Trying to Save

It's been ages. I see there's been some good news since I was last on. Congrats to everyone who is now debt free.

We seem to be spending a lot more on food recently. We have barely been going out, only when really essential. I'm still off work due to my health. Just trying to keep everyone safe, that's the aim.

I let my budget slack these past few months. I need to deal with it now.This morning I updated it.

Everyone is healthy here.

Well that's the Easter "holidays" over as of yesterday. It's a strange time. We played Brain Challenge the past few days, which was good for eldest.

I have been making notes on J's progress to update his teacher.

L is copying J a lot. Toddlers pick up things quickly.

We have a musclefood order coming in a few days. I need to defrost the freezer. Tesco order due next week. We now have to go onto their website at midnight to try to get a slot three weeks in advance. I'm grateful not to go out though.

Well, schools aren't closed here. The class trip and parents evening has been cancelled.

The cinema is shut. McDonald's is o it drive-thru and takeaway.

I put my hands up and admit to using my credit card to do a grocery order. Got some extra tins but nothing extreme. Anyway I've realised I'll still be at work during all of this so there was really no need. I've just been witnessing at work how crazy people can get. Epic fail but we'll recover.

It's been a while so I thought I would update.

Kids are doing well. L is hitting her milestones; 13month review went well. J is thriving at his specialist school. SG is good, counting down till her eighth birthday.

Sinking funds are still being added to, i might have to increase them in the future though. Current balances are:
-90 in birthday fund
-60 in Christmas (plus 30 in vouchers so far)

Also, 30 to EF every four weeks.

Hubby's card is cancelled so trying to snowball that one.

I bought Budget Girl's monthly budget from Etsy last month. It is so much easier to manage finances. I can update on my phone. Best £4.26 i ever spent.

I just totalled up my spending so far:

Groceries: 92.33
Online shopping for kids: 24.55

I didn't realise I was close to £100. 76.73 of it was our weekly online grocery shop. Next week we're going to Aldi.

Eldest needed a few basics and J needed swimwear for school. My work had a special discount event. I decided to order online to prevent impulse buys. I did have to pay £2.95 delivery but I'm okay with that.

J also needs glasses. I didnt want to take him to get them during the Christmas rush. We will go on Friday.

Today was good. It was a NSD.

Steak pie from the butchers for dinner. Chocolate gateau for pudding. Lots of gateau leftover. I was going to defrost either pork or turkey for tomorrow but the fridge is full. So we'll have an omelette or something instead.

Lots of snacks leftover from Christmas to use up.

Note: eldest two like German chocolate snacks I bought for Christmas.

Happy New Year to everyone! It's been ages since I posted. Youngest is now one.

I'm going to attempt Uber Frugal Month Challenge since I didn't do it last year. I need to get back on track. Just waiting on the link to the Facebook group. I'll definitely give it my best shot.

It's been so long I don't know where to start. I'm back at work now, I have been for a while. I forgot how difficult it is when they're babies and going to work. L is so excited to see me when I'm home.

We received J's autism diagnosis. We also disputed his school placement. He starts a new school soon.

We owe MIL money from at the start of the year when we were behind on hubby's credit card. I'm finally able to start paying her back.

I haven't started Christmas shopping yet.

Eldest is doing good. I am wondering if we will need to start giving her pocket money soon. I want her to learn how to manage money.

My mum bought a household item from one of those stores that charge extortionate rates (69%+) She told me she can't afford the payments so they're taking her to court. She doesn't care. This is the same place that i spent years paying an item off for my mum (I'd bought it as a gift when i was naive) It took me *years* to get rid of it. I don't understand her attitude.

I didn't mean to leave it this long between entries. Since my last entry we've had my birthday and SG's birthday. I had money in the sinking fund for that. We had a relaxed day, eating food that the birthday girl wanted. I made a chocolate fudge cake.

We had to borrow money from MIL a few weeks ago to get current on hubby's credit card. Sigh.

We received the new baby payment, then found a highchair on Amazon for £58.20. It's similar to the one that we had for the older two. The rest of the money is in my savings, allocated as the baby sinking fund. (241.80)

I was also finally able to get the school clothing grant. That money is in the sinking fund too. It'll be getting spent soon,SG has had a growth spurt.

Baby L is 14 weeks now. Sleep is getting better: four-five hours followed by two wake-ups every two-three hours.

Just for reference, and because I haven't updated my sidebar, there is 40 in the Christmas sinking fund. Not much compared to the others.

L woke up as soon as I signed in. It's like she knew I was planning on updating here.

Anyway, there actually isn't that much to update. We're still surviving here,although it's a teeny bit better now that we're five weeks in. I think I got at least five hours sleep last night -not five hours straight though.

An acquaintance offered me her daughter's baby clothes. It's so nice of her, especially since we don't see each other. She also told me to message her if I ever need to talk. I'm not really comfortable doing that, but I did say thanks for thinking about me.

I've got three more loan payments left.

Hubby has to phone the credit card company to discuss what he owes. It's all in his name, I don't even know his login details. Well, I can't remember them. I did set it up, but that was years ago.

I also checked hubby's bank account. Nothing happening there other than it had been over a month since I'd checked.

I signed up for a delivery saver trial with Tesco. I haven't been in a supermarket for a proper shop since before L was born. I'll keep it when the trial finishes. It's such a time-saver. Yes, more expensive than aldi but they don't do online shopping.

I think that's all.

Since my last post, we have added a new family member. Baby girl arrived before Christmas. She has slotted into the family quite nicely.

I admit that I haven't been tracking finances. I forgot how exhausting life is with a newborn. I noticed some of you are doing UFMC. Ordinarily, I would have, but it's just not realistic right now. Next year I'll happily take part.

I just checked, and my loan is now under 1k. Only 4 more payments to go!! I'll be applying that money to my credit card when it's gone.

So,there's good and bad news. Bad news first: we missed a payment on hubby's credit card, and despite using my credit card for some expenses to try to catch up, we still haven't caught up. And we now have more debt. Sigh. First time in 5 years that I've used a credit card. Ugh. I don't know the exact amount due; hubby knows the login details. Not really how I wanted to end the year.

Baby is due really soon. I found out yesterday afternoon that there's some new payment offered to parents, and not just new parents. Usually these things are for new parents only. Today was the first day to apply. I was tossing and turning this morning, so I applied at 5am (then went back to bed). If we do get it, it can go into the baby sinking fund. There's also a payment available through my health plan, but I can't apply until baby's here.

I was outbid by someone on eBay last night for a pair of shoes I wanted for SG. Hubby thinks I should try selling things on there. Maybe I will,in the future, certainly not in the next month or so.

I can finally access my blog! I was giving up! I had to reset my password since it wouldn't let me use my old faithful one. Oh well.

I just wanted to check in quickly. Baby is due in just over six weeks. I feel like we're pretty organised, although I will double check everything. We've bought most things nearly new. I also found a lot of old baby clothes in the cupboard last week when we were decluttering.

I started Christmas shopping a few months ago. My aim is to now get them wrapped. I bought wrapping paper in so I'm halfway there. Next week I'll probably start.

I'm going to make up some meals for the freezer in the next few weeks. We've only got a small freezer, so I can't do too much.

I've reached the halfway point. Baby is doing well,according to my recent ultrasound. We haven't bought anything yet. However, we now need to start getting organised.

I've still been decluttering,although not as much as before. I need to step up before I add baby stuff.

I need to get started Christmas shopping soon. Luckily for me I have a 6 year old who is happy to tell me what she wants. She is an advertisers dream. I do point out to her that she can't get everything. I've started an Amazon wish list for the first time ever.

Speaking of Amazon,I've just claimed a £5 voucher from swagbucks. I need to get back on it so that it can help with Christmas shopping.

It's been a while since I last updated. Since then I've been a bit lax tracking my spending. Time to get focused again.

Last night I meal planned and wrote today's shopping list. It's payday today. I'm going to make sweet and sour chicken in the slow cooker (a first for me). I'm hoping there'll be plenty of leftovers.

I'm 17 weeks pregnant now. I'm definitely making an effort to eat good stuff. Of course, this pregnancy is already heaven compared to the last because I'm healthy.

I'm trying to continue to declutter. My mum wants to buy stuff for the baby already, but I told her I need to check what we have first. If I can get stuff nearly new,I will.

Debt is going down. I have to update my sidebar.

I've been really bad these past few weeks, getting a takeaway impulsively last week and buying little things here and there when I'm out. So bad.

I also bought a coat rack from amazon. £23

Kids have school trips coming up. For once, I had money set aside in my sinking fund.That was good.

So,one of the reasons I've been distracted is because I was having bladder problems. I had a catheter in for a week. I went to the doctors the other week because I hadn't peed for almost a day.Two litres of urine later.. then a catheter. I'm now without a catheter and doing it myself, when needed. I wasted some money at the hospital a few times on sandwiches from the cafe.

So,the reason I'm having issues,if you haven't figured it out already... I'm pregnant. I don't know when I'm due,I haven't seen the midwife yet or had my ultrasound. Plus,family don't know yet. We will tell them once I've had my ultrasound. It's nice to tell people, even if it is anonymously.

Credit card: 2436.84
Loan: 2745.65
Total: 5182.49

£345.87 paid off since last month.

I've spent £112 on food so far since payday last week. Ouch. My tesco order was huge though. I've been looking into portion sizes and trying my best not to waste leftovers.

I found a bean and pasta soup recipe that I'm going to make for lunches next week. I cooked up some pinto beans and I also have cannelini beans in the freezer.

I'm going to a speech therapy course for parents of children with social learning difficulties. It lasts 6 weeks. I think it'll help a lot.

My new hours started. My first pay will be at the end of the month.I'm looking at that budget now.

Credit card: 2561.84
Loan: 2966.52
Total: 5528.36

13 payments of loan left. It'll be gone May 2019,then credit card shortly after that in September. After that I'll put that money to hubby's credit card,which is still sitting at 3k due to its high interest rate. By the time that's gone,it'll be 2020.

I'm really hoping for a Low Spend April. I've ordered, what I hope, is two weeks shopping from tesco. It doesn't arrive until Thursday. I made sure to order dried cannelini beans, pinto beans and adzuki beans. I've never tried adzuki beans.I'm going to make sure that i cook and portion them up for recipes. My new contract starts next week so I need to make sure I limit my shopping trips. If I can get most of it at once,the happier I'll be.

My meal plan is looking like this:

-slow-cooked pulled pork with potatoes and veg
-sweetcorn fritters with salad
-carbonara-style pasta with pulled pork and mushrooms
-penne with red peppers and spinach (SG picked)
-tostada with chicken, black beans, salsa
-frozen pizza (twice)
-sweet potato and white bean chilli (Jamie Oliver)
-chilli con carne with rice and tortilla chips
-leftovers (definitely need to make sure there's no waste)

I cancelled one of DH's direct debits. It was only for a fiver,but every little helps,right? Next I'm going to look into reducing our cable package.

I bought a bag of dried turtle beans (black beans). I'm going to definetly incorporate them into our meals. We've already tried black beans with a tortilla and an omelette. It was from my new recipe book. A few meatless nights a week are the way to go, I think.

I finally opened up a savings account for my sinking funds. It's for birthdays and school/nursery expenses. Hopefully I'll have more in the future.

So, I had my meeting at work. It went better than I thought it was going to. I was completely shocked when she said that my hours weren't changing. However, as she started reading through my hours I realised that they had one day wrong. Well,I explained that I can't do that shift because I can't get there early enough. She had a think and suggested a long day. I pointed out that buses are unreliable at that time so she shortened it. The result was that I was now 4 hours less. She said that I can pick up another day to make up my hours,in fact another very early start was suggested.

Well,I came home and spoke to hubby about it. Another very early rise just doesn't work - I'm talking before 4 - so we're just going to rework the budget. Before I left work that day I spoke to another woman who is also reworking her budget.

So,it's not official yet because I haven't signed my new contract. Was it the best decision financially? Probably not, but for my sanity and family life, I think it is best.

This weather is depressing. The schools have been closed for three days. My grocery shopping wasn't delivered so I went to a local store to see what was there. No bread or milk. I had to buy almond milk. I've never tried it. Will it taste weird in tea? I went to the butchers too. Spent 17.95 today. This is possibly the least amount spent on food on payday ever (unless my order shows up)

I've got bread in the bread maker. Fingers crossed it turns out. I'm making a chicken pie for dinner.

Got the date of my next meeting at work: next Saturday. Speaking of work, I hope I make it in tomorrow. I know buses are running now.

I've just done an online shop which is getting delivered on Friday (payday). Before that, I done a meal plan:

-slow cooker pulled pork
-black bean tacos with salsa and guacamole
-pulled pork carbonara
-pizza
-Mediterranean spiced pasta

I'm also going to try baking an orange loaf cake for the first time, and banana bread.