From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

rtandon27

OH just announced that we won 5 pounds and a free lucky dip - let's just say it's budget neutral as it will save him from buying for the next two or three draws 😂

Greying_Pilgrim

Good evening MFW'rs

RT well done on the win!  I'm not surprised we didn't win (big/anything), but I am a little suspicious that 3 lines didn't even match ONE number drawn - I know it doesn't equal a prize, but no match......????  The numbers - supposedly randomly drawn, were all a bit formulaic too....... 🤔Ah well, t'ain't called the stoopid tax fer nowt......

LG completed the quota of thankQ cards asked of them, so the cards have been sealed up in envelopes, addressed and the stamps put on.  Several more to complete tomorrow and then they can all be popped in the Post Box on Tuesday.  

DH is finishing off the decorating - unfortunately he's been getting a bit TOO carried away with his perfectionist tendencies, and trying to make good imperfections in the surfaces that were there long before we purchased the place.  He's worked hard this holiday, but only the two smallest rooms have been worked on, there are still 3 big(ger) rooms and a landing/hallway to tackle........ 😕

The 'sloppy joes' for tea have proved a bit of a mixed success.  LG wasn't particularly smitten.  I thought the 'messy eating' might appeal to them - it didn't 😕  Although the baps I used were only small, they probably were too big to have 2 each, along with oven chips.  Surprisingly, LG hasn't baulked at the savoury (veggie) mince taste nor texture, they just didn't particularly like the concept of 'sloppy joes'.  Fair enough.  I just asked if they would like the savoury mince over pasta or rice (personally I would like it over a baked tattie - but LG ain't a fan of tatties), and they thought that would be a good idea.  They have finished off one bap, and the oven chips, so not a total fail - just probably something to not bother repeating in that particular format. 

I have been working on my intended goals for 2024.  There aren't many, but they are very focused, and quite.... 'big'.  But if we have ongoing 'big' goals, that we are meeting, we can always add in some short-term goals to up the ante a bit.  We still want to try to 'live' as we're doing all this - so whilst we could save every penny and live off lentils and instant noodles for a year, that won't necessarily enable us to live our 'best' life, even if we do save all the windows money in the target time.  And I'm alway mindful that LG is only X age for this moment in time, we are only parents of an X year old at this particular moment in time.  We waited long enough to get here - so it's important we don't blow it with the wrong focus, now that we have been gifted parenthood.   We'll see - Perhaps I am being too ambitious with achievement levels but not ambitious enough with quantity of goals. 

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

DH's hard work - even if sometimes he tries 'too hard'....
that LG approached their writing task with good intentions and completed the task
we've achieved another nsd and yet wanted for nothing. 

Thank you for popping in and reading.  It is appreciated.  The MFW forum, like the DFW forum, remains such a warm, welcoming and supportive place to be.  I am so grateful of your acceptance. I'm really looking forward to 2024, and sincerely hope it is wonderful for us all.

Greying X 

newgirly

I’m so glad to see you back again with a new diary and wish you all a happy new year 😊

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs,

Goodness, I am so blessed - to have been welcomed so warmly into this online community is just..... beyond words actually.  newgirly thank you so much and our wishes are sent out to the ether to wish you and yours a happy, healthy and successful 2024 too.

So I have put a wash on this morning and hung the clothes out on the line.  It is cold, but we have weak sunshine and a reasonable breeze, so hopefully the clothes will dry pretty well.  Rain is forecast for this afternoon, so I am definitely playing laundry chicken!

I have been having a wibble about my goals 😬  In some ways they don't seem to be achieving much, and yet in other ways they are daunting and scare me........  But strangely enough, I have woken up this morning feeling completely different about the year ahead.  I am excited.  I haven't felt like this at a New Year for quite some time..... 🤔  But I do want to build on my excitement and turn that energy into positive action.

So, here goes - putting them out there and in writing...... 😬

1)  Save £10k by 31/12/24 specifically for replacement glazing*
2)  Save £120 by 1/6/24 to enable LG to go on 2 specific trips**
3)  Craft 24 items in 2024 for a 'blanket charity' ***
4)  Completely lose my stress-head by 31/12/24, as it has become my default personality 🥹****

Part of me thinks that these 4 aren't ambitious enough, but then part of me thinks that if I can actually achieve all of them - particularly the more 'woolly' one at #4, our lives will look so different.......

Explanation/expansion;

*  We will save this money by sticking to all our other budgets.   The primary saving each month will be derived from not having a rental/mortgage payment, but as we all know, "stuff happens", so having this money available to save is never a given.  Plus £10k is no little amount of money.......😬

**  One trip is with LG's out of school group, camping trip, another is a school trip.  Luckily the split in cost is 75% to (approx) 25% - as we haven't been told how much the school trip is, but I have budgeted £30.  The school trip is first, and the other trip is at the start of the summer hols - but the camping trip has been set up to be paid in instalments between now and 31/5/24.  So........  my plan is to fund this expense by savings from the monthly grocery budget.  Possibly/probably a mad idea as I am going to try to keep the grocery budget at £200 per month as it is........ which is a big ask on its own 😕  But we have to have £30 by the end of January, so I am seeing that as £1 per day to be saved.  I shall be relying heavily on that well known to MSE'rs cookbook - "Conjuring summat outta nuffink" in order to make savings🤣  I am hopeful that I can in some way involve LG in this project, as it will be a good learning opportunity regarding the value of money, and working for what you want.

*** I crafted some blankets for this charity this year, and it gave me a great deal of satisfaction to be contributing.  The charity provides crafted blankets for children and adults in hospital, the bereaved families of littlies that didn't make it 😢, care leavers, dementia patients, refugees - their list of recipients is ever increasing.  Even though baby blankets aren't that big - I don't think setting myself a target of crafting 24 blankets would be achievable.  However, the charity does accept other items for certain projects, alongside accepting components (think a crocheted or knitted square) that volunteers craft together to form a blanket from.  So I am going to aim to complete and send off 24 'items' to them in 2024.

****  This target is - in some ways the most important and yet least easily measured.  The past few years have seen us encounter 'circumstances' in life.  Nothing that other folk don't encounter, and yes, some folk can deal with stuff like water off a ducks back, others struggle.  I hadn't realised - well, not soon enough, that everytime I got 'wound up' over "something", i had been forgetting to completely unwind that knot of tension, or that anger, or that stress (whatever particular emotion had been stoked).  And what happened was that the coil kept tight, and got quicker and quicker to trigger over the years.  Increasingly little issues caused me to get wound up like the town hall clock 🙁I'm being kind if I term my default state to be "exasperated"...........  Even I know that continually "exasperated" people ain't fun to be around 🙁And I am totally embarrassed to be admitting that I am that person 🙁 But we have a fresh start, a new home, we are now working for Team Greying. It hasn't been pretty, but we have managed/coped with/triumphed/muddled through/survived every challenge that we've encountered in the last (dare I admit?) decade.  It's time I changed.  I don't want to be 'Mrs Shrieky' anymore.  She needs to be put out to grass.  So.  I have no idea how I am going to 'measure' this - but it is probably the most important goal I have set myself.  my physical health, my relationship with others, my mental health, my energy...... etc etc all flows from the equanimity of my personality at any given time.  

Wish me luck as I press 'publish'.......

Greying X

ladybird1106

Good luck with your plans.
Love 🐞

Suffolksue

It’s an awful long time ago that my children were that age ( my youngest grandson is now 12 😳) 
but I used to save the child benefit specifically for ,shoes ,school trips and any left went towards holidays .
would that be possible ?

rtandon27

Happy New Year 2024!

Very admirable goals GP & keeping them at 4 makes it that much more achievable!  Now that you are back and posting, it might be a handy tool to vent/unwind, knowing that we will all lovingly support from afar through all the ups and downs 🤍.

Hope you managed to see in the new year in your own GP family way!  We only just made it past midnight & are paying the price today 🤣🤣🤣

Greying_Pilgrim

Lovely to "see" you ladybird - thank you for popping in. 

Suffolksue said:

It’s an awful long time ago that my children were that age ( my youngest grandson is now 12 😳) 
but I used to save the child benefit specifically for ,shoes ,school trips and any left went towards holidays .
would that be possible ?

Hi Suffolksue, thanks for popping by.  There may be some shrapnel of the CHB left each month that can be thrown into the 'trips' pot, however, a large chunk of CHB is 'spoken' for each month paying for the 2 'out of school' activities that LG does.  Next priority is - (as you identified); shoes/school uniform/general clothing.  I don't think it's ever been any different, but it doesn't take long to find items that CHB needs to pay for 🙁(I certainly don't ever recall my parents being able to make whoopee with the CHB  they were in receipt of 🙁).   I do wish school would say how much the trip would cost though - but it's an improvement that they did, in effect, give us 4 months notice that this trip was going to happen, they haven't been so organised in the past... so babysteps and all that 🙄

I suppose in effect with either of my 'savings' challenges, it would be fair to say that any 'spare' (🤔) money would be up for allocation to either pot - so if I found monetary 'roadkill' or a slew of coppers in the bottom of the cutlery drawer, then that money would be directed to where it could 'work' for us accordingly.   

Certainly, with any of my challenges, if my methodology ain't working, I will seek to try plan b, c, d, e.... whatever it takes.   I certainly want LG to participate in both trips.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

RT sweetie - you popped in whilst i was typing, sorry I 'missed' you.

The support of the MFW/DFW forums is absolutely unsurpassed, and I know that I could vent and be offered solutions and sympathy in abundance.  And sometimes, we just need to verbalise what is needling us to let it go (forever). 

I've (really) got to work on the letting go (forever), which I hope will then stop me from being so 'exasperated' about anything/everything.  Which in turn will mean that if I get exasperated, it's more likely to be about the 'big' things - situations that others have found themselves in, and can understand/offer solutions/sympathise.  I really, really dislike 'Shrieky Greying' - I'm embarrassed by her, feel so guilty that I've let her take over my life.  I would have an extremely hard time admitting this to anyone in RL, I am that embarrassed (and my apologies to the MSE'rs I do know in RL who maybe reading this 🥹). But hopefully by saying here that I know I have an issue, I'm making the first step to doing something about it.  The first 24 hours or so, since I decided it needed to be a goal, have already been mucho, mucho calmer.

I didn't see in the NY (surprise, surprise).  I sort of stirred when a whole host of fireworks started going off nearby - so I take it that was at midnight.  Certainly there were more/they were closer, than where we used to live, but they didn't go on for long, and I dosed back to sleep.  I am officially a boring auld fart!

Greying X 

Pollie

Happy New Year GP. Don't feel embarrassed, guilty or ashamed. Everyone has  times when they feel overly stressed/wound up. You will achieve your goals because you are so able and determined.