5 year plan for debt and mortgage freedom

Deeperblue

Feb 10

We've finished the last of the carrot soup for lunch today. It was ok but I think I'd put something unhealthy into it next time like cream or butter

Didn't bother weighing anything. Made 3 big bowls full.

About 8 carrots 40p
About 3 small Onions 20p
About 3 medium Potatoes 30p
Coriander + pepper 10p

Total - £1.00 + 30p for bread with each meal = 43p/meal

Money making:
LO is asleep at the moment so I'll package up the Music Magpie DVDs to post either later today or tomorrow. I'll wonder down to mums when she's up (which is where OH's car is parked off road) and get the tax disc. It's also about time I listed a few more bits on ebay tonight. I've got some more expensive things that I was going to wait for a free listing day for, but I may just get 'em stuck on anyway.

OH took his desk top computer into work today who are going to buy it off him for £250, but not sure if we'll get that this month or next.

I'm desperately trying to think how else I can bring in extra money, but I don't think there's much else I can do so will probably focus on money saving instead.

Money saving:
Since OH has the car on days I'm not at work it forces LO and I to walk everywhere which is a lot cheaper, healthier and more fun (if a bit wet atm!). I think we've only had to spend £40 on petrol so far this month and I'm hoping we'll only need to put in another £20 next week to last us till pay day.

I'm wondering what the best way to run our immersion heater is. :think: It makes up a huge amount of our electricity expenditure even though it only runs on economy 7, so anything to reduce it would be great. I think it currently heats for 6 hours or something at night so I'll maybe reduce it down to 5 hours and see if we still have enough hot water.

Now we're using the wood burner for our main heating I want to get the electric down as much as I can (don't have gas) so any suggestions people have would be great.

I found this thread on here which looks useful:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/887959

So I'm going to use the info in that to try and get our monthly bill below £100. :cool: I used to have one of those energy meters somewhere so I'll see if OH can dig it out tonight.

Take care everyone.

~ D.B. ~

Deeperblue

Feb 11

Food spend for week 2 (Feb 6th - Feb 12th): £28.25
(will need to buy 4 pints of milk for LO today which I've added onto the above total)

Total food spend for the month so far: £61.91

Done my food shopping for the week:

2x Fruit and Fibre 500g............£2.24 total
2x Packets of 20 stock cubes.....£2.00 total (on offer)
Sunflower spread....................£1.10
7 pears.................................£1.00
Caster sugar..........................£1.12
Loaf of bread.........................£0.29 (Reduced from £1.00 goes out of date tomorrow so will either make bread and butter puddings, or freeze it)
Stork...................................£0.54p
Asda ready meal pot...............£0.69p (reduced from £2.30, for OHs lunch today)
Cathedral city chedder.............£2.00 (on offer)
Lean beef stake......................£2.99 (reduced from £7.50!)
1kg Carrots...........................£0.77
2x tinned mixed beans............£0.88p total
3x Mr Kiplings Chocolate cake bars 6 pack - £0.87 (reduced from £1.20ish each to 29p each!)
4x pots of organic plain yogurt..£0.36 (reduced to 9p each)
Strong bread flour..................£0.50
6 free ranged medium eggs......£1.03
17x 1 pint skimmed milk..........£2.55 (reduced to 15p each but don't go off till next friday!)
5x bananas............................£0.60

Total after 10% discount - £20.18

Looking at that list it doesn't look like much and I'm a little worried :rotfl: I've got to use up some of the meals in my freezer though because I'm running out of space in there. This was the first time I've been shopping without a list (forgot to take it!) in a while and I felt lost without it! Got some mega bargains though including all that milk so will only need to buy 12 pints or so of full fat stuff for LO next week .

Made the Mexican lasagne this morning which we'll probably have tonight or tomorrow. Made 4 meals.

2x tinned tomatoes 66p
1x mixed beans 44p
Sweetcorn 20p
Cheese 50p
4 tortillas 50p
2 small onions 15p
1/2 a red pepper 10p
cayanne (sp?) pepper, hot sauce, tomato sauce 10p

Total £2.65 + 40p for rice with each meal = 76p/meal

Money making:
Going to go down to the bank when LO wakes up to cash an ebay postal order :T Got the tax disc now but need to print off the form from the internet to send it off.

Money saving:
Errr.... not much that I can think of so far today... guess I'll ask OH to print that form off at work to save on ink and me and LO will be walking to the bank if that counts?

Spends:
Spent the money I made from Ebay on OHs valentines present He lost his VERY expensive watch a few months ago :wall: and has been very good at not running out and buying a new one.

He sheepishly asked me yesterday if he could have £10 to buy a cheap one off ebay and I said it could be his valentines present. Well, he was outbid on the one he was after and has given me some links to god awful ones that are under £10 for me to buy him.

I've taken pity on him and found a nice one thats been reduced from £40 odd to £25 delivered from argos outlet on ebay, so got him that

Pay day in 2 weeks time! :T

Hope everyone's ok.

~ D.B. ~

debtfreewannabe321

Hey DB,

I do my weekly shop on a monday and never ever find bargains like you do! I'm going to have a special look for them next time i go! Where do you usually shop? I've decided to start making bread again once the last is used up from my freezer as i already have the yeast & bread flour!

And how sweet you got him a nice watch for valentines:smileyhea
I have sent my hubby his parcel of pressies wasn't much more than a tenner on stuff though lol and he prob won't get it until the week after as i was late sending it :doh:

I think i might give Sky a call after reading your posts here...I pay £48 a month and they have told me i can't reduce it as I am not the main account holder and also because hubby took out a new contract for HD+ ?? I have the movie channels, kids, documentaries and entertainment package and that's about it ...no sports, no music etc so i don't understand why it is so high!!! :mad:!! I wanted multi room but didn't want to pay an extra tenner a month...i might see if i can wangle a deal like your friend has, rachel! We also have talktalk for broadband and telelphone. so we aren't even getting that from sky!

Ah well i will sort it out....it can go on my never-ending list!!! :rotfl:

katali_d

Hi DB,

I've enjoyed reading your diary, it's very inspirational.

Can you tell me where you shop and what the mixed beans you talk about are? I've looked at my normal supermarket (t) and can't find anything that sounds right!

Thanks!

rachelww1

Hi DF,

If your DH took out a contract for HD+ it is for one year. I couldn't reduce mine, but have been told to ring them on 6th May, which is 11 months since we took out HD+, and they'll definately be able to do us a deal. Also you'll have to get your DH to ring, as they definatly won't speak to anyone but the main account holder.

DB, you're so good at spotting a bargain. Again, whenever I go, I must go on the wrong night or at the wrong time, cos there's never much left in the reduced section, or it is still too high a price. The only bargains I've ever had were just before Xmas on some fresh Mr Ts finest custard at 10p a pot, and loads of fresh fish reduced from over £5 a pack, to £1, which we're still plodding through.

I'm off to Mr T's again tonight (as mum's coming for lunch tomorrow and I hadn't planned for that), so will look out for bargains as I won't be going til after corrie x

debtfreewannabe321

Ahh thanks for that Rachel, i thought that was the case anyway, but suppose it saves me ringing them...can go on the list for hubby to do!

cazzab_2

Hi, just been reading your thread - feeling inspired!

Deeperblue

Feb 11

DFW,
I used to shop at Morrisons but they never used to have any deals at all, but now I shop at Asda who are very generous with their discounts. I've yet to find the 'perfect' time to go, but yesterday I went at about 3:30pm I think and I seemed to do quite well. When I get there I go straight to the chilled discount section, grab anything good, then head to the bakery discount section and see what's there. I'll then keep popping past them while I'm shopping to see if anything else has appeared or if someone has come to mark them down a bit more. Every now and then one of the staff will come along and scan all the items and the scanner tells them whether to knock them down in price any more, so what I've seen some people do is go up to these scanner people with their discounted item and see if it's due to be knocked down in price again... not sure I've got the b***s to do that yet :rotfl: I also find that Asda sometimes keep their discounted items on there normal shelves rather than taking them to the discount area (found this with the eggs yesterday) so it's worth keeping your eyes pealed. Also, the store I go to is a medium sized one out in the sticks a bit, and I find they have better deals than the one in the city.

I'm all up for making bread again too! So when this 29p loaf has gone I'm going to fire up the bread maker I think Problem is, I've lost the recipe book so I don't really know what to put in it any more.

Like Rachel says, it maybe worth while finding out when your OH took out the HD+ subscription and ring them when the years up... but definitely remember to do it cause they seem to be giving out silly good deals

Hey Katali_d :wave:
I glad (and amazed) that people find my endless lists and food and prices useful! I'm still just learning about all this money saving lark myself so it's nice to think people are on this little journey with me

As mention, I shop at Asda and the mixed beans I mean are these:
http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/asda-compare-prices/Tinned_Beans/ASDA_Mixed_Beans_in_Tomato_Sauce_420g.html
or these:
http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/asda-compare-prices/Tinned_Beans/ASDA_Mexican_Style_Bean_Mix_in_Water_400g.html
I'm sure all the supermarkets must do an equivalent and you can also get them dried in bags but you need to rehydrate them for 24 hours or something and I'm not that organised :rotfl:

Hey Rachel,
I've never shopped at Tescos so I don't know what they are like for discounts, but I notice a HUGE difference between Morrisons and Asda as I could never find anything at Morrisons. Good luck shopping, I hope the discount fairy is kind to you!

:wave: cazzab,
Hi I'm super chuffed you've got something out of reading my waffle. I've never thought of myself as inspiring before, I just nick loads of ideas off all the other clever people on this forum and see if they'll work for me




Couldn't sort out that postal order as OH had my wallet and card in the car with him at work -DOH-! So that'll probably have to wait till Monday now, if I can get into the bank at lunch... unlikely.

Been to the sports centre this evening and spent my weekly pocket money on my sports class :T My little luxury of the week, though at £5 a pop I wish I'd taken up something cheaper, like running, instead!

Money saving:
Ate lunch round mum's today

Take care all. We will be debt free one day! :beer:

~ D.B. ~

Naomim

Evening,

I usually shop at Tesco's but it's a big one near me and they don't knock much down.:(

I have spent this evening industriously cleaning my buggy and taking the car seat and base out of my car to wash and put on ebay at the weekend. It's a free listing weekend.

Have a good weekend.

Naomi x

Deeperblue

Feb 11 cont.

"It's a free listing weekend."

Naomi... you've made my week, I had no idea! :T:beer::j:rotfl:

~ D.B. ~