Nibbling away at Debt....

lynzpower

Mice_Elf wrote:

Good point!

OK Birthdays....we have
On my side :

Mum
Dad
Brother
Brother
Gran
Cousin's son
Cousin's daughter

On OH side :

Mum
Dad
Brother
Grandma B
Grandma D

That's it for birthdays.

Made it through the day without spending any money, which is great! LOL...1 down....364 more to go.

Have made a start on Ebay and listed the first 5 items. Loads more to go, but it's a start.

Will transfer money from 2 of our savings accounts to pay off the 2 smaller credit cards. It's pointless having a DD go out for £7 to pay off one of them when we could just clear it completely.

Think I'll also start on the grocery challenge to try to get my bill down. Aim for £300 as suggested, maybe £320.

Does anyone have any good recipes for cream cheese? Have loads left over from making stuff at Christmas... :S

Hello Timbo - yes, I think you're right about the Ebay thing. I've got a loft-full of stuff over at my mum's still and it could all go on Ebay, as could the Christmas presents received this year that I'm never going to use.

Could any of these presents youve recieved be put towards other peoples birthdays instead of selling them? Obviously dont give them back to the person who bought them for you, but I got a couple of things for Xmas, that are in the "present box" so if and when we have anything like secret santa at work or birthdays, we can shuffle around what weve got. I also bought 2x gift sets for 2.50 in the boots sale which will do fathers & mothers day.

lynzpower

you also might find it easier to shop weekly.

I certianly buy much less now than I did when I used to shop monthly.

I interswitch between shops, tescos mainly, lidls occasionally. markets when I can get there, farmfoods, wilkinsons & poundshops for some things. Also I use turkish/ bangla grocers for herbs/ spices, rice etc as they are significantly cheaper than Mr Ts ( eg rice is twice the amount for the same price!)

Check out local butchers, ours does a "freezer pack" for 20 quid with 2kg mince, 8 chicken quarters, 16 sausages, lamb chops, frying steak & stewing beef, very heavy to get home, but MUCH better value than supermarkets.

Use vouchers, you can find them in newspapers, mags , on the vouchers board- tescos and waitrose will take the vouchers whether you buy things or not I usually save a couple of quid a week this way.

DizzyMum_2

Hello,

Just a quick one before I've go off to work - my other half works in London and takes the train from Peterborough - he uses a scooter to get to work - just as quick, cheaper to run and he doesn't have to pay the daily parking fee.

nester

Hi there, You seem to be doing really well with household bills, but why not consider getting rid of Skydigital. That money could go toward reducing loan or CC bill. You can get a freeview box for the price of 1 monthly payment. And consider the possibility of a very relaxed informal wedding. We went to what was definitely the most enjoyable and touching wedind couple of years ago. Lovely church, friends pitched in, 1 did the photography, 1 did the flowers, all clothes were either borrowed or bought on e-bay. Reception was a buffet in a pub literally next to the church. Perfect. No one had to traipse around the country from church to hotel, no long waiting around. To be honest, most people are not that fussed about the food and the table decorations etc. They will be there for you. That wedding came in at under 1K. So perhaps put some of that wedding money towards a happy debt-free married life!

flowerofscotland

Hi and welcome. You have received lots of good advice already about your finances. My comment relates to something you mentioned in your first post about suspecting that your OH may be mildly diabetic. PLEASE PLEASE get him tested. Diabetes is extremely serious and can lead to all kinds of serious and not so serious complications. Basically it affects every organ in the body and obviously the potential for this to develop into something dreadful is much more likely if it is untreated. It is one of the targets that GPs have so there should be no problem getting an appointment for the test - getting your OH to go along may be more difficult.

I understand completely your reluctance to stop saving especially for your daughter but it just doesn't make financial sense. You could start a spreadsheet and keep a record of how much you "owe" the savings fund and aim to make up the shortfall when you are able to do this. And rather than have an emergency cash fund keep one of your credit card accounts open (with no balance) - put it away so that you don't get tempted to use it but it is there in case of boiler failure etc.

Someone has already mentioned that the various challenges on here are a great way to motivate yourself and more importantly keep motivated. Here are some links - read and join in if you feel it might help:
Debt free the Fly Lady Way http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=347734
What small DFW thing have you done today
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=353248
2007 Olympic Challenge
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=338896

Good luck

chevalier

The other thing that you OH might have a problem with is an overactive thyroid. This is part of the control process for the metabolism. If it is overactive, it would mean he would always feel hungry.

It definitely needs investigating, as with the suggestion of diabetes that flowerof scotland mentioned above.

Mice_Elf

eyelinerprincess wrote:

On the subject of phones, do you call or text more?

My O2 PAYG gives me 300 free texts with a min topup of £10/month, and it has a service to borrow £1 in case of emergencies.

Hi there - I text more, really. My rate is a very low line rental and expensive calls because I don't use my phone to call anybody, unless I have to. It's mainly to receive calls / text / use as a calendar.

My tariff currently gives me 150 free texts a month and I have never yet used them all up.

Mice_Elf

Trying_to_Budget wrote:

Hi Mice

Just wanted to mention pet insurance. I have 3 cats and have just taken out insurance with petplan for £21. Obviously, I dont know circumstances with your cats (Age, illnesses etc) but it might be worth looking into getting it cheaper. £35 sounds a lot! Also, do Tesco's cover illnesses for life? As long as your cats are under 10 years (Recently increased from 8) Petplan will cover.

HTH

Hello.

Petplan won't touch me unfortunately - all of my cats are now over 10 years old. Well, 3 are and 1 is 10 in March.

Mice_Elf

Testing for my OH is on the cards - I keep trying to get him into a Lloyds Pharmacy where they will test for diabetes for free. It does worry me how irritable he gets when his blood sugar drops.

LynzPower - yes we have a present box too! It's out in the garage with bits & bobs in it, but the things that I'm selling aren't really stuff that I can give to others. Hence why I'm selling as opposed to sticking them in the present box.

Nester : If I'm honest, I think the whole wedding thing has been put on hold. I'm in no mood to go searching for venues and stuff and I keep saying to OH that we need to start and he just nods and agrees then nothing happens. So I've effectively shelved the idea for now. -=shrug=-



In other plans, I've decided to do 1 veggie meal a week, thus stretching the meat that little bit further. Did a pasta bake tonight and added small cubes of chopped ham for a bit of meat taste and to see if it would work. The ham was getting very close to its Use By date anyway, so needed using.

I really miss my old butchers up in Redditch. They did Special Meat Mondays where everything was reduced (even the new stuff) or it was BOGOF or whatever. I used to go in, spend £80-£85 and get enough meat to last for 40 - 45 meals so every now and then, I didn't have to go meat shopping for a MONTH! It was especially helpful when I was heavily pregnant with my daughter and after she was born. The butchers was close to work, 30 miles away from where we lived, so it was an extra trip to get there after she was born, but we lived for 3 months without needing to buy meat as I'd stockpiled beforehand!
Now we've moved I need to check out the local butchers here, or go into town more often and check out those butchers. At present I don't go in enough - maybe 2ce a month, maybe less. I rely on the easy options, I suppose - Tesco's which is on the way home from my mum's and less than 5 miles away and online shopping for anything else that I need for birthdays.

There are a lot of habits that I need to break.

I've transferred a lump sum out of my savings to put towards one of the Credit Cards (Skycard) to get that more manageable as we're currently over the limit. Rang them up and they've promised to waive this month's overlimit charge... which is something.

Mum came over to see me today. We woke up late because my silly mobile decided to reset itself to the 26th February 2006 and thought that it was 9:30pm at 9:45am. Grrrr... So no alarms.
Terrific weather here - really windy and rainy. I seem to have set up in business collecting other people's dustbins. Eventually I stacked them behind the car until they all came home from work and could put them away, thus stopping me having to run out there and bring them off the road!

Have been asked to wash up after a function in a nearby village hall. We used to live in the village and the function's manager is the mum of my good friend, hence why she asks us (my mum & I) to help out. It's not much and it's not until March, but it works out to be about £20 - £25 plus a free meal and all the food you can carry home that isn't eaten!
It will also be the first night that OH has put daughter to bed on his own. Going to try a couple of trial runs first where I go out and he puts her to bed to get her used to the idea... Should be interesting.

Freezer and fridge are both stacked to the gills, so I shouldn't need to go shopping for ANYTHING in the very near future. I know....Personal Grocery Challenge - No Shopping until the 9th February - 3 weeks away. Only thing I might need before then is nappies, but as daughter is in knickers now during the day, they should last a bit longer.

Need to fill my car up with petrol. It's not urgent, as I'm not going anywhere until next Tuesday and in all honesty, it might get me to where I'm going and back again...That would push the petrol that little bit longer too.

In good news - my little brother has decided to quit smoking. He's smoked for...ooh...a good 12 years I would imagine and fairly heavily - a pack every day or so. He apparently decided to stop at Christmas and he's been 2 weeks free of cigarettes, so good for him!

My other brother's off on holiday on Monday - 2 weeks in Sharm, scuba-diving. Am quite jealous - I love Scuba diving. Before anyone panics though, no I'm not Scuba-ing at the moment. Haven't in years, but when I did scuba, I loved it.

Mice_Elf

Quite annoyed this morning. Received a letter stating that 3 DD's have bounced at £39 each, plus £28 unauthorised overdraft fee. The annoyance stems from the fact that the companies in question are supposed to have moved the DD date to AFTER pay day and they obviously haven't.

And I know definitely that one of them took the details because they sent me a letter confirming my new address and I changed the DD date at the same time.

So that's another nearly £160 odd that needs to go on the charges letters.

Do I start a fresh request or tag it onto the end of the existing?