A new royal start

QueenJess

Not much happening over here - I am trying to get through a big list of work things to do this week before I effectively finish on Friday.  I am currently planning on rearranging my patio a bit and considering getting a big wooden container built to go around one corner of the patio that will clear up some of my pots and hopefully let me grow some deeper veg in them.  It should also be easier to water given that it will be bigger.  I'm still considering it and trying to engage DH who is totally disinterested in the whole thing!  I do have a fairly big patio, so I think I could put it to good use as it's the only place in my garden you can consider to actually have full sun.  Plus the edging on the patio is rubbish and it would cover some of it up   As it's looking like I'll have at least a month off in June, I may as well garden in that time!

Just making a big macaroni cheese (with cauliflower and spinach) I will have for lunch and everyone else will have for dinner later.  I'm off to gym and so only have a small snack this afternoon.  Desserts are currently being eaten from the freezer because we seem to have quite a bit in there at the moment, although I'm still eating the rhubarb and almond cake (I'm the only one who seems to like it!).  Fridge is looking emptier and emptier every week as I'm being reasonably successful at eating everything up at the moment.  Need to start planning the half term week, but can't think past each day at the moment as there's so much to do!  Saying that, I'd better go as lunch is almost ready and I need to get back to the work list.

QueenJess

Oops - I've been missing for 9 days already!  I had a terrible week at work whilst also trying to make sure I had finished everything I needed to and have been thrown straight into the long weekend, then half term.  I've had no time to catch up with myself and so am behind on basically everything now!  I have one day at work next week to hand everything back and then am looking forward to a bit of time off to catch up with things.  I do also have to have a minor operation that I'm dreading, but currently decided to pretend isn't happening.  Hoping it's a quick recovery and I can do lots of things I want to do.

Going to do the food shop tomorrow, so it's the last shop this month to see if I can stay under budget.  Staying under the £70 a week amount for the supermarket is getting very challenging, although in my head it should be absolutely doable.  Clearly things cost more than I think they should and DD is on another growth spurt and often eats for over an hour before bed!!!!  So concentration for June will be on keeping the food bill down and making sure everything is getting used up.  My food cupboards have been declining for a while and I now need to dig around in the freezer to get things used up in there.  I also need to generally keep costs down by using my time to plan ahead whilst I have the time - half term has been expensive so far and not helped by a few too many lunches out as I was so exhausted by work last week.  I need to start snapping back into being more frugal as I will be soon unemployed.

I've got a long list of things I'd like to do if I get time, which is always longer than any time I do actually have of course.  I've had a corner of my patio priced up for planters and just need to go back out there and double check measurements and make the final decision whether to go ahead.  My plan was to have a corner that is otherwise unused with large planters that are 45cm deep (usable planting depth) so I can grow some actual veg we use.  Partly for fun, partly for the kids to learn and partly for money saving.  Given I only buy organic veg, it should in theory save some money.  Hoping they'll be deep enough for generic stuff like onions, shallots, garlic, potatoes, carrots etc.  I'm also going to significantly expand my strawberry growing space as DD loves them so much and we can never have too many of those.  I might buy a few plants and then leave the rest of the space to fill up with the babies that will inevitably appear from my current plants later in the year.  I also planted some bean seeds I got for free from the zero waste shop and now I've looked them up I've realised they are going to get quite big...  I can accommodate around 6 feet tall with some big canes I have in some large patio pots and so hoping I can pinch them out when they reach that high!  Lots of gardening needs to be done in the next month.  I may also be spending a lot of time picking red currants and so am considering making jam with them this year.  I've never actually made jam (although my mum always used to when I was younger) and apparently red currants are meant to be quite easy.  I even found a recipe where you don't have to take off all the stalks as you sieve them out later.  That could save quite a bit of time!  I don't have any jars, but I can see they are on offer in Dun..lm at the moment, so may get some in there.  I don't need very many, so shouldn't cost too much.

I get quite dry hands and it takes ages for me to find handcreams that work and then they change them or stop selling that version.  I've had enough and ordered myself some ingredients to make my own.  It's currently setting on the side downstairs, so I will see how that goes.  I quite fancy branching out into face moisturiser (I find it hard to get ones that agree with me) and the odd candle for the winter.  Could be a dangerous project that spirals I may be useless at DIY (hence why I have to get my planters built for me), but I'm ok with recipes and some crafts, so I may as well branch out in that direction.

I'm off to gym later and so ate my main meal at lunchtime (pesto pasta with broccoli, courgette and spinach - using the carrot top pesto I made last week) and will have some of the leftover pizza later.  I've left DH in charge of the kids and himself, so I imagine pesto pasta, leftover pizza and/or beans on toast are on the cards.  Dessert is the annual apricot and raspberry clafoutis I always make with hm vanilla ice cream.

QueenJess

Looks like a warm day.  DH is taking DD out (I am taking DS to his gymnastics class) and then hoping I can get out into the garden later, although I also need to make biscuits before there's a mutiny.  Spending on food is done for this month now and I have spent £638 against a budget of £750 (£150 a week), so I have paid off £120 of my huge deficit in that category.  I need to keep this up for next month and think I can do that.  Historically I can be under for 2 months, but never for 3 and end up back where I started, so I need to keep on with the mindset.  I've been less aggressive this time though and keep adding in a few extras each week that I don't urgently need so I don't end up with weeks where I have to buy loads of things I don't need every week that then blow the budget.  I've still got a pretty full freezer, a full fridge for this week and loads of baking supplies, although I've not bought much meat or fish for the last few weeks whilst I use up what's in the freezer.

The house/garden category is very much in the red as well, mainly due to unplanned bigger garden purchases.  This is the stuff I need to build the category up to save for, rather than always chasing myself.  Sadly it's also one of the categories that was decimated by the budget cuts I had to make for the big nursery fee increases, so it'll remain looking quite sad until September when I can start to pay it down.  Everything else is ok, although a bit tight right now and spending in half term wiped out most of the leisure category altogether.  I need to get those savings back up for the long summer holiday.

Yesterday I attempted to catch up with the house backlog whilst I've been entertaining DS all week.  I did 4 loads of washing (had to get a bit creative on where to hang it round the house!), made a loaf of bread and a batch of rolls, made carrot top pesto from my Riverford carrot delivery (half in the freezer), changed the beds and cleaned a cupboard out in the kitchen.  I also got my jam jars ready for the redcurrants that look like they are ripening fast.  Today I need to make biscuits, get all the dry clothes away and then get out in the garden to organise the pots on the patio further, plant out some seedlings and make a final decision on the patio planters (we will put money in from savings for that).

DD and DH are out for lunch (they are taking a picnic) so DS will probably choose to have egg and soldiers with beans and I will probably have a bit feta salad.  Dinner is a big roast chicken for planned leftovers for another few meals.  Dessert is more of the apricot and raspberry clafoutis.

QueenJess

Given that the prices of things keep going one way and I will definitely not be saving much once DD goes to school, I've decided the only way to make things better in my budget is to chip away at the mortgage with tiny amounts.  So I am now rounding my personal account daily and sweeping it into a savings account.  I will then save it up in there and either empty it into the mortgage once a month or do it for every £50 or £100 I can save.  Extra money from surveys (few and far between these days as I never have time) will be saved 50% into the mortgage over payments and 50% for me to actually spend/save into an ISA as required.

It won't be exciting, but something is better than nothing.  I've currently got £19 saved up and a mortgage of £121,000.  Hoping it can snowball like CC overpayments as my mortgage will go down at each renewal (every 2 years) as it recalculates it to the 25 year original period I had.  I'm happy with that as it just buys us more breathing space and I can overpay more if required.  If my mortgage payment was the same as at the beginning (pre kids) I would be crying in a corner right now!  Next renewal is 2026 and I should be able to book myself a mortgage around August/September this year.

QueenJess

Mortgage payment came out today with my customary small rounding to bring the mortgage down to £120,500.  I am also officially unemployed now, so need to rein in all the spending.

First day off and today I picked a huge amount of redcurrants (more to go ripe still) and made three small jars of jelly with them.  I then filled the whole oven with hm granola as well as an orange drizzle cake (to use up some of the candied orange sugar/water I had in the freezer).  Washing done and hung out and now just going to clear up before I pick DS up from school.  Taking him swimming later with DD as DH is out at a work thing this evening.  Dinner will be easy food - jacket potato with beans and cheese.  No prizes for guessing dessert!

edinburgher

I hope you get some time to yourself during your wee spell of unemployment.

I had a minor surgical procedure in January and while I dreaded it (and it was bloody uncomfortable), I've just about forgotten it on a good day Hope you are similarly successful 🤞🏻

QueenJess

edinburgher said:

I hope you get some time to yourself during your wee spell of unemployment.

I had a minor surgical procedure in January and while I dreaded it (and it was bloody uncomfortable), I've just about forgotten it on a good day Hope you are similarly successful 🤞🏻

Thank you I do hope to slow down life a bit and take some more time for myself. It is a 30 min operation, so very minor, but I remember not enjoying my last general anaesthetic, although to be fair, that was in 1993 and totally different circumstances!

On a different note, I sieved the redcurrants so the jam is now seedless, but it felt a waste to get rid of the seeds and pulp it left behind. I popped it in the fridge, but anyone got any good ideas on how to use it? I could add a bit to my berries and yogurt in the morning, but am lacking any other inspiration at the moment.

themadvix

I don’t think it’ll taste very nice - just lots of seeds IME. I’d pop it on the compost heap if you have one.

QueenJess

Well I've completely lost it today with the stress of the impending op next week and running out of things to prep and bought myself some nail varnish I don't need (although I have been thinking about it for a while), a few second hand gym bits which I don't strictly need but it would reduce my need to get things washed and dried quite so quickly, a new purse (which to be fair I've been looking for the perfect one for 5 years as I can't fit what I need in my current one, but this one is outrageously expensive) and two new books (I never buy new and even got talked into buying the second one as it was half price by the cashier - not something I usually do).  It will all absolutely get used and given my stress levels, I'm not going to beat myself up over it.  I should probably avoid the shops this weekend though

On the food side, I've decided it's unlikely I'll be able to get to the shops next week and so I did the food shopping for 2 weeks.  The freezer, fridge and cupboards are absolutely heaving and I'm pretty sure we can last longer than that with a Riverford delivery still arriving weekly.  Spend was £35 Riverford (I had a zero waste bag as a little treat - it had turnips, greens and tomatoes in it), sm £123, top up milk shopping £5 and zero waste £23.  Total £186.  Even if I have a £40 Riverford delivery next week, I will still be on track for this month.  The sm fairy obviously knew I needed to buy mince after not buying it for months whilst I worked through my stores and provided me with 4 packs of yellow sticker organic mince.  We only have red meat once a week and so that's 4 weeks worth of food for us!  I also still have another 2-4 meals worth of meatballs and at least 2 of stewing beef for a casserole, so no red meat needing to be purchased until August now!

Lunch today was pesto pasta (with hm pesto from carrot tops) with broad beans, courgettes and spinach.  I was still full at dinner so the kids had beans on toast, DH had leftovers from dinner last night and I had toast with cream cheese and tomatoes.  Dessert was the orange drizzle cake.  I also made more pesto today as my Riverford delivery included carrots with the green tops on.  I put most of it in the freezer which is full to the top and so we will be eating from that a lot next week.  I've planned lots of easy meals that DH can do in case I'm out of action.

Tomorrow we are making a big chicken roast for dinner that should do 3 meals worth of food and will use leftovers for Monday with another portion to be frozen for easy food next week (if I can wedge it into the freezer somewhere).  Veg will likely be carrots, greens and turnips.

South_coast

I think a bit of spending is acceptable in the circumstances. I hope the op goes well x