Long Term Mortgage Free Wannabe

katsoocam

Miss_Money_Magnet wrote: »

Hi, Ive enjoyed reading your diary. How do you get your food shopping so low? Id love it if you shared an example of a weeks meal plan!

Well I am just getting back into being good, we were great for a couple of years while saving for our wedding and house, then got a bit naughty and relaxed after moving.
Essentially it's a combination of batch cooking, shopping opportunistically and being quite strict about what we eat.
We always have three veggie meals, one fish and three meat. We get meat in a massive bundle from the butcher, when it is on offer and when it is yellow stickered. We have a big freezer and if I have room in the grocery/toiletries budget (currently £150 to allow for nappies etc!) and I see it yellow stickered or on a good offer - Lidl is great for these - I will buy a load and chuck them in the freezer.
Every couple of months I will then batch cook and we eat 3-4 batch cooks a week. Typical things are sausage casserole, campfire stew, Thai curry, bolognese, chilli, shepherd's pie, sausage pasta, cottage pie, veggie versions of most of these, assorted curries etc.
Then the weekly menu will be say, bolognese, veggie shepherd's pie, fish (we buy frozen) potatoes and veg, jacket potato cheese and beans, sausage pasta, veggie curry, sausages and jacket potatoes. We take sandwiches or leftovers for lunch. I don't drink and my husband isn't a big drinker, he will have a couple of beers at the weekend. We try and eat mostly fruit for pudding and we shop mostly at Aldi or Lidl. Cereal for lunch!

Ooh and a slow cooker is really helpful!

katsoocam

Productive night feeds: racked up nearly 100 Swagbucks (soon I can cash out £5) and a YouGov survey! Here's hoping I get to £50 on YoGov by December, as it would be 20% of my tiny overpayment target for this year.

katsoocam

Last chunk of inheritance through. Put the money aside for the party. That leaves my major funds as:
1) Future Mat Leave Fund 20000/28000 71.4%
2) Current Mat Leave Fund 8065.24/12000 67.21%
3) Emergency Fund 15000/15000 100%
Adding on....
4) Maternity Childcare Fund Need £8000ish a year per child for them to do 3 days a week. So it will be £24000 roughly (not allowing for tax free childcare or thirty free hours etc, which I don't want to count on, because who knows what will be in place by then). So this is quite a chunk...best get saving !!!128584;.
Also we would need to go up to two cars before I go back to work and we want to get the garden done - hoping to add to the house value with a well planned low maintenance garden. Best sell a kidney I think....

katsoocam

Just about survived a weekend more or less alone with the baby (hub was at work, 2.5hour round trip, 12.5 hour shifts!).
Need to open a high interest account to put the emergency fund and the first bit of mat leave money in (going for the Cov 1.4% one I think). Might as well make it work!
Have a really short grocery list for tomorrow... We are on 78.74/150 for this month which I am confident we will fall well within, we are really economising. I did a freezer audit and there was alsorts in there! Did the meal plan through to Friday and everything is a freezer meal this week. Fortunately the baby is well supplied as someone bought us 3 big packets of size 2 nappies and we bulk bought cotton wool!

Busy_Mee1

Sounds all good here Katsoocam. It is lovely that you have been given your inheritance at a time in your life when you actually need it - most people inherit when they are much older and financially secure. It is so lovely to see you being sensible and putting it to good use too.

BachSoon

Hi Katsoocam!

I have found your diary recently and read it all in one go, it's so interesting! (Read during last night's night feeds incidentally :rotfl:)
My LO is 5.5 months old. Enjoy every second of the newborn stage because it goes so quickly!!!
I second what others have said about cloth nappies. I've put my son in cloth since he was about a week old and have never looked back. If you want any more info, just say! I won't give loads right now as I can get a bit evangelical about them
You're so on the ball with being MSE so soon after the birth! After my LO arrived, all I really achieved during night time cluster feeds was watching judge tinder with headphones and eating belvita breakfast biscuits
Good luck with your plans and your admirable goals. I shall read with interest!

BachSoon

:P.s. in relation to putting your LO down to get stuff done, have you thought about putting her in a sling or carrier? I use one loads and it keeps them snuggled to you where they like it and feel more comfortable, but gives you your hands back! Some people can even feed in them (the stretchy fabric ones). Mine is one of the more structured ones as DH didn't think the fabric ones were as safe :huh: but I still love it.

katsoocam

BachSoon wrote: »

:P.s. in relation to putting your LO down to get stuff done, have you thought about putting her in a sling or carrier? I use one loads and it keeps them snuggled to you where they like it and feel more comfortable, but gives you your hands back! Some people can even feed in them (the stretchy fabric ones). Mine is one of the more structured ones as DH didn't think the fabric ones were as safe :huh: but I still love it.

BachSoon wrote: »

Hi Katsoocam!

I have found your diary recently and read it all in one go, it's so interesting! (Read during last night's night feeds incidentally :rotfl:)
My LO is 5.5 months old. Enjoy every second of the newborn stage because it goes so quickly!!!
I second what others have said about cloth nappies. I've put my son in cloth since he was about a week old and have never looked back. If you want any more info, just say! I won't give loads right now as I can get a bit evangelical about them
You're so on the ball with being MSE so soon after the birth! After my LO arrived, all I really achieved during night time cluster feeds was watching judge tinder with headphones and eating belvita breakfast biscuits
Good luck with your plans and your admirable goals. I shall read with interest!

Thanks it is nice to hear from another Mum! Sadly zero acceptance factor from hub re reuseable nappies but I am working on it. I'm being as MSE as possible and using Aldi ones though.
Re sling actually I have been using my caboo close the last few days! Got a bit of a late start because after she arrived my parents were here for two weeks and hub got three weeks off, so there was always someone wanting a cuddle, plus it was so hot! So I've been wearing it for two hours each morning, an hour of chores and an hour of crochet :rotfl: She seems to like it and seems to sleep better at night after being in it, at least with me - I can't account for that!

katsoocam

Well it's been a busy week and I'm behind with my posting. Grocery budget has done well - we are on 122.07 but I have stocked up on a few things, they had dishwasher and washing machine cleaner as a special buy in Lidl so I got a year's supply for each, plus they had swim nappies on special buy in Aldi, I bought two packets as they were a great price and she is already signed up for swimming lessons in a couple of months (a kind present from Mr Katsoocam's godfather). So there has been a little stocking up here.
So we are going for the freezer meals for the rest of the month, but still have nearly £30 for groceries and toiletries. Next month I expect there will be party leftovers (I mentioned we are having two parties next weekend I think!!) as well as still plenty of food in the freezer. So I'm going to have a store cupboard/leftovers month, aim for £100, and take £50 from the £150 budget and do our branded toiletries stock up. We do have a few things we use that aren't Aldi/Lidl and I generally get 6 months at a time.
Today we went out for a scheduled lunch, our once a month meal out, which was nice, and it took us so long to get organised we haven't needed dinner either! :j It's really nice to get out as a lot of my time is cluster feeding on the sofa st the moment. We only have one car right now and town is a 30-40 minute walk so I am a bit limited when hub is at work.

katsoocam

Well it's been a few days!
We did well with our grocery budget (payday is tomorrow) and though we came in a few pounds over the £150 this is still a massive improvement on the £250 plus, so I will take it. We will do better next month!
We got our new TV as requested by my Mum so our savings have come down a smidge - I will update the accounts after payday though to avoid doing it twice in a week.
I have been potting any bits and bobs for Xmas as much as possible. Hoping when we crack the jar at the beginning of November there will be enough for most of the Xmas food. Really excited about an Xmas off work to be honest, I always seem to end up working Christmas.
Hub is at a new place for work and loving it. It is much less busy than where it is before. Normally this would bore him but with the baby to fuss over he is loving the early finishes. Sadly the commute is 1 hr 15 but it is only for a year.
I got a mani pedi today with my maternity pocket money which definitely is helping with the sleep deprivation etc��. Though darling daughter has done four hours and is now back to sleep after a big feed! Not quite sure what is happening!! But I've checked and she looks well.
On that note, baby sleeps, so Mum sleeps, zzzzzzzzzz.