NST: October: Letting go of the love of stuff.

crazy_cat_lady

Morning all
Sounds like we've gotten off to a good start this month
I was up early this morning, so watched last night's Eat Well for Less. The family reminded me a lot of how DH is when shopping. I've always got a list and he's always like, 'Oooh - special offer!' etc. I love that programme.
I'm not taking him shopping with me this weekend. He will think it's his duty to spend because I'm only planning a tiny top up shop and he will look and think that I'm not buying enough.

Bobarella

Good Morning Turtles

Well. It's a peaceful dry morning by the looks of it. Has been a lovely experience to arrive at work dry all this week.

Have the last big batch of DDS leaving the account today, after that it's the mortgage on the 6th and then the long run through till month end. Will be checking on those later as one is supposed to be changing (first utility) & I don't trust them not to ars3 it up...

Should be a personal NSD & all food leftovers will be out of the fridge and used up as husbands lunch (jp and chilli)

Have a good day guys.

Bob

traveller

luckystarr wrote: »

Evening all.

No SFD and it's not looking likely over the weekend (but everything is budgeted for)

Will post budgets etc over the weekend.

This will sound awful but I haven't had my LBM yet as I am still a really bad emotional/spontaneous/wasteful spender !! I will need to have a long think over the weekend and get my priorities straight. There is no hope for me !!

Hope you all have a lovely evening and I will check in tomorrow

Night all x

Lucky, I beg to differ, the fact that you've joined the thread ,your aware of it. That's the beginning of change. I remember for years overspending, but would only come to the boards to find out how to save money in order to spend more, rather than cut my expenditure. That wasn't necessary in my mind. You'll be fine

I too saw that eat well programme and I actually liked this family as rather than silly excuses for their actions like some of them on there , they held their hands up and embraced the help. And her face when she realised the amount :eek:.

Well I'm working ng from home today so no rushing around :T but will be back later with a more productive post :rotfl: take care everyone .

littleskintdragon

Hi All,

Please can I join in again. confessing to having been a lurker the past few months, but I'm still plodding along with debt busting. I've now paid 35% of the debt.

LBM was when dh lost his job, nothing has ever worried me more and was definitely a reality check! He did get a new job fairly quickly but with much lower wages.

I'm also having a baby this year, at xmas. So will be spending some time on statutory maternity pay :eek: I'm not sure how this will work out as I'm struggling this week, have no money for groceries, and my maternity leave hasn't started yet!!

veggie day will be omlettes until i use up the 36 eggs in my fridge.:cool:

Also I've been using cash for about 6 weeks now,and apart from having a tight week this week its worked well. dh gets paid weekly so although we have no money this week by the end of the month we'll have about £300 left over.

thriftylass

Bobarella wrote: »

What do you count as high milk consumption? Surely just buy a bigger container when you do buy it? So you have more for longer and less NSDs lost? I normally pick up a 6 pint container per day for the shop but sometimes that lasts 2 days. And that does a lot of coffee!

We go through a 6pt jug every second day as three of us have cereal in the morning, then coffees and milk is both my kids (4 and 19mo) favourite drink. I'll maybe see where to get the cheapest UHT milk. Back in Germany that's all you get, there is no fresh milk and I used to like it. Think I just got used to the fresh milk taste now. As I had another spend day yesterday anyway I bought 2 x 4 pt in the coop for £2 and squeezed them in the back of the fridge (sorry, I know I can just buy more but storage is an issue our fridge is tiny, will definitely try UHT again too). I guess winter is great as I can use the conservatory as a walk in fridge again :rotfl:.

Yesterday was an epic fail, or let's call it a day that didn't go to plan at all and can be vastly improved today. Ended up having a rollie after the kids were in bed and didn't have a meat free day either as DH wanted to try and smoke burgers, which were delicious .

DH is going to accept his new job which is a bit more money and he'll work in town too. So we can combine our commutes and should save money that way especially from January when both kids will be in the same nursery.

I'll be offline from tonight as I'll be up north so see you Monday and happy weekend x

EDIT Well, today isn't going too much better . Just brought DS' library books back and bought 2 decommissioned hard backs for 60p (I guess I could argue this is in aid of my tech free days ). Also picked up a reduced bag of marshmallows for the bbq tomorrow and a birthday card. Oh well, need to pull myself together now. Only all small spends but they add up.

thriftylass

littleskintdragon wrote: »

Hi All,

Please can I join in again. confessing to having been a lurker the past few months, but I'm still plodding along with debt busting. I've now paid 35% of the debt.

LBM was when dh lost his job, nothing has ever worried me more and was definitely a reality check! He did get a new job fairly quickly but with much lower wages.

I'm also having a baby this year, at xmas. So will be spending some time on statutory maternity pay :eek: I'm not sure how this will work out as I'm struggling this week, have no money for groceries, and my maternity leave hasn't started yet!!

veggie day will be omlettes until i use up the 36 eggs in my fridge.:cool:

Also I've been using cash for about 6 weeks now,and apart from having a tight week this week its worked well. dh gets paid weekly so although we have no money this week by the end of the month we'll have about £300 left over.

Welcome back, and well done on paying more than a third of your debt despite the rocks thrown in your path like OH loosing his job etc. Keep going, you have all our support here.

dolly84

Welcome Newbies.

Mrs Toast - you have got off to a flying start.

apple - if the envelope system doesn't work for you that's fine, you already have a very good system in place. I quite like to see the cash, it makes me think whether I really want to spend it more than it does when it goes on the debit card.

TOG - how can anyone spend £320/week on food, I wouldn't know where to put it all.

Bob - I seem to remember watching a feature about Cargo Bikes on the Cycling Show. I use the SUSTRANS website quite a bit when looking for safe routes to use with the kids but never thought of donating to them.

Not much going on at dolly towers today, work, dog walking, cleaning the bathroom, washing, school run, making home made pizza for tea, running and getting a suitcase out of the loft for DD's trip next week.

dolly84

Dizzyblnd & littleskintdragon - you have a number.

littleskintdragon - you have done a really good job so far, hopefully you will rise to the challenge of a difficult week. List what you have in the house food wise and we may be able to give some ideas for meals if you like.

The_Only_Girl

dolly84 wrote: »

Welcome Newbies.

Mrs Toast - you have got off to a flying start.

apple - if the envelope system doesn't work for you that's fine, you already have a very good system in place. I quite like to see the cash, it makes me think whether I really want to spend it more than it does when it goes on the debit card.

TOG - how can anyone spend £320/week on food, I wouldn't know where to put it all.

Bob - I seem to remember watching a feature about Cargo Bikes on the Cycling Show. I use the SUSTRANS website quite a bit when looking for safe routes to use with the kids but never thought of donating to them.

Not much going on at dolly towers today, work, dog walking, cleaning the bathroom, washing, school run, making home made pizza for tea, running and getting a suitcase out of the loft for DD's trip next week.

Dolly, it beats me too. £320 a week translates to £16640 per year. That's like one person's annual income going on just food? My jaw dropped when she said at the beginning of the programme that they shopped less than average so it should be around £110. At least she held her hand up to say they do need help. In the end with the swaps they made, they managed to reduce their weekly shop by half. That's like a £7000 pay rise.

I agree with you on the cash envelopes. We tried for a month (August) to use debit cards instead of cash from the cash envelopes and we felt less in control and much like the old pre-DFW days . We didn't make as much savings as we have done with the envelope system so we went back to cash envelope system in September and the foreseeable future. And yes, at the end of the day, use whatever works best for you and your family.

I had a bit of a disaster at home while getting ready for our weekend away. My ironing horse collapsed while I was doing the ironing and the iron fell flat on the carpet leaving a very nasty burn mark, right in the middle of our living room! I'm still thinking of what I would do - home insurance claim or buy a decent rug to cover it up? I will have to do my ironing at the hotel when I get there and I will try not to let this little inconvenience spoil what would be a very nice weekend away with the hubby.

Got to go and pack. If you don't hear from me all weekend, it means I am having so much fun. Have a nice sunny weekend wherever you are.

PS.
Btw, speaking of sunny. My sunflowers which I sowed very very late at the end of July are just starting to bloom. Who says you can't have summery flowers in autumn?

littleskintdragon

dolly84 wrote: »

Dizzyblnd & littleskintdragon - you have a number.

littleskintdragon - you have done a really good job so far, hopefully you will rise to the challenge of a difficult week. List what you have in the house food wise and we may be able to give some ideas for meals if you like.

Thanks Dolly, i will do that when things start running down. Got a few days of 'normal' meals left before we experiment :rotfl: and we eat at mil's on Sunday so that's one less to worry about. Dh gets paid on Tues so it's not all bad.
I dont keep much in the house food wise, i tend to eat it and then go shopping when i have to, that said we definitely wont starve (this week!)


Talking of 'eat wll for less' me and dh were sat at the end of that programme imagining what we could buy for the £200 that their bill dropped down to, we'd live like kings!! That's my monthly budget for all 4 of us and the dog!! Cant even imagine what spending £320 a week on food looks like!! :eek: