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

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 59: Day 4

Slightly good news yesterday - the car was only £60 to fix. I had £42 in my car account, so took £18 from the emergency fund to cover it. Hopefully we'll get through next month without needing to spend on it again! I moved the £60 I earned yesterday back into my business account for July's business expenses/salary, and now have £95/£415, which feels like progress. Haven't sent my (small) end of month invoices yet either, so that will build a little bit at the beginning of next week.

DC2's birthday today, and party. I spent an inordinate amount of time baking yesterday, need to construct it all into a picnic today (which DH and I somehow then need to transport on a train, including the cake, while looking after six children. Fun fun fun!). DH has the day off so is now off till next Tuesday, which is rather nice. Rather pleased with our plastic-free picnic - have bought big tetrapak cartons of juice (no plastic straws! If you want to alarm yourself there's a youtube video involving a turtle and a plastic straw) which we can now recycle in our kerbside collection, and have little glass swing top bottles to decant into and stainless steels straws. Although the bottles and straws cost more, we'll have them forever, and they'll be useful for family picnics/camping etc (the times when we would previously have bought cartons), taking our linen napkins from home, we are using our big vintage picnic hamper with china plates and cutlery in it so no disposables, and the party bag is largely plastic free (although not 100%, I bought some novelty erasers which came individually wrapped in plastic).

Yesterday's list
1. Bake and decorate DS2's cake. This is 95% done, just need to do some final primping.
2. Make sausage rolls (party food). Done.
3. Make viennese whirls (party food). Done, but haven't constructed with buttercream yet - will do that this morning.
3. Make pot stickers for dinner (will prepare this and make with DC1 after school). Gave up on this and just made stir fry, hadn't told DC1 we were going to make them thankfully, as he wants to try them.
4. Wrap DC2's presents. Done.
5. Prep picnic for party. Not done, will do it this morning.
6. Book train tickets for party. Done.
7. Make sourdough. Done and proving in the fridge, will bake this morning.
8. Make sourdough crackers. Done.
9. Make quiche. Done, in the freezer. Rather tasty, if I do say so myself.
10. Make flapjacks. Done.
11. Email music teacher re DC1 stopping lessons next term. Not done.
12. Collapse in a heap! Did that!

I'm hoping we can survive today without spending anything extra - we've booked the train tickets and will have everything we need to eat and drink with us, and frankly I don't really want to take six excited children into the gift shop at the train station! Hopefully the only birthday related spend left is to buy sweets for DC3's party bags for the party on Sunday, then the birthday insanity will be over! Until DC1's birthday in September, at least. The spending hasn't been perfect - there have definitely been areas where I've over-spent <eyes party decorations> but it's a vast improvement on previous years.

To do today
1. Finish off cake.
2. Finish viennese whirls.
3. Bake sourdough.
4. Pack picnic.
5. Email music teacher re DC1 stopping lessons.
6. Prep potato wedges for dinner in the morning if I get time.

Debt repayment:
- £22.77/31 March rounding down pot.
- £1,608.78/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.

warby68

Have a lovely day - hope the weather is kind:)

Coincidentally its the big 18th here today as well but I only have a lunch out and offer of free taxis tonight for some 'new' pub goers. The harder job this week is finding 'the car'. The same son passed his test Tuesday and we have long promised help with a car but a day and a half to do so for the birthday is a challenge.

I only tell you this as a little warning that as they grow so do the costs!!! But its all good. Having a major emotional mum week as I see my job nearly done, burst into tears of pride in a flippin car showroom yesterday of all places. And am sure you will have a moment today when you see happy family with happy little friends - and the 'moments' actually cost nothing at all!

Can see how 'conscious' you are this year of your spending for various things, weighing up the non money value of each spend is great. Long may the pots survive intact.

Enjoy your day

System

Have a great party today and Sunday TOPM children . Enjoy the Easter weekend , hope you find time to relax after your rather busy month.

wishingthemortgaheaway

TOPM.
I hope you have a lovely day on your outing today for Little one's birthday. I would say (although it may not save as much time/effort cost as I initially thought as, out of the 6 children attending, I'm assuming 3 are yours?) but...
It would have been perfectly acceptable to ask the parents of the guest children to send them with a packed lunch for the day.
Yes, you take some cake (I would have gone with cupcakes rather than 'a' cake. ) and some treats, but nobody would have batted an eyelid at sending their child with their own pack up.

[Deleted User]

Thank goodness the car didnt cost too much!
Hope you have a fab day - this sounds like an ace party and I am rather jealous

enthusiasticsaver

Sounds like a lovely picnic and hope you all enjoy the train ride. It is pouring with rain here so hope weather kinder to you where you are.

Congrats with almost getting through the birthday madness. Thankfully now mine are grown that is over for me now. My DD is resisting birthday parties for my DGD who is 3 in September. She says all the ones she has gone to for younger children have been bedlam so she is waiting until DGD1 is 5 and at school before starting with parties.

Suffolk_lass

warby68 wrote: »

Have a lovely day - hope the weather is kind:)

Coincidentally its the big 18th here today as well but I only have a lunch out and offer of free taxis tonight for some 'new' pub goers. The harder job this week is finding 'the car'. The same son passed his test Tuesday and we have long promised help with a car but a day and a half to do so for the birthday is a challenge.

I only tell you this as a little warning that as they grow so do the costs!!! But its all good. Having a major emotional mum week as I see my job nearly done, burst into tears of pride in a flippin car showroom yesterday of all places. And am sure you will have a moment today when you see happy family with happy little friends - and the 'moments' actually cost nothing at all!

Aww, I know what you mean. DS is going skiing on his own (friends all but one pulled out and the other one is off-set by a day, arriving later). I am literally doing all the necessary worrying for him, demanding daily confirmation that all is well. What am I like? He is nearly 26...:o

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 59: Day 5

OMG I am laughing at wishingthemortgageaway's suggestion of cupcakes. How did that not occur to me?! Would have been so much easier than lugging a big cake in a box (although I confess DH did all the lugging). But the day was amazing, really lovely, and DS2 and his friends were so impressed with the big number 7 cake with icing train track and brio train on it, and with our vintage picnic hamper full of hm goodies. Even the cynical 7yos were all 'oooh' at the little flowery plates, napkins and cutlery coming out of the hamper . I think he had a fab day, and loved his presents. But getting three to bring picnics wouldn't have affected much as our three, DH and I still needed to bring food for ourselves. It actually wasn't too tricky in the end.

Yesterday's list
1. Finish off cake.
2. Finish viennese whirls.
3. Bake sourdough.
4. Pack picnic.
5. Email music teacher re DC1 stopping lessons.
6. Prep potato wedges for dinner in the morning if I get time.

I did a food shop yesterday to get us through until next week, so we don't need to go shopping over easter weekend (apart from sweets from the sweet shop tomorrow for party bags on Sunday) and afterwards was really struck by a thought. For the past year or so I've been struggling with energy for my yoga practice, with my weight weight, with gut health and with generally feeling less healthy than before, and DH has found exactly the same (he is over a stone heavier than a year ago). We were chatting and I said that I have just been feeling like I haven't been looking after myself, and we both realised we felt so much more healthy with the diet we had pre-LBM. We ate so much more expensively, but we really felt the benefits. Since LBM it has been higher carb, devoid of things like avocados, green smoothies, fresh salmon, nuts for snacks, all the healthy-but-expensive things that got cut out post-LBM and have been replaced with less healthy stuff. As well as the pure health benefits I think there is a real feeling of not caring for myself - as you all know I pack a lot into every day, and I think I relied enormously on having absolutely 100% optimal nutrition to keep me going, and the psychological boost of feeling I was doing the best I possibly could for myself, and therefore feeling in a good frame of mind/energy for everything I had to get done. Cutting down our food shop to the level we have hasn't got any easier, any more enjoyable or any healthier over the past year - the fact is that while it's possible to eat healthily on a budget, to eat a really good diet with all the nice-to-have good fats, colourful fruit and veg, good quality oily fish etc costs a certain amount, and we are not spending that amount. The increasing cost of food has not improved this situation, as even what we could afford a year ago isn't possible any more on the same budget.

I'm not actually sure what the solution is. I feel like my health has been very fractionally compromised (I'm not kidding myself this is a huge and serious compromise) for over a year, and I don't really want to carry that on for another decade while we pay this debt off. I am wondering about putting some extra into the food budget, but it would mean actually increasing the amount I need to earn (this would be possible, but would mean working a bit more, although I wonder if I would feel better about that if it was a direct relationship with having better food), as there is no pot I can reduce to cover it. I also wondered about dividing up whatever bonus DH eventually gets, but that seems a shame as, assuming it actually appears, it could go towards making a bit of a dent in the debt or adding to the savings pots. It's definitely one I'm going to ponder over the next few weeks though. Maybe a division of everything I earn over my expenses/salary minimum to include long term business savings, debt overpayment, increase in food budget, extension savings, and no doubt half a dozen other things I haven't thought of! Where last year I was using that money just to make my budget line up, maybe this year I can use it a bit more thoughtfully.

We have some friends coming over this afternoon for tea (to use up leftover cake!) and a local craft market to go to this morning to support some friends who are selling there (plus I have £13 slowly and painfully saved in my own kitty to buy a new mug from a friend who makes beautiful ones), so best get on.

Three things to do today
1. Tidy and clean for guests this afternoon.
2. Make kitchari for dinner.
3. Make a list of party prep to do tomorrow.

Debt repayment:
- £22.77/31 March rounding down pot.
- £1,608.78/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.

arsenalbarnie

About the change in diet, I know if I eat a lot of carbs I feel sluggish and get a lot of indigestion. Have you thought about omega 3 supplements to replace the fish? There is a vegan version called Nothing Fishy all in a glass bottle too I think. Made from algae. They aren't cheap but would be cheaper than eating salmon every day.

I agree nuts are so good and berries. Have you looked up Dr Gregors daily dozen app? The aim is to include it all every day and there isn't much room left for meat or fish! My son used it when he went vegan and wanted to make sure he was eating ok. Could you not have berries on porridge with a bit of Alpro plain yoghurt? I found organic oats in paper in Ald1 last night. I know it must be so difficult on your tight budget. Do you eat a lot of bread? That's a killer and all that lovely home baking you do. Sadly I have more or less stopped baking as mine are adults and they are all prone to weight gain esp OH who would be such a pig when cake is around! He sneaked a bar of wholenut into the trolley last night!

The answer is veg, berries, lentils and pulses and the odd meat treat. Fish sadly expensive and has been found to contain plastic. If I was you bread a treat, maybe alternating it with the crackers you make. I eat a lot crisp breads with salad and beetroot and make smoked salmon/mackerel or mushroom pates to have on them. I buy frozen fruit in Ald1 then there is no waste. Don 't compromise your health if you can tweak things a bit.

Anyway rambling on again, Happy Easter:beer:

[Deleted User]

It is difficult and you are on a tight budget especially with the kids!
We eat a lot of seasonal organic british veg with a lot of carbs and pulses, loads of seasonal fruit and bits of yoghurt and cheese. Been veggie and not having to please kids helps, as I know it can get very same-y.
I wonder if the weather also makes you feel a bit less healthy? I know I feel loads better in the spring/summer when all the salad stuff is in season, you can get out for fresh air and generally eat a lighter diet.
Youve made huge inroads in your food spending so its not suprising you are feeling the difference but you still have a healthy diet and an active lifestyle. I know you are time pressured as well but could it be you look for reduced veg etc to make green smoothies with? Or you can buy frozen avocados and smoothies mixes now.
Sounds like the birthday party was ace!