6 grand in 6 months - my personal challenge!

cottage_retreatist

So I will be attempting to meal plan for this week - my staple proteins will mostly be chicken pieces and salmon (I got the 6 pieces from Tes*o for 5 quid offer and the reduced price chicken pieces as well!!)

I did a stock up home delivery from the above-mentioned supermarket this morning! I now have enough tins of chopped tomatoes (4 tins for 1 quid) to last any potential zombie apocalypse and it was a good excuse to go through my cupboards and do a stock check and we're doing well still after our last major shop back in March so no large shops needed now til October at the earliest I reckon - just veg and meat from markets! Yay!!!!! But - for the first time ever my delivery was late - almost 1 HOUR late which meant i couldn't go to the market as I'd planned to do this morning (there was no way I would leave the house to carry all that shopping home at midday with it as hot as it is) so I'm a bit b*ggered now with a low level of fresh fruit and salad as I'd planned to get those cheap from the mkt. The worst thing - the delivery guy didn't even APOLOGISE!!!!!!! Now I'm not usually one to complain and I'm actually pretty easy going but to rock up and grunt a hello and then not apologize for messing up my Sunday - it was so rude I got straight on the phone to Tesco as soon as he left!!!!! :mad: I'm turning into a grumpy old lady about 50 years too early!!!! Ok! Rant over!!! hehe!
To the meal planner (starting today):

Sunday - salmon fillet with JP for me & chips for OH with frozen veg
Monday - spag bol + veg (final portion from freezer) - my lazy Monday choice!
Tuesday - chicken curry and rice (made with the creme fraiche i would have turned into a quiche if i'd gone to the market!)
Wednesday - salmon and mash and frozen veg
Thursday - chicken and frozen spinach lasagne (a chance to try something new)
Friday - lemon chicken and potatoes and frozen veg
Saturday - steak (from butchers - OH to pick up friday night) and chips

It's very veg heavy but with no salad from the market I'm loathe to overspend to buy it during the week from the supermarkets so I'll over-compensate next week with lots of salad days!!!

I've tried to make it as manageable and least-complicated as possible in the hopes i'll stick to it, and I've written it on the blackboard as well to keep me motivated!!!

Wish me luck!

PS - OH's pay day tomorrow (finally!!!!) so a chance to see if I can hit that grand target for July! Although a 200 quid gas bill (i sent them in my real meter reading - doh!) might stop me from reaching it we'll wait and see tomorrow!

cottage_retreatist

OK - OH's funds have come in for this month and they have now been spent as required!!!! Scary how quickly sums like that just disappear.

My signature has been updated! Successfully beat my target for July!!!!:j:j:j

Paid 400 to the brother - sweet! only 400 left to go on that from an original total of 8000+ started paying back in June 2010!!!!

Paid off the final payment to Aqua - 380.00
Did the small payments to keep everything else ticking over!!!!!

Now crossed off 4 debts since April 2013! All small granted but 1 more month of small debts (bro and last 500 quid credit card) then I can get started on the major stuff.

Excited!!!!! And - the OH let me take all except 100 from him - hope this continues!!!!!!!!

Total debt now 18,800 quid. :eek:

Gunna celebrate with freezer spag bol and a 2.50 bottle of rose I bought in the tesco giant shop on Sunday - which was a fail - we bought it on the vanquis cc we'd paid off but I get extra at the end of the month and so should OH from overtime so will pay in full then all the credit cards are going in the freezer!!!! :rotfl:

cottage_retreatist

So - my brother has said that I only need to repay him 250 back and then we're done!!! So can pay that back next month and then he is definitely clear! Yay! And gives me an extra 150 to put towards something else!

Whoop!!

I've been trying to be tight on the spends this week too -
5 pound on oyster card - and when it's less hot i'm going to try and cut that completely so spends on travel go down to zero! Exercise for me too - so win-win situation.

6 pound on tobacco and some cheeky liquorice allsorts and crisps - not so good for the wobbly belly

5 pound on sainsb*ggers whim shop this evening - not so happy about this -no need for it but i crumbled after going in for just some tomatoes and a cucumber and got a pack of fig rolls and crisps again

Tomorrow and Friday - aiming for nothing! No need to spend anyway!!!!

I think the heat has wilted my willpower - but socks soaked in cold water - amazing for reducing the core temperature - highly recommended!!!!

Hope no one is getting too hot and flustered - i'm off to stick my head in the freezer!!!!!!

Helyonnaise

hello!

Those onions you wanted a few posts back.. i assumed it was a three pack for 1.10? top tip! buy them loose! Ive just gone their site and added three onions loose to my basket and it came up as 57p! also, i hope you got a refund on your delivery! I ALWAYS ring the supermarket up and say "hello, my shopping was late, i would like my delivery refunded please" and get it everytime!

xx

cottage_retreatist

Hey Helyonnaise!

Thanks for that!!! Unfortunately I was caught in one of the mini stores so it was a terrible selection at a ridiculous price! But when i did the massive shop i got one of those 4 kilo bags for 2 quid! success! actually i did two for 3.50!!!!!!!! so no more Onion buying for a few months now (if i keep them dark and dry!)

So - to this week's mealplanner - here's how it went

Sunday - salmon fillet with JP for me & chips for OH with frozen veg
Monday - spag bol + veg (final portion from freezer) - my lazy Monday choice!
Tuesday - chicken curry and rice (made with the creme fraiche i would have turned into a quiche if i'd gone to the market!)
Wednesday - [STRIKE]salmon and mash and frozen veg[/STRIKE] - actually did a jp and omlette
Thursday - [STRIKE]chicken and frozen spinach lasagne (a chance to try something new)[/STRIKE] - i was ill this evening so OH did sweet and sour chcicken and rice which he promptly spilt on the sofa! fail!!!
Friday - [STRIKE]lemon chicken and potatoes and frozen veg[/STRIKE] omlette and chips!
Saturday - [STRIKE]steak (from butchers - OH to pick up friday night) and chips[/STRIKE] no steak so we're having some mince left over form the freezer which im going to turn into a basic ragu and have it with gnocci form the cupboard.

So - didn't quite stick to plan but no takeaways and no excess purchases from the shops!!!!!!!!!! success!!! :j

Tomorrow am going to go to the market and pick up a chicken and just some salad and veg to-ups and eggs and hopefully that'll be enough for the week ahead - 30 quid budget max for the week ahead tomorrow.

Feel really pleased that in total this week i spent -
5 quid on oystercard - lasted all week
6 quid at sainsb*ggers
5 quid at sainsb*ggers
10 - cash out and spent on fags (fail) a work lunch and a snack at work on friday

26 pound spend and of course didn't go to the market last Sunday so no market costs to add to the total. Even though realistically the amount spent at the supermarket was a bit cheeky and didn't really add anything useful to the pantry!

After the market tomorrow i'll post up next week's mealplan.

So to catch up on the mouse saga - after removing the PILES of droppings last week and removing a defunct sounding sonic thingy and only having a new one (we had two to start with) in the kitchen - no further poos seen in the usual areas of cupboard by freezer and behind the computer - can i call it a success this early?

In terms of the no longer actively discouraging pregnancy topic - i'm wondering if i should buy the men and women pregnacare conceive tablets? They seem v expensive (20 quid for a months supply for the two of us) but i do think our bodies could do with a positive vitamin kick in the right direction. Does anyone have any experience of using them? Male or female?!!!

Until tomorrow have a lovely balmy evening!!
C-R xx

PS - i did get the 6 quid delivery cost back and got an email apologising from the customer services, assume this is standard practice but still was nice acknowledgement!

cottage_retreatist

Ok so market was a success!! Took out 30 quid and got everything on that 30 quid including an oyster top up so I could get the bus back with all my bags (walked there). Did spend on the card for some duperdrug variant of berocca - buy one get one half price and they keep us going in the mornings so an 'essential' purchase!

I've prepped the meal plan for this coming week, keeping in mind it's not payday til the week after this one so trying to keep it within what is available from this point forward which means apart from oyster 5 quid tomorrow my aim is to have 5 NSDs this week!

So mealplan:
Sunday - roast chicken, roast potatoes and salad

Monday - cottage pie (got mince left from yesterday so will use that just need to do some mash tomorrow night)

Tuesday - chicken and mushroom pie (don't want to buy cream so will use a bechemel to make the sauce)

Wednesday - chicken and leek casserole with brown rice and freezer veg/salad

Thursday - wholewheat pasta and maybe a veg sauce

Friday - mushroom risotto/any veg risotto

Saturday - cupboard surprise! basically a mashup of whatever is leftover!!!

Then Sunday and Monday more cupboard surprises still have salmon/chicken pieces/bacon lardons in freezer so can use some of these to tide us over til Tuesday then maybe a curry treat for payday!!!!!

So 5 NSD minimum is the aim - may need to pick up some tobacco at some point during the week but i'll treat this as a bleeding essential so fingers crossed!!! or - OH can use his fun money to buy this - think he still has some left!!!!!

PS - loads of potatoes i need to use up hence the potato-heavy week!!!!

cottage_retreatist

Whoop!!!!
Over 3000 views! Thank you everyone! Sometimes I feel a bit lonely posting up-it's my diary and as such great to read back and to see that I really am trying to cut down those debts but knowing other people are following the journey sort of gives me a boost-makes me feel like now there's a NEED to keep it up!!!!

So-Nsd yesterday and Nsd on Tuesday-success! OH used his fun money for tobacco but its going to get tight for the next few days, eek!!! But - OMG - I had a leak in the bathroom last night - which is a bit carp it's at times like this that should we own the flat I would be tearing my hair out wondering how we would pay for plumbers etc-so at least we shouldn't need to pay for repairs as landlord should do this. So although its a disaster at least it won't hit the purse, got the day to wait for the plumbers to turn up so am going to catch up with other people debt free diaries on MSE! DFW Solidarity!!!!!

cottage_retreatist

Another week another slog!! But it's Sunday today so just 2 more days to payday (when for a fleeting second I will see some money in my account before it all goes to paying debts and utilities) - ah! what a life!

So - I managed a large number of NSDs this week for which I am really very happy! Let's see if i can remember -
Monday - 5 quid on oyster only
Tuesday - 2.43 on reduced items at Sainsbobs (counts as an NSD?)
Wednesday - NSD
Thursday - NSD - stuck inside all day sorting out a flooded bathroom! (OH bought tobacco on his card)
Friday - NSD (but OH got himself a 'free' papajohns pizza with assorted extras which came to 9 quid on his card)
Saturday - NSD
Sunday (today) -expected NSD - have enough tobacco to see us to tomorrow as well.

I am pretty happy about this :T
and actually - it was so much easier than expected - it was a case of 'if it ain't there, we ain't got it and we ain't gunna buy it'!!!

Which made Friday and yesterday very tough when all OH wanted was junk food and I had to keep going 'but it's still money, but its carp food, you don't want it anyway' - it's exhausting being the financial planner in the relationship sometimes.

cottage_retreatist

In terms of mealplanning - this is how it looked this week:

Sunday - roast chicken, roast potatoes and salad - done!
Monday - cottage pie (got mince left from yesterday so will use that just need to do some mash tomorrow night) - done!
Tuesday - [STRIKE]chicken and mushroom pie (don't want to buy cream so will use a bechemel to make the sauce[/STRIKE]) - had casserole instead
Wednesday - [STRIKE]chicken and leek casserole with brown rice and freezer veg/salad[/STRIKE] - just a snack (omelette)
Thursday - [STRIKE]wholewheat pasta and maybe a veg sauce[/STRIKE] - taken out to a Thai restaurant by our friend! Wonderful!:)
Friday - [STRIKE]mushroom risotto/any veg risotto[/STRIKE] - EPIC FAIL - takeaway pizza
Saturday - cupboard surprise! basically a mashup of whatever is leftover!!! - ended up having some crispbreads with salad and cheddar - just a small thing but neither of us were that hungry

So there we go!! I want to try and cut down on the amount of meat we have - it's rare we have a vegetarian meal most weeks!! So, instead I want meat to be the treat not the other way round, OH says he's all for it but we will wait and see. No market today as trying for a NSD so today will be vege and Monday and Tuesday I have some tomato-based sauce meals in the hole!! :rotfl:

Oh and on the debt side of things - I put all except one of our credit cards in the freezer in a box with water! Yeep! I'm glad because when MSE was down the other night I went on shopping sites instead and could have easily dropped 300 quid on stuff i don't really need - so glad it's back up and running :T

Also - checked one of my repayment plans for one cc - i currently pay 80 pound p/m but the interest is 40 p/m so actually i'm not really making any headway so I'm going to look at my finances on Wednesday (P-day) and if I can I'm going to up the monthly dd to 180 for that one to start knocking the total down.

I'll update on our debt repayments once we have the money as I should have some overtime coming in so not sure exactly how much i'll get this month!!

take care all
C-R xx

andrar

Have you done a Snowball for your debts? It'll tell you which ones to pay off in which order so you can get your debt reduced quicker eg base on interest rates what to make bigger payments on first and what to make minimum payments on. You save money on interest too.

Here's the link - http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php Fill this out then click snowball under 'next steps' header.