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

MagicCat

Sounds a fab day, you think up such lovely activities, the sewing sounds amazing!

Bluegreen143

Thanks @MagicCat! I can’t take the credit. I have a wonderful book called Art Workshop for Children (not very MSE as it cost me £15) which I use all the time. It’s got 27 “invitations” to art in it and is written by a preschool art teacher and focuses on process art (eg open ended exploration of materials and techniques NOT making specific crafts). Plus has interesting chapters on setting up art spaces at home, fostering creativity in young kids etc. The watercolour circles which you then lace/“sew” came from there. The projects look simple (as they aren’t based on crafting something/getting a specific result) but Monkey has adored every one of the 7 or 8 we have now tried. He’s not massively interested in mark making so I’ve been doing a real push at home to encourage arts and writing practise in ways that are fun for him. The most successful one was getting him to do a self portrait in pencil on watercolour paper then I drew over it in permanent marker. Then let him paint it with the watercolour as permanent marker doesn’t run. We talked about how we wanted the portrait to reflect how it felt to be him and using colours to show emotions. £15 well spent in my opinion! 

Bluegreen143

Found the self portrait 😅

joedenise

The book might have been £15 but it certainly looks as though it's worth it.  You'll also be able to use the "crafts" again and again and also when the little one is older, suspect most of it is a bit old for her at the moment.

Baileys_Babe

That sounds like a fantastic book, wish I had known about it when mine were younger.

Do you know who the author is? Or could you share a picture of the cover? Or the ISBN? I think I will investigate for my nieces, maybe for Christmas with a collection of supplies  

Bluegreen143

@Baileys_Babe this is the book here https://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Workshop-Children-Original-Experiences/dp/1631591436/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=art+workshops+for+children&qid=1596568719&sprefix=art+works&sr=8-4

And the same author does a “cardboard box modelling” book. Someone I know who is a reception teacher in England recommended both books to me but I haven’t tried the cardboard box one myself.

Bluegreen143

Slightly more challenging day today but we made it through. And no spends or car use today either!

It POURED all day from start to finish. I knew it would drag if we stayed in all day with no company, and as we still can’t go to the museums, the library or softplay... there was nothing for it but getting in wellies and waterproofs for possibly the wettest hour I’ve ever spent outdoors 😂 we found a ridiculously deep puddle in the park for splashing in so the kids were happy anyway. Notice my MSE expedition kit re a £18 charity shop buggy that’s done both kids in toddlerhood (though I do have a gifted travel system they used as babies) and a balance bike we borrowed from a nursery friend who’s outgrown it. Who says babies need to be expensive?!

Other good things about today - kids played well, Monkey did his other lacing circle and spent a while listening to the last Faraway Tree audiobook, we made forts in the living room with furniture and blankets. Also got the massive pile of clean clothes put away while the kids jumped about on my bed and played at going to sleep, which was cute.

Less good, Bambi refused to nap (becoming a once a week occurrence eeek!). She was then quite grumpy through the afternoon 😂 had to break into the emergency stash of tat Red bought for them. Picked a new movie from Disney+ which I hadn’t seen since I was little - the Sword in the Stone. Monkey seemed to enjoy it anyway.

Food today:

B - chocolate banana overnight oats

L - scrambled egg & toast for the kids, arancini for me, salad veg for all of us. Did offer the kids an arancini each but neither tried it 🙄

S - in the morning I made cocoa which will hopefully help to use up some of the milk surplus! And afternoon was bread, peanut butter and jam, fruit and some own brand pom bear type crisps from Red’s emergency stash. 

D - chilli con carne from the freezer, rice, cheese and the kids had Greek yoghurt to finish

Re milk surplus. When I cancelled the milkman before I actually just put it on holiday for a month so we could decide if we missed it... you guessed it, I totally forgot to then cancel it so woke up til 6 unexpected pints of milk this morning! On top of the fact we still have almost two full 4 pint bottles in the fridge because I didn’t factor in how much milk Red uses when I did the last order (in fact I ordered an extra bottle to ensure I wouldn’t need to go to the shop to top up). I called the dairy to cancel and got talked into staying a customer but switching to plastic instead of glass and taking a 10% discount as well. Tbh with all that it’s only about £1.50 more expensive than using Tesco each week so I’m ok with that as it supports a local family owned business and getting it twice a week saves us needing to get top ups. I did like using the glass bottles as they obviously reduce plastic waste but switching to plastic is cutting the cost by more than 50% each week. As for our current milk surplus I’m going to make some scones and pancakes to freeze...

Speaking of baking, just made a chocolate marmalade cake which smells divine! It’s cooling now. My mum has offered to visit after work tomorrow and treat me to a takeaway once the kids are down which is so sweet of her. Normally we don’t get weekday visits as she works long hours and lives nearly an hour’s drive away but think she’s feeling sorry for me being solo this week (she was a single mum when we were small so possibly having flashbacks!). So kind of her and it will be nice to see adult faces tomorrow. I think I’m also meeting a friend for a walk in the morning - must go and confirm.

Bluegreen143

Almost forgot the best news of all! Universal Credit are giving us £400 this month! I totally wasn’t expecting so much and thought I would get like £100. Cannot believe I was such an idiot to not apply back at the start of lockdown (we must be like £1,200 worse off because of my stupidity?!) but there you go, it’s done now. 

Baileys_Babe

Do you have any room to freeze any of the milk? We hardly ever do. I find milk these days (I sound so old) has quite a long date often up to 2 weeks and is fine after that. 

That is very thoughtful of your Mum.

Thank you for the book details

Bluegreen143

@Baileys_Babe the freezer is rammed! But I think you’re right. I will check the milk on the last 4 pint carton and leave it if it’s a long date and use the glass bottle milk instead as I don’t think it keeps as well.

For others who have little ones. Just discovered a Disney storyteller album on Spotify which has audio stories of almost all their classic movies and some new ones too. I have Spotify premium but even if you don’t want to pay you can listen for free if you choose the version with adverts.