Its worth a go isn't it?

Primula

Just a quick hello and good luck with your debt busting. Not had time to fully read your diary yet, but have subscribed and will read it later on. Good luck

Itsarandom

Hey TheBex!

There is something satisfying about rounding down your debt - maybe it is the satisfaction of being able to do it - or just being able to go "I have 1000 pounds of debt" rather than "I have 1006.73 debt..." its cause it is quicker to say!!

My entire family are hoarders - its why I have created a box that slowly and surely is me putting things in that hasn't either got a large amount of sentimental value and haven't been used in the last 6 months! Already it is looking like I need a second one.. :rolleyes:

I don't really have any particular diet at the moment - my big thing though is that if I am having veg it has to be mixed up in a meal. I hate cutting and preparing them, and I couldn't eat them when they are sitting as an extra! Its weird, won't eat onions and tomatoes as they sit on my plate - but pasta sauces? Lasagna? Fantastic! I must also admit I am not a fruit eater - juices yes but the idea of munching into an apple i feel a bit green around the gills! Really it is a case of I will probably eat almost anything otherwise, or at least try it once.

OH has a camera - good idea! I will bother him for next week then get them online asap! Better pictures = better sale really.

This is the fourth/fifth attempt I have made at quitting in my (mere) 6 years of smoking - the second longest attempt was 8 weeks, so right now things are looking good but when i was going through all the stress of getting a house over the last two weeks I suddenly started getting little cravings again - so while I am still an ex-smoker... not quite completely over it yet. I remember though the first 48 hours of quitting this time was a nightmare - I swear it was the hardest time of quitting I have had yet - screaming into a pillow at one point!!

Itsarandom

Am started to get worried now...

Will need to update my SOA soon as I have noticed i have missed a few things off :eek: but thankfully i updated my copy on the website so i can fix that soon enough. Shows how much i keep control of my finances - it is all luxuries I forgot, and things I pay for by cash!!:rolleyes:


Just moved recently (see first post!) and been trying to work out what the council tax is - However, as i don't exactly know how council tax works I have figures going from 150 a month _pale_ to my other attempt of working out at 97 quid a month. I rang them up but there has been nothing sent from my letting agency about me moving in, so I haven given them the date I got the keys and work from there really, they seemingly can't give me any kind of information yet about how much i owe. Hopefully will get it all sorted out by next week. If it is more then I will have to start making a plan of cutbacks or start selling everything I own!! :rolleyes:

However this weekend is my little treat weekend - I have had a holiday booked since January - nothing fancy I point out, just a little camping trip down in Derbyshire. All paid for already just not food... however I went through my cupboards last night and discovered I had enough "Random" food lying around in my cupboards (some of it I have had since i moved into my old place in January!!!) for the entire weekend :T plus I setup a redirect on the old place, before I moved out, for three months and got a free "moveme" box thing - which included cans of fanta, teabags, free coffee and biscuits and the likes!!! so this weekend of camping if I am very well behaved shouldn't cost anymore. Lets test my debt-free wannabe skills!!:beer:

I am also in two minds at the moment. I knew how silly I was with money - stupidly silly in fact. I also knew that i wanted to save up for a car, so I have a little fund for it that has had some spare cash I had, birthday and christmas money going into it since about June last year - it was standing at about £500- but ended up using about £220/240 of it for paying off a few funds/bills I had with moving... but I don't have direct access to it. My mother has kept it in a spare bank acct for all this time so i didn't end up spending it on rubbish (Imagine how much chocolate that could be? :rolleyes::D)

But i am debating whether or not to just go ahead and throw that at debt this month - or leave it alone for eventually saving up for a car. I know my mother was a little disappointed when i had to dip into it last time - she likes to think I am pretty solvent and I was until I had to spend over 1000 on sudden house moving!

I don't think she would be happy with the idea of me using all the birthday and Christmas money given to me by my families over the last year and a bit being used to make a small chip in my debt... but on that same note that small "chip" is another step towards being debt free - effectively could get rid of one credit card debt (the littest one) and get the other one down to less than 1000 (I should use it on the big one... but for motivation I would like to see that other one below 1000, then it gives me a goal to get the big one down to 3 figures).

I dunno... what do people think?


I also made a decision - my OH is coming camping with me this weekend, so will ask him to drop off a camera so I can get photos done of all my stuff when I get back from camping so I can get them all on ebay next Tuesday - though with the common advice available on the boards might wait til Thursday to post them up! But it can all wait until I get back from my camping trip.:D

moo2moo

Use all the savings you can get your hands on to clear your debts. Who cares what your mum or anyone else thinks. You've already spent the money on furniture and Starbucks and alsorts of other things. If it makes her feel better tell her you're using it to pay for your holiday. It seems rather daft having money in savings earning a pitance in interest whilst donating a large amount of interest to the credit card companies each month for borrowing the same amount.

Itsarandom

Thanks for the stark reminder moo2moo. Sometimes you need that good old fashioned reminder of why I am here!


I have decided to get back the money (it was 280 after all of that!) and it all off into clearing the virgin credit card (which makes it gone!) the barclaycard (which should put it to hopefully less than 1k) and paying back my OH (i never noted this one on my SOA as he said there is no rush to pay him anything, however, I would feel a lot more comfortable around him not owing him anything and it is 85 quid).

I also tore through more packing boxes last night and have unpacked a few boxes and now have two boxes of carp to sell!! :rolleyes: Must remember to ask OH to lend me his camera!!!

I am feeling pretty down about my financial situation I have to admit. Its like a big tearing within me, because right now although 24 - I should be enjoying life, not feeling guilty for spending 85 pence.

Ended up taking a tenner out last night - I have 1 quid left, on the plus side I know exactly where it all went. However I can only justify 2.50 of it. Urgh... best do some work and stop thinking about debt for at least a while!

TheBex

Sorry my dear, I've been elsewhere recently. How was the camping? That's what I did too this weekend! I'm covered in mosi bites now though, and have done my back carrying my stupid too-big bag!

The hoarding thing is a slippery slope - I'm constantly battling it. Good work to have two boxes to get rid of. I have three, but I haven't quite got around to selling it yet... :rolleyes:

Legend for your quitting. seriously. I wouldn't put up with that pillow-screaming feeling though, I'd have gone right ahead and lit up. I am impressed.

Cash in your savings. Like moo2moo said there's all those sensible reasons why, but the thing is that you need your savings to feel safe... So long as you are under your limits though, you ned to remember that if that "rainy day" ever did happen, you can use the card. I ditched my premium bonds after reading the article on the main site, and that cleared my overdraft and a chunk from my CC. (that way round because the card's at 0%)

Please don't be feeling down. It's just a hard time, and it really won't last that long. A few of the DFWs on here look at it like a fun challenge, looking for ways to make more money.

I agree you can't be feeling bad about spending 85p. The way that works for me is that I have a weekly budget for things I need, and a monthly budget for other bits and bobs. £40 a month is enough to have a meal out or buy some clothes or go to a gig every month, and it's those things that make life fun. I know it delays the DFD, but you'll be much happier living on a restricted budget if you know you've got a "goodies" budget. When I dreamt this up I reduced my weekly budget by £10 to compensate. I know not everyone has that flexibility, so have a think about if it would work for you and how much you can reasonably afford.

TheBex

Itsarandom wrote: »

I don't really have any particular diet at the moment - my big thing though is that if I am having veg it has to be mixed up in a meal. I hate cutting and preparing them, and I couldn't eat them when they are sitting as an extra! Its weird, won't eat onions and tomatoes as they sit on my plate - but pasta sauces? Lasagna? Fantastic! I must also admit I am not a fruit eater - juices yes but the idea of munching into an apple i feel a bit green around the gills! Really it is a case of I will probably eat almost anything otherwise, or at least try it once

So I've been thinking about this in the car (my great temple of thought) and this is what I came up with.

Meat: I'm a veg, so I know about avoiding meat. I suggest this because meat is expensive, not because I'm a militant hippy type.
Soya mince is a store cupboard staple. Buy it dry then put some boiling water on it and leave it for 5 minutes. It's way less fatty than real meat, so if you want the full experience throw some butter at it. Often my omnivore friends won't even notice it's fake. So if you're doing a mince recipe, use half and half and it'll be cheaper.
Lean mince is about twice the price of fatty stuff. My friend Laura says to cook it, then wash it through with boiling water, takes out loads of the fat.
Replacing meat with beans is a cheap solution. Kidney beans are my favourite for this, and all the supermarkets do cheap versions. Chick peas and lentils are also brilliant.

Veg: Get bags of frozen veg. They're already prepared, barely any difference in the price, and they won't go off. Alternatively tinned veg are acceptable to the taste buds if they are in things, which is what you want veg for, non?

Fruit: I am all about frozen fruit + value juice + blender = vitamins and minerals with zero effort! (or on Saturday + vodka too)

Your freezer: should be your best friend!
I ONLY batch cook - you have just as much mess to clear up, but get way more food out of it! nb this does not apply to baking, or I would be a massive massive fatty.
Your freezer should allow you take advantage of as much reduced food as you can find, since almost all food can be frozen to store.
Also means you can do loads of prep when you're feeling keen and then store it there, like cheese grating.

Markets: I live near Britain's biggest Sunday market. Two weeks ago I bought 48 avocadoes for £2. Now my freezer is full of guacamole! The thing is to go when the grocer is packing up for the day and buy fruit or veg that you can make into something or freeze as is. For instance I'd happily freeze 400 apricots, but I wouldn't much fancy spending Sunday night cutting up pineapple to frreze! I would imagine that the same principle applies to meat and fish.

value food: You need to know what you can and can't live without. I won't put ice cream with my crumble unless its Green and Blacks vanilla, so I won't buy cheap ice cream. There's a thread on here about the good or bad value things... I'd always try the cheapie version and then if I hate it, not buy it again, it's never going to be a great loss! http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=342404

cheap meals that work for Bex: (and hide the veg)
Chilli = tins and tins of different beans + chopped tomatoes + (soya) mince + some veg from the frrezer + spices. (this is always a preserving pan job for me, and then get the tupperware out, cover the kitchen with pots of chilli cooling down overnight before they go in my freezer.)
Pasta (Bex sauce = chopped tomatoes, onion, garlic, herbs) total cost is roughly 30p
lasagne
lentil bake
shepherdless pie
risotto
curry (thai for me)
They can all be batch cooked in a big pan and frozen for lazy nights.
Also jacket spuds.
see here for more:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1157641

special offers: If something I buy anyway is on special I always buy as much as I can store, even if it means going over that week's food budget, as it will bring me in under budget later. The best things for this are tins, cordial, coke (for sunday morning!) bread and toiletries. This is one of the reasons I prefer to buy off the cuff rather than on a strictly weekly, meal planning basis.
My thing is to buy reduced veg and then forget to buy anything that goes with it. :rolleyes:



None of this is massively groundbreaking, but I figured that since I lived off £10 a week for food at uni, then something might be helpful (?)

Fire_Fox

The only thing I'd add to the excellent post above is that some frozen veg is cheaper per 100g than fresh! Brocolli and spinach are good examples - they both go a bit soggy which means you can't eat them 'neat' (who'd want to?!) but they make ace brocolli and stilton soup or chicken and spinach curry.

Itsarandom

Hey folks!


Thanks for the advice and encouragment, and I really love your food suggestions Bex! It is all common sense but I never really thought about it. Fire fox, I had no idea frozen veg was cheaper!! That is excellent.

Am going to trawl through it all tonight and start writing this down onto a post-it note and get some planning! I find I can never follow a meal plan personally - cause I always want something different on the day!

Grated an entire 200g block of cheese recently and broke it up into freezer bags so i have smaller portions to work through!

ran out of time today - will post more when i finally get home tonight! Thanks again - really starting to love this forum!

TheBex

Cheaper eh? Wonder why... maybe it's to do with storage?

I'm totally the same with meal planning, that's why my freezer is jammed with a variety of (home made) ready meals!

Good work on the cheese, it's so totally the way! Something else I thought of tonight is pesto and puree. Tomato puree in tins is way cheaper, but you can never use the whole lot (well I can't) so I freeze these types of things in ice trays so you've got portioned amounts. (not the one you use to make ice, it'll be all red after the tomatoes!)

Also thought while I was in tesco tonight, one v important thing - buying in bulk isn't always cheaper. Lentils for instance are about 20p cheaper for 2*500g than for 1*1kg. Odd, but true.

I have the antiques roadshow on in the background. Really inspired to go bargain hunting at the carboots when I'm back from hols. Probably only buy complete rubbish, but its always a good and cheap day out!

Another thought on the savings - I used my birthday money to clear some debt, and I thought, that's sweet, my Gran just bought me those beautiful sunglasses I've had for a year! If you look at it like that, then it's not so bad.