New and in a mess!

Mrs_Sparkle

Unixgirl can I be really cheeky and ask for some soup recipes too please? I already make a few but I'm always looking to try new ones.

pickle18

When he started work he is was told 4 weeks holiday a year - I imagine working on a 5 day week so the 20 day minimum plus bank holidays which works out at 1.6 days per month . So he has worked since sept 4 x 1.6 = 6.4 days holiday plus the 3 bank holidays over xmas period. hopefully he will get 9-10 days then! Will ring him with the information now and get his to approach his boss

Thankyou

beverleyhills

Send DP off to work with a thermos of your HM soup

angelavdavis

I think you are doing really well - good for you!

If you don't already have them, why don't you read the threads about Breadmakers and slow cookers. Don't buy them though if you can avoid it (some of the members have found really cheap ones tho- see threads) - see if you can get one from freecycle - see link below.

As you are keen on good food, you can make the best bread and for pennies in comparison to buying a loaf. From a 90p bag of bread flour, you will easily get 3-4 decent sized loaves and the team on here will always suggest ways of pushing the price down even further!
I actually make my OH rolls for his lunches - he prefers them, and there is no waste (whereas I find I end up making a huge amount of breadcrumbs from the bread from the leftovers there).
Set yourself the challenge of not throwing any food away - menu plan to within an inch of your life, freeze chopped veg before it gets the chance to be binned, grate cheese and freeze so the wedge doesn't mould, etc - there are lots of Old style ideas on here! I have only spent £95.25 this month on shopping and still have full freezer - I have been amazed how little you can eat well on! That amount has even included a couple of bottles of wine and some beers so you don't need to miss out on luxuries! Anything over from your grocery budget can be targetted at a debt.

The slow cooker helps you cook soups and meals for the cost of a lightbulb, so keeps the fuel bill down (in winter, every little helps!)

Re baby clothes/things.

You can look up your local freecycle branch (see freecycle.org) people are always advertising bags of children's clothes to giveaway and as kids generally grow out of stuff before the clothes get a decent wear, you may well get a good selection. This time of year, people will be clearing out ready for Christmas too.

Give anything remaining from the bags to the local charity shops.

Keep up the good work!!!

pickle18

angelavdavis wrote:

I think you are doing really well - good for you!

If you don't already have them, why don't you read the threads about Breadmakers and slow cookers. Don't buy them though if you can avoid it (some of the members have found really cheap ones tho- see threads) - see if you can get one from freecycle - see link below.

As you are keen on good food, you can make the best bread and for pennies in comparison to buying a loaf. From a 90p bag of bread flour, you will easily get 3-4 decent sized loaves and the team on here will always suggest ways of pushing the price down even further!
I actually make my OH rolls for his lunches - he prefers them, and there is no waste (whereas I find I end up making a huge amount of breadcrumbs from the bread from the leftovers there).
Set yourself the challenge of not throwing any food away - menu plan to within an inch of your life, freeze chopped veg before it gets the chance to be binned, grate cheese and freeze so the wedge doesn't mould, etc - there are lots of Old style ideas on here! I have only spent £95.25 this month on shopping and still have full freezer - I have been amazed how little you can eat well on! That amount has even included a couple of bottles of wine and some beers so you don't need to miss out on luxuries! Anything over from your grocery budget can be targetted at a debt.

The slow cooker helps you cook soups and meals for the cost of a lightbulb, so keeps the fuel bill down (in winter, every little helps!)

Re baby clothes/things.

You can look up your local freecycle branch (see freecycle.org) people are always advertising bags of children's clothes to giveaway and as kids generally grow out of stuff before the clothes get a decent wear, you may well get a good selection. This time of year, people will be clearing out ready for Christmas too.

Give anything remaining from the bags to the local charity shops.

Keep up the good work!!!

Thanks Angela

I use both a slowcooker and breadmaker (panasonic)regularly, we don't enjoy the bread from it too much (we are warbies born and bread) but we use it to make fruit bread , etc. Love my slowcooker

I have just registered with freecycle - thankyou

pickle18

Thought I'd update ...... seems what I thought was my lightbulb moment was short lived and we quickly got ourselves in another mess! I am SURE this realy is my lightbulb moment now - well at the start of feb we were supposed to be in court for both repossesion and council tax arrears, this gave me the boot I needed and we have been paying everything off well since. Today is the first day I'm back online as I cancelled my net for a while whils we got on track.

Debts as off 23/1 were

Mortgage £2200
NTL Phone and broadband £303
Water Rates £215
Loan on sofa £840
Council Tax £692
Next £300
Mobile - £153
Egg £2675 - passed onto debt company now so no more interest
MBNA - £2900 crazy interest rate of 22.5%

Debts as of 26 Feb

Mortgage now £900 (which includes this months payment of £816)
NTL Phone and Broadband CLEAR
Water Rates £100
Loan on sofa £760
Council Tax £440
Next £264
Mobile £100
Egg £2575
MBNA £2700.

So I think we have done quite well so far and it feels so good to pay things off now - my favourite book is now my debt diary and favourite day is now friday so we can pay things off!!! We need to concentrate on mortgage and Council tax at the min as both have just been ajourned at court but we have been paying £20 a week to other creditors, more to MBNA which is keeping everyone happy. SOA is still as before.
Can anyone offer any advice about MBNA, I think interest is about £56 a month - is there a calculator which can show me how quickly it can be paid off if we pay about £50 a week?

pickle18

Incoming

My wage - £3000 per month but can be up to £3400 per month
Partners Wage - £150 per month
Tax credits - £69
Child benefit - £127 (expecting 2nd chlds payment nex month)

Total - £3346 - 3729

Outgoings
Mortgage - £816
Gas - £30
Electric - £19
MBNA - £60
Egg - £60
Gym - £42
Food - At least £450 but probably more like £600 or even more
Nursery fees - £150
Clothes - £70
Fuel - £60
Car Insurance - £90
Car Insurance - £50
House Insurance - £40
Life assurance - £10
Council Tax - £145
Broadband - £10
Car tax per month for both cars - £23
Car repairs - £15 max
water - £40 ( though will only be starting monthly in march)
TV - £12
Mobile - £50 (essential for his work and this new contract has lowered it to what was previous £100!)
Housephone - £10 line rental only no outgoing calls

Total = approx £2077 ( acounting for only £450 shopping budget which should be plenty)

misspoppy

Hi You do have room for manovering with the gym, tell them your circumastances have changed and can you put your membership on hold this usually costs £5 or so and you can't go but its a damn sight cheaper. Did you DP get his holiday pay?

pickle18

Thanks I will try and negotiate with the gym.
Re holiday pay - we owed then £400 and they were saying we had to pay that back but have no agreed to call it even with what they owe us in holiday pay, which works out fine.

pickle18

Decided to make this into my little debt diary!

Tomorrow and saturday are pay days ( he gets paid twice weekly - once in the bank on a friday and overtime on saturday - big inconvieniance)

But ...... I have (in the last 5 days) done my first load of ebaying as I started the Olympic challenge and I have raised £270 so far and the biggest items were items Colin picked up at work - he is a machine driver at a waste transfer site. He gets these items in daily ,previously we have just ignored them but now he is ringing every two minutes asking to check what such and such is going for on ebay!! We are aiming to raise £500 in 31 days from ebay!

Also there is a possibility of a new job for him - should find out more at the weekend.

I'll update sig tomorrow with items I have managed to pay off - fingers crossed!!