Over the Rainbow and Happy Ever After

castlelough

Up late with dd. She is teething, poor thing.

Had a sociable, but exhausting day. Managed to keep spending in check. Treated my sister to her scone and coffee at the bridesmaids meeting this morning. Total spend was €11.20. Managed not to spend any more money in the afternoon.
And DH told me he has done a big grocery shop to take us through most of next week, well he has bought lots of meat and I may need to bulk that out with some fresh fruits and veggies, but it's a great help as I usually pay for most of the groceries. Have fallen behind on the Emergency Fund savings so will hopefully be able to send €30 to that on Monday.
The EF goal is €3000 and would hopefully be enough to cover 6-8 weeks of unpaid leave onto my maternity leave, whenever I am hopefully lucky enough to conceive and have another baby. So that would cover mortgage repayments and bills and give an allowance for spending similar to what I currently budget per fortnight, which is €100 diesel, €125 groceries, €125 miscellaneous.
The fund would serve as an EF in the meanwhile and I have signed up to the 3-6 month Emergency Fund savings challenge.

trulymadlyhannah

We are still teething here too. My LO has had really disturbed sleep for the past week, and when she wakes she thinks its morning and time to play!:eek: Hope you LO is feeling better soon.

I love Next for childrens clothes, I used to work there for years and I really miss the discount! Good luck on building the emergency fund, you sound very organised!

Replied to your post RE: Cloth nappies. I have some and havent been using them, I am determined to give them a go though again. Will let you know how we do. Do you recommend any of the reusable wipes?

I have a ring sling too, they are fab

castlelough

Apologies for the absence there for a while.
DH gave up his job (self-employed) as he really was not making money when it came down to it, but it has been a rocky few months as he had nothing else lined up, no savings and minimal income (not even entitled to unemployment benefit) until he started a new job two weeks ago. Thankfully that is going well, is in his field of expertise and is decently paid, although his initial contract is for 2 months work only. Hopefully they will be able to keep him on after that though.

So in the midst of the uncertainty the emergency fundand the horsebox fund were emptied. And I applied for an small overdraft
to get us through a tough month. But damage is limited and we muddled through, and have come out the other side with an accidental mortgage overpayment! Poor DH, he unwittingly paid his half of the mortgage directly into the mortgage account instead of into the joint account out of which the dd comes. This was very inconvenient at the time as we had to borrow same from dsil to meet the dd BUT the end result is that we have knocked 2 months off the mortgage term! I have promised to match DH's OP by the end of the year and we are both very encouraged by how easy it is to make OPs with our particular bank and by the difference OPs can make in the early years of a mortgage (we are in Year 3 of 30 on an €80k mortgage).

I still feel I am on track for my dfd in 2017 and hopefully can join the mfw elite then!!!

Will be back tomorrow to update signature and savings goals And to catch up on my favourite diaries xxx
Castle

castlelough

Right, my signature has been updated!

I have removed Horsebox Fund because I am not going to need one in a hurry. Being almost 12 weeks pregnant with #2, my plans to ride my ex-racehorse have gone on the back burner. Needless to say I am delighted, as is DH! After all our difficulties ttc #1 we conceived #2 on the first attempt and have had 2 ultrasounds and everything is looking well! DH is talking of buying a horsebox in the Autumn and putting it down as a farm expense which would be amazing if he did!

So with #2 due in Feb 2017 the Emergency Fund is the one I need to focus on. This fund is hopefully for me to be able to take 7 weeks unpaid leave which would mean not going back to work until November and the baby would be almost 9 months old which would be fab.

Babywise I am pretty much set. I have enough cloth nappies to have two in cloth. I will breastfeed so very little expense there unless we need to have a tongue tie treated like last time. I have gender neutral vests and babygros for the early months. We won't be finding out the gender, tempting though it is. I would love another little girl for dd to have a sister close in age (she will have just turned 2). We have always hoped for 4 children so ideally #2 would be a girl and #3 a boy! But a healthy baby is the most important thing! Will have a look into double buggies but I don't feel it's essential before the baby arrives. Will see if dd will even sit into a buggy by that time. She is such an independent little madam!

Am continuing to make progress on my debts. Car loan is interest free and I have been a bit slack repaying it to my Mum. Must pull up my socks.

Have an expensive month ahead with my sister's wedding...gifts, hotel stay, meals out, need to have my highlights done, need something to wear the next day etc. And my clothes are going to be getting tighter by the day. Trying not to announce until after the wedding as my sister, the bride, would not be overjoyed by my news on the eve of her wedding. Have told quite a few of my close friends though and both DH's sisters and my Mum.:A

Having Feb 2017 as a date when things need to be done by is motivating too. We have made very little progress on the house so by the arrival of baby #2 I would like to:

1. Have bought a bath, preferably my dream cast iron slipper bath.
2. Have painted the kitchen (still plaster finish)
3. Have tiled behind the Aga and cooker.
4. Have had electrician in to hang light fixture in the sunroom and do other bits in kitchen and fit a light over the mirror in the bathroom.
5. Have basic landscaping done so dd can safely play outdoors.
6. Have driveway and walls at entrance completed (this is very ambitious but it would be nice if the place was tidied up before the visitors descend to meet baby #2.

Must try not to overspend in coming weeks and keep my eye on the prize.

milasavesmoney

Congratulations on #2!!! That will be a nice space in age no matter what baby turns out to be.
You have so much already ready from your first little one. Very budget friendly!

I just looked at your signature and things are looking really positive.

castlelough

Did out my fortnightly budget for each fortnight over the next few months and can see exactly where the money needs to go. After paying for the essentials there is VERY little spare money over to save towards any of the items I listed above as wanting to do before the new baby comes which is a little dispiriting.

I have allowed myself €100 miscellaneous spending per fortnight (but any clothing, gifts, outings, treats or deficits in my other budget categories need to come out of this) and I have allowed €140 per fortnight for groceries.
These are really my only areas of wiggle room so I will need to go back to meal planning and look at my store cupboard and see can I use up some of what is already in there. I have a LOT of baking ingredients so am going to try to do more home baking and cut back on biscuits/bars/cake in the grocery shopping.
I used a verrry simple Odlums recipe for fairy cakes last night and whizzed up a dozen buns in about 20 mins. I estimate they cost less than 10c each, but best of all were fresh, delicious and preservative free. Sooooo more home baking is on the agenda for the week.

castlelough

Mila thanks for stopping by! Always great to have some encouragement! Yes, my signature is moving in the right direction. I have been overpaying the Kitchen loan for about a year and it is really making a difference. I just can't wait for that loan to be paid off as I am paying €250 per fortnight off it which is €500 most months (more than my mortgage!) and there are 2 months in the year that I pay €750 off it. So it is a huge drain. But, again, I made the choice to do that. But I can really start to save or overpay the mortgage when that loan is gone which will be amazing!

clearmydebts

Hi CL,


Am absolutely delighted to hear that you are pregnant again. What wonderful news. Am also every so slightly jealous of your small mortgage. Ours is €232000


The fairy cakes sound yummy. I've started making scones. So much nicer than the shop bought ones!

castlelough

Hi Clearmydebts!
I thought I had replied to you a few days ago but it mustn't have posted. Thanks for the congrats, we are delighted.
Our mortgage is a comparatively small one, but they wouldn't have loaned us any more at the time we borrowed it. Plus we had already put in a good €100k over a 7 year period before taking out the mortgage to finish it. Everything was direct labour and DH's BiL did the blocklaying and DH is a plumber so that also saved us a bit! I wish we could have borrowed more since we have so much left to do on the house. It's slow going!

castlelough

We had a very MSE day yesterday. We didn't go far. DH was busy farming for most of the day and then went to an extra plumbing job in the evening.
Dd and I had a picnic in the field and let the hens out to free range for a bit. Spent most of the afternoon outdoors, put my gardening gloves on for the first time since Dd was born and planted out four miserable looking hardy geraniums that have been stuck in small pots for three summers now. As we still have no garden I planted them into a bank along the side of the road across from the house. They will be better off there for now and I can dig them up and move them when we finally have a garden. Have six more of the same that could do with also being planted out...but baby steps.
DH is gone off to see a football match today. My brother managed to get him two free corporate tickets so that softens the travel expenses of getting to the venue. Dd and I went to mass and I have scraped together meals from what is left over in the fridge. Going to go to a local perfumery when she wakes from her nap to take a stroll in their gardens and steal some garden ideas. Will treat myself to a cuppa while there, or maybe soup. I am always hungry this week!
Tomorrow we are going to take Dd to the beach if the weather is nice and use a hotel voucher we have to go out for dinner nearby so quite a low-spend weekend all round. The wedding is next weekend though so it really needs to be.