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

Bluegreen143

Quick check in tonight as I’ve gotten lazy about this.

Dinner - was meant to be roast chicken but we had no potatoes left! So I served the meat with a Middle Eastern leek pilaff, grated carrot & orange salad and cauliflower fried in tomato sauce. Nice to have something different, don’t think Red was a fan but he did eat it. Monkey ate 1/2 a chicken drumstick which is good for him, some of the carrot salad and then some plain Greek yogurt after which was a victory as he’s not eaten yoghurt for years. I’d read a tip to reacclimatise them to the tart taste of plain yoghurt using chocolate chips mixed in - the chocolate is a motivator but they are still getting used to the plain taste around it as it doesn’t mix smoothly in like honey or sauces do. Anyway we’ve been offering that or with sprinkles for a couple of weeks then today we truthfully said “there’s no chocolate chips left so you’ll need to eat it plain” - and he did! Two helpings! (Should say he’d be welcome to some honey in it but he has decided he doesn’t like honey in his yoghurt which is fine by me as it’s healthier without).

In good budget news, I am getting paid a full pay in Feb as the company does a thing where they pay you half in advance, half in arrears rather than you getting a funny amount your first month. And I’ll have no tax due til the new tax year as I’ve not hit my allowance this year. So over £1,400 coming my way in a week - yay! All the bills & food are budgeted for this month already too and we haven’t any childcare cost until March. So have been planning what to do with it. 

Part of me think just budget it into next month so then I’ve got a one month buffer on my pay - years ago when I used YNAB pre-kids I did have a full one month buffer (so anything we spent was earned at least the month before, meaning you’re never waiting for a paycheque to pay bills). But it feels a bit unexciting tbh and I think YNAB have moved away a bit from promoting the buffer as one of their core rules. I think I’ll stick £200 to the holiday, need to budget £100 to help to save, pop some in the car fund (MOT is this month after all) and the rest into the emergency fund. Hopefully getting it up to at least £600 or higher which will feel amazing. Once it’s at £2k I want to start mortgage overpayments.

Spendless

The pilaff and cauliflower sounds amazing. My husband would have reacted the same way as Red and ironically the vegetarian in the house would have told me she didn't like it (rolls eyes!)  I like the Greek yoghurt tip too, might also try that on my teen -lol. My eldest at Uni  rang last night whilst shopping in a small Tesco for his and girlfriend's tea. He dismissed a pizza because 'it cost £3 and if Iceland had been open he'd have got one for £1' and instead asked me how to make toad in the hole, revealing he's been making a lot of pancakes lately because they're cheap and filling and last week he'd made a lemon cake. So don't worry about faddy eaters they can all focus when they became older, hungry and skint -hahahha. 

Good planning re budget. 

Baileys_Babe

I too liked the yoghurt tip, not that I need it dd likes all yoghurt natural, flavoured and nut. Which is a surprise as she doesn't like nuts. If I introduced chocolate chips she would want it no other way and would keep adding them to the shopping list.

Bluegreen143

The chocolate chips do appear to have worked as a yoghurt gateway as Monkey ate two bowls of yoghurt today with chopped plums and orange juice in. He loved yogurt as a baby but hasn’t eaten it really since about 2.5 so this is brilliant! He won’t drink milk either (except in hot cocoa - he does have cereal/porridge with milk in though) and can be fussy about cheese, so adding yoghurt to his repertoire is a definite win.

Sarahwithlove

Hopefully that's a good sign that he might be willing to start trying the others again. Although as a kid I never liked milk much other than in cereal or milkshake. 

Bluegreen143

Oh yeah he does like milkshakes too - I make us a big blender full of milkshake with banana, berries, oats and peanut butter in to all share for breakfast quite a lot. He’s never liked plain milk and even dropped each breastfeed of his own accord as he wasn’t too interested after solids, he never wanted milk in a bottle or cup as replacement either. Bambi is the opposite, it was a huge battle to get her off the breast as she was still completely obsessed at 15 months, and she’s always liked a drink of milk in a cup since (initially at nap & bedtime, now it’s with her snack instead). She loves yoghurt too. Maybe I could start making Monkey’s cocoa milkier each time til he’s just drinking hot milk 😂

Baileys_Babe

You could add a bit of cinnamon or nutmeg to the hot milk so it tastes less like milk.

Bluegreen143

So we were a bit naughty tonight and ordered a takeaway, £35 which we will split between our own fun money. I’ve got a cold/sore throat and am feeling blah and just really fancied one. We do usually budget for one a month after payday and didn’t have one this month for health/dieting reasons - so no great expectations of weight loss this week now! But sometimes needs must. 

We splashed out a bit on getting “posh burgers” delivered ie from an actual proper restaurant in the west end rather than a fast food place. We rarely if ever take advantage of all the wonderful restaurants who deliver here and I must it admit the meal was extremely tasty even if expensive and unhealthy. The children had chicken nuggets, chips and mac & cheese and clean plates all round - I did give them blueberries for dessert to up the health credentials a bit! 

joedenise

@Bluegreen143 - it's just one meal out of the 21 you'll eat in a week (assuming you eat 3 times a day)!  It happens occasionally, it's not as if you eat 2 or 3 a week and as you didn't have the one you usually have after payday it's just having one a bit later in the month!  If you eat healthily for the rest of the time you could still get a small loss and if you don't there's another week next week!

Bluegreen143

@joedenise you’re right! I even said to Red “gosh imagine if we did this even once a week it’d be £150 in a month!”. So as a one off it’s much more affordable. 

I’m feeling pretty tired with this cold and just want to get to bed early. I’ve got to do 3 days in a row Covid tests & 7 days temperature checks too because I’m on this vaccine study so at least it’ll pick up if it is that, but it’s really cold symptoms - no fever/cough - so I’m not worried. Was a total farce Red trying to take my throat swab so I might have to just try and do my own tomorrow 😂😷 glad I’m off work til Monday now.