Marginal Gains

Cornish_mum

Thanks all  .

After all the fun of my birthday, it was back to normal this week. Work is very busy for both DH and I and we are back to working every evening until late. On Friday I decided to finish work early and treated myself to watching gardeners world on iPlayer, then I ordered myself £18 of veg and herb seeds. 

On Saturday I got up early; made bread (as we had run out and no supermarket delivery until Sunday this week) and then deep cleaned the house (and did a tiny amount of decluttering)- it took me all day and there is still some to do; but after 8 hours, I decided I had had enough. I wanted to get it all done so I can concentrate on making Father’s Day nice for DH. The kids already made him cards last weekend.

DH has had breakfast in bed this morning with homemade cards and some flowers from the garden, and a well deserved lie-in. We are going to bake him chocolate brownies shortly. 

Then I will call my Dad, I ordered him a new book (£20) about his favourite football team but it won’t arrive until July; but it’s from the supporters shop so he will be pleased.  I almost just gave the team a donation as I know my Dad would like like that more than anything as he is worried that they are going to go out of business.

Groceries came in at £98 but I spent another £14 on dried yeast 500g and popcorn kernels 1kg at Am@zon.  We are nearly out of yeast and I don’t have time to be faffing around with sourdough currently. I am planning to freeze the yeast and just keep a working stock in the kitchen. We have eaten 3/4 of the last lot of popcorn; when I say we, it’s mainly DH’s who has eaten it. 

I also ordered name tapes for DD (for her school uniform) £5.95, and a singing Anna doll for £18. We decided we are going to give the kids a new toy each, at the end of term as a reward for working hard during the lockdown. We are letting DS choose his own toy (he will agonise over the decision for weeks poor chap). DD tells us every day she wants this type of doll so we didn’t need to ask her. I ordered more compost 250L for £23,  and a hanging rails of DD and DS’s rooms £18 for BnQ click and collect.  

So all in all abit spendy this week. 

This week DD wanted new doll clothes so she could play “going to the beach” game. I managed to make a swimming costume and summer outfit out of a couple of old socks, just by cutting some strategic holes

DS’s favourite holiday club may be reopening over the summer. When I asked if he wanted to go, his eyes lit-up - so I have requested a full time place for the whole summer.  I really hope they are allowed to run the club. It would make life so much easier for DH and I to have childcare. also the kids really need to spend some time getting used to interacting with other children again before going back to school. I am not sure if we can host play dates, as I am shielding, so it seems like a good solution for everyone.

I still haven’t had time to sort out opening new savings accounts and an S&S ISA, if the kids are in a good mood today I might try to do this after lunch. 

Cornish_mum

No money progress yesterday; we played Lego instead then went for a little walk locally.

Preschool have just confirmed DD can have her place back full time in 3 weeks.  Hallelujah!  

I have the Monday work blues and am feeling shattered. DH is also feeling rough, as unfortunately he spent most of yesterday working because of being dropped in it by a disorganised colleague. 

Best crack on only one hour till I am on kids duty. 

South_coast

Lego sounds much more fun than money stuff anyway 😀

debtfreeoneday

Grogged said:

debtfreeoneday said:

...it’s sooo ham first!!

I hope that's a mis-type!
Ham and cream!? 😱😂

😂 whoops. No ham in sight! I’m a veggie. 

Cornish_mum

Another busy week for both of us at work, I ended up working late on Thursday and Friday night. I also had my regular hospital treatment this week, so I was shattered. We skipped Joe Wicks this week and went for a walk before home-school or did cosmic yoga. 

DH took to the kids to see their cousins today so I did a mammoth session in the garden, mowing and edging lawns, and clearing the front garden border of weeds. 

Yesterday we went for a short walk at the nature reserve. DD had a massive melt down about having to wear socks and the dogs there, but was quite happy once she got going. 

I batched cooked mash today; we had supermarket pizza yesterday and courgette, chard & kale cream pasta tonight to use things up. 

Spends

Groceries £118 including a bottle of Whiskey for DH, as a belated Father’s Day present.

Flat-white at the hospital £2.80. First one in months.

DH has decided to try Netflix - £5.99. 

Frugal things

I fixed a wooden box with superglue the kids had broken.

DH put up the hanging rails in the kids rooms.

I planted-out lettuce plants in the gaps where seeds hadn’t germinated in the veg beds.  Also planted out basil and tomatoes into improvised containers.

I sowed kale and parsley and pricked out lettuce. 

We harvested salad leaves, mint, chives, a few radishes, strawberries, chard and kale from the garden. 

Our summer holiday let had to shorten our booking because of Covid regs; so we are getting £100 refund. DH wants to spend the refund on a hotel. 

DD & I reused paddling pool water each evening to water the plants.

Frugal Fails 

A loaf of bread and 2 avocados went mouldy and had to be binned, because it was hot, humid, I was busy and took my eye off the ball.

No sign of my season ticket refund or our Ryanair flight money. 

In the high wind yesterday my new veggie trug liner blew away and the veg garden pigeon net blew down.  Really annoying! It’s still very windy today so I didn’t attempt to fix the pigeon net. 

2 more days till pay day; still no time to sort out the accounts.  Hopefully can take a night off work to sort out.

debtfreeoneday

so crap frustrating waiting for these flight refunds isn’t it!

Cornish_mum

Hi Debtfreeoneday - yes really crap - we luckily don’t need the money but it’s still annoying. 

Cornish_mum

Month End Totals

Posting late because of a busy work week.

DH second job pay come in this month which was a lot more than normal because of not salary sacrificing for DD preschool fees. Though he did get an email to say some people had been over-paid; no idea if that includes him and when this might be clawed back - for accounting purposes I am ignoring the email and crossing my fingers.  I also had some very generous birthday cash gifts. Thus with nothing to spend on we have made big savings 

Mortgage capital £3907 repayment (3K OP) currently we owe £186926.10.

Education fund increased to £7037, fund is now £36,013

CM AVC pension fund increase +£1371; fund is now £16255. MrCM AVC fund is now up to £34,611.

debtfreeoneday

Happy belated birthday!

Cornish_mum

I decided to take the evening off work as last week was abit manic and I had to do 5 hours on Saturday boo.  

No super Saturday for us, a quick family walk locally and a trip to the park for the kids (footy and the outdoor trampoline). DH really wants to go to the pub but I am still stuck at home until end of the month.

Spends

Groceries £112.

Replacement vegi-trug liner £13.99

Tomato feed £3

Glue and stickers for homeschool £7.

Frugal things 

Harvested chard, kale, beetroot, salad leaves and mint.

Sowed carrot, beetroot, coriander, radish and salad leaves seeds. DD helped as she really enjoys playing with seeds. 

Replanted bulbs from an overgrown pot of muscari in the front garden border and moved an Iris that was in the wrong position.

Made homemade pizza, beef stir fry, tuna pasta and kale and chard pasta. 

Used old plastic straws to teach DD how to play pick up sticks (which was a lot of free fun).