Mr and Mrs K's New Journey to a Debt Free Life.

AlexLK

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

Morning Alex, I'd second doing the grocery challenge it's how I changed my shopping habits. I did a shop on Sunday and spent under £70 in two shops (mainly a1di but I had to go elsewhere for a few bits) and that will feed 8 of us on 4 days and 5 of us for the other 3 days. We don't starve, there are plenty of snacks (fruit-whatever is in season as it's cheap! Or whatever is in the 69p a1di fruit). One thing I found helped was doing ONE shop a week rather than my 3-4 I used to do and a meal plan as others suggest. I buy milk in bulk and freeze it as milk and bread were the main ones i'd "pop" to the shops for and come out with several other things . We have a bread maker and it was a great buy, well worth the money ££ we have fresh bread every day and it is probably half the price in the SMs

Thank you for the advice and the inspiration. We spend more than we account for on food, I am well aware of this but do not know how much.

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

I read it takes 21 days to form a new habit, so keep up the good work. Slightly different to you but I was abandoning my meditation practice and my teacher called me over and wrote out a routine for me every day to encompass it (I kept saying I didn't have time ) and after sticking to that for a few weeks I am well back into the swing of meditating every day

I reckon it's going to be different for different people, I'm a stubborn so and so which I don't think helps.

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

I second the cash only lifestyle that you mention. I have a cash tin with plastic envelopes and each has something written on it "grocery" "clothes" etc and I fill them with their allotted budget on payday and live mainly from them. It's much easier and keeps me in budget

That sounds ideal, I think it could work if Mrs. K. was on board. However, I am starting to keep track of what I spend when I buy the groceries and fuel (that's all I spend on these days).

7roland8 wrote: »

Alex - think I have mentioned it before about Blogger with Google - how you can have a free blog with pages and pictures just like a website.
I have done quite a few for our community and its all free.

Updating is as easy as just doing an email and you can have different colour backgrounds and images etc.

Anyhow if you want to know more just send a message - I don't mind.

Thank you. I will take a look, perhaps this evening and may take you up on your offer.

AlexLK

Time for the update for the PA ... not done so well today, despite good intentions.

chevalier wrote: »

So it takes two weeks to make a new thing a habit, so

List for today
Give Little K his brekkie, - I will trust you with waking up.Managed both so I must be onto a good thing.
Take little K to nursery and whilst out follow up another lead with a personal visit? Also is there anything you need for dinner tonight that you can get now?Didn't manage the personal visit and whilst I did get some things for dinner I forgot the main one.
Look in each room and identify 1 object that 'could' go.Check.
Cup of tea timeYep, managed this.
From those identified choose 1 to work on today Failed with this as I had to go and see a customer.
Phone another potential customer,
OR ask on the techy board on here to recommend an easy to do website maker On the to-do for this evening and tomorrow.
Lunch Check. I do well with tea and lunch.
Get Little K. If you forgot anything when you went out last time, get it now Did the former but not the latter and ended up going out again.
Make dinner - even if you don't get much appreciation, it is one less chore for Mrs K to do. She works hard so this will be a help.Dinner was cooked and enjoyed by myself. Mrs. K. decided to have her's later, perhaps because she didn't want to sit with me. For anyone interested: chicken and bacon pasta, homemade cream based sauce, lots of vegetables.
Teaching?Check.
chev

oceanspirit

It's lovely to read that you are getting on with keeping track of your spends and looking at increasing your business. Keep up the good work with buying dinner ingredients whilst you are already out and making dinner each night too.

AlexLK

oceanspirit wrote: »

It's lovely to read that you are getting on with keeping track of your spends and looking at increasing your business. Keep up the good work with buying dinner ingredients whilst you are already out and making dinner each night too.

oceanspirit: Thank you, I've had a rather tough day today, feeling a little under the weather yet again. Done quite a bit on the business and now sitting down for the evening with a cup of tea, ready to start looking into bringing my business into the 21st Century (looking into the website options). ROLAND ... you have been summoned. :rotfl:

Spends are being monitored where I can. Also tried buying in a few days worth of food today. Dinner was something for even a hardcore MSE'er to be proud of, at circa £2.00 per head. Mrs. K. actually managed to sit at the dinner table and talk with me, this evening.

brizzledfw

Pleased you had a chat with Mrs K. Small steps...

AlexLK

Wednesday 26th March, 2014.

Dear Diary,

Yesterday I spent the evening wasting my time reading. It was a book recommended by our very gallygirl on her mortgage thread ironically called "Rich Dad, Poor Dad". I say ironically for I grew up with a man I thought a "rich dad" and I am now a "poor one", or perhaps I am not so "poor" after all. Anyhow, more of that later. I have become somewhat inspired by this book, being a lazy so and so who really rather likes the idea of a passive income paying at least my everyday expenses.

Being somebody interested in old things, antiques and collectables if you like, I have accumulated quite the amount of "stuff". More "stuff" than most on here would think sensible or anything less than utterly frivolous. However, in buying this "stuff" I have not bought depreciating liabilities but in many cases appreciating assets. After all, do you know anyone else who can buy themselves a pen and know they can get at least the same amount of money back for it? Anyhow, all this led to me thinking whilst perhaps my management of money has been woeful, I do have the potential to learn from my mistakes, invest in the things I know about and like, keeping them for a while, enjoying them before moving them on for not a loss but a profit. Now, the only hurdle to overcome is my one of attachment.

On the debt busting front, I've listed a couple of items on eBay and have a couple of potential deals on other items (both of which will be turning a profit should they sell).

Summary:
Tuesday:
+£30.00 Music Teaching.
-£6.00 Mrs. K. Lunch.
-£2.50 Green Grocer.
-£1.50 Groceries.
-£1.00 Bakery.
Today:
+£60.00 Music Teaching.
-£34.00 Groceries.
-£6.00 Mrs. K. Lunch.
-£4.00 Cafe.

Yours Faithfully,
Alex.

AliBee16

Well done on buying a few days food at once Alex. And when you sit down to Jack's 9p lentil burgers you'll know you've arrived lol

AlexLK

brizzledfw wrote: »

Pleased you had a chat with Mrs K. Small steps...

Unfortunately, I cannot pretend that everything between us is alright.

AlexLK

AliBee16 wrote: »

Well done on buying a few days food at once Alex. And when you sit down to Jack's 9p lentil burgers you'll know you've arrived lol

I can't pretend I really enjoyed the experience, especially the ones that centred around food in two days time - how do I know what I will want to eat in two days time?

LOL, and I thought £2.00 per head was really good. As it's almost BBQ time, link please. On another note, can lentils actually be BBQ'ed?

AliBee16

If you plan a bit in advance you should build up enough ingredients to be able to choose from a range of meals. Here is the 9p burger

http://agirlcalledjack.com/2013/04/06/carrot-cumin-kidney-bean-burger-9p/

You should be able to make loads of these at once, and freeze them