Lunars next chapter

lunar

I have just joined the bandwagon and drawn out 2 grids of squares, one for the debt and one for our savings. The debt one is boxes of £25, even though i will be making min payments for the next few months. The savings one has boxes of £100 each and adds up to the £20000 extra we need.

Ive got a saussage casserole in the slow cooker for tonight, and tomorrows lunch. We have not had one takeaway this year, and i have made lunch for oh to take everyday too so no money wasted on lunches. We had got to the point where we were going out for lunch every sunday and spending about £30-£40, having one takeaway a week at £10, and OH was buying lunch every day for about £4 plus we were spending £100 in tesco every week.

We didnt realise how quickly our MSE ways had slipped and how bad we were being. Our food shopping is down to £50 a week again, I know there is still room for improvment there but its massivly improved from the end of last
year.

I think it has really helped that we have the goal of buying our house to motivate us into not overspending. I would still love to get debt free this year as well but that might be too ambitious. I should still be debt free by my 30th birthday next year if all goes to plan though.

lunar

Just had a text from OH to say that he has been offered 4 hours extra locum next week! so thats a total of 52 exta so far this month.

millionaire_in_training

lunar. Well done. I love reading that people are doing well. What a lovely life you are having just now. Go girl.

lunar

Thanks MIT, i cant honestly believe the change in under 2 years. Im so glad i waited this long to join our finances together. i wanted OH to know i was 100% commited to sorting things out.

Spent £15 today, i went out with a friend for lunch and bought some bits that DS needed. cant wait till payday to get our saving and debt totals updated. OH has got locum booked in next weekend as well now, 36 hours at £28.00. its only nights so he will get a few hours sleep hopefully. after tax we should have almost an extra £2000 from 3 weeks. We will be well on our way with the deposit if we get a few more months like this.

lunar

No spend day for me today, only 2 days left till pay day. I need to get a couple of bits for DS, also need to look out for a high chair for him. i love the mamas and papas ones but they are way too expensive. His neck muscles are getting really strong now and he just loves having a nosy around when we go out.

Ive not got round to making anything for tea yet so it will just have to be tuna pasta. Im managing to make £50 of food shopping last around 10 days which is a huge improvment on before christmas. I think i need to nip over to th OS board for some new ideas.

lunar

Pay day for us today, transfered £200 from my acount into the joint savings account. feels a bit odd not using it as an overpayment for the creditcards. OH will transfer some of his wage when he gets in tonight. He wont be getting any locum payments until the end of feb as they take ages to process.

My tesco shopping is being delivered this morning, I spent £64 including delivery. I have done meal plans, hopefuly if all goes to plan it will last 10 days. I will just need to top up with milk. Ill also have to go out tomorrow for nappies as they had sold out in tesco.

I need to get going on the wii fit again, ive had a lazy few days. I really need to get the kitchen cleaned, all yesterdays dishes are sat in the sink, and overflowing on the counter. knowing my luck someone will pop round before i get them done!

DS is holding his head well enough to be able to sit in his bouncer on his own for a little while now, any more than 10 mins and he ends up slumped over. he loves it though. If i sit with him and bounce it he laughs and squeels for ages. he hasnt really got the idea of the toys attached to it though. A friend came round yesterday that i hadnt seen since before he was born, she brought him a new outfit and a baby and toddler meal planner. Weaning seems to be overcomplicated after flicking through it. It makes you wonder how babies grew up before we had all these celebrity experts to advise us.

lunar

OH has been working nights all weekend on locum, he wont be back until he finishes tomorrow evening now. I think ill go out in the morning with DS just for a bit of sanity.

Had an unexpected bill of £695 for his professional fees, this one is a one off we never knew he had to pay it. not as much saved as we wanted for jan following this but at least its not another debt.

still doing the meal planning, we had spicy butternut squash soup today with fresh bread. i suprised myself with this one as ive never made it before, it was so nice.

DS is busy eating, i got him to bed last night at 9.30 and he slept 12 hours which was brilliant. hopefuly this isnt a one off.

chocaholic110

Mmm for the soup - where's the recipe from? And hmmm how do you get baby to sleep like that? Tom still doesn't go longer than 3-4 hours at best!

lunar

I dont really do recipies, i pick up whats on offer and find something to make with it!

I used
1 butternut squash-roughly chopped
1 chopped onion
3 cloves garlic
teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon of pepper
1/2 teaspoon sugar
veg stock cube
sprinkle of chilli powder
and a completly random amount of water and milk!
random amount of flower to thicken

i throw everything in my slowcooker for an hour ish then i blend it up and keep it cooking and check taste. i just leave it on the keep warm setting till we want to eat it. it can prob be done quicker in a pan but allmy cooking now revolves around throwing things in the slowcooker. Depending on DS it can take 2 hours to get everything in there on a morning.

As for getting him to sleep, he has been like this since 6 weeks. sometines it can take til 2 am to get him to sleep but once he is, thats it till morning. he wakes up happy too. I get my shower before OH goes to work then laze around till he wakes up at about 9ish. he is a little monster all day if i ever have to wake him before then.

lunar

Looks like im not going out after all, snowed in again. I just went out to the garden to feed the birds as it had run out.

I really need to spend a few hours sorting all our paperwork out but i keep on finding excuses not to. its just mounting up on the dining table.

Im not sure if i will have to start giving DS food soon, he is 16 weeks now and seems to be needing feeding much more often. ill have to see how he gets on over the next few weeks as i was hoping he would be soley breastfeeding till 6 months. Any advice greatly recieved on this one! I have no support from the health visitor appart from giving his injections. they have this open clinic and every time ive been she continues talking to other mums about formula and benifits while she is with DS. I phoned last week about feeding and she asked if it was related to formula, when i said no she said she didnt have time to talk to me and would ring me back. im still waiting. Im really starting to feel descriminated against by them.