The Ultimate Incentive to get debt free… again. Dinah & NIM go head to head!

wendz86

Flower - i must admit that babies clothes do take up a lot of room haha.

WE have just booked our little getaway to the lake district in August. My Mum has just booked a cottage, is me, my OH, Poppy, my mum and possibly my sister going up. Hopefully we will get to see the family while we are up there. Will be nice to have a little holiday even if it isn't abroad this week.

Cinny91

Morning! Last day working full time, I think I'll miss it. Not for the money, but I just enjoy being there for everything. Oh well!

Wendz, that holiday sounds good. Though I hope you meant year, not week :eek: We're off to Somerset next Friday with my Parents, quite excited!

Did our food shop yesterday, hit a new all time low I think. In a good way. £23.07 :j That's with meat for 4 meals, 3 packs of decent sandwich meat for OH, lots of fruit and veg and a couple things bought for our stockpile plus the typical. We've got a £35pw budget next month, I think we'll manage fine!

How did you get on with your list Dinah?

Birdie85

Good lord, how do you get your shopping bill so low? We spend that on top-ups!

The holidays sound lovely... I've got to wait another 4 months for mine! I am planning on a night in Filey in July though...

I think I need to read cheerier books before bed, I'm reading So Much For That, which is really good so far but I dreamt that my SIL was dying of the same disease as the lady in the book and I woke up really confused and upset!

N.I.M

I'm aware of households of 4 who spend about £15 on their weekly shopping, possibly another 5 on topups. Equally I'm aware of familys who spend over £1000 on food shopping in a week. Some of the numers I've seen scare me.

In unrelated news, I got Bare to pay me for my jewellery visit so YEY

How is everyone else in the world of MSE this wonderful morning?

Cinny91

I think it's just knowing your stores. I can park in my old town, and walk to Aldi, Asda and Morrisons. Aldi is the best money saver, £2.42 for 1kg of mince beef which we split into 4 meals. The same would be about £4 in Asda. Plus, you can trace all the fresh meat from Aldi back to British farms. Free range eggs are 89p for 6, 4ltrs of milk for £1 and their veg is the cheapest. Even more so if you make use of the supersix. Sandwich meats are between 89-99p a pack, and no different too the £2 packs from Asda (bar Aldi's having a longer shelf life) I think we could easily get down to £10 a week if we made some major changes. If we were to stop eating meat and switch our few 'luxury' brands (Namely Nescafe, Cola and damn Catherdral City!) to basics. But you've gotta have something! And I think OH would just curl up and let the Reaper take him if I was to say 'no more meat'

That's the reason I only typically read trashy books, Birdie! When I read Room I had nightmares OH locked me away in a room, was really annoyed with him the following morning. I did have a cute kid with superlong hair though I read The sweetest thing last week, that one gave me nice dreams!

Tete_en_l'Air

Sounds like good money news all round! I'm paying out £75 for new brake pads and disc but hey ho it could have been worse and at least it was payday yesterday! Day One of my five-day weekend, what to do?!

Birdie85

That's not too bad Tete, I always worry that I'm going to get a massive bill whenever something goes wrong on my car! Mine is making a funny clunking noise at the back, I took it in to get looked at a few months ago and they did something to the exhaust for £70 which made no difference and I'm scared to go back for fear of getting an even bigger bill!

I wish we had an Aldi or Lidl closer to us, would make life a lot easier and cheaper! We like Cathedral City too but we try to only buy it when its on offer! The Lake District Cheese Co is lovely too, proper moreish!

Good news about the money from Bare NIM, was that for the bracelet?

Jealous of your 5 day weekend Tete! I've got next Friday off so I'm trying to console myself that I've only got 3 days to work next week!

Flower08

Cinny91 wrote: »

Did our food shop yesterday, hit a new all time low I think. In a good way. £23.07 :j

Wow! I need some tips on meal ideas for that price!
I always thought Asda was the cheapest, but everytime we go in there I notice prices of things we regularly buy creeping up.
May need to take a trip to Aldi.

Dinah93

Did my reply earlier not post or am I just blind? Replied to Cinny and did the 5 things list? Kind of hoping for blind!

Busy day at work today, only 2 out of 6 officers in, and when I say 2, 1 isn't in yet despite having a 10am meeting who have obviously been waiting for half an hour.

Cinny91

Tete_en_l'Air wrote: »

I'm paying out £75 for new brake pads and disc but hey ho it could have been worse and at least it was payday yesterday!

That's not that bad at all. Makes me nervy thinking of unexpected car bills, I would not have that money spare for a car repair

My long weekends normally = Housework, food shopping, begging OH for Percy, sleeping in, baking and reading. So unless you want to pick one of them, I'm useless for suggestions. Though it would be helpful if someone else got on at OH for me to have Percy. I just love his little chubby cheeks! (Percy that is, not Rich)

We just do kind of basic meals, Flower! I've mentally earmarked the mince for chilli, burritos, curry and sloppy joes. Serve them with either veggie rice, salad or HM wedges (have a killer recipe for these if anyone's interested!) We also have carbonara weekly, and lots of meat in the freezer so we can just pick what we fancy. Breakfasts are either porridge, toast, cereal and one Big Breakfast a week on the morning me and OH have off together. Dinners are sandwiches (meat for OH, jam for me!) with lots of fruit and homemade goodies.