Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

rugbymadfamily

Welcome to the MFW board! 
Cake looks delicious!!!! Enjoy :-)

Sarahwithlove

That looks so good 😍

Baileys_Babe

That cake is awesome, I would like to borrow your idea for dd's birthday cake. Could you kindly share the recipe?

Bluegreen143

@Baileys_Babe I consulted a couple of recipes but kind of used ideas from a few.

I started a big batch of sponge batter, creaming 350g butter/350g caster sugar, gradually added 6 eggs and 2tsp orange extract, then split it in half. One half I sifted in 175g SR flour and stirred through a bit of orange gel colouring. The other I sifted in 150g SR flour + 25g cocoa powder. Baked for around 30 mins in a 160C fab oven in greased 20cm sandwich tins.

The icing was chocolate buttercream - I do 200g soft butter + 600g icing sugar + 80g cocoa powder + 2tsp orange extract (but I’d increase that next time) in the mixer, when it looks like sand pour in 80ml of milk. Beat at high speed for at least 5 minutes until very light and fluffy. 

Bluegreen143

No spends to report today! Good day though 😁

We do our weekly cleaning on a Sunday now since the start of the year and it’s working so well. Obviously dishes/kitchen, making beds, doing washings, tidying up etc happen through the week. But on a Sunday morning we set a timer for one hour, I tend to take upstairs + both bathrooms and Red takes downstairs, and we hoover/mop/scrub/change the bedding/empty bins etc as fast as we can. Bambi just toddles about making a mess but Monkey does help to an extent. When the timer stops we down tools and that’s us for a week! Ok, we aren’t getting to things like cleaning ovens or woodwork etc in that time but it’s still good to know all the basic stuff is done before I start work on Mondays. We were discussing today how a lot of our friends who have kids have cleaners and actually for the sake of one hour a week each we don’t wish we had one ourselves at all, it feels very manageable to fit it in even with both working. I think cleaners are at least £10-12 per hour so £20 a week minimum saved there! To be fair my friends with cleaners all have huge houses (small houses are underrated!) and some have less helpful spouses!

Made a loaf today for soup night tomorrow along with prepping two tubs of overnight oats (one raspberry, one blueberry) and making a double batch of hummus (one we ate today and the other frozen). I’ve not been doing my usual stuff in the kitchen so it was great to be organised today - I also chopped up a tub of salad ready for my lunches the next couple of days and I can just top with tinned fish or whatever.

Baileys_Babe

Thank you @Bluegreen143 for sharing your recipe, off to add chocolate orange to the shopping list 😋

Bluegreen143

Have had a little girl with the runs here (sorry tmi) so am having to reschedule her first nursery sessions! Typical! However Monkey is loving being back. Will need to tighten up the morning timings for when Red goes back to work - it’s an adjustment after no early starts for ages!

No financial news or spends to report, except I will need to buy Monkey another pair of indoor nursery shoes as his have vanished since he was last there in December (I think maybe they were the size he was outgrowing so I probably threw them out, so that’s fine). Bambi also needs a couple of new pairs of leggings and possibly pants as some got totally ruined when she was having her tummy troubles... hopefully she’s ok now as it’s been nearly 24 hours with nothing, and we may be able to get the first settle session rebooked at the end of this week 🤞🏼 Will just pick up cheap shoes & leggings at Tesco.

rugbymadfamily

Poor girl, hope she continues recovering. I hear you on the early mornings, going tonbe a right shock to the system whenever I return to the office lol. I love overnight oats, have yet to convert my husband though!

Hope things still going well with the job and you're settling in well.

pepperwand

I'll be following your diary with interest @Bluegreen143 as we're in a very similar position with two young children, we're in our 30s and mortgage is due to finish in 2046!! Aiming to knock 10 years off that if we can.

Baileys_Babe

I have told the children by 9.30 they need to be washed, dressed, feed. They hardly ever manage. Virtually every morning I end up going in and waking ds, despite his alarm annoying the rest of the house for over an hour.
We do set consequences if they don't manage but with little effect.
When the schools are open the local pupils go passed our house at about 8.20 am and my pair can not grasp that if we didn't HE they would need to be up and out with them.
If anyone knows what magic I need to perform to get them up in the morning, please share 🙂