Mrs Sparkle's sparkly debt diary

Mrs_Sparkle

I did a huge shop today- £78 in Tesco and £22 in the local butcher but I think I shopped pretty sensibly. Not a single sweet thing in the trolley- not that we need it as we have enough chocolate, stollen, Christmas cake and pudding in the cupboards to sink a battleship. Plenty of fruit and vegetables and lots of tins of tuna, tomatoes and baked beans for all those lovely cheap meals I plan to make. The only treat was 3 bottles of wine- the £2.98 Tesco's own brand mind.

I also climbed back onto the wagon of using cloth nappies- I stopped while we were moving house- had quite enough to do without washing nappies. Tesco's own brand of nappies is about 12p a nappy so using just one a day (his overnight one) is so much better than using 4 or 5.

I went for a run this evening too...time to get this figure back as I have a holiday coming up and 2 great bikinis but a rubbish waistline

Mrs_Sparkle

Tomorrow night hubby and I are staying in because we're good DFWs and I have a nice little dilemma to end the year with. I'd already bought some champagne for the festive season and of course I went for the £5.99 stuff which tastes fine to me. I then got given a bottle at work and it's a £28 Laurent Perrier. Then hubby came home with a bottle also from work and I looked up the price of it... £89.99 :eek: So which do I crack open tomorrow evening and what on earth do I do with the 90 quid one? I wonder if it would sell on eBay :huh:

Oh, and hubby doesn't drink champagne. Anyone wanna share a bottle with me?

southernscouser

You're not sending any ships on their maiden voyage in the near future are you?

If so use the cheap one for that. What a waste! :rotfl:

chocaholic110

Sorry to bring you down with a bump when you're talking about champagne but what kind of cloth nappies do you use? I was thinking of trying them but I'm bewildered by choice!?!

And on the champage - I'd drink the cheap one and try to find someway to sell the £90 one.

spud30

£90 for one bottle - I'd want a flippin vineyard for that price :eek:

I'd flog it if at all possible

I'm happy to share the cheapo bottle with you Mrs S - I have some creme de cassis here, wich goes lovely in champagne :beer:

Mrs_Sparkle

spud30 wrote: »

£90 for one bottle - I'd want a flippin vineyard for that price :eek:

I'd flog it if at all possible

I'm happy to share the cheapo bottle with you Mrs S - I have some creme de cassis here, wich goes lovely in champagne :beer:

Oooh isn't that a Kir Royale? I like those... yep, you're invited to share (I have 2 cheapies actually so plenty to go round!)

spud30

Mrs_Sparkle wrote: »

Oooh isn't that a Kir Royale? I like those... yep, you're invited to share (I have 2 cheapies actually so plenty to go round!)

Yep, thats the one - I'll bring the cassis then :beer:

Mrs_Sparkle

chocaholic110 wrote: »

Sorry to bring you down with a bump when you're talking about champagne but what kind of cloth nappies do you use? I was thinking of trying them but I'm bewildered by choice!?!

I know, there are so many aren't there? First check if your council do a grant towards them- ours give you £50 to spend

I'm a lazy mare so I can't be bothered with the flat nappies that you have to do origami with. I use the shaped nappies which velcro at the front exactly like disposables so they're very easy.

My absolute favourites are Tots Bots bamboozles as they're really soft, come in gorgeous colours and they have the booster built in- dead easy. They dry really soft and are absorbant.

Next favourite are Imse Vimse ones as they're really absorbant- not as cute to look at but super absorbant and also value for money as you can expand them using the poppers to fit bigger babies.

I have a couple of Little Lambs which are nice and absorbant but don't dry as soft as the bamboozles.

Finally I have some Green Baby ones which I bought just because they're really cute with farmyard animals on them. They are very slim fitting and fast-drying but not as absorbant as bigger nappies. They're handy for times when you just need a nappy for an hour or 2 before they go to bed.

I always, always, always use Motherease Rikki wraps. I've tried others but
the Rikkis are bomb-proof and never leak.

The best way to try clothies is to buy a few secondhand ones and see how you get on with them- then sell on the ones you don't want and keep the ones you like. The best place for this used to be eBay but they've banned 2nd hand clothies- boo, hiss- so best to join a baby forum and look out for mums selling theirs. I use the Baby Talk board on hitched.co.uk

Hope that helps a little? They're honestly no bother at all to use and I'd recommend it to anyone. Let me know if you need any more info.

Mrs_Sparkle

Cheers everyone, we opened the £28 bottle of Laurent Perrier in the end and it's lovely! Hope everyone is having a brilliant DFW NYE. A few years ago I'd have been at some decadent party somewhere trendy but tonight I'm at home making a big pot of chicken stock and some baby food for the freezer- how things change eh :rotfl:

Mrs_Sparkle

Just doing some serious thinking about how I'm going to clear this debt this year. Currently standing at £8,318 (all on mbna card), this would be £693.17 a month- can't see that my quidco clicks are going to pay that much :rolleyes:

Still, every little helps so my targets for this week are:

• Start EagerLearner's daily clicks programme
• Renew car insurance through quidco
• Meal plan
• Go for a run 3x (will help me to fit into my "thin" wardrobe so saving money!)
• Use cloth nappies at the weekend