£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

Treadingonplaymobil · 26 February 2017 at 9:48PM

Had a lovely day today, nice and relaxed. Took Child 3 to her friend’s birthday party (and thanks to actually being organised, was able to pick up a present in the supermarket a few days ago rather than going last minute to the pricey toy shop in town, so it was £7.50 instead of the usual £10+, and was budgeted for).

Also had a couple of items finish on eb@y. One is cash on collection so I'm not counting that chicken till it's hatched, but the other item also went for a good amount, so even after allowing for fees I've been able to pay another £47.50 off the debt. Debt total now stands at £66,755.44, which means that with a bit of luck and careful budgeting, we'll be able to get it down into to the 65 thousands, not the 66 thousands in March. Hasn't moved the DFD forward another month, but you can't have everything!

To do today:
1. Play around with the menu plan to knock at least £5, preferably £10, off the food shopping for next week on MySupermarket. Done! Depending on how the prices are in Aldi (MySupermarket isn’t so great for Aldi/Lidl, so it’s difficult to predict the exact number) I think we’ll come in at £65, so £10 under budget.
2. NSD. Done!
3. Finish knitting the hat. Not done, have been too lazy even to knit.
4. Tidy the house. I think I have failed on this every day this week! Sort of done - a couple of rooms are recovered from half term mess, although there's still more to do this week.
5. Plan world book day costumes now that we know dressing up is on the cards. Hilariously, and ironically, both boys want to go as Charlie Bucket. Easy costumes!
6. Apply for a refund on train tickets from last week's delay. Done! Not sure how successful it'll be as they seem to be mainly for when the train company has messed up rather than bad weather, but doesn't hurt to try.

To do this week:
1. During our family meeting, focus on ways to save electricity, after the success of last week’s ‘how to save water’ chat.
2. Plan out March working time. Done!
3. Update YNAB for March once we get to the 1st.
4. Sit down with DH once we get into March and chat through current budget situation, so he can see how much positive effect there is from the budget changes we have made.

System · 26 February 2017 at 10:03PM

I do like your daily musings , you are doing so well and are so focussed , long may it last !

Bobarella · 26 February 2017 at 11:05PM

Another good day!

One way I save money on kids birthdays is to put away anything DS is given that he doesn't want. He is just about old enough to notice or remember the gift being passed on was his 'temporarily' but so far he hasn't said anything to the child!

When we have had whole class parties sometimes there are so many gifts it's obscene. So keeping a few back is good on all counts.

Some people start a presents drawer as well as you can save a lot that way by picking up bargains as they come up.

Treadingonplaymobil · 27 February 2017 at 7:02AM

Week 3: Day 2

New working week, clean slate! Hope you’re all feeling suitably cheery at the start of another week. I’m feeling so positive after paying off that extra £47.50 yesterday, and then having a good chat with DH about how well we’re doing on our overpayments.

AND a PayPal dispute from a broken Christmas present found in our favour last night (I woke up to the email this morning) and another bit of money came our way, so I divided up according to our highly technical formula and paid another £31.20 off the debt, which HAS brought the DFD forward another month. That's three months we've knocked off the DFD since starting this challenge just over two weeks ago.

We need all the positivity we can get this week, as March is going to be by far our hardest month - the first full month since our LBM, and the last month where we will have to pay preschool fees and our additional £50 council tax to clear the backlog from our poor organisational skills when we moved. At least we know if we can weather March then things will get easier, either through loosening up the budgets or overpaying more debt, or (most likely) a combination of the two.

Short lists today...

To do today:
1. Finish knitting the hat.
2. Continue to get on top of the house, even if it’s only 10 minutes tidying.
3. Post eb@y sale
4. Sweep the remaining money from the family kitty into debt repayment, as we won’t need to spend on it now before the end of the month. Spare petrol and food money (fairly minimal amounts) will wait until tomorrow in case there is a sudden need for either.
5. social media while working.

To do this week:
1. During our family meeting, focus on ways to save electricity, after the success of last week’s ‘how to save water’ chat.
2. Also during family meeting, true to work out who’s going to need a haircut next month, so we can make sure there is sufficient in the budget.
3. Plan out March working time. Done!
4. Update YNAB for March once we get to the 1st.
5. Sit down with DH once we get into March and chat through current budget situation, so he can see how much positive effect there is from the budget changes we have made.

debtfreeoneday · 27 February 2017 at 8:15AM

Just popping in as your debt amount is similar to what ours was in 2008 and we have cleared it, with a few thousand on a CC left to go, though that bit is a nightmare to shift!

We budget £60 a week for food for 2 adults, 2 kids, 1 dog and a cat.. Online shopping is a savour as I never overspent plus I don't have the hassle of actually going to the supermarket. Meal planning also helped previously but we don't do this now. Kids both have free school meals as they are young but we would absolutely stop this and go back to packed lunches if there were still going to be in School (we are starting home ed soon) as the money spent on school dinners is more than a weeks worth of food for the whole house!

Don't lose heart at the size of the figure, I've been there and smashed it. Yes it took time, but having goals all the way such as 5% paid off, 10% paid off, another thousand bracket reached, £5k paid off etc meant we were hitting a goal every couple of months which I found really motivating.

You CAN do it!

Treadingonplaymobil · 27 February 2017 at 2:13PM

debtfreeoneday wrote: »

Just popping in as your debt amount is similar to what ours was in 2008 and we have cleared it, with a few thousand on a CC left to go, though that bit is a nightmare to shift!

We budget £60 a week for food for 2 adults, 2 kids, 1 dog and a cat.. Online shopping is a savour as I never overspent plus I don't have the hassle of actually going to the supermarket. Meal planning also helped previously but we don't do this now. Kids both have free school meals as they are young but we would absolutely stop this and go back to packed lunches if there were still going to be in School (we are starting home ed soon) as the money spent on school dinners is more than a weeks worth of food for the whole house!

Don't lose heart at the size of the figure, I've been there and smashed it. Yes it took time, but having goals all the way such as 5% paid off, 10% paid off, another thousand bracket reached, £5k paid off etc meant we were hitting a goal every couple of months which I found really motivating.

You CAN do it!

Thanks so much for stopping by, it's great to hear a similar story ending in success!

Treadingonplaymobil · 27 February 2017 at 2:45PM

Right. I am convinced I am missing something on the food shopping front. I really feel that being mainly vegetarian (we eat the odd bit of fish, and happily have meat out and about, but I rarely buy it at home as I never feel great after eating it, and the kids and DH aren't fussed either way), I ought to be able to get our food shop lower. There are 5 of us, with Child 1 eating a small-adult amount of food (he is nearly 9, and tall) and Child 2 and 3 (aged 6 and 3) eating normal child sized portions I guess. We are all healthy weights, so I don't think portion sizes are a problem.

Last week's food bill was mega low (£51), but that's mainly because the week previously (before I started this diary and I got on top of things) I spent £180 in Aldi and Sainsbury's! I've just done the menu plan for this week's and it's coming in at £75 in Sainsbury's, and around £62 for a mixture of Aldi and Sainsbury's (which is what I'll do, as I can't get some stuff at Aldi). The actual menu planned portion is regularly coming in at only £50-55-ish, but every week there is a handful of store cupboard/cleaning type things which brings the number back up again.

To illustrate, this week's menu plan:
breakfast every day is porridge, with fruit/cream/raisins/honey/sugar in some combination, but not loads of anything.
lunch (for DH - packed lunch at work - DC3 and me) is leftovers or occasionally cheese on toast or an egg if no leftovers
snacks - mainly fruit, crackers and cheese, plus homemade cake or biscuits for the weekend

Dinners
Monday - dal and rice (using up store cupboard lentils and rice)
Chocolate brownie pudding (we always have dessert on a Monday when we have family meeting)

Tuesday
Leftover homemade tomato soup

Wednesday
Homemade baked beans

Thursday
Quinoa burgers (store cupboard quinoa)

Friday
leftover bolognese sauce and pasta

Saturday
potato and kale/broccoli soup

Sunday
Kedgeree

So the actual ingredients, plus breakfast/lunch/snack/baking stuff, comes to £48.76 in Sainsbury's (so around £41-42 in Aldi, I guess, based on previous weeks), but alongside that, this week we also need to restock:
kitchen roll
toilet roll
bleach
cream cleaner
olive oil
sunflower oil
bread flour (I make all our bread)
tissues
toothbrushes for 2/3 children
frozen spinach
kids vitamins for the non-eating child (only one of them, thank goodness)
deodorant for DH
All of which comes to another £26.35 in sainsbury's (so perhaps another £19-20 in Aldi, based on previous weeks), which means we're looking at minimum £60, probably more like £63.

I fully appreciate that's still really pretty low, especially compared to previous levels, but I am still using up some store cupboard ingredients which were stocked up pre-LBM, so those will need to be replenished at some stage, and it's still costing us this much. I read about people managing to feed 2 adults and two teens on <£60pw, which must be more food than we're eating, and I just can't get my head round it!

Looking at it objectively, our main culprits are:
- milk - we go through 20 pints a week, but I don't think we should/could easily reduce this.
- quilted (own brand) toilet roll
- olive oil - one bottle lasts us ages though
- butter - I LOVE butter. We usually buy 4 packs a week, although I am going to mix butter and stork next time I bake and see how that goes, as it is literally 1/2 the price
- greek yoghurt
- fish - the haddock for the kedgeree is £9, but that will make a full meal for us all, plus at least another meal for the children, possibly adults too. Maybe I should halve the haddock, but it's our only oily fish this week.
- dark chocolate - about 1.5 bars a week on average.

GeorgianaCavendish · 27 February 2017 at 3:35PM

Could you set up price alerts on MySupermarket for the butter, cleaning products, toilet paper etc so you get a notification when price drops or it is on special offer? That might help a bit in the long term (although I appreciate not in the short term if something has run out and it needs to be replaced straight away).
Waitrose have a loyalty incentive where you pick (I think) 5 products that you'll always get 20% discount with your Waitrose loyalty card, that might be useful for branded items that are rarely reduced elsewhere. Could you buy larger tubs of certain things, e.g. Greek yoghurt and make a saving on cost per serving that way?

DawnW · 27 February 2017 at 3:40PM

Hi Treadingonplaymobil, I recognise you from the small things thread! I think your food consumption / menus look very reasonable, and as you say, you can't skimp on milk if you have small children! I shop similarly to you, only Lidls and Sainsburys as opposed to Aldi, and I have noticed prices on some items, such as butter creeping up over recent weeks

And as you say, there is always the other stuff, such as loo paper, washing supplies etc to buy as well as food.

With baking, what I do now is to use just stork for most things, as it works out so much cheaper, and to be honest, you can't tell usually. Why not try it, you can always go back to butter if you don't like the result. I did this quite sytematically, over time substituting stork for butter in all the recipes I usually make and getting the family to taste test the result. The only things we noticed were different, and I have since reverted back to butter for these, are crumble, flapjacks and shortbread, we honestly couldn't tell the difference in anything else.

Verbatim · 27 February 2017 at 3:51PM

I've just bought frozen fish in Ic'land. Packs of tuna, haddock, cod, salmon with 4-6 portions are £4 but 3 packs for £10. Their frozen fish is usually good but we really didn't like the leg of lamb I once bought there.

£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

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