A new royal start

South_coast

Men 🤦‍♀️!!!

QueenJess

South_coast said:

Men 🤦‍♀️!!!

The other problem is he can polish off a 750g bag in a week, which is outrageous. I have threatened to get one of those pet food dispensing machines so he can have his rations everyday 😂

QueenJess

Been off work ill for a couple of days - I tried to work yesterday from home, but then got a migraine in the afternoon and spent the rest of the day in a darkened room. I’m not 100% sure it won’t come back today, so generally am avoiding screens (this one is in dark mode and the brightness turned down to the minimum), so won’t post a big post. I get really bad flashing lights with mine and then can’t see or do anything. Trying my best to be better for DD’s nativity play tomorrow.

Not that much happening this end. Work is starting to get to me and I was considering hanging my notice in - I have little patience these days for jobs that are depressing since I am just a contractor anyway. That is now on hold as I can’t think straight when I’m ill. Technically the job finishes in Feb anyway.

Had a chat with DH and the result of that was that he put his hard earning savings for the year into the mortgage, so it is now standing at £111,900. I am hoping we can get into 5 figures by the end of 2026. Somehow November I spent less than the budget on food and am under half the debt I had for groceries at the start of 2025. As long as I don’t go crazy, it should be possible to pay it all off in 2026 and then start fixing other categories and even (shock horror) actually save up money in advance/have saving buffers for certain categories.

Other recent money things: saved £40 on this years house insurance compared to my budget estimate (the difference is paying down the grocery deficit), spent money on shoes for DS as he completely and utterly destroyed his - they had holes and were leaking. I think school shoes should last longer as these are way less than 1 year and weren’t cheap, although I suspect DS is also quite hard on his shoes…

Got a few bits and pieces to get for Xmas, but then it’ll just be food. I will be melting chocolate into shapes for the kids as their usual stocking gift.

Even though I was not feeling great, I shut all the blinds and made minestrone soup for lunch. I also made banana and chocolate chip flapjacks for good measure.  Leftover soup will be for tomorrow’s lunch. Dinner tonight should be tomato pasta with garlic bread, although need to check first if there are any leftovers in the fridge that need to be used up. Dessert is steamed jam sponge (made in the slow cooker at the weekend) and custard.

I aim to spend slightly more on food this month to slightly stock up and take the pressure of the start of Jan. Plus I’m making the most of ys offers - there is always ys organic cream in the sm each week. I made a chocolate mousse a couple of weeks ago and this week made a huge batch of vanilla ice cream.

Better go and stop looking at screens.

Jessy103

Great news on the mortgage, jess and hope you feel better x

QueenJess

Thanks Jessy.  Sadly I've been ill most the week with migraines and only just about got rid of them, although I am still mostly avoiding screens just in case.  This is the first screen I've looked at all day.  tbh, apart from feeling rubbish, I've really enjoyed no being a screen slave and made me way more relaxed.  Plus I read a whole book yesterday!  I will definitely be cutting back in the future on screens generally and going more manual.

As I felt a bit better this weekend, I made spotted d*ck and custard yesterday for dessert and a couple of batches of shortbread (one as a gift and the other for the biscuit tin).  Today I made a massive red cabbage thing I've portioned out and frozen in individual portions as it's mostly me that likes it, roasted a huge pile of butternut squash and leek ready to make a soup tomorrow for lunch and made an enormous cottage pie for dinner with another 1.5 portions nestled in the freezer.  Definitely more cooking and baking to come over the week as I catch up with myself and think ahead to the xmas hols.

QueenJess

Well I did manage to get better for Xmas eventually and I guess I at least saved some money by not travelling into work for a couple of weeks! I saved my holiday, so only taking the 3 days off between Xmas and New Year and so was working on Xmas eve. At least it was quiet so got some dull admin done. Absolutely dreading going back in Jan as it will be so busy and there is absolutely no level of planning going on. They think by putting their heads in the sand that it’ll all work out somehow (spoiler alert: it won’t!). I am trying to ignore what I can’t control and just sort out what I can, but it’s very frustrating. As I’m off, I’ve hidden all my work stuff away so I can hopefully not think about it for a while.

Went slightly mad on food buying and way over budget. Jan will be a month where I shall see how little food I can get away with buying to get us back on track. All the cupboards are full and the freezers are rammed full, so it should be possible! Lunch today is turkey sandwiches (of course!) and then I will make a big pie for dinner with all the leftovers from yesterday. Xmas cake and mince pies for dessert and plenty of other treats.

I looked at the budget and decided to increase the amount we are paying into the joint account to try to put it back in the position it should be for next year. I’ve put the extra into the categories that look most sad. Hoping I can watch the pennies, pay down deficits and start building up some categories this year. Once it’s fixed I hope to reduce the payment to the joint account. It does mean it’ll be harder to make mortgage overpayments, but will see where we get to. Work still wants me to stay on, but I’ve not decided yet given their lack of day to day planning and not sure how long I want to be full time. 

Right - better go. I hope everyone had a lovely day yesterday

QueenJess

Happy new year 🥳!

So this is it… the January I’ve been dreading. Back to work today (although wfh) and my brain still refuses to admit that. Going to be a really tough month from a money perspective (large job expenses, joint account needs to be significantly reined in to get it under control and I have birthdays every single week until mid Feb 😬). Survival will be the aim of the game this month I feel!

I have been slightly naughty and booked a theatre trip in Feb with DS. We don’t do that much just together and is a bit of a once in a lifetime thing. Saying that, maybe it’ll remind me why I want to get finances under control as I want to spend more on holidays/leisure and less on the stuff I don’t care about so much.

Relying on the food stock is key this month and I have a vague aim to blitz the joint account as much as possible by end of March and then start building up pots. I can’t clear everything by then, but I can get loads of it cleared. It would be great to start reducing the payments into the joint account by the end of the year.

I am cooking before work and at lunchtime today (I love working from home - plus I actually get more work done anyway). Making a batch of stock cubes for the freezer, an apple and blackberry crumble for dessert, bread and bread rolls (prove whilst I work and bake at lunchtime) and a leek and potato soup ready for cheap lunches to take to work next week. Lunch for me is leftover leek and cheese pasties and some leftover cooked veg to clear out the fridge. Dinner will be tofu stir fry (a good one throwing in any veg that’s lying around in the fridge).

Better get a move on as I can finish the stock before I log on and the bread can prove.

themadvix

Happy New Year Jess!

That sounds like a good plan for the joint account blitz.

In admiration of your enthusiasm for making stock - I had intentions, but I'm sticking with Marigold!

Jessy103

Happy new year jess!

As always, in awe of your cooking and baking plans! X

QueenJess

themadvix said:

Happy New Year Jess!

That sounds like a good plan for the joint account blitz.

In admiration of your enthusiasm for making stock - I had intentions, but I'm sticking with Marigold!

Apart from chopping up stuff really small (fine if you have a food processor, which I don’t), it’s so easy and you can store it in the freezer for ages.  I use a Nancy Birtwhistle recipe:

Ingredients:

1-2 tbsp oil of choice

2 carrots

1 leek

1 onion

3 cloves garlic

1 tbsp mixed dried herbs

½ tsp dried garlic granules

½ tsp cumin

1 tsp of white or black pepper

25-40g sea salt flakes

Bunch fresh herbs (parsley, bay leaves, sage, rosemary)

20g cornflour

Heat the oil in the pan and add the very finely chopped vegetables and fry on a high heat for 5 minutes - stirring to prevent burning.

Turn the heat down to its lowest, add the lid and cook very gently for 20 minutes or until the vegetables are soft - stir from time to time.

Transfer to a large bowl and remove and stalks from the fresh herbs and bay leaves if used. Add the cornflour and blitz to a thick paste. Allow to cool and thicken. Pipe or spoon into ice cube trays and freeze. Store in a box in the freezer.

To make an instant stock add 15-20g cube to a heatproof jug and pour over 509ml of boiking water. Stir until the cube dissolves and you’re good to go.

It’s a very flexible recipe. I don’t have fresh herbs so used dried and it’s totally fine. Also no garlic granules so I used more garlic.