Keeping head above water - Almost

ViolaLass

Can't you use your savings to pay the Vanquis off? It isn't much but the rate is horrible.

abby1234519

No savings, accidentally put value of car in the wrong place! Nope, just need to plod along trying to sell my belongings

abby1234519

So husband was paid today, first wage slip since cutting hours (was on team leader wage for the last two so wages were £200 more than expected).

£652

Have worked out that if I want to pay off the last £220 of our honeymoon we will need to sell things, ie spare chest freezer (hopefully being picked up tomorrow for £50)
Luckily I still have a spare room full of china from the wedding and quite a few decorations. I know I have £50 coming in from selling the huge sandwich board and some cake stands. I know one of the china sets is in mint condition and a full set (Adderley).

So I've got loads to sell still.

Just need to avoid spending. We now have £130 left to feed ourselves in November as I have gone horrendously over in October. I could feed us on that, I have a freezer full of meat!

ViolaLass

£130 a month for food is utterly doable, if you cook from scratch and go to your local supermarket when they reduce food.

abby1234519

ViolaLass wrote: »

£130 a month for food is utterly doable, if you cook from scratch and go to your local supermarket when they reduce food.

I know its doable (especially when you have the amount of food that I already have) its more can I resist the urge to buy crap.

In the freezer in the meat drawer I have 6 packets of bacon, 3 x half legs of lamb (yellow stickered at 25% of original value)

3 x turkey breasts,

24 x sausage pack (why I froze them together I don't know

1 x pack of sausages

2 x quorn (chicken)

and other stuff.

I've got lots of vegetables in the freezer, ermmmmm several bags of rhubarb in the freezer. Then in my cupboards I have cans and cans and cans and cans and cans.

I can't even see how really I would need to buy any food at all!

abby1234519

So did an Aldi shop came to £80.

Sounds like a lot but I bought quite a lot of mince to fill a drawer in the freezer, as I have 10kg of lentils I can stretch that rather far.

Baked beans for Joshibobs, lots of tinned tomatoes, lots of Aldi branded Weetabix, rice, lots of tortilla wraps that are now in freezer, frozen chips, squash, shreddies, lots of pesto etc.

All things that can be used with my existing food. Ie pesto, I freeze it in ice cube trays which makes it last for ages and helps make a meal out of pasta, cheese and tinned tomatoes.

We have £44.81 left for the month, I'm going to withdraw £40 later and put that in the food money tin. It is ONLY for things like bananas, milk, bread, flour and eggs. We might need squash as my partner refuses to drink water and he goes through vast amounts, about 10 bottles of Lidl (99p) a month but I don't have the storage space to buy it all at once.

I'm going to try to meal plan about 3 days ahead, I can't do it weekly or even monthly because of the hours my partner works. If I plan too far ahead I end up deviating.

I have removed all of my cards from my Amazon account so I can't just go and buy a kindle book, I have joined the local library, will pick our cards up at the weekend.

Cancelled Netflix, Amazon Instant can stay as that was paid in advance.

Need to also remove my card from itunes as thats another issue for me!

Need to pay the £50 to get my old phone fixed by the insurance company and then sell the replacement and hopefully pay off the phone contract.

Need to finish selling all of my wedding clutter to empty the spare room, not sure how much I'll make, have bird cages, vintage crockery and candle holders etc.

Need to turn the timer of the heating on so it is just on for an hour when Joshibobs goes to bed and then an hour in the morning. We have 3 hot water bottles so 2 will go into Joshibobs bed and 1 in ours.

Need to make sure I claim the £55 cashback on topcashback as amazon vouchers and use those to buy Joshibobs Christmas presents.

Might have a go at swagbucks again.

De clutter completely, we have a messy house, and it affects my mental state. I get angry and aggressive and basically can't cope. My partner is the untidiest person on the planet and I get angry at him for the crumbs, the weetabix crumbs, the clothes on the floor. It sets me off and I just break down. So de cluttering should help me mentally and hopefully bring some cash in.

The debt situ is stressing me out, DMP is not an option I refuse to ruin his credit rating. I will pay it off, it will cost me around 5k in interest. But I need to find ways of even making pennies!


We also have £220 left to pay of Honeymoon by March and £190 adoption fee that needs to be paid urgently.

beanielou

Keep plodding!

abby1234519

So today I made £140 selling some more wedding stuff. Pretty happy with that! I worked out what I could sell it for on ebay and then sold it to someone for a similar amount from Facebook. No fees yay! It was actually £160 but I must confess I was persuaded to get a takeaway for tea.

So husband will put that in the bank tomorrow and that will pay the £70ish off one of our 3 Capital One cards. That will be that paid off. There is only a £200 limit on that card so I intend to freeze it (marg tub and water) for emergencies. The other £70 will go on Simply Be. Which would leave about £60 on that debt.

Husbands grandmother has given him the money to pay for our son's adoption which is so generous and really takes a weight off my mind. Husband is Joshibobs father in every sense apart from biological. He has been his daddy since before he was born. So the legal bit is the last thing to do. I am excited.

I have more stuff to sell, wedding birdcages etc which I will try to sort out this week when Joshibobs has gone to bed.Send adoption paperwork off, make sure housing benefit paperwork has been sent,not entitled to much but we are in one of the test areas for uni credit which should be rolled out to families at end of November. I think we will get another £200 a month on uni credi would help us a lot

Got some cashback from topcashback £30 in amazon vouchers, have bought Joshibobs two xmas presents and will use the rest to pay for the next Sylvia Day book on kindle.

This week I plan to get at least 10 listings on ebay

DozyDeborah

Keep going, you're doing brilliantly. Subscribed x

abby1234519

Thanks

I've changed my mind about keeping the credit card open, I've made a payment of 70.36. I'm guessing there will be a couple days of interest (statement was generated on the 8th) and then I can close it after the next statement. But at the mo its at 0 balance. Can then pay the other £89.64 to another debt. Just deciding whether to do smallest debt or highest interest. Smallest debt is Simply Be, but as the payment is so low I sort of feel I should stick it on a different card. Aargh decisions!