Bricks Not Books

VintageHistorian

I'm not certain where I am with OPs this month as that is on my old laptop and I'm currently using my new one. I've migrated everything over but then used both laptops across each other over the past few weeks and now I must pay the price. I think I've also got my August photos on the old one so they need to be brought over too.

I have had my week off and it was very expensive. Paid the £250 from replacing the water pump last month (it took a while for the plumber to send the bill), and we went to Ikea and spent £250 there. Some of that was on Christmas gifts for DS (mostly stocking stuffers) and things we have needed for a while, but it was the usual Ikea thing - put things in the trolley as you go round and then look shocked when you get to the till. I did have £30 in giftcards that I bought off a colleague for £25 and we got £10 off with our family card as we spent £50 on kitchen items, so there was some money saving involved.

I've just looked at my gift spread sheet and taken out some of the Ikea things I bought for DS for Christmas and put them in the birthday column instead. It's all arts things (felt tips, chalks etc) which I think will be better for his birthday as we can take them on our holiday the following month. And it means I now have more left in the Christmas budget for him, otherwise he was going to get lots of Ikea bits and not much else. And he doesn't yet have the patience to unwrap lots and lots of small things. He'll have a Christmas stocking for the first time this year but I've just identified 5 things that will go in it, all under £7.

I also visited a childhood friend and had a good catch up with her. Did my second talk and got paid £25 for it, it was cash so it's gone in the "emergency" cash envelope (just incase digital payments go wonky one day). Me and Mr VH took a load of things to the tip so the "tip" corner of the kitchen behind the bins is now clear (or it was until we fill it with Ikea boxes which will go out with recycling next week). Decluttering has continued but I've mostly been catching up at weekends rather than getting it done in the week. I think I've gone just over the 100 items target. It's not made a huge visual difference (especially since some of it is now in bags for the charity shop and not out the house completely) but it is nice to have things sorted. Still got another week to do on the challenge so we'll see what else gets out the door between now and 1st October.

Last night I cashed out £46.48 from TCB. £30 is going in the emergency fund and £16.48 will go as an overpayment. I've also just got £2.50 cashback from a social media post I saw for a pie (or was it a quiche?) a while ago, that will probably go to the emergency fund too.

Today is my day off. The in-laws have been round to see DS and Tesco have delivered their side of the food shop. Once DS is napped and snacked we'll head to Waitrose for the second part of the food shop. I also took DS for a walk this morning as we saw quite a few trucks go past to the local building site. We wandered up and spotted some diggers etc so he was in his tiny toddler element (obviously we were firmly on the pavement and well away from the actual work that was going on so we weren't in anyone's way).

DS has homemade pasta bolognese for his dinner tonight and there's some garlic bread in the fridge so he can have a piece of that with it. Me and Mr VH are having pie and chips with peas.

Have a good rest of the week everyone!

VintageHistorian

I went to pay the nursery invoice for the last time and it was marked as fulfilled, so I'm assuming the funded hours have taken care of that.

In which case I am now paying the very generous amount of £250 a month, which is salary sacrificed so knock about 30% off that to cover the reduction in tax, NI and student loan. Cue a huge exhale as the £1000 a month it was going to be was making me wince every time I looked at the letter. Of course it's worth noting that the only reason why it's a mere £250 is because we have grandparent care 1 day a week and then me doing part-time compressed hours, fulltime care would still be very expensive.

Payday has been and gone so I just need the mortgage money to go out on Monday and then I can do a thorough money shuffle. I filled the car with petrol the other day, after letting it get worryingly low last week. Need to keep a closer eye on money this month as we're getting into Christmas spending season. That said we're also now in the downward slope to my birthday so I could/should refrain from buying things for myself and instead send links to people who ask for gift ideas.

Mr VH is now back at work after his career break. So far this week mostly seems to be getting up to speed with an immense amount of online training. DS is missing him a lot but the excitement of going out in the dark to get Daddy from the train station is getting us through the bedtime routine with slightly less fuss than expected.

Tesco and the in-laws have both been round this morning. We took DS to the nearby park where he had such a thorough run around that he fell asleep on the sofa while I was making his lunch. I'll be getting him up early, feeding him a late lunch and then popping to Waitrose for the other part of the food shop. He'll have to go in the trolley as I can't control him and shop at the same time. But I'll need to think of somewhere else to take him afterwards as he'll need a second dash about before dinner.

Dinner tonight is gnocchi bake, which is a huge favourite of me and Mr VH and which I am really looking forward to. DS will be having some M&S breaded chicken teddy bears with some kind of potato-based side dish and peas. Have a good week everyone!

Greying_Pilgrim

Phew to reduced nursery costs VH, that must be a relief.  

I was watching a vegan cooking blog yesterday and Linnea made a vegan gnocchi bake, using mushrooms and  broccoli.  Whilst i possibly wouldn't do the vegan version, it did plant a seed in my mind for something to make in the colder months - possibly in the SC.  I've mentally put gnocchi on my shopping list, anyway 😁

Greying X

South_coast

Love a bit of gnocchi 😋

VintageHistorian

Greying_Pilgrim said:

Phew to reduced nursery costs VH, that must be a relief.  

I was watching a vegan cooking blog yesterday and Linnea made a vegan gnocchi bake, using mushrooms and  broccoli.  Whilst i possibly wouldn't do the vegan version, it did plant a seed in my mind for something to make in the colder months - possibly in the SC.  I've mentally put gnocchi on my shopping list, anyway 😁

Greying X

A big relief! We could have managed it but regular savings would have been severely curtailed.

My bake definitely isn't vegan (fry off some lardons, add the gnocchi so it soaks up the bacon oil, tip in a carton of passata and simmer for 10 minutes then tip in a dish and cover with grated cheese, stick in the oven for 20 minutes and voila!) but it's lovely in colder weather. Gnocchi sticks to the ribs and leaves you feeling lovely and full for the rest of the evening.

VintageHistorian

South_coast said:

Love a bit of gnocchi 😋

It's so good. Neither of my parents like it so I never had it as a child and then a few years ago I tried as a starter when having a meal out and I was instantly converted!

VintageHistorian

I finally loaded up the old laptop the other day as I needed to edit some photos for the shop, and I remembered to grab my OP document for September.

All the spending took a toll so in total I only overpaid £22.30 in September. BUT I am already making up for that as the first OP for October was £35.99, including the £16 from TCB that I didn't get round to sending last month.

Money is going out. I bought 2 more pairs of trousers for DS from Vinted as he basically only gets one wear out of the ones he has at nursery. If it's not paint on them then it's sand or food, so two extra pairs can just be kept in the drawer so I don't have to be quite so worried about keeping up with the laundry. I have a dentist visit in London next month so I've paid for the tickets in advance, which should save me around £15 if not a little more.

I also need to book tickets for a Christmas fair me and my Mum want to visit, and tickets for a Christmas event to take DS to. Oh and I ended up spending on a takeaway for us in the middle of the week after huge problems with Mr VH's trains home. Luckily we don't have takeaway that often but it's still a spend I wasn't expecting (I simply couldn't face cooking omelettes at 8:30 at night).

Money is also coming in. I did my last history talk of the year for my local WI so I had a nice catch up with some of the members once I was finished, and that's £35 now in my S&S ISA. I have also sold a Nintendo game at work so that will be £5 once I take that in next week, the money from that will go in the future house move fund. I've identified some of DS's toys that he doesn't really play with any more so those need to be photographed and listed for sale before Christmas.

I needed to do some baking today. I was going to do a lemon drizzle cake but the lemon I was going to use had gone mouldy (I'm not sure how long it had been sitting in the fridge), and I'm out of chocolate chips. So the eggs will have to wait as I made fork biscuits instead (so called because you squash the little balls of dough down with a fork). I've had two with a cup of tea this afternoon and they taste very nice so they'll do for the next few days.

Dinner tonight is roast chicken from the slow cooker, and writing that out has just reminded me that I need to get a portion of rataouille out of the freezer for Mr VH to have with it!

Have a good week everyone!

VintageHistorian

Did a little TT of £1.64 the other day so that's now over £37 OPed this month.

Still haven't ordered any tickets. Did buy a hoodie for DS that was reduced to £5 (from £9) in Tesco, along with 3 winter hats for him (one for home/grandparents house, one for nursery, a spare one for the car).

I then sorted out his summer clothes while DH was feeding him lunch and realised he has two other hoodies, one from Vinted and one my Mum bought him. The Vinted one has gone in his nursery bag, but the new Tesco one and the one my Mum bought him are 3 to 4 years old on the label so they'll last him ages.

The two pairs of trousers have arrived and will be washed and put away, so now I just need to get a few more long sleeved tops and I think DS will be ready for winter. Last years coat still fits so that is now the nursery coat, and my Mum bought him a lovely padded one in Mountain Warehouse so that's his new good coat for the season.

Exchanged the Nintendo game for £5 cash during the week so I've now put £40 emergency petrol money in the boot of the car. There's a few little prepping things I've been doing recently, mostly so that in an emergency DS can be safe and focused on. Along with emergency petrol money and a spare shopping bag (already come in handy this week) we also have a paper AA road map (A5 size, not those enormous ones my parents used to have) and I want to get a spare phone charger cable. There's also a snack for DS (best before date is May 2026) and we already had a first aid kit. I just need to put in some more winter clothing for myself and maybe get a small blanket.

Now that the money stuff is out the way, I can tell you that Mr VH has broken his ankle on Monday. All he was doing was walking when he "rolled" it (must have put his foot down awkwardly). He did the same thing months ago and walked it off so assumed he could do the same thing again. But he was part of the way to work when he realised it was getting quite a bit worse and when he arrived work promptly sent him to A&E in a taxi. He has a "very small" fracture, so small that they doctor was apparantly reluctant to do anything about it but when DH said he was in a lot of pain when walking they gave him one of those supportive boot things.

So he's been working from home with his foot propped up. DS is overjoyed to have Daddy back in the house 24/7. We have no idea how long he needs to wear the boot for as instructions were not forthcoming (and Mr VH didn't ask because men just don't?) but the swelling is finally going down and even his toes have had bruises come out on them. He has a bag of peas on his ankle in the evenings but during the day he's alternating between sitting with his foot up and hobbling around. DS understands the foot is "poorly" but can't quite grasp the idea that that means Daddy can't move around like usual and expects to be able to launch himself at Daddy and be caught with no problems

Dinner tonight is toad in the hole. The batter is in the fridge and the potatoes are peeled, diced and resting in water. Mr VH will be having peas with his, which means he probably can't use the bag tonight without risking them spilling everywhere. DS will be having chicken chasseur with rice. I've lost track of what I have and haven't fed him for dinners this month and really need to do a freezer inventory to see what he'll soon be out of.

Have a good weekend everyone!

VintageHistorian

I went in to Co-Op on Monday lunchtime and found a small beef joint that was yellowstickered from £15 to £10! Dithered over it for quite some time as £10 felt like a lot to spend on a roasting joint but in the end it was still better than spending £15 so I bought it and that will be Saturday nights dinner, and although it was a small piece I'm aiming to get enough slices to put 2 portions in the freezer so four meals out of £10 of beef joint would be a real bonus.

I had a surprise bonus day with DS yesterday. Normally he goes to my parents on Tuesdays but Mum texted on Monday afternoon saying she had a stomach bug and wouldn't be able to have him. Since Mr VH is home he did the morning routine and breakfast with DS while I did a few hours work, I did a few more hours during naptime, and then Mr VH finish at 4 and did dinner and bedtime while I caught up the remaining hours and heated up our dinner (pasta and sauce from the freezer).

We had a very nice chill day. Took him to Hobbycraft in the morning to buy some cards and stickers, and then went to a big Sainsburys where he had a ride around in the trolley while I browsed (nothing worth buying even in the reduced section, especially since I don't have a Nectar card). We came home and had some lunch and the nap, and then in the afternoon he had a snack and watched Moana with me before Daddy joined and I disappeared into the home office. He also watched Frozen with Mr VH once Moana finished and now occasionally breaks into the first line Anna's song   

In comparison today we've had a Tesco delivery, I need to sort out dried laundry, in-laws popped round, and then it was straight into lunch and a nap, and once he's up it'll be time for a snack and then off to Waitrose and hope the traffic isn't too bad so I can have a short breather before doing his dinner.

He did, however, make two Christmas cards by scribbling on them with some green and red pens and then picking which stickers he wanted added. My aim over the next few weeks is to make enough to give to grandparents, aunties and uncle. If he really gets into it then we'll do some for the nursery staff too. I also want to check with the manager what we're allowed to do for the staff in terms of gifts. They'll almost certainly get flooded with boxes of Celebrations/Heroes/Quality Street so I might do a selection of hot drinks, or maybe some biscuits and savoury crackers, so they can share them all between them and hopefully no one gets left out. But I need to check what's allowed first.

And speaking of naptime DS is up a little early and is babbling to his stuffed rabbit. So he's clearly ready for the afternoon.

Did a money shuffle before writing this but my TT was only going to be 77p and Barclays won't let you move anything less than £1, so we'll do another money shuffle after I've been to Waitrose and that should get me enough to TT.

Dinner tonight is steak baguettes as a bit of a treat. Have a good week everyone!

beanielou

What lovely bonus time to have with DS.