Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

joedenise

Brilliant PJs, the kids will love them.  Where do you buy your fabric?  Looks like you either have a good local shop or you have been really lucky with buying online!  Unfortunately I don't have any shops so the last time I wanted some fabric I ordered on line but the fabric was nothing like I expected!   I did use one lot of fabric but the other lot just got added to my stash which will probably end up in the charity shop in the hope that someone will be able to make use of a 3m piece of fabric.  The CS is somewhere I've bought fabric from in the past and definitely had some bargains!

Bluegreen143

I always get it off Etsy @joedenise and I’ve always been happy with it but haven’t always used the same seller. But it’s always the same kind of printed jersey knit fabric you need for these PJs and it’s a popular choice for kids’ clothes so there are sellers doing masses of different prints. It’s not cheap though!  

Bluegreen143

So in today’s news, Bambi threw up in her bed last night!

Decided just to keep both kids off - they do so little on the last day that I couldn’t be bothered dragging us all out on the school run just to drop Monkey off. So kids are watching TV just now, she seems a bit better thankfully. Supposed to be out for BIL’s birthday dinner tonight so I think I’ll stay home with her and Red can take Monkey to dinner with him.

Work is very quiet, I’m keeping an eye on teams and email and emptying my inbox and making a fresh to do list for everything I’ll need to tackle once I’m back in Jan. Have one article to write but it won’t take long, and a few people to nudge on stuff I’m waiting for but realistically nothing will go out til Jan now anyway. 

So while the kids have been watching TV I’ve been washing Bambi’s sheets and doing a properly good tidy, putting away two loads of clean washing, hoovering and giving both bathrooms a quick wipe & bleach (not a full clean but they look good at least 😆). So that when I finish up today for the holidays the house is lovely and fresh too! 

On another diary I saw a link to a free “clean and organise your house in 30 days” type book so I followed her daily clean checklist and the place does actually look good. Only place I’ve yet to tidy is the playroom but I may set Monkey on that in a bit as it’s really the kids’ job to do.

Not sure it’s achievable every day as I am a somewhat lax housekeeper usually… I do keep the house reasonably decluttered as much as possible as I’m not naturally organised so really can’t handle too much inventory without it becoming a mess. We could never be hyper minimalist of course given we have kids and hobbies! And I’m not the sort of person to spend my time scrubbing skirting or dusting corners so deep cleaning tends to fall by the wayside. So could do a good routine to follow but whether I stick to it for 30 days remains to be seen!

As well as her daily clean checklist the other tasks for day 1 are organise your spice cabinet and catch up with all your washing - we’ll see if I manage those today.

Baileys_Babe

I hope Bambi makes a speedy recovery and nobody else succumbs. 

Washing bedding is on my list for today but just regular bed linen change not because of illness.

KajiKita

You have nudged me into downloading something similar .... I do find some jobs that are stated to be achievable in 1 day take longer (the pantry one will take me ages for example as my 'pantry' storage is scattered across several individually too small areas through out the house .....) but maybe I will tackle some of these big ones over Christmas   

KK  

Bluegreen143

Ah enjoy getting your house in order @KajiKita!

Bambi was absolutely fine all of today and no more vomiting so Red’s brother said just all come for dinner. Which is fine but we had another flat tyre discovered at the last minute - emergency taxis seem to be becoming a habit?! Will go to tyre place tomorrow - Red will pump it up for to drive there, it’s literally a 2 minute drive. 

So Red’s mum paid 3/4 of the bill, we then paid the rest and said to Red’s brother (birthday boy!) not to pay as a treat. So £52 which was exactly what I’d budgeted, it was lucky Red’s mum paid for all the food though as we were four out of the eight so would have had a larger share to pay otherwise. I didn’t realise how pricey the restaurant would be as Red’s brother usually likes a bargain! 

Taxis were £25 though (will have a look at the budget but may need to come from emergency fund unless I can raid something else). They are sooooo expensive now compared to pre covid. Red and I were reminiscing about the good old days; until we got married, neither of us could drive and we used to merrily take taxis all the time without ever thinking much of the cost. Though I suppose my bus pass was quite cheap and I didn’t have the running costs of a car so could afford to spend a bit on taxis! And of course back then we lived in a £200 a month council flat, and had no children to spend our money on 😆 

We have £320 in our car fund and am due to stick £70 in when Red gets paid. Our insurance is due for renewal in Jan but I think there’s still enough in there for a new tyre if needed. We may need two (but hopefully not if they can be repaired) as another one needs pumped back up every couple of weeks. We did think we would need new tyres soon on this car when we bought it so had sort of factored it in when I set the amount for the car pot. 

Red’s family seem to have got into this habit of wanting a meal out for the birthdays which are annoyingly close together (BIL in Dec, MIL in Jan, Red’s in Feb). However Red and I are agreed we don’t actually want to go to dinner for his birthday so hopefully MIL accepts this. We want to get them round for a curry night in instead. The others aren’t into cooking so I can see why they’d find it easier to book a restaurant but we’d prefer to do some cooking and have a relaxed night at home and not pay £200 for us all to eat 🙈😅 I’m too tight to eat out now unless it’s very very good food… it’s annoying paying such big amounts for a meal you could make better yourself.  

badmemory

I do agree about paying out large amounts for food that actually tastes better when you cook it at home.  It seems such a waste when you can be relaxed at home after eating rather than having to get home usually in the cold which I do not like.  Most of my family had cold month birthdays, although there are not many of us left now.  Would you believe back then there was only one with a birthday from the beginning of April to the end of September & I'm talking 3 generations including spouses.  My mother even told me that if I had a child born in March she was stopping speaking to me.

Baileys_Babe

Over the last 15 to 20 years the cost of eating out seems to have increased greatly. We often used to eat out at a wide variety of restaurants and pubs. Now it is mainly reserved for high days and holidays and even that has greatly reduced mainly due to cost. I resent paying for food I could cook better myself. Saying that a couple of months ago me and dd joined our friends (mother & daughter) for lunch at their local greasy spoon, it was fab.

Our family birthdays are dotted throughout the year, but now and again there is a clump, early summer we have 3 birthdays in 4 days which is difficult.

QueenJess

Baileys_Babe said:

Over the last 15 to 20 years the cost of eating out seems to have increased greatly. We often used to eat out at a wide variety of restaurants and pubs. Now it is mainly reserved for high days and holidays and even that has greatly reduced mainly due to cost. I resent paying for food I could cook better myself. Saying that a couple of months ago me and dd joined our friends (mother & daughter) for lunch at their local greasy spoon, it was fab.

Our family birthdays are dotted throughout the year, but now and again there is a clump, early summer we have 3 birthdays in 4 days which is difficult.

We do eat out now and again, but pick places carefully as I also hate to pay for something I can do better at home. I never order crumble out as I just prefer my own 🤷‍♀️ I often order things out that I would never cook at home because someone else would never eat it etc.

It is sometimes nice to get a break though and eat out without the prep and cleaning up afterwards!

Bluegreen143

Our birthdays come In clumps too!

Dec - both of my children, BIL (who always wants a meal out plus we buy a present so it’s one to plan for)

Jan - MIL, one of Red’s sisters (but we will just send her something small as as she doesn’t live local; Red spends a lot on MIL though) - also one of my best friends 

Feb - Red’s birthday (in a two week period we have Valentine’s Day, Red’s birthday and our anniversary! This is why we don’t buy anniversary or Valentine’s presents, but I do spoil him on his birthday)

Then in summer:

Late Jul - my stepdad 

Aug - me, my mum and my sister all in a week; plus two of my best friends and in fact Red’s best friend’s wife (we don’t usually buy the latter a present but it’s one to remember in the budget as we often get invited to a night out or party to celebrate)

All the other months we have so few family birthdays, Red’s other brother & sister are in April (they’re twins - and just get a bottle each or similar value sent to them) and my Papa is in September but that’s about it!

It’s funny that growing up we had my mum and sister and I with birthdays in the same 6 day period and I’ve almost replicated this by having my kids born 8 days apart in December 😂