Stopping the backsliding… a family of four no longer living beyond their means

Bluegreen143

You know what, you are all very right! 

Continuing my “ultimate summer holiday frugality” theme for today, I have a loaf of sourdough mixed and rising, 500g dried chickpeas in the instant pot, and the children and I are sleeping in a tent in the garden tonight. 😎

Monkey slept in there on his own last night. When I questioned Bambi she was a bit nervous of doing it without us, so I agreed to join them both in there tonight - excellent mother that I am! Red is staying in his cosy bed inside 😂! In fairness, he is working tomorrow. 

Spending

Three phone bill £21.84 - final bill for old contract. Now on £8p/m Giffgaff SIM only 30 day contract! 

Meals

B - Greek yog/nuts/fruit/dark choc combo for me, cereal for kids I think 

S - strawberry & melon for kids 

L - tuna mayo & sweetcorn pasta salad for me & kids, I’d made Red a hummus & olive salad tub to take to work 

S - carrot sticks, banana & cashews for kids 

D - air fryer salmon & HM chips, broccoli/peas/green beans and spicy mayo (the latter only for adults!)

Today’s list

KIDS
- spend at least 10/15 mins having fun together (wrestling usually does it, or if they want to play a game or whatever). Haven’t actually played with them as such today 😳 though I am camping in the garden with them, does that count?!

- read lots to both kids. ✔️ Read Monkey a chapter of his current Harry Potter book, Bambi a whole Noddy book AND read two fairy tales to them both. Winning at motherhood 😂

- do a reading lesson with Bambi and get Monkey to read to me and practice handwriting (his weak spot, requires a bit of summer practice). ✔️ Done

- cycle to the library together (must check opening times first, as I think it may not open til 12 on Mondays).  ✔️ Done

PRODUCTIVITY
- get kitchen & dining room totally tidied (bit messy after a busy weekend and hangover yesterday). ✔️ Done 

- continue decluttering and organising downstairs shelving - I did the kallax that the kids’ arts & crafts supplies live in yesterday and they look so much better, plus I’ve freed up a cube through decluttering and moving things around. ✔️ Done, though unsure if I like the new arrangement yet 

- start a loaf of sourdough. ✔️ Done, needs to be folded over the next couple of hours 

- soak and cook a batch of chickpeas. ✔️ In the instant pot now 

- laundry - do a load, put away it and the clean load sitting there. ✔️ Second lot not yet away but everything else done 

- text various friends to finalise this week’s plans (looks like another mum is hosting Saturday’s event which is good!). ✔️ Texted two friends! 

- knit that jumper!! Only got about half of both sleeves to do and then sewing up. Not done any - will get on it for half an hour while chatting to Red. 

- new item on list - write packing list and meal plan for our holiday next week ✔️ Did packing list - will do mealplan tomorrow 

- check pantry and household item stocks and list things which are running out, so I stop being caught out! Not done 

zcrat41

Monkey (will be turning 9)
- Actually plays less with toys these days but loves Lego and anything construction-related like that. Lego sets are soooo expensive though!

- Loves outdoor pursuits (kayaking, archery, camping, making fires etc - already owns pocket knives and flint & steel and has a bow though and we have our kayak now).

- Likes helping with woodwork and making/mending, but already has a set of his own tools. 

Bambi (will be turning 6)
- Obsessed with drawing & writing.

- Her favourite type of toy is stuffed animals, which she has a reasonable collection of (I make her donate old ones if she adds to it now to avoid it taking over the house!!).

- She does like figurine type play, may get her a few more Schleich plastic animals to add to her collection.

- Loves real animals of all kids but I don’t want to get her a pet! 

Both kids also like generally playing outdoors, cycling their bikes, trampoline, making forts/dens etc. But these aren’t things needing a lot of “stuff” and they have anything they need. They still both like dressing up but have a fairly good costume collection already. They both love books and audio books but that’s a given that I’ll get them books 😂🙈

But yeah basically I feel they don’t want for anything and gifts are pointlessly adding to our clutter, but Red does not agree with this assessment 😂

Ideas so far 
- Could get a paddle board which is really a whole family thing, but could work as a joint present for the kids. A sensible idea is to get the kids bigger wetsuits & wetsuit shoes for next year - they will need these anyway (their current wetsuits are on their second summer and getting tight), but I would usually just buy them and not make them a present…

- A smart outfit each - they do like appreciate a nice party outfit.

- Red isn’t very keen on experience gifts but I think there’s a lot we could do re a lesson or experience - a pony trek or paddle boarding lesson might not be cheap but isn’t becoming clutter later… 

- It occurs to me they don’t have decent scooters atm, theirs are rusty/old/not the right size any more - they are more “bike kids” than “scooter kids” but do enjoy scooting around - that could be a non-clutter option that doesn’t need to be very expensive 🤔 

My 11 year old has really enjoyed some of the National Geographic kits. Fossil hunting stuff? Tent with the intention that he puts it up in the spring/summer for a 9.5 year birthday party. Have you tried the wolf brother books. Beano/Nat geo/the week subscription have also been enjoyed at various points. As has a book called 101 science experiments - once they’re old enough to do things themselves it’s great fun. 

The other thing we have done is buy one big family gift and then a little stocking. So this year was a table tennis table. Second hand off eBay for £200.   

My 9 year old loves a diary, chalk pens and a scrapbook. Or one of those books that gives you story starters and you finish. 

theoretica

Bluegreen143 said:

We do take our food waste out nightly, we found we attracted flies if not. 

I wonder if you missed my point - or maybe don't have your own outside food caddy.  If you don't tie the bag closed (either trust in the lid of the outside food bin, or clip it) you can take waste out as often as you wish and add it to the same bag, without needing a bag each time.  An extra benefit is anything at all stinky goes out immediately.

Bluegreen143

No, we don’t get an outside food caddy here, food waste bags are put into the big brown (garden waste) bin tied up (the size of a usual wheelie bin so difficult to fish stuff back out!). The caddy system sounds better! But we already have five different bins so I can see why it’s in a way easier that we use the garden waste bin for food waste too.

Bluegreen143

Well, camping in the garden, while fine for the kids, was a mistake for me as I got no sleep 🤣 regretting agreeing to babysit two extra children today! 

I think I may get a foam roll mat to go under my self inflating mat. My SIM is decent, and miles comfier than the airbed we used to use, but my sister (an experienced camper) uses both and swears by layering the two. Foam roll mats aren’t hugely expensive so I think it’s worth trying. I may try and borrow my sister’s before our next camping trip to test it out. 

Part of the issue though is that I’m sadly just prone to insomnia if not in my own bed (often affects me in my first night in holiday lets and hotels, it’s not just a camping thing) so perhaps I can’t buy my way out of the problem. 

Lovely day today. I think I’ll let the four kids play here in the morning and take them all to the park after lunch, energy levels permitting! 

Red gets paid tomorrow. Can’t wait to get to play with my budget 🤣

Yesterday I moved all the kids’ books to two of those three tier trolleys on wheels from ikea (I used to use them for art supplies, but they’ve not been used for much in a while - until I’d put picture books in one a few weeks ago). 

The kids love it, think it’s like living in a library. The trolleys are rammed (the sections with paperbacks are double stacked) and they serve as a natural barrier - when they get new books we’ll need to let some old ones go. Also one day when we stop storing their books downstairs (atm we pretty much exclusively read downstairs) and they have their own rooms, they can have a book trolley each. 

Red isn’t keen, because he dislikes change, and tbf it’s left the bookcase in the living room a bit bare as it’s only got board games on it now. 

I’d like him to dismantle this and use a couple of the shelves to make wall shelves to hold games. The bookcase is a cheap and old ikea one and falling apart, so doesn’t look amazing, and it would take up less space just to have 2-3 wall shelves. We have lovely shelves in the hall he made with copper supports so I want him to do similar this time. The copper is a waste material from his work so we have a few wood + copper handmade items now!

Don’t fear though, if we use the bookcase shelves he has all the materials already so it’s a free project 😜 all I need to do is persuade him! 

Today’s plan

1. Read to kids and do reading lessons.

2. Take them to the park in the afternoon. 

3. Finish the living room shelves off by moving stuff around to look less bare. 

4. Sow stuff in garden. 

5. Make meal plan for holiday & update holiday Morrisons delivery. 

6. Bake sourdough (which I started yesterday) and make soup for dinner.

7. Do laundry. 

8. Do audit of pantry and household stuff. 

9. Knit!!!

EDIT this is sort of what I’ve done with books, except my trolleys are both quite a bit bigger and much more crammed. The width and height of each section can fit two rows of paperback chapter books or a row of big hardback reference books and the top row of one is all picture books. Still looks cute even if it’s rammed though!

Bluegreen143

Been doing a little audit of our stores. Current list of running-low supplies:

Basmasti rice 
Tinned green lentils
Tinned tuna
Balsamic vinegar
Demerrara sugar
Granulated sugar
Plain flour
Olive oil
Frozen peas
Frozen cauliflower 
Roasted unsalted nuts
Diluting blackcurrant juice
Porridge oats 
Cans of stock (chicken & beef) - an extravagance, but it makes SUCH a difference to the taste versus using cubes. And they are healthier/less processed.

Washing up liquid
Food waste bags (controversial I know 😂)
Razor blades
Shower gel

Some of these imminently need replaced, some can wait a week or two so I’ll try to split the cost over a few shoppings (of course, I’ll need to add more to the list as other things run out!). 

Bluegreen143

Doing a YNAB round for the month - it’s possible we may spend tomorrow, but it won’t be much (likely ice creams, as we’ll be at the beach).

Its not a full month’s spend though, because we only started using YNAB on the 13th July. Most of the big DDs for the month had gone out already. This also doesn’t include Red’s personal spending - he gets his money as one big chunk when paid, and I don’t monitor it after that. 

I’m looking forward to having a full month of data next month. 

MONTHLY ROUND UP £1,254.79

Needs £1,023.61
Life insurance £28.39
Council tax £170
Home maintenance £191.99 plumbing emergency
Car maintenance £12.87 engine oil 
Groceries £446.99
Chicken feed £21.99
Petrol £134.38
Taxi for MIL £17

Wants (family) £143.83
Leisure & entertainment £118 mainly new kayak stuff plus a day out to a country park and seawater pool 
Gifts £25.83 my half of my stepdad’s birthday gift 

Wants (personal) £87.35
Phone £29.84 paid final bill of old contact plus first bill of new - will be £8 from now on 
Online subscription £23.35
Clothes £17.96 preloved walking boots 
Socialising £13 my half of a taxi fare home 
Misc £3.20 meal deal lunch at work 

Time2count

I was looking at your packing list, does the place you're staying in provide towels? I noticed no mention of them!

Bluegreen143

They do! Though it’s a good reminder to chuck a couple extra in, in case there aren’t quite enough there! When you’re on the beach you use more.

Bluegreen143

Today’s plan

1. Read to kids and do reading lessons.

2. Take them to the park in the afternoon. ✔️ done 

3. Finish the living room shelves off by moving stuff around to look less bare. ✔️ done

4. Sow stuff in garden. Not done, but I did spend a bit of time in the garden putting away the tent, rolling up self inflating mats etc, so it’s not going to happen today! 

5. Make meal plan for holiday & update holiday Morrisons delivery. Not done yet, but I’ve booked a delivery slot for the day we are back 

6. Bake sourdough (which I started yesterday) and make soup for dinner. Baked sourdough, doesn’t look amazing, going to have the meatballs today and save soup for later in the week 

7. Do laundry. Sort of half way through 

8. Do audit of pantry and household stuff. ✔️ done

9. Knit!!!

Energy levels low now after a poor night’s sleep and babysitting all day. For the rest of the day I’m going to focus on food prep (dinner, and a packed lunch for the beach tomorrow), general tidying up and reading to the kids.