Millie's debt diary

mildredalien

Been poring over a spreadsheet today doing meal plans. I'm going to see if we can stick to a 2-weekly meal plan rotation for evening meals, and stick to £30/week for essential food and groceries:

Week 1 (£19):
Toad in the hole
sausage and bean stew
bacon and broccoli pasta grill
loaded mash
lemon roast chicken and veg
braised chicken and beans
baked been and leek hash

Week 2 (£24):
spanish chicken and chorizo stew
chicken and coconut curry
oven roasted chicken breasts
beef ragu
sausage and bacon casserole
sweet chilli sausages
napoletana pasta

So the main meals should cost me and DB each around £10-12 per week, leaving me around £20 for breakfasts, lunches and household goods. Should be doable if only I can stick to it!

debtfreewannabe321

wow well done for sticking to budget in december! I went WaaaaaaaaaaaaaaY over (oopsy)

Your meal planner sounds good can i ask perhaps a really stupid question but what is loaded mash??

mildredalien

Thanks! I think the amount I didn't spend on groceries I spent on booze though haha December is always a tricky month, don't feel too bad about overspending, hopefully it's still an improvement on pre-LBM days

Loaded mash is mashed potato with cheese, bacon and leeks mixed in. I leave half the bacon and cheese to sprinkle on top and then stick it under the grill to brown and bubble. Yum! I've used mysupermarket.com to check out the basic prices which should be about correct if I don't need to replace too many storecupboard items in one week, and lucky for me Mr A seems to come out cheapest which is our nearest supermarket.

debtfreewannabe321

oooh i reckon minus the leeks the kids would love that! and we have all the ingredients may have to try that for them, thanks

And oooh yes still an improvement pre-lbm haha. i'll never go back to spending what i used to even if i won the lottery! I used to waste so much!

xx

mildredalien

If you chop em up small and mix them in they'll never know! I think the original recipe didn't have any leeks in actually but I felt bad not having any veg with my dinner lol! You could always serve a nice portion of loaded mash with veg on the side according to what the kids like

Bad_Weather

*peaking my chocolate covered nose in*

Hi Mildredalien! :wave:

Loving you name! When i give a fake name (for whatever random reason i may do that) i always use the name Mildred! Erm anywaaaaay....

Your doing soooo well £1.5k in 3 months! I love reading diaries like yours who are really making progress i really find that inspiring and it makes me a little jealous (in a good way!).

Love the meal plan, think i'll be goggling that chicken and chorizo stew! Also our neighbours are Irish and on occasion we get a bunch of yummy tatties so think i'll be giving that loaded mash a try aswell (i didn't know what it was either :rotfl:)

I've subscribed to keep up with how well your doing! x

mildredalien

Hey badweather, mildred is a good name huh? Also not my real name *shifty* but shhhhhh don't tell anyone.... although I've only ever used 'fake names' on the internet not in real life!!

I'm in the lucky position of having frittered money away for the last couple of years. That doesn't SOUND lucky, but it meant that when I finally got a grip on myself and my budget, there was enough spare to make some serious dents in my debt - even if I am a bit naughty and still spending money on things like holidays! Plus finally figuring out how long it could take me to pay off my debts (it was way sooner than I imagined) really motivated me!

Spent £20 on groceries today - should cover all dinners for the next week, most of lunches for work (forgot to get bread rolls) and some booze for tonight :beer: Having a night in with the mister to save some cash

happy 2012 everyone!_party__party_

mildredalien

Well hello there 2012! Thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and make some notes about things I want to achieve/do this year... I don't normally make resolutions but I think it's secretly because I don't want to 'fail' so I never set down a specific goal. Bah to that I say, time to take life by the horns! So anyway, goals for 2012:

• Become debt free! :j:D
• Start a proper savings account
• Maintain a budget even when I don't have debts
• Move into a bigger place with DB
• Carry on working out 3 x per week (minimum)
• Improve compliance with my diet

mildredalien

The first two days of January will be NSDs - not a bad way to start the year! Still waiting on my bank account to catch up with all my direct debits and payments that should have come out yesterday, damn bank holidays

Other than that not much to report... current obsession is playing the new Star Wars game with DB, it keeps me out of trouble (well in the real world anyway!) I'm making a slight adjustment to my budget, more for mentally keeping track than in terms of actual money. Rather than £200 grocery budget, I'm going to attempt a £120 grocery budget and £80 'weekly spends' (pocket money really). I'm not sure I'll need the extra £20 a week, but I'm keeping it there as a buffer for now, may reduce it and increase barclaycard repayments.

mildredalien

Woop Thursday already! I will be glad when this first week back at work is over, ugh!

Splitting the grocery and pocket money budgets is going well. So far I'm still at £20 out of my grocery budget. From my £20 pocket money I've spent £7.50 on a takeaway, and £2.50 on the work tea boat. I like being able to define my grocery money better, and have some disposable income that I can spend on whatever each week! Suits me better I think

Other than the above I filled my car up with petrol (£47 :eek:) but I should get that back from expenses.... not much else to report!