Got to get a grip of this...

debtfreewannabe321

E2006 wrote: »

Hey DFW, its on the old style board - its an ongoing thread. Its certainly making me think twice about throwing food away - something DH and I used to be so guilty of!

Payday last week - debts paid, and signature updated. (Max) 13 more paymets to DFD :j. I also have enough left over (including what we brought back from our weeked away to almost cover the £250 o/d. I need to juggle some more figures to see if I can cover it completely -thats a saving of £10 per month at the minute the £20 pm from March!

All the budget 'pots' are topped up with the months money. DS's lunch money is in the sealed and marked money envelopes ready to be handed in each week, and ive now got a 'silver pot' - 5p 10p & 20p's for DH to take to work to buy coffee's with. Its only 10p per coffee - he does take some from home, but on an afternoon doesnt get a teabreak and has to get one from the machine - this way he wont be bugging me daily for change

We have a family wedding coming up in April - theres a premier Inn close to the venue, and this morning Ive checked the prices and its £29 for the three of us - I just need to ring the hotel directly to make sure its the correct one, then will book that. Thats a saving of £100 on the price of the hotel where the wedding is taking place :T

E x

:Ti'm seriously impressed with your organisation skills :eek: I need to take a leaf out of your book! we've also got a wedding in april, you've just reminded me. Hmmmm i may check local hotels also see if i can get a deal :T

E2006

Aw thanks DFW, Im a bit anal I suppose . Premier Inn have a sale on at the minute so if theres one of those near where you need to be, you may get a good deal.

E x

E2006

Its my wedding anniversary today - 4 years married :smileyhea. Ive made a yummy lasagna for tea, and we have a bottle of nice wine chilling. We havent done presents - just cards, although we have booked a weekend away mid February using some money that we were given for Christmas so thats our treat. We were also given a voucher for a resteraunt - 2 courses and a glass of wine each, so have booked that for tomorrow night - so a very mse celebration.

Yesterday I really had a fancy for salmon for tea. I didnt buy any on the meal plan this week, but decided to put the chicken I had planned for yesterday in the freezer for next week and get some salmon instead - anyway, as it happened, there were 2 salmon fillets in the reduced section of the supermarket down to £1.47! It was obviously meant to be . I managed to get a bag of salad for 60p for tea tonight too, but other than that there wasnt anything worth having.

E2006

Weeks shopping done. £40. That included £16 in Al*i and then £24 in Mr A. Weeks meals include soup and egg & tom sarines for DH for lunches, roasted veg couscous/soup for me, then teas are Lasagna, steak casserole & veg, meatballs & spaghetti, Chicken & spanish style veg and potatoes, HM burgers and HM chunky chips.

Its Mr A fresh pizza for tea tonight and we are at mother in laws for tea tomorrow.

I picked up some great bargains in Mr A: 3 cartons of covent garden soup reduced to 25p, spanish style pots and veg 35p, 2x packs of extra special pork and choritzo meatballs 85p each, 2ltrs organic whole milk 50p and a 6pack of granary bread buns 65p. I must go at that time again on a Saturday

E2006

Oh well, we're at that..dont know where all the moneys gone but it has...time of the month again. Its 2.5 weeks before I get paid again! To be fair we have had loads to pay for this month, but we have gone from the account being quite healthy, to having next to nothing left :mad:

I will really have to get creative to make what food we have in stretch as far as possible - as I ran the freezer down last month theres not a lot! I have enough for:
2 casseroles (one lot of meat bulked and divided)
1 (2 small at a push) mince meals
3 portions of meat balls and spaghetti

So thats max 7 meat meals. I have potatoes and cheese so can do jackets, cheese & beans - probably twice (the pots are tiny). I have some oven chips so we may need to have chip butties one night. As tonights tea is sorted - that takes us to 10th Feb, so only 7 days after that to think about.

I really need to think about the food budget and how best to manage that. Its £200 per month which sounds like it should be more than enough, but out of that I pay £40 for DS's school lunches and snack, leaving £40 ish per week, but then I buy things for packed lunches for DH and myself as well as teas. The problem is, the money just seems to go, and Im not sure where. We used to be terrible for popping to the shop midweek (usually every night), but rarely do so now. Im shopping weekly, but wonder whether I need to do a months shop for meat and storecupboard, and then just buy fresh weekly - the same things so a set amount. I also definately need a spending diary.

Oh well, Im sure we'll get there!

E x

debtfreewannabe321

Hey

I do a monthly shop from wherever happens to be cheapest. Then get top ups weekly from ald*. My budget is £250 for 5.

Do you have lentils? I use these to bulk out all my meals when i'm low on money & food! We also keep a supply of soup & beans so if we're that skint we have beans on toast/ jacket potato & beans etc or the tin of soup each lol!

You'll get there

E2006

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

Hey

I do a monthly shop from wherever happens to be cheapest. Then get top ups weekly from ald*. My budget is £250 for 5.

Do you have lentils? I use these to bulk out all my meals when i'm low on money & food! We also keep a supply of soup & beans so if we're that skint we have beans on toast/ jacket potato & beans etc or the tin of soup each lol!

You'll get there

Aww thankyou. Im just so useless at budgeting Every payday I think 'this is the month I'll get it right' but never do! I just havent found what works for us. Ive tried withdrawing the petrol budget and shopping budget out at the beginning of the month, but it goes far too quickly, even though on paper theres more than enough. Im going to try and take money out weekly instead I think and not go to the cashpoint at all (unless we really need to). I need to get sorted with this - its so embarrasing at 32 and 33 yrs old not being able to make our money stretch a month!

Ive just started using lentils - and basically put them in everything Theyre my new favourite food! We had lasagna last week, which consisted of very little mince, red lentils, left over pepper, onion, mushrooms and left over choritzo and it was absolutely amazing - even DH was amazed how tasty it was with very little meat in (and he's a real carnivor!). Its the first time Ive ever bulked meals out, but Ive started doing it with everything. I added a large handful of lentils to a stewing steak casserole I made last week and it was yummy! I managed to get 5 portions out of what would usually do us 2.5.

Anyway, have done some top up shopping today, fruit etc. Ive meal planned for next week including packed lunches - cheese and pickle sandwhiches and fruit for me, soup and rolls for DH. Teas will be chilli twice, pork and choritzo mealtballs one night, and pork and choritzo burgers another (meatballs squashed together and formed into burgers), jackets/cheesy wedges and beans another night and a (freezer) casserole one night. I have some bacon in the freezer (just 4 rashes I think) and eggs so that will be lunch tomorrow with toms and beans and a piece of toast. To be honest - we're probably eating better now that we have no money, than when we did when we [thought we] did, because Im forced to get more creative where before it was whatever was conveient, and all to often we didnt 'fancy' what we had planed that night!

Tomorrow is going to be a making day. Im going to make cheese scones and cereal bars/flapjacks for packups. Im going to melt down some of DS's christmas chocolate and make rice crispie cakes for treats for the boys, and DS and I are going to make a snake draft excluder with a leg of some old wool tights and some beanbag balls which we have left over in the loft from when DS and I made a beanbag. I have loads of buttons so we can sew some eyes etc on

E x

E2006

Im feeling so down with the whole money situation at the monent :(:(

Having debt is one thing, but having absolutely no money is another! I feel really out of control at the minute and it scares me. DH and I were talking about this the other day - we feel like we have less money than we have ever had before, despite both of us earning the most we have ever earned - the reason is because we 'boosted' our income with credit, and only paid the minimum payments - now that we have stopped using credit and have massively increased the payments, we are really feeling the pinch. The problem we have is trying to live like we used to do before - but thats impossible, we just cant do that, and its when we have to say no to doing/buying things that we would previously do/buy before, then we feel hard done by.

Im scared that I will never learn - and even if we get through this, and even if we never have debt again (which I know we will not), we will never have any money because we will fail to stick to budget and will just spend it all Balancing the books on paper is so easy, but doing it in reality is so hard.

God what a moany entry today - just having one of those days....:(

debtfreewannabe321

aww don't be too hard on yourself i'm 32 (33 this month) and have only just started budgeting since being on the dmp. And most months are ok, unless something like the car crops up (Spent £600 + these last two months) so we are having a few broke months too where money isn't going as far as it should

I've recently changed how i do my shopping to monthly ......i use approved food, rosspa & aldi as well as which ever supermarket is cheapest. I order enough meat, milk, frozen veg, cupboard stuff- tins, cereals, sugar, tea etc (usually up to £150) and then all i need to buy each week is fresh stuff / fridge stuff and occassionally a few bits that i've forgotten (£25-30 a week tops!). I find it easier this way as if we run out of money half way through the month then we at least have food in to feed us! I fill the car up on pay day and then top it up as and when needed. All our bills (direct debits) go out on the 1st except 3 that wouldn't change (grrr) so i make sure i have around £70 left to cover these after everything.........and then if there is money left after paying for all this we split it for entertainment/pocket money etc....do you have a good spread sheet & keep a spend diary? I found these invaluable when i first started!

The key to it all is, you have to leave yourself money to 'live' in your budget and then work out how much you can afford to comfortably pay back. You can always do ebaying or surveys/ cashback to earn a few extra pennies to help you out, but i've noticed those that scrimp on everything usually fall at the first hurdle........sorry long post hope some of it helps though xx

E2006

Aw thanks debtfreewannabe, I feel better than I did a few days ago - it came as a result of needing to buy something that day but not having the money to do so, it really shook me because we have always managed before. Anyway, came home from work early (I work flexi so can do so)and looked again at the budget, but also at what we have paid so far off the debt! Its really easy to forget how far you've came somtimes. The thing is, Im usually the positive one, and DH flaps about the debt!

Some really good tips there - thankyou. I think I too will do a monthly big shop for meat, tins, cleaning products etc, then split whats left between the remaining weeks just for fresh etc. Do you freeze your milk? Just need to think about what I need to last the month - Im thinking lots of rubber chicken and bulked out mince meals I want to do it as cheaply but healthily as possible so need to think of ways to get our 5 a day in too.

On a happier note, Ive just received a refund for the parking ticket I appealed a few weeks ago £35 back in our pocket!