Has anyone ever manage to do this?

foxgloves

Hi Flump,
Glad you thought my post was useful & you are going to give your food budget some serious thought. Yes, realistically you need to come up with some meals that you all enjoy, as cooking different meals for everyone is expensive & time-consuming. It also encourages picky eating. This probably won't be something you can change immediately, but you can start as you mean to go on, by asking people to agree on some standard meals they all like in order to start you off. Yes, the meal planning will help big-time with weight loss. How do I know? Because after managing to get on top of our debts, my partner & I used exactly the same skills (planning & budgeting - tho' this time with food/calories) to tackle our weight. I've lost 6 stone & partner has lost over 4 stone. We aim to reach goal weight this year. Meal planning, controlling food cupboard/freezer contents & sticking to properly planned shopping lists can help equally as a weight loss tool as it will with paying down debt. Our food stores last noticeably longer because we are controlling our portions & rationing treats to no more than one per day. There are lots of good ideas for good home-cooked inexpensive meals over on the Old-style forum, particularly how to stretch ingredients such as meat so as to achieve maximum meals for the cost. Be strong.....there isn't the money to carry on organising your food budget/habits in the same way as you have been doing, so everyone may as well understand that there's got to be some change. Flump, this does sound like your LBM, hope so! x

foxgloves

Oh whoops, back again.....Just wanted to add something that I do re people's food dislikes. I don't have children but I do have nephews who can be picky eaters. When they're coming to stay, I ask them each to let me know the 3 foods they'd be most unhappy to find on their plate & really wouldn't be able to eat. This puts them in control & they seem to quite enjoy deciding whether fish pie would be worse than mushrooms, or tomatoes worse than cabbage. They usually pick 3 different foods each, but that's fine. I promise them that I won't serve them those foods while they're here but that I expect them to eat everything else. They know that I mean it & that pushing food around their plates with a grumpy face won't achieve anything. It works because they can choose the 3 'nasty' foods themselves & know that they won't be made to eat them.
f x

joedenise

Love the idea Foxglove! Never thought of that one - might try using it with DGD who's now 15 and getting fussier by the day!

Denise

flumpkin

More great ideas there foxgloves - keep 'em coming. Going to check out old style boards too.

Just got back from dentist, he thinks caused by stress and cletching. So no treatment today... but need to expect some more down the line. Would love to be in position to save but guess should overpay debts and cross bridge when work needs doing?

Feeling a bit relieved ... (for now at least)

love flump x

Newyorkdreams

Ah bless.... I love your little sign off 'love flump x' - I think it's really cute

NYD x

jammy_dodger

just wanted to say hiflumpkin

been reading your posts and all the lovely support you have been getting. i wish you well on your journey to be debt free .
you seem to be getting good advice and though i have nothing to add at moment i shall subscribe to your diary to offer my encouragement
best of luck you are heading in the right direction
JD x

julesp_81

I'm just looking for some further advice re: your initial post sjw64, I have 14k in credit cards debts, again obviously my own fault I know, but while I can just about meet the minimum payments every month I am crippled by the interest rates. For example on one card my minimum payment is £50 and the interest is £45! If I wrote to them and explained that I am in debt and struggling do you think they would consider reducing/freezing the interest on my cards even for a temporary period? Also for info all my cards are closed, I am just paying off the balances. I am concentrating on the one with the highest interest rate first and then working my way down. My credit rating is poor as I have missed a few payments in the last year so I cannot get a 0% deal at the moment.

Any advice much appreciated!

[Deleted User]

They're unlikely to reduce or freeze the interest, so long as you are still paying.

After all, they're doing very nicely out of you, so they're not going to financially cut their own throats, are they?

Have you put the figures through the Snowball Calculator, to make sure you are paying them in the best way, and to get a DF date?

hettiecarro

Hi Flump.
Am following your thread closely. You really seem to have got on board with this and I think you did REMARKABLY well to reject the card with rising interest. It is Soooo hard to do it when you are used to having 'Live' cards at your disposal.
Let us know how you get on with your meal planning. Any advice I can give please PM me. I am well into my sixties - so quite experienced with cooking! And since LBM have learnt a lot more.
Hettie x

flumpkin

hettiecarro wrote: »

Hi Flump.
Let us know how you get on with your meal planning. Any advice I can give please PM me. I am well into my sixties - so quite experienced with cooking! And since LBM have learnt a lot more.
Hettie x

Thanks Hettie - I am going to take you up on that. I am not the greatest cook (and not helped my us all eating different stuff).
Mr Flump makes a mean spag bol tho and we had that yday with leftovers today with jacket potato. DD just has spag, a little bit of strained sauce and cheese and had JP with cheese tonight. I struggle as apart from ketchup she eats nothing 'wet'. Never has so can't hide stuff She has a very limited diet and would be veggie if she ate veg lol. Her food intake is very limited but normally quite well balanced (although loves carbs n cheese!)

Tomorrow we have chicken in red wine sauce, mash and veg). I bought chicken, bacon and mince for £10 at asda yday.

Today I have dug out a notebook - time to start writing any spends down I think.

DD does love baking so think will do that on weds or thurs - then she can have cake to eat. Never costed it to see if more cost effective? I just have to resist as desperately trying to lose weight too!

love flump x