Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

joedenise

Although pulses are carby they are also full of Protein so are still a good food as they keep you feeling fuller for longer which is no bad thing.  Your meals today look good (although I'm not sure I could eat broccoli and sugar snaps for breakfast!).  I tend to stir spinach through my scrambled eggs - I also use 3 eggs so that it keeps me full until lunchtime and I don't then need to snack mid morning.

You're doing really well with the weight loss.

QueenJess

I don't have anything useful to add, but just flag waving.  Well done on your weight loss.. slow and steady is the way!

Bluegreen143

Thanks both ❤️ I’m really motivated at the moment. Definitely had a real LBM when it comes to my health. 

Absolutely buzzing today. My mum took my kids for a sleepover last night and I dropped them off before lunch. Red and I had a brilliant afternoon at a country pub we discovered only a 10 min drive away (I didn’t drink) - one of the quirks of our location is we are in the heart of the city, walking distance to both the west end and (a slightly longer walk) the city centre, yet if we are in the car for 5 mins heading north we hit the countryside. Generally if we go for drinks it’s either our local pubs or the west end so it was a lovely change of pace to get to sit out in the beer garden in a more peaceful rural pub! And we went for a lovely wander round the nearby garden centre afterwards too (only bought one baby tomato plant for £1.99). We were musing over what type of stone we want for part of the garden.

Then later we had friends come over for Eurovision watching which was an amazing watch this year - U.K. so close to a win! 

Simple, cheap pleasures - a pint and glass of Diet Coke in a beer garden, a wander round a garden centre, the company of friends at home and most importantly getting to focus on each other for once - really feel our cups are full now. We are going to try to take a day to ourselves as a couple every few weeks to make sure we are prioritising our relationship and not only our parenting roles. After all, our marriage will hopefully last many years after we no longer have children living at home so I want to make sure we keep it strong.

I am taking the kids to softplay today to meet a friend which isn’t cheap, but I’m going to take a sweet and bit of fruit for each of them and not get anything myself, I’ll have my water bottle and not bother about a cup of tea as they always make it too strong for me there anyway and why should I pay £2 for a cup of tea I don’t enjoy 😅 I would prefer to take them outdoors as think it’s better for the kids and free, but my friend wanted softplay and it’ll be a nice treat anyway as we rarely go to softplay now, the kids will be happy 🙂

Baileys_Babe

Bluegreen143 said:

Thanks, both ❤️ I’m really motivated at the moment. Definitely had a real LBM when it comes to my health. 

Absolutely buzzing today. My mum took my kids for a sleepover last night and I dropped them off before lunch. Red and I had a brilliant afternoon at a country pub we discovered only a 10 min drive away (I didn’t drink) - one of the quirks of our location is we are in the heart of the city, walking distance to both the west end and (a slightly longer walk) the city centre, yet if we are in the car for 5 mins heading north we hit the countryside. Generally if we go for drinks it’s either our local pubs or the west end so it was a lovely change of pace to get to sit out in the beer garden in a more peaceful rural pub! And we went for a lovely wander round the nearby garden centre afterwards too (only bought one baby tomato plant for £1.99). We were musing over what type of stone we want for part of the garden.

Then later we had friends come over for Eurovision watching which was an amazing watch this year - U.K. so close to a win! 

Simple, cheap pleasures - a pint and glass of Diet Coke in a beer garden, a wander round a garden centre, the company of friends at home and most importantly getting to focus on each other for once - really feel our cups are full now. We are going to try to take a day to ourselves as a couple every few weeks to make sure we are prioritising our relationship and not only our parenting roles. After all, our marriage will hopefully last many years after we no longer have children living at home so I want to make sure we keep it strong.

I am taking the kids to softplay today to meet a friend which isn’t cheap, but I’m going to take a sweet and bit of fruit for each of them and not get anything myself, I’ll have my water bottle and not bother about a cup of tea as they always make it too strong for me there anyway and why should I pay £2 for a cup of tea I don’t enjoy 😅 I would prefer to take them outdoors as think it’s better for the kids and free, but my friend wanted softplay and it’ll be a nice treat anyway as we rarely go to softplay now, the kids will be happy 🙂

Glad to hear you and Red were able to spend a couple of hours just enjoying being together 😊 Browsing in the garden centre must have been much less stressful without the children distracting you both and to top it off an evening of relaxed socialising - sounds like a wonderful day.

It is a shame your friend wanted to meet at soft play instead of the park, perhaps they or their child has a need that she hasn't shared like easy access to a toilet or perhaps they are one of those people who don't think free things have value.
Sounds like you have done what you can to reduce temptation, enjoy your time with your friend.

Bluegreen143

Thanks @Baileys_Babe it’s just that she’d already promised her child softplay this afternoon and she’s a rather sensitive/spirited wee one! No harm done, the kids are enjoying it, but I’ll prioritise a good walk next week as we’ve not been on a family walk this week.

Bluegreen143

Spending update (mid month):

JOINT £2,033.11
Mortgage £528.86
Council tax £159
Insurances £25.19
Utilities £25.19
TV & subscriptions £36.35
Diesel £135
Parking £2.20
Food £242.51
Cleaning & toiletries £8.49
Household misc £11.85
Misc £19.90
Fun £34.50
Gifts & celebrations £49
Holiday £700
Home & garden £53.47

ME £176.53
Bills £96.54
Clothes £68.50
Hobbies & stuff £4.99
Socialising/dates £6.50

Also need to add today’s grocery delivery, need to get Red to send me the receipt as they go to his email. 

Food remains high, but less so than the last two months. Getting the hang of healthy eating now and have a few go-to cheaper meals like soup (the first two weeks I was mainly making expensive Joe Wicks recipes - I still like these but am making good use of soup and leftovers now). 

My spends will drop a lot from next month as this month includes upgrading my phone handset and the last month of paying for an online course. 

Holiday is just that we had to pay the balance for our week away (in Scotland) this summer. 

Diesel is outrageous given the car is only used for commuting once a week, short local drives and the occasional outing or visit, we even get almost all groceries and purchases delivered so hardly go shopping! But not sure we can do much about it at this point, except walk the school run or to the shops wherever possible. But with a rushed schedule and small kids, it’s not always possible.

Fun is one softplay outing and the kids’ pocket money.

Doing this detailed tracking is useful to check how much we are spending on gifts each month - Red has a big family - I may need to put more aside in this pot to ensure it’s covered.

HEALTH UPDATE
Still keeping on track with workouts and nutrition, and have lost 8lb in 4.5 weeks - yay! 

Bluegreen143

Stuck to plan today:

B - smoked salmon on two slices toast

L - leftover beef & mushroom stew 

S - raspberries and grapes

D - lentil & veg soup

Worked during school hours, as normal (worked from home today) and went to the gym before dinner. Apart from that, all I’ve done today is help Monkey with his homework, read to the children, read a bit of my book and just now putting Bridgerton on to watch (guilty pleasure). Would like to do some batch cooking but I’m tired now after the gym 😂

Bluegreen143

Today’s meals:

B - banana and chocolate milkshake with protein powder

L - salmon, ratatouille and asparagus 

S - Greek yoghurt with a drizzle of maple syrup and 15g dark chocolate chips

D - HM chicken tikka masala, small scoop rice and lots of broccoli & green beans - kids had frozen pizza and carrot sticks (we usually do similar meal as us, but they requested pizza this week and we’ve not had it in ages). 

Did a short bodyweight workout before dinner.

No spending today. Did make double of lunch, and extra of dinner, so have the next two days lunches sorted 🙂 even more important as I’m
in the office tomorrow and buying from the food van would not help my budget or my diet!

Going to make spag bol sauce tonight and then that’s tomorrow’s dinner prepared too. We have a busy few days ahead.

Bluegreen143

Feel like I’m at that point in the month where there’s not lots to say on the budget! 

Red spent around £18 on a kite for our holidays, apparently a very nice kite 😅 we are away on a long weekend at the start of June then a week away the end of June (start of Scottish school holidays) so the kite will get good use and the children love kites. Trying to decide if it goes in the holiday budget or fun budget or kids budget now 😂

Meals:

B - chocolate & banana smoothie

L - leftover HM chicken tikka masala

D - spaghetti bolognaise 

No snacks, I’m not finding I always need one now, but if I do need something mid afternoon I’ll have it.

Worked in the office today, then had a friend and her girls her for an afterschool play date - they love arts & crafts and we have a very well stocked art cubby so they are always happy! Then went to the gym after dinner and had a bath.

Really struggling to find the time/energy to get all the housework/cleaning done right now. All this exercise (and extra batch cooking) takes up time plus it means I’m physically tired in the evening so not really up to cleaning. Plus work has been stressful too 🙁 I basically had a breakdown at Red a couple of weeks ago so he spent two solid days cleaning everything, which was very good of him but he’s not done anything since (so now all the floors/bathrooms etc need done again) and it was really a sustainable solution I was after not a one off deep clean 😅 will need to gently bring it up again without sounding ungrateful for his previous efforts. He does work longer hours than me and is spending a lot of time doing physical work in the gardening and building wooden raised beds right now so I know he’s busy and tired too.

Friends have suggested a cleaner but I really don’t want to jeopardise our financial goals any more given that the cost of living rises have already eroded how much we can save.

MissRikkiC

We use a cleaner every fortnight and whilst it’s such a luxury; it’s incredibly helpful. We tidy and they clean and in between it’s not awful. It’s not for everyone, some people I know for sure would rather keep the cash, or maybe aren’t fortunate enough to have it spare for such things but if it helps your peace of mind and also relationships too, and you can afford it, I highly recommend it.