My start to getting out of debt

scottishspendaholic

Hi lynseydee,

Welcome to MSE!

People have covered a lot of things for you already. However, I just wanted to ask if there was any scope to earn any extra income? Could you take a second job, for example or sell stuff on eBay/Amazon etc as Lynz suggested? I am about to take a second job for every second weekend (I already work full time Mon-Fri 9am-5pm) and I have mixed feelings about it. I am scared I will be a right grumpy mare but can't turn down the opportunity at the moment. I will see how it goes for the summer.

Its me and my OH at home and we spend £160 a month (not 4 weekly, those three days seem to count!) on food/toiletries/cleaning stuff etc - this is still quite a lot it seems. Check out the Old Style board for ideas on how to cut down your food spend - do you cook from scratch? If so, get into batch cooking where you cook lots when you can and freeze it. You could also consider getting a bread maker and/or slow cooker as these will also help cut down your food spending. Also, do you have a garden? I've not really ventured into this this year, but maybe you could grow veg/fruit/herbs - maybe a bit late for this year though? The bonus is that by spending less on food, you actually end up being much healthier!

Keep us updated with your progress!

scottishspendaholic x

newleaf

lynseydee wrote:

Newleaf, my mobile is a PAYG.

Do you use 100 minutes a month and all your texts? They are not free minutes if you don't use them. I don't spend anywhere near £10 a month on my mobile, which I have for the same reasons as you ( and occasional overeas use). This isn't a criticism by the way, just an observation and a possibility for you to save a few quid.
http://www.tescomobile.com/simCards.aspx

iluvfreebies

Hi there
dont really have anything else to add as the experts have done so well already - just wanted to say well done you are heading in the right direction - all the best xx

*Sparkle*_3

Another way to check if you shop at tesco is there is a little star on the recipt next to everything thats VATed, they are classed by the government as luxury items. I used to have pretty much everything starred on my old recipts, but ony have the odd crisps/ pack of biscuits starred on my recipt now

I always wondered what the stars meant!! thanks i think i have too many stars on my shopping list i'd better cut down..:o

lynseydee

The reason I changed to the O2 one is that I used to spend more than £10.00 a month topping up. At least this way I know I don't have to put anymore than £10.00 on which is what I used to try and budget myself to before but it didn't work.

I could try doing the batch cooking I suppose. The things is hubby is a bit fussy when it comes to his food so I like to try and keep a bit of variety in the freezer etc to make sure he at least eats something a bit decent than he would do anyway. We do try not to do takeaways too often and we make our own curries (even if it is out of a jar). I am going to try to be really good about the shopping and when we get paid in 2 weeks time try to cut down the shopping bill a bit every month and see what we can save. I will even suggest to hubby about using it to pay off something off towards the loan as it is flexible.

halloweenqueen_2

I have talk talk at home so we have their mobile which we pay £10 a month for but all calls to our home phone and from our home phone to the mobile are free for up to 3 hours at a time, the coverage seems good as well.

**purpleprincess**

Hey lynseydee!!! Good one on posting hun!! Think everyone has just about covered it now, but DO look on the Old Style board for tips on getting your grocery shopping down. And they are lovely over there!!!

Good luck xx

calleyw

£300 food for two people a month :eek:

I spend a approx £100 a month just on food and nothing else.

DVD's and clothes should be coming out of different budgets and not the food.

You have nothing in your budget for Clothes, Hair cuts, Presents holidays etc. Do you not just buy the above or is that all lumped in with the £300.

I cook a wide variety of meals from spag bog to sunday lunches. And the £100 includes packed lunches for work.

You could easily cut £150 from that budget and still spend approx £150 on food.

How much food are you throwing away with spending all that money? You can't afford to be spending that sort of money of food etc.

Meal planning really helps. What I would do is go to the cupboards, fridge and freezer and make a list of all the items. If you have a lot of food in you will find that you can probably forgo a big shop in a fortnight at pay day and just buy some infill items like bread and milk and fresh fruit.

Yours


Calley

lynseydee

Clothes we usually take in turns if we see something we like in Tescos then we buy it although it's not every month. Haircuts we get done every other month and that comes out of the £300.00 and we even usually buy presents out of it, even christmas presents for the family. I guess a lot of things we buy food wise is probably crap especially things that seem like a good idea at the time. A lot of stuff doesn't tend to get thrown away too much as we tend to buy a lot of frozen.

I did a car boot today with a friend, took a few Avon bits from when I was a rep and also some plants which were actually cuttings from plants that I was given. After paying out the pitch money I ended up with making £1.00. I would have been happy to make just £10.00 to go towards something. I think everyone who was selling found they weren't really making anything so at least it wasn't just me.

lynseydee

Not meaning to sound stupid or anything but everyone keeps referring to the old style board. Where can I find this?