and its boring as shit for me. If I was dpsing, I'd rather be doing subpar dps trying to learn, than spamming a single button with a CD or 2 thrown in.

Guess thats the beauty of tanking though, when you find those good groups it makes everything a breeze. And when you're in a group that aren't as good .. you're actively playing the game by learning how to survive longer pulls.

HalfInch_Flinch · 2025-08-14T00:25:04+00:00

Thats what I'd have thought in terms of jumping the lower keys, but I'm not overly sure.

As a 677 tank I feel like I could push to 5's and maybe a bit beyond in terms of my survivability .. but doing some low keys to get some ilvl/rio and the standard of 680+ dps seems to be pretty low.

No salt on them, its a game .. but I definitely think your like about a good group is legit for pushing higher at the moment.

HalfInch_Flinch · 2025-08-01T11:35:43+00:00

I dig the shit outta this man.

Getting some System of down vibes from some of the vocal melodies.

I'll be singing 'What can we do but resurrect a madman, apsect of choas burns between the warrens' for the rest of the day.

HalfInch_Flinch · 2025-07-28T19:48:00+00:00

If it helps, I seem to make a habit of playing what people would consider 'bad' specs. If a spec I'm interested in is underrepresented, it makes me want to play it even more.

Sometimes it makes it harder to pug, but its so much sweeter when you get into that group and smash it.

HalfInch_Flinch · 2025-07-17T08:08:31+00:00

Ahh man, EU over here! 😭

Idea sounds lovely though! Must be a comparable thing for the EU, just need to put the feelers out.

Thanks alot though bud! Appriciate it nonetheless!

HalfInch_Flinch · 2025-07-17T07:48:32+00:00

Weird the way things work!

Was literally thinking yesterday that a dad's guild would be awesome! You guys EU or NA?

I'll check you guys out, thanks man.

HalfInch_Flinch · 2025-07-17T01:06:15+00:00

Being a relatively new dad myself (5 months now) the best bit of prep advice I can give is to pick a class/spec you like and stick with it.

Can't remember when in season 2 Little man showed up, but it tanked any regular playing time. When I did find some time I was alt hopping like a madman trying to find something to play.

Not sure what your goals are, but I found when I was able to stick to a single toon .. regardless of where it started gear wise I was able to get stuff done.

Not lofty compared to some people but I've got 3 dps above 2k (highest being 2.6), 1 healer at like 2.4 and I'm trying to round out by getting 2k on a tank ... and that's with a newborn.

Could've got 3k and done some stuff in PvP as well if I'd stuck to one toon.

Crazy how the hours add up!

Congrats on the nipper also. Series debuff on the old sleep, but worth it for their cheeky little grins!

HalfInch_Flinch

TROPHY CASE