Hugglemonster's debt free diary

hugglemonster

Thanks for your comments, I absolutely agree about making from scratch and am definitely one who batch cooks and uses up ingredients in a variety of concoctions! I have to say though, when I do buy a sauce I check the ingredients label and only buy natural products, nothing artificial. I do get frustrated that some quick foods are really cheap compared to the basic ingredients but then again if you're batch cooking that cost will come down per portion and even better when the products are yellow stickered or on special offer.

I think the only thing that I really need to sort out is going to an Asian Supermarket to stock up on herbs and spices, I live in a very small town but I travel regularly so it wouldn't take five minutes to look up a shop where I'm going and pop in. I do have some more herb seeds that I can grow indoors so will get the kids to do that today.

Hubby can make some bread when he gets home, he doesn't know that yet!

I really appreciate your comments and it has made me think how much more we can do by being a little more organised and prepared it will reduce our shopping bill hugely.

H x

Katzen

Batch cooking is definitely a life and money saver. I come from a family of 6 so find it really hard to adjust recipes down to 1 or 2, and it's often no cheaper to do that anyway, so I have a freezer full of portions of curry/stew type meals, which always help see me through on a long day.

As for Asian supermarkets, it astounds me how much cheaper some stuff is there. Even our big local Mr T is in the 'asian' part of our town so has a fab ethnic food aisle. Bags of spices at 2-3x the quantity of the little jars for less money. Often the tins of beans and tomatoes are cheaper down that aisle too. Totally ridiculous really!

hugglemonster

I have been busy today, actually not just me the kids have helped as well, we have done a bit of cooking:
* Homemade pasta sauce ready for spaghetti and meatballs tomorrow!
* Homemade veggie burgers.
* Dd made scones.
* Ds made fairy cakes.
* Dh did not make bread as home late from a course and then took dd climbing after dinner.


I have also done some washing, cleaned the front porch and bay window, cleaned the kitchen and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I do really love days at home with the kids, I'm usually so busy with work and the clubs I run plus all the evening meetings and events for my second job. My dream is to work part-time just for my second job so I can be at home and do all the things I want to do such as gardening, cooking, decorating etc.


For now I need to work hard to pay off the debt.


Bank account is looking a little better as it seems to be tallying a bit more, a direct debit went out today that wasn't due until end of month so this may have been the discrepancy. I have completed more surveys today, still waiting for vouchers to be sent after the company said they had requested them for me. I'll give it until the end of the week and then chase it up again.


Dd present arrived today which is very quick service, I've hidden it upstairs and she doesn't know it's arrived even though she knows what it is. I've never been this organised for her birthday! She wants to go to a restaurant across the road for a meal so will have to check how much that might cost.


Tomorrow will be busy again, I'm running an open day for my club and not sure how many kids will turn up. It's only 3 hours but lots of physical activity.


H x

Bobarella

Sounds a fantastic day. Very busy but good busy. I hope the open day goes well too!

hugglemonster

Hi de hi, well today brought some interesting discussions from my second job, after chatting to a colleague on the phone from head office about some marketing and promotion of a new group I have set up in the next town and also about some extra hours funded from her side of the organisation, my boss phoned about 5 minutes later and said my contract was nearly ready to send but wanted to check with about how many hours I want.


He mentioned about a full time post and I said that if it was available I would take it, much rather be doing 1 job than two halves. Also I'd much rather be doing sport everyday!


I really hope it comes off, would be great doing something I absolutely love plus plenty of perks and could fit in everything I want to work on.


In money news the usual monthly payment for the computer has gone out which reduces the balance to £457.26, more surveys today plus I have been stretching out food so haven't done a weekly shop so far. I will have to go tomorrow for food up until Tuesday when dh gets paid.


Looking forward to tomorrow as I catching up with a colleague from the job I left last year, it's been ages since I've seen her.


H x

Bobarella

That all sounds very interesting and exciting. Really hope you get to do the sports job full time.

[Deleted User]

Huggle....that would be brilliant.

Fingers crossed x

Katzen

That's great news huggle. Fingers crossed for you

hugglemonster

Well it has been an interesting, busy and frustrating few days.

I managed to be really careful with the pennies only for dh and his mate to decide that they were going to have a 'session' on their new instruments and of course that involved drink. Whilst his mate thankfully paid for the booze we apparently were buying the food (2 meals) for everyone including his mate's son. So that was Saturday out of action, I was at work for a few hours then home to that mess. Sunday dh decided to come shopping and brought more alcohol, he was in a really irritating mood so at that stage felt that I couldn't refuse.

Don't get me wrong he would never ever do anything wrong but he can be angry and a pain in the a*** on some occasions and others he can be really happy, the first instance was the case on Sunday. Later on in the day he wanted to watch a film with the kids but that involved paying for 2 months subscription payment and the film, he also got two games for the kids on the Saturday! I drew the line at getting more booze as he had work on Monday morning and so I lied and said that there was no more money. :mad:

Monday he was so sorry, I told him how rude and horrible he had been. It's frustrating because he is a good man but I just can't get him to think about how his spending affects everything we do and my budget. I did mention to him last night that we need an in depth chat about the budget, we haven't even started saving for the holidays next year or Xmas or put aside anything for dd birthday tea next week.

Sorry for the ranting it's good to get it out.

So there are some glimmers of hope, I need to redo my budget because I need separate pots for things like school dinners, activities e.g. ds has come home with a letter for swimming starting Friday, so that's another £9.

I should receive my contract to sign in the next couple of days, 3 days with second job at the moment and will build from there. At least I will get a regular income every month.

I have got £20 in Amazon vouchers secretly hidden, steady bits of money from surveys in Paypal and have just over £30 in cashback waiting to be payable any day now. Every scrap of extra money will go on the computer debt.

I don't want to finish 2017 still in debt (except car) so that I can sort out my mortgage.

H x

[Deleted User]

Oh hun, that must've been annoying.


Loving the secret stash, I think I need to reassess and build up something too.


Here's to the contract coming through x


Big hugs to you.