A new royal start

QueenJess

Bluegreen143 said:

What’s helped us is we made a list (together) of all the things which need done on a daily and weekly basis and stuck it up in the dining room. Red will check the list if he has some time versus waiting for me to ask for him to do something as he’s now got better sight of what actually needs done. 

I sometimes give DH lists, but I find it tiring always being the person who has to think of everything. Sometimes it is quicker to do it myself when it comes to putting washing on etc. To be fair he is getting a bit better at it, but he’s miles behind the curve. I think he’s notice how hard I’ve been working on the house so it doesn’t get too messy anymore and is pretty low maintenance to keep that way.

There are always mixed results as well. It took him over 4 years to put up that mirror..!

Bluegreen143

Yes, I agree about that being tiring. I meant that we sat down just one time and wrote a schedule together (things like - daily, clean kitchen, sweep downstairs etc, weekly - change bedding, hoover upstairs etc). I only wrote the list once and put it up. Then either of us can check it for cleaning inspiration if we have free time. Obviously it requires common sense to work out which item on that generic list is higher priority!

QueenJess

Bluegreen143 said:

Yes, I agree about that being tiring. I meant that we sat down just one time and wrote a schedule together (things like - daily, clean kitchen, sweep downstairs etc, weekly - change bedding, hoover upstairs etc). I only wrote the list once and put it up. Then either of us can check it for cleaning inspiration if we have free time. Obviously it requires common sense to work out which item on that generic list is higher priority!

Ah yes.  Well we do have a cleaner, so daily/weekly stuff is a lot less (yep... I know I should be more on top of things.... no excuse!).  It's more the "other" stuff you continually have to do or remember that I find exhausting. For example, DS has homework now he's at the next school up, which is something else to make sure I remember. We do have a notice board thing in the kitchen, so I could write things on there as I think of them and then everyone would be able to see them.

QueenJess

Just a quick check in as I really need to get back to work.  I've been looking at the generic spend for the kids and realised that previously I had never actually updated the budget from when they were babies except for adding in childcare and an amount for their activities (swimming lessons etc).  So no wonder we were always over budget as I didn't budget for clothes, shoes, gifts or anything else!  My mum does buy some of their clothes (all of them when they were babies), so it isn't quite as bad as it sounds..

Anyway, I've reworked the budget for October with new categories so I can see how much I am spending on kids clothes, gifts, activities and just other random stuff for them like lunchboxes/books etc.  I've allocated the overspend between the categories by going back and seeing where the spend actually was and then I'm going to slowly pay myself back.  We aren't over in the joint account as this negative is hidden by amounts I've built up for things like TV licence, house insurance etc, but these tend to come out Dec/Jan, so I need to get myself sorted.  I plan to round all my spending on a per budget category basis most days to the nearest £5 and allocate it to the smallest debt line to see what I can get rid of.  If I can get this sorted and keep the food budget on track, I think everything else should be ok (with one eye on the random household stuff).

I then need to think about building up amounts as I know at some point I will have to get a bookcase and a desk for DD in a year or two and I'd like to get that saved up in advance.  She has a very awkward shaped room and so I am thinking of getting someone in to build in a bookcase which I know will cost a bit more, but it's going to save so much space in her room and use an otherwise useless space.  I also want to build up savings for holidays and just have buffers so I have funds available rather than always paying myself back after the fact.  I have £20 a month going to an emergency fund as well and want to build it to £500 in case of the washing machine breaking or whatever.

Right - back to work!

themadvix

I'm loathe to suggest this as I hated it as a child, but my mum made a poster (on the inside of the shoe cupboard door) that listed all the things we needed to do when we got in from school... from 'shoes off and away' to 'do homework' (with get changed, unload dishwasher, unpack lunchbox and everything else in between). Would something like this help? It could be something you refer the children to so that  they take responsibility, it might save you repeating yourself and DH might be able to refer to it (indirectly, to see what the children need to be doing). I think we had one for the mornings too.

I feel your pain with the remembering stuff - it's the birthdays, who needs to be where, when insurances are due etc. etc. - I have all of that (because I'm self-employed/here all the time - it doesn't necessarily mean I have the brain space, but then nor does Mr MV) and there's only two of us, but it is hard to keep all the plates spinning sometimes and men definitely don't see the issue with 'buying for convenience' (definitely an issue when you're trying to do the ethical thing always) or not worrying about someone's birthday etc.!

QueenJess

Stuck in bed with a bad cold after working some quite ridiculous hours this week.  The 3.5 hours of driving to and from the office on Tuesday didn't help (definitely did the right thing there when I left the first time!).  Somehow I still managed to find time to make a chocolate marble cake (spoiled little children that I have!).

Anyway, just popping in to say that I have spent a total of £522 on food, medicine, bathroom supplies, cleaning stuff this month including all my main shops and top ups (of mainly milk) compared to my budget of £600.  I'm quite impressed with myself.  Yes, it's still a fair bit of money, but I do buy basically everything organic which pushes up the price.  Averages out at £130 a week, which is very much less than my recent bad spending habits.  Just need to keep it up now!  Might be interesting next month as I should stock up on a few things whilst I have a discount from work, so will be a bit of a challenge to keep it in budget.  I would love to get it down a little bit more... say £120 a week instead, but that might be pushing my luck.  Oh - and I still have £12 left on the gift card, so technically I spent £510 this month.

Earlier DS was telling me that he was telling the teachers their colouring pencils that are too short to use are completely usable and that his mummy uses a pencil extender to make full use of pencils.  Apparently they offered to give him all the short ones to use up.  It must be so illuminating being a teacher as kids that age just say stuff without thinking and they believe everything they do at home is completely normal.. the teachers probably now know more about me than people at work   I have bought DS a couple of pencil extenders he can use himself, although no idea whether I will suddenly be adopting a lot of pencils to use up!

DH cooked dinner tonight.. kids had leftover pizza and then gorged themselves on cake.  DH made us pesto pasta with mushrooms, peppers and broccoli, then I had a huge piece of cake as well.

Just had an email from R'ford to say that my butter won't be delivered tomorrow.  I'm not sure they've failed to deliver anything on the list for 10 years... I really hope this isn't a new thing as I had something not delivered last week either.  It just generically says likely quality issues which is more understandable when it's fruit or veg, but not sure how butter would be an issue...  Not sure if we can last another week, but hoping we can limp through to Weds and then I'll pick some up in the supermarket.  Probably would have helped if I hadn't used 250g on a cake earlier...

QueenJess

I spent an absolute fortune on food etc today. £14 Aldi, £60 bathroom/medical supplies, £10 bakery, £10 zero waste shop and £115 Supermarket. The £60 was a one off massive stock up to maximise use of discounts etc. Aldi is an infrequent spend for a few bits I buy in there. I have absolutely no idea how I spent that much in the supermarket, although I did get £25 worth of organic yellow sticker chicken to stash in the freezer as an extra. I also have another £40 on Riverford this week. So that’s two weeks worth of shopping spend in one week.

In my defence I spent 7 hours driving back from work yesterday of which 6 hours I spent stuck on the M3 basically waiting for the police to turn around everyone at the back of the enormous queue so we could escape from the motorway. I am so tired now I can barely think straight, so managing to get shopping at all is a big plus right now. I’ll recheck the bill later to try and work it out, but I think I was trying mostly to use discounts etc in the best way. Hoping I can half my usual spend the next two weeks now and then I’ll still be on track for the month. Right now I’m thinking I won’t need much at all next week.

Can’t think straight, so the kids are having the emergency freezer pizza tonight with carrot sticks and DH is cooking a pesto pasta with whatever veg he can get from the fridge. I will have a bit of cake from the freezer for dessert and the kids are having yogurt or ice cream. Really need to do some baking…

themadvix

What you really need to do (and I hope you did!) is get some sleep! 

I’m sure you’ll manage to get the shopping bill down now - didn’t you get a load of reduced chicken the other week too? You must be set for the rest of the year now!

I hope this week is less exhausting.

QueenJess

themadvix said:

What you really need to do (and I hope you did!) is get some sleep! 

I’m sure you’ll manage to get the shopping bill down now - didn’t you get a load of reduced chicken the other week too? You must be set for the rest of the year now!

I hope this week is less exhausting.

Yes, sleep would be lovely... I am slowly catching up on it, but it's difficult to disaggregate being busy at work, working 5 days a week instead of 4 and menopause fatigue.  It's all blurring into one.  At least work should calm down this week and I am back to 4 days a week, so I guess I'll see how it turns out!  I really need to catch up with some dull life admin like looking at car insurance that expires next month.

Not much happening, although that's good from a sleep perspective and a money perspective!  Trying to not spend too much in the run up to the holiday at the end of the month.  I did round the mortgage down by £50 and then figured out that the current payment less interest plus a bit of rounding comes to £500 decrease in the mortgage every month.  However, I was left with £124,700 which is instantly irritating... so I took £200 out of savings so it's now £124,500 and can be nice round figures now   Makes me feel like I'm doing something rather than nothing in this last year of nursery expense.

Got to apply for some jobs this week for when my contract expires in November rather than leaving it to the last minute.  I think my day off will be quite busy with that, the usual shopping and some baking.  For tonight I threw together a tomato pasta so I can leftovers to work tomorrow for lunch (my one day in the office).  We have frozen leftover cake to eat up for desserts.  Really need to do some baking!

QueenJess

I still feel like I am catching up with myself after the 4 weeks of full time work.  1 day off a week just isn't enough to get everything done!

Food shopping day today and I have spent £540 this month (out of a budget of £750, although I want to come a bit under really to save a bit extra for xmas).  I did have a frivolous spend last week and bought a lovely M&S meal and some chocolate eclairs to celebrate coming to the end of my work (still working, but the main stuff is all done and I am just doing bits and pieces around the place now).  One more proper shopping week to go, then we are on holiday.  So I expect next week to be more expensive than usual as I will be baking to keep us going on homemade lunches, snacks and breakfasts throughout the holiday week to keep expenses down.  Going to be a bit of a challenge as DD is eating an outrageous amount of food at the moment.  Almost everyday I have a notification at nursery that she has either eaten x2 or x3 portions of everything!  On Friday, she came back from nursery and just kept eating and eating until the point she started crying because it took her ages to fill herself up and she was so tired and wanted to be in bed!  This can't be normal can it?!  Definitely a healthy appetite!

Cooked loads at the weekend to keep DS in leftovers for lots of the week, but the fridge is looking a bit bare again.  I think he was the envy of his friends yesterday when he had a hot hm mixed fruit crumble and custard from his thermos flask!

Need to get some cooking done today really.  Bread is already on a second prove, but need to make another one tomorrow and possibly even Friday as kids have started requesting toast.  I also need to make banana drop scones as we are completely out.  If I get a chance I might make the apple pancakes for some more breakfasts either tomorrow or today.  Dessert is nearly eaten, so I need to think of something else to make.. might dig out a recipe for a jam sponge we can have with custard.

Cooked a massive pile of butternut squash, onion, garlic and cumin seeds at the weekend that was my lunch Monday and Tuesday combined with spinach leaves and quinoa.  It is reinventing itself as we speak into soup by adding red peppers, chilli flakes, pearl barley, a ton of spinach leaves and hm stock.  Will have portions to add into the freezer after that for some easy lunches. Today's dinner is hm pizzas - I have some goats cheese for ours to combine with sundried tomatoes, mushrooms and probably more peppers with a side of carrot sticks.  Actually I have some radishes as well... I wonder if that works on pizza - might give it a go and find out!  Dessert is the last of the crumble and custard in front of the last bit of Bake Off.

Right - better go and rescue the soup!