Learning to walk before I run

savingholmes

Nice to have picked up some Xmas stuff ready. On Xmas - beware of feeling you have to spend a set amount on each child - especially when they are little. With hindsight because I come from a big family - the kids had far too many toys to play with etc and the gift giving and receiving  was often overwhelming.

edinburgher

@savingholmes - yes "equality" is firmly wedged in my parenting lizard brain but in practical terms that means buy less for DD2 and invest some for her instead. Definitely don't have any fixed view re. Spend

SuperSecretSquirrel

We've struggled with fairness/equality with  regards to our children's gifts in the past. Instead of aiming for equal value we settled on aiming for an approximately equal number of big and small gifts instead. Youngest tends to have gifts of a lower cash value, eldest tends to have gifts of a smaller physical volume, but both receive X number of big gifts and Y number of small gifts and have always been happy and appreciative of what they got.

Honestly, I don't think they care about comparisons with what the other one got, that's very much just a hangup for us as parents.

LadyWithAPlan

The duck rocking horse sounds fabulous! 

I can’t quite bear to think on Xmas gifts yet though I have picked up a couple things

edinburgher

Have run through some belated month end NW calculations. A bit of an anti-climax after passing £800k last month (includes nominal value of state pensions). Total NW went up by c. £3,500, strict NW (excludes state and DB pensions) only went up by £340. Still, strict NW went down by over £2,000 last month, so this is an improvement and shows improved financial discipline and cash on hand

ISAs topped up for the girls and £360 paid into Tax-Free Childcare account for DD2 (£450 after top-up). We have just under 2 month's worth of childcare costs sitting between childcare vouchers and Tax-Free Childcare, hopefully we can have a lower spending month come December.

Did a tiny bit of Christmas shopping yesterday, mint chocolate orange for DD1's stocking and a make your own cracker kit from the Works (£4). I love crackers but the contents are often a bit crap. I'm going to include custom offerings tailored to the recipient's preferences this year, a wee bit more expensive than ready made crackers but not wildly so...

£5.12 withdrawn from Prolific, £1.32 away from my next fiver.

Baileys_Babe

I'm planning on making my own crackers this year (from a kit). Any suggestions for what to fill them with, so far all I have come up with is wooden Christmas tree decorations. 

edinburgher

@Baileys_Babe - I am thinking tiny cans of cocktails from our local independent shop for the adults, probably a handful of nice sweets for DD1 (a few chocolates or Japanese candies) and a small toy for DD2 that isn't too plasticky. Your ideas may vary and I appreciate everyone doesn't drink

Baileys_Babe

Thanks @edinburgher I had thought of miniatures but my OH is unable to drink alcohol, so I decided against. I will look into small non-plastic toys. I like the idea of sweets, I will keep that as my default if I can not find anything more tailored to the individual recipients.

edinburgher

As mortgage of doom ticks closer, I have started to fret about it not more but more frequently. I think that I will need to try and use some Tilly tidies to keep it trending down and to possibly add a small OP to our regular payment. I've randomly budgeted £5.82 towards this, I am thinking perhaps round this up to £50 (1/2 of the "found" money). Will give this a try once the dust settles on the new rate and see if it is bearable.

The remaining £50 will go to Mrs E and I for fun and further to this, survey money, cashback etc. will be used for this purpose. I know we're privileged, but £250/month each down to £25 + whatever we can scrape from down the back of the digital sofa is going to be rough. I may look at whether we can give ourselves a wee bit more once pay rises are agreed and when my 13th wage comes in. Still, don't want to commit to any approach at this time...

I'm 1/2 working and 1/2 at a digital conference today and have picked up a few good surveys, too. Less than £2 to a tenner on Prolific

£1.61 OPed, it updated on my account almost instantly. This is the last thing I need, my poor dopamines!

Edit: Blech! Wet food needed for the Maine Coon. £80 for 72 sachets. Managed to get 1.27% cashback from TCB, 1% cashack from Chase and have filled up a stamp card with the retailer (£16 off next order) but still very expensive. I have found a seller who is cheaper on paper but not sure if stamp cards negate this. Sometimes it's very vexing trying to hunt a deal.

savingholmes

Good luck with the mortgage reset. At least you have a plan / sense of direction - some people go in blindly and then come out later wondering why they are struggling.