£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

enthusiasticsaver

Great progress on getting the Barclaycard below £12k. Every little helps.

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 53: Day 6

Morning!

Nice to have two days of catching up with everything with DH around before next week's Work Week From Hell begins. Going to do some cooking, get on top of laundry and cleaning and generally get ourselves as far ahead as possible so the busy week doesn't send us too far behind again.

Not too much to chat about this morning after the excitement of last night - going to be a boring week or so, financially speaking, of trying to nail down some extra money for the inevitable car bill.

Three things to do today
1. Make sourdough loaves.
2. Pack orders for smaller business.
3. Pop into town - need to post orders and browse charity shops for spoons and buttons. Must not spend anything extra though!

Savings/Spends:
- £0 2nd half of February 'rounding down' overpayment pot.
- £1,215.35/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.

Honeysucklelou2

Well done on the overpayment!

Savertobe

I have used a mix of washing up liquid and bicarb on the oven hob and glass and I guess it would work on baths sinks too - I have a white ceramic kitchen sink and bicarb works wonders on - no need for bleach.

I'd be interested in toilet cleaning tips as were moving to a hard water area. I have seen vinegar being advocated but I wonder about the plastic seats and metal fittings would they not deteriorate with the vinegar solutions??

Debt busting seems to have got a strong hold on you TOPM its good to see - well done.

Suffolk_lass

Well done TOPM - very good!

As I was placing an online order just now I thought of your eco-considerations and I wondered...

Flour for your baking - what do you do? in our house I normally buy the Becheldre Organic bread flour in bulk and have it delivered. This might have to change as I know the Mill was up for sale and the offerings have reduced since last time. It is a premium artisan brand (that Waitress used to stock) but it is superb. By buying in bulk it brings it down in cost a bit. It is funded from my stores system. I also (separately) buy bags of wheatgerm from Shipton Mill online - who are slightly cheaper and sell direct (and also do flour). At the moment I have a 16kg sack of wholemeal and have just ordered a 16kg sack of unbleached white (plain) flour and 2x4x1.5kg bags of organic strong white stoneground (which store easier than the sacks in card boxes of four). I have a number of the large plastic sweet jars and some large glass spring-top jars that I decant from the sack into. It might not be cheaper than Aldi but I like the unbleached organic features. It was this which made me think of you!

Treadingonplaymobil

Organic food

Suffolk, you pre-empted something I've been thinking about all week.

I hope this post isn't too sanctimonious, but here's my thoughts on the matter...

We used to have a food budget of £100pw back when DC1 was a toddler/preschooler and DC2 a baby, and we used to buy 100% organic food, healthy food such as avocado, green smoothies, plenty of nuts and seeds, and eco-friendly versions of cleaning products etc. We tried to continue that organic/eco/healthy philosophy without thinking too much about our food budget, and over time it took our food bill up to our immediately-pre-LBM food bill of around £150pw, and that's with eating progressively less meat over time and cooking more and more from scratch, even pre-LBM. We are currently managing on a food bill of more or less £85pw (£375pm), maintaining the cooking from scratch ethos and ditching everything else - no organic food, no eco products, things like avocados, chia seeds, good dark chocolate etc are rare treats rather than part of our regular shop.

Every single food shop feels like I compromise. I know what I would like to be feeding my family and bringing into my home in terms of cleaners, soaps, shampoo etc etc, and it isn't what I'm doing right now. Yes, I'm doing the best I can with a tight budget, but I'd like to be doing better, and it isn't possible without some changes. We've made recent changes like switching to homemade cleaners, as discussed, and those small savings have enabled us to maintain the way we eat in the face of the huge price increases in certain foods over the past 12 months (I'm looking at you, butter). I had an upbringing of eating organic, local food (my mother was a super-early adopter of organic food, I remember when it was a huge challenge to get a whole food shop that was organic, and she used to make the effort to get as much as possible), so it's always seemed like the 'right' thing to me, and nothing in the growing body of research around pesticides, chemicals coming into our homes etc is changing my mind on that.

I have tried, several times, to reinsert some organic food back into our budget. I've tried buying organic versions of the 'dirty dozen' fruit and veg (those that absorb the most pesticides), and I've tried buying organic versions of the things we consume in relatively large quantities - like bread flour, plain flour and porridge oats. The trouble is that even a few small changes tip our food shop from 'tight' into 'not actually manageable on this budget'. Even buying in bulk and storing, I can't find anything where the extra price doesn't eventually add up and affect our budget. If I want to bring any meaningful quantity of organic food (rather than literally just selecting one thing to buy organic, which seems pointless) back into our lives, I would need to shuffle things around to increase our food budget, and I just can't see a realistic way of doing that right now.

I have, in short, taken the decision that rather than incorporating some organic/more 'luxury' health foods into our budget now and slowing down our debt repayment or taking yet more money away from things like family entertainment money, it's better for us to give it up entirely until our financial situation is better.

It's something I really want to reintroduce, and look forward to being able to get more of our food from the local organic food shop or the bulk market (zero waste), but the quickest way to get to that stage is to forget about it entirely for now and keep our food shop as low as humanly possible without introducing processed foods, which is my line in the sand in quality terms - if it became impossible to cook from scratch on our budget, I would increase it by sacrificing other things.

I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm 'comfortable' with this choice, but I've certainly reached acceptance of it for the short/medium term, and try not to dwell too much on the implications of it - the quicker we're out of debt, the quicker things improve, and that's all there is to it.

I've found that things like organic food/clothing and natural cleaners etc etc, and the benefits or otherwise of it, can be a hugely dividing issue, so I hope no one is offended by me sharing my thoughts here. Not trying to tell anyone else what they should do, just what feels like the best choices for my family at this time.

museumworker

Yesterday sounds like you did tremendously, your MSE halo was definitely shining brightly!

And I hear you on organics - I've had to rule them out of my thinking too quite some time ago for financial reasons. Recently I have picked up a few organic bits of meat from the counters at Mr W reduced but I bought them because they were cheap rather than organic.

PositiveBalance

Hi ToPM! :wave:

I don't post often as I'm generally on my mobile and that means typos but I read every day, generally on the way to work. Congratulations on your 1 year MSEversary! :T

I like your eco cleaning crusade. I use a fair number of eco products around the house. My tips:

• Vinegar with a few drops of essential oil also makes a great fabric softener that is brilliant for drawing any remaining soap out of the clothes. I notice that if I use it in a hot wash I can smell the vinegar from the washing machine when it hits the hot water, but don't worry - you won't be able to smell it on your clothes at the end.
• I use vinegar for cleaning my cooker top (stainless steel) and sink as well. I rarely need anything more than an extra application of elbow grease and something scrubby for scrubbing.
• Bars of soap: I can see this becoming a new thing you make on top of candles - you could make some household cleaning soap, some for the hoomins in your house to use and some for present for Christmas etc. (Lots of recipes online for different types.)
• Steam is very good and environmentally friendfly for cleaning things. Do you have a steam cleaner of any sort? Some ideas: https://www.kaercher.com/au/home-garden/application-tips/cleaning-with-steam.html
• I don't have dryer, either, but struggle to get my towels/bedding to dry before they start to go musty in the winter. I was gifted one of these and it solved the problem: I wouldn't be without it. It doesn't get super-hot, but just dries the towels/bedding/clothes that bit more quickly so they never get to the 'musty' stage. (There's another model type as well, but I don't know how effective it it.) My model was £29.99 from Aldi and I've seen them for a similar price in the big version of Bee&M or HomeBarginz or similar.
• I have decanted my washing up liquid etc. into pump dispensers (recycled from hand soap etc.) which really cuts down on usage. I've passed the tip on to others who reckon it's particularly if you have children who indiscriminately squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze and squeeeeeeeeeeeeeze the bottle and use *way* much more than needed.
• I also use approx. half as much washing powder as recommended, depending on how dirty what I am washing is. Still works. They legendary Hypno06 apparently used to use half a washing machine tab, too, apparently. (Disclaimer: I've never tried this.)
• Bicarb not bleach for cups! :eek: I'm told it seeps into ceramic and you can taste it afterwards. I've never used bleach for cleaning cups but bicarb sorts them out a treat. :T

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

I also use about a third less laundry detergent if it is not in blocks. And finally I stick the cloths in the washing machine on the hottest wash with just a dash of bleach because the engineer told me a hot wash once in a while stops it getting "furred up" inside with soap scum, extending the life of your washing machine.

I also use borax, if you can get it, proper old-fashioned stuff for a variety of stain removal things, and pears soap. Marvellous stuff

I do this to the washer with vinegar. It does the same and is more environmentally friendly.

Borax is pretty nasty stuff. My local green place has stopped selling it and sells a borax replacement instead which is apparently less dangerous but does the same things.

MatyMoo wrote: »

I have a Polti Steam cleaner and hardly need to use any cleaning products at all! Just my lovely Polti and some kitchen roll but I'm sur you could use cloths instead.

It is also great for defrosting the freezer!

I've never heard of one of these. Is it like a Karcher or similar?

enthusiasticsaver

There is always a balance. My DD is a great believer in eco products, buying organic and goes to great lengths to buy ethically. She has a bigger than average food budget for that reason. She always moans that when she buys gifts for her friends children or niece (we only buy for kids in our family) that they don't compare in amount terms with other friends as ethically sourced products are so much more expensive. She won't compromise on ethical but will on the amount spent if she can.

No difference really when coming to choosing cars or holidays. I always puzzle though on people who buy ethically and are very environmentally friendly with cars, appliances etc and then do long haul holidays which leave a massive carbon footprint. Not sure that applies to you though TOPM.

I think you just have to do the best you can within your budget. In my view though going thousands of pounds into debt to pay for organic produce and environmentally friendly cleaners etc seems self defeating. Looking for the least worst compromise as you have done seems sensible.

earthgirl

Hopefully your kitchen garden plans will provide lots of organic produce too. I can't wait to get started but it's so cute ld up here!