Debt free before 35

MrsSave

That happiness was short lived! I just checked to see what my wage would be from September thinking of the change in tax code and saw the changes to national insurance. I'll actually be £15 worse off. Grrrrrr :mad:

crazy_cat_lady

I hate the whole tax code/wage rise thing. For the past 2 years I've actually brought home less every month thanks to increased pension contributions completely wiping out my extra tax allowance.
Well done on the fuel saving though - celebrate the small things

MrsSave

It's so annoying, isn't it?

Today I'll be mostly staying in bed feeling sorry for myself. The joys of sinusitis. Half of my face is puffed up nicely, one eye is half closed, red and constantly weeping. My head hurts and my face hurts. I'm still waiting for the paracetamol I took 2 hours ago to kick in (I have a feeling it's not going to!!). Grrrrrrr!

Whilst being here I have just logged in to my topcashback account. I haven't used it for ages and it had switched to an account I had to pay for. Managed to get it back to the classic and then wept at the thought of all that money I've missed out on over the past year. All online transactions will now be made through topcashback. I'm just wondering when our home insurance is due for renewal

MrsSave

Had a snooze, then checked hotukdeals. I've ordered 2016 annual for ds for 99p. That can go as part of his birthday present. I've already paid so have 7 days to collect. Went through topcashback of course. I'm currently sitting with a cold flannel covering half my face. What a lovely look!!

MrsSave

It's amazing what being in bed for a couple of days does to the amount of time I spend on here. snooze.......mse.......snooze........mse! I've been reading a few diaries. It's been good to get some motivation back. Despite not increasing debt at all, I think we could have saved/paid off a little more. Eating out/takeaways has to be the first one to cut back on. We've decided on one chippy night this month (costs about £7 for the 3 of us), and that's it for takeaway this month. Grocery shopping is the other one we really need to watch. £70 to last 2 weeks. That's very doable, if we're sensible!!

crazy_cat_lady

Hope you're feeling better soon Mrs S...

MrsSave

crazy_cat_lady wrote: »

Hope you're feeling better soon Mrs S...

Thank you CCL. I see from your diary that you're not well either. Teaching and almost half term spring to mind.

Still off poorly today, but I have company. My ds has been up in the night with a temperature. He's still asleep at the moment, which is unheard of at 9am.

My money saving plans for today:

*check all accounts
*make food from stores (I'm thinking throwing the ingredients for a vegetable curry into the slow cooker - nice and easy)
*NSD (should be easy in theory - not going anywhere........in practice the Internet will be a problem!!)
*rest and see if I can manage to get back to work tomorrow (though may be off with ds instead now!).

MrsSave

Managed to check accounts. All looking fine (could always be better, but everything has been tracked!). Ds is poorly. Temperature and sickness. Poor little thing. I've cancelled his nursery for the rest of the week.

I've thrown the ingredients for a curry into the slow cooker. It's not often I eat meals without meat, but at the minute it smells delicious! Will save a few £s if I can change to eating meat free once or twice a week. Thinking jackets and beans/cheese will do either tomorrow or Friday night. Though, if there's curry left (which there should be) and it's nice we could have that with jackets.

We have 2 freezers, which are currently full to the brim. I need to go through these now to see what we've actually got and won't be buying meat for the rest of the month (or possibly next month!!). I may put that job off until tomorrow or Friday, though.

MrsSave

Well that curry was yum! I usually find a recipe and change bits as I feel! It usually turns out well. This time I used the following:

1 tablespoon ground cumin

3 teaspoons garam masala powder

1 teaspoon turmeric powder

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 bay leaves

1 large onion, diced finely

1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated

5 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon tomato puree

1 can chopped tomatoes

6 cups water

280g red lentils,

A mixture of butternut squash, potato and sweet potato (I used 1/2 bns, 2 potatoes and 1 sweet potato) chopped into bite size pieces.

To start I cooked the onions, added the garlic and ginger. Then added the spices and the tomato puree, then the chopped toms. Threw them into the slow cooker with the rest of the ingredients.

Have loads left over so will have with a jacket potato tomorrow night.

MrsSave

I must be psychic when I mentioned home insurance before........it's due for renewal this weekend. The email came through 2 weeks ago to Dh's email account and it had been on his to-do list (which also means he forgot until I asked him earlier). Managed to get a new policy which will be a few pence a month more, but includes £20 cash back and a £40 voucher. Can't be bad!!