Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

Bluegreen143

@KajiKita sounds like a good plan to do a full statement! Bet it will surprise you.

I’m at 44hr 21min outdoor hours so far this year. By the end of Jan last year, I was only at 29 hours! Not having a car helps here 🤣

On the car - apparently there is a huge shortage of the component we need. The mechanic is concerned it could take months! He has suggested he can order a whole new electronics board thingie (clearly I don’t pay much attention, but Red knows what is happening!) and programme it to our car. It will be about £800 rather than the £500 for just the component we need, however it seems a no brainer as he was saying it’ll be about 7 working days versus potentially not getting the other part for ages…!

I do feel very happy that we have enough in the emergency fund to cover either scenario so it’s really not as stressful as these situations would have been back in the day when we didn’t have savings. 

Red was wondering if I want to hire a car for the next two weeks but I’m thinking no. It’s such an expense. I only *need* it for the office. I would *like* it to go on some weekend adventures but that’s hardly a need, and can wait a week or two til the car is back. It might rain all weekend so we don’t want to go on an outdoor adventure anyway 🤷‍♀️ 

I may have to pay for return taxis to the office on Thursday but this will be considerably cheaper than hiring a car for two weeks - I think a maximum of £40 for the return journey - and everything else can wait. Plus my manager is very kind and may let me off the hook anyway if I mention I’ll need to taxi in 😆 though I do feel bad I’ve not been in for six weeks (our company policy on hybrid working is we need to go in twice a week 🙈), and will go in without grumbling if she feels it’s needed.

Today’s meals

B: instant pot porridge with apple (kids had peanut butter toast)
First time making it in the instant pot and what a revelation! It’s not quicker, but it’s sooooo creamy and soft. I hate chewy porridge. 

L: cheese & mushroom toastie with carrot & cucumber sticks for me, Red had a cheese & pickle sandwich I made him 😇 

S: I didn’t snack 😇 kids only shared a small tub of soup Bambi brought back from making at nursery

black bean salsa soup with baguettes, I also had some chocolate after and the kids got a few sweets from the tub 
New recipe, quite tasty! Monkey really enjoyed it, Bambi did not but ate it under duress 🙈😂

Spending

£54.95 Tesco
All food 

£10.40 Pub
Two pints of cider, one for me and one for a friend, as we whiled away the time while our children were at Beavers!

Frugal wins

It’s hard to think of new frugal wins right now 😂 at the moment we are in a lovely, slow paced routine of walking everywhere and eating lots of leftovers. It’s delightful but rather samey. We didn’t put the heating on today (as it’s not very cold) so I’m counting that as a win!

And typing this has reminded me about the washing still in the machine so this is another win! I will even hang it up rather than stick it in the drier 😇 

Oh, and finally, I took the kids litter picking on Sunday (we’ve been out a couple of times before, our local area is dreadful for litter) which has got to be the best value way of entertaining kids. I mean, it’s actually free AND you get to teach them social responsibility and get some exercise. They surprisingly really enjoy it, Monkey more so but Bambi got involved too. It also means they continually notice and point out litter everywhere now 😂 we have two litter pickers and I am considering investing in another couple so we all get one instead of sharing 😅

KajiKita

Brave Bambi for eating the scary soup!! ❤️😂😉

The lack of electronics for your car doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. The company I work for has months and months of late orders due to electronics shortages. It’s a global phenomenon. 

KK

Bluegreen143

@KajiKita her bravery was motivated by the knowledge that sweets would not be forthcoming if the soup wasn’t eaten 😂 I do “help” her still at times by spoon feeding her a bit, she is ridiculously old for this but she will eat most things if I help her with the odd spoonful but can be reluctant if left to her own devices… it’s ironic, as I did baby led weaning with them, where you don’t spoon feed them as babies but let them self feed instead so she clearly feels the need to get the experience she missed out on 😂

KajiKita

You are such a lovely parent 😊 Glad she got her sweets! 😉

KK

QueenJess

Bluegreen143 said:

@KajiKita her bravery was motivated by the knowledge that sweets would not be forthcoming if the soup wasn’t eaten 😂 I do “help” her still at times by spoon feeding her a bit, she is ridiculously old for this but she will eat most things if I help her with the odd spoonful but can be reluctant if left to her own devices… it’s ironic, as I did baby led weaning with them, where you don’t spoon feed them as babies but let them self feed instead so she clearly feels the need to get the experience she missed out on 😂

I’m glad it’s not just me. When I give something DS isn’t keen on, sometimes he wants us to feed him and he’s almost 6! 😂

Baileys_Babe

We thankfully have outgrown the I'm too old really but I need to be spoon-fed phase here it generally happened when they didn't want the food/were too tired/unwell.
I hope that it is soon consigned to history for both of you.

Bluegreen143

I’m very pleased to hear it’s my just my child who is a lazy so-and-so 😂

One of my friends had a baby a few days ago, and another two have recently found out they are pregnant, which inevitably sets off my broodiness levels 😬😱 however I do know really that it would be madness. But one can daydream about tiny baby snuggles from time to time! If I lived in another era I would have had a huge brood I think 🙈

Thought I’d share an except from my new finance tracker spreadsheet. Obviously, as the month is not complete yet, my savings rate will not be as high as this in actuality. But (as we won’t be paying for the car this month now) it won’t be too far off tbh. It’s not all gone into my emergency fund, the total savings figure includes cash saved into pots (for holidays etc). But I’m really pleased with how we’ve cut our spending this month. I’ll share the breakdowns at month end.

Bluegreen143

Erm, just noticed our initials. You can probably guess which of us is D and which is J based on the spending levels 😂

KajiKita

Impressive savings level and tracker …. I now want to see if I can set up something similar …. 🤔😊

KK

themadvix

It’s no consolation I’m sure, but even non-electronic parts are impossible to get hold of. My sister had to cope without her car from mid-October to mid-December because they couldn’t get replacement shocks for her car (and it had failed its MOT on them). Not even a rare car - a Honda! The global supply chain is in tatters and it just shows how reliant we all are on it.