Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

Bluegreen143

Nice day today and got some housework done that had been bugging me for ages - sorting/decluttering the pantry shelf in the kitchen, complete with squashy fruit and dodgy eggs! And I lost my temper at the kids’ messy playroom and boxed up quite a large amount. Just for the cupboard, I refrained from charity shopping it 😆 were they upset when they got home? No, they immediately ran in to play and exclaimed over how nice it looked! I am more and more convinced that the toy industry is the biggest racket out there. 

Tonight I’m staying at my mum’s, as tomorrow my mum and I are off on a girly holiday for two nights! Sadly my sister can’t come due to a bereavement in her husband’s family this week - we will miss her but the right decision to stay home and give her husband some love. 

savingholmes

Well done on sorting the playroom. I agree the toy industry is a racket. Also cycling out toys every 6 weeks or so gives them the chance to play with stuff and it feels new all over again. Too many toys and they have decision fatigue. 

Also - to learn to be creative we need boredom apparently so allow them to be bored - they need it... 

QueenJess

About a month ago I put half the kids toys in the attic (we get too many from grandparents no matter how many times I try to explain…) with the aim of swapping them over.  Anyway, I asked DS what he wanted to swap over and he only wanted 1 puzzle and to swap a plastic train set with a wooden one. He wasn’t the slightest bit interested in the other things in there, so I expect that they are destined for charity/local buy nothing once we are sure DD won’t want to inherit them.

He did enjoy swapping over books though, so that bit is working well.

Soon I’ll be getting them to choose some things to get rid of so they can make room for Xmas/birthday presents.

Bluegreen143

I’ve done quite hard pruning on the toys before but they just seem to build up 😆

Had a lovely weekend away with my mum - we went to lots of sites/museums on Hadrian’s wall and in Carlisle and our holiday let had a hot tub which was just lovely! Spent about £150 while I was there (we split the cost for museums and food and we did eat lunch out twice, plus get food from a farm shop). Brought the kids back a small book each and brought Red some alcohol. Also bought myself a book from a gift shop.

Had a great day today. Gym at 7am, then managed to get a good amount done in the house/kitchen this morning. Chopped up all the salad stuff and made a huge tub of green salad and a tub of veg sticks. Also baked bread, did 2x washings, tidied out all the shelves in the living room for the kids’ books and the art supplies in the dining room. 

After lunch we took the kids to a country park we’ve not really been to before (not since Bambi was a baby anyway) and had what is (for the kids) a slightly long and hilly walk 😆 they managed ok, mainly on their bikes, and enjoyed paddling in the loch and playing in the playpark. 

Soup for dinner, which Red had kindly batch cooked at the weekend, with homemade bread. Then ice creams (supermarket own cornetto type ones) from the freezer to use them up. 

Back to work tomorrow after a very full weekend 🙂 SUCH a busy week ahead though.

Tomorrow - normal work day
Wed - work then have an evening work event inc dinner 
Thu - all day training at work, then out for a pub night with friends 
Fri - school holiday, afternoon playdate then going to the ballet in the evening with my friend
Sat - normal day, we are taking the kids swimming & to the library plus Monkey has football 
Sun - baby shower all afternoon (with kids) 

Bluegreen143

Not been here in a few days! All is well. Spent a small fortune on children’s clothes but it was in the pot. 

The budget seems to be ticking along nicely. I like the new % way of organising it and hopefully if I underspend pots like groceries or petrol I can add even more to savings. I’ve budgeted for slightly generous amounts for these pots because I’m fed up always going over my grocery budget then scrabbling for the overspend elsewhere. 

Shell have recommended that we increase our DD to £300p/m which is rather eye watering. Think I’ll increase to £275 and try to use less than expected. Farewell tumble drier, it was nice working with you 😨

One good thing about the % budget is that I can see even with the increased energy DD we are still spending less than 50% of our budget on needs, 30% on wants, we are on track to save at least 20% of our budget each month and therefore there is NO NEED TO PANIC. I would have been in a blind panic about the increase otherwise but the % budget makes it very clear we can afford it. Yes, I’d prefer to be saving that money but we are really very, very fortunate indeed and have nothing to complain about.

Oooh and in exciting news and after waiting for literally months, our conservatory build is starting next week! 🎉🎉🎉🎉 

We aren’t putting in the wood burning stove right away as need to save up for it (we spent most of money saved for it on the car fiascos of this year) but I’m still excited for it to be done. We shall have to furnish it with seating from charity shops but luckily we are both 100% on board with this. We do have £1,200 coming in Nov, which is our first Help to Save bonus, so that will be saved towards the wood burning stove… need to do more research into the actual costs, as I don’t know what we are aiming for.

Baileys_Babe

Lovely to see you @Bluegreen143 I've been wondering if all was okay, pleased to hear it is.

Clothing children is so expensive.

Pleased to hear that looking at your budget in terms of percentages is working well.

We too are with Shell, I have not been impressed. They have failed to take a payment, put up our monthly charge, then recommended we reduce our monthly DD, then increase our payment, regularly contacting us a couple of times between bills with wildly differing amounts they think we should pay. For the most part, I have been ignoring them, I changed our DD so it took the same amount for the year but over 11 months not 12 to make up for them failing to take the payment early this year.

Great news on the conservatory, it will be wonderful to have the extra space. Are you having a door between the house and the conservatory? 

We have a multifuel stove, which is brilliant, especially at this time of year when we don't need the heating on but can light the stove on particularly nippy days like yesterday. We opt for one with a flat top so we can put a kettle on it. This is a beautiful byproduct of the stove being lit, less electricity being used to boil the water as the water is already warm/hot. We also put the airer in front of the stove when we went to bed and came down to dry laundry.
We chose multifuel over a wood burner as even though we have access to plenty of cheap wood, we wanted the option of being able to lite the stove and once the coals are hot turning down the air and it will stay lit until the next day. I also find it easier to keep a solid fuel stove overnight.

We managed to buy our stove ex-display which saved us some money. Have fun looking for the perfect stove for your needs.

Bluegreen143

Thanks @Baileys_Babe - we are excited to start researching it all.

I’m going to restart posting my meals and frugal wins on here, because it does help me to have the focus at looking after the pennies.

So today’s meals:

B - kids had porridge with sugar, I had banana & chocolate milkshake (I made a little extra and gave them some too)

L - ham & cheese sandwich with peppers & a pear (school meals for the kids)

S - I had Greek yoghurt with maple syrup & chocolate chips, and two mini Lidl nutty chocolate bars (in my defence, it’s approaching a certain time of the month when I seem to crave sweets 😆). Monkey took a homemade muffin & some fruit to school then for after school I brought peanut butter sandwiches and apples. 

D - going to be chicken & chorizo pasta with broccoli on the side

Frugal wins  

1. Hung the washing out rather than tumble dry

2. Walked to school in the morning instead of driving 

3. Used the last couple of slices of Red’s ham to make my ham & cheese sandwich, as packet ends often get wasted here

Spending

£1.50 - parking at nursery for pick up (I do chance it if I’m only picking up, but I was spending an hour at the playpark too so didn’t want to take the risk. So sad they recently introduced parking controls here!!!)

£10.50 - charity donation as someone at work is fundraising for his wee one with a life-limiting condition to get physio & equipment. I don’t know him personally but I couldn’t not donate when it went round today because it’s every parent’s worst nightmare. 

savingholmes

How lovely to be able to save 20% - and setting up life to make that possible. 

Also lovely to be in a position to help others.

Bluegreen143

Day in the office today. No gym in the morning, but I’m still managing to get up fairly early to do a bit of work on non-gym mornings. It also means the mornings aren’t the frantic rush they were last school year 😂

Yesterday I ended up making mac & cheese with peas & broccoli in, plus tuna for me and the kids (Red doesn’t like this). Saved the chicken pasta sauce being used so it can continue to live in the freezer til a more desperate occasion!

We went to the canal after school with some friends and enjoyed a humongous slide they have there for ages then went for a walk (kids on bikes). Frugal fun 😊

Today’s meals
B - chocolate porridge for me, peanut butter toast for the kids

L - pastrami salad sandwich, mini snickers 😆 (school meals for the kids)

S - Monkey took a HM muffin & grapes/strawberries to school; after school snack was Lidl cereal bars and apples (from the garden!); I had a banana after work 

D - chicken & chickpea tikka masala with rice and broccoli - I made a double batch so have one for the freezer too 😇

SO happy that after months of training the kids are now accepting a much wider range of foods. Yesterday Monkey declared he LOVES broccoli and asked for seconds!! The tikka masala went down very well tonight with both kids. Bambi picks out the chickpeas but Monkey loves them. 

Frugal wins
1. Still no heating on today as I worked in the office. Definitely feeling a chill now though!

2. Double batch of chicken tikka masala made, meaning no chicken wasted and a yummy freezer meal banked (plus it doesn’t use much energy to reheat compared with cooking again from scratch)

3. Got a cheque I’ve been procrastinating sending off to the bank so got it in a stamped/addressed envelope tonight ready to post tomorrow. It’s the refund for our last car’s road tax and is £80. 

4. Updated the budget today and got YNAB totally reconciled 😇 

Spending
No spending by me today! However Red spent £5.55 in Tesco on an unauthorised top up shop (rolls, cereal, biscuits and crisps) 😱😂

Bluegreen143

Last day of work for the week done, hurray! Quick park visit after picking up the kids, but not for too long today as I had a little work to finish up after. 

Meals
B - mango protein smoothie for me, cereal for the kids

L - pastrami roll then Greek yog & choc chips 

S - apple & peanut butter for me; Monkey took flapjack & fruit to school then afterschool snack was yoghurt pouches and cocktail sausages (and I brought apples, but they didn’t get that far 😆)

D - salsa pulled chicken in wraps with salad 

Frugal wins
1. Washing done on the line (I also got three loads put away 😅🙌🏼)

2. No heating on yet 

3. Found the salsa pulled chicken in the freezer as a bonus meal so used it up

Spending
- £1.10 on parking at nursery so we could go to the playpark too

- booked a climbing wall session for Monkey and I on Sat as he’s been begging to go. When I realised Bambi was too small to take, I thought I might as well book her into the softplay in the next room (Red can take her) as I’d already mentioned to the kids that’s what I’d do if she couldn’t come climbing. As soon as I hung up I thought - why didn’t I just leave her at home with Red, because I need to take Monkey to football straight after and they will just be hanging about 🤦‍♀️ it was also foolish as the climbing was more expensive than expected and the softplay entry has added further unnecessary cost 🤦‍♀️ never mind, the £35 is now spent but both children will enjoy it. And I was going to take Bambi to play gym tomorrow but I will skip that now she’s got softplay on Sat so it will offset the cost a little bit.