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

Bluegreen143

Lots and lots of spends to report!

Tesco delivery minus Red’s booze £54.22
(This is £48.82 food and £5.40 household)

Greengrocers bill £24.10

Tesco shop £33.07
- £9 for some plants for Red, which he is going to pay back
- £9.50 for socks for both children, as they don’t seem to have a single matching pair between them!
- £14.57 food 

Petrol £38.79

I’m a bit over on food now but I think it’s still doable fingers crossed...

MagicCat

Your goals all doing great @Bluegreen143 and spends all under control.

I understand your issues with picky eaters, it's so frustrating! S is an extreme picky eater (he's under paediatrics for sensory processing issues which they think is the cause) and only eats bread, dry cereal and thankfully drinks milk. I was determined M would be different, she was doing really well but has just reached the 'throwing everything on the floor' stage which drives me mad!

Bluegreen143

@magiccat that does sound stressful! Do you follow Kids.eat.in.color on FB/Instagram? She’s a qualified paediatric dietician with some good stuff. She talks about the distinction between extreme picky eating and normal picky eating somewhere and how the well meaning standard advice that works with “normal” age appropriate pickiness can backfire on extreme picky eaters. Probably has nothing you don’t know already but thought I’d mention it! Even if nothing handy for S, a lot of it is useful for your average toddler. I shouldn’t moan about my kids really. Bambi isn’t as good an eater as Monkey was/is, but they do eat a range of food from each food group so I must count my blessings. The throwing food is irritating isn’t it!

MIL came round this afternoon for an overnight stay which is nice, and then let us go to a beer garden after the kids went to bed! First date night in god knows how long. Wasn’t sure how I would feel but it felt safe, all proper procedures followed and we took hand sanitiser with us. Red paid for the first round and I got the second (£10). When I was a student I could go a whole night on £10! When did drinks out get so pricey 🤷‍♀️ 

Meals today:

B - milkshake & toast

L - tuna sandwiches, cucumber, cherry tomatoes and strawberries

S - chocolate & mini marshmallows MIL brought for the kids, plus fruit and oatcakes with cream cheese 

D - homemade chicken kievs, Red made his famous homemade chips, broccoli, sweetcorn. Plus rhubarb crumble & custard.

Made Nutella braids today as well as the crumble, kievs and started another sourdough loaf. They only last a day here before they mysteriously vanish...

MagicCat

Thanks so much for the recommendation @Bluegreen143, I haven't come across her before, just been looking at her website and it's great 

Hooray for date night, well worth the cost of drinks to have a bit of a night out after all this time!

Bluegreen143

Today was nice and relaxed. MIL got up with the kids and got their breakfast. She did commit a faux pas as was putting the TV on for them when I came downstairs. I asked Monkey if he had remembered to tell Grandma he is only actually allowed to watch TV in the morning on Saturday or Sunday, and during the week needs to wait til 5pm. He looked suitably abashed and I relented and let her put one episode on for them. 

We had left the car parked at the pub last night and walked home. It’s handily across from a playpark so Monkey accompanied me on the walk there - he was delighted as the playpark was shut for two months prior to lockdown as well for building work so he got to check out all the new equipment today. It’s not our local one, but it’s across the road from his nursery so we went there lots after the 12.30 pick up as did all his little friends. 

Foolishly I’d left both pushchair and sling in the car so had to leave Bambi at home but she was perfectly happy. Traitor has defected and is a massive Daddy’s girl at the moment. Ironically he thought she hated him when she was a newborn as she screamed bloody murder whenever he held her 😅

Picked the rest of our meagre broad bean harvest today and sowed salad and rocket. Need to get out harvesting blackcurrants as lots are ready - already looking forward to blackcurrant jelly. Must order more jars. Used up the last pickling beetroot today. I’m not a fan myself but Red loves the stuff. I also started a loaf of sourdough using malthouse flour and yesterday’s sourdough didn’t rise well overnight so I rescued it by turning it into focaccia instead of a loaf. Very yum! 

Trying to be a bit more organised this weekend. Plans are:

SAT PM - friends coming for a garden visit 
SAT EVE - zoom quiz with family 

- walk each day with the kids. Thinking I’ll take them down to the nursery playpark or children’s wood tomorrow morning solo and then we can go for a proper walk on Sun morning with Red. Want to take him to that loch my friend showed me this week that’s only 15 mins drive.

- board/card games. Going to get a stack out the cupboard to keep out on the side for the next 48 hours. I’ve done that before at the weekend and it’s great at encouraging up to play them.

- Reading. I always read to the kids but lots of that, and I want to make time to read myself this weekend as have a huge stack of books next to my bed.

- Baking. Want to make something using the neglected fruit bowl oranges (orange drizzle cake?), oaty bars, granola, maybe a quiche for lunches?! Plus usual bread. Will get kids to help with some of this. Monkey is brilliant at helping bake now. Bambi makes a mess, grabs things, eats bits and is basically a massive nuisance but loves to “help” too. Plus I started with Monkey that age and it has paid off as he is a help now. 

Monkey was amazingly cute today actually. Red was planting flowers and told Monkey he could have the spare for his own patch (they already planted sunflowers and wildflowers in it and also some beans etc). Monkey kept running over, asking “awwwww! Look at this poor wee guy! Does he need a home?” (Which just cracked us up as was very sweet) And then taking the little plant in question to his patch to proudly dig in himself before repeating the whole thing. Very, very cute, especially to see how proud he was to do it all himself. 

Bluegreen143

Current YNAB balances (20 days til payday)

DISCRETIONARY
Food - £166.93 left
Household - £9.97 left
Petrol & parking - £5.55 left we have an almost full tank though 

Fun - £26.14 left 
Home & garden - £32.31 left
Clothes - £0
Me - £7.22 left 

SAVINGS
Emergencies - £153.33
Christmas & birthdays - £525 need to send my sister £40 though for sorting stepdad’s present 

Holiday - £0

Current debt with MIL - £1,200

MIL has received a little bit of bad news as has lost a case against her old landlords meaning she now has a debt to repay herself which will effectively wipe out her small amount of savings she has been using to supplement her pension each month as she isn’t great at living within her budget. She will no doubt be allowed a payment plan in practise rather than losing her savings in one go but it means our debt to her has changed from “pay whenever you have spare cash” to “must pay off ASAP”. So this has become a very real priority for us and we will be budgeting as much extra to it as we can going forward. Once that is paid off we will be fully debt free and will be focused on a couple of new goals:

1. Build an emergency fund, initially £500 then £1,000.

2. Start contributing to a pension for me as I haven’t since I stopped working.

3. Start a small savings account for Bambi and save a little for both kids (initially more for Bambi to offset the fact that Monkey got an inheritance to kickstart his).

We will hopefully get away in 2021 too, even if just for a couple of long weekends within Scotland. I’d love to rebook our cancelled Portugal holiday but I’m thinking it’s unlikely at present.

missymoo81

Ah I’m sorry your pay back situation has changed! But you’re so focused, I have no doubt that you can pay this back ASAP and start building your emergency fund.

MagicCat

It's difficult with the payback situation but your numbers are looking good so I'm sure you'll be on top of it. 

I like your goals for the weekend, it's a great idea to get the games out, makes me realise ours are stuck in a cupboard, will have to dig some out
for a bit of quiet play during nap time.

janb5

Could you put the children on an even footing with their savings?  When my 3rd grandchild arrived she got the same as the others had had to make it ` fair`. Even if both my sons earn differently their children get the same money.

Bluegreen143

@janb5 yes that’s the plan - but Monkey has £1.4k and I probably have about £10 a month spare to throw at it so it will take her a while to catch up! We don’t have any savings of our own to throw into it. I didn’t put any money at all in his, it’s £1K from an inheritance and then cheques when he was born. I was a bit cross Bambi got no cheques at all at her birth. I don’t expect anything but I wish they hadn’t bothered for Monkey if they weren’t going to for a second child as it’s not her fault she was born second!

I’m actually not a big believer in saving vast sums for kids in accounts they can control at 18, I think the risk is great they will squander it. I’d rather save separately to give when need for things like deposits so once Bambi’s account is equal to Monkey’s I think I will set up separate kids savings but in my own name.