Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

Bluegreen143

Managed to do a good job at keeping up with the housework this morning by getting all my morning chores done first thing and allocating myself a 20 minute break from work in the afternoon to tidy everywhere (I ate my lunch at my desk so this was instead of a lunch break) and I’d also made the soup for tonight in the pressure cooker this morning, so was able to use the pre-dinner hour to get the kitchen done. I’m not a huge clean freak but feel so much better when I’m top of tidying and dishes and washings!! 

Meals today
B - yoghurt bowl

L - salmon w/ broccoli, spinach and cherry tomato & a little bacon

S - made lovely fresh crepes for the kids and succumbed to having some myself with maple syrup and strawberries 🙈

D - broccoli cheese soup (with bread for the family but I skipped it) and homemade chocolate mousse

OK not a great day for my diet 😂 BUT crepes, broccoli cheese soup and chocolate mousse are all new foods for my kids. Monkey ate and loved all of them. Bambi was suspicious of the crepes but ate a bit, loved the soup and ate half her mousse (she said she liked it so think she was just full). Which I’m counting as a big win in my mission to get more variety in my kids’ diet.

As sweet treats go, mousse and crepes aren’t the worst health wise (didn’t add sugar to either, though there was sugar in the chocolate of course), but they are super frugal as they both use up eggs which we have in abundance 😂 I noted on another thread, since I used the 30p cooking chocolate from Tesco, the mousse was under 10p per head. 

Finances
Red’s payday tomorrow and new month the day after, yay!

Red has booked the car for a full service on Thu AM before we have a long journey to the caravan park, which is £220 for them to come do it here, but it will fall into next month’s budget.

He’s very very clever as the flush broke on the downstairs toilet and he fixed it himself for a £7.50 spend on the part. He checked and it would have cost £150 to get a plumber.

Bluegreen143

Red’s payday today so having fun budgeting 😅 budget runs calendar months but no planned expenses today. Will round up the month’s figures later.

I did order a very big whiteboard for our kitchen wall (£45) - we had the money in our Home pot and it is to replace a messy looking bunch of little blackboards, calendars and stuck up bits of paper and bring it all together in one place on a different wall. I was just going to move all the individual elements to the new wall we want it on but Red suggested replacing it and I think he’s right. I’ll stick the small blackboards up in the playroom instead and the children can use them 🙂

I’ve been able add £680ish to our emergency fund with this pay which I’m really pleased about as it was empty before that (I decided to use our existing savings for a one month buffer as I get paid on the 15th, which is why we can now budget the whole month at once). Once it’s at £1k we will go back to saving for a wood burning stove for our conservatory. No rush as it isn’t built yet!

Bluegreen143

Last month’s spending round up:

INCOME: £3,617.05

JOINT SPENDING: £2,748.18
Mortgage £528.86
Council tax £159
Insurances £225.19
Utilities £225.19

Diesel £156
Parking £8.90
Food £492.59
Cleaning/toiletries £23.98
Household misc £35.18
Kids - clothes £33
Kids - other £62

TV & subs £36.35
Gifts & celebrations £49
Holidays £200
Home & garden £99.46
Fun £68
Misc £19.90

MY SPENDING £279.62
Bills £183.69
Clothes £68.50
Fun £27.43

TOTAL SPENDING £3,027.80

AMOUNT LEFTOVER: £589.25

Bluegreen143

Got some good financial news yesterday- work have made my fixed term contract permanent! While I’m conflicted as to whether I want to stay in this career long term, I don’t want to be forced into job hunting when not ready, or end up unemployed with this level of inflation going on, so I feel really relieved. Also feel very appreciated as I still had 9 months to go on my fixed term contract so hadn’t expected to hear anything about it for a long time. And I had half thought they’d ask me to increase my hours before extending my contract but they haven’t, I’m sticking at 26hr per week.

Because they are so good about me fitting my hours into what works around the kids, I plan to stay put til Bambi is at school anyway (at that point I’ll assess what I want to do and it’ll just depend how things are going at work at the time). So feel relieved to have that stability now. 

We are also likely to be getting at least a 6.5% inflationary pay rise backdated to April so that’s cheery, plus a possible extra inflationary pay rise in October if rates stay high, and my manager let me know that in July when I’m eligible for a performance based raise she’ll be recommending I go up a grade. So I’ve got a lot to be thankful for even if I do find the job has its stresses. Part-time, family-friendly hours and good, fair pay - I’m aware there aren’t many jobs where I could expect that.

Long weekend 
Probably won’t be around this weekend as we are in the car up to the Highlands for a seaside break in a caravan. So exciting 🙂 it still feels very novel as until I went back to work we never took the kids away.

Baileys_Babe

Enjoy your holiday.

Fantastic news about your position being made permanent. How wonderful about the pay increase and the potential for more.

Bluegreen143

Well we had a lovely time at the seaside and were very lucky with the weather. I actually got sunburnt! Will round up spends tonight.

Unfortunately on the last day as we drove home Monkey complained of feeling unwell, then threw up in the car. He’s still not right today (fever, nausea and sore stomach) and really off his food, so he’s been off school. Bless him, I can’t get him to eat a thing today 😢 always such a worry when they are unwell.

List for this afternoon/evening 
- tidy garden after picking up Bambi, and just spend some time outdoors (it’s glorious weather and I’ve not been out today except to drop Bambi at nursery)

- make spaghetti sauce for dinner - at lunchtime I made up meatballs (and turned the other half of the pack of mince into burgers for the freezer)

- log back in later to send a work document to someone, which I’ve not been able to do as waiting on someone else adding a bit 🙄

- marinade tomorrow’s chicken and make falafel for Thursday’s dinner

- make up work lunches for the next two days 

- finish updating YNAB

- take in washing and hang out next one

Bluegreen143

Poor Monkey is still unwell (tucked up in bed now) and Red has gone to bed before dinner as he feels rubbish too.

So we ended up doing a pizza and popcorn chicken (beige freezer food) for the kids to try to tempt Monkey to eat… didn’t really work but Bambi was delighted 😆

I made baked lemon chicken with new potatoes and broccoli/peas for myself but the chicken wasn’t all that nice (bit tough), was OK though.

The meatballs and sauce I made for tonight are in the fridge for tomorrow so no harm done.

I did have to skip the gym tonight as Red wasn’t up for putting the kids to bed, but it’s ok - I’ll go tomorrow instead.

Skint_yet_Again

Sorry to hear monkey and red are unwell hope they feel better soon and you and bambi don’t catch it too. They must be feeling really poorly to miss out on pizza

Bluegreen143

Thanks @Skint_yet_Again I actually had it last week and weekend but much more mildly than poor Monkey, didn’t have a fever, just felt nauseous and had a dodgy tum. 

New list for today, as yesterday’s went a bit by the wayside:

- make falafel for tomorrow (start by soaking chickpeas this morning)

- collect poor sodden washing I stupidly left out overnight (it was 21C and sunny yesterday but raining heavily now 😂) will need to spin again then tumble dry

- put away the huge mountain of clean washing

- get to the gym 

- send an email to get out of jury service, as am on holiday when I’ve been called

- after school/work, take several bags to the charity shop as they’ve been sat in our room for about two weeks…

- plus work, obviously. I’ve been using an excel task list tracker the last two weeks (previously had various list systems which didn’t work very well! And am pleased to report I feel calmer and more organised at work as a result.

- finish updating YNAB, almost done but need to do cash

Mealplan today:
B - smoothie

L - not sure yet but something to do with mushrooms and goats cheese 

D - spaghetti & meatballs, salad

Bluegreen143

Forgot some good financial news - work have agreed a really good inflationary pay deal with the unions. In July pay, my pay will be going up 6.2% and backdate til April. Then in October a further rise of 2-3% depending where inflation is (it will be 3 for sure I think). And good rises guaranteed the next two years too.

My manager has also told me she’ll be recommending I go up a pay grade in July but we’ll wait to see if that goes through 🙂

Means my FTE pay from July will be £33,200 - so I’ll be on roughly £23,250 (as I work the equivalent of 3.5 days a week). Going up to roughly £34k FTE in October. And this isn’t including if I do move up a pay grade, must look up what what would be.

Yes I know that inflation means it’s not worth so much, but as Red doesn’t get a pay rise, it will really help that I do.

Red is on £35k currently but he has seen jobs in his role advertised at £37-38k so he may jump ship at some point.