Marginal Gains

becky170

Happy birthday. Glad you've managed to escape on a date with MrCM 

Grogged

Many happy returns. 🍾🎂
Hope the date worked out and he's a keeper! 😆

Cornish_mum

Thank you everyone for all the good wishes I had a super nice weekend. & @ grogged yes definitely a keeper 🤣.

 I managed to get loads done in the garden with some help from the kids. DS was very pleased to fix a solar powered little fountain and help me put up some solar powered lights (he was very proud to do the job just as well as his Dad). DD liked trimming overgrown plants with scissors to make them look tidy! 

The school SENCO recommended DS does extra ball skills so MrCM setup an improvised swing ball for the kids, they loved it. We are also getting lots of use from the gazebo as it’s giving us a nice shady area in the hot weather for the kids to play under. MrCM took the kids out for a bike ride while I made my birthday cake this afternoon, couldn’t have wished for a better birthday. Total spends were £5 extra on food (cake ingredients), £4 for a bunch of flowers and £5 on a magazine. 

jennystarpepper

Happy Birthday.    Flowers and cake sound lovely.  

Cornish_mum

Thanks Jennystarpepper!

Month End update 

Mortgage  £1902 capital balance £172993. 

CM AVC +£1650, MrCM (+£2060 last 2 months)

Cash savings £3921 (put aside for drains).

Spends

Big River order for home office and homework resources £44, then another order for emergency Father’s Day gift £15, then another £15 for Global Day stuff for school.

Take away £33 (second weekend when MrCM had to work straight through and I decided to try to take the load off so kids had freezer dinner & we had a curry).

Groceries for June £385

Summer Holiday childcare £1085 yikes.

Frugal Fail

Found half a cooked chicken breast at the back of the fridge- I have no idea how long it had been there so binned it.

Didn’t order DF Father’s Day gift in time so had to pay express delivery. £3.99.

Frugaling 

Harvested strawberries, herbs, salad leaves and flowers from the garden.

DD and I deep cleaned the sofas; they are getting very worn but I am planning to keep them going for another few years.

Kids made MrCM Father’s Day cards and breakfast in bed.

Transplanted lettuce from where I had sown too thickly. Most of the plants survived. Mr CM netted our strawberries after the local birds discovered our patch.

Mended a pair of Pyjama trousers and fixed my glasses with super glue.

Took on another side job this should bring in £120 after tax. No sign of money for the job I did in May yet. 

Claimed back some work expenses.

Made the kids global day costumes from things we already had combined with Portuguese flags (which I bought new and will reuse).

June Goals

I managed a bit more fun this month, but it was MrCM turn to be super busy. He had to work the last 20 days of June straight through (all evenings and weekends). 

Drains not sorted.

Decluttering was very limited.

Money goals were all exceeded mainly because we didn’t spend much and MrCM second job paid more than normal. We also made our first overpayment of the year. 

July Goals

Sort out drains

Have a proper go at declutttering.

Book a haircut

Organise an extra week of holiday in August focusing on fun for the kids.

Save £1200.

Cornish_mum

After being so abstemious in June, I went slightly nutty yesterday and booked us 2 nights at a posh hotel near legoland for a tiny mini-break in August, took us out for a family dinner at a restaurant (pizza/pasta) and did a top up shop at MrIce (buying all our favourite frozen seafood).  Spent quite a bit (£650) but totally worth it! Only frugal step was using a discount code to get 12 free cornettos. It was just wonderful to have some relaxed time together and plan to do more in August. 

Today I am planning to find a place for all our maturing regular savers cash. I am debating whether to open some new reg savers or not but for 1% interest I am not sure that the hassle of running extra current accounts is worth it. Each one is only going to net around £15-20 a year it’s quite a bit of extra time to shuffle money around every month to meet the pay in requirements.

DD just came in and asked what I was doing when I told her I was writing my diary she decided to do one too😀.

Cornish_mum

Sneaks in quietly…

Month End Totals

Mortgage capital repayment £922, outstanding £172072.

CM pension fund +£1851

Cash savings + £40 whoops (the end of lockdown has resulted in our spending going a bit crazy).

Spends (rather a lot this month mainly related to doing nice things for the kids)

Groceries £430 (including 2x nice meals for guests and restocking the freezer from MrI.

DS school trip £65 includes CMs ticket and transport (for being a “mum-helper”)

Kids school photos £40

DS cub camp £130

DS camp kit £90 (including spay sunscreen, hand sanitizer etc)

DD & DS summer school work supplies £50

End of school year gifts £120 (teachers, play workers and DD ‘s buddy)

Meals out £170 (family dinner and a few different lunches for CM and MrCM)

Clothes (summer stuff) for DD and DS £40 (mostly on sale except shorts for DS).

Pretty hair accessories for DD (£7)

Restocking cards and small present cupboard (in person birthday parties for kids have restarted so needed to restock as and when, I see good value items) £100 

Legoland mini break costs now £900 (CM faints).

CM lifestyle magazine £4,99.

Frugaling 

I have been mending clothes, decluttering and cleaning rather than giving into a very strong temptation to buy new clothes (for me) and house things. (CM should not purchase lifestyle magazines as it makes me want to spend money). 

Now we are going out and having people visit - quite a lot of things really need a refresh. Decluttering in particular has been going much better, both kids rooms have been throughly done. Lots of things handed down or donated to charity. MrCM decluttered the dinning room/his office and I did the kitchen. Only 25 plastic lids this time.. still mystified as to where all the boxes are disappearing. 

Harvesting courgettes, cucumber x1, salad, lettuce, herbs and flowers from the garden).

SIL kindly gave us a bag of hand me down clothes, books and toys.

Hosting play dates for the kids at home.

News

MrCM had his second vaccination, it made him pretty unwell for a couple of days but so glad it’s done. We are still doing our best to socially distance and are all wearing masks when indoors but are now going out and about a lot more. 

Thus it has been super busy in the CM household. I passed the first stage of my rebid review with a good score, one more stage to go then hopefully our contract will be renewed for another 5-years. I am now preparing a second bid for my other team but having got a good score once feel much less worried about that. It’s a quiet month for MrCM at work so he has been pleased to spend time on important but not urgent stuff for once.

DS had a really amazing end of term trip to sing at a real music venue in London with his class, I went too and we had a wonderful time. It was a real adventure. He also went on his first cub camp, and did lots of fun activities which really boosted his confidence. 

We signed DD up for a gymnastics club;  as she spent 2 days preparing a “show” for us to watch. Then when she revealed it instead of the puppet show I was expecting, she tried to reanact the Olympics gymnastics floor display, with the full cartwheels etc! This will come out of next months spends. 

We have had family over for a couple of meals, which was lovely. As a result of all this fun I spent all our income after bills this month but it was absolutely worth it to see the kids having fun.

We have set a new holiday routine for school holiday homework. DD is working on her phonics and DS spelling and maths questions (non-verbal reasoning). It’s working well and spending on resources for this has made it immensely easier.

This week DDs childcare bubble unexpectedly closed so we had both the kids at home, it’s been super hectic as MrCM and I had quite a few work commitments but we both managed to book in some half days leave. MrCM has taken kids to the council park splash pools, a local museum and I took them climbing. Though it was a bit of flashback to homeschooling awfulness. We have 2 weeks of annual leave booked in starting tomorrow and we are off on our mini break. Fingers crossed that childcare runs when we are back.

Money Plans

We have decided that DS is going to attend local school for secondary, he has made such progress this year at his mainstream primary school and has a made a good friend in his class too; so we don’t feel he will significantly benefit from alternative provision. This means we are no longer contributing to our Education pot. This decision has definitely resulted in this month’s spending on fun as we now feel we don’t need to throw everything at saving for DS. 

I transferred 10k into a S&S ISA and will contribute £250/month to this. This is for medium term savings for the kids. (Secretly this my fund for the kids weddings).

MrCM transferred 12k into a cash ISA. This is now the replacement car savings pot.

We plan to remortgage to a 5-year fix in December and I will reduce the term again as far as possible. I will need to save £999 for this.

I have been paid for the extra job I did in May (but by cheque in $), so need to work out how to deposit it. Then get organise for self assessment.

Taken on another side job £120 after tax.

July goals 

Definitely ticked off having and planning more fun for the kids, but this turned out to be to be much more expensive than I anticipated. The cost of all fun activities has very understandably really increased. I am immensely grateful we have enough room in our budget to accommodate it. Drains still not sorted but it’s liveable with.

August Goals 

Enjoy holidays!

School uniforms and shoes.

Fix drains

Continue decluttering (our clothes and books are next to be done).

I am not going to have a savings goal this month and will restart in September.

Book optician (DS) and haircut (CM).

Cornish_mum

Month end totals

Mortgage £929 off the capital total outstanding £171k

AVC CM  £1050 (increased because of pay rise), MrCM standard amount; combined pot 92k (the ethical fund we are invested in seems to be performing really well).

Money added to after tax savings + £500.

News from the CMs

Our holidays were fantastic. Lego land was crazily crowded, we still had a nice time but the ride queues were hideous. We haven’t seen it this bad before. The days we visited they had to close ticket sales, as it was so full. Luckily I had planned carefully and we were prepared, the kids managed the whole 9-7pm day at the park plus an evening meal in our hotel. We had planned to other things locally whilst we where there but we were all too tired, so just mooched at the nice hotel gardens and had a little walk around Windsor along the river. 

Norfolk AirBnB was good, we saved money by staying inland in quite basic accommodation. This worked at really well, (though cooking in the little kitchen and doing the departure cleaning was a pain).  We spent a bit more on parking, easy food from supermarket and 2 dinners out than previous years but this was a lot less than we would have needed to spend to stay in a cottage in Cromer. We are definitely going to do this again the next time we visit as it really didn’t impact on our enjoyment of the holiday. 

Money News

I managed to cash in my $ cheque for £28, but it won’t clear till next month. 

August Goals

Definitely enjoyed the holidays!

School uniform and shoes sorted (£350 all together yikes)

Decluttering went well - 6 large bags to charity shop, lots of old papers to be shredded, numerous other items binned/recycled.

Booked haircut but couldn’t get DS appointment with the good kids optician as all her available slots were gone.

No progress with drains (MrCM has been chasing up too).

Spends

A lot but I gave us a free pass for August and didn’t track this month. Despite this we haven’t blown the budget, I guess we just like cheap stuff and could not bring ourselves to go really crazy. Though I felt like we were being super indulgent.

Frugaling 

I shopped the loft for DD school uniform and used DS handme down (wellies, plimsolls, PE kit and polo shirts) so just needed socks, a new skirt, trainers and school shoes for her. DS needed more new stuff.

MrCM is redecorating the room off our kitchen and is reusing paint for woodwork and ceiling from when he did DDs room. He just needed paint for the walls and he treated himself to a new roller head.

I have been harvesting sweet peas, herbs, lettuce, salad leaves, courgettes, runner beans, the odd cucumber and recently some tomatoes from the garden.

Our next door neighbour kindly gifted us there excess plums and pears. I used these to make a crumble.

The big river company had a flash 25% off sale on Sylvanians so I bought DD and the DNs birthday presents.

We gave DD and DS home haircuts.

I have been making homemade popcorn for lunchbox snacks.

I used up a bunch of bananas I forgot to take on holiday to make a batch of banana loaves.

September Goals 

Save £2000 (I am setting a stretch target to help me focus; let’s see if we can do it). We have built up childcare credit over the summer, plus both of us are due second job income so also aiming for a MOP of £500.

Organise DDs birthday party (she has gone off soft play and would like a home party (hurray says CM).

Book Panto tickets.

Sort out drains.

Keep groceries spends to £60/week (limit alcohol, treats and meat spends)

Do at NW switch.

South_coast

Feeling like you're being indulgent and yet not blowing the budget sounds like a winner to me 😀! Sounds like you've had a brilliant month

Cornish_mum

Thanks SC

I am determined to reset our spending after the splurgy summer, it’s not going very well so far, as the start of school has meant lots of extra necessary spending.

Spends 

On the positive side last weeks groceries came in at £56 (including 2 top up shops).  This week it was £59. We are eating down the freezer and garden veg (we have a glut of tomatoes and runner beans).

We spent £4.40 on ice cream and £2.95 on a flat white on our last day of the holidays trip to London zoo. Train fares (£90!) were a bit eye-watering but we had a really lovely day and it took the kids minds off back to school nerves. I took them to the zoo shop to spend their summer money (it was their first visit to a shop all summer). They were both really sensible, though at bedtime DD asked for her £5 back to put in her piggy bank - she still hadn’t quite understood that spending it means you don’t have the money anymore! We did take packed lunch and snacks.

Unfortunately the kids school wants full PE kit left in school this term, so I had to buy kids another set of weekend trainers. Last year we were able to use one pair for both school and home. I’d been hoping that they would keep the new PE system, as the kids preferred it, the teachers preferred it and the parents preferred it but nope. Both the kids have unusually narrow feet and DS has to have good ankle support etc (to minimise the chances of him falling over) so it was another £80 to get them decent pairs. 

I topped up DS lunch credits £70, the lads got to eat.

Booked DS into a Cubs activity day £20.

DS school swimming is restarting so MrCM is off this morning with him to buy the kit (he needs everything). Plus MrCM wants the kids to restart swimming classes. 

MrCM finished the painting last weekend but had to buy extra gloss, a lampshade and a replacement door handle ~£40). Still all in all it’s a pretty cheap makeover (that was long overdue).  Hopefully we will recoup some of the costs by selling an old bookshelf and the old lampshade. 

Only other spend was £3 on parking when MrCM took the little CMs to the woods last Saturday while I did the cleaning.

Frugaling 

We used odds and ends leftover party invitations for DD birthday party (she quite liked choosing which invite each kid would like).

This week I decluttered and successfully passed on school uniform that was too small. And bagged up a load of old DVDs to donate that the kids have grown out of.

Garden veggies have been good, though I am getting a bit feed up of tomatoes (we are harvesting about 10 a day).

Money News

I am very excited that HMRC have notified MrCM that he paid way too much tax last year, £1970 to be repaid. I am already planning how to use it; half and half to MrCM ISA and a cheeky MOP! 

I also have a date booked in for an extra side job finally. I did 2 hours of the work this week in the evenings need to crack on with it next week.

Weekend aims 

MrCM is repainting the kitchen woodwork this weekend. 

We are taking the kids to  swimming lesson try outs. 

Aiming to declutter abit more and put everything back properly in the room next to the kitchen. 

I also need to organise DD party bag things etc. 

Try not to worry about several difficult work situations, that developed last week.

Help MrCM put his tax refund paperwork in.