My SoA....please help!

chevalier

Hi there
You mentioned earlier that you were c**p at doing shopping lists.

This is what I call my staple shopping list
Large bag of potatoes
large bag of rice
large bag of pasta
large bag of chips
6 onions
carrots
frozen mushrooms
large bag of frozen mince
frozen sweet corn
frozen mixed veg
3 pack tins of tuna
3 tins of corned beef
pack of bacon (or if bogoff then freeze one use one)
pack of sausages
bag of frozen chicken pieces
bag of frozen fish pieces
fish fingers
4 pack of beens
4 pack of tins of chopped tomatoes
4 jars of various cook in sauces
eggs
milk
cheese
cornflour
oxo cubes in various flavours
black pepper
mixed herbs
garlic

from this I could do
pasta bolognese
corn beef hash
tuna tomatoes and rice
cottage pie
lasagne
sweet and sour chicken
chicken casserole
fish fingers and chips
beens and chips
omelettes
bacon and pasta
sausage casserole

Now in the first instance this would cost you a fair bit, BUT for most of these things, I make up a big pot for about £3 that feeds me OH and 2 children, but I THEN also have enought left over to do maybe 2 other portions, so the cost per meal is £1!

You don't say whether your older child is eating with you, but I would be worried about the amount of salt there is in take aways, if she does. Once you have done the initial big shop like this, and assuming you have a freezer, after a couple of weeks of cooking, you will have built up quite a store of frozen food for those to tired to cook days.

If you want the actual recipes for any of the above then feel free. At the moment I only spend about £250 a month on food AND petrol! And I also buy fruit etc which I haven't put on the staple list. Once you really get into it, then you can add flour of various types, to do home baking, my older child loves getting messy making jam tarts, or fairy cakes etc. Dead easy to make even for a pastry phobe like me!:D

best of luck
chev

chevalier

And I forgot to add that whilst your GF is at home, there are plenty of survey sites eg https://www.mumsopinions.co.uk, https://www.lightspeed.com and others that will pay in either cash or vouchers for your opinions. I earned a couple of vouchers to spend at Boots on presents that way.
chev

all_hours

You can apply for the 30 day free trial for your credit report. if you do this via quidco you'll get a few £ cash back too.

The way to improve your credit rating is to make sure you can make your minimum payments on time each month. To do this you need to get your outgoings and income on an even keel to prevent it spiralling out of control.

Could you see if you can extend your egg loan to clear some of the credit card or the barclay loan? The APR is on the barclay loan is very high that should be your first priority to get that paid off or transferred to a lower APR.

If you cut your spending to the bone for the next year or two you'll be able to make dents in the debt. This will be easier to do while the kids are younger.

mrslawrence2003

Benson112 wrote:

You need new phones because the majority of modern phones die after about 6 months. Weve already been putting up with broken phones for 6 months.

I totally understand that cut backs are required and believe me they have been significantly made. What is left was the choice of every luxury we had, we decided to keep one or two an it had helped.

The OH isnt working because she was on maternity leave (not from a company just from work in general lol and paid by the governement). She is currently looking and should have a job for xmas period lined up shortly.

I understand the difference between a need and a want. I dont particularly need a house, a car even a bed but i still have them. Cars, sky and mobiles are a "comon all garden" accessory nowerdays. I wont allow my OH out without her mobile so that she can contact me if she needs me. Im a worry wart! lol. PAYG not an option....contracts and car stay!! Sky i will change as best i can depending on contract situation.

Still looking for any advise on what to do with the current debt! I know that isnt structured as best it can be!!

what a strange world you live in where you consider a roof over your head isnt a need but sky is!!!!!! :eek: as for contracts - my husband's mobile costs us £25 a month max - as for upgrade - i've just got him a sony ericsson p990i (woth abt £600) for £60. my contract is about the same a month - but i am using a phone that is 3 years old having sold newer phones to generate cash. if you stick with nokia and ericsson they last much longer than 6 months so would suggest you go with those.

as for sky - i still dont understand why people view this as a necessity. a freeview box costs about £20 and you get loads of channels. we are now testing the new BBC digibox that allows us to record and rewatch whatever we want, much like skyplus and more to the point is completely free.

Benson112

mrslawrence2003 wrote:

what a strange world you live in where you consider a roof over your head isnt a need but sky is!!!!!! :eek:

I was using that as an example...i have about 6 other places i could in theory go and live with my family for alot less but we want our own house and to be on the property ladder. Hensce my comments that i dont particulary NEED a house.

And please please please stop going on about Sky, i have already said a million times that i am cutting sky down as much as poss and am geting rid after the contract!!! And just for the record, freeview isnt available in my area therefore we got sky...and all said and done..Sky Plus v's freeview?? thats like Tyson v's me!

lynzpower wrote:

get into mystery shopping, you can have meals out and get paid for it, along with plenty of other bits & pieces.

Whats that?? lol. sounds like fun going out eating and getting paid for it!

chevalier wrote:

You don't say whether your older child is eating with you, but I would be worried about the amount of salt there is in take aways, if she does. Once you have done the initial big shop like this, and assuming you have a freezer, after a couple of weeks of cooking, you will have built up quite a store of frozen food for those to tired to cook days.

No no she doesnt, shes highly alergic to a few things so she cant eat anything we havent made for her. She eats well and cheap :-) Vegetables, pasta, fish portions etc.

If we cook for ourselves and its suitable for her she will eat with us but takeaways dont happen for her. Last time she tried some of mine we ended up in hospital all night with her looking like the elephant man! haha

sorry forgot to say, thanks for all your help people. My attitude towards all of this is certainly changing for the better. Me and the OH are going to spend some time together over xmas going through this site picking out the ways we can save money in our family. Ive already made lots of suggestions and she is happy to work at it together.

Benson112

lynzpower wrote:

OK in terms of looking at the debt- bearing in mind your CR might just be shot to bits ( weve all been there )

1. have you actually had a lok on experian at your credit file? https://www.experian.co.uk

2. let me look at these debts & see if theres anything that can be done.

Basically the ONLY way you will be able to recover your credit rating is by clsing debt down. As an aside, maybe the first one you need to look at is the A&L, as this is small but should be the first to be "settled" on your account, which will look good.

otherwise the best way to structure off paying the debt off is by highest APR first and then pay the mins elsewhere.

1. no i havent seen my credit report for years. I paid for one from experian a long time back and it was pants then. Ive worked really hard on it making sure i dont miss any payments but we got to september this year and things went pear shaped! Ill see if i can get hold of it.

2. Because the CR is lame, im going to struggle to get anybody to give me a loan without borrowing £10k and paying back £35k! This was the bit i was needing help with. Pointing me in the right direction etc. Do these debt management plans mean the end of your credit rating? lol i.e. you'll never get credit again after you go onto one of these? Help me i dont get it!! lol

The A&L is an overdraft which clears tomorrow when i get paid and then within a few weeks ill be back in it! This is the account i have all my DDs going from...i just havent set one up to transfer the spare money too yet! I started doing all of this about a year ago, got half way through and give up.

With peoples help and suggestions on here i can get it totally right this time and stick to it and not get into any more debt!!

scootw1

benson, did you check the contract to see if there was a getout clause seeing as you 've only had it a few weeks? (I assume as you still have 12 months ro run)

Benson112

Yes mate i had a look last night, sorry i forgot to get back to you. Im a week too late! lol. Always the way isnt it. I phoned them up and theres nothing they can do about the contract but they can help me out reducing the monthly amount. They are phoning me back today as their comps were down yesterday! Cheers again

scootw1

Benson112 wrote:

Yes mate i had a look last night, sorry i forgot to get back to you. Im a week too late! lol. Always the way isnt it. I phoned them up and theres nothing they can do about the contract but they can help me out reducing the monthly amount. They are phoning me back today as their comps were down yesterday! Cheers again

Worth a try. All the best

mrslawrence2003

Benson112 wrote:

I was using that as an example...i have about 6 other places i could in theory go and live with my family for alot less but we want our own house and to be on the property ladder. Hensce my comments that i dont particulary NEED a house.

And please please please stop going on about Sky, i have already said a million times that i am cutting sky down as much as poss and am geting rid after the contract!!! And just for the record, freeview isnt available in my area therefore we got sky...and all said and done..Sky Plus v's freeview?? thats like Tyson v's me!



Whats that?? lol. sounds like fun going out eating and getting paid for it!



No no she doesnt, shes highly alergic to a few things so she cant eat anything we havent made for her. She eats well and cheap :-) Vegetables, pasta, fish portions etc.

If we cook for ourselves and its suitable for her she will eat with us but takeaways dont happen for her. Last time she tried some of mine we ended up in hospital all night with her looking like the elephant man! haha

sorry forgot to say, thanks for all your help people. My attitude towards all of this is certainly changing for the better. Me and the OH are going to spend some time together over xmas going through this site picking out the ways we can save money in our family. Ive already made lots of suggestions and she is happy to work at it together.

to be fair i was posting on the fly (didnt have chance to read the whole thread) and just wanted to help. incidentally - i know u dont want to change sky and fine, but when your contract comes to an end it might be worth looking into this new digibox as it functions exactly like sky plus, but just not with sky channels (if u see what i mean).

as regards your daughters allergies, not sure if you already do this but u can get things like soya milk and wheat/gluten free flour from your docs on prescription. this may well work out much cheaper than buying it normally - could be worth looking into?