Posts Tagged "budget"

Dear IKEA, We Love You

Posted by cafebebemama on Aug 4, 2011 in Motherhood | 12 comments

Dear IKEA,

How do we love you? Let me count the ways…

1) You have the most glorious meatballs that are exceptionally not good for us but oh, so heavenly. Unfortunately, until you make them gluten-free, I won’t be able to enjoy them but I won’t hold that against you! Everyone should be able to eat an IKEA meatball and gravy. Have you??

2) Daim bar cake (aka Almondy tart)…OH MY GOD. You tick the gluten-free box with this chocolately-almondy delight. Thankfully I can now purchase an Almondy tart at my local Tesco so I don’t have to travel 70 miles to get one. But thank you for making this slice of heaven.

3) You make family budgets work! We made a MASSIVE difference in our kitchen with your Expedit shelving unit and new table and chairs. All of this was achievable for under £300. We now use our kitchen all of the time and NEVER eat a meal on our knees in front of the telly. You’ve helped make family meal times far more pleasant. I’m still dreaming of an IKEA kitchen but that will have to wait for a while.

4) You make storage FUN! I’m a weirdo…I think most storage is fun but the Expedit storage unit is now in pride of place in our lounge, kitchen and daughter’s room. Ella’s room holds the small 4 box unit which is chock-a-block of her favourite books. The kitchen holds the 16 box unit which has made a massive difference to where we can store all of our bits and bobs that were previously clogging up the work surface. The lounge holds the MAHOOSIVE 20 box unit which is primarly for Ella’s toy storage. It now is the feature of the back section of the lounge which is Ella’s play space. She knows where everything is and often puts it back in the right bin! Expedit rocks!

5.) There’s something for everyone at IKEA. Last week we went on a bit of a reconnaissance mission at the Milton Keynes store. We’re planning on some room revision upstairs in time for the arrival of Bebe #2. Hubby and I are divided and indecisive at the moment but we know that IKEA will be our main port of call for the room makeovers. What we love is that you’re able to make a noticeable difference in rooms and NOT break the bank in the process. As we embarked on our reconnaissance mission, we took advantage, for the FIRST TIME, of the Children’s Creche service for Ella. She was slightly wary of the experience at first but ultimately LOVED her 30 minutes in the creche. This afforded Mark and I the opportunity to check out and argue about discuss what options we had in our 3 bedroom upstairs without having to bore Ella.

The day was a massive success, Ella was properly entertained and we came away with only spending £60 for the day! We’re desperate to get our bedrooms set and still are unsure of what to do as storage and space are at a minimum. As is our budget. This is not a sponsored post but I just have to gush about IKEA for a bit as I’m always happy when I think about IKEA. I loved it in the US and I’ve loved it here even more. Our house is very IKEA and we love it!

There you have it. My secret is out. I love IKEA. And I think it loves us back. I know you’ve probably got at least ONE IKEA product in your house so go on, tell us all about it! And if you have any suggestions as to how to renovate our bedrooms upstairs in time for the arrival of Bebe #2, please let us know.

Thanks IKEA…you rock!

The Pain of One Income

Posted by cafebebemama on Dec 26, 2009 in Motherhood | 23 comments

I don't care that we don't have money Mummy!

The pain of being on one income has reared its ugly head this Christmas.  When Little Miss was born in June of 2008, I had been on maternity leave from my crap wage lucrative job as a teaching assistant.  We eventually would learn how NOT crap that wage was when we went onto Statuatory Maternity Pay (SMP = approx. £118 per week at that time) when Little Miss was born.  And we really learned how NOT crap that wage was when I ended my maternity leave and we decided that I would stay home with Little Miss and no longer work.  My hubby makes an adequate wage as Managing Director of what used to be his family’s generator business.  He managed to get a pay rise this past summer and a new company funded and fueled car in September.  But debts on both sides of the Atlantic, an 18 month old child, a house and various and sundry other bills mean that we pretty much live paycheck to paycheck.

One of my goals for 2010 is to really and truly sort out our finances.  We need to budget properly and stick to it.  We’ve dramatically limited what we do with our money already.  We don’t go out, we don’t buy things for ourselves and we only buy limited things for Little Miss.  We don’t have Sky satellite, we don’t have gym memberships, we don’t have flashy clothes or fun toys.  And where we’ve now felt the pain of living on one income is this Christmas.  We couldn’t afford to buy anyone in our family anything really.  We saved up what money we could to be able to buy a few things for Little Miss and that was it.  My husband and I have not bought each other anything for Christmas, birthdays or anniversaries for the last two years.  This year was the first year that we couldn’t buy anything for the nieces and nephews in our family and it really hurt.  We feel lame and stupid and we know the children don’t understand.  However, in the 4 1/2 years that I have lived in England, we have never been able to send anything back to my family in the US which includes a nephew on my side of the family.  The only presents have been when my mum was here for Christmas and they were mostly of the handmade variety.  We just can’t do it.  And we feel like rubbish.

It’s no fun to be the only people in the family to not be able to “carry our weight”.  My hubby feels particularly horrible as he feels that he’s not providing enough for his family.  He works in a job that he doesn’t particularly like, that drives him to distraction and takes him away from his family for long hours every week day and some weekends as well.  We can’t afford to put Little Miss in something like “Tumble Tots” which would be the PERFECT outlet for her because it COSTS MONEY!  I feel particularly horrible because I’m not bringing in any income (other than the odd freelance writing commission and some product for testing/review) and am doing my best to keep us on track.  Obviously that BEST is not enough!  So my goal for next week is to really sort out our finances and see where we can make cuts and save and scrimp so that next year we’ll be able to afford to buy at least SOMETHING for everyone in the family and feel like we’re proper grown-ups.  We do know that we are certainly better off than some people and we are grateful that Hubby has a job PERIOD.

And now, I’m open for suggestions.  If anyone has any money saving tips, tricks or genius solutions, I’m open to your ideas.  For anyone in our family who happens to read my blog, I’m very sorry that we couldn’t afford to buy anything this Christmas.  We love you all and would love to buy you everything you deserve but we just couldn’t this year.  We’ll try to do better for next year.  In the meantime, I would love to know how YOU do it?  How do you keep your family on track?  What is the key to surviving on one income?  Thanks, in advance, for any advice you might be able to share.  I’m willing to try anything.