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

KajiKita

I love the idea of drop-in play dates. So flexible and informal 😊

KK

Sarahwithlove

Good luck on sw! 

Bluegreen143

All going well so far. 

Yesterday’s meals:

B - apple & pear porridge
L - leftover tomato tuna pasta & carrot sticks 
D - citrus honey chicken thighs, new potatoes, a big salad 

Syns - 4.5

Just been looking at how to budget Red’s pay when it comes on Friday - estimated £4,432.

Needs - £1,216 
- Home £530
- Utilities £201
- Car £60
- Groceries £300
- Subscriptions £62
- Miscellaneous £62

Savings - £486
- £100 LISAs
- £386 Credit card

Wants - £729
- £400 Red
- £50 Family
- £150 Gifts
- £129 Kids’ room refurb

We need a kallax unit for Bambi’s room to store toys and I’ve seen one for £20 on gumtree - sent to Red - hoping it’s still available as we had been going to buy new, but obviously that would be a good saving 🤞🏼

Bluegreen143

Yesterday’s meals:

B - fruit salad and fat free skyr

L - leftover new potatoes, baked beans, 30g cheddar, big salad 

S - shared a plate of fruit & veg with the kids after school 

D - minestrone soup, which was not the nicest but was free 😆. Plus 2 small slices wholemeal bread, 10g butter and 15g parmesan. 

Used my HEB, 1.5 HEA, 4.5 syns (on butter and 1tsp maple syrup for the yoghurt).

LOADs of spending but I need to sit down and work it out. Red was getting frustrated that we still had bits to buy for the kids’ rooms as he really wants it done ASAP. So we agreed no using a credit card but that we would raid other pots and put back over the next couple of pays and when our help to save accounts mature. I’ll sit down and do YNAB at some point today and tally it up. 

We both feel a little overwhelmed about how much needs done TBH so it will be good to get the kids’ rooms off the list. Red has finished the bed/desk/storage he was making for Bambi’s room and it’s sooooooo beautiful as well as making the room look enormous now (as he demolished a built in cupboard and built the bed over the stair box). He’s really done such an incredible job! Just waiting on the oil on the wood to fully dry and Bambi can move in once we’ve put up the curtains I ordered last night (because one room was a playroom before it didn’t have proper curtains in and we’ve put the existing curtains from their shared room in Monkey’s room). 

It will all look amazing, and my mum and MIL have bought bedding and wall art for the rooms for their birthdays too. Red has asked his sister to buy them beanbag chairs too. My sister got them light, plants and throws from IKEA which we already have as she let them take them home rather than wrap them up. 

Baileys_Babe

I can sympathise with the frustration of just wanting the project finished. Rejigging the pots in the short term to allow this to happen seems a sensible solution.

Time2count

Would there be any chance of before/ after pics (obviously with no identifying features)?

Bluegreen143

Hello all! 

I’d love to do pics but it would be very outing if anyone who vaguely knew me looked on here. I mean the bed is handmade so one of a kind! Perhaps I could pop it up for a day or so and then take down again. That said if anyone who knew me well clicked on here I suppose it would be fairly obvious it was me anyway. 

The amount of money leaving our bank accounts is horrifying right now but at least we are not using the credit card! 

Kids’ rooms

We are nearly done with the kids’ rooms. Today while I’m out for lunch with the kids, Red will do the finishing touches - make up their desk chairs, hang pictures & guitars up etc. There is still a couple of things to come from relatives (and the little games table we’ve bought Monkey for his birthday) but we are getting there. Bambi is moving into her room tonight and then there will no longer be a mattress on Monkey’s floor! 

My mum and stepdad came by with Monkey’s birthday presents last night because we are so outrageously busy next weekend and they wanted to watch him open them. They got him Harry Potter bedding & a wall sticker, an electric candle with a wand to turn it on and a gorgeous Harry Potter dress up set complete with broomstick. He’s Harry Potter daft so they’re great gifts, they’ve done really well. 

They brought Bambi’s wall sticker too by accident (she’ll get her presents closer to her birthday) which is actually really helpful as it’ll help us place where to put her other posters up now we’ve seen the size. Her room is a “how to train your dragon” theme - also something they both currently love. 

The good thing is the theme is restricted to wall art & bedding - their curtains, walls and lamp shades are neutral (grey) so when their interests change we can just swap out the posters without redecorating fully. 

Kids’ birthdays

✔️ Booked climbing for 7 children for Monkey’s birthday next weekend (including my two) - £84
✔️ Decided not to go for dinner after - we are driving the kids home, except one who is only coming to the climbing (another mum who lives close by is helping drive some kids in her car) and ordering pizza in, plus I’ll get some snacks. I did suggest supermarket party food but Red was keen to order pizza as we’d originally promised a meal out. And tbf it will still cost less than Bambi’s bigger party. 

▪️ Need to get party bag stuff for both kids. I’ve got two hours to kill while Monkey is at a birthday party this evening, and it’s conveniently near a big out of town shopping centre which is open late in December. So I’ll do that tonight.
▪️ I need to wrap the kids’ presents and make or buy cards. 

▪️ Lots of work to do on Bambi’s party like sort out food and a treasure hunt - that’s two weeks away though. 

▪️ Need to decide what I’m doing for cakes. My kitchen aid mixer is broken which is really annoying. I wonder if my sister would make me up a batch of buttercream in hers and I could go collect it?? 🤔

Christmas

Disaster area!! Still have loads to get! 😨. We did get our tree yesterday - £55 which I was pleased with as it definitely cost more last years.

Weight loss 

I lost 3lb my first week of slimming world, yay. Sticking to it well so far. I don’t think it’s costing any more on our grocery budget as you eat quite normal food. Less treats and oil/butter are offsetting more fruit and veg I think. 

Baileys_Babe

Go on ask your sister about the buttercream, it is easy to do in a stand mixer and no effort.

Our stand mixer is also currently broken, it is going to the repair cafe next weekend, hopefully they can fix it for us 🤞

The rooms sound ace, and good planning on only needing to update wall art and bedding when their tastes change, it will save you plenty of money in the future.

Bluegreen143

My sister went one better and has lent me her mixer so I can use it for both kids’ cakes ☺️. 

Just totted up how much we spent on the kids’ rooms over the past couple of months. 

I actually didn’t want to come on here and post, but that’s clearly ridiculous, no point in having a diary if you’re not honest! 

TOTAL PROJECT SPEND £1,239

Rough breakdown:

Painting & decorating £168
Timber/bed £471
Furniture & lighting - £400 (lamps/light shades, kallax unit & storage cubes, shelving, desk chairs, beans for bean bags) 
Decorative - £200 (posters, frames, a big mirror for Bambi’s room, curtains) 

Much more than we intended to spend but their new grown up rooms won’t need redecorated for years and years, bar changing posters around (which they can buy themselves!).  

I’m going to leave this pics up for the day then take down. If you recognise my house from them, erm, maybe just don’t tell me 😂. 

There are still posters to go above Monkey’s bed, Bambi’s big mirror, desk chairs/lamps to go in. And we got Monkey a small games table but he’s not opening that til his birthday. Bambi has a beanbag too but you can’t see it in the pic. 

HearThem

Those custom builds are incredible! Kudos to Red