Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

Bluegreen143

Minor splurge - spent £20 yesterday on 3x wall file holders - Red put two of them up next to our dining table to hold homework materials and it looks so cute! And will stop things getting lost or mixed up. The third will go over my work desk.

BUT in a more MSE development, MIL has given us some nice grey curtains she doesn’t need in her new flat so we’ve replaced the living room curtains for free. They have desperately needed it since about 12 months ago when Red decided the old set were too long and hacked them far too short then used a stapler to try and hem them 😅 we have lived with them since then as we have always had other priorities for our cash, but our waiting has now paid off 😆 the freebie curtains are actually way nicer than the old set too.

Baileys_Babe

Just don't let Red make any adjustments to this set 😄

Bluegreen143

So it’s only the 5th of March and we have spent loads in March already 🤦‍♀️. A little bit has been frivolous spending, but I’m happy with most of it. 

Here’s a round-up below:

Joint budget £1,108.64
Home bills £444.85
TV & subscriptions £23.37
Food £34.80
Household £7.85
Treats £8.47
Petrol £49
Pets £208
Family & fun £44.40
Misc 90p
Birthdays £12.01
Home & garden £269.99
Kids £5

Me £101.45 - mainly bills & subscriptions, plus one book.

Notes
1. The Pet category is mainly the vets bill so was unavoidable.
2. Home & garden is high because we just ordered lots of wood to build raised beds 
3. Family & fun is high because we got a takeaway on Thursday. We also got £10 in an anniversary card from a relative which we put into this pot towards buying some alcohol to share at our friends’ house this weekend (if we go) so rather than alcohol going in our personal pots, I logged it here this week.
4. Treats is high because we’ve had a rubbish couple of days (with the cat then Monkey being unwell) so Red bought some Easter eggs and sharing crisps to cheer us up when he did the shopping.

I can’t remember if I said, but because it’ll be a couple of months til we need most of the conservatory savings (so we have time to rebuild them), I decided to use a lot of them to get one month buffered. Aka I budgeted out the whole month on the 28th Feb. When I get paid, I’ll put my whole wage back into the savings pot then use money from that pot to budget April in advance (but the amount left for the conservatory will have built up a good bit). I find budgeting much easier when you can do the whole month at once.

Bluegreen143

Argh Monkey has Covid 🤦‍♀️ 

Honeysucklelou2

Sorry to read about your cat. Hope that Monkey isn’t feeling too rough with Covid. My younger children had very few symptoms and got through quite quickly.

Bluegreen143

Thanks @Honeysucklelou2. He was quite unwell on Friday but seems ok now. Of course he can’t go back to school next week. I suspect we’ll all catch it but we’ll see! It’s not possible to isolate yourself from such young children as we have so we haven’t tried. When he was unwell on Friday he wanted a lot of cuddles, bless him.

In more MSE news, I made some blood orange marmalade with some of the many blood oranges the greengrocer has supplied us with in our fruit box 😅 I’m not a huge fan of normal marmalade - I find it way too bitter - but I made lovely marmalade with normal sweet oranges in 2020. I loved it but even my MIL, who is a huge marmalade fan, liked it too and kept taking more jars when she came to visit 🤣 

The blood orange marmalade tastes good, lovely and sweet, but it’s over set so I reboiled it up with some extra water this morning and fingers crossed it it’s more spreadable when it’s cooled 😅 it was only a small batch of two jars so it’s fine anyway. Will cook the next batch for less time.

As we can’t go out and the weather is lovely this weekend, we spent a lot of yesterday in the garden doing various jobs. We need to move a lot of things out of the building zone where the conservatory will be, and DH dug up and replanted a small apple tree - hope it will survive.

Baileys_Babe

Sorry to hear about Monkey, I hope he makes a speedy and full recovery. Fingers crossed nobody else succumbs 🤞

Bluegreen143

Such a busy day at work today, but had a great time after work. 

Spent a bit of time in the garden in the sunshine chatting to Red, then the children played very peacefully together all afternoon allowing Red to do some sanding and me to make chicken & sweetcorn pie and chips from scratch - I’ve not made pie for ages and it was delicious! 

Of course the children were fairly unimpressed but you can’t win them all 🤣 (I LOVED chicken pie for dinner as a child so think they are mad). 

Bluegreen143

Quick monthly spending update 

JOINT £1,227.14

Home bills £468.13
TV & subs £25.36
Petrol £49
Food £104.25
Household £12.71
Treats £23.02
Pets £194.53
Family & fun £44.51
Misc £13.85
Birthdays & celebrations £21.10
Home & garden £269.99
Reconciliation adjustment 69p

ME £101.45

Bills & subs £98.12
Fun £3.33

So far the rest of the family are still testing negative, but Monkey had a faint positive today (day 6). Hoping he gets out of isolation by Saturday then things can get a bit more normal with food/treat spending. Our budget has suffered by Red doing two shops for me 😂

Baileys_Babe

I am pleased to hear the rest of the family are still negative.

I am with you on the OH shopping having a negative effect on the budget, my OH went to buy the fresh fruit and vegetables earlier in the week, he bought everything on the list plus a sketch pad for himself 🤔