Sorry old chap, the money has run out!

ms_night_ryder

well done tony, its nice to see the progress you have made in 2 days, you should be pleased, i understand it is just a drop in the ocean, but often the first steps are the hardest.

Regarding your online shop, its best to sign up to both quidco and top cash back, cash back sites, good for shopping deals, if you are shopping at tescos, there are deals like 15 quid off a 15 pound shop,it is worth signing up to believe me. i have received 2 e vouchers, i will pm with one if you use tesco, s at least you can get a fiver off your shop.

Also if your wife buys a top every month, then the cashback sites may be good for her if she shops online, but dont encourage her too much, she may decide that spending is saving lol

May2013

Hi Tony - well done on all you've achieved so far, it sounds like you’re starting to head in the right direction....but beware this whole debt busting thing can get horribly addictive!!!

When I started dealing with my debts 4 yrs ago I could only afford minimum repayments and was looking at 40+ years before I'd be debt free....but once I got myself organised, created a realistic budget and started living my life the MSE way things started to look very different, I am now just 18 months away from waving goodbye to a massive £52k of debt!!!!

I’d be lying if I said it’s all been a bed of roses, some of the sacrifices made along the way have been really quite painful (although not life threatening )….but I'm now in control of my financial future and will come out the other side of this a far richer person in more ways than one!!!

The snowball calculator has been a huge motivator for me....it might be worth doing yours soon, it won’t look pretty to start with but it will give you a starting point to measure your progress...don’t worry if things move slowly at the beginning….I can promise that it will start gathering momentum and once it does you'll be amazed how quickly you can bring your DFD forward by paying off just a few extra ££'s a month.

Finally I would agree with what others have said about getting your wife on board….I appreciate that this might be easier said than done, but she will have to be committed to working with you on this if it’s going to work!! (maybe get her to read this thread)

Good luck, I’ll look forward to following your progress.

Triker

I think the other bonus here is you can set yourselves up properly to have a very MSE christmas, so that you are not facing the new year with dread and worry.

I know its still a few months away but honestly, there is no better time than to start planning ahead.

Good luck at your car boot.

Triker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/527459

Read this for great car boot advice....

My quick tips which will no doubt repeated on the thread are;

Have a change float.

Plastic bags.

Get your car packed up on saturday night if poss.

Tables go in the car LAST! So they are out first....a tip I found out all by myself when I had to sort through all my stuff to get to the tables.;):o

Take a packed breakfast/lunch/flask so you don't spend all your hard earned on food there...defeats the object.

Pollycat

tony_ack wrote: »

I did my first online shop today... I planned out a week's worth of meals and then bought the ingredients, going for value stuff where I could. It came to a shade over £50 with delivery included, and I am sure I can cut it down a bit more from there. I think the next step is to look at the meals I planned, and see which ones were more expensive, and look at a cheaper alternative.

Menu planning:
One thing I do is buy 2 packs of mince weighing 1lb each and then bag them for the freezer at 2 x 12oz and use the remaining 8oz to make 2 x burgers (imho it really needs to be decent mince for burgers though).
Then you've actually got the makings of 3 meals for 2 instead of 2.

If the packs are 500gm or 800gm, work out how many to buy to get multiples of 12oz - we find 12oz is fine for a 2 people shepherd's pie etc.
You might find it's just as cheap overall to do this buying ordinary mince instead of just 1 pack of value mince.

I also buy the extra large joints of topside/silverside that Tesco/Sainsburys have on half price offer every so often.
I then cut them up myself, into cubes (sorting into 'good' for stroganoff/goulash, 'OK' for ordinary stews, slices for braising etc) - I must have been a butcher in a previous life as I love doing this - and bag it for the freezer. It works out cheaper than buying a single pack of braising steak when you want it.

Same for large joints of pork.

When I do my menu planning, I'll buy a large pack of peppers and use them in tuna risotto, chinese stir fry, with pasta, in an Italian chicken casserole etc - much cheaper than buying a single green pepper for say, 80p just because thast's what your planned recipe calls for.
Same for the 750gm packs of mushrooms.

If I see any potatoes reduced, I'll buy a bag or 2, peel, boil and mash them, portion them and freeze them. Cheap proper mash without the hassle - just get a pack out and defrost.

HTH

ETA
if you';d like to share your menu ideas with us, maybe we can add something.
Also, have you been over to the Old Style board yet? Fab ideas for recipes on there.

LilacPixie

i agree your grocery bill could easilly be cut. I am less than you are by around £100, my youngest is almost 7 months so we also have the whole nappy/formula/odd pack of sleepsuit thing going on

tony_ack

Thanks for all the encouragement - really appreciate it. I can only hope that this really is a lifestyle change rather than a flash in the pan. It's easy to put a sticking plaster over this month's problems, and I know the hard work is actually keeping it going.

I'm thinking about putting the car boot sale back by at least a week - I'm aware that there's only limited time to do this as winter is on its way again. The thought of instant cash is appealing but I have spent most of last night and today getting stuff together and I am nowhere near ready. I boxed up all the DVDs and games I was going to sell, and went to eBay to see what some of them were worth - it turns out some of the games and DVDs have bids of over £20 each, so I really need to go through them all before I start offering them for £1 each. I've also got another pile of 'junk' I've dragged down from the loft, and I haven't even started pricing up, got any change or even found a table. Tomorrow I'm busy most of the day (hopefully the guy is coming to see the car, someone else is coming to collect my parts and I'm playing football in the morning) so won't have time then.

The good news though is that I've identified some items which between them will make me back another £200 on eBay, so momentum is not lost. I'm very confident that I'll meet all of my bills this month (about £300 short as it stands if I budget for food for the next 2 weeks) and might even be able to start chipping away at some of the debts before next pay day.

One more thing - I have decided I really like home shopping! The guy arrived today to drop it off, and it was nice to unpack without feeling flustered from going to the shops (and not feeling guilty from overspending!)

Thanks for the meal planning hints too - one area where we've been a bit naughty in the past is cooking a bit too much. In the dark old days we ended up throwing away what was left a couple of days later, though for the past couple of years we've boxed up the leftovers and it has provided someone's lunch the following day. There's definitely no batch cooking yet though, other than pizza dough because it's fairly easy.

RAS

You are getting there.

Get over this month, then start budgetting.

How much off the budget sheet stuff are you sharing with your missus? Like, "I think this is where we are but can you look at it and see what is missing?"

And when you do the snowball have her there with you to share the pain.

hp48910

It makes sense to put the car boot back if it means more time to organise what you are going to sell. It wouldn't really make sense to sell games for £1 at a car boot when they can go for a lot more on eBay!

I have found it easier to have a rough idea of prices in my head for items that I car boot. Usually I go with the thought that I don't want to bring anything back with me, so it needs to be an attractive price that people won't want to walk away from. That way you won't have put stickers on things (that's what I understood from your post?) which potentially won't sell and those prices will be visible to people who may think they are too high and won't even stop at the stall. Better to have people asking you prices, so you can instantly negotiate!!

Good luck, in a short space of time you really have made some big changes.
H

chadjnewton

Glad your looking forward to joining giffgaff, it really is great value for money! And, when the time comes, if you get someone else from the forum to refer you, both you and they get £5 free credit, which I found useful for the things the bundle doesn't cover. Also, it turns out that international calls are very cheap too! Calls to an Australian landline was only 8p/min! I couldn't believe this when I found out :') Anyway, I'm going to subscribe to this thread and watch your progress, you seem to have had a good start now! Good Luck!