Over the Rainbow and Quest for a Unicorn

castlelough

*Honeysucklelou2* thanks for that tip. We like cake here too! 😝I didn't know you had to pierce the yolks. I have frozen eggs before but always ended up discarding them for some reason or other. 

mumtoomany

Hi, @castlelough, saw on Abz thread that you are expecting too. Thought I would pop over here to wish you congratulations. Just read through both your diaries. You're doing well! Take care, mumtoomany.

castlelough

Thank you so much *Mumtoomany*!
Can't believe you took the time to read my old diary. You are very good. 

mumtoomany

Ha ha, I'll take very good. It was while i was watching the DGC, their mum was asleep having worked a night shift. They were all watching cbeebies. Reading my tablet seemed a better alternative. I
It was an interesting read. We to live on a farm, well a smallholding really. 13 acres, chickens, sheep, occasionally pigs, and lots of vegetables for the slugs to eat! 
Take care, mumtoomany.

castlelough

Your smallholding sounds fun *Mumtoomany*. I'd love pigs but dh says no! For now, anyway! 

castlelough

Inspired by others I went back and reread my old diary. That was an interesting journey down memory lane!

I feel so grateful for how far we have come - in every way. 

I may have got a little lackadaisical with my finances but we are not in a bad situation overall. 

I've been totting up the sums and figures though and I need to really prioritise clearing the car loan urgently. I know it will be immediately replaced by another but unfortunately that cannot be helped.

I am going to borrow less this time hopefully, while also allowing enough to finally buy the bath. A bath can be considered a luxury, but with four children I think it is also very useful. Showers just don't get dirt out from under nails, and the eldest dc is getting big for the kitchen sink!!!

Dh did actually pay for and order a gorgeous cast iron bath last December but we had to cancel it due to delay in delivery and exorbitant post-Brexit import fees. Then when the refund came into our account it was promptly swallowed up by a huge electricity bill and that was the end of the bath. 

Anyway I have done an overpayment budget for the car loan in order to clear it by the beginning of February and there isn't a whole lot of wiggle room in it. I can't start overpaying it until I am back on payroll in November so it will be tight! I will have to be very careful with my Christmas shopping!

Nonnadiluca

Just a thought re bath; it might be worth getting in touch with local plumbers/ bathroom fitters. One who lives near us always has baths, sinks, loos etc waiting to be disposed of and it costs them to dump them. It seems that every time someone buys a new home they replace perfectly good bathrooms and kitchens. A neighbour moved a few months ago, he was an architect who built the house about three years ago and it was lovely. When we walked past the other day the very expensive kitchen was piled up in the front garden, what a waste!!

castlelough

Thanks for reading *Nonnadiluca*!
My husband is actually a plumber so he will fit the bath, but he hasn't come across what we are looking for. I will keep my eye out though for secondhand. I know there is a place that will re-enamel them but I think by the time you transport the bath each way and pay for re-enamelling there isn't much in the price difference. Plus a lot of the older cast iron baths are very large. We need one on the smaller end of the scale to fit into our bathroom. But you never know what might just come up. 

We bought our kitchen table and chairs secondhand and they were exactly what I was looking for. We also got the most gorgeous furniture for the girls' room ex-display and the baby's cot, chest of drawers and wardrobe were secondhand but perfect - so I am very open to preloved furniture if it is what I have been looking for and in almost perfect condition! 

I'm still looking for a dresser for the kitchen! Juat haven't found the right one yet!

castlelough

Two and a half years since I have been on here! 
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Well, our fourth baby arrived and was a boy, so we have two boys and two girls!
The children are now 9, 7, 4 and 2.
We bought that 7-seater and we paid a lot more than we had planned to, with both of us borrowing money to buy it. 
Transport is one of our highest expenses. Living rurally we spend a lot on diesel. I clock up about 750km a week, just getting to work, doing the school run and ferrying the children about to activities!!! It's a lot! 
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I borrowed money to buy a bath and a dresser for the kitchen and I have no regrets. 
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We had some ground work done outside which I also borrowed for, and that has tidied the place up a lot but I definitely feel that I overpaid for what was done.  
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So now, I have some substantial borrowing from the credit union. I'm not even going to include it in my debt-free diary. As long as my fortnightly repayments are made that is all I can hope to do for the moment. I am still jobsharing, and so,between that and loan repayments, my disposable income is limited. My husband has to pay for a lot more things than he used to now that my income is reduced, but we are making it work. 
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We don't take many holidays and even fewer nights away. We do still keep a lot of horses, which is costly.
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I want to focus on two finanacial goals over the next 18 months.
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Paying off my credit card debt and saving to buy a pony for the children.
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I would also like for us to take the children to Lapland in Dec 2025. 
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Not asking for a whole lot, am I?! 
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I have done out a detailed savings plan for the pony. The goal is to save €25 a week from current income by reducing spending on treats, coffee and little impulse spends in the supermarket.
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I also have a plan for the credit card repayments. I'll admit I haven't looked at it in a while, and I'm not as keen on it as the pony savings plan  . 
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Onwards and upwards from here. Plodding along with my debt, but with some nice plans afoot too. 

castlelough

Time is flying!
Two weeks already since I last posted. 

We've had a lot of expenses related to the childrens' activities.

And also a lot of expense related to my dear horse, which had to be euthanised at the beginning of the week. Absolutely heartbreaking stuff, and now all that is left is another bill to pay.

It is going to be a really busy month, culminating with us hosting a family celebration at our house for at least thirty people. I am going to cook the food myself - a big pot of homemade curry and lasagna and salads plus lots of home made pizza dough prepped for the evening time. We've a large bouncy castle booked and will need to buy in alcohol. We had baby #4's christening at home and invested in fold-up tables and benches and extra dishes and cutlery and tea cups etc so we have all that to roll out again and I will have helpful family members that will make this all less stressful. All in all, it will work out a lot less expensive and much more enjoyable for people than going out to a hotel or hiring in catering. 

It was my birthday yesterday! I won €15 on a scratchcard and €14 on the grand national. Lots of unforeseen expenses related to the childrens' activities so that money will be swallowed up by that.

The girls have their annual ballet show next month and there is costume hire for that and both will need new ballet tights. Then apparently there will be an unanticipated ballet exam too, for both, which hasn't been budgetted for and the eldest will need a new leotard as the one I bought her last summer is too large and she hasn't grown into it yet. I had thought we might get away with sharing the junior leotard until she did grow into it but she will need to be wearing the Grade 1 uniform for the exam. Sigh. 

Aiming for a NSD on Tuesday, my most challenging day for out and about after school. Also aiming for participating in one survey. And sticking to my budget for the week. 

Fingers crossed for a good MSE week.