A Budgeteers Quest to be Debt Free & Mortgage Free By 40

jwil

Nowt wrong with beans on toast, except I normally have cheese too

Do share your meal planning advice, I don't really do it, but am interested to hear anyway as I might give it a go

DedicatedDFW

jwil - i've a bit of a big day tomorrow so promise to share all by the end of the weekend - if you're still here i'm just about to PM you - its just about something ok rather than something fab etc.

jwil

Sounds good I'm off to bed now so catch you tomorrow, night night!

ebayqueen_2

Morning DDFW

How are you today. Hope all has went well for you these last few days.:)

DedicatedDFW

ebayqueen wrote: »

Morning DDFW

How are you today. Hope all has went well for you these last few days.:)

Hi ebayqueen - i am feeling a bit more myself today thank you How are you? I guess you are aware of the free listing this weekend too

Well i managed to just make it to the post office yesterday before closing *phew* Sent off my claim for non-received eb*y item i sold so hoping that goes through fine as it will mean £10 odd-pence back to me Posted off something else - hope that gets there ok as will = £20 amaz*n voucher for me Also posted 3 eb*y parcels approx £30+ profit :T So thats all good hopefully!

And then... got home and 2 people had paid for things - typical :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: - 1 i didn't think was going to pay so i'm glad thats all sorted out now Also got some bits ending today and tomorrow - a few have watcher *hope* they bid And a couple of things ending in a couple of days will sell :T Only small value things but they will be gone and a bit of money in

Later i will be doing some very hefty re-lists - i currently have over 100 items unsold :eek: So will re-list all higher value items first and then see where i'm up to *might* list some new bits on tomorrow. (some of the unsold stuff will be 99p and some i am thinking of seeing if someone else will buy).

Hope everyone has a good weekend x

jwil

Well done on the sales and getting it all posted. :T

Yay for £20 amazon vouchers too :j

Have a good evening

brizzledfw

DDFW..you've been really busy. Well done hon. Loved the story about the pasty....think I need to think more like that. I have small successes but could do with a few more!

I am sorry it's all getting you down, but just think of those debts you are busting!! :T keep on going! Agree with you..meal planning is a really key way of cutting down on the costs. Its making a real difference here in Brizzle anyway and I don't think we have ' suffered' so to speak..hardly think we have noticed. Still managed to have our organic stuff delivered too..so a lesson there from the totals this month.

Good luck with the listing. Hope the resisted stuff sells... And more tales from the Post Officeplease!!:rotfl:

DedicatedDFW

Shameless copy of an earlier post i did about meal planning

I actually cracked this for the first time ever this year and all is going well so far :T And the huge bonus is it has made both deciding meals and shopping so much easier :T:T

If anyones interested the way i finally did it was: -

I have had a freezer of doom - it was so crammed full neither me or my Mr wanted to venture inside :eek: I finally decided enough was enough and took all the drawers out and reorganised it all :A But as i did i actually wrote an inventory of what was in there so i knew where to find what i needed. e.g Drawer 1: stewing steak, roast chicken, joint of chicken etc. Once i'd done this i thoought i might as well work out meals (for as long as possible) with the food we have :T So wrote out the days and went through the list of food putting a mark at the side of each one as it was allocated to a days meal :cool: I also went through my tinned, jars and packets of food - as we'll often have something like a tuna pasta etc. that doesn't involve freezer stuff apart from the fact that i make enough to freeze some portions too

Now when i need to cook something i check my planner - lift out the appropriate item which is easy to locate and cross it off the list of food. Before i do my weekly shop i check my meal planner and see what we're eating and if i need to buy anything e.g got beef for stew but need to buy veg (fresh) and dumplings My meal planner lasts until about April :j:j:j (yes, i've got that much food in) but if i see something on offer - such as some salmon yesterday which was about half price and i've got a sauce mix that needs to be used i just buy it and add it on to the list of where it is in the drawer and if it needs to be allocated to a day for a meal.

*phew* - i've possibly made that sound really complicated but it was only the sorting out of the freezer in the first place that was *mildly* hard work and this has made shopping so much easier and cheaper as i know what i *need*

I also find it easy to swap meal days around if need be - e.g if on friday i know i'm going to be late back and the meal takes a bit of time to do i can easily swop that day with another quicker meal

Anyways hope this helps and maked a bit of sense to some people. I bet there are other ways of doing it but someone else did agree with me that definitely the first step is the stock take

DedicatedDFW

jwil wrote: »

Well done on the sales and getting it all posted. :T

Yay for £20 amazon vouchers too :j

Have a good evening

Thanks hon hope i do get the £20 - it took me ages to do! It was for a survey place so wasn't something i could direct everyone too as you'd either get it or not i guess.

ebayqueen_2

Morning DDFW

You certainly have your meal planning down to an art. I need to do the same thing so thank you for your tips. How is your ebay going. I have done nothing over the weekend as I have guests staying and a family get together today. Have just sat down for a few mins and then I am on my feet all day. 12 for dinner this evening.

Heard some bad news yesterday about the sudden death of the mother of one of my sons school friends. Puts life into perspective. What really matters are the people you love.

Take care DDFW