Emma's mainly debt-related witterings (with probable tangents!)

Raini

Hello! :hello: Just about caught up with your diary & I too have been enjoying reading it. Also, very impressed with your MB - I keep thinking about trying that but not sure I really get it!

Auntyem

Oh thankyou F_F I do appreciate the encouragement. It just seems like a small amount compared to the amount left, and the amounts available to chuck at it. I love the monthly budget in your signature! :rotfl:

Hello Raini, thank you for reading. I have to say I don't really get MB either... not other than the most basic principles. I have to rely on the help guides and spreadsheets and I steer clear of anything too complicated. I get the impression most people on GIOL make a lot more money so I would definitely encourage anyone to try it.

mooomin

Auntyem wrote: »

Oh thankyou F_F I do appreciate the encouragement. It just seems like a small amount compared to the amount left, and the amounts available to chuck at it. I love the monthly budget in your signature! :rotfl:

I'm doing the Frugal Living Challenge which used to be the "Live on £4k for a year" challenge. I only joined it once it didn't have £4k in the title Click here for info. It is all about being frugal, not spending money you don't have to and setting a budget for the year. I have a budget of £8,000 for all food and bills apart from mortgage and loan payments. I am doing a £100 on clothes for the year challenge which I also keep out of the Frugal Challenge.

Have you done a SOA on here before? I know that you said that you and Uncle Henry (Well, if you're Aunty Em....!) split the money in the joint account by percentages, but if we can save you money on the household bills then that's more money for you to throw at debts

Kayleighpea

Hi AuntyEm, just had a good read through of your diary (should be working but never mind!!) & I agree with everyone else - I love the long posts!

I think it makes it so much easier for everyone to find out the position you are in & makes it easier for people to help out! I think it might be my verrrry long post at the start of my diary that has put people off though! :rotfl:

I am finding the same problem with mystery shopping that there doesn't seem to be much about at the moment. I have one booked in per week at the moment which isn't exactly going to make me a millionaire!! :rolleyes:

Auntyem

Morning Morning!

F_F I keep thinking about an SOA but I'm not sure how our arrangement would fit into it. When I put Uncle Henry's income in, it will look like we have a surplus. Or if I put in only the amount he puts into the JA then that won't work either because thats only for household bills, so it will look like we don't have enough for the minimum payments (because these are paid from my own leftover funds). And we have some debts we class as "joint" and some not... so ... erm... my head might explode LOL!!!

The thing is, I know the household bills could definitely be reduced and I would get crucified for having Sky on my SOA but thats one of OHs "Must Haves".

Hi Kayleighpea, thanks for reading. Glad I'm not the only one doing long & rambling lol, will have to check out your diary...

Well not much to report on the debtbusting front, AGAIN! Thankfully I managed to win at the exchange finally on one of my monster basket bets. So I have just been able to chip another £100 off that. That will settle later tonight and I can look for some more. Came home the other night to two very smug letters from banks re: our reclaiming letters. It wasn't a massive amount but would have helped a little.

Going to put some bits on ebay later, as I remembered to do the pictures / descriptions yesterday. I am not expecting to get much but it clears a bit of space I suppose. Hopefully will have some more inspirational ideas later!!

mooomin

Auntyem wrote: »

The thing is, I know the household bills could definitely be reduced and I would get crucified for having Sky on my SOA but thats one of OHs "Must Haves".

Then work on reducing them!! You won't get "crucified" for anything unless it's really daft - you can't meet your payments but you're paying £100 for a gym for example! I have Virgin Media on my SOA and you would have to prise my internet connection our of my cold dead hands before it came off my SOA

Use price comparison sites and see what might work for you. I just changed my power bills to online billing - saving £15 a year! I doubt I'm going to change suppliers in the near future, but £15 a year will do for a start.

You're doing well though, just keep posting and all this debt-busting will become second nature to you!

Auntyem

:o Ok F_F you have convinced me to *think* about doing an SOA type post, which will probably have lots of excuses on it . Will work on that later.

Reading your thread has also shamed me into *seriously thinking* about cleaning my oven. Thing is, DH has recently commented several times about it needing doing which means he may well be imminently about to tackle it :cool:. Is oven cleaning incompatible with DFW? As surely would need to purchase expensive cleaning stuff ? Will research in supermarket in a bit.

Feel absolutely bleuuurgh this morning. I know this is down to a rubbish diet, no exercise, not enough water, too much caffeine, yada yada yada.... I just seem incapable of doing anything about it!! I read lots of the DFW diet thread the other day with interest and also watched "my big fat diet show" avidly while eating peanuts, but can't seem to take the final step and actually stop eating utter garbage :rotfl:

Meal planning has totally gone to pot at the moment. I know I need to do a proper freezer / cupboard inventory, and then make a mealplan and shopping list from this. But what actually happens is I am knackered when I get in from work so I eat whatever is available even if it is a squillion percent fat.

I also get de-motivated when I do manage to meal plan, and for example take something out of the freezer at the weekend and make a proper meal, only for the kids to end up going to a friends house / having already been to the chippy / mysteriously disappear all day, and then I am left with way too much food and eventually, waste :mad:.

Will have to get over these obsticles though and get on with it because my clothes are starting to get dangerously tight:rotfl:

Anyway must think of some positives quickly:

• Got through large amount of ironing last night so only small basket left
• Listed a few bits on ebay last few days. No bids yet but if they don't sell they are being chucked so more space either way.
• Chipped another £100 off my never ending bet basket but still LOADs to do, will have to borrow some funds from somewhere for that later as I keep winning at the blimmin bookie.
• Went through my survey sites and requested a few small payments yesterday so should be able to shove a little bit more over to Cahoot before the end of the month.

Right off to firefight a bit more of my overflowing inbox, I expect I shall be back to waffle a bit more later on :rolleyes:

Have a good day everyone x

mooomin

Auntyem wrote: »

Is oven cleaning incompatible with DFW? As surely would need to purchase expensive cleaning stuff ? Will research in supermarket in a bit.

According to someone on my frugal challenge, it can be done with biological washing powder!

Auntyem

LOL! Something else I am running low on

RIGHT! I have decided, the diet starts tomorrow! :eek:

I will be doing the GI diet which I have done before, I know I can do it as I lost about 10lbs last time (over a year ago). All of that is back on now and I cannot afford to put on any more as it would mean buying new clothes!
GI is low fat, low sugar, and encourages complex carbs which are supposed to make you fuller for longer. It also has some very random rules eg no bananas, which I will be ignoring, as I have to force myself to eat fruit anyway so I am not going to start banning the most appealing ones . I will try and be fairly strict in the week because its easier when it's just me and DH (he will just need to eat what I make :rotfl:). At the weekend I will just try to maintain the "no junk" rule, but not worry too much about the intricacies of the diet, and just make sure I make a proper main meal. Otherwise there will be too much faffing making separate meals when the kids are with us.

So tonight I have:

• Filled up with petrol (budgeted)
• Done a very very small top up shop - enough fruit for tomorrow, wholegrain bread, eggs, and some aero bubbles which I must eat before midnight

And I still need to:

• Do a freezer / cupboard list and meal plan
• Do a shopping list
• Find tesco security code to view clubcard credit card online and work out how much of grocery budget is remaining for month.
• Either do online shop or decide when to go to supermarket. Stay in budget.
• Get weighed and possibly take measurements :eek:
• Do another £50 of bet basket
• Scratchards
• Finish ironing
• Early night so that I can get up early enough to have breakfast before leaving. This will be a struggle as I hate getting up and I am not fond of eating first thing in the morning, so not a great combination :rotfl:.

Auntyem

• [STRIKE]Do a freezer / cupboard list and meal plan [/STRIKE] Done
• [STRIKE]Do a shopping list[/STRIKE] Done
• [STRIKE]Find tesco security code to view clubcard credit card online and work out how much of grocery budget is remaining for month.[/STRIKE] Done, £90 out of £200 budget remaining.
• [STRIKE]Either do online shop or decide when to go to supermarket. Stay in budget. [/STRIKE] Done :j Being delivered tomorrow night. £66 but should get £10 off if they accept code and another £7ish off on multibuys.
• [STRIKE]Get weighed and possibly take measurements :eek: [/STRIKE] Done, weight stamped in wii fit. Not got the heart to measure thighs etc though!
• [STRIKE]Do another £50 of bet basket[/STRIKE] Done, managed to get £85 on due to the odds. Need to check result
• [STRIKE]Scratchards [/STRIKE] Done, 45p
• Finish ironing - Ran out of time, will have to do tomorrow
• [STRIKE]Early night so that I can get up early enough to have breakfast before leaving. This will be a struggle as I hate getting up and I am not fond of eating first thing in the morning, so not a great combination :rotfl:. [/STRIKE] Will deffo do this!