Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

joedenise

Agree with @Baileys_Babe about swapping toys every couple of months.  It's what I used to do with my kids and it was like they were seeing the toys for the first time again.  Also makes it much easier to see which toys they really love and which hardly get played with.

Bluegreen143

We can keep some of them for that purpose, but the cupboard is too full to keep them all- it will be a nightmare trying to rotate them as everything is rammed in 😂 so some things do need to go. 

I do like rhubarb. It came in a bundle of 9 and was quite cheap, cheaper than buying 3-4 plants at the garden centre. We had two plants before and could never harvest enough in one go to make a crumble 😂 but any excess I’ll cook and freeze for the rest of the year when you can’t harvest it.

joedenise

@Bluegreen143 - not sure if you're aware but you shouldn't actually pick any rhubarb in the first year and only a few stems in the 2nd year.  This is to help the plant establish well.  With already having a couple of plants hopefully you'll have enough for this year anyway; then more next year and by the following year more than you'll know what to do with!

Bluegreen143

Oh yes I do know @joedenise! 

Alas we had to move the old rhubarb last year in prep for building the conservatory and it didn’t take in the new location… then Red ended up slabbing that bit and pulling the one puny bit that did take up 🙄 so I’ll be buying rhubarb this year! 

Cheery_Daff

Have you read the other books by the parenting author? I've not read the parenting one,  but the advice sounds similar to one about idle living in general which i assume is by the same person.  There may even be two!

Bluegreen143

@Cheery_Daff I’ve not read them, but I know he has a couple more books so will need to see if the library has them. 

Not been too spendy. We did go out for dinner for Red’s birthday on Sunday night, but MIL paid for that. We did have to pay bus fares there and a taxi home (£10). But tbh even if we’d been able to drive, we’d likely have had to pay for parking anyway as I think we’d have had to use one of the multi-storey car parks. 

Yesterday Red and I both took the day off for his birthday. I suggested various fun things we could do, even go out for lunch or daytime drinks etc, but he wanted me to make him a fry up then for us to work in the garden together 😂 then I did beef stew for dinner and had made a pistachio cake iced with chocolate. Will need to freeze the 2/3 that’s remaining today as I’m trying to follow the No S guidelines for eating where you eat sweets only at the weekend or special days 😆

Have been organising the accommodation for my friend’s hen do in April, which was a right faff trying to accommodate 14 people’s wishes and needs (two other friends helping organising but I took the lead on accommodation & they are now sorting activities etc). So £15 spent from my pot as my share of the deposit for two self catering lodges.

Bluegreen143

Have been feeling rather glum the past couple of days but have now realised it’s, ahem, hormonal in nature 😅 so hopefully will be feeling more myself shortly!

No spends today to report, I’m pleased to say. 

Monkey decided he wanted to stop football and try karate (highly motivated by one of his best friends, who also does karate at this place). I’m fine with the change, he liked football well enough but he wasn’t passionate about playing and I don’t see him progressing to a team. Which is fine, it’s great to try out lots of things! He knows he’s allowed to do one sport or activity at a time in addition to Beavers and that once he’s given karate a good go he can always switch later on (back to football or find something new). 

On an MSE note, karate is cheaper than football was - £20 for a membership allowing him to go to as many sessions as he wants (they run 6 a week) as opposed to £29 for one 45 minute football class a week. 

We are also weighing up whether to send him to a Gaelic language and arts (traditional music, dancing and drama) club in the Easter holidays, run at the school. It’s over four weekdays. 

On the one hand - how cool! One of the reasons we liked the school was the rich culture and traditions, and the connection to the wider Gaelic community and events. Plus friends from his class will be there.

On the other - we don’t need the childcare (it’s crap childcare anyway as only on 10-3pm 😂). Red has booked that week off work and will need to be off to look after Bambi anyway. The club isn’t too expensive, at £80 for the four days, but it is money we don’t *need* to spend (but we do have a pot for kid stuff with plenty of money in). 

More importantly, I do feel strongly about little kids having loads of unstructured time at home where possible, to play and muck about and relax and be outdoors. I think in a couple of years he will be desperate to do cool stuff with friends in the holidays but right now he loves helping his daddy with projects and playing in the garden and with his toys… I’m leaning towards leaving it for now and just letting him chill out for the week. Red does think he’d enjoy it though so we’ll see! He has suggested we send him the Tues-Thurs but don’t worry about the Friday (even though we need to pay for the full block) as I’m off the Friday so it’s a great day for a family day out.

beanielou

I think it would be great for him 

Bluegreen143

Thanks, we have mulled it over but weren’t coming to a conclusion. So I asked Monkey (I wouldn’t give him the option unless I was sure both choices worked for us) and he prefers to have the week at home with daddy which doesn’t surprise me tbh. As he will have the opportunity to do this annually, and I think in the summers too, I’m fine with that!

Went to visit my friend who has a newborn yesterday - a group of us went, so one of them kindly gave me a lift there and back which saved me £££ on taxi fares. Public transport options didn’t look easy. It’s a 20 minute drive from me but was going to be well over an hour on public transport, with 1-2 changes. 

The garage said yesterday we should hopefully get the car back today so fingers crossed 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼 if we get it back in time, I will go pick Monkey up direct at school rather than him getting the school bus, and we can visit the school playpark too. Exciting times 😜

Red ordered stuff for the garden and for sealing the floor next to the bath, which leaks through the ceiling if water gets splashed or spilled on it 😳 will update my spreadsheet and here with the spends later today. 

Planned spending today - Tesco top up shop, bus fare home. 

Bluegreen143

So we were having a lovely day yesterday… the weather was springlike and warm, I got my car back(!!!!!!!!!!), I don’t work on Fridays. 

At the school park (where I was able to go for the first time in ages because of driving) I sat and knitted in the sun as the kids played quite far away at the end of the sports pitch with a friend (I could watch them and ensure they didn’t leave the park, but they were out of earshot, so that kind of explains the distance and the other parent was where I was on a bench too). Anyway, my son comes sprinting over to tell me my daughter has been hit in the head by a concrete block thrown by his friend!!!! Not intentionally, it was a very silly game and the little boy looked totally in shock bless him. 

Luckily she’s escaped concussion but that was our evening gone as I needed to take her to A&E to get her head glued 😭 Red had just finished work and was driving home so he diverted and met us there in his work van to pick up Monkey which was good.

Lead to a more spendy day as Red ordered us a takeaway ready to be on the table when I walked through the door at 7pm ❤️ we do have a freezer meal or two in, so it was a bit naughty, but think we just all needed a treat tbh! 

Spending update 
This is for a few days as I’ve not updated on here much this week 😅

£34.66 Justeat
Our post-A&E treat

£785.22 Garage
Car repairs! Never have I been so delighted to pay a large bill 😂 as a reminder, they’ve had my car for EIGHT WEEKS! 

£29.72 Tesco
Mainly food, £1.55 household 

£3.75 Charity shop 
Pack of six unused silicon food bags - delighted with this bargain as getting more silicon food bags has been on my list forever!!! And one clip lock storage tub of the same type I already use for storing art supplies and snacks.

£34.97 Amazon
Apparently supplies to fix the leak from the bath

£51.44 Online garden shop
Raspberry canes and other bits for the garden

£4.30 Tesco
Household (bin bags and 2x bendy lighters) 

£75.68 Tesco
Monday’s big food shop, a little more expensive as got treats for Red’s birthday 

£7.95 Bus fares since Sunday

£10 Taxi home from Sunday’s dinner