Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

Bluegreen143

Erm so a busy day today… not much of my list got done.

Drove Monkey into school today instead of him getting the bus because I was meeting a friend and her 3yo in the park next to the school (her elder daughter goes to the school too). Unfortunately I massively mistimed how long it would take (I’ve only ever driven him in during rush hour once before as I always send him in the bus in the morning, and I hadn’t factored in that it takes longer at that time) and then a road was closed so I had to park quite far away and walk down - his first day being late to school 😭 he said the teacher was fine about it though. 

Got in nearly two hours outdoor time with my friend as we did the playpark and then a cafe and then the museum and they were spread out so lots of walking between them. Spent an extortionate £12.50 in the cafe on two very posh hot chocolate and two cakes (of course Bambi didn’t even like her cake 🙄 mine was nice but it wasn’t really worth the money, it was very icy outside though so we were trying to warm the little ones up). Also spent £4.50 on parking - hazard of living so close to the west end is that almost everywhere I go is paid for parking.

They are annoyingly extending the paid for parking zone very soon right up to a mile away from our house - it will encompass the street that nursery is on/the school bus comes to, and because of the road layout there’s not really anywhere you can park closer than our estate for free even though it’s nearly a mile away. So I’ll either need to embrace walking (but not sure I can manage this with my working hours) or have to pay a small amount each school day to park 😭 it’s 20p each time if you have change or 50p if you need to use the app.

Anyway, re my list - got Red’s valentines card made this afternoon, tidied/hoovered everywhere downstairs and cleaned the upstairs bathroom. Will shuffle other tasks to the weekend as I’m off to my sister’s tonight for our monthly craft night we have with my mum. I’ll be doing the same embroidery I do every time as I never pick it up in between 🤣

Took the kids to the playpark after school too so I think we are at nearly 3 hours outdoor time today - been ages since we’ve had much at all so that’s good! Will need to total up for the year to date.

Bluegreen143

Urgh, got to bed late last night, stupidly sat up late reading on my phone, was too wired to sleep then Bambi decided to wake up and come in our bed and spend all night kicking me! Very tired today so quite a slow start to this morning.

We did take the kids to the transport museum today, which they enjoyed and only cost £3.50 to park as it’s free entry and we took a picnic. 

On the way home we stopped at the wee Tesco, spent £4 on twirls and nice ice cream and I made us all something very similar to the soft ice cream with chocolate blended in which you get at a week known fast food outlet starting with M 😆 not healthy but delicious and cheap compared to getting ice cream out (as most of the tub is now in the freezer). Followed by sitting down to watch Cinderella with the children (the original Disney animated version) because we went to see the Cinderella pantomime this year plus I got Bambi a Cinderella lift the flap type board book for Christmas so she’s now fascinated. Ice cream + movie is about my energy level - Red is now helping the kids tidy up their playroom. 

Porridgecat

We loved the Transport museum when we went a few years ago (pre-pandemic) with friends. Have you gone to the Falkirk wheel? although that might be better in nicer weather.

Bluegreen143

No we haven’t @Porridgecat though it’s on our list! Bambi was so awful in the car as a baby that it’s only now we feel brave enough to venture further afield 😅

We used to go to the transport museum a lot but have been less often in the last two years because of the pandemic (though have still managed an occasional visit). It used to only be £1 to park for four hours both there and Kelvingrove museum so as a skint SAHM with tinies at home they were very very regular haunts. Actually I went to Kelvingrove with Bambi on Friday too so hitting both museums this week. 

Bluegreen143

Nice if unproductive day today. Took MIL “home” (well to BIL’s where she is staying til she moves to her new flat in a week) after her being here for the weekend. He’s only 20 minutes drive away but it was my good deed for the day as she was going to get a taxi.

Then my dad and papa came to visit. Papa likes to bring me goodies from when he does a Costco or other stock up shop and we had 2x toilet roll 9 packs, umpteen kitchen rolls, a huge peanut butter jar, four packs of wet wipes and a maple syrup jug today which was very kind and appreciated. I don’t usually buy wet wipes now they are out of nappies due to the non eco nature of them (and even when they were in nappies we often used cloth) but I won’t look free ones in the mouth as handy for wiping little hands and faces out and about! Last time he brought me loads so I did hand on a multi pack to a friend with a baby which she was appreciative of. 

Had lunch out which my dad paid for, and is doubly MSE (for me) as he is very encouraging of us getting multiple courses. The children never need a proper dinner after - they are just about to sit down to a slice of toast before bed instead. So feeling very cared for today! Red and I are going to have HM chips, cheese and HM coleslaw after the kids are in bed as a slightly naughty treat. We’ve been like ships in the night this weekend so hoping to treat tonight as a mini “date night in”. Though Red is hungover after his big boy’s night out last night 🤣 (he very very rarely goes out and used his own money - I was super impressed he saved some of his budget from last month for it, for the first time ever btw!). 

Today’s list was:

▪️ Change bedding - delegated to Red and he did this when I was out being lunched! ✔️ 
▪️ Bake with the children - did apple muffins ✔️ 
▪️Make sure online food order is done for tomorrow’s delivery - done ✔️ 
▪️General daily carousel of housework and pet care - done except for a living room tidy when children go to bed, I even got them to tidy up their playroom which was a tip yet again. Needs decluttered. ✔️ 
▪️Make Gaelic conversation prompts/flash cards to stick up at dining table and encourage us to speak Gaelic at mealtimes - hoping to start on this this evening, but want to spend some time with Red first (hardly seen him this weekend!) so I’ll see if I have time after. 

Spending update 

Today
- Red picked up some mozzarella and 6 eggs (unclear on why the eggs as we already have 6 with no particular plans to use them beyond baking - shop bought too as malingering chickens not laying yet!!). Will check price with him though he may have used his own money. 

Yesterday
- £5 in Tesco on nice ice cream and chocolate for making fancy desserts 🙈
- £3.50 on parking at the museum 

Friday
- £13 on ridiculously overpriced, but nice, cake and hot chocolate for Bambi & I
- £5 on parking 
- £15 on a card and champagne for one of the BILs and his new fiancée, to congratulate them on the engagement
- £48 on petrol as I utterly failed to make the tank stretch to my payday tomorrow. Alarmingly, we’ve done enough driving this weekend that it’s already down at the 3/4 mark. My “fill up twice a month on each of our paydays” schedule may not be quite working 🙄
- £5 on the children’s pocket money (Bambi gets a token £1 a week and Monkey gets £4)

Feels a bit spendy!! But only regret the cafe spend a bit and the rest I’m ok with 😅 except if Red had asked me, I’d have made a card for BIL myself. Although my card making is very much of the rustic, slightly childish variety so can’t blame Red if he wanted a more professional effort 😆

Bluegreen143

Today I’m off work. I messed up the half term as asked Red to take the wrong days off this week 😅🙄 so I’ve swapped my non working day to cover today, and he will watch Bambi on Friday instead as he’s off then. I do have one meeting I couldn’t move as it was a short notice day off, so the children can watch a bit of TV then. Just got them to help tidy up and we are waiting on my Tesco delivery just now, meeting is 10-11am then the rest of the day is ours. Meeting up with a friend in the park later and as it’s dry I want to get the children out in the garden and do a bit of a tidy up out there too later. 

Today’s list

▪️Update YNAB
▪️Phone stepdad to ask if he can help with childcare tomorrow
▪️Book cat into vets for a check up as she is getting awful skinny now she’s getting older and I’m concerned
▪️Do some cooking/baking - thinking iced biscuits, maybe cookie dough for the freezer, chicken burrito filling for the freezer and hummus

Bluegreen143

Well just after I posted, my Tesco delivery appeared! This is the first of my “mini” shops, where I’m doing a shop on both Mondays and Fridays. 

Total cost £35.14 because I’d ordered printer paper, staples and strawberries all of which were apparently out of stock. Will either pick the stationery up in another shop or will order from Amazon, and we can probably live with the fruit we have for a couple of days as we get our fruit box delivery on Wed.

What we received:

pastrami
cocktail sausages
1kg chicken breasts
medium cheddar
ham
frozen sweetcorn
cling film
wet cat food
wraps
food bags
bananas
rice wine vinegar
tinned tomatoes x3
tomato puree
6pk crisps
dry cat food
tinned pineapple
cucumber
cherry tomatoes
tin foil

£4.90 was from the pet budget and £30.24 was groceries.

Mealplan is:

Mon 14 - DH and I getting a takeaway, pasta for kids

Tues 15 - chicken pasta (sauce from freezer)

Wed 16 - sweet & sour chicken and rice 

Thu 17 - chicken burritos

Will be interesting to see what our Friday spend is, but it’s Red’s birthday on Sunday so he may want steak.

Bluegreen143

Working from home today with the kids off 🙄 but thankfully my stepdad has agreed to come over and play with the them for a few hours to give me a chance to work properly. 

Tomorrow is the last day of half term and Red is off on annual leave. I only realised last night he won’t have the car as my manager has asked me to work in the office - a bit of a pain as his mum wanted him to drive her to her new flat to sign her lease. 

Yesterday was busy - we got the Tesco delivery, I had a work meeting.

I took the kids to Tesco and spent £38 - £28 on plants (a rose bush, an apple tree, a cherry tree and 2x little hyacinth pots), most of the rest on a ream of printer paper, pack of staples and box of sticky labels. Also accidentally spent £5 on a kid’s toy - the kids saw something they wanted to get with their pocket money which had a £12 shelf sticker under it, so Bambi put in £3 and Monkey put in £9. I took the cash and put it in with my shop. Only when I got home did I realise that it had scanned at £17 🙄 

We then spent some time in the garden and met a friend in the park for 2hr.

I got paid yesterday too - £1,484 - which I’m pleased with (first pay since my pay rise and it’s an extra £70). 

I managed to get three hours outdoors yesterday as the weather was glorious. That’s 40 hours for the year. I’d hoped it would be higher but will keep trying to change my habits and get outdoors whenever I can. 

Yesterday’s list 

▪️Update YNAB - done ✔️
▪️Phone stepdad re babysitting - done ✔️ 
▪️Book cat into vets for a checkup - not done as the vets have “temporarily shut” (I think for Covid) so I’ll try them again in a few days 
▪️Cooking/baking - only got hummus done which we ate for lunch, because of ending up spending so much time out
▪️Instead of doing my baking I did turn the compost so that when we plant the trees I’ve now got lots of lovely homemade compost to put in around them

Spending

Tesco £35.14 - £4.90 pets & rear groceries

Tesco £38 - £28 home & garden, £5 kids, £5 misc

Bluegreen143

Thought I’d do a separate post to round up the budget since I got paid.

My salary - £1,484

£296 - this is the 20% I put in my personal budget, including £50 to my LISA

£1,188 - my contribution to the joint budget, broken down as below:

- £200 holiday
- £63 petrol 
- £909 conservatory savings pot 
- £16 misc 

Basically I had to fill up the holiday pot, I added a bit to petrol and misc which were low, and all the rest went to savings. Really, really pleased with £909 savings this month. This is on top of £100 contribution to our Help to Save accounts which came out of Red’s salary earlier. So over £1,000 into joint savings this month as well as putting £50 into my LISA 🎉 🎉 🎉 

Obviously this relies on me sticking to budget and not raiding savings but I’m determined to leave them where they are. If we can continue to save £900-1000 most months post conservatory (we won’t be able to in the summer hols if we take some unpaid leave of course) we will be in such a strong position for overpaying.

joedenise

@Bluegreen143 - couldn't Red drop you off at work so that he has the car tomorrow?  That's what I have to do if I want the car these days when DH wants to play golf - but it's a similar situation.

I know you'd need to get the kids into the car but it wouldn't hurt for them to go in the car in their PJs and Red get them dressed when he gets them back home!

You're doing well with he savings.