Taking control in 2011

LittleBit_2

This is a new spending diary for me, as I thought New Year, new start.

A little bit about me...

I'm 29, and live with my hubby who is 30, we've been together for almost 7 years. We have 2 boys, DS1 is 3 next week and DS2 is almost 14 months. I am 17 weeks pregnant with number 3 too.

We live in a 3 bed detached house in a nice(ish) area with lovely neighbours, but a whacking big mortgage. When baby number 3 arrives I will be giving up work as it doesn't make sense for us to pay for childcare for 3 children. Even though DS1 will start preschool in April, it would still cost £900 a month for all 3 of them, so I would effectively be working for about £1 an hour!

In order for me to be able to stay at home, we need to seriously reign in our spending, and stick to our budget. We are notoriously bad at spending money on the boys, nice clothes for them, days out, toys, anything really. We also like to eat out a lot, and have quite a lot of coffee and cake when we are out and about. All this adds up, and means that every month for the past 3 years (at least) we have been in our overdraft. Yes, I realise this is ridiculous and we are quite clearly living beyond our means.

As part of our 2011 money diet, we are going to do the following things.
1) Not use the tumble drier (unless it's an emergency)
2) Switch everything off at the mains
3) Only bath the boys twice a week instead of most nights. They are only little, so don't really get dirty enough to need bathing so often.
4) Don't buy tea or coffee at work, or when we are out and about.
5) Bake more at home, so if we fancy a nice cake or pudding we will have them available.
6) Don't buy the boys any more clothes. They have plenty and their drawers and wardrobes are bursting at the seams.
7) Get the rest of the new baby's things second hand. (I gave away all my maternity clothes and the baby things as we weren't going to have any more children....)
8) Save any £1 or £2 coins we are left with at the end of the day in a big pot for a family holiday.
9) Save any 'extra' money we get towards a moving fund. It looks like we will need to move to a cheaper house and at the moment don't have any spare funds for estate agents fees etc

LittleBit_2

Whoooooo today has been my first NSD!

LittleBit_2

We went to the in-laws for lunch/tea yesterday as it was FIL's 60th birthday. MIL asked if we wanted to take some of the bufffet home, and DH said no! I soon put his straight :rotfl::rotfl: and so we have come home with a large plate of buffet food, 2 huge pieces of cake, and a lot of trifle
Today will be another pottering day. SH let me have a lie in, so I've only just woken up. DS2 has gone back to bed and DS1 is drawing me a picture downstairs.
I have some beet braising steak that we need to use today, so think I will chuck that in the slow cooker and make some sort of casserole for us to have tonight. We can have a picnic lunch (inside of course) later with the bits that have come home from MIL's.
I might do some baking with DS1 later too if he fancies it. I stocked up on flour, marg and sugar when we did the last food shop, so we can make biscuits etc.

LittleBit_2

Whoo Hooo it's been a NSW, No Spending Weekend. Must be the first one in months and I've really enjoyed just pottering round at home and not having to go anywhere.

LittleBit_2

Today is the last day my hubby is home before he has to go back to work, so I'm letting him have a lie in - not without a bit of grumbling though, I'm not at my best in the morning!
Plan for today is to go to the park with the boys bikes, and take some bread for the ducks. We never made it yesterday, as for the majority of the day at least one of the boys was asleep.
Beef stew is ready for tea tonight, all the washing and ironing is up to date, so there's not much to do really. We will just spend the day entertaining the boys.

fizzypops

LittleBit wrote: »

not without a bit of grumbling though, I'm not at my best in the morning!

:rotfl:im a nightmare in the mornings too!!
im dreading starting the school runs again tomorrow as it means i have to get out of my pit early!!! :eek:
my boys ahve been trained not to speak to me until i have had a cup of tea in the morning!!!

LittleBit_2

Today was definitely not a NSD

Spent £35.11 at Wilko's. I got some tupperware sandwich boxes - these are for taking warm lunches to work, and if we are out anywhere for the day we can take a cold or warm lunch each in them. 2 pillows - these are for me as I've recently got a horrible spotty rash on my face (I'm sure you all want to know that) and although I think it is probably hormonal, I thought new pillows might help. I got a trowel and fork set, a gardeners diary, a set of 3 pretty mugs, a set of 3 enamel herb buckets and a fancy dip set. These are all for pressies throughout the year, and should save us money as they were all half price. The other bits I bought were a calendar with an organiser on it (for us) and Trivial Pursuit (for us). I probably shouldn't have bought the Trivial Pursuit, but thought it would be for fun me and hubby to play it.

Spent a tenner at B&M too. Bought 24 cheapy tupperware boxes for storing things that I've batch cooked. 2 toothbrushes for hubby and 5 for the kids, 2 rolls of wrapping paper for DS1s birthday on Saturday and some batteries for some of his birthday toys.

We also ordered DS1 a bike from Halfords for £50 and a helmet for £15, but he is paying for that himself out of his Xmas and birthday money.

Today's lesson is. Stay away from the shops!!

LittleBit_2

I've had the best lie in this morning. The boys are at the childminders, and I have another week off work so am having a really quiet week. I didn't wake up til 10:40 :eek:
I have spent this morning entering competitions - I'm determined to win something big this year. I'm also going to have a look at the budget and work out which bills have come out this morning and see what we have left for the month,
Hubby has just rung, as he has been over to the Shopping Centre to exchange some duplicate Christmas presents. DS2 got 2 of the same pressie, so he has gone to ELC to swap it. They won't give him a credit note, he had to swap it there and then :mad: There was nothing that we thought DS2 would enjoy, so have got something for DS1 instead, which we will give him as part of his birthday pressie. We will have to remember that we 'owe' DS2 something though.
Hubby is also returning some shirts that he bought from M&S, and he will get a refund for those as we have the receipt.
Need to work out what we can have for tea tonight. We have eaten far too much convenience food over Christmas, so I want to get back into making proper food.

LittleBit_2

Guess what...
I had a call from ITV this morning and I've won a brand new pushchair worth £300 :j Am made up.

Also, DH is working away tomorrow, and taking our car, so we should make about £100 in petrol money. Things are looking up

ebayqueen_2

Hi there
Have subscribed to your diary and am enjoying it...congrtulations on winning such a great prize. Will you sell it or keep it?

I enter comps too and haven't won anything yet but I know the law of averages will win out and I shall be delighted!

Keep posting as I enjoy reading your progress.

LittleBit_2

Thanks. We are going to keep it, as we had originally bought a second hand travel system, but this one is brand new, and is smaller and lighter than the one we bought. Also I feel more comfortable using a brand new car seat than a second hand one. Hopefully we will get the £100 back that we paid for the other one.
It's DS1's 3rd birthday today, and he has his new bike - he's very excited! He's gone out to the park with his Daddy while I clean up all the mess from the presents...