Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

MissRikkiC

Just caught up with your diary since from before Christmas! We are going through the help me/spoon feed/using hands stage after a certain point with dinners with my 2.5 year old. I presume it’s down to her brother having recently started to eat and she’s digressed a little bit but it makes things a lot more difficult that’s for sure. 

Bluegreen143

@MissRikkiC Bambi is four and has no excuse of a little sibling 🤣 Monkey at seven will still eat with his hands occasionally if he thinks we aren’t looking… they were both bad for this last year and we’ve cracked down on it (tediously calling it out every single time) and they are better now. But my experience is that it’s a long journey to good table manners 😅😅😅

TallGirl

That is one impressive spreadsheet of savings well done you! 

Bluegreen143

Thanks all! 

Usual day today. 2hr 40 minutes of outdoor time - as well as walking to/from the school bus, we also went to the park after school. 

No spending today. My gym membership came out even after I cancelled it 😱 but I got an email saying it was being refunded, immediately after the email with the bill. 

Bluegreen143

Accidentally got a lot more outdoor time today because Monkey’s school bus was 40(!) minutes late this morning so we had rather a long wait at the bus stop 🤦‍♀️ not the driver’s fault, it’s due to roadworks and bad traffic all along the route. Hoping it’s better tomorrow. 

Every time I walk past the queues of traffic on the school run I feel quite glad I’m not stuck in them. Must remember this feeling when we get the car back! 

No spends to report, or not any money spends anyway.

I can’t remember if I said I used my Amazon vouchers to order Red’s birthday presents - it’s meant I can reallocate the money put aside for that in the budget. While I was keeping them for ordering myself stuff I wanted, I realised most of my 30 day list is stuff I’d buy elsewhere or second hand. And I’ve managed to reserve a couple of the books at the library. So I thought the voucher was better spent on a necessary spend instead.

Anyway, last night I used some of the voucher that was leftover to order some yarn to knit a pair of dungarees for my friend’s newborn. It’s a pattern I’ve used before and it came out really nice so I’m looking forward to knitting it again 🙂

Meals

B - weetabix & banana

L - leftover pasta from last night 

S - melon & grapes (for me and the kids). I did also have some white chocolate, on a less healthy note…

D - chicken fajita rice (picture something like a paella, but made with basmati rice and the flavours/ingredients of fajitas - chicken marinaded in fajita spices, onion, peppers, blank beans & sweetcorn). First time doing this recipe and it was good! And eaten by everyone 🙌🏼 

KajiKita

Yaay for the fajita recipe being eaten by everyone! 😊😂👏

I have a basket of @amazon items that I am ignoring …. I will review on the weekend and see which ones I actually still want. First time I gave ever managed this! 😊

KK

Bluegreen143

Oh amazing @KajiKita!!

I’ve already crossed a few items off my 30 day list! And a few that are left are actually “needs” and just on there so I don’t forget to look for them in charity shops 😂 (eg summer clothes for the kids). 

Still on my list are strawberry and rhubarb crowns for the garden, 2x single bedsheets (the kids have but one each now, and for laundry ease I’d like two!), trainers for myself (not fancy designer trainers, just the cheap kind for everyday comfy footwear and if I do any exercise!) and a couple of books the library don’t have. 

Bluegreen143

Being very organised and just made the hummus for tomorrow’s dinner, and have the falafel made up and in the air fryer as an experiment. I don’t see any issue with it working, I normally oven cook anyway rather than deep fry and that’s always fine. 

Need to finish a jigsaw puzzle that’s been out on the dining table a few days… it’s square, and doesn’t fit on my puzzle mat (which I store under the sofa) or either coffee table so I’ve commandeered the dining table for it. For the last three days we’ve had dinner in the conservatory at a coffee table, but the children are still too messy at eating for this to be a very good solution 😂 luckily the sofas are leather, so wipable! 

Baileys_Babe

My Mum has recently started doing jigsaw puzzles in the living room, she has a board that goes on top of a coffee table to make the top larger, would something like this be an option in the future? Possibly not so easy with small children, maybe in the conservatory. 

We usually commandeer the dining table for puzzles. Sometimes we extend the table to it's full size (8 seater) and eat at one end or eat at the kitchen table or at the small tables in the living room.

We usually bake falafel. We haven't had them for a while I think I will add them to the meal plan, thanks for the reminder.

Bluegreen143

@Baileys_Babe it’s not normally a problem, I have a puzzle mat to do them on (it’s one that’s solid with a top that folds over, not a roll up one, so you can use it on the coffee table even though it’s bigger than it) which fits all normal 1,000 piece puzzles. Just this square puzzle has awkward dimensions!