Making money make sense

Franalamadingdong

Pizza and yogurt both turned out good.

I had a lovely bath with a face mask and hair mask and a posh bath melt.

Now relaxing for the evening and doing a little bit of sewing.

Planning on a seafront walk with the boy and dog tomorrow, then stopping off at mum and dad's to clean for an hour. Then the boy's been invited to a friend's house. Then it'll be Monday again! I will just have to remember that his clubs start this Monday!

No spends today, but I might treat the boy to a nice drink on the seafront tomorrow.

Blackcats

Nice plans for tomorrow. A good walk along the seafront is great whatever time of year.
Just think, this time last year you hadn't even met your BF. What a difference a year makes.

Franalamadingdong

Yes, we really don't take advantage of living by the sea. I have to take my parents' bins to the curb ready for pick up early Monday, so figured we'll park up, have a good walk with the dog and I'll get working on tidying up their place. Mum was moaning that the place was ransacked and dreading coming back to it, so I think it'll be a nice surprise. Obviously just tidying and cleaning, I'll only throw out anything that is obviously rubbish, like a crisp packet.

The dog is 11 and has a bit of arthritis in his back hip, so isn't up to long walks every day, he normally goes out 4 times a day round the block, but a longer walk once a week is ok. It tires him out and he tends to snooze the rest of the day.

The boy said he doesn't want to go to his friend's house tomorrow... So we'll see what's going on there.

Had a lovely chat with the boyfriend, who also remembers Wednesday is when I first started bullying him. Haha. He is the absolute sweetest and I'm so glad he's feeling a bit better. I'll be even happier when I get to spend next weekend with him. It makes me chuckle that he has a reputation where he lives, whereas I know him as being an absolute puppy. The reputation is based on when he was young and probably the fact he always scowls :'D he scowls and doesn't like to talk to anyone and I smile and will chat away with everyone. It must be so funny to see us together. I don't rope him in, he usually moves to one side and lets me get on with being a chatterbox and then we carry on together afterwards. It's a bit like my parents to be honest. Hahaha. He's him. I'm me. And for some reason we just work

Franalamadingdong

The dog was a tugging nightmare! But we had a good walk and stopped at a cafe for a pot of tea and hot chocolate for the boy. £4.75 out of the "fun" pot. Back to mum and dad's and I've folded towels out of the dryer and folded clean teatowels I've found everywhere, cleaned the work surfaces and island in the kitchen, swept the kitchen diner, put away clean items from the draining board and generally had a bit of a tidy/put away in the kitchen diner. Going to do a little work in the snug while I wait for the tumble drying to finish. Then we'll put the bins out and go home where I'll make sandwiches for my lunches for the week and stew for tea in the instant pot and do a little bit of a tidy up too.

We bumped into a couple of colleagues (they're dating and it's so cute) while we were out so they saw my giant boy and naughty temporary dog. I think I'll have to find his bra (halti harness) and work him on that again to see if that helps with his pulling.

Franalamadingdong

I didn't make any sandwiches, I'm a bit knackered to be honest! I'll see if I can motivate myself before bed. I need to take the recycling out too.

Stew in the instant pot was brilliant. It really was such a great buy. And I made the promised popcorn. £2 for 500g. Even with sugar, salt and oil it has to be less than 50p per batch. And my son's face just lights up when it starts popping (I use a glass lidded pan so he can see).

I've gone through the spends so far this month, and despite overspending in household and my son's extra extra curricular activities it looks like I still have £138 leftover from income after paying fixed and variable expenses and putting money into sinking funds. I'll move it into a savings pot at the end of the month. Of course I'm always aiming to have more leftover for my pots.

It means we won't touch the £4067.24 starting balance. I'm just wondering what to do with it. I might move £2k into savings for my emergency fund, with the intention to build it to £4.5 which covers 3 months expenses should absolutely no money come in. (Being in the funeral industry it's unlikely I'll be made redundant!) Then keep £1.5k in my current account for cushion, meaning that I'm not dependent on worrying about when which payment comes in or out, especially as I'm paid on 24-26th of the month. There's then £500 that I could move into my h2b ISA or move it into a fund for a holiday, laptop or new flooring/sofa for the lounge. I'm just unsure what to do. Suggestions welcome!!!

Franalamadingdong

Just put my big fat finger through my dress! Argh! Not along a seam that I could easily fix, no, in a really obvious place in the dress. Argh.

Franalamadingdong

I was going to say I had zero spends, but the boys cello lesson invoice for the term came in so I paid for that. It came in as £150, which is under the £200 budgeted.

The boy is whining constantly and it's doing my head in.

Other good news is that I remembered to take my repeat prescription in to the pharmacy and next month I'm due a review and really hoping my medication can be reduced.

I think some sewing and bullet journaling is in order as there's no chocolate in the house not intentionally might I add! Might have to do a small shop of ALL THE CHOCOLATE soon. Got about £15 in the budget whilst still leaving £40 per week for the next two weeks.

Blackcats

You and boyfriend sound very well matched despite being opposites.
Great savings totals - I keep a sum of money in an account which is attached to my current account and easy to move into the current account if needed. I keep it at £500 and in my head I treat it as my own overdraft or petty cash account. If I need it, it's there and I always top it back up to £500 if I've dipped into it.
Shocking that you have no chocolate. I'm trying to resist demolishing a whole box of maltezers.

Franalamadingdong

Thanks Blackcats. We're annoyingly still very much in love and I like to think that we make a good team. We have different strengths but the same values. We don't need showy things, we like to create memories by spending time together, it needn't be anywhere fancy and we like to be a solid unit. We also help others where needed and think family involves discipline as well as fun. We both also love to create.

Your £500 is what I'll use my £1500 for, or rather it's because I get paid at the end of the month and my bills come out at the start of the month it's my working from amount.

My savings pots are all in one savings account, I just have it divided up in my bullet journal. So I could just pop the £500 over, but I worry about my frittering tendancies if it's not allocated to something.

I'm having a bit of an MSE win at the moment. I have NOT gone to the shop for chocolate and treats, and I've not gone to the shop to buy bread, and leave with bread and chocolate and treats. I have remembered that I have some part-baked rolls at home that I can bake off tonight and make up into sandwiches for the next week!

I can imagine we'll still have to get bread at some point as the boyfriend is coming over this weekend (yay!) And he'll require snacks. But if I hold off going I won't eat them all before he arrives and have to rebuy :'D this is why we don't currently have any chocolate at home.

My son was watching me place a grocery order online this morning so I said to keep his eye out for the loo roll we like. When he saw it he shouted. Then he said "that's so much money!" Yes darling, that's why I get annoyed when you waste a whole roll... It was a 9 back, I don't ever bother with the 4 packs, and I do like a certain brand of loo roll, I have tried others. Anyway, it made me chuckle, especially as he was over trying to get me to add football cards to the shopping - not happening!

Is it sad that I'm looking forward to the month end so I can see how we've gotten on this month? I'm thinking about next month's budget and thinking how half term will impact it. The boyfriend will be over and the boy won't be having school dinners. Would £30 extra food budget be appropriate? The boyfriend and I will have a day out in a nearby town because it's 20 minutes drive from me and it's where the dog has his 3 hour haircut... Rather than drive back and forth we thought a few hours out together would be nice while the boy is at the childminder's. Thinking about what to budget and the half term budget in general. The dog's haircut is already paid for by my parents, they were keen that I wouldn't have any extra expenses whilst having him. That said the harness has proved illusive and may have been gotten rid off. I need to get him one as the pulling is too much for me. I'm in two minds about a clicker for clicker training too... He's 11 so it might be pointless at this age!

Blackcats

Well done for not shopping for bread and chocolate. It is so easy for me to buy extra bits and bobs when I pop to the shop for milk etc.
I think £30 extra could cover half term food costs. When I'm not at work, we try to be a bit different to the usual routine and sometimes have a cooked breakfast or bacon sandwich type brunch which keeps us going through most of the day and then an earlyish dinner. Or you could do an afternoon tea with sandwiches, sausage rolls and cakes as quite a cheap but different treat. Apologies if you are a vegetarian but other non sausage or bacon options are available :rotfl:
Do you treat yourselves to a bottle of wine or beer when your boyfriend stays for the holidays? That adds a bit of a cost.