Flying gleefully into 2009 - One Fresians adventures in debt-busting

mooomin

So, I went up to Asda tonight to post my Ebay/Amazon/musicmagpie parcels. They are all now winging their way to their new owners, and the money I have received for them should be winging its way to me. Thus far, all is well.

I also bought a few bits and pieces for the week to come. I got a couple of good deals - many toilet rolls for £5 and 10L of Catsan for £8. The only trouble is that having bought these two bargains, and the rest of my goods, the total was £33.88. I started out with £41 left in my groceries budget. So, I now have £7 to last me for food until payday. :eek:

To be fair, this month is the first month I have tried to actually account for my food spending and stick to a budget, and I don't think that I should end up more than £15 over budget, which isn't the end of the world. Next month I plan to come in under budget.

At the start of this month, I was focussing more on cooking good cheap meals, but hadn't worked too hard on reducing the costs of the ingredients. Today, I bought mostly Asda Smartprice ingredients, and should have enough food in the freezer to last until payday.

I got a yummy looking recipe for Shepherds pie from someone on the What Small DFW thread, so I'm making that tomorrow. I should be able to make enough to last for two days. I will be making more soup as well this week, and still have bolognaise sauce in the freezer.

All is not as dire as it appeared...

mooomin

Good morning lovely people

Time for me to do my normal thing and write up my list for the "What Small DFW Things" thread before I get ready for work so I can copy and paste it later :rotfl:

So, today I have done/will do:

• Make lunch and take it to work with me
• Take flask so I don't pay for coffee
• Take a book to work so I don't pay for a magazine
• Make breakfast at home
• Make shepherds pie with the recipe I got from lemma1968 yesterday on the What Small DFW Things thread
• [strike]Check online banking[/strike]
• [strike]Make PAD[/strike]
• Have a NSD - I have enough food for lunches etc so no reason why not!
• Put through claim for last weeks overtime
• Washing hokey cokey

Hope your Monday is ok all.

flying_fresian

mooomin

Evening all!

So, I have done everything on my list apart from the washing, and I might go and put a load on shortly, in which case I will consider it ticked off the List of Doom!

I have been having a think about next month's debt-busting, and I am feeling quite positive. Here are my reasons:

• Working in financial services has some bad points at the moment (sh*tting myself in case I get made redundant) but it does mean that my mortgage is now at a rate of 1.5%. Next months payment doesn't reduce, but is about £80 less than I have budgeted for in my SOA. Whoop Whoop! :j
• Next month is a no-Council-Tax month, so £120 less to spend there. All of that is going to be going off my debts. Again, Whoop Whoop :j
• There is overtime available at my work until at least the end of the month. I'm looking on doing 2-6 hours per week. I know I should rack it up while I can, but the last time I did 45-50 hour weeks, me and t'other half fought a lot as I was tired and cranky all the time and he never saw me. Personal happiness is more important than money methinks.
• I'm still not finished decluttering, so am hoping to make more money on Amazon/Ebay in the very near future.

And there are my Reasons To Be Cheerful (1-2-3!) for the coming month, I just need to cling on until next Friday, and even this is looking ok. I still have the £20 from this weeks challenge (2 NSDs in a row!) I am going out to the theatre on Saturday (Going to see Fame, yay!) but we're going for lunch beforehand not dinner afterwards, and I still have £10 left from my entertainment budget, so that will cover lunch and a drink. I should also have about £20 for the final week until payday.

Until very recently I would have been surfing the Overdraft Wave (Not on the overdraft account, on the one that I try and keep in credit!) so I feel VERY PROUD this month. Woo me!!

paybacktime2008

Oh advise me on the ipod thingy please!!!!!!!!

pixiechick99

Hey FF...lots of fab positive DFW things there for you to be very pleased with!!:p

How was the home made shepherd's pie?:D

mooomin

paybacktime2008 wrote: »

Oh advise me on the ipod thingy please!!!!!!!!

What advice do you need petal?

mooomin

millyscarlett wrote: »

Hey FF...lots of fab positive DFW things there for you to be very pleased with!!:p

How was the home made shepherd's pie?:D

I am sitting here feeling quite proud of myself Milly, have to be honest

The shepherd's pie was tasty good - I didn't make enough mash for the top of it, but that's a learning point for me. I padded it out with lots of mushrooms, carrots and peas and it was really good. I will be making it again in the future for sure (And taking the leftovers to work tomorrow as well!)

Inspired by my successes, I am making chilli for the first time tomorrow.

If I'm going to be debt-free, I need to learn how to make tasty cheap things. Nom nom nom....

Lemon_Tree

hi, well done for all the money you've paid off on the PAD challenge. I've started putting aside the amount my till receipts says i've saved and the usual 2p per ltr i save on my petrol, and after 2 - 3 weeks i'm at £20 which is amazing really. Means that at this rate i should be able to pay off a small 'debt' i owe to a savings account i have for one of my neices by the end of the month.

pixiechick99

flying_fresian wrote: »

I am sitting here feeling quite proud of myself Milly, have to be honest

The shepherd's pie was tasty good - I didn't make enough mash for the top of it, but that's a learning point for me. I padded it out with lots of mushrooms, carrots and peas and it was really good. I will be making it again in the future for sure (And taking the leftovers to work tomorrow as well!)

Inspired by my successes, I am making chilli for the first time tomorrow.

If I'm going to be debt-free, I need to learn how to make tasty cheap things. Nom nom nom....

Ooooh we love a good chilli! Pasta carbonara another v cheap and easy one that both my girls will eat. Pasta bake we had tonight (pasta, cream, bacon, onion and leftover cooked chicken, v easy)...home made curry I can now do - used to buy individual meals of it but girls prefer my own one and it's really easy!:rotfl: I now refuse to pay for packaged meals, frozen pizza etc as I know how much cheaper it is to make my own;)

mooomin

Good morning all!

Another copy and paste list from me before I go to work I'm afraid :rotfl:

So, today I have done/will do:

• [strike]Check online banking[/strike]
• [strike]Make my PAD[/strike]
• Call Orange and give notice on my contract. Remember to ask them for the PAK code so I can move my number to O2
• Have breakfast and dinner at home
• Take lunch to work with me, and a flask for coffee
• Aim for another NSD
• Send t'other half to the supermarket for chilli ingredients
• Do Onepolls and Toluna opinions
• Quidco clicks

And that's my list of things to do.

Have a lovely day everyone.