Going to get rid of my mortgage!

bbh30

I havnt updated my grocery shopping in my siggy because even though I did a massive shop last week, I still havnt had the money taken from my card. A bag of the shopping was missing so I had to request refunds for some items so I am still waiting to find out the total.
A long day today, I had to go back to work this evening. My parents came to babysit which was good as at least it was free! They also cleaned the kitchen for me after the kids had gone to bed so even better!
Tidied up the bank account so made a couple of small overpayments. I had to go shopping for work on my way to work, spent over £20 on my credit card but I will get that back. I will have to ask for a cheque rather than cash so I don't fritter it away.

Half term next week, hooray! Looking forward to some down time.

bbh30

OK I have updated this months budget and I am slightly concerned about how I am going to get to the end of the month. Ive got £57 left in the food budget, to last us 2 weeks- Im not worried about that as we have plenty of food in and I think all I will need to buy in the next couple of weeks is milk and fruit and veg.
What I am worried about is my personal budget. Ive got £100 left in this account. I will need to fill up my car with petrol before the end of the month (only got a Fiesta but still costs £50 to fill up- could possibly get by by only putting half a tank in). I also need to pay a babysitter so I can go to this wedding next week. Ive already RSVPd so it would be really rude not to go. Ive also bought and paid for a present for them so I need to go. I cant ask my parents as they are doing loads of babysitting recently. So babysitter will be £20ish and then I will need to buy a drink there (I could just have tap water though!). Ill be driving to and from the venue as Im only an evening guest and not fussed about having a drink.
Then Ive got this big hen do next saturday. Parking is £25. It will cost me £10 entry fee into the nightclub we are going (assuming we are going to the place I think we are going to!) They are talking about having a meal out (£20). Then drinks on top (£20). We are also going to a casino but I can cope with just watching everybody else gamble! Ive already paid for the hotel so that dosnt come out of this months budget. I will also need to drive there and back (about 1.5hrs each way) so will definately need fuel in the car.
So...
babysitter £20
club entry £10
drinks £20
meal out £20
parking £25
That leaves £5 to fill the car up with fuel. Not enough really!! I dont want to go over budget as I will only regret it, especially for a hen do that I dont really even want to go on.

Ive got another wedding (we can call that wedding on 2nd march, 2 weeks time, that will come out of next months budget so I am less concerned.

bbh30

Better than a no-spend day for me; I got some work expenses back! £13.50 in a cheque that needs paying in, Ive got another £25 due, hopefully Ill get it before half term.

Im feeling shattered today, I was up for about 2 hours in the night with the boy child who was stood retching over the toilet saying he was going to be sick. He never actually threw up and was right as rain this morning so packed him off to school and he seems to have had a good day so I dont know what that was all about. Maybe he ate too many pancakes yesterday??!!

Ive been asked to make a birthday cake for one of my colleages who is having a birthday over half term. Ive got enough ingredients to make the actual cake but nothing to ice it with! I have a feeling Im going to have to visit a supermarket. I could make a victoria sponge (but not got enough jam to put in middle) or I could make a chocolate cake (not got any icing sugar). I really dont want to have to go to a supermarket but I dont know what else to do. Why do I always get bullied into these situations??!!!

Ive also been asked to contribute £10 towards buying some flowers to say thank you to the people that organised the hen do I went to at the weekend. Surely that is the brides job??!! Im the only one who has young kids etc that went on the hen do- the rest were all in high flying jobs working in London- it just seems way beyond the call of duty. Or maybe Im just being a miser again.

Worst news today is that the TV seems to be on its way out! We have a really old CRT tv and avoided buying a flatscreen as never seen the need whilst this one works. The colour seems to be broken as everybody looks like they have had a very dodgy fake tan and there is a line across the middle where the colours are really dodgy. I wonder if we could find a replacement on freecycle or similar as lots of people are giving away CRT tvs in favour of flatscreen. I just want something that works!

bbh30

I popped to Sainsburys after work and got some icing sugar and some fondant icing- to make a cake for my colleague. That cost me £4.11. Bit annoying but there's not really anything I can do about that.

The TV is well and truly kaput tonight- we have sound but the screen is totally green so its like listening the the radio! The husband is soo happy and looking around at flat screens with HD and all that jazz but we just need something we can watch. I don't want to pay a fortune for a new TV.

Ive made another OP bank tidy of £3.62. Feeling shattered from a day at work. Had sausage with jacket potato and baked beans for dinner, the husband cooked it for me. That's about as romantic as it gets in our house- we did agree no cards or anything though- I would be annoyed if he had spent the money! Couldn't help but think it was a marketeers dream when I was stood in Sainsburys watching the queue of about 20 men each waiting to pay for a bunch of flowers!!

bbh30

The TV is well and truly dead now. Nothing but a green screen. We inherited this TV from the husband's great aunt when she died. It is probably around 15 years old. We have been offered a couple of old TVs that we can use from various friends so I think we will take them up on their offer. Perhaps if we move into a new house we can buy a new TV then but I dont want to spend the money on a new one now.
RIP TV- you have lasted us well.

I saw a good deal on UKHD for a hello kitty tin for £1.99 so popped into my local Argos and bought one. It is in my present cupboard as the kids have 2 birthday parties coming up and I try to keep a stock of fairly cheap generic presents they can give to the birthday child.

Best news though is that it is now half term! Hoooray!! I do actually have to pop into work a couple of times next week but the kids are booked into holiday club for 2 days. The husband has booked a day off work also so we are intending on going out for the day somewhere. Just got to decide where!! Somewhere cheap and interesting for the kids.

When I popped into town earlier, I couldn't believe the amount of cheque casher places that have popped up. I hardly ever go into town as I try to avoid spending the money, but I had to go to the bank, to the post office and to argos. I can see why the high street is dying. Why would I pay £2 to park the car and walk down a high street that has pretty much nothing on it apart from cash converters etc and then pay higher prices than I can get online?? The only good thing about it is the local market who sell fresh food at good prices. The worst thing was the posters in the windows of one particular instant cash place "Get £200 in your pocket for only £50" - so I guess that means you borrow £200 and pay back £250. This place wasn't empty, there were lots of people inside. I wanted to tell the people in there to come to MSE!!

bbh30

Bit of a spendy day for me... spent £13.27 in LIDL buying milk, and other fresh foods. That should last us the week though. Then had to fill up the husbands car- cost me over £80!! I put that on the credit card and he will transfer the money over from his car and mileage allowance as he can claim it back from his work. Made a big batch of tomato soup and bread rolls, some of which we had for lunch, the rest went in the freezer. The husband is currently cooking us sweet and sour chicken (I have had to retreat to the lounge as I can't watch him cook, its painful).

Anyway, we got donated another TV today from my parents who don't use it anymore. It is a flatscreen (woohoo!) but only a 15" so looks positively tiny! I quite like it though, it kind of fits in with our new ethos of simplicity, but I must admit the TV unit does looks a bit bare, Ive had to move a pot plant next to the TV to fill it up a bit.

We went to look round a new build development of houses today. They can part exchange our home if we want to buy one of them. We have decided to get it valued by them to see how much they would offer if we part exchanged it. It may or may not be feasible at this stage, we are just investigating. We would have to increase our mortgage by another £100k, which is quite a scary prospect, but there is no other way we can get another bedroom without spending that kind of money. Anyway, we shall see.

Made another OP of 91p today- bank tidy up. Going to a friends tomorrow for lunch so that will save some money Also looking forward to seeing my friend! We are going to take the kids out for a walk round the pond which is a good free activity and I know they wil enjoy it. Husband has to fly off to Germany tomorrow eve so I shall be on my own after that- look on the bright side- cheaper food costs!

bbh30

We had a lovely day today, the sun was shining and there was a hint of spring in the air! Another NSD for us- spent the morning nosing round show homes at a new housing estate near us (decided we didn't like it), took the kids to the park, then to a friends for lunch and walk round the pond to feed the ducks. Ive just made a chocolate cake, Ive no idea why, bit silly of me really because Ill only go and eat the thing now, but I just fancied something chocolatey!

I read an article in the newspaper yesterday that suggested 5 dishes that children should be able to cook by the time they are 8. These were: scrambled eggs, jacket potatoes, bread, pasta with tomato sauce, and leek and potato soup. The girl child made dinner for her and the boy child which was scrambled eggs, I was quite pleased with her- she is only 6! She is desperate to learn lots of dishes, she said she wants to learn how to make custard so maybe I can teach her that tomorrow then her and the boy child can have banana custard for their pudding. She wants to learn how to make pasta and sauce- but wants to make the pasta from scratch! I did suggest that might be a little hard at this stage but at least she is keen if nothing else!

We are all on half term now, the children are going to holiday club for 2 days (tomorrow and tuesday), Im going into work tomorrow to catch up with a few things.

My friend gave me a whole massive bag of clothes she dosn't want anymore which is great, there is loads of stuff there, work clothes, casual clothes, pyjamas, dressy stuff etc. She didnt want any money for them, she said I could have them or she was going to take them to the charity shop!

We have arranged to go to portsmouth (about an hour away) with my friend on thursday. They have children around the same age- we will take the kids bikes and have a walk along the sea front, have fish and chips on the beach, maybe have a mooch around the outlet village there (dont think Ill buy anything!) Should be a good day out. And hopefully not cost too much, I can take drinks and snacks for the day, and just pay for fish and chips on the beach which hopefully wont be too much.

MummyEm

It's great that your DD is interested in cooking. My kids love 'helping' with cooking/baking. I've had comments from family that they seem young to want to cook (they are 3 & 5), but I think it's great. I think kids that help prepare food, tend to eat a much better variety and are willing to try new/different things if they've helped put it together.

Anyway, I'm really just procrastinating by reading/posting on here as I really should be getting on with my to-do list.

Have a great day.

E

MummyEm

p.s. Just had a thought. Do you have anything you can sell to up your personal budget for the month? I've sold quite a bit on ebay this last week. Last month was awful on there, I was ready to give up on it, but seems to have picked up now.

Spendless

Loved just reading your diary. I too have 2 children, 1 of each sex and call them 'the boy child' and 'the girl child' and my spouse 'the husband'. Made me laugh seeing someone else do same:D

I also have a 3 bed house and a husband who sometimes works from home who taking calls and participating in phone conferences. House prices rose a year after we bought this place which was fab in some ways (low mortgage) and rubbish in others as it made the jump to the next step so much more expensive, coupled with we love the location of our house for the facilities on the doorstep compared to elsewhere in the area and that hubby was an army kid and moved so much as a child, he doesn't want to do it as an adult- we got round the problem by having a summerhouse built at the bottom of the garden which is his 'office'.

I also used to send mine to sports camps when I didn't really 'need' to during the hols, but am glad I did as when I returned to work and they had to go it meant it wasn't such a shock to the system and they didn't view it as much as 'childcare' as they were doing ice skating, swimming , dry sports etc.

Def encourage your dd with the cookery lessons, my boy child is 13 in a fortnight and last week in food technology made a pasta bake with....a ready made jar of pasta sauce (no, I'm not kidding!).