I have seen the light

mattsaunders

taxi73 wrote: »

Hi there...thanks for posting your SOA...so you have £776.81 after household bills...then pay £230 min payments credit cards leaving £546.81`...

Where is this going?....a spending diary is a good idea and you can see where you fritter away money...fast food was one mentioned...a bit of tightening your belt and you'll soon be able to clear this amount..you could throw another £400 p'm at these cards and still have £146 to spend

My main problem is I am on the road for my job and fast food is really easy for me.

Gemmzie

But think about how much it is costing you in the long run. Financially and health wise. It's fairly easy to whip up some on the road food

mattsaunders

I do think ab out the cost and my health my girlfriend reminds me all the time lol

wannasavemoney

Some easy on the road stuff would be to invest in a decent cool lunchbox and use one of those ice pack things to keep it cool for most of the day. You could make whatever it is you need the night before, pack it in the lunchbox and just take it straight out of the fridge in the morning and pop in the ice pack or for ease, if you know you are not going to eat it before lunchtime, then freeze a small bottle of water, put it in the lunchbox in the morning and it acts as your ice pack and will have defrosted enough to have a cold drink by lunchtime. Saves on having to take the icepack then. Even if you just put buttered bread, some cheese, grapes and your bottle of water it will be much healthier and tastier than something bought on the hop.

mattsaunders

wannasavemoney wrote: »

Some easy on the road stuff would be to invest in a decent cool lunchbox and use one of those ice pack things to keep it cool for most of the day. You could make whatever it is you need the night before, pack it in the lunchbox and just take it straight out of the fridge in the morning and pop in the ice pack or for ease, if you know you are not going to eat it before lunchtime, then freeze a small bottle of water, put it in the lunchbox in the morning and it acts as your ice pack and will have defrosted enough to have a cold drink by lunchtime. Saves on having to take the icepack then. Even if you just put buttered bread, some cheese, grapes and your bottle of water it will be much healthier and tastier than something bought on the hop.

I will start doing that as i must spend about £5 per day on food. Which is £25 per week and £100 per month

This is the first time I have worked out the cost and I cant believe its £100 per month. I could pay that money into my credit card

Gemmzie

That's the idea

It's amazing how much things cost once you add them up :eek:

Conor_3

mattsaunders wrote: »

My main problem is I am on the road for my job and fast food is really easy for me.

No excuse.

I'm on the road 12-14hrs a day 5 days a week and I've not touched a fast food place for a long time.

You need:

A 12V fridge that plugs into the cig lighter socket - they're around £50 at most truckstops if you can't find one elsewhere. In that you can put in a packup lunch, yoghurts, drinks etc and it'll keep them fresh all day. You can find a fridge that'll easily sit in the passenger footwell.

You'll have to stop being lazy - that's your real problem - and start making a packup lunch the day before. Fruit makes a handy "eat while you drive" nibble.

mattsaunders

Hi there you ar eright it is being lazy.

I have decided to make more of a effort and go a buy a lunch box and make my own.

Cheers

lynzpower

Another thing to mention is that if you love your fast food that you can get paid for eating it!

Mystery shopping company GAPBUSTER ( do a google) will pay you for mystery shopping KFC, Mcds & pizza hut. You have to pay out for the mealm, eat it , write a report and file your expenses they pay about 7.0dd near me in london for kfc etc.

the most important this is getting fully on board with what you are spending, spendig diary is perfect for this.

Its also important to do a thorough budget with savings for birthdays/Xmas/ dentist etc, so that when these events inevitably occur you have some money stashed away and they dont come as any surprise. Use martins budget planner at the top of the page.

Also what do you have to sell. anything you can stick on ebay/ loot/ amazon/ greenmetropolis.com for books is money for nothing, stick that money on your credit card too.

Also do you have any old mobile phones about? If you do flog them to Mopay or envirofone- money for old rope I also sell my old printer cartridges to tesco for points which we are saving up for a weekend away but you can use tesco points to take money off your shopping too.



there are STACKS of tips on this board, do check out the "great way to cut back" at the top of the menu page on DFW, you will find a wealth of top tips.

All the best & great to have you on board

lynz

david_hellier

Will deal later.