Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

[Deleted User]

Ohhh I can't tell you how much joy it brought me reading this reply! You are basically me. Definitely Monika ( Friends)! Our values are alined and I do simular re activities for each half term ; I will stick some paper together and draw out a calendar and then in lots of colours and with stick men type drawings I will put ideas down with agreed dates for spending e.g. a trip to the beach with Fish and chips. This  year I plan on setting a select number of days for spending I'm thinking 4 days out ( low spend) and I'll add on extra money to the food shop for the six weeks. Once I've guesstimate the costs I will set up a sinking fund for it. Then from September start this again for the following summer holidays. 

Xx

QueenJess

Wow, I find reading this quite terrifying 😂.  I’ve got absolute zero plans for the summer holidays yet apart from a vague “go places and do some stuff”!

[Deleted User]

We are all wired differently. I'm a list person by nature so things like this are right up my street. My DH is not a planner and things the level of detail I plan with is nuts! Each to their own. I'm working on creating better focus on planning my finances better 🤣

Bluegreen143

Haha sorry @QueenJess! You may not have realised though, in Scotland we break up for the summer in two weeks! So it’s almost upon us 😉

Night in was fun last night, £21 for the takeaway which we split from our own spending pots. Haven’t worked out yet what we spent at the gala day so must do that, as we shared a hot dog, got ice creams etc. 

Today we had a quiet morning/lie in/pottered about til the kids were dropped off at about 11, then after lunch we went for a walk/paddle at the river, it ended up pouring but the kids were fully waterproofed so didn’t mind! Red and I got soaked though 😅 we popped the kids in a hot bath when we got home and they must have played in there for about an hour 😆

Did quite a bit of food prep today - chopping fruit & veg, prepping a tuna salad for my lunch tomorrow, making tomorrow’s soup (broccoli cheese). Dinner was spatchcock chicken roasted on top of the veg/new potatoes. Delicious but the children hated and it and could not be induced to eat much even with the enticement of sweets afterwards 🙄 so they ended up not getting any sweets in the end.

Was doing my usual Tesco delivery for Monday (I also get one on Fridays) but realised we needed less than £40 of stuff. Usually I will add some tins, pasta, frozen fruit/veg etc to bulk it out but my stores are getting full from doing this and this is probably why we continually overspend 😆 So I cancelled the order and nipped to Lidl tonight instead. £30 on food/cleaning stuff and then spent £45 on a food processor/blender. This is on my list to get as ours broke, but I’ve been holding off as the ones I saw on Amazon were £60+. Pleased I nipped into Lidl now!

Bluegreen143

What a busy day today! Was in the office and work was really, really full on. I didn’t really get much planned work done due to firefighting new situations which came up 🙄

Then picked up the children and took them to the playpark for an hour after school/nursery. Quite a few of Bambi’s nursery friends were there and they were all so cute together, and Monkey is so good at looking after a group of little ones, pushing them all round on the roundabout or on the big tyre swing etc.

Came home, turned on the laptop to finish up work for an hour while the kids bathed/showered and played (luckily I’d made the soup for dinner yesterday!). 

Then after dinner, Red was home at 6.45 due to a work event so it was a swift handover so I could get to the gym for 7. Meanwhile Bambi was having an enormous tantrum as she didn’t eat her dinner so didn’t get ice cream after like her brother #meanmummy

So in summary, now I’m knackered 🤣

Bluegreen143

Busy week this week due to work away days and dinner out for a colleague’s retirement (paid for, happily!). 

Had a lovely evening as my friend offered to babysit if Red and I wanted to go to the pub! She’s a single mum, her ex had her kids that night and she had no social plans but wanted to work so told me she was just as happy to sit at ours with her laptop as sit at her house. So kind of her. Must work out spends as we got three rounds I think and Red got a couple of whiskys too. He did pay for taxi there and back from his own money as I wanted to go to a local pub so we could walk 😂 we only went out in the west end, not far from us, so the taxi won’t have been too bad but it’s not quite walkable.

Today was great. Got up and went to gym (only managed twice this week due to work events). Got some tidying etc done this morning then after lunch Red took his mum shopping, so the kids and I had an adventure getting the bus into the west end for a lovely family-friendly free festival on in the park. We did some ceilidh dancing, listened to music, the kids did potato printing at a craft stall and we enjoyed the sunshine in the park - they joined a bunch of other kids paddling in the fountain and of course both got wet but never mind 😅 Red picked us up when we were done which was kind and saved dragging tired children on the long walk back to the bus stop!
 

Only spent £6 at the festival as bought the kids an ice cream each. Was tempted to get one myself as I usually would, but I restrained myself on health and budget grounds and tbh realised after a minute I didn’t even want it - I’m an ice cream snob and don’t actually like Mr Whippy! Yet I’d have eaten it if I’d bought it no doubt. 

Finally, made some experimental cereal bars which used up some old cereal but it’s not stuck together well - hoping the kids like it as granola! 

Sarahwithlove

Just caught up on your diary. Congrats on getting the job permanently! You must be pleased to have that security for a while. Exciting about the conservatory it's such a good way to add extra living space and will be fab when it's done I'm sure 

Baileys_Babe

I don't like Mr Whippy either.

The festival sounded like fun, especially the dancing, I love a ceilidh.

How lovely of your friend to offer to babysit.

Bluegreen143

Thanks both! 

Spent £20 today as Monkey had a birthday party at softplay to attend. £10 on a gift and £10 to pay Bambi into the softplay too and get her lunch, plus a soft drink for me. I wouldn’t have got her a meal if it was at a different time, but it was 12-2pm, and a half hour drive away, so she did need lunch. I quickly scoffed some avocado toast literally as I left the house at 11.30 to make sure I didn’t need to eat 😅

Red thinks the car needs seen to before we go away on Friday, due to a warning light, so I’m now stressed about that 🤦‍♀️ we have £670 in the emergency fund so hopefully it will be covered, but I’m stressed in case we don’t get it back before we go away as we’d need to hire a car I think or skip the holiday. You can’t get there easily by public transport and certainly not with a week’s worth of supplies for a family, and you’d need a car to get anywhere when there as the lodge is so isolated.

Skint_yet_Again

Sorry to hear about the car I hope it gets fixed quickly and is not expensive. Does the garage have a courtesy car you could borrow?