Keeping up appearances.......

HappyNow

MissShoes wrote: »

If not, i think more onion fried with the garlic at the start- i love paprika and a smidge of chilli in this too. hope you manage to spice it up! x

I accidentally bought smoked paprika last week instead of the normal stuff. It's lovely - gives chilli an extra edge.

babyblooz wrote: »

Quick update on the carrot soup - its much better now I've added another onion, a smidge of chilli sauce and more salt and pepper. It's very fibrous, if you know what I mean, so I imagine it will be filling. I've found that my home made soup is filling generally and I think that having it for lunch at work through all this bitterly cold weather has helped me lose some weight since christmas. I'm not sure how much but well on the way to a smaller size in jeans :beer::beer::beer:

Ah good, I'm pleased you've salvaged it. Wow, I could do with losing a couple of inches so I hope that's a side-effect. I've not noticed it so far but that's probably because I'm struggling to cut down on the chocolate!

babyblooz wrote: »

The mushroom soup I made was made extra flavoursome by adding a spoonful of redcurrant jelly left over from Christmas. It sounds very odd but was really very very nice!

Did it go pink?? Sounds very tasty and rather pretty!

HappyNow

salesaddict wrote: »

Hello HappyNow,

what a truly lovely diary. I identify so much with you and all the other contributors on here.

I have overspent probably for the last decade, maybe longer. My DH suffers from a chronic health condition and has been unable to work for the past 3 years.

I was always the main breadwinner anyway. I work in Banking (boo, hiss!!) but life has really changed workwise too in the past 3 years. I am on half the salary I used to be.

I too have the main control of the finances but I am not the only one living in cloud cuckoo land>
So to summarise, we have a massive mortgage for a couple of our age, having consolidated our debts at least 3 times. Then we've gone straight on spending. It was the recent death of my Dad that has enabled me to clear our latest massive credit card debts.

This has truly given me my final LBM. My darling Mum (who died a few years ago) worked hard all her life to ensure that we would have an inheritance. When I think of my profligate ways and how frugal she was, I feel truly ashamed.

But as I say, this is my LBM, I have been given another chance. I'm not going to squander it and I am delighted to subscribe to your diary. You have a lovely lot of contributors on here too.

Delighted to make your acquaintance xx

Thanks for posting that Salesaddict. I've often thought how embarrassed and ashamed I would be if my parents were to find out about my debts. They're both in their 80s now, and not rich but 'comfortable'. As a child I remember hearing them talk about how they were going to manage the bills, and my mum waiting for my dad to come home on a Friday night with his wages so they could go food shopping. To the best of my knowledge they never borrowed anything - they saved for things or they did without. If there is one thing I wish I had learned from them, it's that ethos. Inevitably I suppose, one day I (and my sister) will inherit their house, but hopefully that will be many, many years in the future and I will be debt-free by then. Either way, I intend to 'Keep Up Appearances' for their sake - they would be so disappointed in me if they knew what a mess I've made .

Anyway, on a more cheerful note, thanks for reading my diary and I hope you will stick around for the next seven years ! You sound to have an interesting back-story and I'm looking forward to hearing more about it if you are happy to share.

Hopeful1 wrote: »

Don't have any regrets..life's too short. I always say that as long as we learn from our mistakes and work hard not to repeat them, they were worth making. Life's a learning curve. You've had your LBM so now's the time to start a new chapter that would have made your parents proud. Good luck with your journey

Very well said Hopeful1!

salesaddict wrote: »

I knew I'd come to the right place.

Thank you Hopeful, I really appreciate your kind, optimistic words.

Me too, thanks for that x

HappyNow

brizzledfw wrote: »

What lovely comments guys..making me feel all warm..aah!!

Re the soup, whether carrot or pumpkin my trick is to use lots of ground coriander...it makes it warm and sweet and never fails. Also the other trick is Marigold veggie stock. Blooming' marvellous. Not sure sm own brands measure up butmaybe worth a try too.

Aww yes, I went a bit fuzzy too!

I bought my first bottle of ground coriander for my soup - I've only ever used fresh before (and I've decided to grown my own this year - another first!). It smells lovely in the bottle - very delicate but sweet. I've heard of the Marigold stock but never tried it, I've always just stuck with Knorr cubes. I will see if I can afford it and, if so, I'll buy some! Thanks x

Box_of_Fluffies

I'm loving all this talk of soup and slow cookers. Although pleased it's almost time to head off to bed as all this talk of food is making me hungry! Something I occasionally use to give a bland soup a bit of flavour, works well in the pumpkin soup, is a small amount of coconut cream. It's not something I keep in the cupboard usually but it was recommended to me. It kind of adds a bit of an asian feel to the soup, which would work well with the coriander.

Re the cooking things before hand, I never cook meat before it goes in the slow cooker, might brown it first if the recipe calls for it, but definitely no cooking. It's got to be simple as the ingredients usually go in before I head out the door in the morning!

HappyNow

Well, payday today for both myself and Mr Happy. Unfortunately my unsecured debt has only reduced by just over £100 from last payday. Or, to put it another way, my percentage paid off has increased from 0.5% to 0.65% .

Now obviously that is not earth-shattering (my aim was to get a number on the other side of that decimal point!), but having spent much of the day doing calculations I am feeling very upbeat.

Firstly, it's a small reduction but it IS a reduction. That's two consecutive months of debt reduction, after many consecutive years of debt increase.

Secondly, January was - as predicted - my financial month from hell. I had to use my credit cards for food, car repairs, box of wine and several other absolute essentials.

Thirdly, my budget from now until next payday is actually realistic. I do not envisage spending anything on my credit card AT ALL (barring emergencies), which means that next payday I won't be playing catch-up for new spends.

Fourthly, £5000 of credit card debt came to the end of its low interest deal last week, so I had to pay transfer fees of 4% (ie £200) to move it onto another card. But that other card has given me 0% until Feb 2013, so although I've taken a bit of a hit now the benefits will run on into next year.

So yeah, all in all a HappyDay for HappyNow. I can't find a smug smiley, so I'll settle for this one --> :T

Mags_cat

HappyNow wrote: »

, box of wine and several other absolute essentials.

Excuse me.

Month you've had, the box of wine was *so* an essential purchase. Frankly, two boxes would have flown under the radar

Hello, by the way...new subscriber :wave:

babyblooz

Happyday the mushroom soup didnt go pink at all, it was quite a dark greyish brown anyway because I used the brown mushrooms and just added a small dollop of redcurrant jelly because I remember seeing it used to add depth to some sauce or something on a telly cookery programme.

My dad always likes to add a little bit of this and a little dash of that when he is cooking. I suppose I grew up with that kind of attitude towards cooking.

My all time favourite though is pea and ham, lots of taste and very sustaining and just the thing for the cold weather.

Box_of_Fluffies

Well done on your debt reduction and on getting 0% til Feb 2013. January is hard for everyone so don't beat yourself up, you so deserved that box of wine.

poohbear59

Happy, well done on the month you have just completed. You are really making huge changes and should be very proud.

I started a long time ago, gained more debt for the business and now I am very impatient as mine is going down too slowly. You on the other hand have realistic expectations. Well done

HappyNow

Mags_cat wrote: »

Excuse me.

Month you've had, the box of wine was *so* an essential purchase. Frankly, two boxes would have flown under the radar

Hello, by the way...new subscriber :wave:

Box_of_Fluffies wrote: »

Well done on your debt reduction and on getting 0% til Feb 2013. January is hard for everyone so don't beat yourself up, you so deserved that box of wine.

Thank you both for helping me justify that wine. Perhaps this is a good time to mention that I bought another box yesterday ! Now, I know this sounds a bit weak, but it was MONEYSAVING wine. Honestly. You see, yesterday was new grocery-budget day so I wanted to stock up on a month's Tesco essentials - our cats like their own-brand food, their dog food was on offer and there were some other staples that were cheap (Flora etc). So, I bought a month's worth of those, but it didn't quite total £40 to qualify for the £5 voucher use. So I quickly nipped down the wine aisle and picked up a box of £14 French red, which then effectively cost £9. Thrift at its best, you see!

Mags-cat, thanks for reading and subscribing