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

Bluegreen143

Aw that nursery sounds fab @Baileys_Babe ❤️ Am I right in saying you home educate or am I thinking of another MSE-er? I loved the idea of that, I’m so interested in child education and development & did start to look into it - my husband wasn’t keen though.

I did my freezer audit! Here goes (I did throw out a couple of bits already as realised they would never get eaten!).

Peas
Sweetcorn
Mini corn on the cob (3 left)
Blueberry/strawberry mix
Homegrown blackcurrants for jelly making (lots)
Banana (1 sliced)

Braised red cabbage 
Chopped basil

Loaf of sliced bought bread
Big bag of sliced HM sourdough 
HM rolls (about 8)
HM bagels x5

HM oaty bars (quite a few)
HM banana mini muffins (lots)
HM peanut butter & choc chip muffins x2
Part baked baguette 
HM cookie dough 
Crumble topping

Salmon fillets x2
Chicken breasts x6
Cooked chicken strips (1/2 bag)

Cooked chickpeas (Equivalent to 2 cans worth) 

Stewing venison 300g

Fish fingers (about 6)
Onion rings (just a few) 

HM Yorkshires x5
Oven chips (just a handful)
Potato mini waffles (1/2 bag)

HM chicken stock 

HM cheese & onion pasties x3
Beetroot falafel + hummus (family dinner amount)
Spag bol (family portion)
Salsa chicken (2 adult or adult + 2kids)
Minestrone soup (1 portion)
Lentil soup (family lunch x3)
Pizza sauce (HM)

Plus 3 unidentified pasta sauce or soup type things + a box of ice poles.

Bluegreen143

Also need to decide what to have tonight. We were going to have the spag bol I think but Red will now be home in time for dinner (yay!) but not sure it’s really big enough for us. I think it’s a generously portioned me + kids serving not a full family one. I wonder if I could make it into a lasagne though! Do I have lasagne sheets?... I think the part baked baguette has garlic butter on it, that has just come back to me this moment. And I could rustle up a pudding possibly, though we have no custard powder left or ice cream (I never have success just making custard with eggs, I’ve tried lots. Well it works OK but I don’t like it as much). Red likes “fakeaway” food on a Friday but he does love lasagne so I could probably him on board...

Baileys_Babe

Do you have any cornflour? And an optional drop of yellow or orange food colouring to replace the custard powder.

Baileys_Babe

Bluegreen143 said:

Aw that nursery sounds fab @Baileys_Babe ❤️ Am I right in saying you home educate

Yes, we home educate, this is the most formal setting either of mine has been in. They knew before ds went we planned to home educate and were very supportive. If it was possible it would be fantastic if every child could go to a setting as nurturing as this one.

Bluegreen143

Been busy making plans (I love a plan, a routine and a list over here!).

Daily (weekday) routine  
This is changing a bit with nursery restarting and a much earlier start than we had in lockdown. I like to have a written down routine that we do tweak as needed (and I certainly don’t beat myself up if things change on the day!) - I like to have a rough roadmap for how our days will go. It helps me have a reality check too of when I really have free time and when not, so I don’t try to put too much on my list. So it’ll be something like:

7-8 All get ready, make beds & have breakfast Ideally I’d load the dishwasher etc too... hoping to avoid needing to get up earlier...

8-9/10 walk the nursery run to drop Monkey off (unless pouring). Either head straight home (if we have plans that morning) or walk back via one of the local parks or the canal so Bambi & I can get some outdoor play and exercise.

9/10-11.30 once home then do an activity with Bambi then it’s playtime while I do housework or gardening around/with her. Or we could jump in the car to meet friends for a walk or playdate. If playgroups reopen I will choose one to go along to each week so Bambi can socialise with other littles.

11.30-1 pick up Monkey probably by car as being realistic I’m unlikely to manage another hour round trip walk and get back for lunch. He does like a quick visit to the playpark across the road from nursery on nice days as all the nursery kids congregate there. Then home for lunch.

1-3 Bambi’s nap. I like to do “special time” with Monkey at the start (reading to him, activities, board games, baking etc) and then either send him on his way to play or put an audiobook on. Then I get some time to rest/read or do bits needing done.

3-5 snack then playtime (generally in the garden) and we often do painting, playdough etc here. I’m also thinking once a week we will have a “adventure day” and get out for either a walk by the river/wooded parks or a museum as they are reopening soon. Could invite friends for playdates sometimes too.

5-6 tidy up time and then TV time for the kids while I make dinner.

6-7.30 dinner as a family, bath/stories/bed

I like to have the day broken into blocks like above because the kids seem to do best on consistent meals & sleep times, and when a friend texts to arrange a play date or whatever I know exactly what times will suit. When I just had Monkey and he was much younger I would go with the flow each day and do things like agree to meet people across the city at 4 then be stuck in rush hour traffic and a late dinner, or arrange 2/3 meet ups in a day and not factor in his nap... I do find at this stage I prefer to be less flexible and only arrange things that suit our schedule and so don’t stress me out! 

On a MSE note looking at our rough daily routine also helps me see where the potential is to spend and save money. For instance I know just looking at our new timings that lunch has the potential to be stressful as it’s a tight turnaround to Bambi needing her nap after the nursery pick up. I know that stress and tight schedules can be a trigger for me to spend on things like lunch out. So my plan is to make a packed lunch each weekday for all of us. If we are at home we can eat it straight from the lunch box with no prep time needed and it means on nice days I can take it along on the nursery run for a picnic in the playpark instead of always saying no to Monkey. Even if I know we are staying in and want to have soup I can have it defrosted & ready to heat and fruit etc chopped in tubs. I used to buy lunch out a couple of times a week for the kids and I so that should help, plus I can make Red’s lunch at the same time, he was forever buying his lunch before.

Baileys_Babe

All makes sense to me @Bluegreen143

Making and taking a packed lunch keeps the flexibility and meets Bambi's needs

Bluegreen143

What a lovely day today 🙂 gorgeously hot and sunny. Real paddling pool weather 🙂 we had Red’s best friend, wife and their baby over this afternoon to hang out in the garden. 

It ended up at 4.30pm us all deciding to have an impromptu barbecue. It was a bit of a manic scramble to have everything ready by 6 (as we needed to suit the baby’s schedule) but we managed. Quite impressed we could rustle up a barbecue for four adults and three little ones with no notice and without going to the shop at all 🙂 we had chicken kebabs with homemade BBQ sauce, veg kebabs, potato salad, corn on the cob, sausages and soft HM rolls from the freezer. Finished with BBQ banana. Absolutely delicious if I do say so myself! 

Baileys_Babe

It has been hot and cloudy, the sunny only showing its face occasionally, here.

Sounds like a lovely afternoon and evening with your friends and well done putting together a barbecue for everyone from stores.

MagicCat

That BBQ sounds amazing! Your routine looks really good, it's a great idea to do packed lunches for everyone as it makes it so much more flexible.

Bluegreen143

Thanks both of you - we certainly enjoyed our store cupboard BBQ.

Today I spent £90 on a birthday present for my mum, however it’s going to be half for her Christmas. She wants the food processing attachment for her kenwood so I’d rather get her that now, something I know she wants and will use, rather than buy tat now and more tat at Christmas. It’s come from our gifts savings account anyway so spending the extra has not affected this month’s budget.

Took the kids a walk in the morning down by the river then it was paddling pool all afternoon. Even hotter today than yesterday! Both kids were naked all afternoon & I had to constantly chase them with the sun cream. Bambi is getting too cute (though hit the age of screaming tantrums when she doesn’t get her way). At dinner when Red lifted her out of her highchair she wanted me to pick her back up - normally she’s a daddy’s girl so that was nice. Then I said “do you love mummy?” not expecting anything back as she only has a handful of words yet. Well she started kissing me all over my face and then nodded 😍 trouble is, days like this make me very broody for having baby #3 and Red is equally firm that baby #3 is not going to happen 😂 (and yes for practical and financial reasons he’s right).

Made overnight oats for tomorrow, brownies and started a sourdough loaf. I didn’t use my starter while Red was away (kept it in the fridge) and bit concerned it’s now unhappy with me as didn’t go terribly bubbly so fingers crossed the loaf is ok. If it doesn’t rise much I’ll turn it into focaccia instead.

Been trying to make a habit of sitting down with Red once a week to have a budget & planning meeting so we did tonight. Worked quite well - we chatted about plans for next week, projects that need done in the house, the budget and ideas for next week’s mealplan. Will try to make it a weekly thing on Sunday nights.