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

PositiveBalance

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

7. Mend DC3's dressing up costume (Elsa's plait is coming loose...).

Please put this at the top of your list. Elsa will soon be bald as this has been hanging on by a thread* for so long! :rotfl:

(*Pun intended)

Treadingonplaymobil

PositiveBalance wrote: »

Morning ToPM!

I was wondering if you would have a bank-holiday lie-in or not.

You stayed in bed until nearly 7am, you devil!

(Seriously, as a night owl, I have no idea how you do the hours you do. I would die.)

It sounds like you have been doing a lot of thinking and it's always nice to find time we didn't realise we had and that we have accidentally been more organised than we realise (it's the only way I am, ever! )

The birthdays sound quite expensive to me given how young your children are, but I know that parties can get seriously pricey.

It also sounds like you've realised how big a mindset change you have had over the past 12 months. Good for you!

:rotfl: I was actually up at 6, which is still a 1hr 45 minute lie in for me!

The parties were expensive - I overspent on party bags (always do, hate giving tat), I think they ended up costing about £4 per child, so £64 over the two parties. But they were at least things I was happy to give rather than just total junk. I also overspent on decorations for DC3's party, but about half of what I bought was tissue paper fans which can be refolded and used again.

shafiqrehman

Thank you for magnificent information :beer::beer:

PositiveBalance

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

:rotfl: I was actually up at 6, which is still a 1hr 45 minute lie in for me!

:eek: :eek: :eek:

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

The parties were expensive - I overspent on party bags (always do, hate giving tat), I think they ended up costing about £4 per child, so £64 over the two parties. But they were at least things I was happy to give rather than just total junk. I also overspent on decorations for DC3's party, but about half of what I bought was tissue paper fans which can be refolded and used again.

Hmm. £64 is a lot by most people's standards but I can see where you are coming from, to a point. However, maybe I sense a recurring theme. Here's the thing: beyond a few balloons, banners etc. and a pretty cake, do children really care what a party looks like? They are generally a bit too interesting in playing games and eating food etc. How much of the expense of the parties was making them look good to your high standards? Could you have done less in terms of decoration etc. and the children still have had a great time even if *you* weren't 100% about the flamingo pinata or whatever not being *quite* as amazing as YOU would like?

Just some food for thought...I think much of what you do is amazing (candles etc. - I'm right up your street in that area), but I think in my life, as much as I enjoy some things, if there wasn't time/money I would make do and mend so to speak, but you still try to work it in there. I respect it, but it does seem to put a lot of stress and expense in your life.

Question: would it be the end of the world if you didn't try SO hard sometimes and gave yourself a break? (And stop with that mum guilt right now!) :kisses3:

Treadingonplaymobil

April's list

Quite a short list of aims this month due to easter hols, but I might add to this list at some stage...

Home/Family
1. Tidy the front garden.
2. DH finish front fence.
3. Prep veg beds, pots and bags, and plant what can be planted.
4. Chase people who thought they might have a trailer.
5. Mend poor Elsa's plait!!!!
6. DH to find new budget recipes.
7. Continue the more in depth food planning - this improved my general diet so much in March.
8. Turn over the whole food budget issue some more and try to find a solution.

Me
1. Self care - downtime, nice baths, morning and evening rituals.
2. Keep up the yoga.
3. Try to do a decent bit of walking/outside time every day.

Work
1. 10% growth on my main social media platform (317).
2. A new blog post for my website.
3. Get ahead with contract work.
4. Focus on my key aim - of developing some passive income that allows me to move away from my current (not hugely enjoyable) main income source.

MSE
1. £30 minimum overpayment from rounding down YNAB pots.
2. List wooden marble run on ebay.
3. Keep entertainment outgoings to a sensible level during the easter hols.

Treadingonplaymobil

PositiveBalance wrote: »

Hmm. £64 is a lot by most people's standards but I can see where you are coming from, to a point. However, maybe I sense a recurring theme. Here's the thing: beyond a few balloons, banners etc. and a pretty cake, do children really care what a party looks like? They are generally a bit too interesting in playing games and eating food etc. How much of the expense of the parties was making them look good to your high standards? Could you have done less in terms of decoration etc. and the children still have had a great time even if *you* weren't 100% about the flamingo pinata or whatever not being *quite* as amazing as YOU would like?

Just some food for thought...I think much of what you do is amazing (candles etc. - I'm right up your street in that area), but I think in my life, as much as I enjoy some things, if there wasn't time/money I would make do and mend so to speak, but you still try to work it in there. I respect it, but it does seem to put a lot of stress and expense in your life.

Question: would it be the end of the world if you didn't try SO hard sometimes and gave yourself a break? (And stop with that mum guilt right now!) :kisses3:

Give myself a break?! What is this madness of which you speak?

Of course it wouldn't be the end of the world, but it's funny, people say that children don't care, but I was aware, even as a fairly young child (and I know this makes me sound like a total snob, I'm just trying to put it in the words of my 8yo self), that our house was a 'nicer' environment than many - I could see the lovely things we had around, I could see that it was always clean and tidy, I could see that I got a homemade cake on birthdays while my friends had shop bought, and I loved that my mum made that effort. I also vividly remember visiting a friend's house at perhaps aged 8 or 9 and finding it so stressful, there were piles of stuff everywhere, nobody seemed to know where anything was, and it was just so incredibly unrelaxing to be in. And I can see that the worse that the general standards are in our house, the more it impacts on the DC - once there is a mess, they stop playing with their toys, and start just making a mess with them. And with things like parties, both DC have spent so much time saying how wonderful it was, and DC3 is, as I type, prancing round admiring the decorations once again. And plastic balloons and banners are a no go!

So yes, I could totally not do all that stuff, but I don't think it's as simple as saying it doesn't make a difference. I really believe that it does, and that the DC, DH and I all get a lot from living in an environment that is beautiful, clean and tidy, and having the time and effort spent on special occasions. It feels like the DC have been well and truly lovebombed this week, and I can see the positive effect that has on them.

Saying all that, if I could knock £25 per child off next year's celebrations, which should be perfectly doable given that would account more or less for the cost of the reusable stuff we bought, I would be very happy with that.

PositiveBalance

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

Give myself a break?! What is this madness of which you speak?

I know! Silly me! :rotfl:

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

Of course it wouldn't be the end of the world, but it's funny, people say that children don't care, [SNIP] and DC3 is, as I type, prancing round admiring the decorations once again. And plastic balloons and banners are a no go!

I totally get what you are saying, so perhaps it's a balance thing? To have a good 'minimum' but that standard not to be so high as unachievable or so ludicrously expensive/time-consuming so that anything above that which doesn't get done is in 'ah flip it' territory?

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

Saying all that, if I could knock £25 per child off next year's celebrations, which should be perfectly doable given that would account more or less for the cost of the reusable stuff we bought, I would be very happy with that.

I'll take that (as a start)!

PositiveBalance

I'm not sure if this is contradicting everything I had just said, but have you ever tried making soaps? You could make lovely quality ones for personal use and they make nice presents (Christmas, party bags etc.).

*Hits self on head for giving ToPM more ideas about HM stuff*

cocalls

re party decorations you know balloons are not made from plastic dont you? They're rubber which comes from the sap from trees. in fact swathes of forests in se asia are only there so they can tap the rubber, so they're quite enviromentaly friendly and you can put them in the compost bin and they biodegrade.

PositiveBalance

cocalls wrote: »

re party decorations you know balloons are not made from plastic dont you? They're rubber which comes from the sap from trees. in fact swathes of forests in se asia are only there so they can tap the rubber, so they're quite enviromentaly friendly and you can put them in the compost bin and they biodegrade.

*Interrupts*

Really? I did not know that!

That's my Thing Learned for Today knocked off nice and early. Thank you, cocalls! :T