Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

KajiKita

Hugs for the poorlies and 👏 for the improv meal 😊
I have a feeling that I should take a lesson from you about social media ….

KK

Bluegreen143

Only in dire straits @Baileys_Babe. He’s quite willing, but it doesn’t make financial sense as he loses a day’s pay AND his bonus, which is only paid if they have no sick days or unpaid leave! While me doing it stresses me out, it doesn’t cost us anything. So we only get him to stay off if I can’t (eg if they are still ill on Wednesday he will have to, because I have an away day to go to and can’t work from home).

sashybo

Meant to pop over before to say how exciting about Paris, it will be lovely for you to get away for a few days.

My kids just seem constantly ill right now, DS is just getting over an ear infection and has a terrible cough (again!) and DD is now getting the cough (again!). 😩 Hope your two are better for school.

The social media skincare craze with the young girls is so odd to me as a lot of the products (although not all) are expensive and actually not for young kids but older skin.I don't think it's a bad thing to look after your skin from a (relatively) young age but 9/10 seems very young. I do think the pressures of SM are dangerous to kids in so many ways though and would like to keep mine away from it as long as I can. Realistically though, I will only be able to do that for so many years and don't want to have them doing it behind my back as that then has its own dangers! It's so difficult and obviously this is only in theory as mine are only 6 & 4!

I must admit that I'm on SM quite a bit, I'm in skincare and running groups and enjoy the chat and information but can also see how it can be a toxic place at times. It's also an alarming time sink and I need to be careful not to waste time scrolling away instead of doing things IRL. It must be so much harder for kids/teens who haven't fully developed their impulse control as it's so addictive. 

Bluegreen143

Ah Sashy, the illness is never ending this time of year isn’t it! Fingers crossed your two are better soon as well.

Had a really lovely walk this afternoon. I needed a break - I rarely feel like I need a break from the kids now, because they are good company/not hard work now they’re older, and we are apart so much because of school/work anyway. 

But after this dire week almost being house-bound plus flying solo yesterday (Red was out having a day air softing with my sister’s husband, which I do not begrudge him at all!) I did feel like I needed to get OUT. I would have been happy to go out with the kids, but Bambi was still feeling unwell and Monkey didn’t want to come, so I went by myself.

A glorious hour and a half getting muddy along the river, through the woods makes all the difference when I have a low mood. I didn’t hurry, and took the time to go right to the river’s edge and dip my hands in - it wasn’t as cold as you might think and I was tempted to get my feet in, if I’d had a little towel with me I probably would have as I’ve waded in at that part lots of times in the summer. I LOVE getting my feet in the sea or any kind of outdoor water, I find it so relaxing and grounding. 

Because I was by myself and didn’t take headphones, I had a lot of time to think. I’ll share more later as it would take me an age to write all my thoughts down! But I was thinking very deeply on meaning and fulfilment in life - on how I can align my finances better with the kind of life I’d like to live. And lots of thoughts on how I’d like to build a closer-knit community around ourselves. 

Before my walk, I went and did the shopping at Tesco. I don’t know if I said, but my online order got cancelled on the day last Sunday and that’s the third time that’s happened with short notice in the past two months (and the first time, they didn’t refund me and I had to call and hassle them to get it). So this is why I went in person today, I’m a bit disillusioned with the grocery delivery thing atm! 

I spent £119.58 in total. I’ve indicated brands if it was value or premium, everything else would just be Tesco brand:

FRUIT & VEG
Grapes
Raspberries (finest) 
Vine cherry tomatoes (finest)
Broccoli
Avocado x2

Frozen petit pois 
Coriander
Garlic bulbs x2
Celery
Mushrooms
Limes x5
Bananas x9
Cavolo Nero (finest) 
Spring onions
Sweet gem lettuce 
Ginger
Lemons x4
Peppers 3pk
Canteloupe melon 

MEAT & DAIRY
Greek yoghurt (creamfields)
YS haddock fillets x4 (reduced from £8.80 to £2.20!!)
Whole milk 4 pints x2
Bacon 10 rashers 
Butter x2
Parmesan
Chicken breast 1kg
Extra mature cheddar
YS trout fillets x6 (finest) £4.47 instead of £17.85!
Smoked ham (finest) x2

OTHER
Tinned black beans x2
Tinned chickpeas x2
Canned Potts chicken stock x2
Canned Potts beef stock
Honey (Stockwell)
Strong white flour
Instant coffee
Passata x2
Extra virgin olive oil
Tomato puree
Tinned tuna x2
Tinned butter beans 
Tinned cannelini beans
Crunchy peanut butter 1kg (nuts about nature)
Chopped tomatoes x4 (grower’s harvest)
Macaroni 1kg
Tinned green lentils 

JUNK/PROCESSED
Crisps 6pk x2
Seeded loaf 
Diet cola (tesco) x4
2x kids’ lollies (placebo for helping a sore throat! 😂)

HOUSEHOLD
Burts bees lip balm x2
Sure deodorant 
Toilet roll (Springforce)
Button batteries (Duracell)

Seems such a lot! But as you can see, we ran out of almost all tinned goods, olive oil and butter this week 😂 

I was really pleased about the YS fish because our Tesco is really, really rubbish for YS. I don’t normally even look at it because they normally only knock about 20p off even when stuff is wilted and at death’s door 🙄 it’s all been slung in the freezer. There are two meal’s worth of trout, because the kids would share a fillet between them, and a big meal’s worth of haddock for making HM fish fingers. 

Unfortunately I forgot to get kids’ nurofen, which we needed, so I ended up back in Tesco after my walk 🙄 a further £14.55 spent on nurofen, vitamin D (for me) and vitamins for the kids (alleged immune support ones with C, D and zinc among others). I’m not normally a vitamin believer, but have been meaning to get vitamin D for a while as I think we probs should take it in the winter. 

Dinner tonight was pot roast brisket with carrots, peas and mashed potato/sweet potato. Monkey normally hates this kind of food, and we didn’t get any potato in him (his most hated food of all) beyond a pea-sized taste, but he did eat loads of beef with bread, plus all his veg, so I’m counting that as a win! 

Bambi conversely normally loves meat and potato food but was still under the weather and very awkward about eating anything, so you can’t win them all 😂

I have a portion of brisket and veg left for lunch. Mad though how you can spend over £10 now on a joint of meat which only feeds your family once, with just one leftover lunch!

Bluegreen143

Oh forgot to say. Red had some very frugal fun with Monkey today doing the RSPB bird watch thing while I was shopping. Monkey got very into it and they sat in the conservatory for the hour with his binoculars and several bird books 😍 it’s amazing how many little birds you notice if you actually sit and look for them! 

If anyone has little ones who are into birds, my two have books with sound buttons for playing recordings of real bird calls - one for garden birds and one for woodland birds - the series has more general animal books too (my kids also have the night time animals with the calls of creatures like badgers and owls, and a safari animal version with hyenas and cheetahs etc too). 

Unlike most “sound books” which are aimed at babies, these are really educational and they’ve loved them for years.

beanielou

Have you tried Waitrose for food deliveries. 

I find them excellent & order mainly Waitrose essentials. 

Bluegreen143

No I haven’t @beanielou, always thought that would be more pricey 🤔 I suppose I could test it out and do the same order on both to see what the difference is. 

Red gets paid at midnight tomorrow and (having put some petrol in the car this AM) I don’t think I have any further anticipated spending this calendar month 🤞🏼 so going to round it up below with some thoughts inspired by Your Money or Your Life.

Note of “hours of life energy cost” - For the purpose of the “real hourly wage” exercise, I’ve worked this out as an average of £15p/h for both of us, inc pension contributions, minus taxes/commute costs etc.

Note - this is not a full month as I was over a week in when I signed up to YNAB again. The mortgage and car loan and internet/TV license/Netflix had already been paid, I’d done a big shop and had filled the car.

NEEDS £1,194.16
Life insurance - £28.39 1.89hr
Council tax - £334 (two months’ worth) 22.27hr
Energy - £269.73 (actual use) 17.98hr
Nursery fund - £32.98 (monthly levy for consumables, our only childcare cost, will end in June when she leaves nursery) 2.2hr

Groceries - £486.80 32.45hr
Petrol - £35.27 2.35hr
Car maintenance - £6.99 (screen wash) 0.46hr

WANTS (family) £488.50
Subscriptions - £12.99 (YNAB) 0.87hr

Learning - £30.96 (swimming entry x2, kids’ books) 2.06hr

Home - £12.99 (spray mop) 0.87hr

Celebrations - £175.86 (many birthdays, yearly photo book) 11.72hr

Adventures - £68.95 (archery expenses, new kids’ sledge) 4.6hr

Paris trip - £121.75 (travel insurance and new passport) 8.12hr

WANTS (me) £159.71
Subscriptions - £48.16 (phone bill, online membership) 3.21hr

Clothes & make up - £82.60 (2x dresses, make up) 5.51hr

Hobbies & books - £19.25 (kindle books & planner) 1.28hr 

Fun/misc - £9.70 (2x work lunches) 0.65hr

I’m going to come back later and do the reflective questions from the book, but it’s already interesting to go back to thinking of spending in terms of hours of life energy. 

I’m interested, for example, to learn that I’ve spent 5.5 hours working this month to pay for clothes and make up, and I’m curious as to whether I’d feel the need to have bought those if I had achieved FIRE and wasn’t working 🤔 I’m also surprised at the nearly 12 hours for Celebrations, though we do have a lot of birthdays in Jan - it was MIL’s birthday, Red’s sister’s 50th, BIL’s birthday, and the kids had three birthday parties. 

Cheery_Daff

Interesting, I've never worked out that calculation! That does indeed sound like a lot of celebratory activity in one day (EDIT: Month, obviously 😂) 😂

KajiKita

I did an exercise a while back where I worked out my hourly rate in my job, after tax and pension contribution (literally take home pay per month) but including commuting time in my working hours I.e. how many hours I wasn’t living MY life - so how long it takes to earn £10, £50, £100 etc. It was very illuminating and made me reflect on what I was spending on and if it was really worth it. 

KK

LadyWithAPlan

How are you enjoying being back at YNAB? These immediate reports are for me a big part of the benefit - so easy to see where we are choosing to spend our money - I have not done the hr of work life calculation 

on your dresses - I am also a dress lady - the sheer effort of having to find tops - I refuse to do it and they are so easily dressed up or down 

my teenage niece ‘s Xmas list  changed last year and had things like Dior lip oil on (14 yrs old!) 
she now loves Charlotte Tilbury but it’s so expensive cos of the branding - and  I don’t think it’s that great and certainly not better than MAC 
on creams the No 7 boots range are all great and they have deals such as 3 for 2 a lot