How are we going to manage?

taplady

exessexmum wrote:

Have had a read of the OS forum and today I have done a meal planner for the week (well 8 days actually) and have been to do the weeks grocery shop. We needed nappies this week (buy them every 3 weeks or so) so its normally and really expensive week food-wise and I would normally spend about £120-140, but by following the list I made and not buying extras and by doing a lot of stuff from scratch (ie a tin of tomatoes and some basil and garlic instead of a jar of bolognese sauce) my shopping bill was £48!!! I know it's not a huge saving when we owe £20K but its a start :-)

Tracey

well done Tracey ! :j I would definitely recommend the OS forum to anyone, its saved me a fortune on groceries etc and i still have a lot to learn!

Debt_Free_Chick

exessexmum wrote:

...but by following the list I made and not buying extras and by doing a lot of stuff from scratch (ie a tin of tomatoes and some basil and garlic instead of a jar of bolognese sauce)

That's a great start :j

my shopping bill was £48!!! I know it's not a huge saving when we owe £20K but its a start :-)

And that's bloomin' brilliant! :beer:

Seriously, if you can make savings like this, this easily, you'll soon have that debt nuked. You just need to remember not to get carried away with the money you save. I'd suggest every time you save some money, put half in your emergency fund and the other half towards your highest-interest debt. If you can pay your debts using internet banking, do it straight away - don't wait for the statement ..... temptation is evil

robnye

exessexmum wrote:

Spendless and Bossyboots, I could kiss you both!!! Have just checked on the tax credit website and it looks as if you might be right and we can deduct DH's pension payments from his income.....currently his pension payments are over £2500 p.a. (Civil Service pension) so that might mean we are entitled to at least a bit of tax credit.....will ring them on Monday and find out. If I wasn't so skint, I'd buy you a :beer: :rotfl:

how did you get on.. i know this is right, because both my wife and i where able to deduct our pension contributions, therefore keeping our income at approx the same level as the year before