Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

beanielou

Would you consider more grocery shopping online? 

Bluegreen143

@beanielou I could go back to online shopping. I’ve switched to more face to face shopping lately because I really prefer it (getting to choose your own fruit & veg etc) but at least with online shopping you can see the price at checkout. Though when we online shop Red has a tendency to add random stuff to the order at the last minute 🤣

My word for 2024 is SLOW because 2023 felt like a very fast-paced, busy year. I like how slow has various meanings (slower-paced life with lots of walks and family meals and reading, doing things like cooking or gardening the old-fashioned way, a reminder to slow my reactions and respond to situations thoughtfully). 

Priorities and goals for the year ahead:

1. Finances - get a good emergency fund together and pay off the loan to my mum

2. Health - continue healthy eating during the week, keeping treats and alcohol to weekends, walk more and try to lose a stone over the year

3. Family time - continue to prioritise the following:

- doing projects as a family (eg gardening or DIY)
- getting outdoors (want to do a couple of easy hill walks as a family and some outdoor swimming and kayaking again, oh and camping though that requires buying a tent!)
- reading to the kids and working on their reading
- family meals and cooking together
- having a general atmosphere of fun and laughter and play
- most of the above applies to our marriage too! 😅 want to have a date night most months. 
- holidays/adventures - we’ve booked a long weekend in Paris for our anniversary (just Red & I) and a week beside our favourite Scottish loch in August (in our favourite accommodation we always stay in, it’s a wood cabin with no internet, phone or TV connection, bliss!). We both have a week off at the start of July too early in the school hols so we are keen to book a (Scottish) holiday then too. We’d like to move about a bit and try going to a couple of islands but nothing firmed up yet. 

4. Gaelic - keen to make progress with my own Gaelic and for the first time Red has expressed an interest too. 

5. Kids’ goals - spoke to the kids about setting a few goals. Some came from them and some were my idea:

Monkey (age 8) - he wants to catch more fish this year than last (3) 😅😍 and learn to swim (he doesn’t do lessons but we are teaching him). 

I have also tasked him with reading his first chapter book this year. Atm I read him 1-2 chapters from his book each evening, he listens to audiobooks and to practise his own reading he reads from the wee reading scheme books in both English and Gaelic. But his reading in English is progressing well and I think he can tackle a bigger challenge. I’ve told him once he completes his first chapter book (reading aloud to us) we’ll celebrate this milestone by taking him out to dinner. 

As he does violin lessons and karate, there are also natural goals associated with those eg moving up a belt in karate. 

For Bambi (age 5), as she starts school this year, I’m working on phonics/reading with her now and just generally want to make sure she is ready and confident about starting by the new school year, including teaching her a few Gaelic songs and phrases.

I’ve also suggested she learn how to make her own breakfasts and things like sandwiches this year. It’ll give her brother a break from making her breakfasts on weekends!

And for both kids, I’d like to work on their manners which can leave somewhat to be desired at times…

Bluegreen143

Have downloaded YNAB again, it’s definitely the best way for me to keep track. 

Over the past year, because Red doesn’t like YNAB, we’ve tried so many different methods (keeping track in a notebook, spreadsheets, using Monzo pots, using other apps and various budgeting methods) and nothing else has worked well for us. 

Have inputted all available cash and budgeted it as follows:

SAVINGS
Emergency fund £932

BILLS
Mortgage £0*

Car loan £0*

Internet £0*

Life insurance £0*

Council tax £334**

Energy £267.73
Nursery fund £33
Home ins pot £16.67 (due JUN)
Car tax pot £30 (due AUG)
Car ins pot £41.67 (due DEC)
Car maintenance pot £50
Home maintenance pot £100

EVERYDAY SPENDING
Groceries/household £400
Petrol & parking £0*

TV & music £0*

Kids:clothes £0
Kids:pocket money & activities £0

PRIORITIES/GOALS
Home £40
Celebrations £110 (Jan birthdays)
Adventures £20
Red’s 40th £44.78

ME
Me:clothes £74.44
Me:socialising £150
Me:hobbies/books £150
Me:savings £200

* These bills are paid this month and I filled the car today 
** Have to pay double council tax this month because I changed which bank account the DD comes from too close to last month’s payment date 

Bluegreen143

Morning all.

Had a very nice day yesterday - we’d bought my mum, stepdad, sister and brother-in-law an archery experience for Christmas so we all went to do it together (felt like a “free” day out yesterday because we’d already paid for it a while ago!). And we went for a lovely tapas lunch, but my stepdad kindly paid for that. The children didn’t come but my MIL looked after them for us. 

Today the plans were to take the children swimming and for a walk, get on top of housework/laundry and get the food shopping. Monkey seems a little under the weather yesterday and this morning though, nothing too specific but just not himself, so I’m reserving judgement for now as to the swimming and walk, I’ll see how he is in a couple of hours. 

Found a good series of blog posts online breaking down how to teach your child to swim into various stages and steps which is helpful. There are three stages and Monkey can do everything in stage one more-or-less so I’ll jot down some of the suggested activities for stage two to try when we do go swimming. We can also start working on stage one with Bambi (mainly encouraging her to get her face wet to begin with as she’s afraid of this!). 

To do list for today 

1. Tidy and hoover downstairs and stay on top of the kitchen 

2. Tidy and hoover upstairs (the bigger job as the playroom is quite messy - will get the kids on that) 

3. Quick clean both bathrooms 

4. Dinner - roast spatchcock chicken 

5. Get two loads of laundry washed and dried

6. Do mealplan/shopping list and go to Tesco 

7. Do reading/phonics with both kids 

8. Do Duolingo and watch an episode of Speak Gaelic 

Bluegreen143

Oh meant to say, one spend to log - ordered a diary/planner for £8.99. 

Naughty as I have one already I bought with my Christmas voucher from work. 

But I HATE the one I bought - it’s more of an organiser, too complex with different sections, oddly laid out (the month spreads are separate to the week ones so you have to do a lot of flipping to check out your month as a whole), it’s undated too and you have to fill it all in yourself and I’ve already made a mistake filling in future months. It’s not enjoyable to use and I feel like I’m just not putting future things in it because it involves too much flipping around and trying to work out where to put it, which isn’t good. 

So lesson learned to go for simpler diaries in future as I don’t need all the extra gumph! I have the budget in my personal spends so it’s fine.

KajiKita

Better to find out and fix now the diary thing - you need the right tools for the job! I’m with you - if it gets too complicated to even keep track of content my brain shuts down with boredom! 😉

KK

Bluegreen143

Lovely day today ☺️

Have done most of my list, which is pleasing. 

Monkey was still not feeling quite himself, so we decided he and Red would stay at home while I took Bambi swimming. 

I don’t normally enjoy taking the kids swimming all that much (just the faff of all getting changed and dried etc) but we actually had so much fun. It was great to focus just on her and we did loads of practise of actual swimming skills whereas normally when we go as a family, she just bobs about with her armbands on and we take turns playing with her and then teaching Monkey to swim.

After that, we’d agreed that I could go for a walk with a friend since we weren’t doing a family walk. I picked a countryside nature reserve we’ve not been to in a couple of years, it has lovely views of the hills and a beautiful loch and you’d not think you were so close to the city. Then when I was waiting for my friend, both kids decided they wanted to come with us 😂 as Monkey seemed much better I just went with it and got them all bundled up.

It was a stunning walk - chilly (it even started snowing!) but beautiful. The loch was frozen over and the sun was starting to set when we were at it, so it was gorgeous in the golden light with snowflakes drifting down. The kids had a ball and spent ages breaking ice on ponds and streams. 

We had a spatchcock chicken for dinner, and I just put out a buffet of stuff to choose from with it - new potatoes, some bread, a green salad, cherry tomatoes & cucumber sticks, homemade coleslaw, leftover olives from the weekend and chutneys. 

Did the Tesco shop tonight and spent £124.41! But £25.60 was from my budget as I needed tinted moisturiser, nude lipstick and a brow pencil. So £98.81 on groceries & household stuff. I got:

Sausages
Chicken breast 650g 
Whole milk 4 pint x2
Single cream
Greek yoghurt
Ham x2
Mozzarella x2
Butter
Sirloin steak x3
Extra mature cheddar 

Vine tomatoes 
Spinach
Green beans
Parsnips
Coriander
Onions
Tenderstem broccoli 
Garlic x2
Frozen raspberries
Frozen strawberries
Apple
Bananas
Cucumber
Ginger
Blueberries 
Sweet pepper
Strawberries
Canteloupe melon

Baked crisps 6pk
Oatcakes
Strong white flour
Instant coffee
Ketchup 
Onion granules 
Tinned chickpeas 
Peanut butter 
Chia seeds
Cola x3 
Sliced bread 
Chopped tomatoes x2
Canned chicken stock x2

Kitchen roll 
Sponge scourers

Printer paper

MEALPLAN

M - chicken soup

T - goats cheese spaghetti 

W - chicken korma (feeding two extra guests)

Th - pork souvlaki

F - HM pizzas 

Sa - steak, sausages etc cooked on the fire (celebration meal for MIL’s birthday. 

greenbee

On the swimming front, I found it much easier to teach the kids to swim when I took them one at a time - and didn't have another adult there either! Maybe you can alternate weekends where you swim with one of them and the other does something with Red? It'll also give each of them some dedicated 1-2-1 time with each of you, which is always a bonus. 

Bluegreen143

That’s an idea Greenbee, though Red wants to be involved in the teaching too. And it does feel more efficient to all go together. I think maybe we need to be stricter in the pool and split off one on one for 15 mins to practise swimming skills at opposite parts of the pool and we can all play together after the actual learning is done. 

Beautiful morning this morning, but cold, with a very thin layer of snow (or a very thick layer of frost?!) on the ground. I chickened out of driving so we walked. Being outdoors for an hour is a much healthier and more frugal start to the week than driving anyway. The kids didn’t take their bikes because the ground was a bit slippy but they did fine walking without them. I wish we could walk every day but we don’t always have the extra time to spare. 

I can’t remember if I said, but we’ve been told we must be in the office twice a week now (though my manager is understanding re childcare issues in school hols or due to sickness, so I probably won’t go in that often in the holidays). Up until now I’ve nominally been in once a week but there’s been a fair few weeks I’ve not been in at all, so it was a bit of a shock to the system doing two days last week! Luckily it’s not an overly long commute, about 20-25 minutes depending on traffic, and I’m allowed to leave early to do the school run and come back online for a bit once at home. (I only work until 3 anyway, but need to leave at 2.30 when in the office to get back in time). 

So it could be worse though I do have a suspicion it’s a precursor to us eventually ending up in three days a week…

I’ve started a loaf of chia seed sourdough this morning - it’s an “all in one day” recipe instead of my usual two day one, but it’s written by the same blogger so fingers crossed it works as beautifully as my usual recipe. Going to have it with our soup tonight. 

Monkey has his first Cubs session today, but I just found out his friend has had to move to a different session a little further away on Wednesdays (due to a changing custody schedule between her parents). He may want to move to hers as they like going together 😕

QueenJess

Urgh... all the employers are at it now re: going into the office.  I'm glad the commute isn't too far away though as that makes such a big difference, as does understanding childcare stuff.  Sounds like suspicions in my office where the grapevine gossip is that the powers that be want us to be in the office 5 days a week.

Any chance of that link to your usual sourdough recipe?  It's been on my to do list forever and I really should start making some!