My Debt Free, Lose Weight & Be Super Frugal Diary 2009

ragstoricheswannabe

I dont know where you get your energy from!!!!!! i am ready to collapse if i do nights!!
with all the extra shifts you and mr bamby are doing you should meet your target and more this year, do you think you can carry it on till your mortgage is gone?? ooh, to be mortgage free.........................
Is it just the overtime that is letting you pay so much off or have you cut right back too?? i keep jigging my soa around but getting no where fast.....

yay on the less to lose front!!!!!!! i seem to have stuck at my current weight.......must try harder me thinks. Well done on your weight loss sharron..... together we will be filthy rich and slim (i can dream)

Bambywamby

I don't have the energy Rags, I have just lolled around all day... but I try and keep focused on the big picture when I feel tired or cranky. I don't know how long we can keep up all the overtime as we do want some quality of life but while the weather is so poo and we have the enthusiasm, we will keep at it.
To pay our mortgage off in 9/10 years as we plan to, we will have to over pay by £800 a month...so with a bit of overtime, careful planning and nip & tucking the bills...it is doable. But that is all planned for 2010 onwards...we want rid of these blasted debts first. :mad:

Fingers crossed we can all be filthy rich and slim very soon...yay. :T I am currently finding debt busting a lot easier than fat busting.


Haven't done anything great moneywise today, I have had a NSD though...pleased about that. I didn't get around to menu planning, I was feeling too snoozie, so that's on tomorrows to do list along with collecting my wages and paying the phone bill...yuk!

I am treating myself to a very deep, hot bubbly bath tonight...and sod the gas bill. Sometimes you just have to treat yourself.

Pippilongstocking

Hiya - just read through your whole diary - WOW - they are all right you know you have lots energy, drive and am sure you will get there sooner than you think.

My life is mostly held together with sellotape!!

Goodluck to you my lovely - you work so hard, you deserve all good things xxxx

Bambywamby

Aww thank you Faye, it's really nice of you to say such things. :kisses3:

I have just done my fortnightly Asda order (with free delivery of course:rolleyes: ) and I have noticed that prices have gone up again!
The frozen lamb mince that I have bought during the last eighteen months has gone from £1.20 a bag to £1.30, to £1.45 and now £1.64.
I refuse to pay more and bow to the price increases, I am just bulking out more so the food goes further...lots of grated carrots and finely sliced mushrooms in with the mince etc. It's better for our purse and for the family. I usually manage to get eight meals/portions out of one bag. It makes four decent sized portions of stew and four decent sized portions of bolognaise, however next time I shall be taking some of the stew mixture and putting it in to pastry to make cornish pasties for another meal. So I am aiming for 12 meals out of the one bag.
I did have a cucumber on my shopping list but I refuse to pay £1.30 on a cucumber, I would rather have cress or lettuce in my sandwiches.

We had a staff meeting at work today which over ran by an hour preventing me from putting my wages in the bank...I will now have to have them hanging around my handbag until I can get to the bank on Monday. I hope I don't start dipping in to them and spending on unnecessaries...I haven't bought a trashy mag for such a long time.:D

M'off to bed now, it's 22.40pm on a Friday night and I am pooped. Gawd I am getting old.

Nighty night. x

Bambywamby

Have had a lovely weekend, I hope you all have.
Me & the O/H had a nice DFW Valentines day, we didn't bother with cards and prezzies but did little things for or with each other.
We had a nice breakfast together, O/H cleaned the dogs room for me and I walked the dogs for him so he could have a lie in. Then we had a really nice homemade lunch of roasties, sausages, roasted courgettes, carrots and swede mash, followed by homemade choccy mousse. And then to walk off our full bellies we had a nice hour long walk in the sunshine. It was perfick! and cheap.

I actually got around to making a menu plan as well yesterday. I am pleased to say come Thursday when our Asda order arrives the cupboards, fridge and freezer should be close to empty. This week we shall be having chicken in white sauce, home made pizza and cajun wedgies, home made lamb minty burgers with mushroom pasta and cornish pasties with winter greens, roasted peppers and tomatoes.

Today hasn't been quite as much fun as me and O/H were at work, however now that I am home I am looking forward to a hot bubbly bath and then a leisurely read of some free magazines. Myself and a few of the girls at work have recently started doing a magazine swap. I have lots at home that O/H brings in from his work and I take them to my work for the staff and little ole ladies to read. The other staff bring their's in too so we can all swap. We have one little old lady who can't get enough of Heat and Closer...she thinks Jordan is an old slapper but loves reading about her. She has said that she is getting a bit fed up of her daughter bringing her Woman's Realm and The Lady, they are not racey enough...she would much rather have the trashy celeb mags lol...bless her.:T

sharronloves2spend

Ah what a lovely valentines day Bamby, sounds lovely. We decided that we wouldn't buy into the commersulism, and then what does DH do....Bought me 10 red roses and a lovely card, they were beautiful and i graciously said 'Thank You'. One Brownie point earned by dh lol.

I too love trashy mags but i have a regular supply from my three younger sisters, heat, closer, now, and my mum gives me the chat, take a break, and love it. Absoloute bliss when house is quiet to sit and read them and loose myself in other peoples world, and for free, my favourite price!

Going to get the kids passports photo's done today, trying not to spend too much money. Love the kids being off(half term) no time constraints.

Bye for now Sharron

ragstoricheswannabe

you always make your food sound so yummy!!!!!!
i had the best pressie off my fella: a bacon buttie and a cup of tea!!!! he knows the way to my heart!!
i have got a few new recipes to try on the family, am bored with the same old food so have actually found some recipes to try. Thinking tonight may be a quick meatball casserole as everything gets bunged into one pot.........

Bambywamby

Morning all :wave:

Roses Sharron you lucky duck! They are beautiful...and very romantic.
How are you surviving half term? Oh I remember those days well, my son would only be off school for two days and he would start whining "mum, I'm boreddddddd."


I love meatballs in a sticky tomato sauce Rags, what do you serve yours with?
I like them with pasta or rice...very moreish. It's making me hungry just thinking about them.

It's wet but very mild here in East Yorks today. I have taken the dogs out for a run this morning and after ten minutes I was sweltering in my winter coat. According to our thermometer it's eight degrees today, woohoo I hope spring is officially on its way now.
The dogs, being mucky little blighters have shook rainwater all over the back hall walls, so as well as having to work an 18 hour shift this aftie and tonight I am having a wall wiping down session. I am also planning to have a nice bath before work, wash my hair, nip out for my nephews birthday prezzie and card, clean the leather suite, hoover through and take the dogs out for their mid-day walk. I really should be as skinny as a rail...if it wasn't for Mr Cadbury, Mr Nestle and Mr Walkers.

It's quite a scary day for me and the O/H, we are fixing our mortgage today for ten years. We have had a fortnight to think about it and after much consideration, we have decided to sign on the dotted line. :rolleyes:

As our food order is due tomorrow, my cupboards look like Old Mother Hubbard's. My son is disgusted with me as we are out of crisps, yoghurts and other snack type foods. The dogs haven't had their daily slice of ham for two days and the O/H only has sandwichs and fruit for his pack up, normally he has some choccy & crisps too.
I have some chicken portions in the cooker as I type, we are having these for lunch in white sauce and for tea I will be taking a chicken sandwhich and fruit to work....supper should be on work, I make a mean treacle porridge when I am there:T

Yesterday was a day off and I did very little, it was lovely. I finished some coursework, watched day time TV, made some flapjacks and ate only one after tea (that's very good for me), sold two items on Ebay, had an afternoon nap on the couch and then really enjoyed the new series of Mistresses on BBC. I don't like having to pay for my TV licence, but I have to give them their due...the BBC do some cracking dramas.

Still waiting for our £488 refund from Scottish Power, I wish they would hurry up and send it...it's got a few credit cards names on it. I think I may scrape the £88 off the top and put it in our Isa. I want to save up a small emergency fund of around £3000 incase of...erm emergencies. We currently have £45 in it, I am hoping the roof doesn't blow off or the boiler clap out just yet lol.

Time for brekky and that slug in a suit Jeremy Kyle. I don't like him, I don't like the people on his show but I am addicted to it. Very strange...and sad, I know.

Chat soon. x

ragstoricheswannabe

ooh, treacle porridge, that sounds scrummy!!! so how do you make it?? may get my ds1 to eat it if its nice!

My meatball casserole is just meatballs, onions, carrots, potatoes, garlic, passata, parsley and water all in one pot!! i did it wrong and added too much water so tried to bulk it out with red lentils. It was so scrummy all the plates were licked clean, used the rest of the sauce on some pasta the day after and pureed some of the sauce down for ds2 who laps it up, i cant physically get the spoon in quick enough!!!! Didnt have any passata either so blitzed up a tin of tomatoes and added some tomato puree (thinking it was pratcically the same stuff). was quite pleased with myself!!!

Am doing ok on ebay at the moment, have sold 14 out of 15 items and should of made over £30!!!! is that good?!

How you doing with the weight loss, i am going backwards at the moment, ate quite healthy and put 2 lbs on!!! go figure.......

sharronloves2spend

Yip bamby my kids are borrrrrred!! Trouble is the older two (14 & 13) don't want to do the same things as the little two (9&6) so i find it hard to entairtain all four at the same time. Today tho not so good on the money front, DH took the three boys to the astro turf(waether was fab here today) for a (free) kickabout. Me and Claudia went to the shopping park to get her an outfit for her birthday on Tuesday total spends £95:eek: Don't know what to add to that except this is an old habit that is dying hard!!!! she does look fab tho and i thouroughly enjoyed spending 'girly' time with her. i must also confess to buyin myself a black dress, new jeans, white shirt, 2 new vest tops. I wish i had some of your determination Bamby, our df date feels like an eternity away. I have just been through the bank account and it's not looking good, will have to have lot's of nsd from now untill the end of the month. The cupboards are full and should only have to fork out for kids dinner money etc. I love it when the cupboards are completly bare Bamby, true frugality using everything up:T


Lol re Jeremy Kyle i absoultly hate it, and surley the people must be actors, nobody really lives their lives like that but then i have led a sheltered life,and i do try to watch it when i can.

Not going so great on the weight loss front either Rags, stayed the same this week. Want to loose at least 4lb before end of feb. Are you following a plan?? or just cutting down???

Well i must go now and put my younger two squabbling children to bed!!!!

Love Sharron