Going to get rid of my mortgage!

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The husband dropped the girl child's toothbrush down the toilet today!! So a slight unexpected expense in that we had to rush out and buy her a new toothbrush- she was lucky enough to get an electric toothbrush for xmas so the husband felt obliged to get the same model as it was his fault. He also bought himself a beer (he had given up drinking for Jan but now its Feb he is back on the booze) but paid for it all himself out of his pocket money so no money has come out of the grocery budget.

Have made 22 hot cross buns this evening! They are just rising now, Im waiting to pipe the cross on, then Ill bake them. I reckon that cost me about 50p worth of ingredients (about half a bag of flour, some mixed spice, sugar, milk, yeast)- and they sell for £1 for 6 in the supermarkets. So I should be quids in! Ill freeze them and that's another thing that can go in the kids lunchboxes as and when.

Im hoping to last until next weekend before I have to go to the shops and do a big shop. We have got plenty of food we can eat for meals but we are running low on butter, milk, and a few other essentials. Ive also no pasta left (quick easy meal for kids!) but Ive got a pasta machine and plenty of eggs and flour so I can happily make some pasta.

Im just so happy in my kitchen baking away, I really really enjoy living this much "simpler" life. I just feel I appreciate everything so much. I saw some pictures on the mail website (apologies for the daily mail link) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2271420/Wonder-years-Pictures-Americas-youth-early-20th-century-recall-bygone-age-innocence.html
I just love these pictures so much. The children just look so simple but yet so carefree and so happy.

My children went out to play in the garden all morning as the sun was out, it was cold though. It was lovely to see them running about and having a great time in the fresh air- they had a jumping competition and I just stood and watched them from the kitchen window for about 5 mins as it was so sweet to take it all in!

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Just a quick one tonight as Im in the middle of making soup for the weeks lunches. A no spend day for me today, had the girl child's friends round this morning and staying for lunch, then this afternoon we took the kids swimming to the local pool. We all get in for free at the pool as Im a member of the gym there, and the kids have lessons there so can go as often as they like at the weekend for free.

I even made £10 today as I sold an old baby sling from when the squirts were little on a fb buying site. Ive just listed one of the kids old bikes which I hope somebody will buy then that will be some more money in my pot. That money can go towards paying towards the kids holiday club at half term.

Ive just done a massive shop on ASDA online which is due to arrive Thurs- so far Ive spent about £120 but I have a feeling Ill be adding to it before Thurs as I remember things we have run out of. I have included lots of non food items though, e.g. 48 toilet rolls, and Ive ordered toiletries, plus 10kg of bread flour, so it should last us a couple of weeks before we need to do another shop, and even then, it should only be a top up of fruit and veg.

Right, must get back to my soup, just to add the good news today is that the mortgage is "only" costing us £9.93 per day- last month it was costing us £10.02 per day so we have broken the £10 barrier which I am v v happy about!!

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Bit of a sad day today- I went swimming before work this morning and the 20p that I have had for donkeys years in my gym bag and use for the locker- I lost it!! Im now going to have to find a whole other 20p piece to use- that one has been going in and out of the lockers for years. More annoyingly, its 20p down the drain!

We cancelled our Sky subscription a month ago as we realised we dont watch most of the channels we watch. Now we have freesat. Today was the day that we lost all our Sky channels- fine for me and the husband as we dont watch any of them really- but the kids are NOT. HAPPY. They like to watch the Disney channel and Nickelodeon etc which they can't get any more. They have got Cbeebies (too babyish) or CBBC (too grown up) so we have some unhappy children on our hands. I cant decide if Im being really unreasonable cancelling the Sky- it was £22 a month and the kids did enjoy the children's channels, or actually, they just need to learn to lump it. When I was a child we only had 4 channels and we coped, and it will be good for them to watch less TV. Answers on a postcard please.....!
Lunch was the soup I made last night, dinner was some concoction out of the freezer, had no idea what it was until I defrosted it- turned out it was bolonaise sauce which I then turned into chilli.

I need to pay some money to the kids school. They are going on a trip next week which I havnt paid for yet(£13 x2), and the girl child is doing a special workshop in school which I need to pay for (£4) so £30 in total. I might just withdraw the cash and give them cash rather than a cheque, as they take ages to bank the cheques and in the past, it has come out about 2 months after I wrote it, which makes my banking much harder.

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Im slightly annoyed today that I spent money that I didn't plan to spend. My colleague phoned me this morning asking me to do an emergency dash to Sainsburys on my way to work so ended up spending a fiver there. I can claim that back but it will take a few days as Ive got to wait for a cheque from them. It messes up my nice neat bank accounts that were rounded off!!
Also, a payment I didnt recognise has come out of our bank account, turns out it was for some books that the husband bought for the kids at their school book fair (LAST OCTOBER!!)- Im annoyed about this for 3 reasons:
1. When I found out about the book fair, I already told the kids that they couldnt have a book from it- its overpriced and I feel guilt tripped into buying one. Im all for the children having books but they have hundreds here already, plus they were getting some for xmas, and they go to the library.
2. The husband (a soft touch!) bought the kids a book each from the book fair anyway- told me he had used his own money
3. Why has it taken the book fair company from October to February to process the payment??!!

Ive made a £100 overpayment and bank tidy up also. Im thinking of applying for a new 0% credit card. I had the Tesco Clubcard Credit card but my 0% period has ended now. I dont have any debt on it but it would be nice to have a card to use just in case. I dont know what offers are on at the moment. Ill investigate!

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Well Ive finished my online ASDA order which will arrive tomorrow night. Ive spent £140 which is a bit scary as it is over half of the monthly budget but there is lots there.
The dishwasher broke this evening. The husband told me to ring a repair man straight away but after some (ahem)nagging, we pulled it out and have managed to fix it! Im glad about that. I hate that dishwasher. We had the whole kitchen redone about 18 months ago and it was a brand new dishwasher we had fitted- and we have had nothing but problems with it. It dosnt even clean that well. The last one was a freebie off freecycle and about 30years old but was much better.

We had a viewing this morning and they rang us with an offer by lunchtime! However we did not accept it as it is quite a bit under what we want- and Im not really feeling pressurised to move immediately and quite enjoying making a big dent to the mortgage. We will keep the house on the market and see if anybody offers us any more but Im quite happy to stay put for a while and pay a big chunk off our mortgage. Husband, however, is desperate to move now.
Maybe these people will come back with a bigger offer tomorrow, but if not, then Im not worried- will carry on as we are!

Had a NSD today, really pleased that both the joint acc and my personal acc are looking fairly healthy at this stage in the month and not that long to go really until pay day! Im not going to make any huge transfers just yet as Im biding my time to see how much half term / upcoming hen nights will need.

HelenDaveKids

have read all your diary and really enjoyed.

I agree re swimming lessons, my kids often want to do xyz on swimming night and do feel an ogre when say no, but they are prepaid and not happy for them to miss.

Also made me smile re book fayre, i say the same, oldest DD orders books shes seen at library, have loads of books in the house and really resent the inflated price so wont buy. They all know now and a bit older but the pressure from school seems quite unfair.

The trips get worse, now have trips costing hundreds (2 at comps) and certain ones end up guilted into. Its really difficult...

Octobergirl

We cancelled Sky last year and had the same response from our two, a year later and they're still asking for all their old programmes. They've switched to Pop Tv, which is awful bubblegum tosh, so much so I'm almost reinstated Sky! we're on a diet of scooby DVDs at the moment:D

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The kids seem to have adjusted fine without the Sky! Yes, they keep asking for all the programmes they used to watch (even I miss Jake and the NeverLand Pirates!) but actually they are doing more playing and less sitting in front of the tv which can only be a good thing. In fact, every day this week, my daughter has set up a "club" which has involved sitting in the front garden with all the other children from our road doing maths tests??!!! It does make me laugh! I would rather they did that than sit slumped in front of the tv though!

Im going on a hen do tomorrow, the hen has rented a cottage for the whole weekend. They are having the "big" night on saturday night but I cant stay for that as the husband is doing a race on sunday morning so I need to be back for that. So Im just staying for friday night and saturday daytime. Im really looking forward to it! Ive already paid my contribution towards the cottage and money towards the food and booze kitty so I shouldnt need to pay for anything while Im there. Ive volunteered to make some sausage rolls and cornish pasties for "afternoon tea" (!!) so as soon as my shopping arrives (due in the next couple of hours), Ill get onto that.

Ive got another hen do in 2 weeks which I am actually kind of dreading. Its a big night out going to a nightclub etc and I havnt been to one in years. Im so old and boring now I never go out to nightclubs etc and when I do I prefer to go to places where I can actually have a conversation. Ive already booked and paid for the hotel but it turns out I have to pay £25 to park the car (train more expensive) and then Ill end up spending god knows how much on a meal out and drinks all night long. Not even thinking about the fact I have nothing to wear to a nightclub. I will have to go through my wardrobe and see what I can find, Im not buying anything new. I used to go to nightclubs all the time when I was a student but I just dont enjoy it now. Im dreading the fact its going to probably cost £5 a drink!

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Back from my hen do and absolutly shattered! Only had about 4 hours sleep so I think I will have a nice early night tonight. Just cooking a jacket potato for my tea (in fact ive bunged about 5 in the oven so I can have them for lunches next week!) then I think I will hit the sack. Had a great time and it was fab to catch up with my friends.
So.... money spent on the hen do....
Well I was a bit naughty and bought a pack of cigarettes (£7.00) as I knew I would want to smoke (Ive used to smoke but have given up now. I knew so many of these friends would be smoking and I would want to -pathetic I know- so just bought myself a packet). I didnt really enjoy it though- havnt smoked at all for about 6 months- and ended up just giving the packet of fags to one of my friends. So that was essentially £7 down the drain. I also bought 2 small bottles of pepsi to drink on the drive to the cottage (£1.30 for 2). And a lighter (£1). So not much change from £10 and thats before I had even got there!
We went to a pub for lunch today but I chose not to eat anything as we had just had a big brunch so only bought myself and 2 friends a drink (£6.45)
Then needed to put some diesel in the car before I could drive home (put £20 worth in rather than filling the tank as I was at an expensive service station)
All food and drink had been paid for last year when we booked the hen do so no extra costs for drinks and last nights food and brunch this morning. So not too bad really.

However, it seems the husband was obviously feeling very generous whilst looking after the kids on his own as he has taken them to the Toy Shop and bought them both a new toy and taken them to the coffee shop for hot chocolate and cake! I havn't yet spoken to him about how he paid for these so will have that discussion later.

Im feeling a bit worried as Ive got another hen do to go to in 2 weeks, plus a wedding next week, and not all that much money left in the budget. The couple getting married next week have requested money for a wedding present. I hate that as I always feel I have to give more than I would spend on a present, otherwise it looks mean. We are only evening guests at the wedding next week. I hate giving money as a wedding present but its all anybody wants. Feels a bit passive agressive giving them something else.

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No NSD for me today. Saw that the chocolate in LIDL was on half price this weekend (17p for 100g) so went to LIDL and bought 20 bars of it!!! 2kg of chocolate!!! That should last us a while! All for the pricely sum of £3.40. Also got 8 more pints of milk and some grapes. Then popped to Tesco to get some more popcorn kernals as its on offer at the minute (49p per bag) so bought 4 bags of that, to last us a while. And some nail varnish remover. I shouldnt need to spend anything all week. Although I will need to go shopping for work, but can obviously claim that back.
Im not sure if I will achieve my 1k overpayment this month. Ive got alot to pay for. All these weddings and hen dos. Feeling a bit fed up that I have to keep spending on things I don't want to just to keep other people happy. Why does everybody want such extravagent things? When we got married, I had a hen NIGHT (not weekend!) and everybody came back to our house and stayed there. Its not just all the hen nights and wedding presents and drinks and stuff to pay for at the weddings but also finding babysitters as the kids arent invited to any of them. I know I sound like a complete miser so Ill shut up now.