Marginal Gains

Cornish_mum

Spent £25 on school resources for DS to help with homework as recommended by school. They recommend a work book too but it £25 so I am going to see if he likes it before I buy him one for home. I also spent £12 on party stuff for DD birthday party and a £40 top-up shop:eek:. This was mainly cleaning and washing stuff. I knew my rushed online shop would mean I forgot to buy things (we ran out of bread, washing power and I forgot to get odour spay for DD shoes which are reeking because she is refusing to wear socks):(:mad:. Also spent £30 on a flowers and chocolates order for my mum’s birthday next week. Had a 15% off voucher, I really like the company as they are so much better value than interflora.

Despite the rain DD and I managed to plant most of the bulbs and all the plants I bought yesterday. While we did that DH mended DS bike. Then he took the kids to Park while I did all the boring tidying up in the garden (as DD had lost interest). Batched cooked beef pasta sauce (with sweet potato for DD and carrots for DS), should do 4 family meals plus what we had tonight.

Have a mega busy week at work; will be away for 3 days and have tons of other stuff get through. Decided not to work today as I did so many extra hours last week I am going to burn out if I work every the weekends too.

Cornish_mum

Month end totals

Mortgage £199,000 (-£700 off capital; this is just the regular payment)
EF £50,000
Education pot £18,100 in our name, £13,000 in DS’s (+£1200/month):D
AVC ~31k combined:D (I reviewed DH’s account and found it had double what I thought was in there). I prefer not to think about the monthly increase as although the market is good now, it will fall and plotting that month by month is just going to be depressing. So we will keep on investing each month and by the end of 5 years if we have 60k I will be happy. This is what we will invest without returns. I raised our target because of discovering the extra money in DH’s account.

Hopefully we will make a mortgage OP in October from my raised pay. We now have the cushion I want in our current account, and we should be able to do this alongside adding the 750-1000k to the education pot.

But we need to make sure DH’s extra pension contributions go out next month.

She_shall_have_music

Hi Cornish Mum, glad your DS is getting the support he needs, although sorry that you've had bad news on his condition. It can be heartbreaking can't it. My DS also has ongoing conditions that we have to help him manage, although possibly less serious than your son's from the sounds of it and I've shed my fair share of tears and worried plenty along the road. I also agree that a diagnosis is so important, without it I've worried that I'm just a bad parent and I've lost track of the number of professionals that have told me that something is due to his prematurity only for it to turn out to be something else! I was actually relieved to get a diagnosis of moderate hearing loss for DS, as it meant there was a reason for his slow speech development other than me, as I was blaming myself!
I hope with the right support your son can thrive and be happy.

Cornish_mum

Thank you so much for your lovely post she shall have music. I am sorry to hear about your sons hearing loss.

Cornish_mum

Tuesday was an offsite day was out of the house 7am-9pm. Got a free lunch and managed to avoid buying dinner on the way home. When I got in had to do an hour of home chores including baking DD’s birthday cake.

On Wednesday I got up well before 6 as DD was very excited about her birthday. She was delighted with her simple selection of gifts but very upset when she realised her friends weren’t coming to visit after nursery; as she was muddled about her special birthday tea (today with her family) and her birthday party (Sunday morning with her friends). Had a 9am TC which I needed to do in the office with another colleague; so left tearful DD with DH. The train was late again. Got free coffee from MrW; left work early to make DD birthday tea. Then sorted 2 loads of washing and tidied the for cleaner and the 2 babysitters who are helping DH with kids when I am away. It’s going to cost £170 for babysitting and the cleaner this week.

Thursday left the house at 6am for 2 day work meeting. Worked 6.30am-11pm on Thursday and then 7.30am-8.30pm today. These hours are clearly a bit much. Only spend was chocolate and water on the train home. I resisted getting a takeaway, had a homemade freezer meal then did the online foodshop cost £59.

Only one day off-site next week thank goodness. DH is working tomorrow all day, think I will take kids out and concentrate on fun stuff for them. Need to put in my delay repay claim, get house ready for DD’s party and do washing.

Cornish_mum

Frugal Things

DIY birthday party for DD; we did pass the parcel (£3.50 on prizes); pin the badge on the paw patrol (£3.20 on am@zon); colour in your own paper doll chain (had already supplies); home disco (already had LED light bulb and DS was the DJ using Utube) and traditional birthday lunch with home made cupcakes (£15). I bought the stuff for party bags at MrA ages ago (£10). Kids had a nice time and I chatted to some of the parents.

It was hard work but I think it saved us about £200 compared to soft play.:o

Free apples and pears from neighbour, DS took a bag of the eaters to cubs for an apple juice make. I need to use the rest in crumbles. Been working on work for work every evening as soon as kids in bed until after 10, so haven’t had time for any extra cooking this week. So am using commute time for posting on the boards as a treat.

Saving £4.:o

The air bed sprung a leak and DH fixed it with the tent repair kit I bought last year to mend the outdoor furniture covers. It’s quite new so I am pleased we could avoid replacing it. It’s used in DD room so another member of the family can sleep in there with her, when she has a bad night (every night). Sometimes DS likes to camp out with her but usually DH/I end up in there at about 2am. Operation Airbed was designed to try to get DD to sleep in her own bed and not come into ours; it’s working.

Saving £60.:o

Realised on Saturday night that I left my phone-charger in the conference hotel. Rather than buying a replacement I called the hotel. They had it and posted it back to me free of charge.

Saving me £20.:o


3 free coffee’s and one free lunch this week so far.

Saving £11.:o

Cornish_mum

Frugal Fails this week
Coffee purchases x2 (one FW was in a reusable cup so saved 50p). Total spend £5.
One almond croissant bought at market next to the station £2.50.:eek:
New shoes and old socks disaster. I wore my new work shoes with old socks (the elastic had gone in then) on Tuesday. I had to buy new socks and plasters on the way to work as I was getting blisters. This distressed emergency purchase cost £10.25. :eek:

Good Money Stuff
Made £550 MOP, first one in 3 months.:T
Sent £800 to savings (£80 was regular saver interest).:T

Spent on DS club subs and tickets for his winter concert; worth every single penny (£50)
Online groceries came to £59. This weeks batch cook is shin of beef in ale, will make banana cakes and apple and pear, crumble with kids.

To do list
Need to put in expenses.
DH wants to go on a family date night, will look for a voucher for this later.
All banks I have accounts with have withdrawn 5% regular savers, when I have time I need to open MnS account.
Need to put in DDs school application. This is starting to worry me so will priorities this.
Need to organise remortgage, HSBC is looking promising as I like there online banking. This isn’t urgent.

Cornish_mum

We had a family dinner out on Friday which cost £55, I used a voucher to save about £10. It was a nice treat.

DH worked on Saturday so I took kids swimming (£7 entry, £2.80 on snacks afterwards and £4.85 on the bus as it was very wet). Made a crumble with a free fruit from next door neighbour and batched cooked stew. DD and DS helped to bake a banana cake. Woods trip on Sunday (£3 for parking), fixed my slippers again by sewing in the soles and finished my monthly money swish.

On Monday I got a free coffee but bought lunch and a snack on homeward commute. Worked at home on Tuesday had to buy butter (£1.70) and spent £7.85 on bus fares for the evening school run, as it’s too far for DD to walk. Free coffee today and spent 1.80 on 1.5L of bathgel from MrW (which we use instead of hand soap and shower gel).

Put £250 of work expenses in; hopefully they will be paid by month end. I started DD school application but the website was offline so couldn’t complete it. Yesterday I started making a photo book for DH’s Christmas present this is a fun chore.

Cornish_mum

Free coffee Thursday and Friday but spent £8 on sushi and melon for lunch on Friday and £2.25 on 1/2 pint of IPA. The IPA was drunk with an old friend from University I haven’t seen for a decade. He was just the same and it was great to catch up. We had take away for supper as the babysitter picked up kids and DH had to work late. More spends:(

Spent £69 on weekly food shop, £37 on 4 gifts for DDs friends parties and £10 for 3 new trousers for DD (she is refusing to wear all her leggings).

Took DD swimming on Saturday £7.30 entry and £3.30 on kit Kat and coffee. Then we hosted a play date for DS, the other mum likes to stay and chat which was nice but meant DD got bored as DH worked 11-4. I also couldn’t really do my chores so I am abit behind. I made the kids a popcorn snack. DS friends mum was amazed I made it in a pan the old fashioned way.

DD was abit ill in the night (I will spare everyone the messy details but there was a lot of washing of DD and her bed - yuck:eek::eek::). So far the rest of us seem fine.

Today, I took DS to his favourite local museum (computing history) for a half term treat. Entry is £15 for the 2 of us but it’s his absolute favourite (I like it too:D). We had planned to go on Monday but I shall have to keep DD off nursery and it would be a nightmare to have her with us. The museum is full of vintage computers you can play with, which need to be treated with quite a bit of care, so not the place for a boisterous 4 year old. DH and DD stayed at home to declutter.

This morning I sorted a huge basket of toys that DH managed to get DS to take out of his room. (DS is a huge hoarder). More than half of them were broken beyond repair but I sorted a bag of the good stuff for the charity shop.

Despite all the discretionary small spends this month we seem to be on track, as we have considerably more than last month in the current account and all the big bills have been paid. Fingers crossed we get to month end in a good position.

Cornish_mum

Managed to add a random smiley into last post. Whoops