Twinklie returns to the property ladder

CathT

Brilliant progress Twinklie. Have you seen Pavlov's 1% challenge thread?

twinklie

CathT wrote: »

Brilliant progress Twinklie. Have you seen Pavlov's 1% challenge thread?

Thanks CathT. I have but I didn’t join because I’m not sure I can OP enough this year to join in, given I’m trying to pay off all my debts this year too. Debt is the priority, then mortgage.

2020 should see me debt free (minus student loan, which I will be paying off forever).

twinklie

Started doing some work on the garden. It really is my happy place and seemingly that of the boys. I really think that once the weather warms up it will save us a fortune, what with the boys happily playing in it and me growing my own veg and just generally pottering doing maintenance.


I think I might need to do some tiling in the downstairs loo too, just around the sink. I think it will save us money in the long run - the boys keep getting water everywhere!


So it's half term here and I'm on leave for the week. So it's all about surviving as cheaply as possible.

Half term plans

Saturday - play at home - NSD
Sunday - Birthday party and play in the garden - Presents from present cupboard - NSD
Monday - Playdate with friends on a nature walk, cafe stop and out for tea - £20 (plus petrol).
Tuesday - Play at home and food shop (may eat out for lunch). £11.25 Cafe tea I won’t tell you what I spent on my shopping...but it was a store cupboard replenisher and I got a few clothing bits for the kids...it was a biggy.
Wednesday - Soft play place. £17.50
Thursday - Play doh play session and activities. £2
Friday - Coffee morning play at playgroup and cinema to watch How to Train Your Dragon. Booked cinema £34.96
Saturday - Boys at hairdressers and get feet measured (may need new shoes). £14
Sunday - SEND play session at an imaginary play centre.

Total half term spends so far = £85.71

Following that we are all back at work/school/nursery. I will update and BOLD above when I have confirmed spends. Hopefully it will motivate me to be accountable for my spending and keep spends down

twinklie

My eldest is a bit under the weather so he might save me from myself and help me keep the half term spends to £100...or there about abouts.

I know I have £14 to spend on Saturday and I think it’s £8 on Sunday.

twinklie

Brought the boys to a church playgroup. £2 donation and free brew and cakes. Also free WiFi - result!

twinklie

Decided to blow off going to the play place tomorrow. The eldest anxiety about returning to school is off the scale, so time to stay in safe surroundings.

Therefore I’ve stayed within my £100 budget and have £14 to spare. So I will put that into savings I think.

twinklie

Signature is updated with all relevant figures. I'm pretty happy with that.


No major updates, things are just ticking along at the minute. The DLA renewal forms came in for big, so I've been getting all my photocopying done.


We've been told to apply for small now too. Which would make life easier because he is such hard work. He's going to have to go to "special needs swimming" too because he can't cope with too busy of an environment either. And his communication issues and "stubborn streak" are far worse than is brother. He's got significant issues with clothes which is costly too and I've lost count of meals/places we've been too that we've had to leave and waste money on because he's done. We found with big that the DLA took some of the sting out of that. It's likely he'll end up with an ASD diagnosis too.

twinklie

I’ve been looking at figures etc for the kids in terms of childcare etc. We are ok right now. I’ve £800 in childcare vouchers and pay approximately £112 per half term for big for his before and after school club. Little uses free 30 hours (but only goes for 26 hours), but I have to pay for his lunches.

When little starts school Sept 2020, they will both be in morning and after school club for the full session. This means we will be paying our approx £72 per week and big will no longer be on FSM (although small now will be - so that cost cancels itself out).

With that all in mind I’ve increased my childcare voucher payments to £30 per month for now. Once my mat leave overpayments are paid off, I will start putting what I was paying there into childcare vouchers. Which will take it up. DH currently pays £10 per month into his, but I’m going to get him to increase too.

DH should be on a higher salary then so we can play around with those figures nearer the time.

twinklie

My new sofa comes on the 26th March. We paid for it in November and have been waiting this whole time. We all sit on 2 chairs. I'm way too excited about it.


We've found an ants nest in the hallway so need to sort that out this weekend. The plan is to primarily stay home and sort the house out, catch up on housework etc.


We have been spending way too much on electricity but then my mum is hanging around our house 4 days per week looking after the kids. So she has the kettle boiling, tv etc. on all day, is constantly charging her phone and tablet. So I guess that's going to explain a lot of it. I can't really think how to reduce the spends there at this point.

twinklie

Oh and I just booked a mini break for the boys to Thomas Land. It's their spiritual home, they love it there.