10 months in and 90 left to go ... the reality is starting to kick in :)

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi El, what about if you use a money off voucher when shopping, OP the sum of the voucher? It's just anther thing to keep the focus going.

Good luck

Tilly x

elantan

Tilly that's a very good idea actually as hubby gets a 5% discount when we shop so I could op that straight away

Will need to work on my couponing skills though as I think that would also save me money ... Thanks Tilly

I deff feel a big difference with the tidying up of accounts

GreyhoundAngel

I'm doing ok, thanks El, - except not making as many inroads into things as I'd like !

So good to hear your positiveness, seems you've found something that will keep you grounded and focused with the Tilly up thing .... I think I need to discover something like that, which will help me focus on everything.

I'm getting to the gittery stage now, as "D" day is not far away

Angel xx

Edited to add ... PS ... can I share the Jaffa's please

elantan

GreyhoundAngel wrote: »

I'm doing ok, thanks El, - except not making as many inroads into things as I'd like !

So good to hear your positiveness, seems you've found something that will keep you grounded and focused with the Tilly up thing .... I think I need to discover something like that, which will help me focus on everything.

I'm getting to the gittery stage now, as "D" day is not far away

Angel xx

Edited to add ... PS ... can I share the Jaffa's please

* hands angel the jaffa cake plate and glass of her favourite liquid* there ya go me dear


inroads can be wiley things, there have been times when i have felt very much in control of getting out of debt ( and other things) then something small happens and puts me right off my game, sometimes with such a negative impact that i land up in a worse place than where i was to start with, i think for me it's becoming more and more obvious that i just have to ( as beanie would say) keep plodding... i am having to accept the downs as well as the ups,

last time when we found things were getting worse ( ie, the holiday, the car etc) i hid from mse, i wasnt trying to ignore it all and hope it would go away, i think i just knew i wasnt in control as much as i would've liked to have been, so wanted to wait till everything had happened that i was expecting to happen then brush myself off and start again,

i dont know if thats the right thing for everyone but i think it helped me in a way as yes the money slipping through my fingers was always in the background of my thoughts, but i knew i wasnt and couldnt be in control ( although i did try for damage limitation:) ) so didnt want to come on here moaning and complaining, ive had too many diaries where all i do is moan and complain, justified moans and complaints, but moans and complaints all the same and i found they were dragging me down... so this time i dissapeared for a while then came back and got my head in the game so to speak

elantan

Today i am going to attempt to organise some of my food cupboards, i have told hubby i will be doing one, but i am going to try and aim for a few more than one, probably not all of them as i have so much rubbish to sort out, i'm hoping to take note of how many cans of things etc i have, i tend to stock up when things are on special, like 2 cans of napolina plum tomatoes for £1, i'll tend to buy loads then as they are essentially half price ( and we use alot of them)

i also have loads of lentils etc so i need to figure out how much of everything i have so that i can organise my shopping and meal plans better.

Shopping is the one area ive noticed where people can make big inroads into their debt with, you can't really control your council tax ( yes you can try and pay it over 12 months instead of 10) and you can't really control your diesel or gas and electricity consumption, yes you can not go out in the car unless needed and you can turn things off if not needed (heating, t.v etc) but those things are fairly easy to do, and tbh i havnt noticed a huge difference when i have, i still pay £140 a month for my gas and electricty and i still use £30 -£45 a week ( depending on requirements) in diesel, i have cut these things back as far as i am comfortable so food is next

now i have tried the switching down, somethings i will happily switch down with ( beans for eg) but other things i have found it really does make a difference to flavour ( hp sauce) and i am not willing to switch down, unless we get to a stage where we have no choice ( just now we do have a choice) so switching whilst yes it is good for somethings, it isnt good for everything

anyway, i am thinking of taking note of the tins, the lentils, the chickpeas etc and making plans on how to use them up

it's going to be tough as we are very very much used to eating what we are in the mood for and like the freedom that this brings, the ability to be able to say "och today i fancy x,y,z" instead of saying " today we are having x,y,z" very slight difference in words, very big difference in thought processes i've found.

I've also tried to do this several times and failed miserably every time as both hubby and i found it too constrictive, but surely there must be a way out there that we can be comfortable with and that will help us become debt free faster? I think its important to remember this journey is not one size fits all, but it is great to get other peoples ideas as some of them might be exactly what will make the difference for others

no tilly ups today but thats ok ive got something else to keep me busy for today:D:D

skint_spice

elantan wrote: »

now i have tried the switching down, somethings i will happily switch down with ( beans for eg) but other things i have found it really does make a difference to flavour ( hp sauce) and i am not willing to switch down, unless we get to a stage where we have no choice ( just now we do have a choice) so switching whilst yes it is good for somethings, it isnt good for everything

But at least you've tried them, I totally agree - most own brand stuff is fine but never found tea bags or coffee to be up to much. Folk buying branded bleach to stick down the loo though? why:eek::eek:

I am a meal planner and it is boring sometimes but I just think how much it's saving me, also I can't be bothered shopping! Could you maybe have stuff for a few meals on hand then have whatever you fancy most?

rising_from_the_ashes

Totally novice meal planner here too

I've joined the "I will meal plan & stick to it" thread as I've tried before & just end up having what I want instead

1st week is going OK (and have stuck to it :T) and have even had something (Toad in the Hole) that I've not had for years as I've loads of sausages in the freezer to be used up ... so, it seems to be working!

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi El, how about meal planning Mon-Thurs and whatever takes your fancy Fri-Sun. When we batch cook we use loads of different cookery books so that also gives us variety. That may make it easier to stick to maybe.

Good luck - and if you only knock of £10 a week, that's another chunk over a year.

Tilly x

elantan

Thanks everyone for the input, i think maybe just a few days a week to start off with might be a good plan actually, when i decided to become vegetarian ( i am no longer vegetarian... but fingers crossed this year changes that) i started with just eating veggie food one day a week then upped it to two/three etc till i got to full time vegetarianism, so this may actually work with a menu planner as well

well today i cleaned the cupboard i had in mind, i didnt do anymore than that one though as mr el's depression which has been lurking in the background for a few weeks now has kinda kicked in and he seemed to be getting more and more agitated with the whole process.

i got so frustrated with the cupboard myself though i have to admit, we clear this cupboard maybe once or twice a year and always have loads of things to chuck out that is out of date, last time we agreed to make more of an effort and not waste food, so this time i was very frustrated when once again we had out of date food, the thing that annoyed me most was we had 8 tins of tomatoes, there is no justifiable reason for this at all as we use tinned tomatoes by the bucket load, and tbh they only went out of date last month so we will use them, but the fact that once again this has happened just frustrated me no end.

so this time i took the bull by the horns and separated all the out of date food that we can still use ( dried chick peas, yellow split peas etc) and have seperated them into a different cupboard with a written list on the inside of the cupboard door stating what exactly is in it and what date it went out of date, mr el has agreed to use this cupboard first and we will be working on getting this cupboard empty first.

i have also done an inventory of the other cupboard stating what is in it and what their dates are as well.

i have several more cupboards to do, but i will tackle them a bit at time, with as little stress as we can manage.

mr el and i then needed a change so we hoovered out the car,polished it and fitted the boot protector which i bought a few months ago but has been languishing in the kitchen at the corner of my eyeline ever since lol

the rest of today i think may be spent in meditation and body massage, hopefully mr el will get a good nights sleep tonight and that will make a big difference for him, he will be fine, we both know this but he is so tired looking just now and needs some T.L.C i think

rising_from_the_ashes

I had a sort through my "tinned" cupboard a few weeks ago & found a load of tins either just gone or just about to go OOD ... have used them & have put everything back in the cupboard with the longest dated stuff at the back.

I'm the same with tins of toms etc (but I have more than 8!) - I usually use 2 or 3 every week but not allowed them just now so the pile's not gone down at all!

If you're using them in things like pasta sauces, then Home Bar*gains do tins for around 25p and they're fine. L*dl and A*ldi also have cheap ones. HTH