We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.
This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
The Forum now has a brand new text editor, adding a bunch of handy features to use when creating posts. Read more in our how-to guide
Put away your purse & become debt-averse
Comments
-
when i started full time work, it was just before christmas. spent my wages visiting home and then boyfriend for christmas and new year, different parts of country. in january i bought a sack of potatoes and cooking oil and that’s what i live on for whole month. do not recommend it!!!! but i had no money and it was survival.Onebrokelady said:When I was with my ex we were so broke one month we lived on Cuppa soups for every meal,we were allowed one bread roll with it and that was all, I can't look at a cuppa soup now without thinking about that time😀and how I worked out afterwards that we would have been better off buying a big sack of spuds instead at least then we would have had a bit of variety 😀4 -
Thanks everyone for your comments & contributions, which I enjoyed reading as always. Agree a sack of potatoes is a good purchase when the SHTF financially - so much can be done with them, esp with a few v basic cheap storecupboard ingredients.
Busy morning - 3 loads of laundry done & dried on the whirlygig for free, yesterday's roast chicken divided up to provide a salad with home made bbq wedges tonight, fajhitas tomorrow, a packed lunch & some frozen for the next Epic Man Stew. Carcass (plus one I froze a while back) in slow cooker for stock. Monday morning budget updates done & a couple of surveys. Over £60 in my PA surveys earning pot atm... aiming for £100 by Christmas.
Not much gardening as it keeps showering this pm, but have done my hanging baskets. I think they are my most stingy ones ever! Everything shopped from home: Baskets, used circles cut from an empty compost bag for liners, 2 geraniums given to me by my friend (grown from a little cutting she filched from a stately home greenhouse, tut tut) & 2 trailing basket plants I bought a couple of years ago & over-wintered in the greenhouse. What a tightwad! Nothing like the bad old days when I would regularly spend 40 or 50 quid just to fill a couple of seasonal containers. Hope to get a bit more done outdoors tomorrow,
Stay safe - this delta variant is getting more than a bit worrying.
F x
2026's challenges: 1) To rebuild our Emergency Fund to at least £5k.
2) To read 50 books (12/50) 3) The Re-Shrinking of Foxgloves 8.1kg/30kg
Remember....if you have to put it on a credit card, extend your overdraft or take out a loan to buy whatever it is, you probably can't afford it, as that's not your money, it's somebody else's!4 -
Loving the lentil and cup a soup stories. Reminded me of the Royale Family episode when Denise made "cup a soup with a twist" - the twist being she put the kettle on the table with the sachets of soup laid out in bowls. I'm another person who spent money I didn't have on Clinique "bargains" which usually meant another must have makeup bag and either a lipstick or nail varnish in a colour I'd never wear.I used to spend an absolute fortune on ready made hanging baskets 😳3
-
Neither did we hence the cuppa soups, at least potatoes are more fillingsavingmore said:
when i started full time work, it was just before christmas. spent my wages visiting home and then boyfriend for christmas and new year, different parts of country. in january i bought a sack of potatoes and cooking oil and that’s what i live on for whole month. do not recommend it!!!! but i had no money and it was survival.Onebrokelady said:When I was with my ex we were so broke one month we lived on Cuppa soups for every meal,we were allowed one bread roll with it and that was all, I can't look at a cuppa soup now without thinking about that time😀and how I worked out afterwards that we would have been better off buying a big sack of spuds instead at least then we would have had a bit of variety 😀Original Debt Owed Jan 18 = £17,630 Paid To Date = £6,756 Owed = £10,8742 -
@Blackcats & @Sun_Addict - Yes, loved that skincare brand, but I don't think any of the heaps of Bonus offers I succumbed to contained a lipstick shade I actually wore. Also, some of the samples weren't products I used... blusher, eyebrow pencil, etc. Usually, I had my eye on the small perfume sample often contained within. For the price of the two full size products I had to buy to qualify for my umpteenth make-up bag of those freebies, I could have spent less simply treating myself to a modest bottle of the fragrance! What a numpty I was. It didn't help my ever-ailing finances that back then, the city I lived in had 3 department stores plus a huge B**ts, all of which offered that well-known Bonus promotion at different times.
F2026's challenges: 1) To rebuild our Emergency Fund to at least £5k.
2) To read 50 books (12/50) 3) The Re-Shrinking of Foxgloves 8.1kg/30kg
Remember....if you have to put it on a credit card, extend your overdraft or take out a loan to buy whatever it is, you probably can't afford it, as that's not your money, it's somebody else's!2 -
Hello Sunbeams,
Baking hot here today with hotter to come at the weekend according to the forecast. So the hottest tedious job (ironing) needed getting out of the way first thing. Useful garden time today. Cleared & weeded final big raised bed, chopped a bundle of comfrey into it for nutrients & planted out squashes. French beans finally sturdy enough to move outside prior to being planted up their wigwam at the weekend. Now the bedding plants are all in, the borders can be left to get on with it & I can put more effort into food production. Pulled another 1.5kg of rhubarb - now compote - which will be eaten with skyr this week or frozen. Also cut two big bunches each of oregano & sage for tying & drying. Now hanging from kitchen ceiling. Will aim to harvest some of my other herbs this week.
First chillies are appearing & I will need to cut spinach very soon.
Not an exciting day, but have enjoyed pottering about being a generally useful engine.
F x
2026's challenges: 1) To rebuild our Emergency Fund to at least £5k.
2) To read 50 books (12/50) 3) The Re-Shrinking of Foxgloves 8.1kg/30kg
Remember....if you have to put it on a credit card, extend your overdraft or take out a loan to buy whatever it is, you probably can't afford it, as that's not your money, it's somebody else's!8 -
Another hot day by the looks of it. Already been round opening all the windows. I'm going to get my garden tasks done early today as 25° is my official wilting point. I do want to be productive though so am aiming to see what I can get done by coffee time. Lots, I hope!
F x2026's challenges: 1) To rebuild our Emergency Fund to at least £5k.
2) To read 50 books (12/50) 3) The Re-Shrinking of Foxgloves 8.1kg/30kg
Remember....if you have to put it on a credit card, extend your overdraft or take out a loan to buy whatever it is, you probably can't afford it, as that's not your money, it's somebody else's!4 -
Look who came to breakfast! Doris plus 10 babies such a wonderful start to the day!
11 -
Awwww, @FourSeasons - that would have made my day! Thanks for sharing your lovely photo.
F x2026's challenges: 1) To rebuild our Emergency Fund to at least £5k.
2) To read 50 books (12/50) 3) The Re-Shrinking of Foxgloves 8.1kg/30kg
Remember....if you have to put it on a credit card, extend your overdraft or take out a loan to buy whatever it is, you probably can't afford it, as that's not your money, it's somebody else's!2 -
When we moved into the bungalow there were huge leylandi trees so my partner cut them down to 10' stacking the cut off bits in the field next to the house. We had a visiting duck Daisy (a single mom!) who we eventually realised had nested in the top of one of the cut off trees 10' up! 18/5 Daisy bought her 9 babies to see us - they had all jumped from the top of the tree! Fast forward a couple of weeks and Doris and her partner Boris came to visit, she had chosen to nest in the stack of cut off trees! Now we have Albert and Victoria visiting regularly - they are all an absolute joy x8
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply
Categories
- All Categories
- 354.5K Banking & Borrowing
- 254.4K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 455.5K Spending & Discounts
- 247.4K Work, Benefits & Business
- 604.2K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 178.5K Life & Family
- 261.7K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.7K Read-Only Boards