OS with young kids - tips & advice

Bluegreen143

Oooh thanks buildersdaughter - we just ran out of bought bubble solution (I let him play indoors with a towel handy for the floor). I got a huge tub of lots of different sized/shaped bubble wands for Christmas (£2 from Morrison’s reduced to clear) so Monkey was a bit sad when we ran out of solution. I’ll definitely try making my own.

I’ll update spends tonight but just spent about £8 in Tesco buying a couple of baking bits, cream, a pepper, cucumber and lemon. For the cake & tea party tomorrow night but we will have lots of everything left to use ourselves anyway.

Need to go and pop the creme fraiche starter in the cream or it won’t be ready in time (I bought myself a yoghurt & a creme fraiche starter around Christmas time and both have worked out really well). It’s not really money saving - I save about 30p a 300ml batch if I use the value cream so will take a while to pay off the £4 investment in the starter! But it is satisfying and easy to make. The yoghurt saves more I think, but only if I buy supermarket milk for it as the glass bottle milkman delivery we get costs double supermarket prices...

Bluegreen143

Wee daily round up:

Meals: didn’t have the chicken pasta as I forgot to put the leftovers in the fridge last night we had tuna sandwiches instead.

Exercise: just under 11k steps as it was very rainy today so didn’t go for a walk.

Spending: £5 on parking, just over £8 on bits from Tesco. Just under £7 came out to pay the milkman bill this week too.

Batch cooking/meal prep: made brownies for tomorrow. Will do the scones tomorrow- got distracted making and putting up paper chains and bunting.

Tomorrow is my shopping day - I usually get a Tesco delivery but I’m going to go to Lidl instead. I used to do that before falling pregnant with Bambi and it saved a fortune - it’s just been easier to get the deliveries with the two of them but I went to Lidl last week and they both behaved themselves so we are going again :rotfl:

Didn’t get much of my planned housework done today but we met a friend and her kids at the transport museum and had a lovely afternoon instead

Tomorrow morning taking Bambi to a coffee & cake morning I go to sometimes that they run in a church nearby - meeting some friends and their babies. Then having the informal baby shower in the evening. Shaping up to be a lovely day but I need to make hummus, scones and get the downstairs half decent first. Luckily they are very close friends so not a disaster if it isn’t perfect :rotfl:

Off to bed to cosy up with a recipe book and make my shopping list so will report later with the meal plan,

buildersdaughter

Can I add something that may not work for you, but our kids loved? I shop at markets whenever I can - the stall holders got to know the kids, would give them little treats, let them touch things a bit. We would talk about what to make or use and it was a great outing.

Broomstick

I've just remembered another win-win toy: take one pretty, colourful baby/toddler sock (use the odd ones where you've lost the other in the pair), fill with out-of-date dry pulses or rice, sew up the top edge very, very firmly and, presto!, you have a lovely little bean bag for playing with.

Bx

Bluegreen143

Oh great tips! I live in Glasgow and there aren’t tons of markets for food and what there is is really expensive I think, but worth trying out just for fun. I do like sometimes going to the greengrocer instead of the supermarket with the kids, again it does cost more. We do have loads of ethnic grocers and supermarkets nearby which I should investigate more.

That’s such a good idea, I have a whole box of odd kids socks :rotfl:

I’ll update later, had an awful night with Bambi and a bit knackered today so the morning nursery run was stressful. But had nice meet up with friends at a church coffee & cake thing and then was delighted that after returning home from the lunchtime nursery pick up Red had gotten off work early as his jobs got cancelled (he is employed not self employed so still gets paid thankfully) so we’ve had a nice afternoon with daddy at home, I got to do the Lidl shop just with the helpful 4yo and not the grumpy baby (it was really nice having a relaxed time and focusing properly on Monkey and we had a lot of fun choosing all the food together). It’s amazing what a difference it makes having someone even take one child for an hour! Monkey also helped me make scones and hummus, he’s a great wee helper in the kitchen.

Bluegreen143

Had a lovely time last night with my friend’s wee low key baby shower. Feel done in, last couple of night’s sleep have been awful. Had a nap today while Bambi napper which is unusual. Payday is today so I’m going to sit down with Red tonight for a budget meeting and update it on here after. Will add the meal plan too as we did our Lidl shop yesterday.

In terms of frugal fun - tried out the Scotland street school museum with a friend today which was fun and completely free, even to park. It’s been a busy week for socialising - will work in more quieter afternoons next week for sure.

Bluegreen143

Sat down last night with Red to do the budget. We overspent a bit this month so have less to spend now; hoping to be quite strict in Feb to get back on track (still, January was much more successful than December which isn’t a shock!).

Haven’t accounted for child benefit which we get later on in the month. Once it’s paid it can plug any overspending gaps. Hopefully there are none as I’d like to put them into some of the savings we haven’t funded this month instead (new car & emergencies particularly). The reason Home & Garden is so high is we want to finish the living room this month (mainly lighting plus a small storage unit from ikea) so we can move on to painting the kitchen next month, and we also need some compost and possibly some seeds for the garden soon.

FEBRUARY BUDGET
INCOME (after Red’s couple of hundred £ overdraft was paid): £1,945

SPENDING
BILLS - £850
(Mortgage, Life/illness insurance, Council tax, Gas & elec, Internet, TV license, Nursery, My phone & Spotify, Swimming membership)

RED’s ACCOUNT - £300
(His own spends, lunches, beer, his phone bill)

EVERYDAY SPENDING - £400
(Food, other groceries, petrol & parking, kids’ activities, my personal spending)

SAVINGS
CHRISTMAS/BIRTHDAYS - £120
(Current balance £7)

HOLIDAY - £25
(Current balance £503)

CLOTHING - £0
(Current balance £5)

HOME & GARDEN - £150
(Current balance £0)

NEW CAR - £0
(Current balance £454)

ANNUAL BILLS - £80
(Car insurance, road tax, breakdown cover, MOT/service, Amazon Prime, boiler service - current balance £65)

EMERGENCIES - £20
(Current balance £11)

buildersdaughter

I'm sorry that the markets are not good hunting grounds up where you are. We have fantastic markets in the East Midlands. Where I live we also have a greengrocer whose main business is supplying restaurants and pubs, but is allowed to trade to the public from his warehouse. Everything fresh and good value.
Have a good weekend!

Mummy2cheekymonkeys

Hi, I will be dropping in on this thread whenever I can. I have 2 boys. My eldest just turned 3 and my youngest will be 2 next week. Really struggling with day to day life at the moment tbh. My eldest was diagnosed with Autism in July and my youngest is currently waiting on an appointment to start the process for also getting a diagnosis. They are both currently non verbal and very active all day long. Its very rare I get a moments peace so I am really finding it hard to get any chores done around the house and am constantly tired. Like yourself I am looking to save money as much as possible with a view to paying off our mortgage asap. Really enjoying reading everyones helpful ideas.

Bluegreen143

Welcome mummy2cheekymonkeys, I’m so glad you’ve managed to get some good tips already and would love to have your company in this journey of trying to live thriftily with little kids.

It sounds like you really do have your hands full and you must be exhausted with it all. I take my hat off to mums with a smaller age gap as I do think it can be so physically tiring and hard work (of course rewarding too!). Not to mention additional needs and it must be very tough if they are both non verbal as I imagine that can be frustrating for them. I’d like to echo the kind words other posters had for me, in that it’s so important to be kind to ourselves and acknowledge we can only do what time and energy allow.

I hope you do manage to fit in little slivers of time for you - it can feel impossible with the needs of the kids and the housework etc - but YOU are important, you are the foundation of the family and just as deserving to get your needs met. I think it’s something all mums struggle with as the time for us gets ever more squeezed. Lots of love and good luck in your brilliant goal of paying off your mortgage