A pound stretching maternity

I've been so lazy today. Just done odd jobs around the house and a little more online Christmas shopping. I've tidied the kitchen and living room, sorted the laundry that had dried and tidied the airing cupboard. Ds and Dh went to the park and out for a walk whilst I did this.

The only money spent was the Christmas shopping, but that's budgeted for. I'm not too far off finishing and have ordered wrapping paper for ds (and ds2 - eeeek!). I have enough paper for everyone else, but I like to get something different for ds. I've also ordered a decoration for each to go into their Christmas Eve box.

Roast chicken dinner this evening, followed by the last of the crumble that ds and I made on Friday. I've made sure that my bag is ready for work tomorrow and have pulled bread out of the freezer for tomorrow's sandwich. It will save 5 minutes in the morning if I do it tonight. I'm not looking forward to that alarm going off tomorrow!

I haven't checked banking today. I find the Tesco credit card doesn't update over the weekend so it's a waste of time checking. Will update that tomorrow. I've had some cashback from the 2 purchases today so I'm just waiting for that all to go through. I've currently got over £30 in my topcashback account waiting to be approved.

The only plans for the rest of today are to make my sandwiches, see what's on to, open a bar of chocolate and read.

Taking ds out for the day today so won't get much done in the house. Dh is taking the contents of our freezer to his parents to put in their freezer for the day so we can defrost our freezer, though.

Despite spending the day out, it shouldn't be too expensive. I've got a Tesco voucher to go towards entry price so that will only be a couple of pounds, and my mum has said she'll treat us to lunch.

Dinner will be pasta and sauce so that should be nice and easy after our day out. There's a little bit of chicken left in the fridge from Sunday as well as some bacon, so I'll pop some of that in the sauce as well as some veg, maybe broccoli and peas.

I've already checked YNAB this morning and the bank accounts. It all balances, which is good.

Right, we'd better start getting ready for our day out!

Eyebright wrote: »

Hi MrsSave,

I've been reading your diary and I'm feeling inspired to start one of my own. I'm 31+5 weeks pregnant and will be finishing work on the 20th of September, yippee! This is my first baby, and I'm already starting to feel panicky at the thought of living on a reduced income once my MAT leave starts.

I'm waiting to hear back from HR, about what I'll be getting each month, then I want to sort out a budget of what's coming in/going out, and what can be spent where. I think I'll feel a lot better then. I submitted all my paperwork right after my 25 week midwife appointment, but have yet to hear a peep back from them almost 7 weeks later. I'm off work until Thursday as I have family visiting, but will be calling HR as soon as I'm back in work!

Wishing you and your family all the best, and have subscribed

Hi :wave:

I'll have a look for your diary. I find writing this keeps me more on track!

Not long to go until you start your maternity. Exciting!! Are you all ready? I'm not getting my matb1 form until next week so will have to wait until after that to find out what my entitlement is, though hr said they'd contact me around 4 weeks ago to discuss things.

Enjoy your few weeks before baby makes an appearance :j

I ended up working out last night (and at 4:30 this morning!!) how much money will be left over during November and December after all bills are paid. They'll be the worst months until I've finished 9 months of maternity pay because my contract has been cut to just 1 day a week. I'm looking for supply work to top it up a little, but it's too early in the school year for it yet. Fingers crossed I'll get a little.

So.......after all our bills, mortgage and loan are paid, and money has been put aside for things like ds' birthday and Christmas gifts, etc. We will be left with £270. This will be for food, petrol and any other spends. It's not much, but it's doable. I'm aiming for £20 per week petrol (an hour round trip to work once a week, and then only short, local trips), and the £160 for food for the month. £20 at the start of the month for the toiletries, which leaves £35 per week. As long as there are no extra top ups, it's doable. That then leaves £30 for any extras during the month. I'll have about £150-£200 per month more when I'm actually on maternity leave on the most basic pay!

Right, back to today. We're having a slow cooker meal tonight. Chinese beef with noodles. It's one of the dump meals I prepared. I'm definitely going to be making more of these dump meals, they're so easy once the prep work has been done.

I need to check the bank accounts and YNAB, as well as the Tesco credit card. I also need to look at car insurance at some point as it is due for renewal soon and I plan to go through topcashback to see what I can get back.

I'm going to dust and vacuum through today. Downstairs was done at the weekend so that should be quick, upstairs needs a bit more work though! I've got laundry to do as well today. It seems there's always laundry to do, though I'm sure that will increase once baby is here!

I need to finish sorting my meal plan for next week out, as I'm shopping tomorrow. It's nearly done, and then I can finish my shopping list. I'm aiming for today to be another NSD. 2 in a row. I think that's a record :rotfl: