Our 'Mortgage Free By Forty' Dream - Truly Madly Hannah

trulymadlyhannah

Thank you greent I might give it a gowith some old flannels / towel first to see how we get on first. DD3 seems to p00 all day :rotfl: so I dont think I could escape that, but disposables overnight sound like a good option.:)

We overslept this morning which is rare, and nothing went to plan, so no reusable nappies or wipes used today :eek: I decided to continue our KonMari journey in the kitchen, and its looking much tidier & better already, and a few more things added to my Ebay pile.

When I eventually started planting and my friend arrived, and stayed during DD3s nap which ment no nap for me either. It was lovely to catch up though, so cant complain.

DD3 is teething and wanted to be close for comfort (which means she would not allow me to put her down:rotfl:) so I wrapped her on my back to do some planting in the greenhouse. I managed to plant our pumpkin seeds while she tried to remove the cabbages :rotfl:

We completely ran out of butter so I had to nip to Aldi. I spent £40 on things for our mealplan, so we have approx £10 for 19 days to stay within budget, but I think we have all the food for breakfasts, some lunchs and most dinners. I know we will go over, just damage limitation now, and im proud we have managed so well. I need spend some time on the grocery challenge on oldstyle for inspiration.

I opened a H@lifax current account for myself, and hope to upgrade to a reward online when its active. (I couldnt open a reward online for some reason) and I have opened 2 tesc0 savings accounts to collect the rewards. If all goes to plan we should collect £15 worth of rewards this month :T

We recieved another utility bill today, turns out that the one we recieved earlier in the month was just gas, and this is electric - £58. I completely havent budgetted for this, and that added to the future perscription / dentist costs I haven't budgeted for either, I feel a bit disheartened, especially with the extra effort I have been putting in recently.

To make matters worse, Ive spent all evening trying to fix my blog, which broke with the last wordpress update, Ive had to change the layout, but at least its working now, the next theme update should fix it, hopefully!

debtfreeoneday

Don't be too hard on yourself. I usually forgot about a bill each month and then something crops up.. what you're doing outside of this to manage your budget is all good!

Hope the teething calms down soon - that was the worst bit of motherhood that no one told me about for me!

castlelough

Aw try not to feel down about the unexpected bills Hannah. You are doing so so well.
If you are considering buying cloth wipes or other cloth accessories the coming week could be a good one to do it as it is Real Cloth Nappy week next week and there will be lots of discounts at most retailers. I bought my wipes from The Nappy Lady website. I bought the generic white ones with soft fleece on one side and towelling on the other. I absolutely love them. They really are worth the effort as they are far more efficient at wiping bums than the disposable ones! Plus you avoid all the nasty chemicals! There are lots of homemade wipes solutions online. Read the reviews on the Nappy Lady for great ideas. ust admit to just using water. I presoak about 8 for the day and keep them zipped in a small wetbag. Used wipes go in the dirty washbag/bucket with used nappies so it isn't any extra washing. I also bring my little zipped washbag out and about in my changing bag but you could have a pack of disposable wipes in there for yourself.
What type of nappies have you? Some brands are easier to use than others and also some are more reliable than others too. And I agree with the others...it doesn't have to be all or nothing! You can ease yourself into it. I am on a few Facebook groups for nappy chat and advice. Let me know if you would like the names!

EatingTheElephant

There are always things that crop up and I know I always feel deflated when it feels like 2 steps forward 1 step back. I have to remind myself though how much worse it would be if I hadn't managed to save the money in the first place

greent

And if you don't use the cloth, don't beat yourself up - I didn't even contemplate using them for DS3 - I happily sold mine on Life's hard work enough at times to berate ourselves unnecessarily xx

mrsp1987

Have you got separate suppliers for your gas and electricity? Mine both arrive at the same time havung the same supplier x

trulymadlyhannah

debtfreeoneday wrote: »

Hope the teething calms down soon - that was the worst bit of motherhood that no one told me about for me!

Teething has calmed down, thank you. I think DD3 has suffered more than the others. She started teething at 5 months and has had weeks of pain. The others didnt teeth until 9 months and they didnt seem in half as much pain

EatingTheElephant wrote: »

There are always things that crop up and I know I always feel deflated when it feels like 2 steps forward 1 step back. I have to remind myself though how much worse it would be if I hadn't managed to save the money in the first place

I think I needed that reminder too, and I read a few other diarys that helped put things into perspective that night, thank you

greent wrote: »

And if you don't use the cloth, don't beat yourself up - I didn't even contemplate using them for DS3 - I happily sold mine on Life's hard work enough at times to berate ourselves unnecessarily xx

I think I will have to see how it goes, DD3 has one on at the moment, she seemed quite happy crawling about before bed. I think the washing will be a big thing, I hate using the drier and we already do at least 2 loads of washing a day, sometimes 4 :eek: I feel like Im drowning under it all sometimes!! Thank you though, DH says I am far too hard on myself sometimes!

trulymadlyhannah

castlelough wrote: »

Aw try not to feel down about the unexpected bills Hannah. You are doing so so well.
If you are considering buying cloth wipes or other cloth accessories the coming week could be a good one to do it as it is Real Cloth Nappy week next week and there will be lots of discounts at most retailers. I bought my wipes from The Nappy Lady website. I bought the generic white ones with soft fleece on one side and towelling on the other. I absolutely love them. They really are worth the effort as they are far more efficient at wiping bums than the disposable ones! Plus you avoid all the nasty chemicals! There are lots of homemade wipes solutions online. Read the reviews on the Nappy Lady for great ideas. ust admit to just using water. I presoak about 8 for the day and keep them zipped in a small wetbag. Used wipes go in the dirty washbag/bucket with used nappies so it isn't any extra washing. I also bring my little zipped washbag out and about in my changing bag but you could have a pack of disposable wipes in there for yourself.
What type of nappies have you? Some brands are easier to use than others and also some are more reliable than others too. And I agree with the others...it doesn't have to be all or nothing! You can ease yourself into it. I am on a few Facebook groups for nappy chat and advice. Let me know if you would like the names!

I have the close parent pop-in v2 (If that means anything, I dont really know much about cloth nappies if I am honest!) The problem I have is that DD3 is quite well built, and although she not yet 1, she is in size 4 disposables, and there isnt a lot of room left in the cloth ones we have (even though they say birth to potty) I wonder if there are any brands that are a bit more roomy!

Ive had a look at the wipes you mentioned and they do look fab, think I am going to try using some old flannels for a while and see how we do, and then have a chat with DH.

mrsp1987 wrote: »

Have you got separate suppliers for your gas and electricity? Mine both arrive at the same time havung the same supplier x

We had the same supplier, and and swapped both at the same time to another supplier. We did previously get the bill at the same time (in the same direct debit!), which is why i thought it was a final bill earlier this month I gave both final reads at the same time so I really dont know why it took one longer than the other but hey ho.

The car needed tyres, so on friday we paid £122 for tracking and 2 new ones. We couldnt get part worn so had to get new ones but I am glad its done as its been on my mind since Autumn. I was late leaving the tyre place, so ended up buying another Mcds :mad: which means we have used all our food budget, and its just damage limitation now!

We recieved a letter from the TV licencing to confirm our change of status, and they said they owed us £30 (I am really not sure how as we have been paying monthly since we moved in nearly 8 years ago) but that can go towards the gas bill :T

We have been doing lots of planting in the greenhouse, and I am just about to edit the photos ready to write a post about it on the blog tomorrow. The elephant garlic which I thought was going to die has started to grow :T

I have been busy doing surveys, and pbase is close to payout :T Ive written a blog post linking to all the survey websites ive joined and plan to write about how successful they are. Ive included links and fingers crossed it might eventually earn me some money too, but at the moment not all are refferal links (I have been as honest as possible and let people know which are) - I am not currently earning any money from my blog, and i dont like the idea of ads, but my next step in a few months is to try and earn.

A job came up at a local school doing admin. These jobs are really rare, and its my ideal job because I would get term times off to be with my children. I ran all the figures and we would only be £85 better off per month, before travel is taking into account and that would mean my two youngest in full time nursery, and juggling a friend/family member collecting the two eldest from school.

I ran the projections for a few years, when DD2 starts school we would be over £250 better off (in 18 months) , and when DD3 starts school £450 better off (in 3.5 years). I think it would be great for me personally in the future, I just cant face putting DD3 in nursery at the moment. Its good to know that there are options for the future. Ideally I would love to work for myself, but I dont think that will happen, but I suppose if you have enough passion & determination anything can happen!

debtfreeoneday

It's the only thing that keeps us financially going is that I am lucky enough to work term time and DH and me can juggle school drop offs and pick ups as we have no support within 200 miles of us!

You're doing great, will check out the blog as well!

cat04

Hello! I've come to find you too after your post on my diary. I have to say I'm rather jealous about your allotment, sounds fab, with lots of veggies etc to come too Will have to pop over to your blog too (If I can find it!). With regards to PBase as mentioned in some of your previous posts, I have the same thing happen to me - do one or two successfully then I get screened out for the next 10! I did cash in recently though and already up to £6 again so not doing too badly I suppose.

I shall follow your diary with interest, especially as we both aim to be MW by 40! (Just under 4 years for me eek!!)