What budget

I feel like the diary should be headed up, 'January - fail'. Sigh. I knew this expense was coming, so never mind.

I have finally booked little bear's belated birthday party. It is a party at soft play, and as I went for the expensive option it will be around £160 for twenty kids. This is infinitely better than trying to do it at home.

For this we get an exclusive use of the facility for one hour and thirty minutes, a birthday buffet, jelly and ice cream (which makes it the expensive option as it is 50p per child extra!) and party bags are provided. It would be much less expensive if we had a party at home, but none of little bear's friends have done that, so we will go with the soft play, and it could be a lot worse. It also includes a year's pass for reduced admission for little bear, which will be very useful in the summer. I notice that the discount for next year's party has been carefully crossed out in dark marker. Times must be tough in the soft play business. Now all I need to do is source a cake.

I will not be sending out the invitations for a while, however. If I send them out now then I have to invite the two young lads further down the street. However they are not really nice to little bear, and they may be being evicted. On the other hand, if they are stressed from the eviction/pending eviction then it might be cruel to deprive them of a chance to go to party, but they are still not very nice to little bear. I am waiting and seeing. And while I will be inviting little bear's girlfriend, the guest list is mainly boys as little bear plays with mainly boys, but I will be inviting one or two girls because either I natter to their mums or I really think that little bear's girlfriend should have some company - not that it really matters at age five. Anyway, everything may change by the time the date of the party in March comes round, so there is not much point in sending them now.

However, on the budget front, my last delivery was just around £30, and while I am mentally composing my next one, I am not planning on spending a lot. I have also felt absolutely no desire to browse on ebay etc. However, I am almost tempted to buy little bear some braces. He wants them so he can dress up like Dr Who. I am currently resisting. So it could be worse.