Can I join in please? Long time lurker needs to take action!

treeny_bash

Hi everyone :wave:

Sorry, this is going to be long....

I've been lurking on the MSE message boards for years and trying to soak up wisdom, but I desperately need to start acting on what I read so I'm coming out of the corner to say hello and beg for all the advice I can get!

I live in London with my partner of 10 years and despite us both having very well paid jobs we live well outside of our means. Our flat is a tip 25 days of the month (I normally manage to get it clean and it stays that way for about 5 days before desending into chaos again), we buy food and it goes off before we get around to cooking it so we eat a lot of takeaways and we are £10000 in debt. I've set up a 123 account for bills and transferred my share of the money there, but after paying back a loan from bf's friend and giving him some money for personal expenses I only have £75 to do me until next payday. He gets paid at the end of the month and should give me back a couple of hundred but we will be struggling if I don't do some serious cutting back on expenses.

I think the biggest area I can cut back on is food, I need to start bringing my lunch in for work again, and stop buying so many expensive ready meals and takeaways. The other areas of concern are rent and socialising, and changing those areas too much is a battle I'm not ready for. I'm going for a hunt through the board now to see what tips I can pick up, and what challenges I can join but I would really appreciate any advice anyone has for me.

Thanks in advance

Katrina

ditsykitchen

treeny_bash wrote: »

Hi everyone :wave:
I live in London with my partner of 10 years and despite us both having very well paid jobs we live well outside of our means. Our flat is a tip 25 days of the month (I normally manage to get it clean and it stays that way for about 5 days before desending into chaos again), we buy food and it goes off before we get around to cooking it so we eat a lot of takeaways and we are £10000 in debt.

...

I think the biggest area I can cut back on is food, I need to start bringing my lunch in for work again, and stop buying so many expensive ready meals and takeaways. The other areas of concern are rent and socialising, and changing those areas too much is a battle I'm not ready for. I'm going for a hunt through the board now to see what tips I can pick up, and what challenges I can join but I would really appreciate any advice anyone has for me.

First of all - you can do this!

You say your home is always a mess and I think this is important to sort out. That way, you can socialise with friends at home more, therefore spending less money on going out Also, having a clean and tidy kitchen will help you to feel more like cooking. For this, I recommend joining us on the FlyLady thread and checking in once or twice a day.

How much are you spending on food at the moment? This might help us to get an idea of how much you can cut back by. What shops/markets are available to you locally? You say you eat a lot of ready meals and takeaways - do you do any scratch cooking and what sort of basics do you have on hand?

It's hard to get started with OS, but once you get into the swing of things you'll never go back

bellaquidsin

Read Frugal Queen's blog, her post yesterday was all about budgeting and she's a very savvy lady who reduced £45,000 debt in two years and has since continued a very frugal way of life for he own reasons.

Just google Frugal in Cornwall.


HTH
Bella.

evie451

Ditsy is right you can do it! I dont live in London anymore but when I did the rent and travel times were an absolute killer you have my sympathy

When I needed to cut food bills but was working long hours I found batch cooking and a slow cooker a godsend. I am about to batch cook my mince for the month so its portioned up in the freezer, then i can make a spag bol, chilli, burrito or a sheperds pie really quickly when I get home. same goes for homemade curry sauce/gravy and a veggie pasta sauce I add tuna or leftover chicken to. you can chuck all sorts in the slow cooker amd make soups and stews and its great to come home and the dinner is already done :cool:

As far as your housework hell goes again every sympathy the sloblady thread on here is great and on the wider internet look up the flylady she has a great system for organising housework.

treeny_bash

Hi Ditsykitchen

Thanks for the encouragement. I am subscribed to Flylady's emails but I hate hate hate washing dishes, so yep, a messy kitchen is a big part of my problem lol. I'll keep an eye on the Flylady thread, it might be better than the emails.

I've started a budget spreadsheet so I can keep track of my spends and I was ashamed to see that in the last 4 days I've spent about 40 pounds on food. If I do a big shop I can easily spend 40-70 pounds in one go, but more often we have takeaway once or twice (or thrice!) a week at £20 then do mini shops at the tesco express 2 or 3 times a week at 10-20 pounds a pop. We have a tesco express around the corner, a bigish morrisons 10 minutes walk away, sainsbury's is a 10 minute bus ride and we have an asda living nearby but I have to pay to get there because it's not covered by my travel pass. There's also 2 corner shops within 5 minutes that sell fruit and veg outside them, but I've always been a bit squeamish about buying stuff that's not nicely displayed in the supermarket. Need to get over that really!

Other information, my boyfriend is a vegetarian, I have a slow cooker (bought for me last christmas and never used :whistle:) and I am growing rosemary, mint and basil on my balcony (to keep the flies out). I can cook from scratch but rarely bother, my goto meals are quorn chilli and lentil curry but I'm really fed up of these now, so any new recipies would be awesome. I also love soups, but tend to get bored after the second portion. I do have a freezer, which is full at the moment and could do with a clear out.

madaminx

bellaquidsin wrote: »

Read Frugal Queen's blog, her post yesterday was all about budgeting and she's a very savvy lady who reduced £45,000 debt in two years and has since continued a very frugal way of life for he own reasons.

Just google Frugal in Cornwall.


HTH
Bella.

Really want to read the Frugal Queen's blog, can you provide link to this?

Thanks

:j

Gingernutty

Here you go

https://www.frugalqueen.co.uk



EDIT: Good luck OP!

madaminx

Gingernutty wrote: »

Here you go

www.frugalqueen.co.uk



EDIT: Good luck OP!

Thanks much

bargainbetty

treeny_bash wrote: »

Hi Ditsykitchen
I've started a budget spreadsheet so I can keep track of my spends and I was ashamed to see that in the last 4 days I've spent about 40 pounds on food.

I do have a freezer, which is full at the moment and could do with a clear out.

Go through your freezer and do a full list of what is in there, and what is in your fridge and cupboards too. Work out what meals you can make, and if they can be prepared at home and frozen - home made ready meals are far cheaper and better for you than shop-bought ones.

I hate to say it, but it really is about disciplining yourselves to get the money under control. It's all well and good saying that trying to change socialising wouldn't go down well, but the reality is you are spending someone elses money to do it. Maybe your OH isn't quite on board with this yet??

Good luck

ditsykitchen

treeny_bash wrote: »

Hi Ditsykitchen

Thanks for the encouragement. I am subscribed to Flylady's emails but I hate hate hate washing dishes, so yep, a messy kitchen is a big part of my problem lol. I'll keep an eye on the Flylady thread, it might be better than the emails.

I've started a budget spreadsheet so I can keep track of my spends and I was ashamed to see that in the last 4 days I've spent about 40 pounds on food. If I do a big shop I can easily spend 40-70 pounds in one go, but more often we have takeaway once or twice (or thrice!) a week at £20 then do mini shops at the tesco express 2 or 3 times a week at 10-20 pounds a pop. We have a tesco express around the corner, a bigish morrisons 10 minutes walk away, sainsbury's is a 10 minute bus ride and we have an asda living nearby but I have to pay to get there because it's not covered by my travel pass. There's also 2 corner shops within 5 minutes that sell fruit and veg outside them, but I've always been a bit squeamish about buying stuff that's not nicely displayed in the supermarket. Need to get over that really!

Other information, my boyfriend is a vegetarian, I have a slow cooker (bought for me last christmas and never used :whistle:) and I am growing rosemary, mint and basil on my balcony (to keep the flies out). I can cook from scratch but rarely bother, my goto meals are quorn chilli and lentil curry but I'm really fed up of these now, so any new recipies would be awesome. I also love soups, but tend to get bored after the second portion. I do have a freezer, which is full at the moment and could do with a clear out.

I didn't get on well with the FlyLady email, but the thread here is actually not really the same system any more, just loosely based on it. I much prefer it

Ok, you can definitely seriously reduce this shopping spend. We are a veggie family of 2 and spend £100-150 per month on food depending on how extravagant we're being. Obviously London is more expensive but you can definitely reduce this. Get on to the Grocery Challenge thread and set a target. Make sure you update often. I find that accountability to fellow moneysaver helps

As for some veggie meal ideas, a lot of which would suit slow cooking and batch cooking:

• Bean Casserole with Dumplings
• Veggie Sausage Casserole
• Tagines
• Mushroom and/or Lentil Lasagne
• Mushroom and/or Lentil Bolognese Sauce
• Dhal
• Vegetable Shepherds Pie
• Root Veg Hotpot
• Any Vegetable Soup (Add curry spices to make them more interesting!)
• Bean Burgers (make a big batch and freeze)
• Veggie Thai Green Curry
• A Huge Batch of Tomato Sauce (can be used in so many ways!)

evie451

Yeah I hate dishes and ironing so because I do all the cooking I basically now abdicate most dishes to DH he hates cooking he thinks its a strange black art which he doesnt want anything to do with :rotfl: