Fire Fox's Debt-Free in 2009 Diary

Fire_Fox

Mr. Fire Fox got robbed at work this afternoon, lost his cards and about £5 in change. :mad: Very lucky because he doesn't carry his wallet so didn't lose his driver's license or B&Q vouchers. Also had his house keys AND our home address in his clothing but those weren't taken. :T Feel for his colleagues who lost house and car keys, very worrying.

The other 'good' part is that it reminded me to go through my purse to remove all non-essentials, in case of loss or theft. Need to go to Boots and spend £20 of vouchers/ points :rolleyes: have no decent mascara so that's a chunk allocated! Also remembered I have 'bus miles' to cash in on my travel pass.

We haven't been eating proper meals all week, I have mainly had leftovers (bulked mince with baked beans, dodgy result) or homemade soup from the freezer so haven't bothered to go to the supermarket. Now have £9 from Pinecone so intending to spend the vouchers on some wine to take to my friend's house at the weekend! :beer:

Fire_Fox

Another three hours of overtime, then realised I now have six days off on the trot - that has not happened for a couple of years! Tomorrow the supermarket on a budget for once :rotfl: and definitely some baking over the weekend.

Just spent another £26 on two textbooks, but used my cashback Amazon vouchers. So that will be three parcels of books floating about in the postal system with my name on them!

Fire_Fox

Asda shop completed, expensive items were:

Three bottles of wine £10 (offer)
Orange squash £2
Two packs of breakfast cereal £3.30
Extra Special dark chocolate £5.50
Whole almonds £2.70
Dried fruit £2.50
Reduced fat crisps £2 (offer)
Eight pints of organic milk £2.60 (whoopsie)
Two packs of organic cheddar £3 (offer)
Two packs of healthy cheese £3.80
Two packs of flavoured cheese £3.30
Two packs of organic butter £2.20
Two bags of frozen breaded mushrooms £2
Two packs of battered chicken bits £3.40 (one whoopsie)
Turkey thigh £2.40
Two whole trout £2.70
Whole leg of lamb £8.40 (offer)
Two punnets of plums £2

Total price £97.50 but used £9 of luncheon vouchers from surveys against the wine so actually paid £88.50. Very cos £15.50 worth of wine only cost me £1! :beer: I used £1 of bus miles on the way there but the taxi home cost me £5. :rolleyes: Still happy with the total cost cos I didn't buy as much junk food as normal, and got absolutely loads of cheddar (going to make cheese flapjacks), loads of fruit and nuts for baking, and loads of lamb.

Fire_Fox

Nipped into town and spent another fiver: £1 on eco washing powder, £2.50 on recycled bin bags and £1.60 on two multipacks of Walkers for Mr. Fire Fox. Found an unopened but out-of-date bag of organic spelt flakes in the back of the cupboard so yet more inventive recipes to find.

Feeling guilty that we chucked away an entire punnet of pears and several nectarines last week so made minestrone soup as penance. Used some manky veggies (green beans, leek, sweetcorn) plus an onion, chestnut mushrooms, a tin of tomatoes and some soup pasta. Then flapjacks - dipping into the bottomless bag of carrots, cheddar, nut muesli and eggs. It's a case of praying now cos I have no idea if I put enough flavourings in ... how do you salt uncooked oats and raw egg to taste?!

chevalier

Sorry if I am being a bit dense, but I have read your thread (all of it today), and I have to ask, what are you trying to achieve? You list down the expensive food that you buy, but don't change what you buy, and you buy more kitchen equipment than I have in years in just a few months.

So to me you are listing all this down, but not changing your financial behaviour at all .

So the point is? Maybe I am just too tired to see it
chev

Fire_Fox

Thanks for taking the time to read and post! Primarily I am logging my spending patterns at this stage, as it's also all going into a spreadsheet. The problem is I don't really know what I was spending before in some areas as much of my income was cash. The diary ... it makes me feel a bit more in control, I now know what what interest rate I am getting, know what's been paid and what hasn't cleared.

Food-wise I have already cut back loads: two years ago I'd spend £25 to £30 a week on just myself, then Mr. Fire Fox moved in. I used to buy a lot of organic and we were nudging £100 every ten days last summer (£35 a week each :eek:) There is still a long way to go so I am experimenting with 'speculating to accumulate', hence the leg of lamb and baking stuff. Now we are averaging £21 a week each - so I guess £20 should be the next target?

If it's any consolation it's more kitchen equipment than I have purchased in years too! I have had really cheap utensils/ trays/ frying pans, which have not lasted - and now I have a decent hob I feel it's more worthwhile replacing the damaged stuff. I do not intend to ever buy another can opener tho ...

I suppose books and household items are my treats - I don't buy a lot of clothing or toiletries or go abroad on holiday or run a car. You wouldn't believe how much stuff I have bookmarked that I want to buy tho! :rotfl:

I am not in any debt I can't handle, and I have managed to save £450 each month so far this year. But as I have read on these boards, circumstances change very quickly and I am certainly not immune (been very ill before). I have increased my income through cashback and surveys :T but have decided to log this income and associated spending separately so I can't fool myself.

Fire_Fox

Spend yesterday of £7 on a bus to my friend's house and a taxi home: took two bottles of wine bought with Pinecone vouchers. Dinner tonight will be turkey stroganoff with Smartprice chestnut mushrooms, red onion and starting-to-sprout potatoes. For afters Mr. Fire Fox is going to make bread and butter pudding to use up half a stale loaf and some ancient dried apricots. :money:

Tomorrow we have decided to take my parents' car out - get rid of the recycling, a massive pile of books cluttering up the hall, go to IKEA for new pan(s) and chopping board. These are essential purchases as we don't have a frying pan or casserole suitable for the induction hob, and our large wooden chopping board has a massive (unhygenic) split! I am hoping Mr. Fox is happy with the quality at IKEA as they are much cheaper than anything else I have seen. :cool:

Fire_Fox

Purchases today, totalling £41:
Habitat oven tray £9
IKEA frying pan £16
Pasta plates £9
Silicone spatula £4
Wooden hangers £3.

All to replace damaged or broken items, and I managed to talk Mr. Fire Fox out of the £30 lidded saute pan he had his eye on ... :rolleyes: He is presently test driving the new pan making an MSE-style Spanish omelette!

Fire_Fox

Not long home from Barclays to open a regular saver account (6% gross) - an hour and a half of my life that I will never get back. :mad: The account cannot be opened online by new customers and now I know why ...

2.35pm: Arrived to four queues, none of which were signposted for new customers or savings
Waited in line for fifteen minutes just to be asked "do you have an appointment?"
Queued again in the mortgage section
Chatted to existing customers who had both been waiting over an hour to be seen (one of whom had queued for 45 minutes at the counter!)
3.05pm: Listened as an advisor said to one customer he'd be another half an hour, and hadn't had lunch yet :rolleyes:
Watched as same customer got bumped again as someone with an appointment arrived
3.20pm: Incredulous as I (sans appointment) got seen before both existing customers
Practically had a row with the advisor and then the assistant manager about the depth of information 'required' to open a no-strings savings account
Completed entire healthcheck form with "customer does not wish to disclose"
4.00pm Elvis finally left the building! :mad:

Fire_Fox

Fire_Fox wrote: »

I have decided to have a go at an inventory, starting with the baking cupboard:

Wholemeal spelt flour Half used
Strong white flour
Wheatgerm (needs eating)
Fruit muesli
Nut muesli (needs eating) Half used

White sugar
[strike]Demerara sugar [/strike]
Splenda sweetener
Xylitol sweetener

[strike]Chopped mixed nuts (need eating)[/strike]
Linseeds
Desiccated coconut
Raisins
[strike]Unsulphured dried apricots (need eating)[/strike]
Lazy 'fresh' ginger

Strawberry jelly x 2
Apricot jam (needs eating)
Blackcurrant jam (needs eating) Half used
Cocoa powder Half used
Powdered milk

Vanilla essence
Baking powder (very out of date!)
Bicarbonate of soda (very out of date!)
Dried yeast

[strike] Lemons x 3 (need eating)
A pineapple[/strike]
Unripe red pears. Threw away :mad:

Just baked a banana-nut loaf to get rid of three overripe bananas and the last of the chopped nuts. :T Completely out of eggs and very low on fresh fruit so nipped into Tesco Metro spending £4 - will be working lots of overtime this week so no chance to do the supermarket run anyway. Also bought three bottles of New Zealand wine for £10 that are usually £10 each according to the shelf!! Next job is lentil and bacon soup.