Debt Free in how long?!

FireWyrm

usa1 wrote: »

Why are you paying for childcare/nusery as your wife doesnt work??

...deleted

FireWyrm

silentmike486 wrote: »

Thanks for your input, I'll explain some of the stuff-

We were evicted from our last house, as the landlord went under so we moved a couple of hundred yards down the road. We decided it would be ok as I got a new job with good overtime prospects

Groceries is a hard one, we like cooking good food from scratch. But at tesco at the first shop of the month we can spend 250. Neither of us really drink, it all goes on food and household stuff!

We keep banging on about food, but I'm not getting the feeling that you're seeing how to cut your food bill. It's actually easy and since you cook from scratch, even easier than you think. Ditch Tesco..seriously, I halved my food bill the first month I stopped shopping there and didn't stop buying my usual items either, just not branded stuff. There's an element of lethargy in most people, they get used to the way Tesco is laid out and where things are and it's hard to change, but you really must do something more drastic. You've already seen that your debts will take until 2017 to lay, but what if you could add about another £3K per year to the general pay pot? Would that make you think again? I feed two adults, two children and 3 cats really quite well on between £100 and £150 a month...I kid you not. Head over to the Old Style board for tips and tricks, btu the biggest savings can be made by changing your super Market.

silentmike486

FireWyrm wrote: »

...deleted

What does this mean?

silentmike486

FireWyrm wrote: »

We keep banging on about food, but I'm not getting the feeling that you're seeing how to cut your food bill. It's actually easy and since you cook from scratch, even easier than you think. Ditch Tesco..seriously, I halved my food bill the first month I stopped shopping there and didn't stop buying my usual items either, just not branded stuff. There's an element of lethargy in most people, they get used to the way Tesco is laid out and where things are and it's hard to change, but you really must do something more drastic. You've already seen that your debts will take until 2017 to lay, but what if you could add about another £3K per year to the general pay pot? Would that make you think again? I feed two adults, two children and 3 cats really quite well on between £100 and £150 a month...I kid you not. Head over to the Old Style board for tips and tricks, btu the biggest savings can be made by changing your super Market.

I can't believe that you should come shopping with us one day....

But I will go and look at the board you suggested, and see why it's so cheap

:beer:

FireWyrm

silentmike486 wrote: »

What does this mean?

I wrote something and then realised I was getting annoyed wi a poster who had disappeared more than 6 months ago so was unlikely to read it anyway.

FireWyrm

silentmike486 wrote: »

I can't believe that you should come shopping with us one day....

But I will go and look at the board you suggested, and see why it's so cheap

:beer:

There really is no trick to it. It's a combination of shopping carefully, planning ahead and making almost everything from scratch.

First, try Aldi or Lidl. Most of what we use day to day is there and far cheaper than the big 5. Don't be influenced by advertising, it's the whole point after all...just because it's cheaper than a standard supermarket doesnt mean it's inferior quality.

Second, meal plan. I don't buy on impulse. I have a purpose and a reason for everything that goes in my trolly. It is part of a meal to be made shortly, it's dry and so can be kept and added to general stores, or it's something that's been long term planned for.

Don't buy what you can make more cheaply. For instance, Dolmio tomato cookin sauce is what £2.50 a jar now? More? I can buy 10 tins of tomatos for that. Good fresh dried herbs by the kilo are £3.00 from EBay and while a kilo is more than the original sauce price, overall, I can make 10 equivalent jars of Dolmio for far less than the original price. I routinely buy spices, garlic, onions, vinegar and others so I always have 'dolmio' sauce which I can make in 10 minutes from ingredients in the cupboard already. More to the point, Dolmio sauce is used in stuff like Lasagne which people often buy ready made. Since I can make the sauce, I might as well make the Lasagne too. Dried sheets by the dozen are 50p a box. You get the idea, that's how you do it ultimately.

Sweets, cakes, biscuits etc are made not bought. Dinner is almost always cooked from scratch and in sufficient quantities to either eat two days running or freeze portions for later use. Lower grade cuts of meat are substituted for expensive and measly cuts from the supermarket. I've found you get more for your money from a proper butcher than you do from a supermarket. Vegetables are used for bulk, and snacks are fruit mostly. When we're feeling flush with time, we make pasta and freeze the dough for later. Bread is made daily in a bread maker and I buy 10 kilos of assorted flour a month.

This may sound like a lot of work...it isn't. We've all been brainwashed into thinking that these products save us time, but when you count how long you spent walking around giant supermarkets, stood in endless queues, driving there in the first place, you might just as well have skipped that bit and made the food in the first place. Over the years, I've acquired a modest library of cook books and I can make almost what you would get from a takeaway but for a fraction of the actual cost, whenever I want. Chinese happens to be my favourite because it's truly what I would call fast food. It's easy to make a large filling meal from almost nothing. Pizza is a firm favourite with my girls. Dough takes a couple of hours in the bread maker and can be knocked up ahead of time, sauce is the above mentioned 'dolmio' modified slightly to be thicker and richer, toppings are usually salami which I bought and froze when on offer, mushrooms purchased most weeks as part of the budget, bacon bits etc. My only concession to laziness is generally the grated mozzarella and wet mozzarella. Gas mark 6 for 15 minutes, middle shelf and you have two 18" fully loaded pizzas for what...£2.00 a piece all told?

Does that help?

silentmike486

thanks Ive been in aldi before, i think theres one reasonably close to me. I dont mind shopping there, but i think my wife does! Theres two butchers nearby - but one is incredibly unhygienic, the other is expensive. there is a greengrocer i use sometimes, but ive not compared prices. we often do a meal planner but it doesnt always work out. right now we have a freezer full of meat, weve not used it as the boy has scarlet fever!

Googlewhacker

My worry is that you are not taking this serious enough, and neither is the wife.

In the past year from what I can see you have ADDED £5000 to the debt, or just over £400 a month a month over spend!!!

Shopping - Twice as much as it could be
Rent- £900 a month! Wow, time to look at moving to a cheaper place!
Holiday Fund- Stop it
Fuel- Can you not move to where you work, surely if you moved 30 miles nearer your work place you could I would guess get a lower rent as well whilst saving £200ish on travelling.

Tough decisions need to be made by both you and the missus and you need to make her aware how much in the crap you both are!!!

Sorry if thats harsh

silentmike486

Googlewhacker wrote: »

My worry is that you are not taking this serious enough, and neither is the wife.

In the past year from what I can see you have ADDED £5000 to the debt, or just over £400 a month a month over spend!!!

Shopping - Twice as much as it could be
Rent- £900 a month! Wow, time to look at moving to a cheaper place!
Holiday Fund- Stop it
Fuel- Can you not move to where you work, surely if you moved 30 miles nearer your work place you could I would guess get a lower rent as well whilst saving £200ish on travelling.

Tough decisions need to be made by both you and the missus and you need to make her aware how much in the crap you both are!!!

Sorry if thats harsh

Thanks for your comment. Most of the £5k accrued from the past year was from not paying income tax at my old job, which I thought was taken at source paye, but wasn't as the company was based in Guernsey. I'm definitely paye now, and I've reached an agreement with hmrc to pay them back slowly over several years.

Shopping, we will reduce what we pay for this, I've been reading the grocery board with interest...

Rent is a lot in this part of the new forest, but the healthcare is excellent for my son, his paediatrician is very interested and proactive, and has a lot of weight when it comes to getting things done by other health professionals. Also, we are close to Wessex Neuro, which is one of the best in the country. My commute to Portsmouth is a drag, and my job is something I will be looking at towards the end of the year.