Back on the straight and narrow

lilian1977 · 19 June 2012 at 10:53AM

Hi all

I need to get myself back on the straight and narrow - got myself debt free about 3 years ago but it's now starting to creep up again - nothing scary (about £300 on a credit card) but I want to get back to zero balances and get a good amount of savings behind me as well.

So, my plan is to try and get as many NSDs under my belt as I can between now and the end of July, when we are going down to Bristol for a few days for my birthday. If I can get to my July 28th pay day without adding to my debt I will be happy and then I can start to get it paid off.

Steps towards that goal are as follows:

1. I have itemised the freezer and made a plan for meals for the next few nights (veg curries, asparagus risotto and cauliflower/broccoli cheese). DS will be eating all his meals at nursery until Friday so that will take some pressure off.

2. Looked through the present stash for a gift for a friend this weekend so won't need to buy anything else.

3. Am off work sick so am staying away from Amazon/Ebay etc and have cancelled my attendance at a hen night which would have probably cost about £40 as I don't think I will be well enough anyway.

I still need to:

1. Sort out stuff to put on Ebay - some unwanted perfume, unworn baby shoes.

2. Sort out the cupboard and add to the meal plan.

Any more suggestions as to things I can be doing? Hope people follow my diary and give me some moral support

lilian1977 · 20 June 2012 at 9:21AM

Good morning.

Well, day 2 of my new regime and it's going well so far.

I have listed several pairs of baby shoes on Ebay along with a perfume gift set that I don't want and have a couple of watchers already.

Dinner last night was veg curry from the meal plan so no extra spend there. OH did go to Aldi for fruit and picked up a whoopsied fish and chips lunch from Tesco for me for today, will go nicely with the portion of chippy curry sauce in the freezer at lunchtime. Need to make the asparagus risotto for tea.

Also made yesterday some blueberrry crumb bars using up some blueberries that were on the turn - delicious!

Today I want to start doing some mortgage research as we are now back on our SVP so I would like to try and find a fix that might match what we pay now just in case the rates start to creep back up.

I have checked my banking - all ok, £15 to last me until 28th June so not too bad really.

I have also sold two cookbooks on my local Facebook bargain site, £5 for the two so that can go into savings when I can get out to the bank.

If I get a chance I may also have a look through my CDs and see what I can stick on Music Magpie. Does anyone know anywhere that buys CD singles (apart from Ebay)?

Hope you all have lovely days and please feel free to jump in and make any suggestions to help me.

deep_in · 20 June 2012 at 9:29AM

Can I have the recipe for blueberrry crumb bars please they sound lovely

Good luck on your debt free journey and welcome

lilian1977 · 20 June 2012 at 10:29AM

They were SO nice - lovely cold but I bet they'd be good warm with some custard too, Thanks for reading

x

http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/07/blueberry-crumb-bars/

News - just sold the perfume gift set on my local selling page, £20 which is a bit less than I'd have estimated from Ebay but then there are no fees and no postage hassle etc so I'm happy with that. So am £25 up this week now

Just been reading about the 7 Day Fiscal Fast - am going to try it week beginning 30th June and if it goes well I might try and do it once a month. Will try and get OH on board as well otherwise he'll just end up buying everything.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbrttmcgZ_0

deep_in · 20 June 2012 at 10:36AM

Great news on the ebay sales :j

I like the idea of the fiscal fast I think I should try that and use the stuff I keep over looking as they have been there so long they are almost part of the furniture so to speak.

Thank you for the recipe might have to make that next week it sounds lovely thinking I might drizzle some white chocolate over the top (I never make recipes to the letter) :rotfl:

Good luck and keep up the good work

lilian1977 · 20 June 2012 at 10:39AM

Ooh yum they'd be delicious with white choc! Maybe I'll do that next time

lilian1977 · 20 June 2012 at 11:37AM

£5 now in hand as lady has picked up the cookbooks. Added that to my penny tub to be paid into savings when I can - counted pennies while I was there and have almost £9 in there so when that gets to £10 I'll pay that in too.

Looking at more recipes for this week - still 2 portions of veggie curry left so as well as that we will have asparagus risotto (tonight) and reggae reggae chicken chargrills from the freezer with brocolli and jewelled couscous (Friday).

The jewelled couscous recipe is a great one actually as it's pretty much all dried stuff so could be a fab emergency recipe and you could chuck any old salad bits in too.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/jewelledcouscous_425

lilian1977 · 20 June 2012 at 4:06PM

The perfume set has now been collected - another £20 for the savings pot! I feel like a new woman

Some more good news - next door neighbour has just dropped off an electric exercise bike and step machine, never used - he was going to chuck them out but checked with me first as I was in the garden when he was on his way to the skip! Hooray! Hubby's trying to put together a kind of gym in the spare room so these will come in handy.

deep_in · 20 June 2012 at 10:31PM

Fab news on the gym equipment I love free stuff and well done on the extra money your doing great xx

lilian1977 · 21 June 2012 at 10:57AM

Good morning everyone, hope you're all feeling well today.

Not much going on here today. Need to make the asparagus risotto but think we'll have it for tea tomorrow instead as I spotted 4 raw beetroot in the fridge that were whoopsied so I'm going to roast them and have them with the rest of last night's jewelled couscous and this omelette for tea: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/mar/14/nigel-slater-feta-cheese-recipes

Had a rethink on the free exercise bike, we don't have the room for it, so I have put it on Ebay as collection only and will give the money to my neighbours.

Have discovered Amazon trade in for books and they have an offer on at the moment where you get an extra £5 credit if you trade in books worth £10 or more - am up to £8.20 so far so need to go and root through the shelves to find another £1.80's worth - hope to get that done today. Anything that can't be traded in will be something I've decided I no longer want anyway so may go on Green Metropolis or Bookmooch.

lilian1977 · 22 June 2012 at 8:16AM

Good morning everyone

Hope you all slept well? I did, although DS woke me up at 4.51am with his customary cry, he's back in bed now!

Not much to report today really. Dinner last night was delicious and I made Nigella's marmalade pudding cake for dessert as we had all the ingredients in, it was yummy.

Off work with the DS today so lunch will be £3.69 meat free carvery with free ice cream voucher (weekend treat, we usually go on a Saturday but off to a BBQ tomorrow) and then the play centre up the road which is £3.50 to visit - was only £1 before he turned 1!

Ah well, it'll be nice to catch up with a friend and that's a good day out and a big feed for just over £7, as long as I don't have a coffee at the play centre - need to remember I have hot drinks and cake at home!

No progress on the Ebay items yet but still 5 days to go. Will post the Amazon trade in parcel today too.

Need to go through my box of CDs upstairs to see if there's anything that can go on Music Magpie. Really want to get OH to do this too but he's such a hoarder so I can't see it ever happening. Ah well.

One thing I want to get done this weekend is to tidy our bedroom, we've been sleeping in the loft room and using our room as the dumping ground in the hope that it will mean DS will sleep later but it seems like it makes no difference so I want to get back into our room and make it nice and livable again. This does mean however that the loft room will be in danger of becoming the dumping ground again so I need to make sure that doesn't happen. Really need to get back into Flylady I think.

OK that's it for now. Pay day in 6 days and then the fiscal fast really begins! Hope you all have a good day xx

Back on the straight and narrow

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