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

wishingthemortgaheaway

I've seen the shower cap trick in here recently too, can't wait to stay in the hotel on Saturday night.

Treadingonplaymobil

I'm laughing imagining all these little shower cap clad bowls up and down the country!

Feel like I haven't achieved as much as I wanted to today - quick coffee stretched into a two hour coffee, so didn't spend as much time working as I wanted.

DH took the DCs swimming, which is now free for all three in the local pool - the price of swimming lessons has gone up, but includes swim membership to the pool. DH also has one free month's membership, so completely free activity for them.

Finally had a couple of good work enquiries today - my first since late May! Hoping at least one comes off, will mean some money in during September.

to do today
1. social media for work. Done.
2. book surfing lesson. Done.
3. unpack and tidy upstairs. Not done.
4. more laundry and ironing. Done.
5. make quiche for lunches while camping. In the oven right now.
6. 6hrs work. Five hours counts, right?
7. batch cook macaroni cheese. Not done, but I did make an onion tart with leftover onions.
8. investigate making some homemade sandwich wraps - we go through clingfilm like it's going out of fashion, between covering bowls with it when bread making and wrapping up sarnies on days out. Also, in my hippy way, I don't like using that much plastic, in environmental or 'my food is permanently encased in plastic' terms. Quite fancy trying homemade beeswax fabric wraps, although might have to buy a shower cap in the interim
9. book DH's trains for next week - I am away seeing one of my parents with the DC so he needs a weekly train ticket plus a ticket up to meet us at the end of the week. Have outsourced this to DH.
10. check gas bottles - if we have enough for this weekend I might be able to avoid a trip to the camping shop entirely, which can only be good for the wallet. Not done

to do this week
1. as much work as I can squeeze in - any extra earnings will really make the difference this month!
2. trip to the camping shop for gas, possibly sleeping mat, anything else that crops up as we unpack and clean everything.
3. car service - panic about the price and wish I'd been better about saving.
4. I'm sure I'll add more to this list as I work through my bullet journal lists today.
5. Ooh, talk to DS1 about his birthday party - he seems up for taking one or two friends on a day out to a trampoline place or climbing wall, need to discuss further.

to do this month
1. Pay some extra off the MBNA card - I'd like this card gone asap. More than the £15 I managed in July would be nice.
2. Find ourselves with more than £228 in the savings account on 31st August.
3. Keep that overall spend figure down below £3,900 (baby steps!)
4. business planning and scheduling, so that I am ready to start making some immediate profit in September when DC3 starts preschool.
5. think outside the box with the food budget and keep a close eye on anywhere it might be going wrong.
6. Try not to need the child benefit money to balance August’s money, so it can go towards Septmber’s (it is paid four weekly, which is currently falling towards the back end of the month, so I have balanced the budget to work without it, and will aim to put it towards September’s income rather than August’s. We’ll see).

hex2

My OH keeps staying in hotels for work, and is under strict instructions to keep an eye out for a shower cap but no luck so far. He refuses to ask for one at reception which is fair enough. I plonk a plate or a tea towel on top of the mixer bowl rather than cling film which can make the dough sweat.

45m of cling film is the same price as 10m of baking paper so a difficult decision. I vaguely remember on the OS guilty secrets type thread people who washed foil and baking paper to reuse.

TOPM do you have access to Home and Bargains or B&M?

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 26: day 5

Yawn. DH back to work today, so I'm back to ungodly starts to fit in my yoga before he goes.

I have the world's fussiest children coming for a playdate later, trying to decide whether fairy cakes with jam and buttercream will be accepted or rejected. I know one of them is funny about 'mixed things' so maybe I'll leave some plain. I cunningly included a pack of Aldi stork-alike for baking in my food shop, so will use a mixture of that and butter for cheapness. Or maybe I should try some of those hobnobs someone recommended here a while back, if I can find the recipe link.

Car service today. Garage reckons it will be the best part of £200 - £100 for the 'bronze' service and nearly another £100 for the pair of tyres it's likely to need. If it comes in at only that I'll be happy (well, as happy as one can be about forking out £200). We have a long drive for our holiday at the end of the month, so it will give us peace of mind to have it newly serviced at least.

On a car-related note, we are trying to decide whether DH should start getting a season ticket (train) to work instead of taking the car. The monthly cost is about £160, and the cost of diesel for driving is around £145-150 per month. However, I am thinking that saving (a) the price of a set of tyres every 2 years or so (as well as other less visible costs of higher mileage like more regular servicing) and (b) making the car last longer as we aren't currently saving to replace it might be worthwhile (his work mileage is about £12,000 per year). It will still end up being driven one or twice a week on the weekends and for food shopping, so it won't be just sat there going rusty, so I'm thinking it might give us an extra couple of years before it dies. It's a diesel estate, a decade old, and has £110k on the clock, so it's a workhorse, but it's not going to go on forever. There will be a small additional cost of servicing DH's bike occasionally as there's a bit of cycling at each end, but that's only about £30 every couple of years.

to do today
1. start packing for camping.
2. bake fairy cakes
3. tidy upstairs.
4. more laundry and ironing (oh how I long for this not to be on my list every single day!)
5. batch cook macaroni cheese.
6. check how many gas bottles we have for camping.
7. make sweet potato soup to freeze, as we won't need it for a meal before we go camping, and the potatoes won't last forever.
8. make curry to take camping.
9. 2hrs work, somehow!

to do this week
1. as much work as I can squeeze in - any extra earnings will really make the difference this month!
2. trip to the camping shop for gas, possibly sleeping mat, anything else that crops up as we unpack and clean everything.
3. car service - panic about the price and wish I'd been better about saving.
4. I'm sure I'll add more to this list as I work through my bullet journal lists today.
5. Ooh, talk to DS1 about his birthday party - he seems up for taking one or two friends on a day out to a trampoline place or climbing wall, need to discuss further.

to do this month
1. Pay some extra off the MBNA card - I'd like this card gone asap. More than the £15 I managed in July would be nice.
2. Find ourselves with more than £228 in the savings account on 31st August.
3. Keep that overall spend figure down below £3,900 (baby steps!)
4. business planning and scheduling, so that I am ready to start making some immediate profit in September when DC3 starts preschool.
5. think outside the box with the food budget and keep a close eye on anywhere it might be going wrong.
6. Try not to need the child benefit money to balance August’s money, so it can go towards Septmber’s (it is paid four weekly, which is currently falling towards the back end of the month, so I have balanced the budget to work without it, and will aim to put it towards September’s income rather than August’s. We’ll see).

Treadingonplaymobil

OMG went for the hobnobs. Best. Recipe. Ever.

I'm wondering if 4:30am yoga cancels out 7am hobnob breakfast...

Silver_Queen

Re: taking the train, will it add a lot of time to his commute? It sounds like you both work as a team time-wise at the moment so would it upset that, and if so, would it be worth it?

Treadingonplaymobil

Silver_Queen wrote: »

Re: taking the train, will it add a lot of time to his commute? It sounds like you both work as a team time-wise at the moment so would it upset that, and if so, would it be worth it?

It will add a little time - half an hour every few days - as he gets into work slightly later and will want to make that time up, but not a huge quantity.

redofromstart

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

OMG went for the hobnobs. Best. Recipe. Ever.

I'm wondering if 4:30am yoga cancels out 7am hobnob breakfast...

Twinks have oats in, and calcium. Baked porridge really... (and other lies we tell ourselves)

I always reduce the sugar as I'm not that keen on overly sweet things, and then claim they are practically health food.

mfmaybe

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

OMG went for the hobnobs. Best. Recipe. Ever.

I'm wondering if 4:30am yoga cancels out 7am hobnob breakfast...

Twinks? They are on my list to try as someone shared the recipe the other day again.

warby68

The season ticket sounds worth thinking about.

Presumably it means you will have the car available more - might make some things easier for you or give you chance to change some routines such as shopping in the search for efficiency.

Perhaps worth working out how many 'odd' rail tickets he's needed the last year to accommodate you needing the car as those costs would be covered by the season ticket I guess.

Its a shame there isn't just a bit more of a cost benefit though to make the decision easier.

Is he 100% up for it as well as a permanent thing - the last thing you need is to pay for a Season Ticket but for whatever reason he still chooses the car more than once in a blue moon.

Off to make banana bread - not the absolute cheapest as it has eggs but not the worst either AND it works just fine with 2/3 marg 1/3 butter.

Don't you find home baking is so good that its eaten too much or too fast ? Perhaps not if you do it all the time.