£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

enthusiasticsaver

I may be missing something here but bulk buying Epsom salts and castor oil seems a little odd. Not sure I have ever used either of those.

Do you sell the candles?

Good idea to make jam for teachers though. Thankfully annual gifts to teachers were not something we ever used to have to worry about when our children were small. Do lots of parents do this?

Treadingonplaymobil

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

I may be missing something here but bulk buying Epsom salts and castor oil seems a little odd. Not sure I have ever used either of those.

Do you sell the candles?

Good idea to make jam for teachers though. Thankfully annual gifts to teachers were not something we ever used to have to worry about when our children were small. Do lots of parents do this?

:rotfl: they are slightly odd things for normal people! Ashtanga yoga is a full on yoga practice, and Epsom salt baths help achey muscles. The castor oil is used in a weekly oil bath (not actually a bath, but a sort of massage routine), again to help achey muscles, and various other hippy benefits which may or may not actually exist, depending on your level of hippy-ness .

I don't sell the candles, just make them (mine are not that good!). It has completely curbed my £40-a-pop essential oil scented candle addiction, and they cost me well under £5 a time, even with loads of nice essential oil in. It started when I made a load for Christmas presents and realised they were almost as nice as the £40 ones for about a tenth of the price.

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 22: Day 5

Morning! Going to try to get all the things done today that I didn't get ticked off yesterday, plus a few extra of course.

One of the things we are going to do in our weekly family meeting tonight is come up with cheap/free summer activities and list them on a big piece of paper so we have lots of inspiration. All ideas that I might be able to throw into the pot are very welcome! We live near the sea so beach trips etc will be on there, but I'm trying to think of plenty of options.

to do today
1. make butterbean soup.
2. Continue rearranging all the stuff I've moved out of the dining room and making space for it - nothing like moving things around to make you realise what's useful and what is just clutter.
3. finish tidying my bedroom.
4. make candles
5. Scale the mountain range that is my ironing pile.
6. re-pot my windowsill cacti - they have outgrown their little pots!
7. Walk 10,000 steps - this has slipped again and it makes such a difference to how I feel.
8. social media.

to do this week
1. Order camping gear needed. Done - limited it to new self inflating mat for DH and I and a sleeping bag for DC3 (who never had one while in a cot, but will now she is out on a big bed). That's enough to see us through for now, but will need a single bed for DC3 at some stage (she can share the double bed with DH for the camping trip next weekend as I'm not going). Going to see if I can get through without buying any more equipment this summer, but who knows what will break on the first outing of the year.
2. Continue with cleaning the house thoroughly one room at a time. Ongoing.
3. Make strawberry jam with the big batch of strawberries in the freezer. Done!
4. Order walking boots for me, preferably on sale or with some cashback to take the sting out of it. Not going to do this, as discussed above.

Aims for July:
1. Pay some extra off the MBNA card - I'd like this card gone asap. Well, a whopping £15 paid on top of the minimum payment so far, hoping to make another payment before end of month.
2. Pay for camping holiday commitments out of self employed income rather than adding to debt.
3. Stick to the budget even more closely than in June!

armchairexpert

Summer activities!

Picnics obviously
I have friends who swear by geocaching, good in the 5-10 year old age bracket
Evening country walks with a torch: lots of animals to try and spot that aren't around in the daytime
Back garden "sports day". Set up obstacles and things.

Are you really posting at 4am?

warby68

'Surprise' visits - not really a surprise as the adults arrange it but let the children think its a surprise. Somehow that makes a quick call round for coffee or even a 'duty' visit very exciting for them - they can make a low cost gift to take. Turns a non-event into an event. You can receive them too.

Being up and out to see the sun rise (and set) with picnic breakfast/supper if your little ones can handle the sleep changes

Some tidying projects (with rewards)

Camping in the garden

Do you have any Nectar points? They're running that offer for Vue and Pizza Express again

Eager_Elephant

I don't post much but love reading your to do list!! I would like one but doubt it would be as interesting as yours!

What about a Treasure Hunt - you can get downloadable ones for parks/woods/beach etc so they have to collect certain items or you could do it as a proper treasure hunt where they follow the clues and then get a prize at the end.

Where I live (Suffolk) a lot of the nature reserves run by Suffolk Wildlife Trust run free events over the summer and also our Local Authority run free events at places they own like lakes etc - usually I just type summer activities and my county in and I get loads of ideas.

Suffolk_lass

A couple of suggestions for if the weather is not great - Not sure how old your children are but a research project - maybe something related to a local event or history item - could involve going to the location, checking out news stories and compiling "evidence" like a detective project, or a bit of family history with an elderly relative - finding out about memories, family history or their involvement in an event and then looking at information in the public domain about the event.

Making their own meal with appropriate supervision - I know you bake bread, what about a bit for a pizza dough?

Helping you by making some candles ready for Christmas gifts - if the children make them with you, the recipients will forgive any imperfections - my Mum still "treasures" a bottle of chilli-oil my Son made her when he was at school (he's 25 now!) - and this gets ahead on some presents at low cost.

GeorgianaCavendish

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

A couple of suggestions for if the weather is not great - Not sure how old your children are but a research project - maybe something related to a local event or history item - could involve going to the location, checking out news stories and compiling "evidence" like a detective project, or a bit of family history with an elderly relative - finding out about memories, family history or their involvement in an event and then looking at information in the public domain about the event.

My cousins and I used to do this when we were kids, we were inspired by the book My Friend Walter My oldest cousin still has her project on Ancient Egypt, she was very proud of it :rotfl:

Have you checked out any summer events at National Trust properties close to you? The National Trust is running a series of events for their 50 Things To Do Before You Are 11 and 3/4 campaign

Treadingonplaymobil

Thanks for all the ideas, I will throw them into the pot this evening!

Just got the quote through from the architect. Scary numbers, but he has really broken it down, so we can see where we are. First stage is a very initial pre-planning meeting with the local planning authority, as there isn't really a precedent for any sort of extending near us, so that's only £120 to save up. After that it's £700 for an initial survey and drawings, then £700 for drawing development through to final plans. Although it's big chunks of money, it feels like manageable goals over the medium term, and the architect is happy to work in stages. So aim one is to get the £120 saved for a pre-planning meeting some time soon after the summer holidays (neither DH or I have the time and energy to think about it before then anyway).

BUT, even more excitingly, look what has arrived at TOPM HQ!

Hiddenidenity

Popping in with some more free ideas

Do you have a local museum thats free? We have quite a few here that are free. Then even more that are free/small donation in Manchester. We make use of these a lot! they always have activities on in the school holidays.

Library? Our library again had activities on in the holidays, our local one has closed but the one in town does similar so maybe its nationwide?

Canal walks if you have one local

We have a few country parks that again put free activities on in the holidays

We have movie nights (Netflix borrowed of a relative and some homemade cheap snacks)

When the weathers good we do 'picnics in the garden'

Arts/crafts can be done with all sorts of random leftovers and bits round the house/garden.