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How to become debt-free?
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Hi
Just going back to your issue regarding your grocery shopping, this was something I struggled with too so I might be able to help with that. I believe that there is a point at which you cut your food shopping down so much that it becomes hard to provide a healthy balanced diet. I might get shot down in flames for saying that but its just my personal opinion!
You need to think in terms of how much have I got to spend and how far can I stretch that money, rather than thinking I need x amount of food shopping and thats just what it costs.
Mealplanning does save you money. I do it fortnightly now because I believe that the more often you shop the more you spend. I only ever have enough in the cupboards and freezers to make the meals we are going to have that fortnight. If we run out of something between shops I try and manage without.
I ignore most special offers. I think they just encourage you to buy things you dont need.
Learn to say no to the kids. I buy a limited amount of crisps, biscuits and the like. Once they are gone they are gone. If they need a snack there is always something to make a sandwich with, or they can have fruit or toast. I also ditched the expensive yoghurts and other branded things the kids are always munching on. Make your own flapjack and cakes.
Make everything from scratch. Buy a slow cooker so that you can buy cheaper meat.
Persuade the family to have a veggie night once a week and/or a soup and pudding night.
Make your own pizzas, fish fingers and chicken nuggets. My kids dont like the bought versions any more.
Be creative with the packed lunches or if this is going to cause a riot think about letting the kids have school dinners then beans on toast or a jacket spud for tea sometimes.
Value products are surprisingly good, experiment with different products or try supermarket own brands.
Many cleaning products are unnecessary, cut these back or move down to supermarket own brands. Try to use less.
Dont rule out having a big shop delivered once a month or once a fortnight. You can see what your basket total is as you are shopping and you are less tempted to pick up things you dont need. Could be worth the delivery charge.
I feed two adults and two older kids for under £300 a month with all laundry products cleaning stuff, toiletries and pet food. I think I could do it for a bit less if I really had to. I used to spend about £450 a month so it makes a real difference.0 -
Pet insurance is essential, in a purely practical sense it costs rather a lot of money to have a pet put down, necessarily or not.
I pay £8.70 a month for one dog, as well as £10.53 a month for all vaccinations, worming and flea treatments. This spreads my costs throughout the year and gives me a discount, so I'm more than happy with that. I'm impressed by yours including consultations, that's really good.
What you can save money on is pet food, I used to buy really expensive stuff as my baby has a very sensitive tummy, but have swapped to an own brand which works just as well but is 1/3 price. Check the % of meat in the food - some of the more expensive stuff isn't actually as good.
I would rather take 5 years longer to pay my debt than lose my pupster. She keeps me sane, and is my company when I can't afford to go out. She gets me out and about even on my most down days and is a great comfort. You can't put a price on that.Total Debt: £0 [STRIKE]£33,043[/STRIKE]
Official DFW Nerd No. 763:jDMP start date Aug 2011~DFD Aug 2013 :j0 -
If your kids are healthy and like fruits and veggies, then look at places like Aldi and Lidl who do weekely specials on fruits and veg. Stock up on those, or encourage the kids to forage for free stuff, or grow some of their own in the garden - it might be a bit late this year, but you can grow berries, root veggies, chillis etc, to bulk out food shopping.
Have you considered that their lunches might nor be sufficient? Add some pasta salad, made up with sweetcorn etc, and it might stick to their ribs a bit. Look at porridge and low GI foods for lunch and dinner, which will keep them feeling fuller for longer.
You really can knock a third off that food budget, but do it in stages - try for £100 under this month, and see how you go.
I understand that you don't want to lose either insurance, but I would definitely shop around. As a self-eployed person, you might find a standard policy won't cover you anyway, so you might need to check and move - use the cashback sites to do this (and anything else you get online)
Good luckSome days, it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps....
LB moment - March 2006. DFD - 1 June 2012!!! DEBT FREE!
May grocery challenge £45.61/£1200 -
Thank you everybody for all your advice. Especially regarding the food shopping. We are going to start making a weekly food plan, and just buy what we need to see if that makes a difference. I think we are too lenient with the kids when they want a snack, even if it is mostly fruit. I'm pretty sure kids don't need 4 apples a day on top of everything else.
The tips on giving them pasta for their lunch box is great. My kids love pasta and it is cheap so I will do this and add tuna and veg to it too to bulk it out - pretty sure I could stretch things like this over two/three days. Also we do have a slow cooker so I am going to start cooking more stews/curries etc and make them last over a couple of days, and instead of putting two packs of meat in for two days worth, I will bulk it out with lentils etc to make it last longer.
I also didn't know that stuff about the sky box. I didn't realise you could still keep the record option for the freesat.0 -
I also didn't know that stuff about the sky box. I didn't realise you could still keep the record option for the freesat.
You don't get to keep the record/pause function if you cancel your subscription, only if you pay £10 per month, and i asked sky if I could do that and they said no they don't offer it.
Can anyone link me to Sky website where it states you can keep record function for £10.0 -
I reduced my sky down from £88 per month, to £10 I have 3 sky boxes in the house, we spoke to sky and asked for freesat, it was a one off cost of £25 and then no more payments, all of the boxes pick up the signal through the box, but not the pay for channels, so no sky one, sport, movies etc. I changed about a year ago so have saved £900 at the very least, and I can say I do not miss what I used to pay for.
Sky will try to keep you as a paying customer, but I kept repeating I want freesat please change it over, and eventually they did. I kept my card in the box, I pay £10 per month for the recordable function on the sky box as there are still some things I want to record, apart from that it is completely free.
Do you get the extra ITV channels as the only difference between a Sky box and freesat is ITVs 2,3 and 4? Maybe that's why they charged you the £25 and the £10 a month0 -
Woah! Can you explain that more? I didnt know you could do that.
I have 4 Sky boxes and only one of them has a current Sky subscription and all function perfectly well without Sky.
If you have one, try it, once you have subscribed to Sky for 12 months the box is yours to keep and will function perfectly well as a Free to view satellite receiver0 -
You don't get to keep the record/pause function if you cancel your subscription, only if you pay £10 per month, and i asked sky if I could do that and they said no they don't offer it.
Can anyone link me to Sky website where it states you can keep record function for £10.
I can't link to the site, but I can tell you I pay £10 per month to be able to record on my digibox, it is only the free channels though so I hope that hasn't confused things. All the pay to view channels are gone, but we have a lot of others. We cannot get freeview where I live so this is the best alternative.
I found this link and interestingly the last comment on the page is
http://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Sky-HD/Sky-HD-box-and-Freesat-from-Sky-PVR-amp-HD/td-p/307923
I pay £10 per month for Sky+ recording only - no TV channel sub. Free HD channels are BBC 1 HD, BBC HD, ITV1 HD, Channel 4 HD, Channel 5 HD, NHK World. These can be recorded along with all free standard definition channels.
Sky call centre staff have been known to deny the existence of this £10 option, so persist!Been here for a long time and don't often post
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also I absolutely need my mobile for work and cannot change the number.
You can keep your number with GiffGaff.I think out telephone/broadband is the best we could get - we looked into it recently and couldn't get a better deal.
Are you sure?
Try looking at uswitch, where prices start at £16-25 pm.0 -
YORKSHIRELASS wrote: »Many cleaning products are unnecessary, cut these back or move down to supermarket own brands.
And buy from Pound shops.0
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