2011 Make or break time

the_harrys

P and F -I haven't tackled this yet- my parents are out of the country at the moment. Need to pluck up courage when they get back as the next expensive "event" is April :eek:.

the_harrys

M-I-T- glad you found a £2 reward for defrosting the freezer! Are you planning to do a big re-stock for Feb? It's one of the jobs I need to do as I only bought a compact chest freezer in December (part of the huge Dec spend) to fit all the Xmas food in but now it looks really sad so need to do some batch cooking.

My freezer does have a beautiful whole wild salmon in that my father caught up on your side of the border, but it is too long to fit in properly so sticks up diagonally and gets in the way of everything. But it definitely needs a special occasion to use it- would be a waste otherwise. I do buy farmed salmon but the difference between wild and farmed is unbelievable- there's none of that white fat in the meat of the wild stuff.

Need to do a meal plan as I'm getting food shopping/ cooking withdrawal symptoms...

millionaire_in_training

Apparently you can catch salmon in our local river. I am a philistine though and am not fussed on it. I would love to like it as I could get it easily. My brother's friend is into outdoor, manly pursuits and can get his hands on all these things very reasonably. Knows the local game keepers etc. My brother went with him one time on a deer culling trip by helicopter. My bro was taking the photographs and it looked superb. Could have got a deer then but I like to pretend that the animals I eat die of natural causes :rotfl:. I only have an under counter freezer and would love to have the space for a chest freezer.I had one in my last house and it was great for having lots of 'stuff' in. I shopped today and 2 drawers have been filled. I will do a quick trip to butchers and freezer shop next week and stock up on veggies ( although prefer fresh ones) and meat and that will see me through for another coupe of weeks. :eek::eek: @ 6 weekends in January.

the_harrys

I'm so envious- how can you say no to all that free wild food? But even for me the venison would need to come in steaks or diced rather than an actual deer .

Our own eggs are as far as we go- I should work out the cost per egg- (feed is £10 a bag but the trouble is that we are also feeding half the wild bird population, including crows, as they steal the hen's food) but I don't think it's much cheaper than buying them. The DDs love the hens though.

It's a gorgeous day here and I'm cooking roast beef later- but it's sort of money saving as we turned down lunch out today and that would have been £60+ for the 5 of us and the roast beef joint was only £10 and will do the kids lunches tomorrow. Though admittedly that kind of logic has probably helped get us in the situation we're in now...

millionaire_in_training

You're being a wee bit harsh on yourself there :rotfl:. In the past you would probably have said 'hang the expense let's go out' and that's the logic that has brought us all here. Living for today without thinking of tomorrow. When I split with my husband I initially had lots of debt but as soon as he messed up with the maintenance I gave all the creditors his name and address and stopped the standing orders and passed the majority over to him ( his gambling had been the root cause of them so I felt no guilt) this meant I was debt free, or more or less, and I have crazily run up debts trying to substitute the loss of their dad to the kids. That worked.....not :rotfl:. They have to suffer now whilst I pay it back. Oh well they seem fine with it all and even try and help. I must have done something right along the way . Enjoy your roast beef. We are having chicken

the_harrys

It's great that your kids are on board with your debt-busting and sounds like you did exactly the right thing with your ex-OH. Must have been a very tough time for you but it sounds like you're well on the way now.

Not a great day for me spending-wise -I had to buy a swimming costume for DD2 today (12.00 pounds) as her old one has become weirdly transparent and baggy and she has swimming club tomorrow.

I'm trying to eek out my last drops of petrol to avoid spending another 25.00 pounds until I absolutely have to but it's a bit like playing Russian roulette- I have a car computer thingy which tells me how many miles worth of fuel I have left but it gets really inaccurate and goes from "30 miles fuel left" to "0 miles left" in anything from 10-40 miles so can be a high risk strategy as I am in quite a rural area. I've only run out of fuel once so far.

Now I've been paid I need to look at my snowball and work out how much extra I can pay on top of my minimum payments but too tired tonight- off to bed now.

the_harrys

Now for February's plan:

Debt payments- I've made all my CC payments for Feb and my debt is under the 40K mark now, but this is mainly due to some old work expenses I hadn't claimed so I won't be able to pay off so much in future months.

Budget-I've set myself a goal of keeping to £350 for groceries and £150 for petrol this month. That is for 4.5 of us so quite a challenge, especially as my DS is very fussy about his food and his preference is pizza or steak! The Xmas stockpile has run out now so this will be our first "normal" month.
In theory I should still have £150 left if I stick exactly to the budget which I am going to put towards our Summer holiday fund.

pennywisepoundstupid

HI the_harrys, just read your diary and wanted to say that i think your doing really well, it must be really hard working in a stressful job and worrying about your husbands job as well.

Don't forget to ebay any bits and pieces that the children have outgrown, also wii/ds games sell pretty well.

will keep popping in and catching up, goodluck.

millionaire_in_training

Oh I do love a nice plan. That's amazing inroads you have made to your totals. Well done. That'll be good if you can start the holiday fund as then you won't feel so guilty when you need to spend and it will mean all the more as you have saved for it rather than stick it on a card.

the_harrys

Thanks for the tip PWPS, I have sold stuff on e-bay but not for a long time, so I must have a hunt round to see what I can list. I know we have quite a few games which the kids don't play with but not so good for clothes as I have tended to pass them on or give them to the charity shop. I will have another look just in case.

I feel much more in control now I have my plan MIT- but I think it will be hard. DD1 came home tonight with details of a ski trip for next year which of course "all her friends are going" - it is £1350!! I don't know how a school (a normal state school) can justify even trying to plan such an expensive trip and expect parents to pay so much, especially in this economic climate. I felt mean saying no, but I did try to explain that it is too much money for us this year. Trouble is DS1 is already booked to go on a (much much cheaper) ski trip this year so it seems unfair to DD.
I wonder what the record for most expensive school trip is?- I'm sure this must come close and pretty much represents the budget for our whole family holiday this year. I can't complain as we did have some amazing trips last year- trouble is I will still be paying for them next year :rotfl: