Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

@Humdinger1 - I know what you mean about the slick advertising world tempting money out of our pockets. As a life-long 'leftie', I have always understood how capitalism works & was deeply cynical about advertising way before the LBM struck. I blame only myself for my past irresponsible behaviour. I think I just really enjoyed shopping for nice things, & quite often 'green' things......when of course, often the greenest solution is just generally not to keep buying stuff! When I compare how I live now with my old silly attitude, I much prefer my simpler life. I may spend quite a lot of time on budgeting, but it is worth it to keep us on the straight & narrow.
F

foxgloves

Morning sweetpeas!
I cannot pretend that today is in any way exciting - lots of laundry, as saved it up until dry enough to peg out for free drying, catching up with a few projects, another chat with Mr F over breakfast about financial aspects of changing our car next month, etc, etc. However, I have had a ping from my oldest nephew this morning, which was just lovely to hear. He was stressing terribly about his A-level grades, & when we met up recently for that family picnic, he said he honestly couldn't imagine how he might have done as his cohort had, had so much missed schooling & I don't think one of his subjects even even reached the end of the curriculum before revision time. He has however done extremely well & is off to his 1st uni choice. I told him he has made me a very proud Auntie & if it were not for the fact that cards sent from me to my sister's house sometimes get sneakily slit open presumably by a rogue individual/s looking for money & vouchers, I'd be sending him a gift card to treat himself. I will wait until he gets there, then see if I can maybe put some money on a supermarket card or buy a text book or something useful. And a shout out for teachers too (@crazy_cat_lady, this means you!) as they have managed to get students through such an awful year. Had to smile though.....my sis insisted he bin off the X-box for a set period of weeks for revision. This didn't go down well at all, but I bet he's glad he did it now. I don't play electronic games, but it does seem that they can be a shocking thief of time. 
I thought I'd share the smoky chipotle black bean chilli recipe. I have been making it for a while & can't remember where it came from, probably a magazine. 
2 tbsp olive oil (I use rapeseed)
1 large red onion, finely chopped
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp chipotle chilli paste
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 bay leaf
salt & black pepper
600g ripe tomatoes, skinned & roughly chopped
2 x tins black beans (the 400g size of tin), drained & rinsed
3 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
My slow cooker crock can go on the hob so I can do it all in one - put in the oil & gently fry the onions & garlic for 5 mins until softening. Stir in the smoked paprika, chipotle paste & bay leaf. Cook for 1 min. Add the tomatoes, season well with salt & ground black pepper, then stir in the drained & rinsed black beans. Cook for 8 hours on low. Just before serving, stir in the fresh coriander.
This is probably the easiest chilli I make. It makes about 4 portions (difficult to judge as I'm feeding Mr F, lol) & is very versatile. I like it on jacket potatoes topped with yoghurt but our preferred way to eat it is in tortilla wraps topped with a sprinkle of grated cheese before rolling up, with a big salad. No salad tonight though, as I have am taking the opportunity to wok a ton of courgettes!
Well, that's me talked out, must go & peg out some more laundry now & plan best use of my afternoon.
Bye m'dears,
F x


 

Deni_debt-free_dreamer

Lovely news to hear about your nephew !!  I'm sure he'd really appreciate a voucher of some sort when he gets to uni. 
the chilli recipe sounds yummy.  I don't have a slow cooker but i know i'm missing out...

Deni x

BlueJ94

foxgloves said:

@jadewest94 - You are doing exactly the right thing getting rid of your debts before looking at taking on a mortgage. Most lenders ask about financial commitments inc. debts & deduct the amount of consumer debt from the amount they are prepared to lend you, as we found out when we bought this place. Although our combined debts were around £15K less at the time than they eventually became, this amount was deducted from the maximum amount they would otherwise have lent us. It wasn't a problem because we didn't need such a big mortgage anyway, but it did flag up that they do look at the wider picture re existing financial commitments. Good luck with getting rid of it. You do sound very focused.
F

Thank you, debt is just the bane of my life now and I 100% know I will never get back into it again and I plan on budgeting for future things. I can't be going through all this stress again. Even though my debt is relatively small at the beginning only around 6k it's still annoying to be paying most of my wage towards it.

Thank you! Everyone on your diary seem svery supportive also! 

foxgloves

You'll get there, @jadewest94. At least you saw sense regarding debt before it got too enormous. Ours (we both brought debt to the relationship, then enabled each other's bad habits) reached around 35k at its worst, & that wasn't including the mortgage. Saving for stuff is defo the way to go.
F
P. S - Yes, a lovely group of diary readers on here, I agree. 

Baileys_Babe

The black bean chilli sounds tasty and easy. 3 of us will like it and the 4th has decided they do not like pulses, so I will only give them a small portion.

foxgloves

Worth a try, @Baileys_Babe. Black beans are smaller than other beans & if you put plenty of grated cheese on, your pulse-refusenik might give them a try. Tinned black beans now available in A*di at a much lower price than the branded ones we were buying elsewhere, so have added them to our pantry re-stock list for our montly or 6-weekly visit.
F

foxgloves

Morning Wednesday Pence-Wranglers, Am wanting to tackle lots of stuff today, so I think I'd better use the '3-task job list' method to keep me motivated. So I'm starting with:
*Sort out clean laundry.
*Do this week's ironing.
*Deal with yesterday's basket of veg garden pickings.
I can add another task only when I've crossed one off, so there are never more than 3 on there at any time.
Shan't be spending any money today that's for sure!
F x

Sun_Addict

I made a green lentil bolognese for myself last night, my OH won’t eat lentils but he poked his nose over the pot and said that minced beef looks delicious 😆 I also love bean chilli. 

BlueJ94

foxgloves said:

Morning Wednesday Pence-Wranglers, Am wanting to tackle lots of stuff today, so I think I'd better use the '3-task job list' method to keep me motivated. So I'm starting with:
*Sort out clean laundry.
*Do this week's ironing.
*Deal with yesterday's basket of veg garden pickings.
I can add another task only when I've crossed one off, so there are never more than 3 on there at any time.
Shan't be spending any money today that's for sure!
F x

Morning! 

Oh I've never heard of the 3 task job list before, what a great idea! I might nick this idea