A new royal start

Pollie

BBC Good Food has some delicious savoy cabbage recipes which could doubtlessly be adaptable to other green cabbage types.

LadyWithAPlan

Well done on the forensic bread rising experiments

QueenJess

@Pollie thanks for that suggestion. I have browsed a bit, but not too inspired yet. In the meantime I’ve managed to finish off the first cabbage, so maybe we’ll be able to get through it anyway. Everyday is a cabbage day 😂. It must be one of the best value for money vegetables.

Last week looming at work. Excited to be finishing as I’ve had enough, but weird not to have any plans. It’ll be a long week as I have to go to the office twice. I am currently thinking of things I can do when I am not working anymore and considering putting some sort of routine in place at home so I don’t feel too lost. Obviously more cooking/baking will be at the top of the list

Talking of which, today we had croissants for breakfast as a treat (I had a packet of frozen ones in the freezer for such an occasion as they work out cheaper if you cook them yourself). Lunch is going to be a miss mash to use up the 2 portions of leek and potato soup leftover and then 2 will need something else. Dinner is a full on chicken roast with roast potatoes, carrots, the obligatory cabbage, parsnips and hm Yorkshire puddings. Dessert will be banana and chocolate chip flapjacks for the kids and we have a big load of baked apples I did yesterday to use up some soft apples - stuffed with butter, brown sugar, sultanas, cinnamon and served with yogurt. DS didn’t like them and DD refused to try them so the adults will be eating those for a while…

Horrible day outside, but DD will go mad if cooped up all day. Plan is to take them to a cheap shop to choose some craft things which then should keep them occupied for the afternoon. I also have to help DS finish his project for school later. Generally I think homework is required, but this amount does not feel age appropriate for a 7 year old… it’s way too much. He has reading daily, maths weekly and on top of that has to do two different things for a project each term to do entirely at home. He can’t do it alone at age 7, so I have to guide him and help with research etc. As he can’t do it alone (unlike the rest), it’s another chore for parents and not homework for the child… I can’t do it with DD there as she wants attention too, so last week we occupied the 30mins after Dd went to bed and before DS goes to try and get it done every night last week. 1 project item down now and just got the other one to finish.

Oh - since DH came back from his overseas trip Friday afternoon the fridge looks way barer and more under control. It’s now clear who’s doing all the eating around here!

Bluegreen143

Ahhh homework! Something I’ve had to experiment with different approaches to fit in. 

We get A LOT of homework in our school and it’s in our second language so I am reliant on Monkey accurately telling me what it is as I am only a beginner! Bambi’s is in dual language as she’s in the first year of school. 

It’s all issued online, which I really disagree with, and while Monkey can get on with the tasks more independently with a little support (except I need to listen to his reading each day), but Bambi needs me present for ALL of it. Examples of her 12 homework tasks issued this fortnight (bearing in mind she is 5!): begin to learn 10 songs for the Christmas show, in our second language. Do 2-3 maths activities which must be done on a screen. Make patterns with household objects and photograph it to upload. Practice writing four letters and finding household objects which start with those letters (but in the second language, not English). Sooooooo much! 

In addition I choose to teach both the kids to read in English at home as they don’t do this at school until age 9 (they do learn to read in their second language from 4-5 of course) and that’s too late IMO. So we need extra time to do this “voluntary homework”. 

One thing which helps me is if we can work on any skills verbally we do it on the walk to school each morning. So we practice second language vocab, mental arithmetic & times tables, reading signs on the street, spelling words etc verbally on the walk. This reduces how much time we need to spend working at the table at home. 

QueenJess

@bluegreen143 that sounds like a nightmare and very OTT for a 5 year old. This project is annoying as there is a topic per term, but they give you nothing for it and actually it’s like two projects as they have to do two different things (eg complete a full timeline, build a model etc). But to do it, all the research has to be done first. It’s fine if they could do it with me just checking up he’s doing it, but at 7 he’s no idea and so it’s more me than him on the research and making suggestions. He’s done the actual work on the page, but a lot of support is needed.

Bluegreen143

Yes, that does seem very hands-on for you. My DS is soon turning 9 and would still need a lot of support to do the research etc too. It’s like it’s homework for you as well as the child 🤣.

QueenJess

Trying to get myself into the frugal mindset prior to my last pay day next week.  Today I saved all the satsuma peel (cutting it into thin pieces) ready to make candied peel (collecting it all in the freezer).  I also saved the potato, parsnip and carrot peel in the freezer as it's good for thickening soups.  I'm making too much roast for dinner tonight so we can all have leftovers for tomorrow's dinner.  Also been monitoring the local buy nothing site and requested some free cookbooks so far (already picked some up yesterday).  Often people are decluttering this time of year as well as Jan, so worth keeping an eye on it as there are a few bits I am looking out for and the kids both have birthdays in the first quarter of the year.

I also went onto the joint credit card and changed my options from never getting a credit increase, to allowing a credit increase to be applied when one is offered.  I thought this would be a bit simpler because this card gets all our spend and currently it is my card (with DH as an extra cardholder) so the credit limit is based on my salary.  I do need an increase from time to time due to inflation and it's going to be a lot harder when I don't have any guaranteed income.  Hopefully this will work and better to do it now whilst I don't need an increase for a while anyway.

Almost forgot, but went through some of DD's stack of paperwork and the ones she wanted to get rid of that was only used on one side I've added to my scrap paper stash.  I either use them loose for work notes (I often think on paper) and every now and again I bind them (using spare string and a hole punch) into a notebook that I also use for work notes.

Edit: I also turned most the radiators off/down now it's warmer out again.

QueenJess

Just a quick check in as I am in the middle of making pizza dough for tonight and the bread comes out of the oven in 10 mins.  Jammy biscuits are already cooling on the side.

Shopping day today and I managed to use my 90 mins free parking quite efficiently given I had 4 mins to spare.  I was cutting it slightly fine as it isn't 90 mins and then you pay, it is 90 mins or you get a fine.  Anyway, in that time I managed to do 5 charity shops, the zero waste shop and the supermarket.  Picked up a lovely cooking book in the charity shop (although I did also pick up 3 for free this morning from Buy Nothing!) and a drinking glass (we could do with a couple more and saw one for £1 that had my daughter's favourite animal on, so I got it). I had £2 of coupons for the sm, plus £15 off if you spend £150 (I have 3 more to use before end of Jan).  It is scary how easy it is to spend £150, although I obviously miscalculated on the way round as it was actually £170 .  I did some stocking up of the expensive things we buy... DH's mixed nuts, olive oil, meat/fish etc as well as a load of tins for the pantry.  I couldn't believe my luck when I found 1 pk of organic chicken thighs, 3x pks of organic chicken breasts and 4x pks of organic mince beef all yellow stickered!  They are all happily sitting in my freezer ready to be used at a later date.

Hoping to use another voucher for the turkey/xmas shopping and possibly another one in Jan, but not sure using all 4 is practical.  The food budget looks horrible at the moment as I bought lots of gift cards as I get them with a 6% discount at work.  It will slowly get back to the positive over the next few months, but seemed too good an opportunity to miss.

Gluing myself to Buy Nothing at the moment as people are obviously having a pre xmas clear out.  I already picked up a cushion, 5 cook books, a lovely set of cake toppers I'm going to use for DD's birthday cake and two activity/craft sets for DS.

Not much else happening today... just counting down until the end of Friday when I shall treat myself to a gin and tonic

QueenJess

Well that's it... it's over.  I was quite excited to hand everything back to work yesterday, but it was a bit of a disappointment given there was exactly one person in the office (ironic given the 5 day a week in the office mandate).  Plus, DD has a horrible stomach bug which I think is norovirus (apparently it's particularly nasty this year), so I only really popped into the office and rushed back to continue nurse duties.  Expecting nurse duties all day today and trying to grab sleep whenever I can given I had 2 hours on Thursday night   I don't fancy my chances of not getting it, but trying to keep DS far away from it all.

Given I am mainly sat around resting/nursing today, I am just playing with spreadsheets and accounts to make sure I'm on top of finance stuff.  I need to sweep cash into a savings account I opened recently to leave my budget in my account for December.  I will need that cash as it's my small pot for funding the next few months without a job.  If I get a chance, I will look at potentially transferring my cash ISA to somewhere better as I have a feeling my interest rate is rubbish.

Will need to be as frugal as possible for December, although with school holidays we generally spend a bit more doing things with the kids.  I've finally figured that out and wondered why my budget for such things was fine, but then went awry at certain times (i.e. for school holidays).  I'm now planning to build up the amount in that account by under spending in months with no school holidays and still aiming for some surplus most months to built it up for the long summer holidays.

Jessy103

Hope DD is feeling better and the rest of you avoid it x