A new royal start

QueenJess

themadvix said:

Four new tyres won't have been cheap... but suspect the noise had the potential to be more expensive! (And then gives the headache of whether it's worth it - at least tyres are consumable that you expect to have to replace.)

Yes, although I was only expecting two of them.  Never mind, at least my car insurance renewal has decreased for this year, although I will check if there are any better deals out there.

Back from a few days away that was really fun, although very tiring.  I definitely want more trips on my agenda and am even more determined to get my finances in order and start paying down the mortgage so that is possible.  Not sure it changes anything in the short term as I am already doing what I can.

Off out today with the kids and then back to reality tomorrow...

themadvix

Glad you had a good break. You are doing a lot - you will get there, but don't put yourself under even more pressure.

QueenJess

Well work is out of control at the moment, despite my best efforts to get it under control.  There's just so much change that it's difficult to pin things down at the minute.  I have a short term plan for next week at least and am concentrating on just finishing a tiny portion of the work completely and not worrying too much about the wider stuff.  Not heard back on contract extension/change to permanent, so I am reveling in the fact I know I can quit at any time with 1 weeks notice (which helps!).

Anyway, been manic all week and DH cut his thumb badly and is using it as an excuse that he can't do anything... change beds, put on washing, hang up washing, do the washing up.... so all I've done today is rush around like a crazy person despite the fact I've been working from Weds after we got back and he's been off.  I'm not particularly impressed.  I got up early today to do the first shop of the month and we needed a massive stock up of everything, plus I did a big zero waste shop stock up as I had filled my loyalty card so had 5% off.  I did treat myself to some expensive face cream in there I have to admit    Spend was huge.. sm £113, zero waste £52, bathroom/first aid kit stock up £38.  So a total of £203 versus my weekly budget of £160!  Hoping for some cheap weeks to come now the big stock up is done.  Managed to end October spending £595 out of £640 budget on food.  Given I had a £30 gift voucher, it wasn't as good as it should have been, but all reductions are welcome.

Joint account still looks horrible, but determined to sort out this food deficit as then all the bill type accounts will be in order and I just need to fix the more frivolous categories as well as kids presents/clothes (the latter of which are always negative as I never quite catch up with myself on that - in the past I started my budget at zero in these categories, but did it right before xmas and the kids birthdays, so I am always spending one year ahead of the budget - I need to slowly correct that by putting a bit more through to spend money only after I've saved it..).  One day in the far future I hope to build all the accounts up to where they should be, then actually reduce the amount going into the joint account or decide to spend more on holidays.  But for now, I am slowly mending it.  DH says we should just chuck money in from savings and deal with it in one go, but I know from experience that it doesn't help (in the same way it doesn't help to pay someone else's debts off) as we don't learn to stick to a budget and I won't know what a sensible budget is.  Slow and steady is the way...

Anyway, all food shop done, recycling done and everything put away so I could turn around and go straight back out to take DS to gymnastics.  Back for a quick lunch (eggs, soldiers and beans), then I made some cinder toffee given it's almost fireworks night.  It is currently cooling on the side for me to break up and dip in 85% dark choc later.  Might take some to work for bribery for people to help me out  Then I did the biggest pile of washing up and put a load of washing on.  I am about to put away loads of clothes soon.  At least this evening I am off out with my sister to a comedy night, so I get some time off!  DH is taking the kids to a fireworks display.

Due to timings, DH is in charge of dinner (the emergency pizza) and I have an extra portion of hm pesto pasta with leeks and green beans to take to my sisters for a quick dinner.  Dessert is hm mini sandwich cakes with buttercream and lemon curd (that I made at 9pm last night!).

OOh - just realised today I can look at the (poor) mortgage deals, so I might do that and bag one so I can ditch and switch later if things get better before my deal ends 31 Jan.  Probably looking at being £10-£20 better off, although I can redirect that to another category in my budget.  It all helps..

QueenJess

Another busy week at work.  So busy in fact that I totally forgot to amend my Riverford order and so have too much fruit and veg (don't worry - nothing will be wasted!).  I've put the extra fruit in the garage so it doesn't ripen too quickly and I already roasted a huge pile of beetroot, butternut squash and leek to use for lunches (had some today with quinoa).

Finally managed to get a flu jab on Sat morning after it was cancelled 3x(!).  It meant I was later doing the food shop and the car park was pretty full. It's one of those high octane car parks where you have to choose early on which route to take through the car park and you cannot get back to another route later.  If there are no spaces on your chosen route, you cannot go back round and you are forced to exit the car park, then drive round the large one way system before you can get back in again.  On the plus side I had a voucher for a free pack of mince pies of which I already had one last night.

Spending on food this week was £80 sm, £5 zero waste shop and £47 Riverford to come to a total of £132 vs the budget of £160.  Oh actually I just remembered DH spent £25 stocking up on beans as well!  Not much of a saving this week then (£157).  I definitely need to do better the next couple of weeks.  After the holiday the credit card looks horrible and is almost at the limit    Also as I was a bit ill when I had the flu jab, I've been resting most the weekend and DH has taken the kids out.  Both days he bought lunch out... this is what happens when I am out of action.  I plan to work from home for a few days next week until I am completely better which means I should have slightly more time than usual.  I have rejigged our budget to put more into the kids clothing/gifts budget line to try to sort out the fact I was a year behind.  I think almost everything is done for Xmas now, but they both have birthdays in the first 3 months of the year and want parties.

The joint mortgage has been duly rounded down and £100 of savings from round ups applied for a total of £117,500.  I really want to get rid of this mortgage, or at least get it down a lot more ASAP.  I'm trying to be patient until I've replenished the cash reserves sufficiently which should done by end of March. 

DH has taken the kids out today and is back soon.  I've been sitting down for at least 30 mins at a time and then getting up to do one thing.  Means at least the washing got done, I baked an orange spiced cake (a zero waste dream as it uses the full orange, pith and all) and I've done a bit of a tidy up.  Hoping to also mend DD's pencil case later, get through some more emails and review the joint account spending for this week.

Dinner tonight is chicken (spiced for the adults) with hm chips and veg (DH will be making that).  Dessert is either mince pies and cream or orange cake.

daisy_1571

mabe you already do it but I know a lot of families do 'party or present', its up to each child to decide which they'd rather have

Dxx

QueenJess

daisy_1571 said:

mabe you already do it but I know a lot of families do 'party or present', its up to each child to decide which they'd rather have

Dxx

We do a day out or a party.  This is the first time DD has asked for a party rather than a day out as she wants to spend time with her friends.  DS always chooses party as well.

We don't go crazy with the presents generally as I factor in they will be getting presents from friends, 2 sets of grandparents and my sister.  We normally give 1x main present, some books, 1 puzzle or game and 1x hm sweets/chocolate with a bit of variability depending upon how expensive each of them are or what other people are already getting (e.g. for Xmas my sister is getting DD a game, so that one is already covered).  They both have plenty of stuff already and are spoiled by grandparents.  Xmas is similar although they often get bath bombs as well as they are obsessed with them!

I suspect if I made it present or party they would still choose the party!

South_coast

Love the idea of a high octane car park 🤣! Reminds me of the one where I lived for a while where if you didn't get a space on the first go round, you ended up at the back of the queue, behind all those that had come in after you 🤦‍♀️ Not helped in any way when they demolished the adjacent multi-storey!

QueenJess

Well that didn’t quite go to plan.. felt a bit rubbish all week fighting off this virus plus the flu jab so worked from home. Had one of those weeks where the frustration keeps building and building and snapped yesterday - went out and got myself a nice M&S meal, the kids some yogurt dessert treats and a plant to cheer up the kitchen window sill. 

This morning was then the food shop and still spent £72 sm, £19 zero waste shop, £25 stock up on oats & bix and £23 Riverford. £3 for top up shopping in the week. So that’s now £163 with the extra shop - £3 over budget *sigh*. Not sure if I will meet my target this year to have halved the amount I was over at the start of the year. I can also see prices creeping up again. DH’s pack of favoured nuts and raisins is now £11, although I almost always get given £2 off, but still, that’s expensive! Gone up from £10 last week.

Just a day of chores today really. After putting the shopping away I made an apple and blackberry crumble, flapjacks for the kids (including the big kid 😂) and then made a big lot of leek, cheese and pea orzotto for lunch with an extra portion for my work lunch on Monday. Dinner is spag and meatballs (batch from freezer), followed by crumble and custard - or bananas and custard for picky kids.

I’m still waiting for the washing to dry before I put the last load of washing on for the weekend. I picked up a colouring book and pens from Buy Nothing (Xmas present for DD) on the way to drop DS at his new gym class. Am going to disconnect myself in a minute from real life and fill some more of my puzzle book, before chauffeuring him back home again. Might crack open the gin later as I slept badly dreaming about work.

South_coast

That's a lot of money for nuts and raisins 😳! Would buying them separately and then combining be cheaper?

QueenJess

South_coast said:

That's a lot of money for nuts and raisins 😳! Would buying them separately and then combining be cheaper?

I have tried that before but DH dislikes the work it involves 🙄 and says he doesn’t like the taste. He’s apparently very particular about which ones he likes. I did have him on Aldi ones at one point, but he complained and made me switch back.