Debt, debt go away (and don't come back another day)

kimplus8

There are some great meat free recipes on net mums- I was recommended it on here and tbh it's been great, the veggie lasagne tasted fab, when quote is on offer I stock up on their frozen family bags of chicken style piece and veg mince, then I can make a chicken pie or whatever using quote for half the cost and the kids can't tell.

System

Great tip -Kp8 - we had quorn sausages tonight, as they had been on special, but I hadn't thought about using the mince.
I'll check out netmums.
I have this idea in my mind to create a dinner ideas generator - write a load of dinner ideas on slips of paper - veggie on one colour, meat on another and fish on another and then use this to help pick out a varied menu and help with shopping. It would take the need of having to think too much about what to do, so I could just get on with getting the supplies in, and then cooking it!

One possible ray of light today (apart from an NSD - that's 10 so far!) was looking at all the numbers and figuring out that if I am able to go back full time, and if we stopped paying childcare, and my DH stopped earning money and just did the childcare we wouldn't be that worse off - we'd have to drop to 1 vehicle, and cancel all his business expenses, but we'd only be about £100 a month worse off.....and if he was at home he would have the time to do more batch cooking / growing of food etc. Seems a bit bonkers - but at least his income would be a stable zero, rather than up and down as it is with his self employment.
The downside would be that increasing DMP payments would be unlikely, so we'll be in it for the long haul, but we are in it for the long haul anyway! Food for thought. No idea if I'll get extra hours approved as yet so no sense making any different plans!

wishing you all a lovely day tomorrow xx

hannahroberts1985

Hey,

DS1 woke half an hour before my 4am alarm so thought I'd check in before dragging myself out of bed.

I'm a vegetarian so can help you on your meat free mission. I think this defiantly helps with keeping costs down. DS and DP have meat a couple of times a week but only things like sausages, chicken or burgers anything else they have quirn or meat free. We work shifts so it's hard to meal plan but after years you get used to living off frozen meat/quorn anyway. The mince is great DP prefers it to regular mince and like Kimplus said stock up when cheap. Also I bulk out a lot of meals with pulses, beans and extra veg. When making curry we will add lots of potato, peppers, mushrooms, peas. Chilli Kidney beans and mixed beans along with butternut squash. Bolognase with carrots,mushroom and peppers. Do you or DP drive past any cheaper shops/market after or during work that you could grab the extras from?. That way your in a rush to get home so don't browse and buy more and also if it's somewhere cheaper your wining too. The tunnel sounds great! Or maybe a internet food delivery once a month? I find it easier to avoid the temptation when ordering online. I know what yeah mean about berries we get Kian them too and they are sooo exspensive but is pay anything to see him eating fruit. I do keep frozen berries in the freezer and use in porridge.

With the cutting to your income only have you thought long term. Will his business grown in a few years? If so I'd say stick at it if he's already spent a lot building up his business and reputation, when the babies at school he'll only have to start all over again.

Right best get this show on the road. Have a nice day xx

System

Lucky you HR with the proper early start! Hope you are happily on our hols.

Well I've had a good day today. Letters drafted to go to creditors - will print and put in the post on Monday....still procrastinating a tiny wee bit!
Also am in the midst of a quiche experiment...experiment as I have never made pastry before (WHY? I love baking, and it was so easy!) - this one is dairy free, with a bacon and oat milk middle. It's taken longer to cook than it says, but it doesn't look like too much of a car crash. Then a tea loaf is into the oven - all in prep of going to grandad's tomorrow and saving on taking him out for lunch.

A small shop today but got 2 x things of chicken reduced from £4 each to 99p, and some sausages reduced as well. So although I am eating the freezer down, I have just added some more in...whoops
Another plus was that I made venison stew in the SC from bits in the freezer and it was lovely, and enough for another meal in there too.

Wishing everyone else a happy friday xx

Poor_Single_lady

I hope its going well. For me having meals sorted makes me feel a bit more in control and like I can do this. Its hard tho isn't it, sounds like you are doing well tho and making lots of plans. I think getting dinners sorted is a good base for success hope you are having a nice weekend. Xxx

System

Thanks PSL. Lovely weekend, but a little bit of a failure on the spending front - not too severe though.
Currently chilling inside, as it'a raining outside and the boys are playing cards, DD is napping, and I'm 'Taking a pause' from chores...lush!

definitely think doing the meal plan has helped - I've just done this week's. Need to factor in lunches as well as dinners and then i think it will be perfect- but I find lunches much much harder!

System

Well some good news today. My expenses from work came in (£130) so paid this off the credit card. Someone also collected a giant bit of machinery that my DH sold on ebay, so a fat £940 in - unfortunately EBAY caught us out a bit as the fees on the sale were nearly 10%, which we hadn't realised they would be so high, so feeling slightly cheated!! Anyhow, it still means we can pay £850 off his CC, and someone's paid a bill so that's another £160 - £1010 off his CC in total and 4.7% of our debt BOSHED. Feels great!

Paperwork has gone off to the Big Bad Three to start our DMP - after much procrastination I might add....so we are underway. Aiming for 3 months token payments, so we can build an EF, but we also need to clear both halifax CC's.

I know I am going to find things slow to happen, as I am impatient sort, so I think I am going to set myself some little challenges to keep me focussed. First challenge is to try and pay as much off my halifax CC, so less comes out of my wages that go in (25th) .
Thanks to Topcashback, I've got a payment of £20.46 that I've cashed in so that will leave £63.99. Wonder how much more I can clear??

Got a few ebay sales i can list so might have a go at that.

System

Topcashback payout has come in, so that's now off the CC Yay!
Also had next nursery bill in, and it's a cheaper month than I was expecting so that's hopefully going to help clear the other CC. Pretty sure we won't be able to save towards an EF this month, but hopefully from next month we will.

Broadband and phone switched today so that's progress - new deal should be much cheaper. Not looking forward to the final BT bill, but hey ho.

We're away this weekend seeing the folks, so should be a cheap weekend, and have a my birthday next week to look forward to.


Not looking forward to all our payments defaulting from tomorrow for the big bad three. Oh dear.

HappyNoMoney

Hi Ramblehan,

Just wanted to wish you all the best on your DF journey! I am in the middle of nowhere similar to you, have you thought about getting your groceries online? I can usually get a delivery slot on a weekday evening for £1.

HNM

System

Hi HNM (Like your name!)
I probably should do everything online. I think sometimes we just like to escape the moor and the supermarket provides that opportunity. I also really rate Aldi meat and prices...but if I factored in the petrol and time, then we're probably not saving any money.
Who do you use? We could get Sains, Tesc, or Asda....DH is a bit snobbish about Asda and Tesco, and Sainsb is just expensive.

Good luck on your journey too. Ramble.