Fighting to be Frugal

wegle

Silly_Spender wrote: »

That's relieving if the threshold is £16k. I'm only contracted to part time at Asda but I generally do between 35-45 hours per week including overtime. This bring in around £1k at most every 4 weeks so my salary is around £13k maximum.

The threshold is different depending when you left university. The good news for you is your younger than me and when the threshold last changed it went up! I think its actually £21K now, but don't quote me on that, it's certainly not below £16k.

Silly_Spender

Either way I doubt I'll be earning over it for some time

I am also registered as self-employed as I make jewellery as a hobby and wanted to set it up as a business. I've been very slack with this lately and I guess I need to get the passion back for it, as I could use profits from this to throw more cash at the debts. Specially with Christmas coming up, if anything it would make the present buying cheaper for the ladies in my family

This year I'm going to make as many handmade gifts as possible, bath salts and lotions, homemade fudge, truffles and chutneys.

Usually I make gift bags and put about £30 worth of little things in each one tailored to that person, but I'm determined to be the male equivalent of Kirsty Allsop this year and go handmade

wegle

I have a great cheats truffle recipe that I make. I do it every year for christmas and mine and hubby's family are constantly badgering me to tell them what's in it, but I refuse to tell! They go down an absolute storm and are dead easy. Here it is:

Oreo Truffles

Ingredients:
* 36 Oreo Cookies
* 1 pack Philedelphia soft Cheese
* 1 large bar milk chocolate
* 1 large bar white chocolate

1. Crush the oreo cookies using a food processor until they become a sort of soil looking mix.
2. Mix in the philedelphia
3. Roll into ping pong sized balls and place on a baking tray in the fridge until set (I usually leave them overnight)
4. Melt the milk chocolate in a glass bowl.
5. Take half of the little ping pong balls and dip them in the melted chocolate until completely covered. Place back on the baking tray.
6. Repeat step 5 with the white chocolate and the rest of the balls.
7. Leave in the fridge to set.
8. Serve and delight your friends and family.

You don't have to do the melted chocolate, you could just dust them in cocoa or get inventive with any other topping you can think of.

They are absolutely delicious and so easy. I usually pack up 6 in a little cellophane with a red ribbon for each person at Christmas. But shhh it's a secret, don't tell anyone else!!

Silly_Spender

That recipe sounds delicious!! I've made truffles before by making a ganache and then forming balls with my hands (horrendous job) and then dusting with cocoa powder, but like the fudge, I always find they go a little soft too quickly. Coating with chocolate would probably help but the ganache starts to melt before they're coated then I end up with a bit of a mess.

I am definitely using your recipe this year! May make a few batches of those for the bake sale at work next weekend too thanks a lot for sharing! I promise I'll keep your secret

Silly_Spender

Well it's another NSD today and the 2nd in a row! We'll see if I can make it 3 tomorrow

wegle

Silly_Spender wrote: »

Well it's another NSD today and the 2nd in a row! We'll see if I can make it 3 tomorrow

:j:j:j:jWhoop Whoop!!!:j:j:j:j

You can do it!

Silly_Spender

Sitting here eating a gorgeous bowl of canned chilli I found at the back of the cupboard.

Got home from work without stopping in any of the shops on the way, meaning today is NSD #3, and that's 3 in a row!!

I more than probably won't get my 4th tomorrow, but we'll see we usually have a takeaway on either a Saturday or Sunday but that hopefully won't be happening this week! I intend to get a few of the 2 for £4 pizzas from Asda which works out at least £10 cheaper than our usual takeaway. If we get a few bottles of pop on offer and maybe a bag of chocolates to share this'll still be a much cheaper treat than ordering on Just Eat!

So after going on to banking, as there's nothing to round down today, I'm going to stick £20 into the Argos fund, leaving £80 between now and next Friday (pay day) for 'just in case'. Obviously will be trying to spend as little as possible and aiming for at least 3 more NSDs next week!

Not sure what to do with the rest of today. I think I'm going to write a list of who I'm giving presents / sending cards to this year, and then start writing ideas down for their gift bags.

May even make a spreadsheet so I can keep track of how much I'm spending on each person. I actually love making spreadsheets

Silly_Spender

Well as predicted, today wasn't an NSD, but I did get quite a few groceries in which should be near enough to last until next Friday (payday, and when the grocery budget is replenished).

Went over budget, by £4.78, but we're having friends over tonight and wanted to gt a few things like little cakes for dessert and some bottles of fizzy drink

I have £6 in my pocket and I'm going to try and only use this for essential things we may run out of, like milk (which we shouldn't, got a fresh 2ltr bottle and we don't use it much anyway) and according to my banking online I have £79.22 spare until Friday.

Going to round this down and put £4.22 into the Argos fund, and an extra £5 is going into the Overdraft fund, leaving £70.

I intend to put £10 into one of the fund for each NSD I get next week, as well as the rounding down on the days where I spend.

Also got a few of those delicious 2 for £4 pizzas from Asda as our weekend "takeaway" treat, saving at least a tenner on our usual spend!

wegle

We do those Asia pizzas too! So much cheaper than dominoes and absolutely delicious! We always get the chap to make us up a fresh one and he absolutely loads it with toppings! Those pizzas and some Caesar dressing and it's pretty much a perfect match for dominoes with garlic dip! Just £20 cheaper! :j

Loving the idea for putting money towards debt for each NSD you have, that's a great incentive. Have you thought about doing a sealed pot for yourself as well? I started one about 3 weeks ago and through left over change and noting round the house it's wot over £20 in it already. I'm using it to save towards Christmas next year. It's another good incentive not to spend those last few pennies.

Hope your having a nice weekend!

Silly_Spender

They're brilliant aren't they Wegle! Toppings can be a bit hit and miss depending on who is making them on our counter but if they're a bit stingy I just add a bit more cheese and some extra pepperoni or something not tried adding the Caesar dressing but the garlic dip from dominoes is delicious so must try that!!

I haven't done a sealed pot no I may get one of those money tins though from Home Bargains and start putting any loose change I have in there. Not sure what I'll save towards with it. Might save it until my overdraft is gone and then use it as the base amount for a savings account

Just finished a 10 hour (killer) shift at work and so now looking forward to sinking my teeth into my pizza. Won't be going cinema tonight as I'm back in at 5 in the morning and I'd only be dropping off at the cinema as well. Also, today was an NSD!

This makes it 4 now within the last week, very pleased! We'll see if we can make it another 4 next week. Have put another £10 in the Argos fund and have now saved got over 20% towards it being cleared!!

For some reason I can't update my signature though which is a bit annoying, and looking at some of the other forums others are having the issue as well. Hope it gets worked out quickly, I like updating it and seeing the debt funds going up