A new royal start

themadvix

I make a similar recipe but with chocolate chunks in too (Dan Lepard’s toll-house yo-tops), but like Daisy I don’t bother sandwiching them. They are delicious.

I did love the comment from an American about ‘what would custard powder be called in America?’!

QueenJess

Feeling terrible today due to lack of sleep (bring on the doctor's appointment on new year's eve...).  DH knows it's bad when I want medication as I never take anything.  Our pain killers always go out of date and after my C-section I just had paracetamol for a couple of days!  I've been playing with the joint budget and somehow managed to shave off 10% of the budget as we go into 2025.  Some of it might be slightly tough but things that have helped have been:

1.  Thermostats being lower/towel rails not on upstairs - I can do this because it's not been very cold outside, but also because I am the one that gets cold and I am normally sat around at a desk.  Now I'm not working, I'm on my feet doing house stuff, baking etc and so I'm not feeling cold at all.  The kids are always toasty and their rooms aren't too cold.  Hoping this will continue for a while and thought it was best to assume the worst (i.e. no job) at the moment.
2. Actually calculating childcare accurately to end of August (then DD will be out of nursery) as I had an overestimate before.
   
3. My local buy nothing is brilliant and probably helped by living in a relatively rich area of the country.  People give stuff away all the time and so I am making full use of picking things up for free that we can use/would otherwise buy.  Picked up some crafts for the kids to do, colouring books and a large pile of cooking books in the last few weeks and I've already stashed books, crafts and puzzles for the kids birthdays that are coming up.  This should reduce my spends a bit.

Edit: I also filled up a £500 emergency fund in the joint account, so that frees up some more cash as well.  I might use rounding to slowly increase this further to £1,000.

I'd like to give this a try for 2025, although I am not adverse to increasing the budget again if it gets too difficult.  Each £1 I can save buys me extra time to find a job as my job buffer fund is finite.  We could probably survive on a single salary if we absolutely had to, but it would be very much not fun (no holidays, no frills and everything to the bare bones).  Nice as a fallback, but I would rather it didn't come to that.

January is a horrible month for my personal funds as there is a lot to come out... some work related expenses that are unavoidable if I want to continue in my career, DH's birthday, my mum's birthday and then I have a load of car repairs that need doing - a tiny leak to be investigated, brake pads and possibly brake discs as well as a slow puncture in one of my tires that is looking pretty worn anyway and probably needs replacing.  I am hoping to do quite a few surveys to try and offset some of this expense.

My current grocery fund doesn't look very nice right now, but I have absolutely rammed full cupboards and freezers, so we will be slowly eating these down in Jan and beyond and hopefully bringing that under control.  I only buy ingredients as everything is home baked, so there's a lot being stored at the moment.  Talking of which, tomorrow I shall be doing the xmas baking for when DH's family descends on Weds - a cheat xmas cake, mince pies with hm mincemeat, a loaf of bread, ginger biscuits (half of them dipped in chocolate) and shortbread.  I also made banana and choc chip muffins yesterday to use up some bananas that have gone a bit brown and will ram them into the freezer now we've created a small bit of space.  I may have already started on the candied peel (from citrus peel I save and throw into the freezer)... it's yummy

Dinner today was cottage pie (defrosted from the freezer), followed by hm chocolate brownie and hm ice cream or banana muffins.

QueenJess

I hope everyone had a good Xmas.  I survived mine relatively intact, although I've had a headache for 3 days now which I thought was because I was tired at first and so thought it would go away, but I now suspect it's just more menopause fun *sigh*.  As dinner has been eaten, both kids bathed and now happily chomping on my hm biscuits with their hot chocolates and marshmallows, I thought it was a good time to creep away for a bit to sit somewhere quietly with this headache.

Now xmas is over, I'm have an eagle eye on all finances at the moment. The joint account is looking ok bar the food category and the home/garden category.  The latter I somehow seem to leak money out of and I need to just not buy anything unless an absolute necessity for a while to wipe out that debt to myself and start to build up money for DD's furniture I expect will be needed in 2025 (desk and bookcase).  Food looks horrible because I used lots of vouchers (spend £150 and get £15 off) as well as buying gift vouchers in advance before I left work at a discount.  Still got some left and an absolutely full freezer, so we should be able to reverse that back to normality in the first quarter of the year.

Given I don't know when I will have work, I have scrutinised the budget closely and have swapped my electricity supply to someone cheaper.  Should save a fair amount there and with that and a couple of other things, I've managed to shave another £100 off the budget for 2025.  My aim eventually is that we can live nicely (with holidays) on a single salary, but I've got a long way to go before I get there.  Once nursery has gone I'll be a lot closer, but there is still more to find.  My aim is to live frugally so we spend on things that matter to us (holidays etc) and don't spend on things that do not.  I don't think DH is ever quite on board with this as he wants to do whatever he wants whenever he wants and he spends quite a lot of his own money.  He does have some more expensive hobbies, but he wastes so much money on hot drinks out and rubbish lunches out etc and refuses to cut back.  It's his money, so he can do what he wants with it.  He also complains about how much money we put into the joint account for spending, but then when I start going through the budget with him, he refuses to cut anything back further.  I suspect I'll lead the way (like with the mortgage overpayments) and then he'll catch up to my way of thinking eventually.  In any case, I have 100% control over the joint account and merely tell him what his contribution is to it each month.  So my aim is to try and slice a bit more off.

Other frugal things today were to make a pie out of the leftover turkey and veg from Xmas.  I had a bit much pastry, so I made cheese and onion pasties with the leftovers that we can have for lunch tomorrow with more of the leftover xmas veg.  I also have put 2 meals of turkey into the freezer for another day and will also pop the hm mince pies in the freezer later as I will be eating the rest of the fruit cake until the end of time...!  No wastage going on here.  My next job is to start sorting through the wrapping paper and saving what I can (doing this means I haven't needed wrapping paper for over 15 years since people keep giving it to us... I would prefer a gift bag to reuse, but useless to argue with my parents who never listen anyway).  For the offcuts that can't be used again as wrapping paper, I have a gift card punch that I can use on leftover card (cereal boxes etc) and I will stick the wrapping paper to them to make gift card tags.  I am also back scouring my local Buy Nothing as people are already posting on there (already bagged myself another free puzzle to make) and DH is scouring everywhere to find a second hand bike for DS as his one is far too small and it'll be his bday present along with some homemade sweets, a bath bomb and some books.

We went to the pantomime today (definitely not cheap, but booked months ago) and it was so good.  A nice little treat to look forward to post Xmas.  We bought the kids ice creams in the interval, which I am happy to buy.  We did not buy any of the various light up wands and other things on sale... they were £8.50 each!  £8.50!  No thanks!  Right, better start rifling through the wrapping paper box as it may take me a while, although it'll be something to do in the evenings whilst watching TV (got so much recorded at the moment!).

LadyWithAPlan

themadvix said:

Coffee bags are really good for this. Too much packaging, but the coffee doesn’t go off and (to my uneducated nose) it smells like better quality coffee too. I got fed up with buying jars of instant and then throwing it away!

Yea this! Coffee bags last and the flavour is much better than instant 
you can also freeze coffee beans /ground coffee but then need ideally to let it defrost for an hour before opening 
when I buy large bags of coffee beans I batch them up (not ground) and then take out in small amounts as it keeps much  fresher 

on the heating I have an electric throw  and it goes with me from my lounge to the study to bed at night - definitely worth the investment as super cheap to run 

QueenJess

LadyWithAPlan said:

themadvix said:

Coffee bags are really good for this. Too much packaging, but the coffee doesn’t go off and (to my uneducated nose) it smells like better quality coffee too. I got fed up with buying jars of instant and then throwing it away!

Yea this! Coffee bags last and the flavour is much better than instant 
you can also freeze coffee beans /ground coffee but then need ideally to let it defrost for an hour before opening 
when I buy large bags of coffee beans I batch them up (not ground) and then take out in small amounts as it keeps much  fresher 

on the heating I have an electric throw  and it goes with me from my lounge to the study to bed at night - definitely worth the investment as super cheap to run 

If I’m not working I don’t need anything further as I can’t make it much colder because of the kids, but the electric throw is a great idea if I pick up lots of remote working as I would otherwise be very cold sitting down all day. I will look out for one.

Bargainhunter30

Whilst you're not working and doing so much at home (unpaid labour), would it be worth discussing with your partner and pooling all finances, then just having spending money each? If he's not happy with this idea, then you should definitely discuss you taking a suitable wage from the joint account for everything that you contribute.

QueenJess

Bargainhunter30 said:

Whilst you're not working and doing so much at home (unpaid labour), would it be worth discussing with your partner and pooling all finances, then just having spending money each? If he's not happy with this idea, then you should definitely discuss you taking a suitable wage from the joint account for everything that you contribute.

It wouldn’t really make a difference at this stage. Our expenses right now are higher than DH’s wage (factoring in my and his spend). There isn’t anything outrageous in any of the spend and so I do need to work (although not full time for the whole year). Before I left my job I had built up a cash fund firstly because I was at continuous risk of redundancy and with the new job because I thought I was going to have to leave without anything to go to immediately. We agreed before I left that we would both take a hit to our money whilst I was out of work - DH pays the absolute max he can into the joint account and so is saving £0 right now (technically less than zero as long term he has left himself with less than he would normally spend, so it isn’t sustainable in the long term). I am paying the remainder and my own small expenses. I have a fund set up exactly for this purpose and as I just spend little myself, I have other funds I have saved over the past 10+ years (mostly for potential early retirement in a mix of pension and ISA). DH chooses to spend more than me (his hobbies are more expensive anyway) and so he doesn’t have much in the way of savings (but is saving plenty into his pension). Effectively I have saved exactly for this…. I can in theory work less than full time or work again and just retire early. DH will have to work for longer, which is his choice.

I do think it’s incredibly important to have my own money independently. Not that I think we will break up, but you never know! It also lets us spend money how we want and we try to make sure the joint split is as fair as it can be.

I do need to have a job, but whilst I don’t have one, I am working on reducing our spending (without a reduction to our lifestyle) so we can eventually work towards not needing me to work. It’s not that I won’t, but I’d like to not actually need to and maybe we use my extra funds to pay off the mortgage and pay for some holidays. But this is a while off yet. DH is actually only working an average of 4 days a week (seasonally, so about to go into 5 days a week of working for Jan-Mar), so if everything went horribly wrong then he could request to go back up to 5 days a week. We may then be able to manage on that one salary. It’s good to have options and I wouldn’t have quit without a job and gone self employed if I didn’t have a few back up plans.

In the meantime I am slicing down expenditure whilst I have the time to concentrate on it and seeing how long I can get my funds to last for before I have to extract from places I’d rather not. I am in charge of the joint finances (and always have been as I am just better at it). I will start looking for work in Jan as nothing happens for my type of jobs in December until everyone is back to the office. Plus - I would only rather work as much as I need to. I don’t have an extravagant lifestyle and I would rather maximise time with the kids etc than working if I don’t need the money. It’s just figuring out that balance.

QueenJess

Not too much happening today; just went to the park with the kids. Did a bit of money admin by changing my DD for electricity to a variable one (I’ve been variable for a long time and want to keep it that way since no one seems to understand our electricity usage!). It was very easy I must say. Also bought a nice M&S meal for tomorrow night for me and DH which was free with a voucher I had.

I roasted a load of leeks, beetroot, carrots and swede earlier, then used some of it for a roasted veg pasta this evening. The rest can be used with the meal tomorrow night. Lunch was the remainder of the cheese and onion pasties. Dessert will be fruit cake (the kids had Xmas chocolate and a biscuit). I also had a carton of double cream leftover from Xmas that was about to go out of date, so I used it to make some vanilla ice cream for the freezer.

The veg is all going down quite a lot now, but we still have tons of other food. Not sure if I need to shop this week, so may delay it until next week instead.

QueenJess

Happy new year! I hope everyone started the new year well

Had a day out today with DS and DH (DD back at nursery); it's good to spend some time with DS as DD is usually quite all encompassing and DS gets a bit forgotten.  Found a lovely second hand desk in a charity shop and bought it for DD!  It was on the list for this year to get and we decided to get it for DD's birthday in March (we can hide it in another room behind other things before then).  Really nice quality desk and much cheaper and better quality than anything I would have bought new.  We will need a chair at some point and also need to figure out where to put her books/toys etc now as the desk has to replace where a kallax unit is right now.  But we have until March at least and no rush as we can temporarily move it to elsewhere in her room until I find a bookcase etc for her things.  Will keep my eye out for second hand bits that could work.

So a bit of an unexpectedly expensive day, but on the other hand I did the charity shops and found nothing else on my list so I bought nothing.  It was enjoyable to walk around those and we had a nice lunch in a cafe that wasn't too expensive and so big that dinner tonight will be very small.

I reduced the monthly budget so I do need to be careful with money.  I've got £135 a week budgeted for all food, cleaning stuff, bathroom stuff, medicines etc, but in reality need to be under this as I have ad hoc purchases I buy in bulk (yeast, hot choc) as well as xmas to save for and a big negative in this budget line I need to chip away at.  Spend this week was £34.10 (Riverford £22.65 and sm £11.45).  Hoping for another cheapish week next week given I still have quite a bit of food in.

QueenJess

Not been the best start to the year health wise.  I was bed bound Friday evening and all of Sat.  When I looked at my face in the mirror it was grey...  Will be chasing the doctor's on Monday for the fix I need to have done to stop this level of blood loss.  In the meantime I am on iron tablets due to it

On the plus side, we found and bought a bike on Friday that's second hand for DS's birthday.  He knows he won't really get anything else as it's expensive, but I did already have some books set aside for him that he will love.  I will also make some fudge and put into a tin I bought second hand (a Harry Potter chocolate frog one) and he'll get one of the chocolate frog cards that came with it (I will save the others for more xmas and birthday presents).  He loves Harry Potter and he'll be really excited about the tin, the card and he also loves it when I make treats  

No baking has been happening for a while here and so I'll have to start catching up next week.  I defrosted some buns yesterday and iced them for dessert as we'd run out of xmas stuff to eat.  We still have some mince pies in the freezer, but I need to buy some cream to go with them next week.  Dinner tonight is already in the slow cooker and is chicken stew and dumplings.  I cleaned out most of the old veg in the fridge with that.. parsnips, ends of kale, cabbage and cabbage stem, carrots and the end of a sad looking leek.  Going back to resting now as I am exhausted simply by picking up some Buy Nothing things and making dinner Hopefully I will have time to filter through the massive bag of craft stuff I picked up for free... some will be saved for future, some I will use to make cards and some the kids can go wild with!  It was a bigger bag than I thought..