5 year plan for debt and mortgage freedom

Deeperblue

Jan 27

Hi Rachel :wave: nice to have company over here!

I'm by no means an expert on grocery shopping but I have learned soooo much from the old style board and my mum over the past few months that I'm getting more into the swing of things and it's really satisfying when you can knock-up excellent meals for next to nothing I should also add that I'm not a fancy cook and don't really have much time to dedicate to cooking, plus I never bake so most of my recipes consist of 'Throw all this in a pan and cook it till it's done'.

I'm loving my slow cooker at the moment that mum got me for £12. She says (dunno if its true) that it uses the same energy as an energy saving bulb so with me being on economy 7 I can put it on over night and it probably costs me a few pennys. Plus the food comes out -amazing-.

I've done my first food shop with this months pay and got:

Baby stuff:
Nappies £5 - For 68 ASDAs littleones (I think) range. Great deal in their baby and toddler event on at the moment.
Wipes £5 - For 6x68 packs of Johnsons.

Food:
Kelloges Cornflakes 750g.............£2.00
ASDA Spaghetti 1kg.......................99p
ASDA Penne pasta 1kg....................96p
Bisto Gravy 360g.......................£1.00 (part of a 2 for £2 offer, mum had the other)
Bread Loaf................................£1.20
4x Bagels.....................................32p (Reduced as best before tomorrow, but I find they last ages)
12 Free Ranged Eggs...................£2.00
Bag of 7 braeburn apples.............£1.00
Pack of 5 Sweet Peppers..............£1.35
Fruit Cake.....................................52p (Reduced, about 5 portions worth)
6x Potato cakes.............................34p (Reduced, will probably have them for breakfast tomorrow)
ASDAs sliced ham 400g...............£1.18 (Reduced for about £3, will make some pasta bakes with it tomorrow and freeze it)
Cathedral City Chedder 400g.........£2.00 (on offer)
Chocolates....................................50p (Reduced as they are little individually wrapped christmas themed ones. Little one will love 'em as deserts)
Chilli Powder.................................86p (Needed to stock up but this should last me a couple of months)
Thyme.........................................48p (Should last a month or so)
4x yoghurts..................................77p (reduced as best before tomorrow, but hey, yoghurts are full of bacteria anyway, right? How much worse could they get? *lol*)
Carrots 2kg (I think)......................76p
Olive spread.............................£1.25
Dow Egberts coffee....................£2.00 (reduced from about £3, hubbies little indulgence but he knows it has to last him a month)
10x Tinned Plum Tomatoes..........£3.10 total
2x Tin Mixed Beans....................£1.08 total
Frozen Peas 500g (I think)..............76p
Beef mince 1kg.........................£4.00

+
Free ranged Chicken Legs...........£1.66 (will need to get these from somewhere else)

Household:
Matches.......................................53p

Total - Food: £30.95 After 10% discount £29.52
Household: £0.53
Baby: £10

So those nappies and baby wipes should last me the month since she's at nursery 2 days who have a good months supply and I have 20 odd left at the moment. So that leaves me £25/week for food.

Bit over budget already then, especially as I'll probably need £10's worth of milk during the week! :rotfl:Oh well, I've at least stocked up on stuff like coffee, butter, gravy and herbs, which [STRIKE]should[/STRIKE] will have to last the month.

~ D.B. ~

never_too_old

Deeperblue wrote: »

Jan 26 cont.

Probably going to go food shopping with mum tomorrow as she's got a 10% off ASDA card Plus I did the ASDA price compare thing online the other day and because they weren't 10% cheaper I got a 55p voucher :j *note to self: don't get excited over 55p*

This week I plan to cook:

Spaghetti Bolognese - 4 portions
Chilli - 4 portions
Cottage Pie - 4 portions
Mexican lasagne - 4 portions
Chicken Stew - 6 portions
Tuna Bake - 4 portions

This should cover all my main meals for the week but in reality some will probably get frozen and I'll use them in a few weeks so I can have a cheap food shop at the end of the month

Will write my shopping list tonight but if I spot a mega bargain my plans may change.

On a different note, we've been playing a bit with our new log burner and :heart2:LOVE:heart2: it. It makes the whole house unbelievably warm and best thing is that I'm not spending any money on gas or electric! I feel so virtuous :A

~ D.B. ~

I have been reading your posts with interest and was wondering if you could let me have your recipe for the chilli and shepherds pie, i do make this from scratch but never seem to get 4 portions out of mine,shopping is one of the few ways i can cut back, so far have spent £311 in jan and freezer is looking pretty good ,normally its 3 people i cook for but once a week its 6.
any advice would be gratefully received,

Deeperblue

Jan 28

Hi I.m.hart :wave:

No problem. I'm having a big cooking session tonight so I'll make a note of the amount I'm using of everything as I'm not sure exactly the weight of potatoes, peas, meat etc that I use.

So tonight/tomorrow I'll put all my recipes up on here for anyone interested



Been looking at my financial forecast for the month ahead and with some big bills coming up over this next month I need to make about £500 extra so that I don't end up going into my Natwest OD :think:

So this months plan is:

• Sort out all our DVDs and games and get down to CEX to flog em.
• See if Music Magpie or similar want any of my CDS.
• Ebay :wall:

Last time I ebayed something it apparently never arrived so I had to refund all the costs, plus I'd underestimated the cost of P+P so ended up well out of pocket It's really put me off, but I think the things I'm keenest to try selling are a bit too big to post anyway so I'll just put them for collection only.

Really hope I can get enough together!

~ D.B. ~

Deeperblue

Jan 28 cont.

Have been looking around at the 'In my slow cooker today...' thread on Old Style and have been inspired to look at curry recipes.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2197233

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/9169/slow-cooked-chicken-korma.aspx

I think the korma sounds lovely but I'd maybe use coconut milk instead of cream if it's not too expensive (no idea what it costs) and would bulk up the amount with lentils and maybe sweet potato. Would need a few extra herbs though so will have to wait till next week.

~ D.B. ~

rachelww1

I have a nice HM chicken curry recipe, it uses cream though. I use elmlea (65p or so in tesco) and it only uses half the pot at most. I've never tried it in the SC as it only takes half hour or so on the hob. It's very basic and it freezes well, and is adaptable. Will post you the recipe later if you want it. Can't do it now as supposed to be working

debtfreewannabe321

Hi DB, I am amazed that you can get a weeks shopping for so little :eek: we spend around 80 a week at the moment and that is just for me & my two little ones :eek: i think i seriously need to re-work this budget seeing your post! I am a rubbish cook also so may need to get out my slow cooker and steal some tips from all of you that are good cooks haha.

P.s i am also having problems getting hubby to reduce his monthly spend :mad: he insists that he makes the money therefore he can spend it as he wishes (and he wonders why we are in debt!) argh!

never_too_old

originally posted by debtfreewannabe321
P.s i am also having problems getting hubby to reduce his monthly spend :mad: he insists that he makes the money therefore he can spend it as he wishes (and he wonders why we are in debt!) argh![/QUOTE]


That sounds sooo familier,mine complains about turning lights off, cutting back on shopping, being cold, the list goes on.
you would think we were just doing all this just for our own benefit.

Deeperblue

Jan 28 cont.

It seems problem husbands are a common theme! At least now I can control OH's spending now I have his cards, but he's unbelievable. I gave him his £20 'pocket money' yesterday and half of its gone already! It's supposed to last him till 27th Feb! Oh, well his problem not mine... but he is an awful sulk though when I tell him that we can't just nip into Starbucks for a coffee (have you seen how expensive they are?!).

I keep trying to convince him we don't need two cars and that he could -very- easily commute on the train but he just refuses to discuss it.



Back to my cooking for the week. I've found that in order to get a food budget down you really have 3 things you can change, and you can pick which ever of these you personally feel comfortable with.

1) Buy the same food cheaper - Shops own brand stuff, caged chicken meat/eggs, value bread, that sort of thing.

2) Cook the same stuff but eat smaller portions - pretty self explanatory. I see posters in the my local doctors surgery like this:
http://www.circleofresponsibility.com/page/45/proper-portions.htm
And I know for a fact I used to serve massive portions and I grew up in the 'clean your plate' era. I still serve big portions :rotfl:but they are at least mainly veggies.

3) Choose less expensive foods - by this I mean bulk out comparatively expensive foods like meat with less expensive stuff like veg. This is what I do.

I know some people who would rather have bigger portions of meat in their meals and are happy to buy caged birds, and others who water down milk 50/50 to make it last longer, plus you could easily live off £10 a week if you were happy to buy 14 tins of value beans, a sack of potatoes and only drink water. These aren't for me but it's personal choice. Equally some people wish to spend more on their monthly shopping so that they can continue eating certain foods.

I've picked myself a budget that I feel balances my need for nice food with my need to be debt free and I don't -think- we'll all have scurvy in a years time :rotfl:

So today I cooked up all the mince and knocked up:

Cottage Pie (probably 6 portions)
- Potatoes 950g 40p
- Minced Beef 350g £1.50
- Carrots 250g 10p
- Onions 80g 5p
- Pearl Barley 220g 15p
- Peas 100g 10p
- Sage, Thyme, Gravy granules 20p

I just make it like any other cottage pie except I mix some beef gravy granules in with the mince and veg so that it makes it taste more meaty.
Total: £2.50 + 60p for extra veg and home made yorkshires with the meals. = 51p/meal

Chilli (5 portions)
- Minced beef 310g £1.25
- Onions 80g 5p
- x1.5 tins tomatoes 46p
- x1 tin mixed beans 44p
- x1 tin kidney beans 34p
- Chilli powder, cumin 10p

Just whack it all together in a pan.
Total: £2.64 + 40p for value rice with each meal. = 60p/meal

Spaghetti Bolognese (4 portions)
- Minced beef 310g £1.25
- Onions 80g 5p
- x2.5 tins tomatoes 77p
- x1 sweet red pepper 25p
- Pearl Barley 100g
- Garlic, Oregano, Basil 20p

Again, just stick it in a pan.
Total: £2.62 + 40p for spaghetti with each meal. = 75p/meal

All going into the freezer for next week.

~ D.B. ~

Deeperblue

Jan 28 cont.

And in other news... while I was sat writing the above husband told me he'd done his tax return and he owes them £1200 as for some reason he wasn't paying into his student loan last year :mad:

I'm so very angry. I can't even bring myself to shout at him. He's gone off up stairs.

It just seems like such an up hill struggle -all- the time! He didn't pay little ones nursery fees last month either because he says the company didn't sort out the child care vouchers properly, so that's another £400 to find.

I'm trying to sort all this out mean while he does **** all! Grrrrrrrr.

*sigh*


The only bright side I can see is that this may be the leverage I need to get him to get rid of his car. Will go and speak to him when I've calmed down.

~ D.B. ~

Deeperblue

Jan 29

Well, 'every cloud..' as they say... Spoke with OH who now finally seems to be on board with cutting things down and paying off the debt. Shame it comes with him adding another £1200 to it!

So he's agreed to take the car off the road so we'll get a couple of hundred quid back from the car tax and I reckon save about £150 in petrol per month. The money we usually spend on his car insurance will cover his train travel

He's selling his desktop computer to a friend for £250 as he only uses his laptop anyway and his subwoofer for about £100. Plus he's agreed to let me sell a lot of stuff on ebay.

We went through all our DVDs and checked their prices on CEX and Music Magpie and we're going to get £30 from MM and £65 from CEX :T Better than a kick in the teeth.

Any DVDs that were worth less than £1 I'm going to put on ebay too so that's about 50 of them.

OH says he's got £400 due by April time from extra work, so, that plus the £200 back from the car tax, plus the £450 we'll save in petrol over that time should about cancel out this damned tax.

It's maybe worth it just to have him on board :j

My aim for this month: Not to be in my overdraft by the end of it.


Considering it's predicted to be -£1500 this'll be some achievement :rotfl:

Food: Spent £1.38 on Milk today.

Take care everyone.

~ D.B. ~