Year zero, month one. It works!

FireWyrm

GeorgieFTB wrote: »

You did make me smile, don't forget to treat yourself occasionally, even if it only is a bar of choccy or you won't keep it up!

Well done!! Keep up the good work!

Gx

Part of the budget is a single takeaway for £20. Don't worry, I now myself and my nasty habits. :rotfl:

FireWyrm

*zippy* wrote: »

Well done FireWyrm and good luck with your house move :T

We got rid of our overdraft first too, it may not make us much sense to do it when comparing interest rates, but even though it was our smallest debt it was the one I hated the most as you are budgeting with a negative balance for part of the month.

Yes, exactly my problem...a permanent negative balance which kept getting hit every so often. Once it's gone then the next stop is that credit card. I think it might take me about 5 months to clear. I w just so impressed with actually being in credit on payday which was why I was so happy. Now, only the rest of the year to go.....

Hovel_lady

Just wanted to say well done - really pleased for you :A

adam_devon

FireWyrm, I remember you being particularly helpful with my lightbulb moment post. Any chance you could give me some more specifics with regards to your new meal plan, driving style etc Could you explain exactly what you have cut out, to give me an idea of what can be done.

Thanks, Adam

Seanymph

Where do I find the old style thread please?

rdchick

Super well done, I need to do this! I am also going to tackle my overdraft first because of the charges thing, it's a minimum of £60 a month just for the privilege!

Well done again xxx

backinbusiness

well done and watch out - it can get quite addictive!!

FireWyrm

Seanymph wrote: »

Where do I find the old style thread please?

Hi Seanymph

Old Style Thread is in fact a forum on here. Go back to the main board list and it will be towards the bottom.

Quick jump below

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=33

FireWyrm

adam_devon wrote: »

FireWyrm, I remember you being particularly helpful with my lightbulb moment post. Any chance you could give me some more specifics with regards to your new meal plan, driving style etc Could you explain exactly what you have cut out, to give me an idea of what can be done.

Thanks, Adam

Hi Adam

I'm only doing half what I want to do at the moment, the rest will have to wait until I'm out of this poxy rental and into my own home with a proper stove and a fridge that is bigger than a packing box. However, I have been toying with the concept of a new thread on Old Style which will basically be a post a day for a whole month giving more detailed information, including ingredient lists and basic instructions.

Most of the art of this is daisy chaining which is simply that you use some ingredient from the night before as a staple of this day. So, today was a boiled bacon joint, boiled buttered potatoes, star anise carrots and a fried egg. Tomorrow will be cheesy pasta and bacon bake with a white rue, plenty of the last hard cheese of the month and some of the bacon from today. The day after that will be pizza with, you guessed it, bacon again, a tin of pineapple, a tomotoe sauce made from a tin and some herbs etc. You get the idea. I'm keen to start initial experiments with cheese and especially wine making after we move. I've just had the monthly post mortem with the OH who informs me that the last months shop of £97 lasted us satisfactorily until today but he needs more flour for bread. I've just done some investigating and I can buy flour in 16kg amounts for £16 which is way cheaper than the supermarket.

I don't want to preach, but if anything I'm saying is helping someone else, you are welcome to the advice. For instance, swap to olive oil spread, supermarket own is far cheaper than utterly butterly and in my opinion, tastier. Get someone to buy you a bread maker. We've been making a loaf a day for years and it's the best thing we ever bought. You put it on at night and voila, fresh bread tomorrow. Most machines can make jam too and with the investment in a simple book, you have recipes for anything else bread based like pizza, cheese strips for snacks, spiced fruit buns (delicious anytime and not just Easter) and anything else you can think of.

In terms of driving style, I'm sorry, but there's no trick to it but the savings I have managed tomget are staggering. Basically, I used to belt up and down the motorway at anything over 85. Over the months, I kept a log of fillups and found that my average consumption was 300 miles to a full tank. Essentially, I started obeying the speed limit, even on the motorway and my consumption is now 428 miles to a full tank on average. To be fair, I drive a Peugeot 107 (1ltr) cheap mechanised roller-skate so this may not be practical for some people, but there have got to be savings to make which are similar.

Adam, if you want to start a new thread over at Old Style for this discussion in more depth, PM me and I'll happily share what I can there.