1 mortgage, 2 babies, 3 years to be MF, 4 goodness sake!- weezl's diary

LilacPixie

Weezl

Totally in awe. your income isn't massivey more than ours yet you have blasted such a huge amount of mortgage in comparison to me/us. I will type my specifics in my own tread at some point today and it should hopefully be obvious where we are going wrong.

knithappens

Hi there Weezl, hope you day is doing good, i have just started bloging all of my thoughts ideas, etc to help me be more frugal, i have noticed like shaz ( great name I am a Sharon too )
portion size is a big help money wise but also weight wise i lost 1lb last week, tried diets etc but no success actually looking at portion size and I loose weight, without using faddy diet foods ( breast feedin so want ood wholesome food)

Love checking in here, it is keeping inspired and moitivated. I am going fulltime to part time at the end of my mat leave so a big pay cut, mainly to preserve my sanity, as raisng my 3 on my own and the youngest is 5 months, so trying to balance paying the bills and raising them myself.
So teaching 3 days per weeks seems a good balance.

cheerfulness4

weezl74 wrote: »

I completely agree about reducing costs now. I have read threads on here where parents are spending £200 on a 10 month old's first christmas. I am convinced that fergus will be more excited by the wrapping paper and a cardboard box! I am giving him a ball pool tho, acquired from a car boot sale for £3 :D

We got incredible bargains at car boots for our two and I really didn't see the point in spending a fortune elsewhere as we got almost completely equipped with toys and essentials.
My parents really enjoyed searching out great finds in clothes and books too once they realised we was more than happy to go the secondhand route.
It can be so easy to get swept away with the babies and kiddies goodies that are out there that look so appealing but aren't really necessary, even when buying secondhand. I used to think 'will I regret not buying these while I have the chance of littlies' but I'm glad we didn't go mad.
The fun bits weren't about what clothes or dummies or prams and furniture they had. (altho mine still ended up with lovely things in the end from CS's and boot sales) Hard not to be tempted on occasions, tho. Babies stuff is soooo cute!

shaz_mum_of__2

Yep christmas stock of satsumas etc will be reduced post xmas madness and hope to pick some up although you can make marmalade from satsuma peel just pop in the freezer until you have enough for a batch and use a carton of orange juice for liquid or a few whole fruits last year i made a mixed marmalade lemons grapefruit and oranges all bought reduced a processor would make short work of the slicing but i don't have one so just slice with a sharp knife but a few fruits goes a long way

4 babies would be great as long as there not all a year apart...lol

I totally agree about spending silly money on toddlers its better to have no debt than have spoiled kids and kids that appreciate the value of money a lady my hubby works with has a 1yo and has spent £1500 on presents!!!

Our total costs inc food presents and booze is £300 max

better get back to the canner sausage and bean casserole on the go and the mince pies to finish

Queen-Bee_2

Hello Weezl, I remember your from the OS board (though I was much more of a lurker on there). Loved your threads and looking forward to gaining inspiration from your diary!
QB

LilacPixie

Seriously how can you spend £1500 on a 1 year old???? I have no doubt spent far far too much on my two little pixies but I have been an avid fan of the grabbit board and apart from some PJ's the rest has been bought as glitches like the boots toys about 3 months ago. I had an account with £400 in it for everyone's gifts including mine and we have about £80 left and pretty much everything bought except mine for which OH is taking £40.

I have checked my utility costs :eek::eek: over 20th October 08 to 20th October 09 we were averaging a usage of 20 units/KWH ofr eletriity and 1.5 units or 16.8 KWH of gas a day!!!!!!!

Boomdocker

Hi Weezl, another follower from the 50p a day thread, subscribing and looking forward to following this thread too.

Tesco_points_addict

Hi weezl

After reading how much your dishwasher cost to run I thought I ought to check ours. I used a electricity meter monitor (attached directly to the machine plug)and it came out at 1.94 kwh. We currently pay 11.58p per kwh, so I think (I may have made a major boo boo, maths!) but thats about 24p, without accounting for water and tablet. ~Our machine is only about 18 months old and is an A rated, but even so I wouldn't have thought there should be that much of a discrepancy? Did you use a meter directly onto the machine plug?

TPAx

cheerfulness4

TPA - Think weezl said she hasn't got a monitor so read the meter before and after and based it on useage without other appliances.

Have to say that I'm a bit relieved to hear that your reading is pretty similar to mine. I did the monitor directly onto the machine plug too, so its sounding positive for a lower costing. :j As much as I try not to waste electric, I do find it really helpful to 'clear the decks' after a massive session of baking and batch cooking in the kitchen. Oh and Monday mornings!

weezl74

thank you very much cheerfulness and TPA, I have now asked santa for an electricity monitor

other news, got my mortgage statement through today, and this year I have paid £36287 off the mortgage :beer: