Over the Rainbow and Quest for a Unicorn

castlelough

It's a beautiful Spring afternoon here. I'm catching up with MSE while my littlest naps beside me. My baby, he turned three last month! I would absolutely love another, but dh is quite firm that this was the last baby.

And so I took the plunge last month and began listing things for sale. So many baby things, all carefully minded and kept just in case there might be a fifth baby. I've made €275 so far, only a fraction of what it all cost to buy, but nice to get something back and lots to pay for so I'm grateful to get something for it. I sold an item to a lovely lady yesterday. She had just had her fifth baby. I did have a few tears after that! However, I do know how very blessed I am with my lovely family and a kind and loving husband and I am ready to focus on doing my very best for them all.

I am jobsharing again this year and still just trudging under the weight of the credit union loans, almost 50% of my income goes out on those repayments alone. Every penny is counted out and a detailed budget made. I just find it very hard to work within that budget.

Groceries and diesel are huge running costs, plus the feeding of two large golden retrievers and the numerous activities that the children are doing are also very costly.

I have had to shelve my original goals when starting this diary - the pony and the trip to Lapland. I still want them to happen, but it just isn't feasible for now. I am aiming for Dec 2026 for Lapland now, and I'm not sure about the pony. I think it will need to wait until I go back to work fulltime, unless we can get something suitable on loan. We would need a horsebox or trailer as well and realistically some work would be needed on fencing smaller paddocks and a safe space for them to ride in. A proper sand arena would be the dream of course and a little yard with stables, tack room, feed room and storage for hay. The girls are attending riding lessons now. They began in September after a lengthy wait to get a place in the class. It's expensive at €300 up front every six weeks for the two of them.

We are working towards a family holiday in May. Flights not yet booked yet! They have come down greatly and we hope to book them soon. We haven't been away to the sun, or anywhere else in 8 years, so I really hope it all comes together for us. It would be so good for us. 

Other than that I am working with renewed vision towards clearing my credit card and overdraft and am saving weekly towards a medium term goal of a trip away with friends in a few years time. I'm loving the group saving. I find it very motivating. I am new to Revolut and it was I who suggested we try a group savings account for our trip. This year we are saving €10 per week each and there are 8 of us so it is really building up!!! We have no idea where we are going to go but it is so exciting to see the money add up and it is truly the first time I have really ever saved properly for anything! 

Just three days to make it through to pay day!
Off for a walk now with the children and the dogs and then home for a roast dinner. 

castlelough

We had a lovely coastal walk yesterday. I explained before we left that we wouldn't be stopping for our usual ice creams because I was trying to stay within a budget in order to save for something really nice for the family. Immediately my 8 and 10 year old daughters insisted that they were going to buy the ice creams for the five of us. It was so generous of them and I allowed them to.

Each of the four children have a post office book and they save their money from birthday and Christmas gifts and I have lodged money received over the years when they were little. This money is rarely touched and we have set each child a goal that they must save first to buy a cow before they can save for anything else. The eldest bought her cow last year and sold her first calf in the Autumn, lodging the money back to her post office book. She is now saving for a pony!

I want to instil in them good habits for life, ones I never managed to learn myself. But I do also want them to be kind and generous and not tight or mean. Hence I allowed them to buy the ice creams yesterday as a rare treat. The girls have also asked if they can withdraw money to pay for themselves to go to pony camp over Easter. It is going to cost €100 each (for two days) and it just isn't in the family budget for us to send them. I don't usually send them to any camps over Easter, but five of their friends are going and I have agreed to let them go too if they are happy to pay for it themselves.  I'll have to rein them in a bit after this though or DD2 will be forever trying to save for her cow!

Other than that I have gone over budget on both groceries and diesel this fortnight and have borrowed from money set aside for a bill due later in the month. This is annoying and sets me up on the back foot for the next fortnight. I need to be more ruthless with the grocery shopping and meal planning.

I also forgot to budget for feeding the dogs. Dog food has run out and I ended up putting a bag on our farm account at the vets and paying 50% more for the dog food than I would have if I had ordered from my usual online supplier (€48 for 6kg as opposed to €68 for 12kg...) I have my weekly budgets done out from now until the summer and I haven't included dog food in any of them. Must revisit and recalculate. Sometimes I avoid thinking about how much it costs to feed them. Back when I got my first dog I used to feed her on a raw meat diet and she looked amazing and was in great health on it but it was setting me back around €150pm for one dog. Now I have two dogs I have them on a high quality kibble and it is costing about €100pm for both dogs. Still an awful lot of money....

Off to give the dogs a quick walk before bed!

castlelough

Dh left me an extra €50 for diesel this morning. Thank goodness. I will try to manage on €23 diesel until Thursday so I can put the rest back into the bill budget that was raided yesterday. 

Loving the £1 a day Christmas savings challenge. £1 isn't much but it is the encouragement that just reining in expenditure by a tiny bit will make a big difference come next Christmas. My goal will be to have €300 by the end of the challenge and that will be a little glamour pot just for me.

I am always the last to be looked after at Christmas time. There is always so much to be paid for with four little ones of my own and twelve nieces and nephews (several with birthdays in December). So my little glamour pot will be to get my hair done, and maybe a new coat or new boots, or if I need new makeup or decide to get my nails done (very rarely do, vouchers always expire before I get to the salon!) and anything left over for shopping in the sales after Christmas.

castlelough

Spent a good deal of time decluttering in the playroom this morning (much more needed!), followed by decluttering of a box of 12-18mo old baby clothes to a colleague this afternoon and another bag to the charity depot. 

Have lived in this house for ten years now and have only today figured out how to get the stairs down to access the attic. Sorted through some clothes a cousin passed on for my daughters and stashed a bag in the attic for when they are old enough for them. The attic is in a terrible state. Dh has stored everything in a higgledy piggledy fashion up there and the amount of dead flies.... I will need to wait until next week to get up there again but hopefully I will be able to put some order on it and see exactly what is up there!!! 

castlelough

Today is a working day for me and the last day before payday. Cue a fresh new budget to adhere to for the fortnight. There is literally no wiggle room and nothing extra for playing about with (buying a coffee etc) so I need to be very careful in all my spending.

Hopefully we will book our flights for holidays (dh is to pay for those and I am paying for the accomodation). Fingers crossed!  

castlelough

Payday today and onto a fresh budget to balance. Did not manage to hang on to the extra €27 that dh gave me earlier in the week so I am starting this fortnight -€27 and also I can see from the budget that it won't be possible for me to work within the limits I set. Not enough budgeted for diesel. Not enough budgeted for groceries. Unexpected school expense of €50 for dd1 that must come out of the holiday accomodation pot. Am going to need to order dog food €68 as the expensive bag I bought at the vet will not last until the next time I get paid. And it is my turn to buy the Friday lunch at work this week, which will have to come out of Groceries budget. Sigh. 

I have 29 items listed for sale on preloved website. There are a good few new 'watchers' so fingers crossed I may sell a few items to boost available funds and counteract some of the above...

castlelough

Someone in our family circle has paid off their mortgage this week at 46.
What an inspiration!