Debt free by 40 -- 19 Months and counting

bess1234_2

Have you thought of setting yourself a food challenge, just for October ? You have stuffed freezers and I'm sure it's harvest time, and you also have a generous food budget. There's lots of ideas on the old style board. And it would be like a health kick prior to over indulgence at Christmas. It will all taste twice as good then.

Either the eating out of your own cupboards challenge, or look up a girl called jack website, or using leftovers creatively. it may give you enough money left over for it to be a happy month.

Life's a choice, not a hurdle. And you are doing great. :T:T And if you choose not to, keep your eye on the bigger picture. You are doing too well to allow frustrations to trip you up.

debtfreewannabe321

You can do it Steph, have faith. Read back over the last few months before you had spa bookings topping up your income, they were just as hard and you did it! There will be lots of christmas markets in the run up to christmas, if you have a treatment chair how about setting up a table offering mini treatments for a fiver or a tenner (depending on how long they are) I know it won't be the most relaxing place but you might well get follow on appointments from locals. If you have a friend who could do manicures/pedicures they could share the cost with you and offer mini treatments too?

P.s I think the food challenge is a good idea. I joined the Grocery challenge many a time when getting out of the debt and the lovely people over on the OS boards are great at offering up random menus with what you have left in the cupboards & freezers :T xx

lhead123

Brilliant ideas from bess and dfw. Now I'm wishing I had a skill to sell at a christmas stall! The best I can do is knit scarves and make sock monkeys, but my sewing machine is out of action and it takes too long by hand....

Hope the painting is going well. It looks like we're in for a wet weekend, hopefully your paint will be dry by the time the rain arrives! xx

StressedSteph

bess1234 wrote: »

Have you thought of setting yourself a food challenge, just for October ? You have stuffed freezers and I'm sure it's harvest time, and you also have a generous food budget. There's lots of ideas on the old style board. And it would be like a health kick prior to over indulgence at Christmas. It will all taste twice as good then.

Either the eating out of your own cupboards challenge, or look up a girl called jack website, or using leftovers creatively. it may give you enough money left over for it to be a happy month.

Life's a choice, not a hurdle. And you are doing great. :T:T And if you choose not to, keep your eye on the bigger picture. You are doing too well to allow frustrations to trip you up.

Hi Bess,


Yes we do have two full chest freezers of meat to keep using, and I also get our milk for free from the farm next door. (well its not for free, (The farmer rents our 5 acre field, so he deducts our milk bill off his annual rent). It is really handy though, because running out of milk here is a real pain.


Is £60 per week generous? I guess maybe it is when I hardly buy any meat or milk. I do buy fish & chicken as we don't have any of that, but I do buy it sparingly.


I think I will definitely go through my freezers and food storage and try to make October's meals from that list.


You really made me think about your quote of "Life is a choice, not a hurdle". I do think I often get locked into negativity and I never feel "happy in the moment"..


I need to turn that around somehow, I always feel anxious. Almost in a perpetual "Fight or Flight" mode. Not sure why that is.


At our Ladies group we have set up in the village, we have a Meditation & Mindfulness evening. Think that might help me.

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

You can do it Steph, have faith. Read back over the last few months before you had spa bookings topping up your income, they were just as hard and you did it! There will be lots of christmas markets in the run up to christmas, if you have a treatment chair how about setting up a table offering mini treatments for a fiver or a tenner (depending on how long they are) I know it won't be the most relaxing place but you might well get follow on appointments from locals. If you have a friend who could do manicures/pedicures they could share the cost with you and offer mini treatments too?

P.s I think the food challenge is a good idea. I joined the Grocery challenge many a time when getting out of the debt and the lovely people over on the OS boards are great at offering up random menus with what you have left in the cupboards & freezers :T xx

Hi DFW,


Sorry I think I have been abit of an old moaner lately.:o


Not sure if my treatments would work in a busy setting at a Christmas Market, wish I knew how to manicure, I bet that would sell well. But last year I did a few Christmas Markets with my Door wreaths that I make and I also work for two weeks in December at our next door farm, helping to process their turkeys. Rubbish pay but last year I earnt around £170 which pays for the food shop and any last minute Christmas presents.


So we do have abit of extra coming in thankfully.


Will definitely be checking out a grocery challenge, I always forget to look at the OS boards. xxxx

lhead123 wrote: »

Brilliant ideas from bess and dfw. Now I'm wishing I had a skill to sell at a christmas stall! The best I can do is knit scarves and make sock monkeys, but my sewing machine is out of action and it takes too long by hand....

Hope the painting is going well. It looks like we're in for a wet weekend, hopefully your paint will be dry by the time the rain arrives! xx

Hi lhead,


I made loads of crafts last year which sold well on the run up to Christmas, but I found it all very time consuming with very little ACTUAL profit. All except for the Door Wreaths that sold for £10 each but actually cost me £1.50 to make. Just depends how busy I am in December as to whether I can do them this year.


I can't imagine the Spa being busy, but who knows. Coupled with the Turkey picking it is a very busy month.


House painting finished. It dries very quickly and has had the glorious sun on it all afternoon. Another job done:T.


hubby is out tonight playing skittles, so I am looking forward to a quiet catch up with the tv tonight, whilst I do my food plan for next week and write my list for Lidl


Thanks all xxx

StressedSteph

dawnybabes wrote: »

One of my friends doesn't buy the school photos - they dress them in their uniform on a Saturday and get them took elsewhere. Normally the ones that pop up in boots/mothercare.

You are doing great, just think if all this had happened at the beginning of the year it might have been enought to sink you.

Just noticed your post Dawn, sorry I missed it.


You have got me thinking. Why don't I just take a bloomin photo of each of them stood in front of a white wall and save myself £18 :rotfl:.


You know I might just do that xxx

StressedSteph

abba1772 wrote: »

Ah googles are the Bain of my life without fail I'm sure I buy about 3/4 lairs a month between the two older kids you've done the right thing by making him work the next pair off xx

Stop putting yes elf down just think if you didn't have your lightbulb moment in January what kind of financial mess would you be in now......... You're doing really well xx

Hi abba,


Glad I'm not the only one replacing just bought items


Think our home would have been repossessed by now if I hadn't have worked hard to try to sort the mess out. Guess I need to be thankful for that. xxx

Verbatim wrote: »

Would a monthly meal plan work for you? Then you could do a monthly shop? I prefer monthly plans as there's more flexibility with swapping meals Another idea to prevent inplanned trips to the shops is freezing milks and/ or having an emergency UHT carton in. I always thought uht would be gross but on holiday we couldn't find fresh so used it and I couldn't tell the difference. I also buy seasonal veg while they're cheap or grow them and freeze for later.
I also think you're doing really well and having some savings to cope with slip ups/unexpected expense is a whole heap better than not having them!

Hi Verbatim
Oh I wish and wish hubby got paid monthly, but we are weekly paid, so just wouldn't have enough free cash to do a months shop. It must take a lot of willpower to not forget things and dash back to the shops constantly when doing a monthly shop.

Our milk comes from the farm next door, totally un-pasteurised, it is lovely. So there is never a shortage of milk thankfully.


I just need to keep meal planning as that really helps keep me out of the food shops getting extras


xxx

NoOneAround

StressedSteph wrote: »

Just noticed your post Dawn, sorry I missed it.


You have got me thinking. Why don't I just take a bloomin photo of each of them stood in front of a white wall and save myself £18 :rotfl:.


You know I might just do that xxx

For DD who was first child I bought every photo and class photo and school photo and spent a fortune on rubbish photos which are packed away in a box somewhere I guess the class photos will be quite nice for her to have maybe perhaps, but for Ds I was older and wiser and more frugal and only bought one set in the last 6 years - it was actually a nice photo! The whole school photo business preys on parental guilt !!!!!! because I for one hated the thought that someone was going to chuck away photos of my loved ones:D -
xx

Verbatim

The meal [/U][/B]plan[/B][/U] for a month wouldn't cost anything. You could plan based on what you have in and work out what extras you need and how much that would cost. I do try to keep my stores stocked with basics so I can use up leftovers by making a savoury crumble or gratin or whatever.

StressedSteph

NoOneAround wrote: »

For DD who was first child I bought every photo and class photo and school photo and spent a fortune on rubbish photos which are packed away in a box somewhere I guess the class photos will be quite nice for her to have maybe perhaps, but for Ds I was older and wiser and more frugal and only bought one set in the last 6 years - it was actually a nice photo! The whole school photo business preys on parental guilt !!!!!! because I for one hated the thought that someone was going to chuck away photos of my loved ones:D -
xx

You are so right about the Parental Guilt. I have a masters degree in it


I think it boils down to the fact that my mum didn't keep anything sentimental of mine from when I was a child and only had a few photo's. I have been determined to keep sake virtually EVERYTHING for my children, as I think its really nice to reminisce about your childhood. Think I have almost gone too far the other way though. Each child has a full sized suitcase in the attic :rotfl:

Verbatim wrote: »

The meal [/U][/B]plan[/B][/U] for a month wouldn't cost anything. You could plan based on what you have in and work out what extras you need and how much that would cost. I do try to keep my stores stocked with basics so I can use up leftovers by making a savoury crumble or gratin or whatever.

Aaah I understand now. That is a good idea. Leftovers is an important part of my meal planning because most of our joints of meat are huge as we butchered them ourselves, so we often almost have a complete lamb or pork week .


I find pork a lot more versatile than lamb. Some of our lamb is hogget, so it sometimes taste abit strong in leftovers. Will keep trying though.


I haven't got much on this weekend, so I plan to sit down with my cook books and plan the rest of October out.


I am away for four days in the middle of October, so I also need to plan some done up frozen meals that hubby can rustle up as he is hopeless at cooking. He will have the children to feed so I can't just cop out and get him four ready meals .


My Save with Jamie is a fab book as that works on a Sunday Mothership receipe with a large joint of meat and then shows you around six leftover receipes to follow that. I have used tonnes of recipes out of his book.


Thanks Verbatim, I am also planning on checking out the OS food threads to read up on some budget meals.


I remembered corned beef hash the other day. My mum used to cook that and I loved it with baked beans. About time I dusted that meal off and served it up xxx

dawnybabes

Can you not make (or stretch) each means between now and when you got away to an extra portion and freeze that for their meals whilst you're away ?