Mrs S, family life and debt

MrsSave

I think being by myself with the the children means I'm stricter with money. I don't have anyone to fall back on if it has all been spent. I saw a lovely pair of trousers for ds2 yesterday online. I checked the price, then checked ynab. I didn't have enough in that pot to cover them so I shut down the page and am not buying them. I may get them at a later stage when there's money there, but they're a want not a need.

Also, I don't eat out anymore. Eating out when it's just you and 2 young children is totally different to eating out as a family.

Feeling yucky again today. There is a lot going around of bad throats and coughs, and think I've joined the bandwagon with everyone else. On the plus side, I've lost a few pounds this week :rotfl:

I need to sort out next week's meal plan at some point, and make sure I have everything I need for Shrove Tuesday!! I also need to give the house a bit of a clean - I've done the bare minimum this week as I've not been feeling 100%. The laundry is done, it's tidy here but I could do with pushing the hoover around and a couple of other jobs.

JoJoC

Thanks for the insight MrsSave - that's definitely a good starting point and something I'll maybe try to tackle tonight. I also have two boys (2.5 years apart) so we're already seeing the benefit of hand-me-downs. I just saved myself £20 by donating a pair of converse that my oldest son grew out of really quickly - a quick spin in the washing machine and they were as good as new.

I have two big bags of clothes in the cupboard that my eldest has outgrown but my youngest hasn't grown into yet so I know that we're well set up for him. And now my eldest is at school, he doesn't need nearly as many clothes! He used to need at least 10 pairs of trousers/ jeans because he'd have at least one pair on at nursery every day but now he has a school uniform, it's just joggers after school and nicer clothes for the weekend. Not as painful cost-wise.

MrsSave

I've meal planned for next week and started to plan activities for half term. Other than that I've dozed and read diaries!

I'm trying to budget as well as I can at the moment for half term and for a meal out I've got with friends in just over a week. I've got around £25 left this week so will take £10 of that out. I'll add that to the £10 I already have in my purse. That'll be £20 towards half term activities. If I can add a little more the following week I'm hoping that we'll manage to do something nice. For the meal out, I have Christmas/birthday money left so the money will come from there.

Ds1 loves trains. I may change some Tesco vouchers for red spotted hanky vouchers to use for tickets and we'll travel somewhere on the train and then have a day out.

JoJoC I notice that with my eldest whilst doing the washing - all he really wears now is school uniform. He always comes home with lunch down his front, so rather than changing him he stays in it until bedtime! Just weekend clothes to think of!

enthusiasticsaver

Well done on getting debt free. Sounds like you and your boys are doing ok after the split. Hope you feel better soon.

MrsSave

The positives about not feeling well: not spending money and not using petrol!! :rotfl: I haven't spent any money since Monday :j Tomorrow should be another nsd, and then it's the weekend :eek: The negatives, my ribs really hurt!! I keep needing to cough, but it hurts

I've not done anything else today. No cleaning or housework of any kind! I will have to catch up at some point! At least it was clean and tidy at the start of the week so it's not too bad now!!!

I've started to think about overpaying the mortgage, but don't want things to get too tight either. With my current mortgage, for the next 4 years I can only overpay by 10%, which is less than £50 a month, so I may look to do that. It will all help in the end.

MrsSave

Ignore that last bit about the mortgage - it's not 10% off what I already pay each month, it's 10% of the remaining balance over 12 months. I definitely don't need to worry about overpaying that!! That's currently an overpayment of around £770 per month :rotfl: I will look at making some kind of overpayment each month though. Will work it into my budget.

MrsSave

Today hasn't been a nsd. I bought myself a bottle of my favourite wine. It's from M&S and twice the price I usually spend. It came out of personal money, and will last a few nights (I definitely can't drink as I used to be able to!!!). The last time I bought a bottle of this favourite wine was a few months ago.

I can't believe it's the weekend already. I've got around half my chore list left to do as I've been ill. I don't think I'll manage it this week so will just add the unfinished ones to next week's list.

I have a couple of planned Spends tomorrow. I need to pay for ds1's next set of swimming lessons. That money has already been put to one side. I also am going to treat ds1 to a new reading book. He is coming along amazingly with his reading and I just want to keep the interest there and reward his hard work. I bought him a few reading books before Christmas that were too difficult on purpose. I wanted him to be able to just have a look at a page every now and then with me or Mr S and maybe attempt a new word. He loves a challenge. I remember straight after buying them he wanted to hold the books in the car on the journey home. He sat and read through a few of them, reading out a couple of brand new words in the car. This was around 6 weeks ago and he has this week brought home one of the same books from school as his reading book and has read it word for word. Last week he jumped 3 levels, this week he's moved to a new series. He loves reading so much, always has loved books, so I'm more than happy to buy a new one for him as a treat every now and then. We do make use of the library from time to time as well.

I'm also cooking a roast this weekend for the boys. They're not usually with me on a Sunday so I haven't managed a roast in a few weeks. Well I forgot to take the meat out of the freezer!!! It won't defrost in time now so will pick up a small chicken or something for a Sunday.

MrsSave

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I sold a baby item on Facebook today (yesterday now I guess!!). That's £30 in the account. I'm putting it towards a Half term day out with the boys.

MrsSave

Saturday is the most expensive day of the week. I popped into town and spent a fortune :eek: Thankfully I'm just about within budget, and my new money week starts Monday. I needed to get a key cut, and ended up getting a spare - £9. Tesco was for meat for tomorrow's roast. Ended up spending pretty much £10. A few cleaning products in Wilko added up and then one books for ds1 turned into a few - 2 Welsh ones, and 5 English ones!! He's reading welsh at the moment, but he has started showing an interest in reading English words so I found a few early reader books reduced to £1 each in the Works.

I've decided to slow cook tomorrow's meat (lamb - my favourite) so have set the alarm for some ridiculous time to turn the slow cooker on!!! I do have a timer, but I've never used it and don't want the first time to be whilst we're all asleep in case something goes wrong. I've also got potatoes and carrots in the slow cooker. Yum!!

MrsSave

The keys I got cut on Saturday don't work!! Will be going into town today to get that sorted. I am still not feeling 100% and both boys are under the weather now too so really didn't want to spend yesterday traipsing around supermarkets seeing what was cheapest. I got everything I needed in Tesco. The shop came to £49, but did include a couple of bit for the foodbank, and a couple of bits for ds1 for half term which is next week here. I also really fancied salmon for food last night, so got a couple of fillets for us.

It's mr S's birthday soon, so will be getting something from the boys for him. I've asked him what he wants and he mentioned some trousers he'd seen in Tesco. He could do with more clothes, so I'm more than happy to get them. Plus, they're on offer so will get 2 pairs in different colours.

I did change Tesco vouchers for red spotted hanky, and the evouchers are in my account. Today I'll book the train tickets for our half term day out.

Shrove Tuesday today, which makes dinner easy!!