A new royal start

themadvix

Happy Birthday Jess! Hope you have a lovely day! Thefood certainly sounds good (as always!) 🎂🎉

QueenJess

Yikes, I've been MIA for a while, but work has just been nuts. I was working until 2am one day this week 😬. As a consequence I'm so behind on everything right now and need to sort myself out.

Food shopping done this morning and I trawled the charity shops at the same time to pick up a stash of books for DD's birthday later next month. I am planning to order her a main present online later, then she will get a few little bits and pieces like hair stuff she needs, a dressing up costume (got second hand already) and some bubble bath etc. She has a big class party so I don't want to go overboard as I am sure she will get far too much from that anyway. We are also considering getting her a bookcase for her room as she is getting more normal sized books and the deep room divider thingy from Ikea that all her toys and books live in is really too deep. I've not found anything second hand, so will probably get the classic one from Ikea for £30.

Still trying to slowly cut costs, but it is really just fiddling around the edges rather than having anything major to cut out. At least DH is now on board with spending a bit less and being more conscious on what we spend our money on now. I've been spending around £5 a week at Lidl recently as I pass it when I drop the kids off for school. They don't really do organic stuff, but I've switched the odd thing to them where I don't get organic anyway or it's not really relevant. The kids vitamins for example are way cheaper in there. I downloaded the app as well for a few extra cheap goodies which I've used for desserts for the kids. I've also agonised each week on the best Riverford box to order to meet our requirements and keep costs to a minimum and continue to eat through the cupboard and freezer stocks. Trying my best to make rather than buy things foodwise to also keep the costs down and making sure when I go to work there is easy lunch food ready made for DH which keeps him from eating an outrageous amount of eggs each week.

This year I've also been much more conscious with clothes washing and not changing things more often than is needed, spot washing and airing things. I've cut 1 load of washing out per week doing that and I even bought 1 new towel for the kitchen as we change that one most often and means I can stretch the next towel wash a bit further. Hoping there will be a reduction in water usage that will offset the inevitable higher bills that will start coming through from April. Perhaps more importantly, it is saving me time when I don't have much working full time.

Still on a mission to mend the joint account and then hoping I can have a period of saving up before then dropping the amount we pay into there before the end of the year. I think I had 4 months for each period in my mind. I think we are doing alright at the moment, although the negative categories aren't declining quite as much as I'd like right now.

This month I spent £130 a week on average on food, cleaning stuff and bathroom and medical things. I would be estatic about that usually, but given we have been clearing down food supplies and other supplies, I'm not sure it's that great. To be honest, I think any reductions I am trying to make are more than offset by inflation plus the fact the kids are eating a lot more recently.

Anyway, I shall plod on and continue to tweak things where I can. I plan to chit the potatoes I bought last weekend as a fun garden project with the kids. I also planned to buy a blackcurrant bush as they are prolific and currants do really well in the garden (my redcurrant was meant to top out at 4 foot and is currently 6 foot high and 6 foot wide 😂). I mentioned it to a neighbour and they gave me a 20% voucher as they just bought some plants online. So that will be ordered later!

Lunch today was banana and chocolate pancakes because that's my child mindset for today! The kids had a treat yogurt for dessert (flavoured yogurt pots - usually we only buy Greek yogurt, so little pots is possibly one of the most exciting things for them!). Dinner is a chicken roast for rubber chicken duty this week with parsnips, carrots, more red cabbage from my freezer, hm yorkshire puddings and roast pots. Dessert will be a chocolate sandwich cake (from the trusty Be-Ro book) that is in the oven right now, to be sandwiched with chocolate buttercream and apricot jam (free from my WR app ages ago).

Got a few things stacking up on my to buy list at the moment for the house, so I really need to fix my negative budget category. Nothing particularly exciting, but the odd plant for outside will be required later in the year, possibly some seeds (need to check stocks, although I get most free from local growers from my zero waste shop), a better frying pan and possibly some more shelves for DS to try and control all his tat. We also have a holiday coming up at Easter to pay for, so it's all frugalness until then to try and save enough for that.

After dinner I hope to get round to breaking out my new board game (birthday present) to play with the kids. It originated in the 1500's apparently, but was marketed as a kids game in the 19th century. Should be fun! DD is excited that it comes with little metal geese that you move round the board.

Better go and tidy up the house and get the cakes out of the oven!

Edit: I just realised that the food this month included DS's birthday party and cake ingredients, so maybe it's better than I thought.

QueenJess

Not been a good week - so busy at work with management MIA and everyone for themselves, plus I’ve had too much on at home on top of the usual stuff plus fun time of life symptoms. On the edge of coping at the moment, so trying to ignore everything and just concentrate on one thing and then do the next thing etc so I don’t get overwhelmed. Off out this evening for a comedy night with my sister, so that will be a nice break.

For some reason I got sick of stuff everywhere in DS’s room and so ordered extra furniture which I’ve been trying to make in a week I’ve already been too busy. I also have a couple of plants that urgently need planting in the garden 😬. I’ve now gone over budget again and so made my finances worse, which was silly when we have our holiday coming up soon (and DD’s birthday party).

Today was shopping day and I spent £156 (Riverford £28, sm £116 and zero waste shop £12). I did spend more than I strictly needed in the sm as two things I usually buy but not quite ran out of yet were on offer and I also grabbed myself an organic rack of lamb reduced from £40 to £24 and two packs of organic chicken breasts hugely reduced. But I did also spend £10 in Lidl on one off cleaning type stuff and other bits, another £8 in M&S stocking up on beans (and some pastries may have fallen in….) and £2.60 on milk in the week. All in all that’s £176.60, £6.60 over my inflated budget so no decline this week. Hoping for some future cheap weeks based on my ys finds though.

I am defrosting lamb mince in the fridge for use in a massive shepherds pie tomorrow (a prior ys find). I have also made a Dorset apple cake that is cooling on the side. No idea how long that will last given DS and DH were fighting over who gets the crumbs that fell on the side earlier 🤣. So I assume that tastes good. The fridge is looking bare these days, so I am doing a really good job of using everything up. The freezer has definitely gone down, but more work to do there. I think I still have two massive bags of blackberries to work through in there and I definitely have more Xmas red cabbage. I also have two boxes of treats in the cupboard we didn’t eat from Xmas. At least we had the last mince pie this week!

Better go as I am typing this on a tiny phone screen whilst waiting for DS to finish his gymnastics class and I want to read my book. Then back for dinner (fish and chips) before I rush out to meet my sister.

Jessy103

I hope work calms for you soon. Make sure you take some time for you x

TallGirl

Take care remember to look after yourself. Hope work calms down.

QueenJess

Thanks TallGirl and Jessy. Work is still mental and I think I am really struggling with crazy time of life symptoms that are really not helping right now. Feel constantly tearful, which is not like me at all and always on the edge. I'm more of a get on with it type of person. Hoping I don't need to return to the doctors as that is always a horrific experience and I told DH next time I go he has to come in with me so they can't gaslight me!

I have absolutely no idea what all the things I need to do are and I'm too overwhelmed to even start writing it down, so I am just chipping away at things I remember each day and hoping it all passes. Today I changed our internet package to something £2 cheaper a month as ours was about to be increased. Overall saving of £7 a month. I also bought a stack of phonic reading books online pretty cheap as an alternative to party bags for DD's birthday (she'll be 5). I've also bought some needed clothes/shoes for the kids: 2x PE shorts, 2xschool shorts, 2x casual shorts, 1x t-shirt and one pair of jelly shoes - total of £26.99 from Vinted including postage. I also booked the kids into a two day sports club at Easter that wasn't cheap, but looks frankly epic… I wonder if they take adults 😂. It won't be a regular thing because of the cost, but we wanted to give it a go after some recommendations from other parents.

Feeling incredibly poor right now after paying for this months childcare, two lots of childcare at Easter, some deposits etc for holiday, a scarily large bill for someone to fix our heating and the furniture for DS. Still got the rest of DD's party to pay for as well. Definitely need to limit spend as much as possible for a few months. I am still slowly investigating the delights of Lidl and switching what I can to there where I don't buy organic anyway. Hopefully it'll make a small difference to the food bill in time. I need to fix my Riverford order for this week, so will see how low I can get it for this week. I think I only need fruit, so might buy the fruit box and then it'll do me for almost 2 weeks. I probably have enough veg to last next week bar potatoes.

More importantly, I used an old Be-Ro recipe book to make hot cross buns yesterday and they were amazing. DS walked in and said "ooohhh.. what are these?" and his little eyes lit up. He is chuffed to have one in his lunchbox today :) They are also huge, so will divide them up smaller next time - I didn't realise they would end up so large!

DH is out today and I am working from home, so lunch will be rustled up based on what I can dig out of the freezer that desperately needs to be used up. Dinner will be eggs, soldiers and beans as the kids are at swimming so we need something we can cook in 10 mins. Dessert is more Dorset apple cake (heated up with greek yogurt).

Edit: Almost forgot, but I did realise I shouldn't rely on my emergency fund for maintenance type items. My house is getting older now and stuff will need to be fixed etc, so I've now created a new budget line for that and putting £50 a month in for now to build it up. It stole the £50 from my generic house/garden budget line where some of this stuff ended up anyway.

beanielou

Loved the be-ro cook books. I still have a couple.

daisy_1571

Me too

Dxx

QueenJess

So many Be-Ro fans :) I am using the latest version (41st edition) as well as the 1990 Centenary edition that has some good extra recipes like hot cross buns.

I wish there was something similar for general meals and then I wouldn't need so many cookbooks!

South_coast

Sounds like your next project.…?