Jules DFW Diary!

Jules

Hi EE, yes greengrocers was awful. I live in a small village that has quite a few new build 'posh' houses and they must be pricing for the better off people. They used to be very reasonable.

Sitting looking at my monthly bills and wondering if I can get rid of the house phone? I'm locked in my contract with BT until 16th March and paying a whopping £71.70pm for broadband, BT sports and internet. I rarely use the house phone as we all have mobiles so why pay for it. I only need broadband and hubby would like to keep BT Sports for the Moto GP but it's only £5pm so I think we could stretch to that. Is it even possible to get rid of the house phone and still have broadband?

I've Sky cut down as far as I can and even get F1 channel free (I'm an avid F1 fan lol)

Tried chicken, pasta and garlic for tea last night. My son loved it and you'd have thought I gave my hubby poison lol and he's sick today so I hope he doesn't try and blame my cooking. There's some left so I'll use one portion for work tomorrow and freeze the other. I thought it was lovely and a nice change from all the heavy food we eat.

So in addition to my debt busting I'm also going to try and lose weight this year. I'm around 3 stone overweight and have chronic back pain which I think is as a result of the weight I'm carrying. I los it all before and my back was so much better so hopefully with the menu planning I can shift some of this before the summer. Was going to go for a walk but it's tipping it down here but if it eases off I will. Walking was always my sanctuary and I've got out of the habit!

I've decided to try a challenge I saw on FB. It's the 365 day challenge. You start on day 1 putting 1p in the jar, day 2 2p etc right through to £3.65 on day 365. Surely I can't fail at that lol lol! I've 6p in my jar so far lol!

Jules

Took a trip to Makro today and got:
20kg bag of lovely potatoes for £5.99
5kg of chicken breasts £19.99
2kg Bacon for £5.99
Coke for DS lunches for 68.9p per 500ml. This is a compromise as far as taking packed lunches and will save money in the long run as I know he'll buy it anyway and it's twice as much as the shop. Have left 5 in the fridge for this week and hidden the rest otherwise it would be gone by Friday.

Eager_Elephant

Jules you are doing really well with reviewing everything - I often think about getting rid of the house phone as we rarely use it but can't quite bring myself to do it.


Quite a few broadband suppliers don't stipulate you need a landline but I think these are mainly the mobile phone providers who have branched out into broadband.


Such a shame DH did not like the meal you served - it sounds nice. Men are strange creatures when it comes to food!!


Good luck with the weight loss - a lot of people struggle with debt and weight - there must be some correlation.


I have seen that challenge on Facebook as well and quite a few people seem to be doing it.


Excellent bargains from Makro - so pleased you got a large sack of spuds.
Tonight I did omelette, chips and salad for tea - it was lovely to eat normally rather than snacky bits.

Jules

Thanks EE I'm feeling quite pleased with myself and the potatoes are better than anything from the supermarkets, good size and lots of flavour.

I've made a slow cooker full of veg soup but I've run out of containers to put it in lol. Baked some potatoes while the turkey was cooking for dinner and they're in the freezer so will be quick and easy for lunches / dinners. Portioned up the meat I bought today and it's in the freezer. Tomorrow night's dinner ready to throw in the wok when I get home (back to work tomorrow :-( ) Lunches for me and DS ready to go.
Boiled up the left over fruit from xmas with some icing sugar and had that with the remainder of the xmas cream, it was lovely!
Just need to be careful with all this cooking as I've a load of pasta left over so I'll have to use this on Tuesday for bolognaise.

I've omelette planned for later in the week with wedges, probably no salad this time, I'll break them in gently!

I've around £35.96 left in the budget until payday but somehow with what is in the freezer, we'll not starve.

The house phone is definitely going in March. There are a few companies doing offers and I will change to whoever is the cheapest and take the line rental for the broadband and PAYG for calls but as we all have mobiles, won't be using it. It's going to take a few months to refine the budget and see where we are though as we have been very wasteful and spending crazy lately. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but I'm not looking back, it's done. Time to undo the damage!

Actually weighed myself 11st 11lbs. Not my heaviest but it's getting there and I'm only 5'4" so it needs to go. I had got it down to 8st 11lb before so that's my goal.

Had planned a walk today but didn't manage it but it's on the list for tomorrow! I love walking as it's 'ME' time and I always feel better for it even if it's only 20 mins!

Dreading work tomorrow but I'll be glad to get back to normality. Off to bed shortly, 6am comes too early!

Jules

Still keeping motivated and hubby's credit card statement arrived today and we noticed a £6.50 monthly charge which when I googled its a PC World extended warranty thing which we never take when we buy anything. After much moaning I dialed the card provider number and made him dispute and cancel it. Not sure how long this has been taken out as I never usually see the statement!!!!

The I decided to see if he could get a balance transfer card at 0% and bagged one for 20 months. The credit limit won't allow the full balance transfer but all but 248 will transfer and I will then clear this over the next few months. We'll be saving £30 a month in interest charges and the card will be destroyed to prevent further spending.

Off to see what else we can save on!

Eager_Elephant

Excellent work with getting rid of the charge and getting a balance transfer deal - all the savings add up!!


How are the family taking to the meals from the meal planner?

Jules

Hi EE,
I did pasta bolognaise tonight, normally use spaghetti and it went down a treat. I thoroughly enjoyed it and even better I made it last night and hubby stuck it in the oven and it was ready when I got home :-)

Tomorrow night was going to be either homemade kiev or chicken masala but hubby working an early shift and will be home early so it's omelette and wedges :-) I'm really looking forward to it.

I'm really chuffed at getting the 0% transfer, my credit rating is shot but his mustn't be too bad. So the old card will be cut up once the transfer is done. That means that all bar one card is 0% so it will be the target.Just going to do a new snowball and see what difference it makes. I'm really feeling in control, long may it continue.

Coming on here definitely helps keep me focused especially now I'm back to work as it's too easy to get lazy. Hope things are going well for you, haven't had a chance to catch up on your diary but I will :-)

Willy_Nilly_Milly

Didn't want to read and run so thought I'd just say. I've been around for ages on MSE and had a debt free diary I even ended up on the debt free roll of honour however I'm now back in debt oops:o
You are braver than me in being honest and still cracking on with sorting your debts. I've had to completely change my identity and start from scratch, even on this anonymous board ( :rotfl: Now I'm writing this down, I've just realised I think I may be nuts :rotfl:).
You are doing amazingly!!
What a huge sum to have paid off :T

Jules

Hi Willy_Nilly_Milly and thank you,
You're not nuts and thanks for reading my diary. Now I'm back to work after the hols I'm finding it harder to come on here and keep up to date so i appreciate everyone who reads this as time is precious.

We all manage things in our own way and you have to do what you feel is right for you and if this is changing your profile then so be it.
I considered changing my profile but I thought that would make it too easy for me and if anyone I know reads this then maybe they'll understand why I'm always skint but will see that i am trying to do something about it and hopefully they won't judge but if they do then I won't worry too much about it as I've judged myself enough.

I decided that there is no point beating myself up about it, what's done is done and it's time to undo the damage and clean up my mess. I wasted the money and I will repay it, albeit slowly but I will. Only my hubby and one good friend knows about the debt and I do get annoyed about being in debt sometimes but that won't change anything and is a waste of energy and us moneysavers try not to waste anything lol!

My being in debt in the first place and then finding this site and DFW boards back in around 2004 actually lead me to a new career which I love with a passion and in 2014 at the age of 44 I graduated with a BA Hons having never dreamed I would ever do a degree lol. So I am taking the positives out of what could be a very negative situation. My son has been brought up calling credit cards debt cards and if I can educate him enough then hopefully he will never get in this type of mess. I actually think that kids should be taught budgeting and money management at school, education is the key as this site so aptly demonstrates but I'll not even go there, for now lol.

So today I found out that the credit card is refunding 4 months of the £6.50 charge from PC World and I'm looking into claiming the rest back directly. I don't know if I can but if you don't ask you don't get.

I'm switching electricity provider but am waiting until next week as the provider I am with announced tonight they are cutting the tariff by 2% so I will wait and see if the others follow suit.

Returns label arrived for the shoes so I need to sort them out tomorrow and get them sent back.

It's 2 weeks until payday and I've £14.94 in the food budget and a £20 M&S card so with some creative menu planning we'll survive. I'm planning weekly rather than doing the full 3 weeks and it's flexible. Tonight was supposed to be omelette but hubby announced he doesn't like omelette lol, how did I not know that after 23 year??? so he had scrambled eggs, bacon and toast and I had a mushroom, onion, bacon and cheese omelette which was one full egg and 2 egg whites (lower in fat and just as tasty) and the yolks went into the scrambled egg. My son had half a pizza and home made garlic wedges which i've loads left over and in the fridge. Dead easy to make. Quartered the potatoes, sprayed with that spray oil stuff and seasoned with salt and pepper and when they were nearly done squirted some garlic puree over then with a bit more oil, tossed them and stuck them back in the oven. Delicious!

Curry made for tomorrow, Am loving the fact the dinner is made when I get home and I then prep whatever I need for the following day.

No other money saving today but then again no spending either. :T

Just remembered that I had a lady ring and book a party for Sat week which should earn me £60.This is something I do on the side and have been talking about getting going again. I did one 2 years ago and she'd kept my number. Won't add this to my budget as yet, might put it into my buffer fund when I get it! :j

Lol I don't half go on and if you made it to the end, thank you, it really helps to be able to write it all down

Willy_Nilly_Milly

I made it to the end :j

I've started meal planning the last week and it's so great, I don't know why I didn't do it sooner. I used to hate the dreaded 'what's for dinner?' Because I never had a clue now I know what we are having for dinner for the next two weeks
Before Christmas I went food shopping and spend over £200 and when I got home I realised I hadn't got any meals just a load of snacks and buffet food :rotfl: