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

Floss

If he gets paid end of August, that will help for your car expenses...

Bluegreen143

He gets paid on the last day of the month Floss (so he will get paid 31 July and 31 August), so his pay is budgeted to the first two weeks of the month. I get paid on the 15th of the month and finish the monthly budget out (I get paid nearly the same amount as him so it’s not just a small top up, it’s half our budget). 

Going to check when the next child benefit pay is due in as that’s £170 and I always forget when it’s coming (it’s four weekly, not monthly). 

Unusual expenses due 1-14th Aug:

- holiday

15-31st Aug (so after my payday);

- brown bin permit (but I think the window opens then, and is open for a while, so could put off til Sept)
- MOT
- my birthday 

Sept

- car tax 
- kids will likely need a few items of clothing (warmer stuff for the winter, but luckily not coats as last winter’s still fit - I bought good quality ones in a slightly big size last year 😉) 
- I’m going on a weekend away with my mum & sister, but this is budgeted for from personal spends (and the accommodation is already paid for so it’s just spending money/food needed)

smudge56

Do you have enough space in  your grey (general waste) bin  for the garden waste?  If so you can put it in there and not pay for a permit for the garden waste (just a council rip off to get more money imo) When you think about it   They have to empty the food waste bin every week for free but you have to pay to add the garden waste!   Do you really think they go through the bin and separate the garden waste from the food waste.  Our council has  confirmed that it is acceptable to put the garden waste in the grey bin.
i get your pain with the parking. It would cost me £30 a day to park in town for work and they have now started charging for a Sunday. You never could get a space outside work before - now the streets are empty.    So instead of of the council getting £10 a day they are getting nothing 😏

Bluegreen143

No Smudge, they only empty the general waste bin (it’s green here) once every four weeks. So tbh you really need to put all the waste in the correct bins to manage it not filling up. We do have a new bin we got last month which takes pretty much all plastic and metal packaging which is great for reducing what goes in general waste. It means the garden waste gets composted rather than landfill too which I’d prefer anyway.

But I’m annoyed they now charge as it was free until last year! Typical council, doubling parking charges, cutting teaching staff at school and charging for bin collection!

Playdate at friend’s house was nice though the boys played on a gaming console the first while which always seems a pity in nice weather (we are not a gaming family so I think Monkey was excited about the novelty!). We persuaded them to go out in the garden on the trampoline later though. 

The kids and I cycled to the playdate which I’m pleased with, meant I got a little exercise in! Bambi complained slightly about tired legs but not too badly. 

My parents came while I was out and collected their dog so we are officially done with dogsitting, and it really wasn’t as bad as I’d feared it would be. I would be ok doing it again if needed as they don’t have many people they could ask. But could only help in school hols as he can’t be left alone while you go to the office or do the school run. They brought some food/drink gifts and a game for the kids which was lovely. 

Today’s spending - £0

Meals today 

B - yoghurt/nut/banana combo for me, not sure about kids

S - bananas for kids 

L - kids had leftover lentil soup, I had oatcakes, ham, cheddar and an unsatisfactory pear which managed to be both hard and mealy at the same time 🤷‍♀️ 

S - took apples and satsumas to play date and the kids all ate those with chocolate rice cakes - I had a chocolate rice cake too

D - hot dogs, corn on the cob, HM coleslaw 

I didn’t do well at my usual weekly tech break last week as I was too invested in setting up YNAB and this diary. So committing here, I am done for the night and will not be online until tomorrow afternoon! 

Floss

Bluegreen143 said:

But I’m annoyed they now charge as it was free until last year! Typical council, doubling parking charges, cutting teaching staff at school and charging for bin collection! 

To be fair, councils' funding from central government has not been increased for several years, they cannot raise council tax by more than 5% and what money there is has to cover an awful lot of services.

angela110660

Hi BlueGreen. Have noticed in several of your posts that you had surprise items to pay for lately. Just wonder if you might benefit sitting down with your bank statements/online or paper for the past year and get them in the calendar? Once done, you can budget ahead for them in your own good time. So annoying after setting your budget when they pop up unannounced.

Spendless

I wouldn't up your hours. When I returned to daytime working - and my kids were older than yours currently are, I ended up working a 30hr week when f-time was 38. It meant I could incorporate the school run and in the hols because we could still do stuff after work, it didn't feel as much as though I was working in the school hols. You probably wouldn't come out with a great deal more either after deductions anyway. You can play around  with  figures here. https://www.thesalarycalculator.co.uk/salary.php

My career prospects got shot to death due to the  child rearing stage but I still have zero regrets about doing it. I wouldn't change that I had that flexibility.

We don't pay for our green waste bin  either - downside is it's the first thing to be stopped in event of an issue. 


After 25 years of marriage me and DH finally have the same payday - last working day of month. This is both a blessing and a curse! This has been a 5 week month too. You've inspired me to make some soup though, I tend to only think of it as a winter thing.

Bluegreen143

Spendless I absolutely agree and have no intention of increasing my hours. I work 32 hours a week, 8.30-3pm (well I finish at 2.30 on Fridays) - because my kids are on the school bus until 3pm this works for school runs and I do them all. I also agree that finishing at 3 and going off to do stuff with them lessens my resentment about working in holidays. 

In October last year I increased my hours from 26 (doing 8.30-3 Mon-Thur) and tbh I regret doing that now, though it did increase my salary by about £250 a month. But now I’m in five days I don’t think I’ll be under any further pressure from work to increase whereas there was a bit when I was only four days.

I’m not remotely ambitious and have no desire to develop/progress (which unfortunately seems the expectation when you work in a corporate job). I’d rather do a decent job in the role I’m in, get paid then get to go home and enjoy my life than keep progressing and adding to my stress levels just to earn more money! 

@angela110660 - yes, a few surprise items. I’ve found this has happened before when I set up a new budget after a hiatus. I think it takes a full year til your budget has everything in it! But good idea to take a look back and try and find the surprises out from last year’s statements. 

Had a fab day today. We took the kids to a nearby loch for kayaking and swimming (well it was really just me who swam though Monkey did a lot of paddling). We met my friend and her kids, they have the same kayak as us. It wasn’t a very auspicious start as my friend was 1.5 hour late, with good reason, but it meant quite a bit of hanging around even though we took the kids to the park tor a bit to kill time. But once she arrived we had a really wonderful time. 

Last night Red said to me “we’ve no lunch food in so had better grab meal deals on the way”. 

Well, I didn’t want to come back here and confess to that 😂 so I sent Monkey to the corner shop for a loaf of bread (£1.55) and made ham & HM coleslaw sandwiches for the adults and hummus sandwiches for the kids (I made a fresh lot of hummus), chopped up some apple, melon, cucumber and peppers and packed the last four bags of crisps. I even made Red a scrambled egg & bacon breakfast before we went. 

Feeling very smug after being told there was no food! 

Got my friend coming for dinner tonight as she’s babysitting for us, just doing chicken pasta but Red is making some focaccia to go with it. Might cut up the rest of the salad ingredients too. 

I think I’ve inadvertently messed up my meal plan and missed a day as my last meal plan was Su-Sa and the new one I’ve done M-Su as the shopping won’t arrive til after dinner tomorrow. But luckily there is some chicken in the freezer, think I can do a chicken & veg curry as I’ve got cauliflower and sweet potato in which would work and there’s rice. 

We really aren’t used to shopping just once a week anymore and the fridge does feel a bit bare, bar a few random veg. But we’ll get there I think and the only food items we’ve had to top up were bananas and bread. 

Bluegreen143

Bluegreen143 said:

Good tip FlorayG!

MSE to-do list:

1. Return Monkey’s violin (Red is to do this - putting it on here so it’s not forgotten)

2. Make hummus for the weekend. Also considering baking some cookies or twinks hobnobs. I’ve not baked in ages because of healthy living goals, but it may soften the blow of buying fewer weekend treats if I start occasionally baking again! ✔️ Made hummus and I did some salted caramel ice cream sauce which we had for dessert last night with ice cream 

3. Mend Bambi’s toy ✔️ done! 

4. Cut up brown bananas & freeze - ✔️ well one made it in there and Bambi wanted the other 😅

5. Cut up old stained polo shirts for cleaning rags ✔️ done!

6. Decide if old favourite dress can be mended - it’s a very light, floaty, patterned maxi dress and has been mended three times already - the fabric is worn thin by a lot of use and it rips more easily now - but I really like it so going to investigate if I can mend it again or not 🙈

7. Finish next week’s mealplan & Tesco order, keeping it under £91 ideally 

8. Sort fridge and check for food needing used up quickly

9. Take kids to the library and swap books (maybe tomorrow if we’ve time before kayaking?)

10. Not really MSE, except mess & disorder tend to make you spend more IMO - but I want to declutter and organise our living room and dining room shelves and move things around 

11. Switch my Audible account (comes from my personal spend fund) to annual to save quite a bit. 

12. Finish knitting jumper I’m knitting for Monkey before it’s too small for him! 

13. Plant some lettuce, beetroot and carrot before it’s too late.

Just some notes on my task list. 

Bluegreen143

Off out for drinks tonight at a friend’s house. My kind friend is not only babysitting but dropping us off. Obviously she can’t pick us up, because she’ll have put the kids in bed by then, so we’ll need to get a taxi home - this will come from our personal spends. 

Spending today 

£1.55 - groceries 
Will be getting a taxi later, cost TBD

Meals

B - banana & chocolate milkshake for me, eggs & bacon for Red, cereal or toast for kids 

L - sandwiches, fruit, veg, crisps as a picnic 

D - chicken tomato pasta, HM foccacia