£5000 by hook or by crook

ILGPink

Well savings still stand at £1290 at we've got a mega tight month and awaiting tax credits

Got 2get a few food bits in for DD's meals but me and OH are living on whats in the house so we can stay out of the OD and hopefully get everything back on track in this house. Going to be a few odd meals this month me thinks!!! lol

OH got me a massive 6.5l slow cooker for xmas so am going to be making meals cheap meals with that. have been shocked by how much leci we save not using the cooker; honestly it saves loads nd is so handy.

Anyway hope everyone is doing ok and managing to save save save! lol

TTFN
x

keelni

I have a slow cooker too but hardly ever use it so if you find any good recipes please share.
On the savings front we are holding on to the £900 for dear life but it's hard, ~Had a few repairs to do to the house because of damage cauused by the snow but hopefully once the credit cards paid we can get back on track for next month.

GentlyEccentricMum

Do try googling "Slow cooked in Blighty". Loads of good recipes there!

ILGPink

most of them are completly made up of what ever i have lying around veg stock cube any meat ect.

However I have also used jars of curry; put peppers onions whatever veg u want at the bottom brown meat and add on top of veg (veg cooks slower than meat so needs to be in the bottom) bung in the jar nd leave it on low for about 6-8 hours.

sausage cass is another easy1 throw in loads of veg again brown the meat add ontop, add passatt some stock, chilli powder nd herbs leave to cook 6-8hrs.

u could also do bacon with tats. slice the tats (like crisps not as thin 1/2inch thickness) layer them all along the bottom add chopped onion on top, fry the bacon add ontop, add water to the pan u used 2fry get all the juice nd bacon fat taste off the pan. use this as a stock base along with veg cube throw in some frozen peas/saweetcorn cook on low again 6-8hrs.

Also cooked jacket tats in slow cooker. cover in foil place in cooker on low about 8hrs.

infact any stews, currys, spag bol, chilli u make normally can be done in the slow cooker just use less liquid as u normaly would about 1/3 less and make sure to put root veg/tats in bottom nd meat on top any soft veg mushrooms courgett ect they reccomend adding 1hr b4 the end. but in all honesty many a time i have put them in ontop of meat at start and they are fine. oh also important thing is dont lift the cover during the cooking process, each time u lift lid adds 20mins 2cooking time apparantly. Only learnt this recently

got a few recipes for sticky ribs ect but havent done em yet so will let u know how I get on.

thank you GentlyEccentricMum not heard of that one b4 so shall go nosy

well very shattered 2night after another day bk in work so shall say TTFN x

ILGPink

Quick update - Still watching all the pennies and making sure we are not spending hardly anything on food.

Have calculated that we have £17 :eek::eek: to last till the 28th of the month so massive fingers-x we manage this. (this is after all bills have come out)

Keep telling ourself that its just this month we need to tightn our belts, well in truth more like we are having 2wear a corset 3size 2small!!! . Then we will b back on track with the a/c and we can then focus on save save save

ILGPink

well we are going to go over the £17 budget by about £20 not ideal but not a stupid amount either so all in all feeling rather pleased with us for managing this month.

we have basically managed to clear a £600 OD that we ran up between one thing and another. Mostly helped by me having a final fulltime wage end of last month (due to taking owing annual leave). Anyhow this now means that we are in the green and can focus on the savings side of things again.

we are both however rather dissgusted when we realise how much we could have been saving when i was working fulltime before DD arrived . will try and not focus to much on it tho and just focus on the here and now.

Anyhow rather sleepy now so will say TTFN for now

Hope your keeping ok Keelni and that you are also managing to keep hold of them pennies xx :money:

ILGPink

well have not managed to put anymore money into savings pot; but we have managed to get out of the OD we had managed to run up (so ashamed that we had let things slip that much, but hey ho). So eventho we havent put money in the pot we had saved £600 last month!!!!!!! :j:j:j:j

We still can't believe that we managed it. It has got to be one of the hardest months weve had knowing that we had to just use what was here 2eat and only buy food the baby needed (whatever the financial situation in this house she will ALWAYS have what she needs!!!!!!!!!!). We were lucky that I'd had my last full time wage (my outstanding annual leave entitlement from 2010).

Sooooo we are now starting our new little routine of mummy back in work (PT) and save save save on an even playing field.

Weve already had plenty of good news 2help with the budget and savings. Had our leci bill and as the usage has been lower than anticipated (the energy monitor has its uses after all!!! lol) so the monthly DD has gone down by £3 (every little counts now!); our water usage has also been lower so that has gone down by £7.50. Not a massive saving but still £10.50 which over the year is £126:eek:

Well thats all the news I have at the moment.

Keelni hope you are ok, not heard from you in a while now. Hope you have had all the repairs done and still have a few pennies left x.

TTFN xx

Barros

Well done ILG Pink!

Don't fret, January is always a tough month - and that is it over for another month!

I've managed to save a decent amount this month but its still another 2 weeks until payday and I have about £18 ish to last me. I am planning on reading this weekend so I stay in and hopefully have a few NSD's as I cant remember the last time i had one !! LOL

I think i may need to change the way I save - what do you think?

Say I earn £1000 a month and my expenses are £300. So I'm left with £700 obv for the month. I would put away say £620 and only leave £80 for the month for food etc. Then if i see something or need to go over budget, id need to withdraw from the £620 saved and feel a bit down-hearted.

I'm worried though that if i were to save say £500 and leave me with £200 then id fritter it away on crap, rather than lifting more than i need and putting the extra pennies in a jar. What do you think?!

sorry for the long e-mail lol! i know if i asked my mum she'd say to save less and live more as i would still be saving a good amount but i feel under pressure to save save save

keelni

Hi Barros welcome, Congratulations on your excellent savings so far. I'm hopeless at savings so I'm not really the best person to be advising though your first idea of putting your savings away at the beginning of the month seems sensible once the moneys in the savings account you'll be less likely to want to spend it.
Hi ILGPink glad to see you are well I'm feeling really disheartened at the moment it seems the harder I try to save the more things cost. Managed to do all the repairs but now the garage roof needs replacing.
I'm not sure how much we have at the moment will have to do some sums but I know it's not going to be good.

ILGPink

welcome abored barrows and a big whoop whoop 4ur savings so far :j
im with keelni in the sense i havent managed to put much in my actual savings pot in months.

however in a past life b4 the mortgage and DD i use to give my self a set pocket money. no matter how much i earned i would still only give my self the same set amount. this would need to pay 4 my mobile haircuts makeup ect. there is no right or wrong way 2do this hun; its very much what your comfortable with x

know what you mean Keelni been feeling/thinking the same thing for months now. have now come 2the conclusion the nicer you are the harder you work the more you get shitted on from a great hight.

dont think we will manage to add much more 2the savings pot again this month what with the food, petrol and basically everything else we have 2buy going up and up but our wages being on freeze. DD is also 1nxt month so we are trying 2arrange a party; whihc wont b cheap but I wz so ill during labour nd dont remember the days after she was born i wanna make the most of this milestone.

right well im off 2bed. its actually taken me 3attempts 2get this reply up each time ive finished and clicked post its wiped it all away :mad:

TTFN 4now guys. let me know how u are both getting along xx