A Thread for After Debt?

dumpy

JulieGeorgiana wrote: »

You won't like mine then :cool:

Nope, when I go out to dig up my MSE home grown veg and it's covered in cat !!!! I do get annoyed.

Very sore point here

QueenB.

JulieGeorgiana wrote: »

I'm planning on using ice cube trays to... then you can mix and match meals

I am proud to say we have money set aside for the cake and a donation for the church for flowers (as its easter day service). As we want it to be more about faith then a party, we are only inviting very close friends and family... and the whole church (who were so supportive when I was poorly). Afterwards they normally have tea and coffee in the church hall so we have decided that we will donate towards that, have a christening cake (for 30) a lemon drizzel and orange drizzel cakes (20) my mum is making a marbel cake (15) and a friend is making a red velvet cake (15-20). And thats us, just small and simple community type christening.

The cake is an M&S sponge wedding cake (like what i had for my wedding) and mum will have Eliza's name on a ribbon, and buy an ornament for the top which I can keep.

Eliza will wear DS Christening gown. Mum bought it in a sale (lovely silk gown) and DS and his 3 cousins have all been christened in it. She will have a lovely crochet blanket which DH used on his christening day. And under it a lovely dress her god mother got her last week

I went on a bit...

After everything you went through to have Eliza you have every right to go:) The whole day sounds wonderful and a day full of joy and love, I'm sure she will look like a princess.

JulieGeorgiana

I'll take loads of photos... so i'll let you decide for yourself

rising_from_the_ashes

QueenB. wrote: »

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.

JulieGeorgiana wrote: »

Have you tried downshifting the litter? We found a nice one at MrT which was simular to c@tsan and it worked well and saved us a fortune

Also bulkbuying pet food online can help (depends on what brand you use). I do think joining the challange just helps you see what you are buying... try reviewing your recipts at the end of the month too... see where you are spending that maybe you could save on (kind of like a grocery spending diary)!

QueenB I do include toiletries & household cleaning stuff but I don't include pet costs in my grocery challenge.

Funnily enough, they were the 1st pot set up as, like JG says, I've found I can save huge amount of money bulk buying online. I was spending say £60 one month and then nothing for ages but really struggling to find the large sums which is why the pots started - as it was so successful for the pets, I gave it a bash for my other budgets.:)

I budget (JG - please don't read this bit as I'm sure you'll be horrified:o) £50 for the cats / month. This is broken down roughly as follows:

Litter - £15
Wet food - £10
Dry food - £10
Boosters - £10 (I can't believe how expensive these have got - Archie had his in November and it was £49.85:eek: so works out at £9/month for them)
Wormer/flea stuff etc - £5

However, it doesn't include their insurance (one of the few dds still coming off my main account) or really anything extra for vets trips... this has always come from the now wiped out emergency fund:(..

My two are very fussy and Mia has a dodgy tummy - I've only found 1 food they will both eat & doesn't upset her tum ... unfortunately not the cheapest but I have reduced costs by getting online/on offer. It's £17 for a 2kg bag at the pet shop, but I've managed to get 10kg bags online for £39 and 4kg bags (£28) on BOGOF. That's a huge difference of £4.50- £5 /kg!:D

Hoping to build up some spare money from the above to cover vets visits as I've still got a 10kg bag of one food and a 4kg bag of the other left from last year.:).

Archie doesn't eat a lot of dry but more wet and Mia is the opposite so it balances out - again, I stock up when Whiskas is on offer and usually pay around £2 to a max of £2.50/box (over £3.50 in the sm).

Re litter (yup, mine come in from outside to use the tray too ) - have you tried wood? I know it may seem more expensive initially than other stuff but it's way more economical to use. I "scoop" a couple of times a day (it turns to sawdust) and rarely have to do a full change of the litter.

I used to get the 30L bags at PAH (were 2 for £16) with each one lasting 3 weeks but they changed manufacturer and it's awful - it was only lasting 12-14 days:mad:. I complained & they said they'd had loads of complaints & were working on it. Haven't bought any for ages but got some at Christmas (now 2 for £18) and it's just the same:(.

Mr A do 10 litre bags for £2.80 (much better than Mr Ts £3.70 stuff) and it's good quality and, if you've a Home Bar*gains near, they do 5 litre bags for £1.29 and it's really good.

Sorry to all non pet owners!:o

rising_from_the_ashes

JulieGeorgiana wrote: »

I am proud to say we have money set aside for the cake and a donation for the church for flowers (as its easter day service). As we want it to be more about faith then a party, we are only inviting very close friends and family... and the whole church (who were so supportive when I was poorly). Afterwards they normally have tea and coffee in the church hall so we have decided that we will donate towards that, have a christening cake (for 30) a lemon drizzel and orange drizzel cakes (20) my mum is making a marbel cake (15) and a friend is making a red velvet cake (15-20). And thats us, just small and simple community type christening.

The cake is an M&S sponge wedding cake (like what i had for my wedding) and mum will have Eliza's name on a ribbon, and buy an ornament for the top which I can keep.

Eliza will wear DS Christening gown. Mum bought it in a sale (lovely silk gown) and DS and his 3 cousins have all been christened in it. She will have a lovely crochet blanket which DH used on his christening day. And under it a lovely dress her god mother got her last week

QueenB. wrote: »

After everything you went through to have Eliza you have every right to go:) The whole day sounds wonderful and a day full of joy and love, I'm sure she will look like a princess.

Agree with QueenB it sounds lovely .....:D and we'd love a pic!

rising_from_the_ashes

QueenB meant to say but forgot ..... pants to the TV - honestly, it never just rains does it!

QueenB.

Rising WOW thanks for all of that info. I did try a type of wood litter before but my fussy felines didn't like it and showed their distaste by leaving me stinky parcels on my kitchen floor :rotfl: but i will certainly have a look around. Re food we try and bulk buy from costco when there is a good offer but hadn't thought about looking online..........my list is getting bigger:D

I do have a pot for medications/vets so that doesn't affect shopping but i may have to up the amount i put in as they are getting older.

Well this whole shopping thing has been playing on my mind.........could you tell:rotfl: so i hunted out the receipts from the last couple of weeks and started a price file which is making me feel a bit more in control. I have all the regular products we use and have columns for all the shops we use (with a column for the odd new place) then I have the prices, its easy to see at a glance which shop has the best price/offer. Then the last column is for any price rises/ falls in %. I'm actually getting excited about this weeks shopping trip just so i have more data to imput ........quick someone get me some help:rotfl:

JulieG Can't wait to see the pics:)

rising_from_the_ashes

QueenB. wrote: »

I did try a type of wood litter before but my fussy felines didn't like it and showed their distaste by leaving me stinky parcels on my kitchen floor :rotfl:

:eek::eek::eek::eek: ohhhhhhh noooooooo! The HB stuff is really small pellets so that may be worth a try but .....:eek::eek::eek::eek:

QueenB. wrote: »

Re food we try and bulk buy from costco when there is a good offer but hadn't thought about looking online

Funnily enough when Mia was really little my pal (who has about 8 cats) used to get big sacks from C*ostco (her neighbour goes) and I would buy a few kgs off her - they were really big orange bags (20kg?) ... think they came from somewhere in Europe and certainly under £15.

Unfortunately she stopped getting it and there was just no way Mia would ever get through a sack that size herself (Archie wouldn't eat it) so had to stop ..... She absolutely loved it tho' and must be fairly good quality as didn't upset her tum. Might be worth a look if yours eat dry too.

QueenB.

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

:eek::eek::eek::eek: ohhhhhhh noooooooo! The HB stuff is really small pellets so that may be worth a try but .....:eek::eek::eek::eek:
Funnily enough when Mia was really little my pal (who has about 8 cats) used to get big sacks from C*ostco (her neighbour goes) and I would buy a few kgs off her - they were really big orange bags (20kg?) ... think they came from somewhere in Europe and certainly under £15.

Unfortunately she stopped getting it and there was just no way Mia would ever get through a sack that size herself (Archie wouldn't eat it) so had to stop ..... She absolutely loved it tho' and must be fairly good quality as didn't upset her tum. Might be worth a look if yours eat dry too.

Mine eat everything:D except the cheap own brands meat:( they will eat the cheap own brand biscuits though so I sometimes mix the own brand ones with the named brand to make it all last a bit longer.

rising_from_the_ashes

Arrrrrrgggggghhhhh - been playing with the pots again - is it me, or is it addictive!

Have transferred £30 from the house bills account to the emergency fund as was really uncomfortable with it being at £20. There's nearly £100 "spare" in there (overpay by £45/month to it to cover household repairs / decoration etc) so think this will have be used to pay the £100 that's on the cc that wasn't supposed to be on until next month grrrrr.

However, I think this may be a better idea than having to reduce the payments to the budget pots as already a bit stretched trying to get these up to the required amounts for when needed during the year.

Ohhhh, I so hope things will be a bit easier as the year moves on and I can drop the amount paid to these each month to "normal" levels!

Also rounded a few of the others up with small transfers of between £1.76 and £6.42 as just can't stand leaving those figures unrounded - you all have a lot to answer for!