Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

Bluegreen143

Oh dear @themadvix!! It’s a cute session, the kids get an hour of play dressed up as woodland fairies and elves with lovely props, and the photographer takes lots of pics. Red got it for my birthday. I do fear that the results will be so adorable I will capitulate and buy them all! 

Bluegreen143

Busy day yesterday, was working then traipsing about collecting children on foot then after dinner I met a couple of friends at the pub. I went home at 10.30pm after two drinks 😇 due to having the school run and work and a husband who would be cross if I went AWOL 😂… they ended up going out clubbing. I’m quite happy only doing the early part of the night as have lost all interest in clubbing 😂

One friend is having a lot of marital issues (her marriage is probably over) so she needed to let off steam, she was getting advice on separation and co-parenting from the other friend who has been through that. The conversations about useless partners and exes did serve to make me feel VERY grateful for my lovely Red though. My friend said the nicest thing, that seeing my marriage is one of the things which made her realise she deserves better, because it’s so obvious how much Red cares about me and wants to make me happy 🥰 it’s easy to focus on the stresses and arguments that all couples have so I definitely need to take more time to focus on all the good in our life together.

Today is another nice day as I have a friend’s baby shower - not a “real” American style baby shower, just four of us eating nice snacks and doing a quiz and making a baby mobile together. Only thing is I have an epic hour-long two-bus journey to get there (it’s a 15 minute drive!). I will almost certainly get a taxi home. Don’t be surprised to see a £25 taxi fare in tomorrow’s spending report 😳

Spending
Yeesh, feast your eyes on the last 48 hours spending, every penny of which (ok, except the lateral flow test) counts as a non-essential luxury 😳

£10.20 2x pints of cider at pub 
Self-explanatory!

£14.10 Tesco
£2 lateral flow test (for making sure we keep pregnant friend safe, she is a high risk pregnancy); 30p reduced chocolate coins 🙈;£11.80 fancy cheese, crackers and hummus to take to the baby shower. I’d normally bake something, which would be cheaper, but she has gestational diabetes so can’t eat sugar or too many carbs.

£12.09 Baby shower gift from Amazon
We’ve all got a children’s book as a gift to bring but I also picked up a “Your Baby Week by Week” book which I LOVED when I had my kids, I’ve given it as a baby shower gift before and that friend also said it was her bible of the first six months 😅

£2.49 Photo storage from Apple
Otherwise my phone storage gets too full! 

£12.48 Kids bike rental from the Bike Club
As their main Christmas present, we are hiring high-end, lightweight bikes for both kids - you pay a low monthly fee (the bikes are worth £400 and £300 respectively) and get to swap for a bigger size every 18 months. We went for refurbished bikes so it’s cheaper and also got a month free and six months half price so it seemed more sensible than shelling out a huge sum all at once for good bikes. Price includes insurance and once the emergency fund is funded I may cancel that element.

Bluegreen143

Well, I had a lovely time at the baby shower, but I couldn’t get the bus in the end - the first bus was so late I would have missed the connecting bus, and the second bus is just once an hour so there was zero point getting on the first one! So I spent £34.70 combined on a taxi there and back. Almost eating up the petrol savings from having no car for three weeks 😂😂😂

Didn’t get to bed til midnight as I had a bit of a wait for the taxi home, so I’m a bit tired today. Have been productive though - so far Bambi and I have:

- took Monkey down to the school bus (on foot)
- went straight to the big Tesco to get our Friday shop 
- went into the charity shop where Bambi spent £4 of her pocket money on a hideous toy and I got a summer dress for her for £2 and a tshirt for Monkey for £2
- read some stories to Bambi and her new toy 😂
- tidied the full downstairs (which was a riot!)
- scrubbed down the kitchen, bathroom, conservatory windowsills and coffee tables all with Bambi’s help - she did a brilliant job and was very engaged with helping 
- hoovered the full downstairs 
- had lunch, I had with excellent foresight made us tuna sandwiches yesterday when I was making Red’s work lunch so we had those with carrot sticks & apple slices 

Now I’m definitely feeling in chill out mode. The upstairs is still a tip but I think I’ll tackle that tomorrow with the family. I do need to make the pizza sauce for tonight before going to pick up Monkey but otherwise my bum will be firmly on the sofa for a while!!

Edit - I forgot to say, I am VERY impressed at Red, who has sold Monkey’s old DS games for around £50! They aren’t compatible with the newer DS we bought him but I 100% wouldn’t have thought to sell them. Profit after fees come off is going to the wood burning stove fund. It’s even more impressive as the games were originally bought off eBay for about £30 and Monkey has spent a year playing with them in between 😂

Spending

£4 Charity shop
Children’s clothes

£12 Kids pocket money
I forgot last weeks so this is a fortnight’s worth

£26.83 Tesco
All food - a very virtuous top up shop consisting of fruit, salad, milk, chicken, ham, bacon, mozzarella, cereal and (ahem) crisps 

£22.39 Tesco
Red also went to Tesco this morning 😂 as he was passing it. £8.50 was my spends, a bottle of prosecco I asked him to pick up. £3.30 household (mainly hay for the chicken coop) and £10.59 food, pretty much all unnecessary treats 😂 as we are currently under our food budget I haven’t recharged him for them. 

£34.70 Taxis
🙄 a necessary evil when one has no car and is let down by the bus 

Bluegreen143

Today’s frugal wins

1. Walked both school runs, though through necessity rather than choice!

2. Kept so far under budget for our Friday shop that I didn’t mind Red hijacking me with a non-essentials treat shop 😂

3. Cut Monkey’s hair (I am the family hairdresser)

4. Instead of taking Bambi to an expensive toddler activity, I entertained her by taking her grocery shopping and getting her to help clean the house. She was just as engaged and my house is now clean and stocked with food 🤷‍♀️ 

5. Having homemade pizza for dinner, dough and sauce are both made 

6. Red and I are having a “date night in” thus negating the need to spend £££ on making time for each other. Frugal at-home dates usually involve playing cards and having a drink here, we aren’t really avid movie watchers and we’re not cooking a separate dinner for date night tonight. 

Bluegreen143

Quick spending update

£8.70 ebay
3x jeans for Monkey

£4.30 Underground train tickets
We took the kids into town to spend their Christmas money - Monkey bought Lego and Bambi was incredibly ripped off in Build a Bear 😅

£4.50 Bus tickets 
Also part of the trip into town (isn’t public transport expensive these days! It doesn’t include my tickets, as I had some prepaid in the app. And both kids travel free on buses in Scotland)

£52 MIL’s birthday gift 
Not sure what it is as Red bought it! 

Bluegreen143

Today’s frugal wins

1. Spent 1.5hr in the garden, tidying up and shovelling dirt from the chicken run into our raised planters.

2. We all went for a 1.5hr walk in our local park, which was lots of fun! 

3. Made chicken pie for dinner (also adding in half a pack ham which needed used up) and used the rest of the pack of chicken breast to make a chicken & chickpea curry for later this week. 

4. Hung today’s washing on the airer instead of tumble drying 

Bluegreen143

2023 stats

Outdoor hours: 26hr 19

Books read: 4

Emergency fund: £2,562,56

Bluegreen143

So quick round up of the weekend - it was pretty good! 

Saturday I took Monkey to football then Red & Bambi joined us. We all went into town as the kids had saved up Christmas, birthday and pocket money and wanted to get something big with it. Bambi only had about £35 as she only gets £2 a week, but Monkey had amassed £145! I’m hoping by allowing them the chance to save up for something big it’s helping to teach him deferred gratification and the value in saving up rather than frittering your money on sweets. 

Honestly I never, ever go shopping and Saturday reminded me why 😂 

Bambi was completely ripped off in Build a Bear - I’ve never been there before and honestly what a lot of nonsense paying £30-50 for a stuffed animal 😂 (sorry to anyone who likes it!! Each to their own!). Safe to say I have committed to NEVER spend my own money in there, as she already has a multitude of stuffed animals and will not get anywhere near enough value from the one she bought to justify it. She would have been as happy with a £1 teddy from the charity shop tbh. But once she had seen the shop she wanted it and it was her money. Next time I will take her to the charity shop and show her how to stretch her money instead. 

Monkey spent a whopping £130 on a Lego set which is also far too much, but at least feels like a more worthwhile expense in that he has already got and will continue to get a lot of play out of it. However Red later discovered this set is available much cheaper on Amazon so again, when he next saves up it’s a chance to teach him about comparison shopping different prices. I think it was more exciting on this occasion to get to go to the actual Lego shop, as I NEVER frequent a shop with the children which isn’t a supermarket or charity shop 😅

Despite this slightly obscene display of consumerism my family budget was intact as the kids paid for the treats 😂 only cost was bus/underground fares. 

Sunday was a much calmer day. Spent an hour and a half in the garden, mainly digging up some of the dirt in the chicken run to use as fertiliser in the raised planters. Then a really lovely walk in the park together. 

themadvix

My sister recently took niece to toy shop to spend birthday money and she was in awe of the Playmobile display - Sis had a look on FB and found most of them could be bought second hand much cheaper, so Niece decided to opt for that! Imagine Lego is very popular on there or eBay as well. Totally understand the excitement of the Lego store though. 😁

TallGirl

Yes build a bear is expensive and they do add lots on. I think if you go on their birthday it is something like £1 but might have been the offer you got if so really scary. My sister works in a nursery and she did say build a bear seemed to keep some of the children children for a bit longer as you can get clothes etc even the boys. I am sure your lessons on cheaper alternatives and secondhand will be amazing for them you sound like a really lovely parent.