Single, six kids and going to be debt free!

Mumoffourkids

cmc_entertainment wrote: »

The emergency fund should be quite doable. It's very similar target of the save a penny a day challenge. If you could save 12.50 per week, you will be on target (12.50 x 52 = £650)

Thanks, I'm planning on putting away £50 a month but once I have got myself a bit more sorted and once I know my budget works, then I will try and get it in place a bit quicker.

camz2017

Oh, and get a scale, it’s surprising, I personally eat 3 portions of cereal in one sitting, as I figured out when I weighed my bowl... without the scale I’d be counting 1/3 of the calories! Once you get adjusted you just know the weights and calories without weighing.

Mumoffourkids

camz2017 wrote: »

You can have all the chocolate you want just within your calorie allowance.

No need to cut it out, I eat burgers, pizza, drink full fat coke, sometimes eat 3 chocolate bars in a row, love garlic bread. I like to calorie cycle, so say you want to do 2000 calories a day, I would do something like this:
Mon: 1500
Tuesday: 2500
Wed: 1500
Thursday: 2500
Friday: 2500
Sat: 1500
Sunday: 2000

Average over the week = 2000 calories

It works well for me, I eat more calories than that because I’m maintaining. Some days I can have over 3500 calories, because it averages out across the week. It does mean my friends think I’m a huge fatty stuffing my face. I don’t really publicise how I do it people just assume I have a mad metabolism, but I basically plan my high calorie days when I’m out with friends or whatever.

Keep up the walking but don’t eat more because of it, keep the calories controlled. You could be in the gym 4 hours a day, but eating a couple of muffins extra a day and there won’t be results. Weight loss is quite easy if you give yourself the wiggle room to do it, so enjoy the chocolate.

Yep, I have cut the amount of chocolate I eat down a lot and I'm being more conscious about eating more vegetables. And the walking helps a lot. I used to drive the kids to school as it was too far to walk, they moved schools and we walk every day. I think the point about the walking means I can still eat a bit of chocolate or a biscuit or two within my calorie allowance. I still have about two stone to lose but as long as I do it slow and steady I won't feel like I am depriving myself. I am determined to lose that this year and it's definitely doable. I can't wait until I have to buy new clothes!

Mumoffourkids

camz2017 wrote: »

Oh, and get a scale, it’s surprising, I personally eat 3 portions of cereal in one sitting, as I figured out when I weighed my bowl... without the scale I’d be counting 1/3 of the calories! Once you get adjusted you just know the weights and calories without weighing.

I have scales as I like baking but I know what you !want, once you have done it a few times, you don't have to weigh anymore.

Mumoffourkids

Ok so today isn't money saving as such but I have tackled and cleared out my kitchen drawers. One was broken so j have fixed it and reorganised them all. Next on my list to tackle is the drawers in the garage which include my seeds and the tools.

I'm going to see what seeds I have and whether anything can be sown yet.

I know reorganising isn't especially money saving but it helps me to get things done as I'm not wasting time looking for something.

I've also managed to work out that I won't need to do a big shop until Friday at the earliest. I've done a meal plan for the week and I have enough food in for meals and packed lunches until then. If we run out of drinks for lunches then the kids can take their water bottles.

Meal plan is as follows:
Monday - chicken and waffkes
Tuesday - pasta and meatballs
Wednesday - burgers/sausages and chips
Thursday - beans on toast/soup
Friday - bacon risotto
Saturday - chicken enchiladas
Sunday - roast chicken

Only thing I will need to top up during the week will be bread, milk and fruit and I have about £90 left in my food budget for this week. If I can find some snacks for school lunches next Monday, then I probably won't need to shop until Monday which is the start of a new week!

enthusiasticsaver

If you are aiming for £2200 repayment in January including the PPI refund that should take you close to going below £20k in February or March which would be great target to aim for.

Mumoffourkids

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

If you are aiming for £2200 repayment in January including the PPI refund that should take you close to going below £20k in February or March which would be great target to aim for.

I just checked my spreadsheet and I should go under £20k in February which would be amazing. I'm off to find more things to sell now!

wishingthemortgaheaway

I love the £5 challenge for the children. We've decided that, for our small, until he has an understanding of money (so realises £1 is worth more than 2 huge 2p pieces.) at fairs and fetes etc he'll be able to do two things and eat 1 thing. So face paint, ride & ice cream, if he has an ice cream, he can't have candy floss (not that I'd ever let him have such horrible stuff, my teeth are on edge just thinking about it)

charlies_tribe

I must try harder with our meal plan. We have all the stuff for enchiladas but no set day.

We have a separate account for all the food and fuel shopping too, at least then im not paying with bill money. Due to a small payout a while ago,giving us a starting months wage, i let all money build up in one account over the month, on the first payments are sent to savings/childrens/food accounts. At the end of the month whatever is left is paid to a card/emergency fund.

Well done on the PPI, i bet we could have had quiet a bit if i could remember who our loans were with.

Mumoffourkids

I had meal planned up to Wednesday and then had a think about what was in the freezer so thought actually I have enough food to do until Sunday because I got some great bargains on ys chicken from my local shops over the last week. Freezer is nicely stocked up with meat including about three packs of Richmond sausages which were 50p each!

I only started the separate account last week as I wanted to make sure that I kept to budget and basically if I don’t have any money, I can’t buy any food!

That was the only account I ever had ppi with so I am happy that I got some money back. I think I may have had a loan with some on, but I don’t have the paperwork anymore so no idea if I can claim that back.

I was in the mood for sorting out today so I did the drawers in the garage. I have a few seeds that can be planted this year but most are really old. Have got nice and tidy drawers in the garage though but I have got about 7 different hammers. I have no idea why I have so many hammers!