Managing Mat Leave

Lonelygambler

Hey - How's it going? How are the two children? 

My eldest is now in a bed and is carnage. 

LG

FacelessNumber

Thanks for stopping by @Lonelygambler. It's ok, mostly because the baby is pretty chilled and so far is sleeping a LOT better than her big brother ever did. My eldest was in a bed by 18 months because putting him down into a cot was a literal impossibility! He still wanders into our room in the night sometimes and he's coming up to 4!

FacelessNumber

Had a nice little refund from HMRC yesterday, can't complain about that! Might add it to one of my new pots or split it between the two (car replacement fund and holiday).

Also rechecked the mortgage rates yesterday (our fix runs out this week) and managed to knock another .25% off our fix, well worth checking!

Sarahwithlove

That's good news about the mortgage rate reducing further! It will all help 

FacelessNumber

Bit of a money review done yesterday, we now have more than enough saved to cover the reduction in pay, currently attempting to increase that by 3k so we have a bit of a buffer. Not sure we'll hit it as pay reduces further but we're about 1.8k off so will do our best.

That doesn't count our holiday and car replacement funds which have about 500 in between them too. So all in all pretty good!

FacelessNumber

Hope everyone's having a good weekend, I've found a great list of free things to do with the kids over the summer so scheduling a few in.

Only one planned that costs money at the moment is a trip to the zoo, but you get a year pass with the ticket so will do us for a few trips over the next year!

Money wise still ticking along. I've decided to start a hobby pot for guilt free spending on things like running kit, crochet supplies etc. Putting £20 a month in it initially.

Food shopping is still the bane of my budget! We have a couple of cheaper weeks then back up to £80 a week for a couple of weeks (I aim for £350 a month). Last month was a bit of a disaster at £420!

Aimingforthegoodlife

I love the idea of a hobby pot so you can buy bits, makes a lot of sense! Free things sound great, though I do love a zoo trip and free year pass will be so worth it! I think food is just so expensive at the moment it is so hard to keep costs down!

FacelessNumber

Quite a big spend ordering a spare bed this week, couldn't find one on marketplace so ended up buying new. It's covered though without taking us into our maternity funds, and still around 1.4k over that amount (aiming for 3k over but down to statutory pay now so that's pretty unlikely to happen!)

As we use the money I'll reduce my target accordingly so if we spend less than we budgeted in a month that will help us increase our buffer towards 3k.

Mostly feeling pretty good about getting through the year without too many problems, although there ar always unexpected expenses somewhere! Once I go back to work we'll be paying double nursery fees for a few months too which will be painful, so might take us a while to build the savings back up.

FacelessNumber

Eeek pay has dropped down significantly this month! Trying to get through this month without pulling money out of savings, then from next month will start to use the savings we've built up.

Could be quite an expensive one though as we have quite a few birthdays/activities this month. Trying to continue to do cheap days out with our eldest though, packing lunches etc as much as possible. 

Will definitely need to keep a close eye on the budget and try not to go out for lunch/coffee too much!

FacelessNumber

Had a nice, fairly cheap day out yesterday, under £20 spent on some ice cream and drinks. Back to normal routine this week but have a lot to do with various family birthdays etc!

I need to review my budget for the month today at some point, as well as try and get on top of the washing that's fallen by the wayside a bit!