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

zcrat41

I don’t like kindle unlimited either. Our library lets us order books for £1 if that might be an option for you. Have you read Summer Waters by Sarah Ross? One of the best books I’ve read all year - set in a rainy Scottish holiday park! 

Bluegreen143

No I haven’t, but I’ll add it to the list! We can reserve books for free from any library in the city (and they will deliver it to your local library for pick up) and if the library system doesn’t have a book you can put in a request for them to consider purchasing it. 

New day, new week! Monkey is back at Cubs today which reminds me I didn’t remember to sew on his badges over the summer… will see if I have any time after work. 

Red is annoyingly off for the English bank holiday today, which neither the children nor I get off, so the loss of a potential day off to use in the school holidays annoys me every year! My friend said her and her husband use it as a date day to go out for lunch while the kids are in school once a year so that’s something to aim for next year maybe. Though it feels a bit cheeky to take a day off at this stage of the year given I always take four weeks off in the summer and usually a day for my birthday the week we go back 😂 

The kids were hard to wake up this morning even though we sent them to bed early enough. They didn’t go to bed til after 9 both Friday and Saturday and had a very busy, active and social weekend, so I think they’re a bit shell shocked now 🙈

Bluegreen143

Meant to say I’ve made the first start on ordering little bits for birthdays/Christmas, which is allowing me to look for some things cheaper/second hand. So far it’s just books, all second hand:

Usborne chess book (for M) £4
Peter Duck £3.09 (for M - third “Swallows & Amazons” book as he LOVES the first two)
Little House on the Prairie (for B ) £2.21
The Penderwicks (for B ), £2.51

The kids know they aren’t getting lots of toys for their birthday as we are painting their rooms, getting their furniture etc. So I think that alongside the books, they will get a small toy to open and also I’ll wrap up a couple of the smaller bits for their rooms. Going to ask either my mum or MIL to get their bedding and various aunts and uncles to get wall art and reading lights. Monkey’s new room needs curtains too but I’ll look for these on eBay. 

Bluegreen143

I’ve also made a list for the kids’ room project, which I’m leaving here for ease of finding it again:

To buy
Curtains (for M)
Paint (ceilings, walls, gloss)
Wall filler
Kallax storage & general storage tubs 
2x chest of drawers
Bedding (both kids)
Desk chair (M)
Reading lights (both) & desk lamp (M)
Posters/wall art (both kids)
Ceiling light (M)

To do
Purchase supplies
Demolish over stairs cupboard
Declutter hall cupboard
Declutter & split up kids’ stuff 
Paint
Make Bambi’s new bed frame
Move Monkey’s bed
Make Monkey under bed desk 
Unpack and organise their stuff
Put up art, lamps etc 

Looking at the list, I think we will do the decorating/building work in November (to be done by the start of Dec) so I’d like to do the purchasing, decluttering etc in October. Which means we don’t really need to do anything now, except have conversations with relatives to ask them to get stuff off the list and also research what we’re going to buy. 

Spendless

Does this mean that Red doesn't get the Scottish early Aug BH off? If he did you'd still be in the same position regarding stretching AL to cover school hols because you would both take 1 day off when both of you aren't needed (for childcare purposes) because he would lose that day there instead  . Only if he didn't get either would you have an additional day to play with.

It used to frustrate me though when the school Easter hols didn't straddle the Easter BH because if it did me and DH could take 4 days AL and cover otherwise it meant 5 days off. 

Bluegreen143

Neither of us get a bank hol in early August 🤷‍♀️ he gets this day instead of the 2nd Jan. Technically not needed for childcare but I can tell you we are both always sad when the 2nd Jan rolls round and he isn’t off 😨 I wouldn’t mind him having an extra day when I’m off too as it’s always nice to have a family day. It’s him being off when nobody else is which is a waste of time 🤷‍♀️ 

The Christmas hols are awkward this year as the bank hols are Wed/Thurs so we need to take way more days off to cover & don’t get a nice long weekend off just with the bank hols. And Red has been told he can’t take any time off between Christmas & New Year. He’s lucky he’s already taken 3 days at October as they’ve been told no hols in Oct except what’s already booked. They don’t let them carry any days forward or book the next year’s holidays until January starts, plus they need to give six weeks notice every time, so his work are basically rubbish in all ways for holidays!

He still has two days leave for this year and he is going to ask his work to allow him to carry them and book 2nd/3rd Jan off as I think it would be very unfair for him to lose them when they are making it impossible for him to book his holidays 🤯

It’s lucky I can WFH and have the kids at home as it would be impossible to manage otherwise. We have two days uncovered at October currently and no idea what we can manage at Christmas. 

Spendless

How come you dont get early Aug off? Every calendar Ive ever bought names the 1st Mon in August as a public/bank hol. Is that out of date for nowadays?  Years ago England had the same date but it was changed in favour of the last Mon in Aug.

I dont like midweek Christmas hols either, I much prefer them to attach to a weekend.

Do you think Reds workplace will let him carry over? Or do you think theyll take the opinion that he has other dates to use them up though theyd be in term time? 

I used to have to do agency work for this reason, no jumping through hoops to get unpaid time off to cover hols. WFH wasn't really a thing though when mine were young. 

Bluegreen143

I don’t know, will just need to wait til he asks them tomorrow 🤷‍♀️ 

It is a local public holiday but companies don’t actually have to give you all the public holidays. We get 8 each year - 4 at Christmas, 2 at Easter, first Mon in May and the last Mon in Sept. I actually don’t know anyone who does get that early Aug hol off tbh 🤷‍♀️ which is a shame given it’s in the school hols! I think I got it in my first post-uni job at a small charity, they gave us 10 public hols a year so were more generous. But the pay was crap 🤣

Red gets 8 public hols too (but English ones) so he gets 3 at Christmas, 2 Easter, two Mons in May and the one in late Aug (ie today). 

Bluegreen143

Well Red ended up on childcare duty after all as the school called for us to pick up Monkey because he had been sick in the toilets. Red managed to ascertain from him that he hadn’t actually been sick, he just FELT sick 🙄 Before bed he suddenly became ravenous and wanted a banana (having had two portions of pasta at dinner) which is a pretty good sign and I’m hoping he’s well enough to go back tomorrow 🤞🏼

We had chicken pesto pasta (with HM pesto - really tasty!) using the leftovers from roast chicken last night. And I popped the carcass in a pot to make some stock while we ate too. But on the negative side I had to throw away a pack of chicken, dated today, which was off when I opened it 🙄 should have frozen it when we bought it. 

Bluegreen143

Another grocery budget fail yesterday as the salmon was also out of date! 

I know where I went wrong - I was in a mad rush to pack to go away on Thursday, so I didn’t check all the dates and freeze short dated items. I just literally shoved it all in the fridge and went back to packing 😨 It’s another example of how excessive busyness and disorganisation cost you money. Lesson learnt.

As well as the wasted money on the salmon, it cost £20 on a McDonald’s as I literally just discovered it was inedible at 6.15pm after cooking it, as poor Red walked through the door after work and visiting his mum. So when he said “I’ll go pick up a McDonald’s” I didn’t argue! At least it made the kids’ night 🤣

I did mix all the roasted veg, broccoli and bacon I was serving with it together with some pesto to make two work lunches for myself, so that’s at least a small win. 

Other than that we’re in the very quiet part of the budgeting month, waiting for Red’s payday. 

This week I’m going to get my proper shop delivered on Sunday and so tomorrow I’m only ordering things for the party at the weekend. I realised the fridge would be WAY too full otherwise. 

I’ve also realised that more people are coming than I’d anticipated, which is a lovely problem to have, but I really hope the weather is nice so we can use the garden, and I’ve also realised it’s not feasible to only make pizzas for all those people (25-30+). You can only do one at a time in the pizza oven, though you can make them big, so I’d spend the whole time making pizza! 

So I’ll do other food and everyone can get a slice or two of pizza to try. Thinking I’ll make a couple of big macaroni cheese bakes in advance to go alongside the pizzas, but I need to do a vegan/dairy free option too. Also thinking I’ll make salads like potato salad, coleslaw etc, buy sausage rolls and chicken nuggets to go in the oven and do some easy stuff like olives, hummus, crisps and veg. My sister is kindly making a cake, must ask her how much to send for ingredients.