Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

themadvix

Hmm... yes, it seems schools are very good at that with little ones' 'homework' - more for the parent than the child. I'm not even a parent and it makes me cross! (But the fact it's an octopus did make me smile - it reminds me of the octopus at the nativity in Love Actually!)

Baileys_Babe

I am not in favour of homework particularly for primary aged children as it eats into family time which is very important IMO, yet another reason we home educate.

I do understand that homework can help some pupils especially those with supportive parents and home situations but that isn't the case for many.

From talking to and witnessing friends with their families it can dominate the time between finishing school and bedtime with no time to relax, enjoy themselves, try things out and find out who they are.

Bluegreen143

@Baileys_Babe I tend to agree with you. Especially because school already takes up so much of the day and it’s really important to me that they get outdoor time, free play and time with us… it’s a lot to fit in. 

At the moment it’s not onerous, we tend to do about 10 or 15 minutes of homework a day Mon-Thu but I know it will get more substantial in later years. The school say that the homework is particularly important given they are learning in their second language, to help reinforce their language skills but I’m not convinced the “worksheets on an app” approach that so much of the homework takes is that helpful. I’d find it more useful if they provided us with cheat sheets for simple conversations in Gaelic, flash cards to stick up round the house and ideas for games to play to incorporate vocabulary and maths skills.

We have a decent after school routine at the moment - Mon-Thu I’ve got them both by 3.30pm, if it’s dry we go to the children’s wood or local playpark for up to an hour, if it’s wet we go home and they get an hour to play at home. Then some homework and time to read. I try to get them into the bath by 4.45pm so that once they are clean (they like to play in there for 30 minutes) and in PJs they can have 30-45 minutes of TV time before we have dinner at 6pm. Bathing before dinner means a more relaxed pre-bed routine as they are in bed by 7.30pm, so it gives us time to do the kitchen clean up as a family, play a game or two and read stories before bed whereas when we used to bath them after dinner it meant one parent was stuck cleaning up by themselves.

On Fridays we tend to have a playdate so I skip bath/homework/TV time as needed to let them get a couple of hours of playing in with whichever friends we are meeting. 

It’s a decent routine in that we hit most of my priorities - outdoor time, play, reading, family dinner, time together - but it does feel like everything is squeezed in a bit and this is why I’ve resisted afterschool activities so far. If there was any more homework than we have currently it would definitely feel like a burden.

As for today’s list, our mortgage company have confirmed preapproval of extra borrowing 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 and I’ve got the application completely done ready to post this afternoon. Also paid £120 for revaluing the house. We’ve asked for £29,000 which will put our total mortgage back up to £138k, just slightly more than it was when we bought the house! Once the conservatory is built and paid for we will prioritise overpaying to try to take that down again as quickly as possible. 

As for details of the extra borrowing, it will be fixed at 1.7% for three years (to coincide with when the fix ends for our main mortgage, in the hope we will be able to combine them in one remortgage at that time.

Hoping it doesn’t take TOO long (though I know it’ll be about 8 weeks) as I now can’t wait to pay the conservatory company their deposit and get the ball rolling so it’s hopefully done by summer!

Baileys_Babe

I am very impressed with your routine and discipline to be able to follow your families principles.

You manage all of that, being in paid employment, cooking delicious healthy meals, being environmentally conscious - you are awesome.

MissRikkiC

I also admire the routine. We still do bath time after dinner as it’s always been part of the evening routine but I may consider a bath earlier come the summer/autumn with the 2nd little one having been here by then, it might be better to do it earlier so that little #1 can have some time to herself in her bedroom before she’s joined by her younger sibling. Food for thought thank you. 

We too have asked for a bit extra on our mortgage this time, in order to complete home renovations (much needed!) and will put us having borrowed more now than we did initially with this house, but only by the amount we’ve added so the fact that there was an ERC has pretty much wiped the benefit of the money we’d paid off to date. 

But it’s all necessary for long term happiness. 

Maybe worth bearing in mind with your conservatory, if it’s not the standard type on the back (and middle) of the house but instead is the width of the property, it seems it’s deemed another reception room if you ever came to sell which attracts more value than the usual type, obviously  classed as a conservatory. 

It’s created us an extra £5k on the house value vs our neighbour who’s house is the same yet, with a usual type conservatory

Bluegreen143

@Baileys_Babe that is such a nice thing to say - thank you!!

@MissRikkiC it’s a bit trial and error with kids’ routines isn’t it! I find it useful to consider every routine as there for a season rather than being permanent. Bath after dinner worked really well for us for years, but right now it just feels it fits better before. That said when my second was a baby, my eldest had A LOT of baths as he would often play in the bath for a full hour letting me feed the baby in peace in the afternoon, then I’d let him have another bath before bed 😅 

Re today’s list:

1. Speak to mortgage company - done, application posted and valuation fee paid

2. Set up online account with new energy suppliers and take meter reads - didn’t get round to this but delegated meter reading to DH to do tomorrow 😅

3. Mealplan done, Tesco order done and I’ve signed up with my local greengrocers again, this time to get a fruit only box. One of the things putting me off the veg box is that with fussy kids we end up wasting the veg if it’s too unusual. So for now I’m going to buy veg from the supermarket but get a lovely weekly box of fresh greengrocer fruit for snacks and baking with - feels like a nice compromise. Monkey and I will eat any kind of fruit, Bambi is pickier but likes apples, bananas, satsumas, grapes, berries. Box is £10 (but you get plenty, I’ve had it from them previously) and £2 for delivery. I can pick up instead, and save the £2, but you need to pay for parking where the greengrocer is so once you factor that cost in it’s not really worth it and just gives me an extra errand to do.

4. Daily chores done including washing dried

5. Monkey’s homework started and we practised some Gaelic songs too. It’s very sweet as Bambi requested a Gaelic story too before bed - usually I need to find the recording online as they are all too hard for me to read, but she picked a super easy baby book today so I attempted it myself. 

Felt like a really lovely day today. Managed to get to the park as planned. We had a lot of fun wrestling on the rug after dinner - the kids love a game we call “the lying down game” - the parent (in this case Red) has to lie down and the kids attempt to stop them getting up. Of course Red has to moderate his strength so the kids win but it’s very funny to see tiny Bambi perched on him thinking she’s holding him down 🤣

Dinner tonight was the planned for tomato & cream pasta with cannellini beans and spinach in - served with a side salad for us and cucumber sticks for the kids. Enough left for my lunch tomorrow.

Bluegreen143

Tomorrow’s list:

1. Clean both bathrooms 

2. Clean out cat tray

3. If I have time, set up the online account for new energy supplier

4. Daily chores (tidying, laundry, dishes/kitchen, feed pets)

5. Finish helping Monkey make octopus costume

Dinner plans - butter chicken (bulked out with cauliflower & chickpeas), naan breads, rice, raw veggies

Bluegreen143

Argh, Tesco shop is coming today and Red has added £15 worth of stuff to it 😡 I used to go through last thing and remove stuff he’d added but we agree that’s controlling and not good for our relationship. But equally we are going over budget every week! I don’t mind him adding some stuff I’ve forgotten or that he needs but it used to be like £5, now it’s £15-20 of stuff every week. I’ve asked him to cover £8 of it from his personal spends as that’s stuff I think was unnecessary.

Shop comes to £110(!) and includes:

- lots of lemons (Red added more without noticing I had them in there 🙄)

- fruit (bananas, apples, strawberries, raspberries, satsumas, grapes)

- veg (carrots, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, lettuce, rocket, spinach, peppers, coriander, garlic, red cabbage, mushrooms, spring onions, onions)

- potatoes 

- cheddar, soft cheese, Greek yoghurt 1kg, butter x3, 6 eggs (lazy chickens not laying yet!), single cream 

- hot smoked salmon fillets (a treat for my lunches), ham

- wraps, mini naans, sliced bread x2, sourdough, burger buns 

- instant coffee 

- chicken breasts 1kg, mince 750g, sausages

- frozen peas 

- mayonnaise, soy sauce, extra virgin olive oil, basmati rice, dried oregano, big bag of cooking salt, pasta, chopped tomatoes, cannellini beans, breadsticks, peanut butter

- chocolate chips, plain flour, granulated & Demerara sugars, ice cream sauce,

- cheap cola, crisps for Red, bunny bites crisps for kids

- comes from pet budget - cat litter 

- dishwasher tabs

- Red added: sharing crisps, mini chocolate bars, 2 bags of pasta, gram flour, ketchup, big tub of haribo, a lint brush, marmalade & little sticky toffee puddings (both for his mum staying), croissants, own brand Cheerios, extra lemons 

I don’t want to say he can’t have things he wants. Obviously that’s ridiculous when we aren’t on a low income anymore. But why does he feel the need to sabotage our food budget with adding so much extra?! He has a terrible habit of adding stuff which is already in the basket or often adds perishable treats he doesn’t end up eating. 

Sorry for the rant! He’s obviously got many, many good traits but I know many people on here can relate to the budget-sabotaging husband!

MissRikkiC

That would have annoyed me too. Our equivalent is hub just taking from the food spends because he’s paid on his account then can’t remember what he bought! 

I would now give Red the task of using the extra lemons and pack his lunches for him with the snacks he bought 😂 maybe he won’t like that given your explained dynamic but might make him realise 

Bluegreen143

Haha @MissRikkiC he did buy the snacks for his lunches mainly!

Successful day today - here’s how I got on with my list:

1. Clean both bathrooms - I cleaned the downstairs one!

2. Clean out cat tray - done 

3. Set up online account for new energy supplier & send meter reads - done

4. Daily chores & feeding pets - done 

5. Monkey’s costume for Vocabulary Day - done 

Didn’t get round to the upstairs bathroom so that’s going on tomorrow’s list. But I forgot that, as the Tesco delivery was coming today at lunchtime, I needed to put it all away as was the only one home so that took a whole.

Made a truly delicious dinner - griddled tandoori chicken, butter chicken sauce (but I served them separate in case the kids didn’t like the sauce!) with cauliflower & spinach in, homemade naans and rice. Absolutely gorgeous, got the seasoning just right. And I have a tub left for lunch tomorrow! Even the kids ate their chicken and naans (and raw pepper I put out) and Monkey ate a lot of his curry sauce by dipping the naan in, Bambi didn’t like the sauce but ate her rice. Serving the chicken separately is really helping with a lot of curry type dishes and actually it was much nicer because the chicken was all charred and lovely. 

When I was marinading the chicken for the curry I also cut up the other half of the pack and marinaded separately for fajitas tomorrow so that feels good to be organised.

Spent 45p at the Zero Waste Shop on salt because it didn’t come in the Tesco shop and also picked up a free kids game in their swap shop section (I didn’t have something to put in today but I’ve put lots in before).