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

MatyMoo · 1 May 2018 at 9:18PM

A family member gave her daughters the family allowance each month once they were at secondary school. It had to cover everything apart from school uniform, toiletries and food. They are all rally good with money now.

System · 1 May 2018 at 10:28PM

XSpender wrote: »

I am sure National Trust now offer a monthly direct debit rather than an annual payment so a family membership would work out at £10/month for the next 12 months leaving your pot intact.

Yes they do. Just ring up membership team and they will switch for you. It costs exactly the same.
Xx

Treadingonplaymobil · 2 May 2018 at 4:48AM

Week 64: Day 3

Right, what’s on today? Working this morning, then doing all the things I didn’t do yesterday - got completely sidetracked with an issue at the school (one of the DCs’ classes isn’t doing well at all, and I’m worried about the longer term impact, has been taking up a lot of brain space).

Ended up earning an enormous £37 yesterday, more than my £28.69 target, which means my new daily target is reduced down to a tiddly little £28.20.

Many things to do today:
1. cook chickpeas for carrot and chickpea salad and houmous.
2. make leek and potato soup to freeze (the leeks are looking a bit sad, they're not going to last much longer).
3. cook black beans.
4. photograph, write and schedule a week's worth of social media posts.
5. plant potatoes.
6. check birthdays this month and write cards.
7. plan out and begin a blog post for my website.

Mini goals:
- £10.11/30 April rounding down pot.
- £2,074.64/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.
- £28.20 daily earning goal.

Honeysucklelou2 · 2 May 2018 at 5:14AM

Wow, that's impressive for your first day of trying to meet the daily earning target. Well done!

DawnW · 2 May 2018 at 8:46AM

MatyMoo wrote: »

A family member gave her daughters the family allowance each month once they were at secondary school. It had to cover everything apart from school uniform, toiletries and food. They are all rally good with money now.

I tried this with my children, and they basically spent it all on carp and I ended up bailing them out

Too much peer pressure, I think. But having said this, my (now adult) daughters are both pretty sensible with money. My son (the eldest) is less so...not sure if any conclusion can be drawn from that.

Treadingonplaymobil · 3 May 2018 at 5:50AM

Week 64: Day 4

After an excellent first day of daily earnings, I unfortunately didn't earn anything yesterday (this is much more usual for me! I tend to earn in intermittent lumps rather than small daily amounts), so the daily goal will be slightly up again today. Hoping to find some time to put some items on gum tree - my dad is obsessed and has done really well on there, so I thought I'd give it a try before ebay, as the items are all pick up ones (big marble run, train set etc).

The last couple of days have been completely lost to school stress, and I ended up writing a massive ranting email to the regional schools commissioner's office yesterday, which I'm fairly sure will receive zero attention or reply, but made me feel slightly better. Part of the difficulty is that there isn't an alternative option nearby, so moving schools is out of the question really unless we moved house (not happening for many reasons, no least of which is the issue of finding an excellent school with spaces in three different years in a very specific geographical area so we can be near DH's work, which would be more or less impossible). I know that the school will improve (it is being academised after completely falling apart over the past year), it's just a question of how long it takes and whether my children will learn anything at all in the interim. There is some chance I may have to pay for a tutor meanwhile. DC1 is having one anyway from September, so it would just be a case of finding one for DC2, who is the one who is being the least stretched at school. DC3 frankly can get by on reading with us and learning to count by helping bake biscuits for a couple more years

. More money, but compared to the cost of moving, and for the peace of mind of the DCs remaining happy in a school they know with their friends (they have always been very happy at the school, thank goodness, never a single day of not wanting to do in, which is worth a lot to me), it would be a small price to pay. It's a fast moving situation though, so we'll see what shakes out in the next month or two.

I am hugely frustrated with how it has eaten into my week in terms of headspace - I had set aside a really pretty clear week in order to get ahead with some of my personal work (rather than contract stuff) and it just hasn't happened. Annoying.

In all the stress of this week I completely failed to realise that it's a bank holiday this weekend, which was a nice surprise. We're staying with friends for Sat/Sun so DH can help friend's DH with some work on their house, but Monday is currently devoid of plans, which is rather nice.

I have just realised that DC1 has grown out of his sleeping bag and mat (he had child sized ones) so will need new ones for camping this year. First camping trip is likely to be at end of May/beginning of June, so it's going to need addressing. I'm going to order DH's picture frames and see how much is left in the household stuff budget (it currently has £100 in it). My new pillows are getting further away!

Many things to do today:
1. Make leek and potato soup (how many days has this been on the list for?!)
2. Make black bean chilli (cooked the beans then failed to make the chilli yesterday!)
3. DO SOME SOCIAL MEDIA.
4. Plan out a blog post schedule for my website and write a post.
5. Photograph and list the big children's toys which can be sold.
6. Cash out for swimming subs for DC1.
7. Check how much of DC2's uniform still fits, and what we have in the drawer of hand me downs from DC1.
7. Order some underwear and new uniform for DC1, and uniform for DC2.
8. Order picture frames for DH's prints.
9. Clear emails

Mini goals:
- £10.11/30 April rounding down pot.
- £2,074.64/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.
- £28.93 daily earning goal.

MatyMoo · 3 May 2018 at 7:13AM

Your comment about the pillows getting further away reminded me of my Mum in the 50/60's. She was desperate for a washing machine and kept saving, every time she got close one or all of the 5 children needed new shoes and it would disappear!

ellen_vannin · 3 May 2018 at 10:03AM

Ordering new school uniforms - not sure how quickly your children grow- but maybe worth waiting until the summer hols if at all possible, only a few school weeks to go.
Camping ideas, cheap duvet from Tesco cheaper than sleeping bags?

Nice that you now routinely question yourself before just buying things.
Maybe motivate yourself to sell items if the money can then be re-spent on pillows?