SAHM to 2 boys Money Diary

SAHMto2boys

Good use of your time and resources today

Thanks for the that. I sometimes feel that I'm not achieving anything all day - is hard when you're at home all day isn't it? I feel torn between getting things done and being with the boys but most days with muddle through.

Jo - I tend to count any spending as a spend day even if its budgetted. The only reason I do this is because I'm a bit of a spendaholic. I used to feel that I had to spend something everyday so its a bit of thing of mine to challenge myself to NSD.


Good day so far. Have been and done an Asda shop and spent £50.12 and this should last this week and into the start of next week. Have had a bit of a sort in the freezer and there is a lot of stuff in there to make quite a few meals with. Need to sort the garage one out but think its full of a lot of old stuff:o. HM pizzas for tea with some Smartprice pizza cheese on so thats brought the cost of those down but quite a bit more salty so maybe not worth the saving.

Have paid a water bill and the credit card. Managed to pay off £3318 because of DH's bonus. Bit of a tight month with needing to budget for other things so £1200 from the monthly pay and then the rest is money transferred out of other accounts to cover this months spends on it. As its 0% thought its easier to just pay the money off. Will update with a current total tomorrow.

Had the reminder today for my car tax. With starting to put £50 away each month, it means I only have to 'find' £55 from next months budget.

cha97michelle

If it was salty probably not worth the saving. We were eating a lot of packets of savoury rice as i got 30 of them from approved food for £2. I then found my blood pressure was higher than it should be. I don't add salt myself to food, so i am trying to not do that again. Cheap is good but healthy is better. Shame the bargains are usually on things that are not so good for you.

Good going on the CC, and i tend to do the same as you and count any spending as a spend day.

Know what you mean about being at home. I often think it must look like i have done nothing all day, but it takes a lot of effort to stand still with small kids.

SAHMto2boys

Michelle - it really annoys me you have to pay more to be healthy. For instance we went to Meadowhall and it cost almost £10 to feed me and DS jacket potatoes yet I could have fed us both a McDonalds for about £7. The cheese won't be used again as I could tast salt all night - yuck!


Just having a breather. Boys are with the Inlaws today so I can't get some cleaning and prepping for Sunday done. Have made a large dent in the to do list and then realised I had no lunch so having a sit down for a bit.

Just had to put the tumble dryer on for the first time in ages to dry the boys vests, am really trying to watch our usage of power. It can't rain any harder than its doing at the minute but I discovered my gazebo is making a great drying room, still in the wind but out of the rain.

Logged on and checked the accounts, all fine there although I seem to have more money than I thought so I must have forgot something coming out. The current credit card bill stands at £2498. Hopefully two more months will get this paid off and then I can start putting some money away to work on the mortgage and for savings. Heard today about a friend who's lost his business in the same industry as DH so I really want to make sure we are okay.

The current situtation of the ecomony is really starting to scare me so I want to work on getting this debt gone and then to have money behind us for when the interest rates go up.

cha97michelle

Good job love and laughter are free.

My dad reassured me a bit today. Apparently cuts are suggested for people on over £30k per year, so we are likely to be safe. We were above this last year when i worked for 6 months but we will be below this year. Hope that means you are likely to be ok too.

Not that we can take anything for granted at the present.

SAHMto2boys

Michelle - nope we are well over the 30k so will be hit I'm sure. Just annoys me that DH has really pushed and pushed himself (both time wise and taking many courses at great cost to us)to have an excellant job and is contributing so, so much and we will lose the basic Child Benefit when there so many out there screwing the system. Plus I'm working to educate myself more and hopefully have a well paid jobs when the kids are in school so shall be adding more to the pot then.

But hey ho, this not the place for it. I'll only have someone come here and start giving me what for on the whole benefit issue so I'll shut up and they can argue away on DT board.

Soooooo, lighter things.:D. Just have a bit of quiet time while the baby is in bed, have done the usual washing up, making bottles, ironing, washer on and school run (in the peeping rain again) already this morning.

Have been and got the booze sorted for Sunday - 24 cans, 4 bottles of bucks fizz, 2 red and 2 white wines all for £33.10 from Sainsburys:money: Had a few nectar points to use, then beer on offer and the wine get 5% off when you buy 6. Plus every bottle I brought had been reduced. That leaves £36.09 in my budget for Sunday to buy some balloons and flowers - easy! Mums going to provide some more drinks too, just praying now I'll have enough food.

Treated DS to a cheap football top and a couple of 50p flags to hang outside .

Loving my budget this month, its taken a bit of work to make sure money is coming from the right pot to pay for things so its making life so much more managable than just spend, spend, spend. :wall: how longs it took for this to sink in??!!!

Re-checked my current account and everythings gone out that should have so think I'm just surprised that I have so much cash left at this point in the month. Normally I'm limping through to payday.

Right, next job order DH's father day gift. Later gaters xx

SAHMto2boys

Ooh, forgot to mention - the baby has his first tooth!!! Ahhhhh, cute xx

cha97michelle

Ah bless baby and his new tooth. It does sound cute. I bet you are glad about giving up breast feeding now. I managed about 5 months with DS2 but he had quite a few teeth by then and the whole weaning thing as well and it really grossed me out. I'd be richer if i was more Earth mother Zen like. :rotfl:Sometimes i wish i had persevered more, but that's how it is.

Sounds like your Do at the weekend is almost sorted out, and it must be so much of a relief to know that there is still some money there to get you to the end of the month. I'm just about managing but i am not so far on as i wanted to be. Hard isn't it. Little things like the cbeebies magazine are what push me over, but it was the 1st one i got yesterday after many many weeks. I thought my DS1 needed a treat after his jabs for being so good. I guess those would be what would be lost if there was less money coming in.

SAHMto2boys

Hey - 5 months is really good going! I'll be honest, I wanted to stop when he was about 4 weeks and gave him a bottle of formula and it made him really ill. We tried a couple of times with it and of course went to the doctors, the short story being his little tummy couldn't handle the formula as first milks are really rich. So it was try and hope he got over the sensitivity by keep giving him bottles and making him sick (the Drs advice!) or grin and bear breast feeding - of course you do what you have to do. Thankfully, we bit the bullet and tried the follow on milk and he's fine, no problems at all with it. Massive relief as everyone was starting to think there could've been something more serious wrong and I'm happier as I was struggling with BF but what could I do?

The first tooth is a bit strange as DS1 had a mouth full at this point so it almost seems a bit like thank godness there's one there when there is no rush for these things.

Think its lovely you can treat the boys when you can, esp. after having the jabs. The little football top was only £2.50 but I know DS will be really excited about it and nursery is letting him all wear football clothes tomorrow if they want. Think its great at this age, something so small makes them happy - wait till their teenagers!! We made buns on Teusday and it was like I'd given DS a party for how excited he got when I said we were baking. Bless.

SAHMto2boys

Just heard on the radio that the BOE interest rate is staying at 0.5% for the month and ''experts expect it to stay long for a long while to come''. Woohoo! At least thats something, just keep telling myself to get this debt down and then can start putting some money behind us.

Thinking of trying Memory Girls idea of seeing how long £100 will last me.

cha97michelle

I heard that too and was really happy. Great news for another month at least. Good luck if you do try the £100 idea. I sort of have been doing it, but i've lost track of when i started although i know my £100 is almost gone apart from pennies. I think i need to start keeping a pen and paper diary as it is getting really confusing and i also need to do it for the DIY stuff to see what of the budget we should have left.

BF is funny isn't it. I got on with it a lot better with DS2 as he enjoyed being held close much more and i think i was more confident, happy and generally ate better than with DS1. I hated the fact he wouldn't go to sleep without me. Once i refused and he latched on to my arm and left a huge bruise. I'm glad i did it, and if we did have another i think i would persevere longer. My friend from uni her girl wouldn't feed from her, and she is still expressing now so she is only drinking her milk and she is over a year old. I don't know how she does it. I certainly would not have in that situation.