The kick up the a&£e diary for debt busting

tattycath

Been into town for breakfast this morning. I could only eat half of it.
I also bought some tomatoes and mushrooms.
I wanted a cucumber but they were 3 for £1. I only wanted one... So I asked if they could sell me just one and he just put it on top of my tomatoes and said I could have it for nowt. Most impressed! :T
Has anyone ever bought and cooked pigs trotters? We keep seeing them on the market and I'd like to try them, but have no idea how to cook them etc
So my questions are:
Are they expensive?
How many would I need for 2 of us?
How to cook them?
What kind of flavour ? Like pork? Gammon? Totally different?
Lol! any experiences of pigs trotters welcome. Thank you.

Managed to add to savings today-now got about £325! :j

tattycath

Groceries!
My shopping bill varies from week to week...
Like, take this week. We went shopping for a couple of bits on Monday and spent just over £20. Then yesterday I went to get some pack up stuff for my daughter and spent about £41. I really should keep track and have a set budget. I often cook from scratch-but not always.
Sunday, I called to get some milk and ended up spending a fiver or so!
I shop at Asda mainly but do go to aldi and lidl. Went to m & s last week and got £11 of stuff for a fiver.
I've been on the grocery challenge thread thing in the past but I soon lose track as we don't go shopping for a main shop every week. Some months are made up of a bit of shopping here and there all month!
So I really need to focus on how much we are spending and then setting a reasonable budget to work towards.

jwil

I'm pretty rubbish with the grocery shopping as well. Sometimes I'm very good at not spending a lot, other times...

tattycath

jwil wrote: »

I'm pretty rubbish with the grocery shopping as well. Sometimes I'm very good at not spending a lot, other times...

Yes jwil, I can so relate to this.
We are hoping to make some savings soon. Just need to plan.
I have reduced how much bread I consume and instead of occasionally throwing some away (as it's gone off) we have just started buying part baked bread. It only takes about 10 minutes or so in oven and it tastes lovely. Fresh bread taste. So we don't have to buy as many loaves a week. Before it's been cooked it has a long shelf life. I'm into ryvita and the like at the moment.
I have managed to lose a few pounds too! :T

tattycath

Been catching up with Tilly's thread this morning...
Paperwork! I now feel compelled to sort out my paperwork for my tax return, so I can get it done and out of the way. So ive set myself the deadline that I will be ready to submit my tax return by the end of this month. I've already done loads of print offs of info I need.
I now need to collate all my receipts and get some kind of semblance of order.:eek:

Thanks Tilly & Tilly's friends-it was the kick up the bum I needed to get this sorted..
Right, off to hunt down my receipts.

tattycath

Been up since about half 6.
Showered, dressed, DD2 taken to work.
I managed to find 'some' receipts yesterday-learning curve to be better organised for next time.
Just got to write them all up and take my expenses away from turnover. Then, hopefully, I'll be ready to submit the return-fingers crossed.
I did find some stuff that will help with the business-going forward.
Today I shall be mainly photographing and editing-and hopefully listing.
Will save the paperwork for later in the day.

tattycath

tattycath wrote: »

Hi anybody who may read this. I've been inspired by so many people on mse since I joined and I've ummed and aahed about starting a diary for a while now. I"m brilliant at deciding to set myself financial challenges...problem is when push comes to shove I come up with all the excuses under the sun as reason for why I've constantly fail miserably. So I decided to start a diary to give me the kick up the backside I need.If I log everything down I"ll have to do it right? That's the thinking anyway.
I'd like to achieve certain things but often stall due to lack of motivation. The main things I want to achieve this year are:
Pay off holiday-£400
Pay £3,000 off the mortgage
Pay a catalogue debt-£600
Save £3,000
As you can see there are a lot of things I want to achieve.
Now I have written them down I need to get on and implement my plans.
So far this year I have paid an extra £92 off mortgage in January and so far this month £53. So still got a long way to go there.
Will make a payment on catalogue next week and the same with the holiday.
Wish me luck and if anyone has any ideas or hints and tips on how I can achieve my aim please shout up.
If you got this far- thanks for reading.

This was my first post of my diary, back in 2013...
What have I achieved so far?
Obviously, I paid off the holiday and we went and had fun.
Catalogue debt is gone and more stuff ordered and is gone again-apart from £20.
I didn't manage to save 3k as there are always bills and stuff coming up.

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Time whizzes so quickly

Tilly x x

tattycath

tattycath wrote: »

Been crunching some numbers today...
Original amount borrowed £96,000 -October 2007, december 2012 amount owed £74,800
Lightbulb moment was a bit slow for me-and even slower for Mr tc.
At one point payments were behind :eek: So I took control of the mortgage and the Council Tax in 2009 and I told Mr tc how it was going to be (that makes me sound really bossy and I'm really not-just didn't want us all to end up homeless).
Original mortgage free date was October 2028-this was normal term of mortgage-however, been overpaying quite regularly - we can overpay limitlessly (is that even a word? lol) so When I ring the lenders in march (for the MFI3-3) I'll ask them for a projection (I think that's what it's called). Hopefully I'll be able to report back some exciting news. :j

The quoted post was from feb 2013. We are now @ about 60k with the mortgage. :j I really need to concentrate and focus and set new targets... Should I start a new diary for this ?

tattycath

I've decided to plough on with this thread instead of starting another one.

Need to set some up to date targets.
Even though we are almost half way through the year already, here are some targets I would like to achieve this year:
Decorate 3 rooms
start sorting garden out
save 3K
grow the business to achieve higher income
Reduce the mortgage by 3K
Reorganise my limited work space so it's more practical & things are easier to find.

I have added these targets as an update to my first post so they are easier for me to find if/when I want to refer to them.


I have updated my first post to set some new targets.