A Thread for After Debt?

JulieGeorgiana

I hardly use my SC, I find everything is so much nicer in the pressure cooker. Once did chilli in the slow cooker and it was horrid, all bitty and grainy... only thing I use it for is curry and brisket.

Rising chicken breast goes very dry in the SC, I use thigh meat, which is so much nicer.

My stocks for winter were 2 uht milk and extra bags of flour! It feels inadequate compared to yours.

QueenB.

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Definiately!

I'm needing to learn how to use mine better .... have made a fantastic beef casserole today but have had pot luck with other things in the past.

I tried making Chilli in it once and it wasn't a patch on how I usually make it. Chicken just seems to go really dry for some reason so I'm obviously doing something wrong!

If it stays OK for the next month (fingers crossed), I'll start bringing stuff out my winter emergency stockpile back into use - I have 4 weeks supply of breakfasts/lunches/dinners... all capable of being cooked on a camping stove, as well as toiletries, cleaning stuff etc. (In my defence, we are pretty rural here - small Co*op which runs out of bread etc by lunchtimes normally and there were no deliveries for over 3 weeks last year. It doesn't stock anything like Lactofree or wheat free stuff - the nearest sm is an 18 mile round trip .... on horrible hilly twisty roads & not something I want to do if there's loads of snow around).

Well, must go & get on ... have put the water on so it should be hot enough for a nice soak now!

My nan lives in Northern Ireland (thats where Im from originally) and due to her age, area and the troubles which happen even when they are not on the news over here, she always stocks up. She fills her freezers full of bread and food, all HM and then uses it during the winter or when she is unable to leave the house for a period of time. I always like to have tins of all sorts, rice, pasta and bread in my stocks. OH has a bit of a problem with buying bread items from the sale shelves.........him and another lady almost fought over a loaf the other week:rotfl: but he did come home with a bag full of 3 loafs, 2 packs of rolls, 2 packs 4 crossants and some crumpets all for £1:eek: the bread still had 2 days to go date wise.

We live in an area surronded by SM and hardly anything else. The few small shops we have are VERY expensive but the local town has a wider variety of cheaper shops like A*di just takes some planning to actually do a shopping trip there but nothing like your trips Rising, it must be difficult.

rising_from_the_ashes

QueenB glad DS is starting to recover.

JG really glad I'm not the only one to have SC problems - honestly I was worried as everyone else seems to love them & uses them for everything without incident.

Well, checked pots / bank accounts - really wanted to check that the SO I'd set up to the monthly savings account had gone through as if it hadn't worked (not great at these things!), I still had time to transfer the money manually but pleased to say it's all set up!

Counted the money in my coin jars .... the £1 and 50p ones were started to cover any bus journeys that were needed if the weather got too bad to drive to work - fingers crossed the weather stays good or they'll still be needed for that purpose. It's £4 each way! (only costs £2 in fuel in total) so a huge drain on the purse at an additional £6 / day if it's needed but I guess at least it is an option (although a good mile hike to the bus stop which isn't nice in snow/ice).

Bit worried about next month's finances ..... the extra £100 on the cc is bothering me - the emergency fund is not healthy (£20) and the only other option would seem to be to reduce payments to the various pots - but these are already finely calculated to meet payments during the year. *Sigh* why do things always happen at once - I'm still recovering from the vets bill / new fridge freezer ......

QueenB.

Rising I know how you feel:( This month has really been stressful where money is concerned (and healthwise). I think if things carry on I will just have to reduce (not really much reducing left to do) and up our income some how.

Do you sometimes feel that there are too many pots? I feel slightly overwhelmed sometimes with the amount of pots both actual and virtual and it just seems that there is never enough. But always some other 'thing' needed. Plus as we are trying to clock up NSDs how do we fill up our penny/£2 pots;)
Wanted to ask you about the grocery challenge. Do you find it helpful? I am thinking of joining in Febuary.......I'm going into challenge overload:rotfl:

rising_from_the_ashes

QueenB. wrote: »

Do you sometimes feel that there are too many pots? I feel slightly overwhelmed sometimes with the amount of pots both actual and virtual and it just seems that there is never enough. But always some other 'thing' needed. Plus as we are trying to clock up NSDs how do we fill up our penny/£2 pots;)
Wanted to ask you about the grocery challenge. Do you find it helpful? I am thinking of joining in Febuary.......I'm going into challenge overload:rotfl:

Funnily enough I thought I had a lot of pots (6) but one of my friends at work (who was also hugely in debt and has climbed her way out ... notice a trend here:)) has 9!

I have been wondering if I dare move to one but this scares me to death tbh! Something to work towards.

Re the £2 coin jar - definately. Honestly, I rarely use cash for things but the last two £10 notes I've broken (1 for £1.85 and the other £2.70) and both times I got all £2 coins (plus coppers) back.

I just can't afford to effectively spend £10 every time I buy something IYSWIM?


The Grocery Challenge is great - I'm still very much in my infancy stages and have a long way to go. Many people have fantastically low spends and I'm picking up loads of tips.

Unfortunately, I'm somewhat limited in how much I can cut off - eg I saw 2 x 2 lites of milk in Farm*foods the other day for £1.80 - the same amount of Lactofree would cost me over £5 .... My milk spend alone is around £35 / month.

Wheat free is another thing I have "problems" with: Oatibix are £2.28 for 24 (9.5p each) but Wheatabix can be bought in 72 boxes for £4.98 (6.9p each), Savings are even bigger if you try Martin's "downshift" to the SM own brand at £2.48 for 48 which is nearly 1/2 what the Oatibix cost. A loaf of wheat free bread costs just under £2.50:eek:

They might not seem like huge differences but they all add up and make it really hard to cut down.

Wow! sorry that was a large post!:o Must go and sort myself out for work in the morning .....

niccatw

QueenB, DS's school sounds fantastic. I work with adults with learning disabilities and I have a friend who has two children with special need, we have ongoing battles with their schools between the balance of teaching the curriculum and teaching what each individual child needs to learn for their own particular needs/life skills.

Having just visited a friend's house for dinner, I can verify slow cooking is a skill (she would agree). I'm veggie and she doesn't do veggie at the best of times, but I now have all of her leftovers from today as she won't eat them! It was rice (which turned to mush) and butternut squash and apricots. It's not the worst I've tasted, but she thought it tasted like baby food. I don't have a slowcooker though, so can't really comment.

Re. the NSDs - saving isn't spending so you're fine on that front!

JulieGeorgiana

I'm still trying to work out what I'm missing with the SC, because after 6 hours my stew will be okay, yet 30min in the PC makes the meat do much nicer and the veg nicer. I always figured it was just me

I know how you feel month after month worrying about every tiny extra expense.

QueenB.

Rising I have just slightly more than 6 'pots' and i have a feeling that once i do my SOA this week and do more budget juggling i may end up with more:o

I know what you mean about food costs, DS1 (he is a very complex wee man:)) has a lot of food sensitivites and alternates between goats milk and lactofree, depends on how his digestion is doing. Even if i change a brand it can have an affect on him as his body needs to adjust hence why most food is HM and he is sensitive to potato reducing meals that contain this (he has been tested for many conditions but just due to his other medical conditions). He eats mainly asian/thai food, so lots of soups, rice, noodles and stirfrys. None of which is that easy to batch cook or make in a slow cooker.

niccatw We are very lucky with my DS1 school, but it took over a year of hard battles to get him a place, he was in a mainstream school before going there ( a great mainstream I must add) I have meet parents who have actually moved from other parts of the country to be able to get their child in! It takes children from nursery age all the way through to sixth form, he is in year 8 at the moment. Both my OH and I work with children with SEN/disabilities (OH works primary, I have worked both primary and secondary) and it is really hard to help a child fully access the curriculum. Most mainstreams are not fully able to cope and I hate to say it but most staff are not properly trained, hence my disillusionment and decision to leave work for a little while even though I enjoyed my daily work and students.

We are all veggies as well so will mainly use SC for soups/stews/mince based meals.

JulieGeorgiana

QueenB the grocery challange is how I got my spend so low. It's got so many hints and tips recipes too. I have £200 a month for cat/rabbit food and for all food and toiletries for us 3, plus £20 for nappies. My budget is small compared to some, but its managable with planning

Niccat you reminded me... I will be making baby food in the slow cooker

QueenB.

JulieGeorgiana wrote: »

QueenB the grocery challange is how I got my spend so low. It's got so many hints and tips recipes too. I have £200 a month for cat/rabbit food and for all food and toiletries for us 3, plus £20 for nappies. My budget is small compared to some, but its managable with planning

Niccat you reminded me... I will be making baby food in the slow cooker

With 5 of us and 4 cats can't see us getting quite that low:( But was wondering do you include things like litter, cleaning products, kitchen towel etc in that? I spend £6 a week on cat litter alone.