Losing control, time to take charge.

Caspeia

Just got the uniform list through for my daughters dancing. The leotard I bought for ballet is also the same for her tap/jazz class. I hoped this was the case as 1. saves money on needing one uniform 2. theres only 5 minutes between classes and I think it would be unrealistic to expect a class of 3 & 4 year olds to get dressed in 5 minutes!
I just need to buy ballet socks, ballet shoes and tap shoes. I was going to buy these online but I think I want to take her and get them fitted properly at the dancing shop. More expensive but don't want to wreck her feet.

Caspeia

I just remembered that my free broadband deal comes to an end soon (currently pay £18.99 for line rental), logged onto my account to see that from next month it will be £30 a month!


I had a look at Martins deals and I'm going to go with plusnet. I've decided to pay the line rental upfront which is £197.88. The monthly cost for the broadband is £1 a month. This has been put on the husband credit card which is still at 0% interest until May 2019. I've signed up on a £85 cashback deal so when that comes through it will be paid towards it. This means £112.88 left to pay so I was thinking of paying the difference to what I pay now towards it so £17.99 for 6 months (and a tiny bit extra left, around £5)


Overall it means I pay £10.41 a month instead of £18.99 a month! Even if the cashback doesn't work out for some reason its would be £17.49 which is still cheaper than I'm paying now.


We used to be with BT a couple of years ago and had great signal. We've been with sky for two years and its just not as good. I'm hoping plusnet will be better since its owned by BT. We play games on our computers and sometimes the internet connection is just too slow right now!

Caspeia

The hellofresh box we were charged with (and refunded!) is arriving today, I contacted them and they said its a mistake on their part and we can just keep it. Free food!
The recipes aren't really food we'd choose to eat but we might as well try them. Its a couple of spicy recipes which I am not a fan of so I'll probably put my portion in the freezer and husband can have it another day. I'll find something from the freezer!
I've taken the mince out the freezer to use for tea tonight, I'm either going to make spaghetti Bolognese or lasagne. I've not decided yet. I might get some carrots so I can bulk out the mince even more and make both and put one in the freezer.

I've also set myself a goal of decluttering the whole house. This will be a very long haul task. We have just gained so much stuff. We want to buy our own place in a couple of years time and I don't want to be hauling all of this crap to a new house!

I have so many drawers that are full of rubbish, in the past we have filled up bags which I told myself 'I'll put it in this bag and everything will get put away' and it just got chucked into the cupboard. We own a PS2, xbox and wii which don't get used, these have games with them. The xbox only gets used as DVD player for the kids occasionally but we don't even really use their DVDs, they normally watch something on prime or Netflix which is on our firestick. I also have hundreds of books. I have that many books that when I ran out of room I paid £250 to get a custom built in storage cupboard. I then ran out of room there so I bought a new TV unit which I could store even more books underneath. We also have loads of DVDs that we have watched once and never again. Then we have all the kids clothes and stuff we no longer need!

My plan is to slowly work through things and sell off anything we don't need.

Part one of the plan: clear out something every day, even if its just one drawer worth of stuff. Our hallway unit has 8 drawers in it which are all so full we can't open them!

Part two: start reading the books. My goal for the rest of the year is to read 15 books. After I've read these I will sell them off/donate them. Not sure how I can sell books Luckily the majority of these books were bought from a charity shop at 3 for a £1 so I haven't spent too much money on them

Caspeia

Hellofresh box didn't arrive, it was on its way and about an hour before the delivery time hellofresh requested it went back to them to be destroyed! What a waste of food, oh well no loss to me though.

We went into lidl yesterday and bought a top up shop. I've decided to stop buying so much fruit, I felt bad if the kids got the same fruit everyday so would easily buy 7 or 8 different types of fruit a week. The majority of it would end up getting thrown away as it went off. I've decided 3 types of fruit per week is plenty, so this week they have strawberries, blueberries and grapes. If they run out we have tinned pineapple in the cupboard

Next month we probably won't pay anything except the minimums off the credit card until I'm settled back into work. I'm not sure how much tax credits will give us when I put in the extra childcare amounts (I can't do this until 7 days before). I have an estimation from the calculator but can't rely on it until I get my award letter.
Daughters nursery is paid 4 weekly and first payment will be due mid-August, I've not got the bill for this yet but it will work out to be £220 I think. They have just increased the fees and at the same time her funding will start so the proper figures might change but I don't think they will be far off.
Sons childminder is paid at the end of each week, his childcare will be £166 a week.

I get paid £270 a week after deductions. Petrol is £15 a week and childcare is £221 weekly which leaves me a profit of a whole £34 a week. We are entitled to tax credits but I'm unsure how much it will change, calculator says £550 but I'm going for an estimation of £450 every 4 weeks which will go towards the childcare. This means after petrol and childcare I should come out with around £146 a week after childcare.


When my son turns two he will be going to the same nursery as his sister which will only be £100 a week for him (won't get funding until he's 3) so its just only be one year and then our childcare costs will start to come down thankfully!

Caspeia

I'm getting really bored of not travelling, we can't afford to but I really want to go on an adventure. This is not helped by looking at instragram. I follow this Canadian family who are traveling around the world on a budget of $20,000 for the next 8 months. They've been to 6 countries these past two months and its making me so jealous.
We only went abroad once last year to Barcelona and this year we went to Malta for our honeymoon. The year before we were very lucky and went to USA which my gran paid for and Mexico which we won in a competition! It was for 2 adults so I contacted them and asked if I could add on my then 1 year old and I'll pay the difference. They only wanted £59 to add her on for the taxes on the plane. One week all inclusive to Mexico for £59... ah if only I could win something again! I might get looking for competitions and see if I can win anything. I'm normally a lucky person!

Caspeia

I was talking to husband about our money plans for the future. Heres a gist of our plans...
We will pay off our debts, save up for a deposit and buy a house. Overpay the mortgage. Save up for another deposit and buy a smaller one or two bed house. Rent this out. Retire early at 60, sell up our family home and move into the smaller house. Spend all our money on travelling the world.


Now I just need to make steps towards this :rotfl:

We are only in our early 20s, I have just over 36 years to do all of this before I'm 60.... better get my !!! in gear :rotfl:

Caspeia

Hopefully by the end of the day I should know if my childcare plans have worked out. I've planned the first 11 weeks which takes me up until the 9th of November. My family have confirmed they can do the days I need them, husbands main job have confirmed his holidays and my work has confirmed my holidays. Just need to know if his second job has accepted the holidays!

It was quite stressful trying to juggle it all but hopefully it should all work out!

On Thursday its the official last day of my maternity leave and then I start 4 weeks holiday, its amazing how fast a year has come round!

I'm also very excited that everyone will be out the house everyday, maybe it will stay tidy :rotfl:

Caspeia

Daughter requested beans and chips for lunch so thats what we had, not really healthy but it also doesn't cost much!
For tea I've decided to make chicken and chorizo paella. We were going to have the leftover bolognese sauce but I'm really not feeling it. There was 2 family sized portions left so they are in the freezer. When I was looking through the freezer to make room for the boxes I found some chopped chorizo sausage so thats come out. Ive had half a bag of paella rice hanging around the cupboard for ages so that will get used up aswell. I just need to work out what veggies we'll have with it.

Caspeia

Just finished eating the paella, it was amazing! Even the 3 year old who tends to be quite fussy ate it all up and requested to have it again
Half of it went into a box and we'll have it another day.
I always seem to overcook! I used up the lonely pepper in the fridge, some frozen spinach and some green beans. I need to try and use up the veg in the freezer, its been there for a while! I tend to use the same veg all the time.
Now I have three homemade dinners in the freezer to use
will need to buy paella rice again at some point, I'm not sure where to get it though. the last lot I got at aldi when it was 'spanish week'

Caspeia

I've been reading hypnos diary which was linked on someone elses diary and it starts back in 2007. I found her last diary to see how many she did, it was 15 diary's over 6 years and in that last diary she was divorced, debt free and moved house. I've started reading her first diary as I'm so interested to see how she got to that point! I'm on page 117 of 291 on diary one. I think I might be finished reading all 15 by next year :rotfl:

I need to look out boxes for everyone lunches when I go back to work. I'll need to bring my food for the day, I got in a very bad habit of nipping to the shop on my break and spending around £5 each time. On my long days that would be two breaks so £10
Daughter will need her lunch packed, she gets snacks included at nursery. Son will need his lunch and snacks packed. Husband gets his lunch free of charge at work but he often gets hungry between his two jobs, need to get him to bring some food with him instead of nipping to Greggs and getting food there.

I found myself on amazon and I was about to buy some new lunchboxes for us all but we have so many. I want to buy some nice new ones but I don't need to. My plastic box cupboard is overflowing, I tend to open the door, throw in the box and quickly shut it before it all falls out!