A pound stretching maternity

MrsSave

Ha........well sleep isn't going to happen. I apparently live with the 2 noisiest sleepers ever! My 3 year old is currently sleeping on all fours! :rotfl: How is that even possible?!

I may as well check my online banking whilst I'm awake, particularly the bills account and the Tesco credit card. I've been updating YNAB daily so thing should be looking pretty good!

MrsSave

We're home and I've had a pretty decent night sleep! Was shattered by last night. There was some money left over from the holiday pot, but that is no more. It was all spent yesterday, but we got quite a few different bits so I'm happy with that. We got a few bits for the baby, a couple of bits for ds, I got a pair of maternity jeans (reduced!), the yankee candle melts and we got 2 packs of Christmas lights :rotfl: The lights are 9m long each, and reduced from £15 to £3. We ate lunch out yesterday but had dinner at home (well, ds had dinner at home.......we didn't really eat - just picked on a few little bits).

Today is going to be a quiet day. Ds had woken up tired! He's currently snuggled up on the sofa. We've got a few bits of unpacking left to do and we're having a food delivery later this morning. This afternoon I've got a couple of parcels to collect and that's it. It's going to be a chill out kinda day.

I've already looked through YNAB and the bank accounts and updated them. I've withdrawn money from one of the survey sites so hopefully that will reach the account within a few days.

MrsSave

I am ridiculously tired today. Oh, and would love a glass of wine! The wine is definitely not happening, but I may just squeeze in a nap later!

The grocery shop came, and it was an expensive one! Far more expensive than it should be. That's because I added a few health and beauty bits. They're things that needed to be stocked up, but it now means that things are tight for the rest of the month (and it's only the 10th!). I work from my pay dates, so 15 days until 'next month'. This week's food shop is done. Next week I am planning a proper budget shop in Aldi. If I'm feeling really frugal I usually buy a few bits in Aldi and then the rest in Tesco, but this time I'm planning to get everything there to see how much cheaper it is.

I'll have around £30 to spend on food next week so I'm not sure how to play it. Do I write a strict list and only buy from there, or (as I'm not aware of all there is in Aldi and you can only see so much online) do I write a list of the basics that we will need, and then will have (for example) £15 left for our dinners? They have a pork joint for £2.99, which looks good, but I don't want to assume that will do 3 meals and then find its smaller than expected. I think I'll do the basic shop and then the 'I need 7 dinners for £15' and see how we go.

I'll have a proper look through the cupboards to see what we have as well. 2 tins of beans came with today's shop, so I popped them in the cupboard with the other 6 tins. Why do I need that many?

Things getting tight is starting to really make me think about when the baby is here. We will have more than enough nappies and wipes to last a while, but I will be bottle feeding and that's going to add up. I think I need a separate section on YNAB for formula and part of our grocery money goes straight there, so even if things are tight formula money is budgeted.

I have noticed a couple of baby bits here that we won't be using this time, so I'm aiming to sell them (if anyone will want them).

MrsSave

A quick nap turned into a full 2 hours! Oops! I must have needed it! Thankfully Dh was off today so he looked after ds!

I've added the formula to YNAB, and have decided that the food budget itself will decrease in October in preparation for the formula budget! I've had a good look around at aldi prices this evening and am hoping it's as good as it looks. I've shopped in aldi plent of times, but it's been for a few things (like the super 6 items) but never a full weekly shop. I've decided that for the rest of August and September I will do the weekly shop in Aldi and see whether I am saving money. This will include a bigger shop there at the start of the month which will include cleaning products, toilet paper, etc.

Tomorrow should be a pretty cheap day. I'm taking ds to pay his birthday money into his account. I do want to pick up some toner, but that shouldn't be too expensive. As well as that we will head to the library at some point. I have 1 book to return and 1 to renew, and we'll take back ds's books and find new ones for him.

This evening I converted some Tesco vouchers to days out vouchers for us to have one more day out before the holidays are over. We've also got Ask vouchers left over from last month so can use them for dinner on our way home that evening. It will be a picnic day, so spends should be pretty low.

As for the school shoes pot, my mum has said that she'd like to pay for his school shoes. That's lovely of her. She said that she did want to pay for his uniform but I bought them too quickly so she couldn't come with us! To be honest I'm pleased that we've paid for his first school uniform, though.

MrsSave

Back to reality today! Here's my to-do list:

• [STRIKE]Check YNAB[/STRIKE],
• [STRIKE]Check bank accounts[/STRIKE],
• [STRIKE]Check emails[/STRIKE],
• [STRIKE]Check surveys[/STRIKE],
• Take ds to pay in his birthday money,
• [STRIKE]Take ds to the library[/STRIKE],
• [STRIKE]Make a beef casserole for tonight's dinner[/STRIKE],
• [STRIKE]Tidy upstairs[/STRIKE],
• Print out and complete tax rebate form,
• Collect parcel from Boots,
• [STRIKE]Check whether baby monitors work[/STRIKE].

MrsSave

Well had a busy-ish day today. Completed most things on my list. Didn't make it in to pay ds's money in, but there's no rush there. We went to the library and the to the post office to post ds's thank you cards. Spent just under £4 I think (whatever 6 second class stamps are!). Will check the receipt later and add it onto YNAB.

Baby

I tried out the new baby monitor earlier after charging it for the 16 hours it needed. It worked! We've gone for a video monitor this time, that also has a movement sensor (not over protective at all).

Money

The only spends today were the stamps. Dh was supposed to go to his swimming class this evening, but he forgot about it so didn't book in in time. The positive to that is that there's an extra £5 in the cash pot now :rotfl:

Our day

Other than the quick trip to the library and the post office, ds and I stayed home all day. I made a casserole this afternoon, and I think it may have been the nicest casserole I've ever made :rotfl: Dh commented a few times! Ds didn't eat much of his, but he's starting to go through a bit of a funny stage with food so I become the strict mother - nothing else to eat and no pudding. He's always been such a good eater so I'm hoping that this is a normal phase.

I made enough casserole that we've got it for dinner tomorrow night as well. It works out pretty cheap then. The meat was £2.89, and then I used half a massive onion (10p), 2 carrots (12p), 1 parsnip (19p), 1 stock cube (3p), a little tomato puree (10p), Worcestershire sauce (10p), water, oil (10p) and butter (5p). Those prices are a guess, but that adds up to £3.68. Split that between 6 portions, and that's 62p per portion. I made some mashed potatoes to go with that as well as peas, broccoli and cauliflower.

It's definitely one to make again, possibly even to batch cook and freeze before baby arrives. Yum!!

MrsSave

A middle of the night thread.........uh oh!

It appears that a sickness bug has arrived at the 'S' household. Ds has been sick a few times since bedtime and now Dh seems to have it too. Well I'm strangely hoping it's a sickness bug and not that I've given my family food poisoning with my casserole! I'm fine *touch wood* so I'm guessing if it was the food then I'd be sick too. It looks like tomorrow will be spent as nurse 'S'.

I am seriously contemplating throwing the rest of the casserole in case, but everything was fresh and in date. Ds hardly ate any, and I ate the same quantity as Dh. I think I'm being paranoid.

As I'm awake I've had a quick look at the back accounts and YNAB. Dh gets paid today but it's a little too early for it to show in the account. Today's bills have gone out and I've had a quick look at the Tesco credit card account (but didn't get further than a brief overview as they're doing planned maintenance. Don't they know that 2:30am is an ideal time for me to sort my banking out!).

Stamps cost £3.30 so I've added that to YNAB. The £9.50 from a couple of surveys has appeared in the account.

I think I'm going to try for a bit more sleep as the rest of the house is currently quiet with no one being sick and both snoring away!

debtaghh

Hope everyone feels better and that you don't catch it!

MrsSave

debtaghh wrote: »

Hope everyone feels better and that you don't catch it!

Thank you. The 3 year old is running around like there was nothing at all wrong this morning. The 30 something year old is acting as if he's at death's door! I'm really hoping that I don't catch it either!

After not much sleep last night I'm guessing ds will crash later so I will hopefully manage to fit in a nap too!!

MrsSave

The sickness appears to have stopped (for now). Dh doesn't have much of a grasp about passing bugs around. He's literally like "I've just been sick.......I'm just going to do the washing up!". This happens every time he's ill. He then says he doesn't want me doing more, so instead he spreads his germs around and then we'll see if I get ill too! Grrrrrrr!! :mad: Anyway the 2 patients are sitting on the sofa watching tv now.........I wonder how long before one of them is asleep!

I'm going to pop out later to pay ds's birthday money into his account and I'll pick up a couple of 'nice' drinks for the patients to rehydrate and give them a little energy. I also need some face toner so today won't be a nsd. I hope to get most of it with the £5 from yesterday's swimming. If I don't touch the bank cards I'm counting it as a nsd! I'm not sure I'll manage it though!

Oh, I've just had a look and the toner is on offer in both Boots and Tesco, but cheaper in Boots. Only 16p cheaper but every penny counts!

I'm going to risk the casserole again this evening. I'm figuring that if it was the food then
1. I would've been poorly too,
2. My son hardly touched his so surely he wouldn't have been as ill as he was last night.

Also, he's been fine other than actually being sick. Not feeling unwell, stomach cramps or anything, so hopefully it's just a 24 hour thing.

I'm not going to make a to-do list today, because the first half I did at 2:30 this morning, and the other half I've already listed above.