5 year plan for debt and mortgage freedom

walby1993

Slow cookers can be miracle workers! I have brought the cheapest, crapest bit of steak and made beef goulash or steak and mushroom pie with it (obvs only the filling!) and leave it on for several hours and when its finished it just falls apart its so tender! Definately a good investment!

Deeperblue

Feb 7

Glad we're all part of the slow cooker lovers club

All the comparing insurances is confusing! My home and contents isn't up for renewal until October so I think I'll get charged a fee if I try to switch it before then? Not sure it'd be worth it even though I'm getting properly ripped off by CIS at the moment When I've got more energy I'll have another look through the paper work or ring them and find out.

Dished up my goulash/beef and bean stew that I had in the slow cooker over night (made about 8 meals):
600g diced beef £2.80
2 carrots 20p
~400g potatoes 30p
1 tin of mixed beans 41p
2 tins tomatoes 62p
100g onions 20p
Paprika, pepper, cumin, sage 30p
2x beef stock cubes 20p

Total - £5.03 + £1 for rice with each meal = 75p/meal :T

OH was at home with LO today while I was at work and they made cinnamon rolls together, which sorts out the sweet stuff for the rest of the week.

We declared OH's car SORN last night too :j So I now have to send them the tax disc back and I'll get a refund in the next 6 weeks or before. Also, I may get a bit of overtime from work tomorrow, fingers crossed.

The negative things for the week are: It's 2 of my nephews birthdays this week so I'm going to give em a tenner each, and also I need a plan for valentines day!

Spends:
Bread 50p
Milk £2.00
Flour 50p

Got loads of carrots left from week one so I'm thinking I might make carrot and coriander soup for tea tomorrow and lunch on Wednesday, then we can have Mexican lasagne Wednesday night and for lunch on Thursday, baked potatoes on Thursday night, fish cakes for lunch on Friday and then defrost some of the curry for Friday night.

Take care everyone, I hope the start of your week has been a good one

~ D.B. ~

rachelww1

mmm...goulash sounds nice

Well done on the car...just remember to send the disc off and not leave it in the pocket of your jeans when you wash them like I did :rotfl:

Naomim

Hi DB,

Insurance is a pain in the bum. DH and I both have cars as we need them for work, dropping kids off etc. We have a multicar policy which is up for renewal at a cost of just over £1k however DH got done speeding last year and got 5 points and £550 fine so need to get that added on which will increase the cost. I need to shop around. I also need a smaller newer car but that's wishful thinking for now.

I work 4 days a week 8.30am to 4pm so I'm looking into getting a train to work. It may be cheaper and quicker.

Well done on the food, I find planning helps although our grocery bills are horrendous at the moment. When my DS was very small I got down to £200 a month but now it's closer to £350 - £400 and I don't know what on... apart from stuff for packed lunches! I do shop at Tesco but it's mainly for the clubcard points as they are fabulous to cash in for days out for the kids.

Right, my lunch break has finished and I'm rambling... chat soon.

Naomi x

Deeperblue

Feb 8

Hi Rachel, hi Naomi. The goulash was a bit too tasty... OH has eaten all of it that I didn't freeze fast enough :rotfl: And I definately WILL NOT wash my tax disc! It's too valuable!

The thing with our car insurance is that OH never wants to actually claim anything on it :wall: Twice he's knocked other cars causing £250 of damage the first time and £450 the second and we always just have to pay it as he says the insurance would go up more than that anyway if we claimed. *sigh* I really can't see the point then.



Got in from work today and I'm absolutely famished, BUT I'm being very good and making the soup I said I would instead of just snacking tonight and then not having anything for lunch tomorrow.

Had a quick hunt for a recipe and found this: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/7003/carrot-and-coriander-soup
Surely even I can manage that

Going to package the last of my Ebay things tomorrow and then put some more on at the weekend I think.

I'm having one of those 'I wish I had some money ' days.
List of things I want:
1) A holiday - A big, expensive, exotic holiday. Always fancied the far east.
2) A new bathroom and kitchen - a nice bespoke wooden kitchen with built in appliances and a bathroom with one of those walk in showers and a roll top bath.
3) Spontaneous day trips/nights away - to be able to decide to go away for a weekend on a Thursday, book a nice hotel on the internet and go visit London or somewhere for a few days.

But I try to think about all the fun things I've discovered while trying to save money:
1) I do more outdoors stuff with LO - she adores the outdoors so 2-3 times a week we'll stick on our wellies, go and pick up my mums dog and go for a walk in the woods together. The joy she gets from throwing the ball for the dog to chase is greater and longer lasting than any toy I've ever brought her.
2) Gardening - Not done much so far, but clearing out the raised beds in the back garden was really satisfying and I'm actually excited about growing stuff.
3) Decluttering! - The advantage of selling everything we own means we now have a lot more room!

So it aint all bad, but I can see how people fall off the wagon or get out of the habit. Who would have thought it was such hard work not spending money!

Take care everyone.

~ D.B. ~

Deeperblue

Feb 8 cont.

I'm so confused by my Sky bill.

Last month, before I reduced it, it cost £31.75/mth for Sky + and HD for some of the basic channels.

I rang them up to cancel just the HD part of the package and they said that would bring the monthly cost down to £24.99.

A few days after I phoned them they sent me letter saying 'Sorry that you cancelled your Sky membership'. I didn't know what that meant but figured that if they cancelled everything I'd just ring them and explain the mistake and get it restarted.

Today they took there direct debit out of the account for £10.20 *shrugs*

I've still got all my usual channels and sky + and HD, don't know if this will change. *shrugs again*

No idea what's going on, but if they've genuinely made a mistake and think they've cancelled all this stuff I hope they don't realise. Don't think I could be that lucky :rotfl:

~ D.B. ~

rachelww1

Did they cancel the HD+ or did they just reduce the bill for a period of time to make you stay? I expect it is the latter, esp if you have still got all the services. If they've made a mistake on the bill then don't say anything is it's in your favour. It's not like we normally get one over on the big guys is it :rotfl:

Must do something about my sky too. Mine shot up 2 months ago from £22 to £34.75 pm because of HD+. We've actually had it since June so DH could watch the world cup in HD, but as they were so crap at installing and saying when their engineers were coming, we got a reduction for 6 months. Anyway, was chatting to some mates at the weekend, and they've just been given sky world (everything inc movies and sports), HD and multiroom for £32 a month for the next 12 months because they said they couldn't afford the full package anymore. So, I'm going to ring them tomorrow and see what they can do for me. I don't have movies, sports (not that I want football on tap :eek:) or multiroom, and I still pay more than their reduced rate. Something wrong there I think. Knowing my luck, they'll probably cancel my account . Will let you know how I get on.

Sorry...waffled on your thread for far too long xx

Naomim

Sky are a law unto themselves :rotfl: I just managed to negotiate with them. We have movies and sport but not a lot of the DIY channels and we have two multi room boxes. Was paying £70 a month plus paying for phone and broadband to Talk Talk so was spending £100 a month.:eek:

Told Sky I was off to Virgin as cheaper and Sky gave me a HD box (without subscription so I can just have the free HD channels) put Sky+ in my bedroom, unlimited telephone and unlimited broadband for £61 a month. I'm saving £40 a month now! :T

If only gas and electricity would do that too! haha

Naomi x

Naomim

oh BTW - if you are a Sky customer - register on their website and they have a thing called Sky rewards where you can get tickets to preview screenings of films. I think you can do it once a month or every other month. DH just took DS to see Yogi Bear on Saturday for free.

Naomi x

Deeperblue

Feb 9

Hi guys :wave: They didn't say they were going to reduce it to keep me but maybe that's what their trying. Like you say, I wont complain too much It sounds like you've both got mega deals! I'll trump you both though if I get Sky HD + for only a tenner though! :rotfl: I just know I'm going to come home to only 5 channels one day... it'll be like living in the '90s again!

I didn't know about signing up on the sky website. Thanks :beer:


Money making:
I've packaged up the last of the first batch of ebay sales and sent them off today. Postage is just a killer. I can't believe I couldn't charge more than £1 for P&P for a DVD, as it means I've basically made a few pence on 1 of the box sets *sigh* Anyway, over all I've made about £25 from ebay so far this month. My aim is £100 for Feb.

Money saving:
Got OH to cancel the car insurance today :T meaning even without the tax disc refund (will sort that tomorrow) we're saving £160/mth in petrol and insurance and only needing to spend £30 on train travel. :j

Going shopping on Friday and will try to keep it cheap so will need to meal plan carefully and use up cupboard bits. OH and I got free work lunches today so ate our lunch for tea meaning I'm doing well for meals this week.

Spends:
£6 bus and train fairs
£12.50 P&P for Ebay stuff

~ D.B. ~