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

Baileys_Babe

For years we had 2 under counter freezers, one of which is over 20 years old. Last year my parents moved and bought a huge freezer and offered us their old ones

I love my menstrual cup too, wish I had known about them earlier.

Bluegreen143

Wow I’ve come back to a busy thread 🙂

Love the idea of keeping all the random bits in one drawer and letting people choose. I often get caught out not having frozen things in the right quantities. 

@joedenise great ideas for using up bits from the freezers. I think I’ll inventory them tonight and you can all see what random tat I have in there 😆

I have a menstrual cup too and also love it. I do like when something is both ethical and saves you money (unlike the glass milk bottles!). 

Fruit & veg boxes arrived:

Fruit 

Bananas
Oranges
Pears
Apples
Strawberries
Blueberries
Peaches
Nectarines
Two kinds of plums

Veg 
Carrots
Onions
Potatoes
Corn on the cob
Chestnut mushrooms 
Courgettes
Red peppers
Broccoli
Vine cherry tomatoes 
Romanesco 
Garlic

Bit annoyed as I pay for cucumber and two extra red peppers to be added to my box and they forgot them today. When I called they offered a refund, but it’s too late to add them to my Tesco delivery so I asked if they can send them out (they have done this before when stuff has been missing). She’s not sure so will get back to me. I will need to go to the shops otherwise as cucumber and pepper are two of the veg the children actually eat.

Bluegreen143

Just checked the packing list again and the box was meant to contain beetroot too! Dunno what’s up this week. They don’t always provide a packing list for the actual box (just your add ins) so I wonder if stuff has been missed off other times now...

Bluegreen143

Well had a nice day yesterday! Out for over 2hr in a local country park with a friend and her kids in the morning, which was dry. Then Bambi napped for 2hr, thank goodness. I then had a nap on the sofa while Monkey listened to an audiobook as I was knackered - she was up twice at night and then up for the day at 6. Thankfully last night back to her usual sleeping through til 7. You forget how tiring being up in the night with them is! 

My mum and stepdad came through around 6 which was lovely. They play with the kids and wound them up quite magnificently through and after the bath - it was lovely though. Then they treated me to a takeaway which was nice. Kids had some fish fingers and potato waffles from the freezer but I’m rubbish at “beige” meals 😂 Red did laugh at me when I sent him a photo as he has no qualms about beige.

So no spends yesterday except the veg box & Tesco delivery which I’ll log later. Did use the car to get over to meet my friend (the park we met in is about 6 miles away). And I will have a round trip to MIL’s today to drop Monkey and another to pick him up. But all in much reduced driving this week hopefully.

Bluegreen143

Thought I’d update with yesterday’s Tesco order:

£41.16 spend 
£37 Food (rounded it up as too lazy to split exactly 😂)
Butter x3
Sausages
Bacon
Gammon joint
Grana padano
Cheddar
Frozen strawberry/blueberry mix
Lemons x4
Bananas x2
Breadsticks
Oatcakes
Black eyed bean tin x2

Granulated sugar
Pot noodle 
Instant coffee
Crisps 30 pack
Onions 1kg
Rich tea biscuit
Penne pasta 
Spaghetti 
Chopped tomatoes x2
Cola x5
Tinned tuna
Plain baking chocolate
White baking chocolate
Red kidney beans tin
Wholemeal wraps
Sliced bread
Ketchup 

Household £4.19
Kitchen roll x3
Cat litter 

Mealplan
F - salsa chicken wraps (from freezer)
S - possibly the gammon joint & HM chips - haven’t decided yet 
S - sausage stew, mash, red cabbage 
M - veggie bean burritos 
T - spag bol (from freezer)
W - veg biryani 

missymoo81

Love the way you write your shopping out and your meals! I think I may start doing it! I always have a good look at my Tesco receipt when I get a click and collect as a couple of times things have been missed off and it’s so annoying as I don’t realise until I’m home!

Bluegreen143

Heard from nursery yesterday. Our summer holidays are different dates in Scotland so schools and term time nurseries go back next Wednesday. This includes Monkey as he’s term time only. 

He’s going to be going 8.30 - 11.45 (every weekday in term time). I have to be prompt with both times (whereas before you could drop at whatever time suited you really) as to help parents social distance they are staggering entry in. So I’ll need to leave the house at 8 to walk in - last year I generally took him in for 9 if walking. So will need to get used to early starts which we haven’t done for five months, eeek! None of us in this house are naturally up at dawn 😆

And no free school meal this year which they had last year as part of the 30 hours a week being rolled out (they got the free lunch even if you kept them mornings only as I had done). So I suppose that’s a small extra expense having to feed him, but not too much extra hassle as I need to make lunch for Bambi anyway. They get a ridiculously big morning snack at nursery so probably he won’t be that hungry at lunch 😂

The nursery teacher did ask if I wanted to move him to the full time classroom to take advantage of the extended hours but they are being really rigid with times so the different groups of kids don’t mingle. So I could either keep him mornings only or he had to go in 9.30-3.30. But I couldn’t do just one or two extra afternoons (which we were considering before covid hit) so I kept him part time for now. I really don’t want him going in the afternoons anyway tbh, it was Red who liked the idea of extra hours. I’m at home anyway and this is his last year before school. I’d much rather being able to do activities with him at home or get out to parks etc and I kind of feel if I send him 9.3-3.30 every day I might as well have sent him to school! I would also feel guilty using a full time place as they are meant to be prioritising working families who need childcare - they offered it to us because we were down for it already but I’d feel selfish using that if another family them didn’t get the childcare they needed for work.

Baileys_Babe

I would do the same as you and keep him part-time.

I understand why, but it is a shame you couldn't send him in for 2 or 3 full days a week instead so you all get used to being "at school" full time, but him still being at home the majority of the time.

Bluegreen143

@Baileys_Babe oh I love part days anyway! I like the consistency for the child (I love a routine) and that we are in the habit (or were, before covid) of getting up and out daily, at a similar time to school starting, and the fact that he attends every day feels like it won’t be a big jump to go out to school each day because it just means staying a bit longer rather than adding on whole extra days. Plus it means I get time without him/just with the little one every day and time with him every day too. Saying that I think I’d love him to go four days so we had one weekday morning off to go on adventures but they don’t offer that. Tbh I’m such a softie and just want him home as much as possible 😂

It’s a council run nursery school run by a headteacher and not very flexible at all. But it’s an absolutely brilliant place, so well run, incredibly child centred and passionate about what they do, and they really see their job as education not childcare so yes they aren’t flexible but do brilliantly on inspections and the like. And as a SAHM I don’t need flexibility so it suits me.

We need to think about school choices and don’t like our catchment school. We can try a placing request for elsewhere or have the right to request education at the Gaelic school which isn’t too far away and is one of the best schools in Scotland. We think we will go for it but I need to starting learning Gaelic (the school is full immersion and they will become bilingual in the first couple of years). Part of me thinks we ought to get Bambi into the Gaelic nursery when she’s 3 to give her a boost but I really want to go with Monkey’s nursery again as they are brilliant. Plus I will want to defer her school entry again and our nursery are experts in applying for deferral and always winning the funding for the extra year nursery (you have little chance if your nursery doesn’t back you apparently). 

Baileys_Babe

Pleased the arrangement works for you, especially as it is your family it effects.
Ds went to a brilliant nursery class when he was little, only 8 children I seem to remember, very child-centred and learning through play. It met his and my needs perfectly