Bath Smellies ....

I never bother. When Small girl was a baby - soap for dirty bits and the teeniest dash of olive oil from the chemist. Not the frying type!

A good scrub all over and done. Nothing else required. Not so much that you slip in the bath either!

A new financial plan

I have planned and calculated.

I will save £100 a month.
I will  be saving £35 per month towards car expenses- MOT, servicing and tax.
I have arranged the DD's. Some are very annoying and will only accept being paid mid month which is confusing. I like to have clear figures in my bank account!
I am repaying Biggles a small amount each month. I also do the food at weekends as he does treats and petrol most of the time and it is a godsend and very nice of him. It pleasant to go out for a cheap lunch with your working away partner and also the occasional coffee and trip to London of course. We have another planned for half term.

I have £84 left over each month to pay for dancing lessons and clothes and other expenses such as hair cuts, dentist etc etc This is pretty good I feel. I can cope with this. I remember the days when  we had £400 a month spares to play with lol pre redundancy and I had a healthy bank account and a house and maintenance... sigh, Onwards we go.. maybe not upwards but onwards nonetheless.

I don't use any Child tax credit either. I pay for the child care completely out of this amount and save the rest. I won't use it as the buggers always get things wrong. If at the end of the tax year when new calculations are made I am over or under there should be funds either to save or to repay the buggers.  Technically they only pay 70% of any child care so there is never much left over but it all adds up and can go towards a repayment or saving depending on what the outcome is in July after the p60 goes in.

I am still doing the save the change round up account thing. The bank automatically rounds up to the nearest pound and puts the pennies in a separate account. I am still saving £10 a month for Small girl till her 18th birthday.

I am continuing to pay £50 for electric. Its been cold and we have needed the central heating. Also over christmas it is nice for Small girl to feel comfortable when she plays in the house. I want to avoid any bills or being in debit to them. You can claim this back so I feel it is worth it for peace of mind.

I have budgeted for £200 on petrol and £120 on food  still however I hope to reduce the petrol in May when I go back to only working four days. With the CPD qualification I need to come in on Fridays ( 50 mile round trip). I also plan on doing £80- £100 on food per week and saving the rest. I may do the envelope system next month for food! Withdraw and spend it in cash each week.

So the coffers are coffed! With £320 for petrol and food plus £80 for extras. Not a bad life I spose.



And Small girl loves her dance class so far. Swimming then Modern dance on Saturday mornings.  Money well spent. Its £4.50 for dancing for 45 mins. Swimming is a DD of £21 per month and for 4 or 5 lessons per month depending on the number of Saturdays I couldn't take her swimming for less.


Now time to transfer the cash to the savings account!! See ya later.

Catch up!

Bah last chance to do my mums tax return so blogging is out for a while. I have all the sums but don't like the online bit. Phooey.


Payday Thursday so am working out a new budget for the year now that Xmas and birthday is over.

Paying bills which is poo but gotta be done. Note to self - Make last £11 payment to Credit card! Whoppeee!

Snow days and reminiscing

Yes schools closed. Two days now.

Small girl in the house. Yeah! Off work.

Yesterday she had a play date.Today we have had a jama day- made cheesy scones, foam 3d picture thing from a kit, felt pictures, some tidying, jigsaw and some TV. Lots of spontaneous drawing. Building of things with bricks

Cheesy scones, fruit and tomato soup. Meal plan out the window today! But we'll just re arrange adn eat the veggies tomorrow with a stir fry!


Heating on low all day.  No more than 16-18 degrees. Its cold. It irks though. If I had a room without stairs in it the heating would not be on!

Saved on childcare - £30 and Travel approx £16. Lol probably spent this amount on the sodding heating!

Back to the grind tomorrow. I have a course starting and also a benefits training session to do. Late start tomorrow as its 10am start locally based training. Then Thursday and Friday before Weeny's expensive soft play party. First and last.

Small girls  birthday treat from the other family was a trip to Matalan to buy clothes she doesn't need. She is five. Some clothes in wrong size 4-5. Then they went to pizza hut. Ah well what can I say. She was disappointed as she likes to open presents and likes surprises.

On her actual birthday  on the 18th we had a wee chum to tea. We decorated a cheapie choc cake ( 75p) had pizza and hot dogs and crisps and carrot sticks, strawberries and cucumber on a blanket on the floor. The girls dressed up, got to put on kiddie makeup and be princesses, danced to Mamma Mia, played up stairs and trashed her bedroom and made necklaces before the singing of songs.

For her opening pressies I purchased two £1 craft sets, a 1.50 jigsaw, a tu tu and a leotard from a charity shop and she was very pleased. Biggles bought her goggles as he is going to pay for dancing lessons for her.  Happy Small girl!!! SGDD from now on! She is getting a bit big to be a weeny anymore.....

Bless five years since the crowning burn! Given that Gas and Air made me sick and I waited so long before going in to hosp  there was nothing else in the way of PR available! All au naturelle! Don't know about you but I gave birth like a dog on all fours. None of this sat up with my hair splayed around my head. Lots of swearing and feeling devastated when after all the pushing I could feel her head slide back..Lol two steps forward and one back and I was distraught after all that hard work! She actually popped into the world with very little fuss really. Tiny despite being over by 8 days but the breast feeding sorted that right out (Much to the chagrin of the other family who found it disgusting) I fed till she wanted to give up around 2-2.5. Easy peasy. And now five! Loved most of it lol




 

Roll on Feb! Money musings

Battening down the hatches after xmas. I have bills that need paying. French lessons and a car maintenance bill for £90.

I am itching to get my finances in order and start again after xmas. The last of the credit card bill is to be paid in Feb so we have a clean sheet sort of.


Future wise we wait for the all powerful MOD to make its decisions and cast up its offerings to Biggles. He is past the half way mark so moving on rears its head.

We have things we all want to do and make plans for but we wait.

All depends on his next report and what the MOD offer him. He wants to see if he will be recommended for promotion or not. If he is he will take promo enhancing jobs if not he is happy to take jobs for enjoyment. You have no choice in the Military they tell you when and where and how high.

From my point of view I just want to be able to pay my pension and save money for the future. No chance with the mortgage and property owning. Pension and saving however yes.

Do I want to go abroad???? This is will be a non promotion job for Biggles
Do I want to relocate to the middle of nowhere - Lincoln, Wilts, Hampshire for max two years.

I think if I stay here I will want to move closer to work. The reasons being
1. DD will get more and more homework. I want to ensure this is done and she develops good study habits
2. Money. I spend approx 200 on fuel each month and this is only set to rise.
3. Time - less time spent commuting - see point one.

It means the less rural chunk of the county and less pretty.

I will have to still apply for social housing and any move will need to be considered in depth and research done on the area in depth including with the local cop shop re issues in any estate I move to.

I would save £100 a month which can be saved in pension pots or other.

I know what my budget in Feb will tell me. I know what I need to do to get by but I would like to make progress in saving or pension planning. I need to see some sort of progress not stagnation. I think moving will be one of the key areas that will afford me more money in the long term.

Quality of life time wise will be better. Not sure about other areas as I live in a cool wee town with lots of bits going on and a nice community feel to it but overall in general more time spent with small daughter is a good and invaluable thing.

See what the military overlords doth offer and profess....

Payday next week - 30th Jan.

A birthday...

Its Weeny's big day tomorrow.  She is having a friend for tea and cake after school before her party at soft play next Saturday. We have cakes to bake and decorate and silly things to do!

Shopping wise I need:
hot dogs, milk, beans and cheap bread veg and fruit and bread. That's is it. Ham maybe for sandwiches.

We have lasagna tomorrow from the freezer for Biggles and I. Its a small one but Weeny will have eaten earlier.

Sat - Thai Curry
Sun - Chicken dinner
Monday- Pie or pizza not sure which yet!
Tuesday- Stir Fry with left over veg
Wednesday-Baked potato and cheese and beans
Thursday- Eggy bread with beans
Friday- Curry!!!!
Saturday-sausage and bean casserole
Sunday- lamb chops and veg mash and sauce


My approved food order was fab and I have lots of beans- kidney and butter beans.

 

Am liking the meal planning but it needs to be flexible!

Meal plan doing fine. We have Curry for tonight as I recall. I might do lemon chicken tomorrow instead of lasagne as I have lemons that need using up. They have been there since christmas. I will use what I need for the recipe and then juice the rest. I may freeze some of the juice and use the rest.
We will have jacket potatoes with the lemon chicken.


I hate waste!! The lasagne can stay in the freezer till next Friday night.
Curry
Lemon chicken
Pork Sunday dinner


Meal plan for next week
Monday - Pizza . Cheap one with added toppings. 60p per pizza with left over ham etc etc Easy meal for Monday night and quick!
Tuesday- Sausage and mash- with peas and gravy  Veg sausages!
Wednesday - Fish and chips with peas
Thursday- Tomato soup and bread - Quick and its shopping night! Better for bargains though they are sparse at the local Morrisions.
Friday - Lasagne and garlic bread with veg
Saturday- Thai Curry
Sunday- Chicken pieces roast dinner

At weekends for lunches we have snack foods - pitta and cheese and cucumber, tuna etc etc

During the week  I will have left overs and porridge and sandwiches for lunch next week.

The regular shopping buys I have are mostly fresh stuff and cat food!: potatoes, veg, fruit, milk, bread

I alwasy look out for yellow stickered bread and meat.


Also as a silly thing I have a daily outfit total cost at work. The team now ask me how much I spent in total on todays outfit. I should do pics. lol its an expensive one today totalling £28 quid but thats including boots, coat, jeans, top waistcoat thing and under vest.

Yesterday was a below a tenner day. the team were impressed but not yet ready ot make the move to second hand clothes lol