I want a diary too

lincsdan86

Well this is diary is probably more for my own benefit then anything else but there will be the odd question and support needed along the way.

Still waiting to hear from my partners work place with regard to a job that i went for with them, it would be the ideal job as the money is better, the support is better, save on travel and i can sell my motorbike to pay off some of my debts.

Recently acquired microsoft money, i ave used it before but i had forgotten how good it was. it work out that I have about 7k of debt to pay off which is less than i thought i had, i cant remember that the misses' one said, unfortunatley it wasnt as good as mine.

Im hoping today that my two new cards arrive, one being my tesco club card plus which we will use for all our food and petrol (transfering money to it every month) and my barclaycard (fingers crossed) so i can move my debts around a little and hopefully get rid of the dreaded argos card debt. (paying off £200 this month hopefully, once my partners rents pay me for their tax return work).

Im glad to see that the sun holiday thing has started up again as this is the only way we are going to be able to afford a holiday next year. My parents wanted us to go on holiday with them to Cyprus, but we just cant afford the £800 for it, and we have tried to tell them this but it doesnt seem to sink in. Might ave to have a quiet word with my parents to get them to stop asking. Cos it is getting us both down at the minute.

So is our housing situation, :-( still nothing from the council on this one, think we are going to have to put some extra effort into finding something ourselves, not that we can afford to do this either at the minute, really is all depending on this "maybe" job as some of the money from the bike could be used as a deposit for a rental but we will see.

I really should ring up the motorbike shop aswell as my "waterproof" clothing isnt waterproof, and the letter from the makers say that the shop will be able to help but i might leave this till tomorrow.

Does anyone have any meal ideas, we currently have £40 a week budget for food and other things like washing stuffs, but we want to reduce this and i was wondering if anyone knew any good receipes, that are cheap and quick to make, especially as i have a fussy eater to deal with aswell, she doesnt eat much meat apart from chicken, and doesnt really like spicy food, but any help on this would be great.

Final thought for the moment, is how the hell am i going to stop smoking??? any ideas????? managed it for a couple of days but then just go back to how i used to be, but i am really going to have to do it this time!!!

I think this is probably one of the longest posts that i have done to date, i wonder if i can get any of the stuff in it down.......

lincsdan86

Well this is the first day that i will not be smoking, at the moment feeling alright, although did have to take a very big detour this morning as the road was closed but that is fine. I have got myself a nice cuppa which im really looking forward to.

I got my tesco card last night and the first thing i did was the register for the telephone banking so that i could activate the card and finally this morning i have managed to register for the online banking aswell, just got to wait for a leter to come.

I also got a text message from one of the people at my misses' work asking what my salary was at the minute, so i think that my application is progressing but we will have to wait and see.

Also on the house front we found a very cheap house to rent, just confirming some details and hopefully going to book a viewing of it, the one mad thing is that it isnt in a v nice area but it is cheap.

Also received my documents back from barclaycard but no letter attached with them so i dunno what is happening with that at the minute, maybe there will be something in the post today.

Got to go to my parents tonight to pick up yesterdays sun holiday voucher and prob todays if they have it.

Anyway enough of the rambling for now, best get on with some work :rotfl:

Oh and i really must update my signature and microsoft money

lincsdan86

Important news update. :-)

Havge spoken with ACIS the housing group after sending them a couple of letters and we have finally got a interview with the housing officer next wednesday, YAY

Also my partner is bringing home a job offer letter aswell. This should make some interesting reading when she gets home, this could be turning into a very good day :-)

PoorPrincess

Good Luck with your new Diary, it definatly helps to keep yourself updated on here!! Well done on your interview

Princess

x

poppy10_2

Good luck with everything Dan. For stopping smoking, you could try hypnosis - it has worked wonders for a few of my mates who were "habitual" smokers - not really physically addicted, only smoked a few a day, but found it hard to break the habit of reaching for a cig when having a drink etc.

lincsdan86

So whats new?

Well let me think, what has happened since i was last posting on this diary, well I have got my new job, I start on 6th October, as it is the first monday in the month, a nice almost 3k payrise, I leave my current place on the 30th so also get a couple of days off inbetween. The only problem is I have to repay the £355 for a course which i am doing so things are going to be a little tight for the next month to say the least.

Anyway moving on, I have got my interview with ACIS this afternoon to try and get some sort of housing sorted out before the new born comes along in December so I will keep people up to date with that.

Had a thought the other day that might try doing a big cooking day where i tried to cook a big cottage pie, lasange, pasta bake and the freeze it so we had some ready cooked meals in the freezer to try and cut down on some spending, but there isnt any room in the freezer at the minute and my brother hasnt turned on the other one yet so i really shud ask him to do that. Any ideas of other meals that i could batch cook and then freeze? And anything i could add to the other ones to bulk them out a little?

Dont even start with the no smoking it isnt going very well atm but i am determined to stop, once these ones have gone then they are gone and we are not getting anymore.

What else is new.... well i enquired to a solicitor whether or not i could claim against the council for my accident, they said they would do it on a no win no fee basis but then i could be liable for the other sides costs so i am a little warry of whether or not to do it or not. Any advice on this would be nice.

Thanks for reading. Take care :-)

kimmi_b

Hi Dan!

No money saving suggestions for you I'm afraid, I struggle myself, but do have some food suggestions:-

Firstly, I find the best supermarkets for reduced food items at the end of the day are Somerfield and Co-op - they reduce sometimes 2 days before goods go out of date and reduction is normally by at least 30% sometimes up to 70% - fab!

My fave freezer staples are spag bol sauce, fish pie (without prawns), chilli (made as hot or mild as you like) - perfect with pasta, rice or jacket potato. Lasagne can be bulked out by adding mushrooms, peppers, courgettes - whatever takes your fancy really. Same with the chilli & spag bol.

Buy a bag of cheap tomatoes, roast in the oven and blend to make a cheap, tasty & nutritious sauce base - add veg stock, tom puree, grated carrot to bulk it out then add your herbs and spices according to taste.

My fave pasta sauce is made with a tin of chopped tomatoes (21p), 'posh' pork & sweet chilli sausages (get for £1.25 reduced if lucky) or usually £1.99, garlic clove (5p?), sprinkle mixed italian herbs (3p) plus pasta to serve. Prob costs around £2 for 2 large portions. Cook slowly for as long as possible to thicken the sauce and give lots of flavour to final dish.

Soups are good to freeze too, especially if you can use up leftovers. Try pea & mint - saute an onion in olive oil, add lettuce (ideal to use up when leftover from salad), stock (veg or chicken), add frozen peas and some mint leaves. Cook for about 7 minutes, blend. Add more water to thin if required and cook for about another 5 minutes. It can be eaten now or frozen if required.

I found a good soup recipe on the web for roast dinner leftovers - if you can find it, try that too - very yummy!

lincsdan86

Hey All,

I thought I had better update my diary thingy, so interesting turn of events in the last couple of days.

Started off on Friday with Acis (Housing people) saying they have found us a 2 bed house in a village not far from my parents (if you ave read any of my other threads, you might know why this is important). WE have a look at the weekend but we are going for a propere look inside today at 4 and I really cant wait :-).

Only 7 days left at work here and then I start my new job which again I cant wait to do, everything seems to be happening all at once.

Speaking of the new house we have been searching the classifieds for second hand things and on freecycle to try and cut down on costs, hopefully going to get a fridge & washing machine & cooker all for under £150 which will be an interesting challenge, I will keep you up to date on that.

Well we gave up smoking yesterday it has now been 14 hours since my last fag. Next big step is to get to the end of the working day without one.

I think my mum is coming to look at the house with us but I cant remember, if not we will go round there afterwards. She says that we can get vouchers to help pay for decorations so wil have to ask the nice lady later.

Anyway that is enough from me for today :-)