Here I am in debt again. 2nd time lucky

StressedSteph

Morning all,

Hi Bobarella - Yes I love living in the country, but when it comes to shopping on a tight budget it is REALLY tricky. My MIL travels round all the supermarkets as she know which shop sells the cheapest items, but she drives her huge 4.3litre diesel land cruiser to and from these shops, and I fail to beleive that the 20p saving she is making on the odd item is going to end up more than the cost of fuel .

I did a Tesco shop last night, and I must admit there were loads of offers on. I trawled through the voucher thread trying to find a code but nothing worked :(:(:(. But if I can find a code that works some weeks then that would pay for the delivery charge and I think thats the only cheap way to access the big shops with out spending fuel. I don't know how much 20 miles would cost in my big jeep but sure it is ALOT.

Nearer Christmas I am going to take a trip in to Lidl to look at the cheap treats in there.

I am try to figure out how to ask hubby if he is happy to just have one week off for Christmas :eek:. He is a Self Employed Builder and thankfully I think he has work over the December - January period which is Usually a quiet period.

Our mortgage goes out on the 1st of every month (which I hate) and I have done the budget and it is ridiculously tight, if not impossible that we will make that mortgage payment on the 1st. :mad:. I think if he went back on the 2nd which is a Wednesday, then at least he would get paid for 3 days that week, but knowing him, he might think he may as well stay off. Eeeeek.

Got to tidy the house today, its suddenly gotten messy, probably because I am sat here all day :o

Sorry for my rambling this morning.
Have a great day
Steph x

lurvlyloz

tricky on re the hubs work...but if he knows the situation then im sure he'd be happy to. 3 days is 3 days. x

Fae

Hi Steph,

It must be difficult not haveing the large shops close by, but looking for coupons to cover the cost of delivery is a good idea.
Hope you are able to convice your Husband on the Christmas working, its all in a good cause .

Fae

StressedSteph

lurvlyloz wrote: »

tricky on re the hubs work...but if he knows the situation then im sure he'd be happy to. 3 days is 3 days. x

He does'nt TOTALLY know our situation.:o

He knows we had to get a Credit card to cover the cost of a new engine on our car last December, and he knows we are heavily on our overdraft, but I don't think he is aware of the total amount we owe. :eek:.

The main problem is that I am home all day, so I am the one that deals with the finances and I am not very good a depriving us of anything . In the past, if a member of our family had wanted something, I would make sure they got it, no matter where the money came from .

I have now woken up to that not being a very sustainable way to live but do not really want to enlighten the OH as to the extent of the debt as I know that we can get out of 90% of it next year if I really try.

Thankfully hubby does'nt ask for much on a weekly basis, as long as he has some tobacco (not much) and the odd £10 to go to skittles once a week he is happy. I don't really want to rock the boat.

The only time I come unstuck is when he wants extra time off work etc. I am really sad, as he deserves time off work, he works really hard and because of my silly spending I end up having to put pressure on him to keep working.

I am DETERMINED to crack 90% of this debt this year and then I can save up for a fund so that we have spare money for him to have a break each year. Being self- employed means you get no holiday or sick pay, so I really need to get a fall back account for him.

I am a terrible wife arn't I . Nevermind, typing this down really gives me the incentive to keep going, thats the beauty of this website. Its like therapy .

Have just had a call from CashforGold and they are transferring a massive sum of £36 into my bank account. I should'nt complain really as it was all tatty broken gold jewellery from when I was a teenager so nothing I wanted to keep. £36 is better than nothing.

Steph xx

lurvlyloz

ahh i see. well at least your being positive and focussed now so can only get better

yay for the £36...better than a poke in the eye

Bobarella

Hi Steph
I think you are right, crusing around just to save the odd pence here and there hardly seems economical. Have you thought of joining something like Ciao as well, I am unsure if it still exists but back when I was doing a lot of daily clicks, survey sites etc, that was another way of earning cash for doing reviews of day to day items. Again, its not loads but if other users like your review you can earn bonu

rising_from_the_ashes

StressedSteph wrote: »

I love living in the country, but when it comes to shopping on a tight budget it is REALLY tricky. My MIL travels round all the supermarkets as she know which shop sells the cheapest items, but she drives her huge 4.3litre diesel land cruiser to and from these shops, and I fail to beleive that the 20p saving she is making on the odd item is going to end up more than the cost of fuel

Totally sympathise on this front - nearest SMs are both 18 mile round trips in opposite directions and they're both small ones

Nearest big SM is 40 mile round trip ... with Li*dl being somewhere in the middle of them all but with a 6 mile detour..... HB etc are 50+ mile round trip but I do tend to go every 3 months or so for a big stock up on toiletries.

StressedSteph wrote: »

I am a terrible wife arn't I .

NO you aren't! (((hugs))) no wonder you're stressed keeping this all to yourself .....

Glad the money's come through for the old jewelery - every little bit and all that .....

StressedSteph

Thanks for your comments Rising. What do you find is the cheapest way to shop then? You are in an even more isolated spot than me. I can get to the big supermarkets on a 20 mile round trip and I thought that was bad. 50 Miles :eek:.

If hubby got paid monthly then I would do a big monthly shop and that would be worth the trip in, but as we get paid weekly and have no room to over-spend, I am only doing little £50 shops and I just can't afford the petrol.

I budget myself £20 of fuel every week and this just about gets the kids to school (6 mile round trip, twice) every day and then DS does TaeKwonDo, thats a 12 mile round trip and they go Swimming once a week thats a 14 mile round trip.

By Friday, today, I am on fumes in the car. thankfully I am not going anywhere over the weekend so I won't need to put more fuel in until Monday.

I have done a Tesco order and think that maybe my only way to get to the big shops cheaply. Maybe once I have a little bit more control over the finances I might be able to blow the fuel cost and get to places like Lidl etc.

I don't know what the weather is like with everyone today, but I think today is our first very hard frost. I am in Dorset.

Kids are in school, just waiting for wonderful Tesco delivery now, so I can finally have a cup of coffee. :T.

Definately a NSD today as long as I discount the food shop which is unavoidable. Should be a no spend weekend as well hopefully.

Hope you are all keeping warm, speak later Steph

lurvlyloz

Hi Steph,

great on the NSD & weekend

i am finding tesco deliveries cheaper than aldi at the moment as i eat mainly tesco value things and no exactly what i want. im sure if i was more frequent shopper of aldi/lidl i might have got that down to a tee but not quite there yet. i think (sounds silly) im scared to go do a shop...then it end up more expensive and ive then over spent. ludicrous i know!

hard frost here in Nottingham. meant to be very cold over the weekend but no snow thankfully.

Have a great day & enjoy your coffee

rising_from_the_ashes

StressedSteph wrote: »

Thanks for your comments Rising. What do you find is the cheapest way to shop then? You are in an even more isolated spot than me. I can get to the big supermarkets on a 20 mile round trip and I thought that was bad. 50 Miles :eek:.

I have been using the small local ones on a weekly basis - mainly as I'm usually in one or other of the towns on a Saturday anyway, as they both have fantastic beaches & it's lovely to take the dog for a nice long walk on them after the stresses of the week ...

But obviously being smaller stores, you do miss out on stuff and it's a lot more expensive - the biggest pack of potatoes I can get at my store is 2.5kg but you can get 5kg packs at the big store which work out a lot cheaper .... same with courgettes: 3 packs for £1 in the big store but only sold individually in my store & worked out at 70p for 1:eek:

Differences like that quickly add up - I've been housebound for a couple of months (not well) but prior to that, I'd started going up to the big store every other week and trying to get enough F&V to last, with just a small shop at the little store the other week.

The extra cost in fuel (which is really around 20 extra miles for me) is quickly written off by the savings made:)

Wondering if that may help you too - a slightly bigger fortnightly shop?

Or maybe trying to add in a trip to Li*dl or Al*di once a month? If you could stock up on some things it would mean less money spent weekly & fuel savings too - hard for the first month or so but it would hopefully mean some savings after that.