The ups, downs, and occasional sideways bits of trying to be mortgage free

armchairexpert

Little Girl eye appointment today, no need for new glasses which is something. Modest spends on new sandals for her and new swimming costumes for both of them ahead of their pool party on the weekend. Otherwise life continues apace! Was out for a meal last night, tab picked up by the school because it was a thank you to the school council parents, so that was nice. Burgers tonight. Very boring update!

Cherryfudge

Good to see you got through the crazy weekend so well and the girls seem to have had a good time!

armchairexpert

The crazy weekend has spilled over into this week, unfortunately. A million pieces of work have landed on my desk, and at the same time I'm organising a present and card for Big Girl's best friend's birthday dinner tonight, ordering sandwich platters and looking up cake recipes for my girls' birthday party Saturday, and in between, Friday night, is the school End of Year concert to which I am supposed to bring booze and help out at the fundraising bar.

Next week is looking a bit better. And my Mum decided that the girls' Christmas present this year would be her taking them away for a 4-day beach holiday in the week leading up to Christmas, which they will adore and therefore I can use that time to deep clean the house ahead of my in-laws arriving and also get ahead on some work. I've never been away from them for that many days, so I am a bit nervous and preparing to miss them, but it'll be great for them I think.

Mr E got paid today and it was about $120 more than usual. Am waiting to hear if this is his annual payrise coming through, which I have been expecting since September. Mr E doesn't like to ask people about money, even if the question is literally "what is my salary", so it's a bit guessworky.

armchairexpert

Out to dinner again last night for a friend's birthday. Good food, decent company, I tried hard not to think about the money and largely failed. We've spent $200 on eating out already this month and it's only the 9th.

Actual grocery costs are going very well, though, so I might shuffle some money from one pot to the other. Supposed to take a picnic to the school this evening ahead of the end of year concert in which we all sit around and watch our adorable offspring warble something in a homemade costume. It's a bit cold and damp this year, though, so I'm tempted to go a bit later and just buy them a sausage from the barbecue instead of spreading blankets on wet grass. I did buy crisps and ham and things, but I burned the bread and I can't really be bothered making a new loaf in time.

It's their birthday party tomorrow, so I have bought all the trimmings to make them the cake they wanted (and have been obsessing over for almost a year, since my MIL bought them* a Disney Birthday Cake cookbook). It involved five different bags of sweets! I mean not all of every bag goes on, obviously, but I needed something that looked like rocks, something I could turn into seaweed, some fish-shaped candies, chocolate seashells and some jubes to make an octopus from. The whole production is costing me about what it would have cost to buy a ready made and beautifully decorated cake from the bakery and is infinitely more faff-y.

I've also ordered a platter of ready made wraps from the supermarket, which I know is not MSE but I am on my knees here. We were out at dinner last night, we're out until 9.30pm again tonight and I have so much work to do that I'm working on the couch until approximately midnight. The poor dog is getting an occasional walk squeezed in and if I had a dog walker to hand her over to I would. It is RIDIC and I am prepared to throw money at it at this stage.

Anyway, so this afternoon/evening I need to:

1. Pack at least a partial picnic for this evening, we can't literally eat a sausage-in-a-bun for dinner
2. Clap/encourage/etc while sitting on plastic chair
3. Make cake (Victoria sponge thing)
4. Decorate cake
5. Pick up wraps and buy fruit
6. Bake sausage rolls and wrap in foil
7. Buy wrapping paper and construct a pass-the-parcel oh goodness kill me now I do not have TIME for this
8. I do have crisps, biscuits, drinks and party cups and platers and things organised
9. Work out how to get all of this down to party venue
10. Don't forget to pick up Big Girl's best friend on the way

That's not including the 2-3 hours work, obviously.

armchairexpert

So once every month or two circumstances mean that Mr E does the weekly shop instead of me, and I always end up here complaining about how much he spends.

This weekend was the same. I made a short list of the basic things we needed, knowing he'd pick up about a million other things, and I took a deep breath and sent them all off because it's December and it's not the end of the world if we go over budget.

And he came back way under. WAY under. He'd gone to Aldi for the first time, bless him, managed to spend only $145, and picked up the Christmas turkey as part of that. I was amazed!

And then this morning I was making lunches for the girls and - no lunch meat? No savoury snacks? Where's all the fruit? "I tried to stick to your list".

Why? Why this time? If I'd known he was going to stick to the list I would have made a longer list! I put "fruit" and he bought three apples? This is a man who, if I say "apples", usually comes back with a 5kg bucket of apples, some pears, a different kind of apple, tangelos because he knows I like them and also three boxes of peaches because they were on a bulk special. I'm mystified. Bless his heart. I'm going to go do a second grocery shop this afternoon.

armchairexpert

Nothing at all interesting going on here. We're over the hump of the pre-Christmas madness, this week has been much quieter and thus less spendy. Work is still mad - yesterday I just completely forgot about a piece of work I had promised someone by lunchtime, and I have never done that before. But by the end of this week it should be settled.

The girls go on holiday on Sunday, so I need to get them a few things: a huge vat of sunscreen, new hats and flip flops, that sort of thing. I've been trying to decide how to make the most of their absence so I'm not missing them as much. I do have to work during the day, but I can't even remember what I used to do before children, really! Have breakfast in peace and walk the dog without a complaining child at my side. There must be something more interesting than that I can do.

Cherryfudge

armchairexpert wrote: »

Why? Why this time? If I'd known he was going to stick to the list I would have made a longer list! I put "fruit" and he bought three apples? This is a man who, if I say "apples", usually comes back with a 5kg bucket of apples, some pears, a different kind of apple, tangelos because he knows I like them and also three boxes of peaches because they were on a bulk special. I'm mystified. Bless his heart. I'm going to go do a second grocery shop this afternoon.

Oh dear, the trials they put us through! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: But thank you for the laugh. I hope your supplementary shop was more satisfying?

armchairexpert

It was, thank you! Although all the apricots went squishy within what seemed like minutes.

Halfway through the month now. We've got most of the Christmas shopping in: bought a turkey, done the Christmas cake and have gingerbread biscuits and a gingerbread house and mince pies and things, and a case of wine, and we've ordered a ham, so just the vegetables to buy now really. We're also having a few friends over on Christmas Eve for a barbecue, and I've got all the meat for that. Will buy crusty bread and make some salads on the day, but it's a bring-a-plate-to-supplement sort of deal so not going overboard.

Presents all done, although I need one more stocking gift for Big Girl.

The girls are actually away with my Mum for four days, which is very odd feeling! Mr E and I were so desperate to distract ourselves yesterday, we impulse-bought a loft bed for Little Girl. It was second hand, and we've been looking for one for ages because her room is small and needs more storage, but it's not most people's idea of a relaxing Sunday.

I used (most of) the money I had set aside to buy Big Girl an iPad for school, because it turns out we don't need to buy that for another year. She's going into Year 4, and they don't need them until Year 5, which I knew, but she's in a class which is almost entirely Year 5s so I thought she'd need one to join in. But the school is buying a few for the sole use of the handful of Year 4s, which is GREAT news for me. I didn't really want to buy one this early: we're a very low tech household, and I think 9 is too young to own such an expensive thing, and also I didn't really want to deal with the hassle of managing screen time when her younger sister doesn't have access. So now I can save up more slowly for the next year, anyway.

armchairexpert

The girls have been away two nights now, and I miss them a lot. But they sent me a photo earlier of them standing on the porch of their beach house, just across the road from the actual beach, so they're obviously having fun.

(sniffs)

Anyway! In my own glamorous life news, I rented a steam cleaner and have steam cleaned all the carpets and rugs. They'll be dry by this evening and we can put together Little Girl's new bed. I also cleaned in and under all the couches and armchairs (the ones in the 'family room', which is really the kids' space, were slightly traumatic. But I did find the kitchen scissors!) so it's good to feel like I've done a bit of a spring clean. Heaps to go though.

Am driving into the city to pick up Mr E from work and go out for a casual dinner tonight. Sort of thing we used to do a lot. Last night we went to a neighbourhood street party, which we've not done before despite having lived here for three Christmases, and that was nice. The hosts live on a very quiet street just across the road from ours (as in, a side street coming off it) so no cars, and had hung old chandeliers and fairy lights on the oak trees lining the road. Everyone who lives around here is fairly rich (except us!), so we spent a lot of time hearing about a 17 year old's trip to Japan and his slightly older brother's three month Asian tour and someone else's Greek Islands cruise. Quite eye opening, how the other half lives and how much they take for granted. But also quite fun, in an anthropological sort of way.

Tahlullah

Sounds like fun. In the uk, we do this sort of thing regularly from the comfort of our living room. We have a choice of TOWIE , Geordie Shore, or any other reality programme to be fair. For the sake of equality, we like to go the other way as well, with programmes like Benefits Street. But your street party sounds much more enjoyable.