After another tight month we've had the school newsletter - another school trip and non-uniform day.
The school trip is fair enough, although it made me gulp a little as an unexpected expense towards the end of the month - but the non-uniform day (unlike the usual £1 charge) is "bring a bottle for the tombola".
Is it just me that thinks it's really cheeky (it is, isn't it ) as even a bottle of cheap plonk is going to be £3. I suppose I could "cheat" and bring a bottle of coke or bubble bath, but that just seems cheap - especially when I know there's loads of families at the school worse off than us. And I can afford to let ds1 take the bottle to school - it just feels bloody insult to injury when for the last few months we haven't put our own favoured bottle of wine a week into the shopping because we're trying to keep expenditure down. Damnit, I don't want the school to have wine ... I want some!
It's getting to the point where I'm dreading the school news letter - as there's always something ... a skipathon, a non-uniform day, a school disco, a trip... then if it's not that then ds1 has grown out of something or destroyed his school shoes. I'd hoped once he stopped nursery things would get cheaper! How do you budget for this sort of stuff so it stops being a surprise - do you just get used to the amount that's expected from you each month?
This is probably an unconstructive rant and says far more about me,my lack of budgeting skills and my general frustration at having to count every penny rather than school policy of course.