Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

Bluegreen143

Off work today (Friday is my day off) and as always have the debate between doing fun things with Bambi and doing housework 😆

The house is a tip, there’s no denying it, and I’m trialling doing 3/4 loads of washing on a Monday and Friday and not the other days. Which was great Tue-Thu but now I have 3/4 loads of washing to do 🤣

Going straight from the school run to meet an old friend from uni for a couple of hours with her two littles (I’ve not seen her in a year and excitingly she’s had a new baby since then!). Guessing by the time I drive home it will be Bambi’s lunchtime (11.30ish) as she lives in the south side. 

Then am picking Monkey up from school to go to the park and skate park near his school, possibly with a school friend of his. So need to leave 2.30 and won’t get home til 5 I’d imagine. 

So I have a 2-3 hour window this afternoon plus the evening to get anything done, but I also need to do a Lidl top up shop (as I do a bigger shop on a Monday and a smaller one on a Friday). So I think I’ll be lucky if I get anything done beyond the washing tbh 😬 will speak to Red and I think we need to have a family cleaning session on a Saturday AM as despite finishing work at 3 every day and only working 4 days, it’s such a struggle now that school/work is back to get anything done in the house! Red never sits still but he is working every spare moment on garden projects. Which saves us a lot of money, but equally I think we need to prioritise the house. 

The early gym starts aren’t helping as I’m knackered later in the day, hoping my body gets used to it…

QueenJess

It’s just impossible to get everything done isn’t it? I’ve come to the conclusion the 1950s had it partly right when one person had paid work and it needed a whole other person to do all the home work stuff.

I definitely don’t have it worked out, but I hope you figure it out with Red.

Bluegreen143

@QueenJess I think you’re right! Not that it should be a given that women shouldn’t work, but if it was still commonly affordable to live on one salary, then either parent could be off, they could take turns, they could both work part time or single parent families would be less likely to be in poverty. That would be the ideal way for society to be set up I think. 

SUCH a busy day yesterday, I was exhausted and in bed by 10 even though it was a Friday night 🤣

Got up at 5.30 to go to the gym, then decided to drive Monkey all the way to school instead of just to the school bus stop as we were running late 🙈

Then took Bambi to the school playpark for 20 mins as bumped into my friend dropping her child off so we went together

Drove straight from school to the south side to visit a friend who I’d not seen in a year and who now has a four month old as well as a 3yo. So lovely to see her - we took a walk to see her allotment which was so cool!

Despite the fact I’d love a third, I have to say, seeing her brought it back to me how horrendously hard that first sleep deprived year with two children was 🙈 her older DS is just at the age where they run away, have tantrums etc. She’s such a lovely, calm, earth mother type and it was the first time I’ve noticed her visibly be quite annoyed with her son - I remember being shocked how angry I could get at poor Monkey when Bambi was a baby.

The stage we are at now is definitely much easier. My friend’s DS has just turned 3 while Bambi is closer to 4 which I’m seeing makes a difference. Bambi can have the odd tantrum but thankfully she is not a runner and is fairly obedient when we’re out. She is also at a stage when she is increasingly able to regulate her tantrums and emotions and respond to reasoning and boundaries, so she might get very upset but she’s not absolutely uncontrollable. 

Monkey at nearly 7 is a dream, he’s so responsible, kind and helpful and really good at looking after his sister 😅 And when the two of them are together at home, they spend all their time in the playroom or garden, I never see them as they’re fairly self sufficient 😆 so I do see Red’s point that having a third would plunge us back into chaos. 

After visiting my friend I had to rush back home for lunch, clean up, hung out a washing and put a new one on, then straight out to do a Lidl shop (£41 spent). 

Then once the shop was away I had time to read half a story to Bambi then straight back out to the car to get Monkey at school as I realised I was running late. Picked him up, let them have a brief run around the school playpark with the other school kids then my friend and I took our kids to the nearby skate park. Monkey in particular can’t get enough of riding his bike on bike tracks and skate parks right now and Bambi is fearless on her balance bike. We’ve never done this one before and unsure why as it’s walkable from school and we are in that park quite often.

It was just after 5pm when I got home and while Red had started dinner, he did give me a telling off about being back late, not texting him and having no plan for doing dinner 🙈 I’m just loving getting the kids outdoors as much as possible right now but will text him next time. 

Did get all three loads of washing done yesterday which is good, need to get them away today and Red will pitch in so we can get some cleaning done. 

savingholmes

Good to take kids to park while you can 

MissRikkiC

It’s a juggle finding a good balance. That stage with 2 smalls is us now and some days are rock solid and some are a dream. You sound like you’re giving your smalls the best of life and that’s the most important. I feel like we’re on that path too but equally on a very messy, untidy, but clean (thanks goodness for that!) house path too. It’s draining seeing the house a mess but the children are happy so that’s the most important thing. 

Bluegreen143

Have had a nice and not expensive weekend.

Saturday - had a lazy morning, then Red took Monkey to his football… it’s only 45 mins so not really worth coming home, but he took the old car and a bin bag and wipes and cleaned it out while he was waiting so it’s all ready to sell next week. 

Then we took the kids swimming after lunch to a pool we’ve not taken them to ourselves, but it’s where Monkey had his week intensive swim lessons this summer. It’s only 15 minutes away but worth going as our local pool is horrendous, really really cold and just boring for the kids as it’s only a pool for doing lengths in. This other pool was warm, a huge kids bit and it’s in a lovely hub with a library branch in it too. We can use any library in the city to return or take out books so we’ve decided that we will use this pool more frequently and next time will bring our library books so we can do both in the same trip.

After swimming, Red took the kids to visit his mum and I managed to do a ton of cleaning and tidying 🙌🏼 We watched Frozen 2 as a family and Red and I watched the first two episodes of the Rings of Power together after the kids were in bed.

So a really nice day doing stuff together and we only spent £8 on going swimming 🙌🏼

Today - my dad came to visit so he took us out for lunch then we went for a walk and paddle in the river. I thought it was going to be rainy but it turned nice by the afternoon 🙂 I’ve already gotten really good use out of my £5 Lidl aqua shoes - since I bought them I’ve been paddling in the river, been to the sea and I wore them when I went wild swimming in a reservoir with friends. Such a good buy as it really saves your feet getting cut up by the stony river bed. 

Again a very MSE day as my dad bought lunch and gave the kids £20 each for our savings pot we use for activities and days out. He had previously been bringing a toy each every visit but I had to have a tactful word as it was too much and he said he’d give money instead towards doing fun things. Now I put put this money along with child benefit into a separate pot - I do use it for clothes too, but the child benefit more than covers their clothes (and their pocket money) and the rest means Monkey can do his football, and paid for our trips to the zoo and Millport in the summer and Monkey’s swimming lessons. I’m hoping to build the pot up to quite a bit so that there’s money there when needed for school trips as I know that can get pricey as they get older. Of course as they get older I’ll need to start letting them keep money they are given for their own spending, but atm I think £20 at a time is far too much for them and I’d rather it wasn’t wasted on tat.

Bluegreen143

Oh, other random money fact, we filled the new car up having let it run right down. Just to see how much it costs to fill the tank - £85. Now to see how long that lasts us! 

Bluegreen143

Plan for next week - trying to be more organised! 

1. Thank goodness, the proposed school/nursery closure Tues-Thu (due to strike action) has been called off!! Was pretty stressed about that. I have LOADS on at work next week.

2. Tesco deliveries booked Mon & Fri as I’ve accepted I’m really too busy in term time to go to Lidl every Friday. Though I’ll still need to pop in occasionally as cereal bars and kids yoghurts are so cheap there. But I felt done in on Friday and realised that was a simple way I could have saved time.

3. Gym sessions booked in Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at 6am.

4. It’s to be rainy M-Th so I suspect we won’t get outdoors as much. I’ll try to get to the park and/or walk the school run when possible. But if it’s rainy then it’s a good opportunity to do baking and painting with the kids at home. I need to bake up some muffins and flapjacks to freeze for Monkey to take to school as snacks. 

5. Monday and Friday are now my laundry days, but I seem to be relatively on top of it so hoping just two loads to do tomorrow. 

6. On Friday I think I’ll take Bambi to a play gym (free play gymnastics) session then to the park next to it, then arrange a playdate with one of Monkey’s friends after school - must text around and see who is free. 

7. I need to be more on top of batch cooking, baking, fridge/freezer inventory, food waste etc as feel this has slipped. Planning to make no knead bread tomorrow when WFH as it takes 5 mins to mix and 5 mins to shape and stick in the oven later. 

8. Weekend plans not firmed up yet, but thinking one day for family projects and chores at home, and one for getting out on an adventure - it looks dry by the weekend. I’d love to get to the beach again before summer is totally gone, but I was ideally hoping for a sunny day to go.

MEALPLAN 

M - lentil soup & HM bread 

T - goats cheese & breadcrumb pasta and salad 

W - chicken cacciatore with mash 

Th - shredded salsa chicken wraps 

Bluegreen143

To add to my weekly planning, the school have send out a message this morning to say Monkey’s class is having a meet the teacher welcome session this Thu afternoon (during school hours). 

I love how they clearly assume parents don’t have jobs and can attend daytime appointments with three days’ notice!!! Luckily my manager is ok with me popping out to it as long as I work back the time later in the afternoon/evening but I’m sure there will be plenty of parents disappointed they can’t make it!

Only had two loads of washing to do today and the second is on now so having designated washing days seems to be working well. Also want to bake some no knead bread today as the meal plan is soup tonight. 

The weather report seems to have lied to us as it’s nice today so hopefully we will get to the park after school today after all. 

Spending 

- spent £26 on a birthday present for my papa (he will be 87 I think!) to get delivered to him (it was a quite cool looking history hard back book showing maps of different historical battles, plus a box of chocolates). He loves history so hoping he likes it. 

- £70 on the Tesco delivery as Red added lots of stuff to it after I checked it out 🙄 he is bad for that and it throws my budget off. I wish he would add his stuff earlier so I can work the rest of the basket around it to keep in budget.

- SO MUCH stuff I need to buy/order coming up so I think Sept will be spendy:
…… Bambi is outgrowing her clothes so needs a whole cold weather wardrobe in 4-5 (luckily I am quite minimal with kids clothes but still need a fair bit including a winter coat)
……. Monkey hasn’t outgrown his clothes, but needs a couple of stained things replaced and also a couple of jumpers and a winter coat 
……. Both kids have outgrown their shoes 
……. We are down to four bowls and need more as we can never find one when needed 😆
……. I need walking shoes, winter boots and possible wellies, plus a winter coat
……. Monkey is down to one water bottle again so will pick him up a spare, he is losing so much at school just now! 😡

Baileys_Babe

Shame the school haven't given parent much notice, I am pleased your work have been supportive and you are able to go.

Whilst you are at the school it is probably worth asking about the water bottles and any other lost property.

I have decided to not have set washing days as I want to dry the laundry outside as much as possible. On a good drying day, I am washing as many loads as possible. Today was a good drying day, I was disappointed that I only had one load to was 🤣