Banishing the black cloud

maggiecon

Hubby has not worked all week so money is a bit stretched.

I am due £310 of rent this weekend which will take my rental pot up to £585. From this I have to pay £400 for car insurance and £60 for oil for the living room floors which I sanded and stained last week. Leaving the pot at £125.

We have agreed to take my mum to a spa and for everyone to go out for dinner afterwards, throw in the cost of a present and I would say it cost in the region of £300. I have £200 in the oil heating pot and the remaining rental money to cover this.

I then have my £535 emergency fund which I currently using to buy DD and DS Christmas presents from. Finally there will be another £310 to add to the rental pot in a fortnights time. From that I need to pay Landlord insurance and for my new blinds £375, which I will need to top up myself. Hopefully hubby will be working at this point.

If I can make it to the end of November, things should start to get a bit easier.

I am going to have to get very strict with the meal planning and lunches for the next four weeks.

maggiecon

I made it to the end of the week with 3 nsd's on the trot due to having no money to spend. I am so glad I started the batch/freezer cooking which has sustained me for the last few days. Now time to go out and buy some more groceries. and start meal planning.

Dinners for this week will centre around a big batch of Bolognese done on the sc

Thurs - Egg fried rice from the freezer
Fri - Spag bol
Sat - Lasagne, and side salad
Sun Roast Chicken dinner with cauliflower and broccoli cheese
Mon - Cottage Pie

I need to start trying to curb my spending as I have not managed to save any money from my weekly budget in nearly 2 months, and the money that I had saved to spend on myself was spent on bills!!

A very frugil November ahead but it should leave me in a good position for Christmas with most of my presents bought and paid for.

maggiecon

I just realised I forgot to update my outstanding debts at the end of October so here goes

Amex cc [STRIKE]£21[/STRIKE]/£0 100%
Lloyds cc [STRIKE]£1611[/STRIKE]/[STRIKE]£1595[/STRIKE] £1578 2%
Insurance Excess £100/£0 100%
Ulsterbank cc [STRIKE]£105[/STRIKE]/ £0 100%
Credit Union [STRIKE]£450[/STRIKE] / [STRIKE]£412 [/STRIKE] / £38215%
Loan [STRIKE]£1000[/STRIKE]/£1000 0%
Argos Card [STRIKE]£210[/STRIKE]/ £0 100%
Council Tax [STRIKE]£1750[/STRIKE] / £0 100%
Next £140 / [STRIKE]£140[/STRIKE] / £121 16%
Overdraft [STRIKE]£700[/STRIKE] /£666 4.8%
HMRC [STRIKE]£936[/STRIKE] /[STRIKE] £230[/STRIKE] /£0100%
Accountant [STRIKE]£384[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]/ £384[/STRIKE] /£0100%

Total Debt [STRIKE]£7957 [/STRIKE]/[STRIKE] £4977 [/STRIKE]/£4277 46.26%

Nearly Half Way :T:T

There will be no debt payments in November I just have too many bills coming in such as car tax/insurance etc. I hope to keep making payments throughout December in spite of Christmas as I have most of my presents bought.

PennySaving

Huge well done on your 100% debt repayments! Definitely a double round of applause! :T :T

Fortune_Smiles

Well done Maggiecon - that's amazing progress!


Fortune x

monz

That's fantastic x

maggiecon

Not much to report today, I bought groceries last night and I think using the big pot of Bolognese as a base for 3 dinners this week helped me get my shopping bill down as I only spent £40 (its normally £60). Although I didn't buy any of those muller yogurts which would probably account for the saving!!

I need some suggestions for tasty vegetarian dinners, as I have just calculated that 25% of the grocery bill was spent on meat!! More vegetables means healthier family and healthier bank balance. The few dishes that I have tried in the past are Egg Fried Rice, Sweet potato and spinach curry and plain pasta dishes. Need to experiment with a few more.

Hubby still of work so that's 6 days without any pay and he also had to get his car fixed last week so I have received no wages from him in two weeks.

He is currently trying to complete his PGCE application but I have no idea how we can afford for him to go to Uni. Maybe if we are out of debt by then it will be easier. I suppose when you look at it rationally, I spent £3682 on debt repayments in the last 4 months :eek::eek: if I don't have debt repayments to worry about maybe he can afford to go to Uni...

Took my son to the doctors yesterday and he is suffering from a chest infection. He has very bad asthma so he seems to pick up everything going. DD comes home from school every evening puts on her pyjamas and climbs into bed and watches TV on her iPod. She then comes downstairs around 9 for more food before proceeding to go back to bed!! Is this normal behaviour for a teenage girl, my friends tell me it is and they used to be like that too. As from next week I am going to start making her go for a run with me twice a week. She needs some form of exercise before she morphs into the bed :rotfl: In her defence she leaves the house every morning at 8am to get the bus to school which is a 30min journey and she is not home to 5pm every evening.

supersaver1000

Sorry, just had to delurk and say it's Very normal. Just be there, keep an eye out and go with the flow. I also try and make time to do what she'd like to do - and I try to pamper her a bit, life is very confusing being a teenager and I hope I can make it a bit less confusing and more secure. They'll be grown ups soon - listen to slipping through my fingers - mamma Mia - makes us all cry.

I've gone much more vegetarian and there are some great recipes on the threads here. Try the huge bags of lentils from Tesco for £2.99, they are sometimes on offer. I love tarka Dahl and I've a great recipe for a Dahl with potatoes, tomatoes and a pepper in. Also we have made naan breads for next to nothing and samosas but they are quite fiddly. I also bought the hugest bag of pasta on offer at Mr Ts last week. 3kg for a couple of quid I think. So I thinks it's veggie pasta sauce tonight with garlic bread and grated cheese on top. I will probably add a few lentils for protein. Also don't forget the bulking out mince with lentils and/or oats trick. (Apologies if I'm repeating advice here )

Right off to do some housework. . Have a good day.

maggiecon

Thanks SuperSaver, to be honest I have been jumping into the jammies every evening this week myself, its just that time of year. She also leaves the house every morning at 8am for a 30 min bus ride to school and isn't home until 5pm every evening.

I used the lentils trick in my last batch of Bolognese and it wasn't even noticeable. I will definitely look at Tarka Dahl. I am a bit sick of pasta we eat it at least 3 times a week. The worst thing about vegetable dishes is all the chopping and peeling.

Fortune_Smiles

Hi Maggiecon


just popping in to say I post lots of vegetarian recipes on my diary. I can't tolerate much in the way of meat and get an organic veg box each week so vegetables form the bulk of my meal plan.


Might give you a few idea?


Fortune x