A new royal start

Jessy103

Hope DS has a fantastic birthday!! 🎂🎁🎉

TallGirl

Echo that hope he has a lovely day.

I am in the camp of not spending my time on shopping as well we have a weekly Asda delivery and then we top up in Lidl as and when and some things we stock up on as we prefer Lidl. I find Asda's prices quite good and we never have an issue with delivery or the items we get. You can hand back anything you do not want or has a short sell bye date. A pass from Tues to Thurs was £40 last year not sure what it is now but that is worth it to avoid having to food shop. We have our delivery on a Tues so straight after we add a standard list to make sure we keep our weekly spot then on a Monday up to 10pm we then edit to our final order and the next day it is here. 

When do you start your new job? That cannot be long!

QueenJess

TallGirl said:

Echo that hope he has a lovely day.

I am in the camp of not spending my time on shopping as well we have a weekly Asda delivery and then we top up in Lidl as and when and some things we stock up on as we prefer Lidl. I find Asda's prices quite good and we never have an issue with delivery or the items we get. You can hand back anything you do not want or has a short sell bye date. A pass from Tues to Thurs was £40 last year not sure what it is now but that is worth it to avoid having to food shop. We have our delivery on a Tues so straight after we add a standard list to make sure we keep our weekly spot then on a Monday up to 10pm we then edit to our final order and the next day it is here. 

When do you start your new job? That cannot be long!

I have tried deliveries from various places in the past, but never had one that didn't have at least one thing vital missing from it and so you'd have to go out anyway.  As you have to travel a reasonable distance to get to a food shop from here (at least for anything more than utter basics), I may as well have just done the whole shop myself anyway.  It's really annoying as I would love to get it all delivered!  Maybe I should try again as I could get it delivered on a work day and then have a whole day free each week, which is very tempting!

Oh yes - just finished a huge chunk of handing over and so feeling less stressed now.  Finish date 27 Feb and start date of the new one will be the next day!  But got 6 days of holiday before then, so not much old work left at all now   I'm equally excited and terrified about the new role!

QueenJess

2 pints of organic hm yogurt, one pot with organic hm raspberry coulis in. I ignored the IP 8 hours time and increased it to 10. Got a much tangier yogurt, which I prefer. It was slightly lumpy in texture in places (but tastes fine), so I sieved it and it’s lovely and smooth now.

I would prefer a thicker yogurt which I might get by straining it through cheesecloth, but I couldn’t be bothered. Will see how this goes down and then may strain some another day as a test.

The most difficult thing was squeezing it into the fridge!

QueenJess

DS was meant to make scones today, but decided not to as he has a slight cold.  So not to waste the ingredients, I made them myself and just had one hot from the oven with jam and clotted cream.... mmmm....  Not sure if I will be hungry enough for dinner now!

Dinner will be cajun chicken with some veg (whatever I can find in the fridge) with spicy sweet potato wedges for the adults and boring potato wedges for the kids (got too many potatoes again).  Probably don't need dessert after that, but there is shortbread, scones, DD has a cake from the party she went to earlier and we still have more pear and blackberry crumble.  I may have a glass of gin and tonic later whilst printing off treasure hunt clues for the party.  Going to decorate the cake tomorrow morning.  All set I think.. just have to pick up a few more bits from the floor and stop the kids destroying the place before 2pm tomorrow

QueenJess

Well DS's party was a success and 2 hours with 6 silly 6-7 year old boys is definitely sufficient for me.  Glad I'm not a teacher DS also loved his cake.  I don't have any experience of nice decorating (although I might give it a go at some point), so I bought some fondant figures to put on the top instead.  All the kids were fighting over the ones they wanted, so I wrapped them up and it was a lucky dip on which ones to take home.

Back to work today (although only a 3 day week this week) to run down my list of things to do before I go.  I'm actively trying to avoid people now as I don't want the list to get any longer before then!  Hoping to break the back of most of it this week and I need to start downloading my training records/payroll records etc.

Trying my best to rein in the spending this month, although now I have an increased internet bill every month as I am officially on full fibre   No more slow connection for me (long story, but my fibre was rubbish), which is useful when we work from home.  Don't worry - this was already factored into the 2024 budget.

Mortgage came out today and last week I did look at my account before midnight as it was the last time I will ever see a rate as low as 1.24%.  I'm now on 4.54% and comparatively the interest is scary!  I did overpay by £112.96 to get it down to £129,200.  Hoping somehow to get the mortgage down to below £100k at the end of 2 years, but currently I can't spare much as I budgeted more to entertainment to do things with the kids and I don't regret that.  I don't want to scrimp and save everywhere and forget to live.  

I just saved myself a few quid by cancelling after school club on Weds.  I'm in a way more organised place with my constant work on sorting out the house and getting through a big backlog of tasks and now I'm in a place where I can pick DS up from school on a Weds (my day off) and still get done the things I need to.  Will be nice to spend some more time with him.  Not cancelled any more of them because I'm waiting for a confirmation of my day off from the new job - I'm going to have to chase them on that along with a date to receive my new laptop etc.  At the moment I have a nice £50 credit sat there so when I book the summer term after school club it'll be a bit less than usual.  Need to do it soon as I don't want them to run out of space!

Better get back to work to churn through this list.  DH is out till late at a client site, so DS and myself only for dinner.  We will have party leftovers to clear the fridge.  Not decided what I'll have for lunch yet... might just open the fridge and see what inspires me!  As for dessert... well there is too much choice now; scones with jam and clotted cream, birthday cake, shortbread or the last bit of pear and blackberry crumble and ice cream.

Edit: So as there was an issue with full fibre and so it took 24 hours longer than they thought to fix it, I apparently get £5.83 compensation for that!  All extra funds very happily received this month.

QueenJess

Decided not to risk there being no space at after school club next term any longer and so booked up the whole of the summer term (already said limited space on it).  I always think it's incredibly unfair as you only get the space confirmed if you've paid in advance, so if you are short on funds, you are at a higher risk of not getting a space.  Saying that, I think there might be a pay scheme set up if you need it, so maybe they are covered.  Anyway, that was £777 out the door onto the credit card   At least I get points for spending that!  I booked all the days as my day off at the new job isn't confirmed as to which day it is.  Hoping I will build up credits by cancelling some days when I can and then it'll pay for summer clubs.  As DH only works 2 days a week over the summer and I work 4, we should only need 1 day a week at a club for DS which saves quite a lot.  Means the childcare point is slightly negative now, but with the timing of the credit card I won't be overdrawn and the pot will be positive again next month.

Also spent £40 stocking up on lots of craft activities for the kids.  I keep a stash in my room and bring things out to keep them quiet!  They love a craft activity and it's cute to see DD concentrating so hard.  They sit nicely and quietly together to do them, which is lovely.  Should keep me stocked up for quite a while.  At least it was free delivery for over £30 spend and yes I went through TCB and it's on the joint CC so we get points on that as well.

I also booked the cinema for myself and DS next week as we've been wanting to try out the *new* (not really new anymore) one for ages.  We've booked ourselves a sofa!  I've got activities arranged for everyday, but it'll all be within the new entertainment budget I set up for the month and it'll be nice to spend lots of time together before I get busy in the new job.

So feeling a bit poor now and it's only the first week of the month!  I've got 5 categories in my budget that are in the red at the moment:

• Childcare - as above.  It'll reverse next month and should be back to always positive going forward as I had space for summer club in there which I will probably need less of as I can cancel some of the summer term days.  Also DD is 3 soon which means I'll get some free days.

• Kids stuff - due to zero budget at the start of the year, but immediate birthdays in this bit of the year.  I should catch up with this and hopefully will still be able to build up so it isn't a problem for next year.  Although DS has already torn through 1 pair of jogging bottoms for school and 1 pair of school trousers at the knee.  I got some of the former second hand and the latter I will patch up as I refuse to buy any more this school year unless he grows out of them.  He will be in shorts soon enough!

• Groceries - as per previously... I am eating through supplies and trying to spend as little as I can.  The big shop will be put off as late as possible in March (and possibly even April depending on what starts to run out and if I can pick up bits in Aldi).

• Holidays - this was the under funding of the joint account last year which I allocated all to holidays.  It will be paid off soon (going down each month) and then I'll start saving for this year's holidays.

• Household stuff - my bad... I bought some bits and pieces such as a couple of indoor plant pots, a few bits and pieces in IKEA etc.  I really don't need much, so this will definitely reverse and it's a small negative.  Need to start building up something here or in kids stuff as DD will likely need a big bed next year and it costs a fortune once you need a bed, mattress, mattress protector, then all the sheets, duvet, duvet covers, pillow slips etc.

I've talked to DH and we've decided to try and take the side off the cot this weekend for DD and break out the duvet.  It turns into a small cot bed and will give her a chance to get used to something like a bed.  She can't fall out as I'll have the protector on it, but she doesn't like change (so will have to talk to her about it) and she may be a nightmare getting up and down.  Will have to nip that in the bud immediately like we did with DS.  DD also loves her sleep bags, so this will be quite different for her.  I shall be washing the duvet and duvet covers today so they are dry for the weekend.

Lunch today is probably celeriac soup as I have that celeriac which is as big as my head.  Will do a slow cooker stew with dumplings to clear out the fridge, which will be less of a panic later as we have parents evening for DS.  Desserts available are pretty much the same as yesterday.  Will be scouring my Riverford order later to make sure I'm only ordering what I need to get that overspend down.

Right - better go and think about logging on as lots of work to get done today and lots of meetings.

Edit: Forgot that I managed to cash out £20 from airtime awards.  I cashed out to my CC, so won't see the benefit of that until next month.  I added my debit card to it (didn't realise I hadn't) and so in future I should be able to cash out to my bank account.  Effectively this will end up as a mortgage overpayment.

edinburgher

I thought you could only have airtime rewards paid towards a mobile phone bill?

QueenJess

edinburgher said:

I thought you could only have airtime rewards paid towards a mobile phone bill?

I signed up right at the start when they started up and I had a pay as you go which didn't work.  So instead they set it so I could cash out straight to my bank.  They never changed it.  I think it's the same for anyone who signed up long ago in that position.  I believe if you sign up now you can't do that, but I'm sure @South_coast would know all about that.

South_coast

QueenJess said:
I believe if you sign up now you can't do that, but I'm sure @South_coast would know all about that.

Ha, I'm loving the confidence, but I'm afraid not! I'm with Sky Mobile, so they won't have me!