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

missymoo81

Glad you’ve found a solution for bambi.
One less thing to worry about! And that’s v annoying about the bread. I’ve done that in the past too!

Bluegreen143

Got some good news yesterday - Monkey got into our first choice (Gaelic medium) school 😁 very pleased!

Also, nurseries are reopening in Scotland on the 22nd Feb, yay! (Subject to all remaining stable with the covid stats of course).

Monkey’s nursery have agreed he can go Mon-Thurs 8am-3.15pm which is within our 30 free hours so no cost there, and he has always attended over five days before so it’ll be fun to have him off on a Friday. I had originally been going to put him in on a Friday just the morning so I could spend it solely with Bambi but that would take me over my free hours and I’d rather not pay if I don’t need to! Just school holidays to sort out now as his nursery is term time only but there are a few options.

Got our Tesco shop in tonight. I feel we going a bit over what I’d like for the grocery budget but it’s mainly as we are back to deliveries rather than a Lidl shop. I think for the moment we will take the hit but reevaluate as covid numbers drop. 

When the nurseries open both kids will get two snacks and lunch at nursery, 3 days a week for Bambi and 4 for Monkey, so I’m guessing that will help the food budget as I won’t need so much lunch stuff or half as much fruit. 

missymoo81

That’s great news @Bluegreen143, I remember when I got May into Roos school and I was so happy as it is over subscribed massively. Sounds like you’re doing an awesome job at organising everything. Have you started your new job yet? 

Bluegreen143

Thanks @missymoo81, I did start this week (off on Fridays). Bit challenging as the IT equipment was delayed so limited work I could do but that wasn’t my fault! All sorted for next week though and I got to sit in on lots of meetings this week and do background reading on the project I’ll be working on. It’s actually lovely to be back as I get on really well with my manager and the rest of the wider team are lovely too with not many staff changes so I feel like I’ve not been away! I think working from home will be great in terms of work-life balance without having a commute and the hours I think will work really well. Eases a lot of the mum guilt of working four days knowing I’m finishing at 3pm because I still get a couple of hours with the kids before dinner that way.

It’s been hideous weather here, cold and very rainy, so we haven’t gotten out much and been doing some indoor activities - some sent from nursery and then just other simple things like making collage faces, playing board games and doing kids yoga on YouTube. Normally I am very keen to get the kids outdoors as much as possible but I’ve enjoyed being a little lazy this week, we did get out every day last week when it was a bit nicer weather and I took them to the play park on Wednesday this week. But over the weekend I think we all need a good proper walk!

warby68

Well done on your first week.
Its tough going back to work after a long break.

Sarahwithlove

Sounds like you've made the right decision then ref work even if it is still early days. 

Bluegreen143

Got child benefit in today (£140) and as Monkey is rapidly outgrowing his 4-5 wardrobe I ordered him a cheap “capsule” wardrobe from Asda. £90 but it included a pack of socks for Bambi too. Got:

- 2 jeans
- 5 joggers
- 8 long sleeve tops
- 2 jumpers
- 1 set of PJs
- 10pk pants
- 10pk socks
- 10pk vests

His waterproofs/coat/shoes still fit him and he got 3x PJs in 5-6 at Christmas plus 2x hoodies too. So he’s sorted now til we need summer stuff which will just be adding a few short sleeved tshirts and shorts.

Re the socks, I’m fed up off the fact that all their many socks seem to have lost their pairs (how?!) so bought him a pack of all black socks and Bambi a pack of all white so that sorting them should be easy now. We’ll see!

Spendless

Good news re the school and nursery. Paying for the more expensive place is annoying, but better to know you definitely have a place then wondering if you'll get one and this time will pass. The capsule wardrobe fetches back memories of when I did it for mine. I could still do the same quantity wise for my DS who really isn't interested in clothes, my 17yo daughter is another matter and so are the prices  hahaha

Bluegreen143

@Spendless definitely! It’s just 10 months til she hopefully starts at the council-run nursery school that Monkey attends and after that my childcare costs will plummet - IF my contract gets extended on similar terms/hours (a big if!) then I can send her the same hours as Monkey goes now for free, he will be at school, and the only childcare expense I’ll have after that is any school holiday childcare we use. So having childcare as a major bill is short term hopefully 🤞🏼

I can imagine the clothing thing gets tougher as they get older! As long as he’s comfy Monkey doesn’t care really. Jeans or joggers with a tshirt is his uniform. Bambi has a few nice dresses but it’s mood dependent as to whether I can actually get them on her - she is opinionated already but again in the sense that she just wants to wear leggings + a tshirt every day. I’m definitely all about comfort rather than fashion so they are taking after me!

Baileys_Babe

With a few tweaks that capsule wardrobe would work for my 15 year old ds.