Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

Baileys_Babe

Both cakes look fantastic.

I think the smartie cake should become your default birthday party cake as it is perfect.

Please try to not overdo it and burn out, easier said than done especially with 2 birthdays and Christmas this month, you need to make sure you remember to breathe 🤗 

Have fun and enjoy your celebrations

Sarahwithlove

Cakes look fab! 

Bluegreen143

Oops, radio silence only because we’ve been busy!

Just had #2 of two children’s parties and it went great 🙂 feeling happy as I think both children really enjoyed their parties and it’s been worth all the hard work. And that’s is fine for a year!! Just got to do a cake for Bambi’s actual birthday on Wed, presents are already bought and wrapped. Oh, and I’ll make her a card too. 

We’ve got the place tidied up again and our families are popping by for tea & cake and to drop the children’s birthday presents this afternoon which will be nice 🙂

Money wise - it’s on my list to update YNAB this evening so I’ll report back then. I think we’ve spent roughly £180-£200 on both parties including all the food, plates/cups/napkins, balloons, 2x piñata & sweets to fill them, the parcels for pass the parcel etc, cake decorating stuff, party bag stuff etc.

We kept the food really simple & the same for both parties - cheese pizzas cut into squares, hummus with breadsticks & veg sticks, big plate of fruit, crisps/pretzels plus cakes or biscuits.

But it’s about £200 for just one kids’ party at the local softplay and more to go to the trampoline park so I still think parties at home are cheaper. Plus, we didn’t particularly stint, I’m sure you could save a bit if needed. The piñata costs about £20 to buy and fill with sweets so I think if you were on a tight budget you could miss that - we do find it’s a really fun way to end a party on a high though.

Baileys_Babe

My sister and children make a simple themed piñata for parties using paper mache her tip is don't make them have too many layers otherwise nobody will be able to break it 🤣

Here is a link of ideas

https://www.berries.com/blog/how-to-make-a-pinata-three-ways 

Just a thought it could be an activity to do at an earlier point in the year so you aren't piling the jobs on when you are already busy, that way you could always make them in the garden where mess is not such a big issue.

Bluegreen143

Ah great idea @Baileys_Babe, I’ll look into it!

KNACKERED now after kids’ party in the AM, a quick tidy round then our extended families descending for an afternoon of tea & cake, and to bring the children their Christmas presents. 

Everyone is gone now, I’ve completed the second big tidy up, the children are watching Paw Patrol and Red volunteered to make some pasta for dinner (the mealplan was HM chicken pie but I have no energy now to be faffing with making pastry!!). 

The children have been blessed with many presents, so I now have a task ahead of me to fit everything in 😂 everything crafty I’ve already put away in the cupboard to pull out one at a time on a rainy afternoon. Otherwise they will just open it all at once, make a big mess but not really do any of it 🙄😂

Still got Bambi’s actual birthday on Wed but she’s not got many presents left to open - just ours, a book from a friend of mine, and Red’s sisters’ gifts which they posted up as they live in England. 

Then once the birthday is out of the way it’s time to focus fully on Christmas!

I’ve not been to the gym all last week; I felt a bit overwhelmed, burnt out and physically knackered/run down so I decided to prioritise sleep (I’m finding that going at 6am is what works, but it does rather impact sleep as I wouldn’t usually get up so early!). I’m planning on going twice next week and not pushing to go the third time - my membership entitles you to go 3x a week so I feel guilty if I don’t go that often, but this isn’t the right time of year to overly push myself. I’ll aim to go twice this & next week and possibly take the week between Christmas and new year off, then back into it properly in the new year. 

Bluegreen143

My new budget method of making separate micro categories for each event or item we want over a certain amount is eye opening. With broad categories (“personal spending”, “kids”, “gifts & celebrations”, “home”) it’s quite easy to commit to so much without fully considering the cost, because you look at “personal spending” and think there’s plenty of money in there. But the truth is it’s already committed!

I get paid next week and from that payday to the next I realise I’ve got quite a lot of personal stuff on:

- going to the ballet with my mum & sister at the weekend; tickets are paid for long ago but we are going out for dinner first and possibly drinks after

- I’m hosting my uni friends for Christmas drinks just before Christmas; won’t be anything fancy but I’ll buy some wine and nibbles

- In early Jan I’m going away for the weekend to visit one of that friend group, who has recently moved away. Will either need to pay a train fare or chip in for petrol (we are going in a group) - hopefully someone will drive as it’ll be much cheaper to split the petrol. We won’t be going out in the evening as we’re having drinks in, but will want to bring alcohol, maybe get lunch out etc

- Then before Jan payday we are having a little baby shower for a friend (someone else in the group is hosting), so we’ll all chip in for activities, food and a gift I expect 

Plus I still need to buy my sister’s Christmas present - we agreed siblings & friends gifts will come from our own spending pots because the Christmas pot hasn’t enough in it for extras. 

Nothing too extravagant there really but it all adds up. And clearly I need to be aware that my personal spending budget for Dec/Jan is unlikely to stretch towards books or yarn or buying lunch out when I’m in the office! 

I’m currently polling another group of friends (mum friends this time) as will be hosting January drinks with them too, again a fairly low key event, but I’ll steer the date towards the end of the month after payday I think 😂

Another example of where I thought I’d be budgeting well but hadn’t been because of keeping categories broad - birthdays. Putting aside Red & the children’s birthdays, I set up a pot for other winter birthdays (will switch to spring birthdays in Feb). Initially I budgeted for gifts for MIL, Red’s sister and brother. However I didn’t initially factor in kids’ parties - Monkey will have two of his best friend’s birthday parties in Dec & Jan, and one is a joint party with another child so that’s three presents in total. Then I hadn’t factored in that we always go for dinner with Red’s family for BIL’s birthday and I hadn’t budgeted for that anywhere. Suddenly my “winter birthdays” pot needs to be twice as big! (You could argue that going out for dinner could come from a separate pot, but we don’t have a joint eating out pot, we never eat out as a family except if we are invited for a celebration meal. Or if someone else is paying 😆).

Bluegreen143

Well not a great today 🙄 got up at 5.30am to go to the gym - I didn’t go at all last week because I was feeling too overwhelmed with everything December 😅 

Anyway despite the car reading -9C I persevered with defrosting it, got in, started to reverse and skidded on the ice in our car park. Drove back into my space, switched off the engine and came in 🙈 I’m a bit of a wimpy driver plus I realised at that point I was already quite late for the class due to how long the de-icing took!

So I’m thinking I may need to switch back to evening gym sessions in Dec/Jan/possibly Feb, and move back to the morning in March. I know if I go in the evening then I can definitely only go twice a week, and do have a tendency to talk myself out of it if I’ve had a long day. But I think it’s just too cold/dark/icy for 5.30am starts just now…

Must get some salt for our car park too but the problem is we are right at the back of our estate and the whole thing isn’t gritted and it’s quite hilly, with small winding streets where people park on the road so it’s the constant fear you’ll skid into someone’s car 😨 debating now whether we walk or drive the school run. Thinking the kids will not be happy about walking plus it’s too icy to cycle so it will take ages for Bambi’s little legs to walk 🙄😭 I am considering parking the car down on the main road when I come back as it’s to be really icy all week. Then we will have a bit of a walk each morning but means I won’t have to drive on the scary estate roads! The rest of the journey will be totally fine, as it’s a big main road the rest of the way. 

joedenise

I've done the same as you @Bluegreen143 with my YNAB categories - I now have somewhere in the region of about 40!  Even some of these are still a bit broad like Household goods/Home maintenance!  Have to admit these tend to be raided if I'm running short in another category.

Used to just have a Holiday category but have now split this out into separate holidays - we have 3 booked for next year plus we also have a motorhome which we use for weekends away between holidays so also have a separate category for that.

I agree with you that it's just too icy to be driving around small roads which haven't been gritted, particularly with 2 kids in the car.  Good idea to park it on the main road for the time being.

KajiKita

I think you’re right to pace yourself with gym on top of everything else that happens or needs to be done at this time of year, and yes, prioritising sleep is important for your immune system, especially at this time of year. 

I’m glad that your YNAB pots were revelatory …. I tried something similar with my ‘lump’ of savings and it went from being ‘Yaay, I’ve got savings! 😊’ to ´Oh no, oh no, oh no ….! 😢’   😂😂😂😂 Ach well, persistance is the key, yes?  🤷‍♀️😉😊

And the icy roads this morning? I was snowed in and I’m not even leaving for work tomorrow until it’s light - if my boss wants to fight with me on it I will use a H&S argument on him 😉

KK

Bluegreen143

@KajiKita haha, can definitely relate to “oh no oh no!” When sectioning off my pots! Have never been so aware of how many demands I have on my £££.

Sat down last night & ordered Red’s presents 🙌🏼 spent £125 which was over budget. In my defence, he is extremely difficult to buy for 🙄 and I am happy with what I’ve got - a tool he wants, a small waterfall feature for the garden he asked for, a box of six different single malt whisky miniatures and a small indoor water feature for the conservatory… I realise there are two water features in there, but I’d bought the indoor one a while ago before he asked for the garden one 😆 however I do think he’ll like it. I will also get him a white chocolate toblerone which I do every year. 

Such a relief to get this ticked off my list!!

Tonight my plan is to nip to Tesco to get any last stocking fillers - still need a couple of bits for the kids and haven’t got much for Red beyond chocolate coins. I usually get him some kind of hot sauce and/spice mixes and a pack of interesting seeds, maybe some socks though thankfully our stockings are very small so you can’t cram much in. I could put the whiskey minis in but I think they look better kept in their box they came in so will wrap those separately. The children have slightly bigger stockings with room for more!

Also have a few bits to get for the children so will pull out their presents tomorrow, check them over and make a list.