One income family of four - can we get ahead even after pay cuts?

Mumoffourkids

My six children all have different amounts in their savings accounts. The oldest missed out on the child trust fund by six months but did get given £1000 from her great nan. The next one got the child trust first amount and the £1200 from her great nan. The next two missed out on child trust fund as we were in France and their great nan had died, but they did get £200 each from their grandparents. Fifth and sixth didn’t get anything. But I am trying to save amounts for them myself and as they are the youngest, I should have a half decent amount for them when they are 18. I always wanted to be able to check on what money they had and then make sure each child had the same at 18, but my ex’s parents held the savings account for the eldest and she just turned 18 and I have no idea what her savings account totalled.

Baileys_Babe

Both of mine qualified for child trust funds, but we ourselves have saved nothing them which wasn't the plan, we haven't even managed open bank accounts for either of them, bad bad parents.

Bluegreen143

Feel a bit better now that I haven’t saved for them! Glad I’m not alone. But I do want to make it more even between them even if it takes a while.

No money news today. Did make a lovely blended lentil & tomato soup which successfully hid some courgette and aubergine... Monkey ate three portions for lunch! Will definitely make that again. Still have a whole aubergine in the fridge and Red has said if we get another one this week he wants to add them to the do not send list as he’s so fed up (currently we only have fennel on there, think they will accept 2-3 items). I know it’s silly but I feel awkward doing it and like we will look fussy so want him just to suck it up (didn’t mind asking re the fennel though, vile stuff!)! Plus I do quite like aubergine myself, albeit am finding it a challenge to use one a week... Also used my multipurpose muffin recipe to make a cherry version today. We had some squashy ones left from the veg box which I supplemented with some from our garden. We don’t get many cherries inspite of having two trees as get so many windfalls when they are still green, and the birds eat much of the rest (or we can’t reach it) but the ones we do get are lovely, they are a light blush coloured cherry rather than the usual dark red/purple.

Meals today: 

B - homemade peanut butter granola with milk & banana 

L - tomato & lentil soup with HM sourdough and a hard boiled egg for Monkey

S - homemade cherry muffins with grapes & apple 

D - Red made spatchcock chicken with a curry/tandoori esque marinade, spicy roast potatoes, broccoli & cauliflower 

Tried a new thing today where I have started letting the kids have the tub of cut up salad veg/crudités if they moan about being hungry (normally I only do snack at 3.30ish but then Red might sneak them a cracker or whatever from time to time, especially just for peace if Bambi is whinging, which I think ruins their appetite and is a bad habit). It seemed to work well, the kids ate all the red pepper, tried some mangetout from the garden and didn’t have any illicit crackers. No salad veg left now til our veg box comes tomorrow, except what’s in the veg patch... might have some radishes I can harvest actually.

MagicCat

Savings for kids are tricky, we are trying to save for both at the moment but may have to stop while things are so tight with nursery fees, which means S will have much more. Definitely don't feel bad, you're certainly not the only one!

Your meals always sound amazing.  Too many aubergines are a bit tricky - I like them in stir-frys and risottos and baked aubergine parmigiana but you've probably done all those!

Baileys_Babe

We like to use aubergines to make baba ghanoush, my children couldn't believe something so delicious is made with something they class as revolting.

[Deleted User]

I'm really inspired by your frugality with food and cooking. I used to be quite good at this but with 2 fussy eaters (dinosaur 1 is much better now though) I've lost my way.

missymoo81

Oh my goodness I Hate aubergines!!! I wish I could make them taste good.

Bluegreen143

Aubergines are so divisive 😂

@Baileys_Babe I made Baba Ganoush last week and the kids wouldn’t eat it (I didn’t even say it had aubergine in). However I might make some more and just eat it myself, I like it.

We did get another aubergine this week so now I have two big ones to use up 😅 

Will pop back on later and update all the sounds as we got the Tesco delivery yesterday. Red added LOADS of treats to the delivery which doubled the cost! I took a lot back out again when I was finalising the order (our little game we play) but I let him have a few thinking “oh well the food portion is about £50”. Then after it came I remembered I was aiming for £40 whoops. May go slightly over my grocery challenge target this month but at least because I’m tracking it we’re doing much better then before 🙂

@mumtopinkdinosaurs you are too kind! I used to be much better before having the kids too! Just getting back into it now. It’s hard when they are picky, mine are as well which I take as a personal insult 😂 but I firmly believe that if you continually offer and expose them to new foods and also limit snacking they will eventually learn to eat new things. It’s so frustrating though when you’ve cooked something delicious and they won’t touch it.

Checked the UC account yesterday and they are going to confirm what we’ll get paid on the 4th Aug and pay it on 8th Aug so that’s good to know. 

Bought a couple of things from our gift budget - £7.50 including delivery from eBay for a lovely hardback Paddington bear collection which I’ll give to Monkey with his birthday or Christmas gifts. Been lusting after one on Amazon but the RRP was £40 and it’s usually listed at £30-32. Pleased with my bargain buy as the kids are young enough not to mind second hand gifts. 

Ordered jars from Amazon at £6.50 for 6 as want to make marmalade now. I’ve saved a couple of honey jars lately too so hopefully I won’t need to buy too many more if I keep saving them.

Also spent about £35 getting stuff for my sister’s birthday on Amazon (bits and bobs for baking sourdough as she’s into it too). I will look for something else too as it’s her 30th. Also need to decide what I’m getting my mum as her birthday is the same week as my sister’s (and mine is that week too!). 

[Deleted User]

@Bluegreen143 I used to say the same. It worked with Dinosaur 1. Dinosaur 2 would prefer to starve than eat something she doesn't like. She's very thin and being monitored by health professionals. Sometimes I have to pick my battles. Hopefully it'll sort itself out like it did with her big sister. 

Bluegreen143

@mumtopinkdinosaurs that must be so stressful and worrying for you! I was saying to @magiccat that I had been reading in an article from a dietician that the approach that works 90% of the time for “normal” age related pickiness is the approach that backfires with extreme, sensory type pickiness which was eye opening to me. Luckily both of mine, which picky, have the more common toddler pickiness where they do still eat a range of stuff. I’m sorry you need to go through having her monitored as that must be a worry, do they give you support from a dietician too? Hope that over time she does outgrow it.