Keeping our options open

yogavibes

Hi Becky - hope you are getting a bit more sleep. I've taken a cafetiere into my work and I take in a pack of filter coffee - works out lots cheaper than buying coffee and definitely good to have when a caffeine boost is needed first thing! I also try and take in a bag of food on Mondays to get me through the week so I don't have to remember to be organised when shattered as the week goes on. Packs of crumpets, bag of apples, couple of tins of soup, some dried fruit - nothing too exciting - but enough to keep me out of the corner shop

becky170

The sleep situation has got a bit better, we even had one night where DD slept through. Yogavibes a weekly food parcel sounds like a great idea. I might give it a go next week

becky170

I've been a bit slow this month with shuffling my money around into regular savers etc. I usually like to transfer the money over on the 1st of the month but I completely forgot on Friday. Anyway my regular savers are now topped up and I have made an overpayment of £148. I am hoping that we are on target to survive on my DHs wages this month (barring childcare costs) but it is going to be tight. Luckily we've had no big expenses this month so I don't know how realistic it is, but as we already have a rainy day fund maybe I shouldn't worry about nothing spare being left over. It therefore looks like I have no excuse not to look for a new job closer to home as we can afford for us to take a reduction in joint income. In the name of equality I have offered to DH that he can be a sahd or reduce his hours but he's not keen on that idea!

savingholmes

LOL at offering your DH the chance to be a SAHD. It wouldn't appeal to me as a mum either. My DH would jump at it - but then DD is 16 lol. Sounds like you are on track financially. Sleep deprivation is hard as is being called out of work. Most working mum's feel that angst of never being fully at home or at work - but for me I get more than pay from working... Hope you find a more local job soon.

becky170

We had a quiet weekend which probably in retrospect wasn't a good idea as by Sunday afternoon DS was playing up. Oh well it meant that I managed to tackle the kitchen and tidy DS bedroom. I also doubled up Nectar points to buy some clothes for DD at MrS. We have been given loads of stuff for her so technically I don't actually have to buy anything, however it is nice to be able to choose some of her clothes for myself. We also had a voucher for £12 off a £60 shop from MrS so that came in handy for the weekly shop

I've not got any other money saving news. We had a takeaway on Friday night but as it cost £15 for two meals from the fish and chip shop we probably won't be repeating that soon. I'm off out for a meal with a friend later this week so I've just been looking at what vouchers are available for the local chain restaurants. I think we'll probably go to Frankie and Benny's as they usually have deals on Groupon or offers on their website. I'm in a burger and chips type of mood so that should hit the spot

I've got lunch with me for today....bubble and squeak soup. I choose the soup of the month when I was doing my online shop thinking it would be pumpkin for Halloween but it wasn't. Hopefully it's nice...it wouldn't have been my first choice!

In other news DD is gaining confidence with her walking. After taking a couple of steps she didn't take anymore for a couple of weeks but now she's very pleased with herself when she stands unaided and does a couple of steps by herself so I don't think it will be long until she's running about. I had parents evening for DS and he's settling in well. We have a list of objectives to work on at home. I'm sure my mum and dad didn't get sent home with objectives when I was at school. It's good to know what to work on with him though.

Oh I've also managed to sell a couple of bits on Facebook. I'm hoping to list more this week as we really need to declutter. The money from our sales is going in the Christmas/Holiday fund.

becky170

Gosh I can't believe it's December already. I really don't know where this year has gone.. it's been a bit of a blur! Anyway I have made an overpayment of £151 today so that brings this year's overpayments to a total of £1676 which was just over my target of £1615. I'm really pleased that we've managed that as with childcare costs I though we might be a bit stretched. So that's 1% of our mortgage paid off with overpayments this year

We've started our Christmas shopping. I managed to pick up a happyland house for DD off a local selling group. I'm really chuffed with it...I just have to hope she likes it. She's probably still a little young for it (she'll be 16 months at Christmas) but it's robust so I'm sure she'll give it a go playing with it. We've got her some other gifts on the 3 for 2 deal at ELC. I'm not sure whether we'll give them her all of them or hold one back for her birthday. I've got a couple of ideas for DS but for him I'm less sure of what to get so we are going to shop for him in-store (we've got an afternoon off work next week to do some shopping).

My car goes in for it's MOT tomorrow. It's now 10 years old and starting to have some niggles...the heating element on the wear window has stopped working and yesterday my electric window stopped working so I'm not feeling optimistic about it passing. At least the tyres are fairly new!

This weekend may end up being slightly expensive as it's time to get DD her first pair of shoes she's still shaky on her feet but she's attempting to walk most of the time rather than crawling. I'll have to try and take a video of her to remember these days in the future! We are also going to see santa. I was debating only paying for DS but I though he might question why his sister didn't get a present from santa so I've ended up paying for both of them. Maybe I was overthinking things but hey ho!

becky170

My car passed it's MOT it is starting to have a couple of niggles so DH and I are starting to consider whether we do need to change it. I had been hoping that if it lasts me until DD starts school in 3 years that we could just get rid of it and go back to having one car. I only do less than 20 miles a week so it doesn't really seem worth replacing it, although a newer car would be nice

We have settled on a new mortgage fix rate and have signed up for a 5 year fix at 1.74%. We decided to go for a longer term fix as we can't see that we'll be moving in the next 5 years as we can't afford to upsize. I can't imagine that interest rates are going to stay low forever (famous last words!) so thought we would fix for longer this time. According to the bank's valuation we now own 53% of our house!

I had signed up for the MFW 2020 challenge with a target of £1650, however when our new fixed kicks in our monthly repayments will lower by £67 a month due to our previous overpayments. Therefore I think we'll be aiming for an overpayment of £200 a month with a total overpayment target of £2400 for 2020.

becky170

I've finished my Christmas shopping (just got the last bits to collect which I had delivered to store today or tomorrow), started wrapping and the Christmas food shop is being delivered tomorrow. The only thing left to do is tidy the house.

DD has been poorly again so not had much sleep this week. I did make it out for my works do and the meal was really lovely, but the rest of the time I've just been eating rubbish and as my clothes are feeling a bit tight I don't think I've done myself much good.

Any thoughts of being money saving have been put on the back burner until the new year now...or at least until after Christmas when I have a regular saver maturing and needing a new home. Actually had notifications that a couple of my accounts are having their interest rates lowered shortly so will have to rejig a couple of them i think or at least close them and transfer the money to another account.

Happy Christmas everyone!

Cornish_mum

Happy Christmas - hope DD is feeling better CM

becky170

Thanks Cornish Mum! Unfortunately we all caught DD's cold before Christmas and I have to say that it's no wonder she was miserable as it's the worse cold I have had in a long while. If I hadn't had the kids I would have happily spent 3 days in bed but with kids and the in laws staying the show has to go on. Anyway I managed to cook Christmas dinner (couldn't really taste it or smell it though) and presents were opened so Christmas day wasn't a complete wash out. We're still all under the weather but luckily it's another week until the kids and I are back at school/work so hopefully we'll all be well by then.

I've done a little bit of sale shopping. I got the kids a couple of clothes on the John Lewis sale and I got a couple of tops with my Christmas money. I also used my boots points to get a couple of bits in the boots sale but I haven't really been splashing the cash as we don't really need anything.

Right better rescue DS from his sister climbing all over him.... she's starti to feel better now and is up to mischief.