Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Blackcats

Another one who wrote cheques on the basis that it would take a couple of days to actually need the money to be in my account.  I remember each time I got a new cheque book that I'd vow to fill in all the stubs and fill in the section at the back to keep a track of my balance - I never even bothered with that.  I remember Nat West had really pretty cheques with birds and woodland creatures on them - it made writing cheques even more pleasant to see which little creature would adorn my cheque that I'd be posting off 2nd class to pay the final reminder.  I did use the "oh no I forgot to sign the cheque" ploy a few times too.  

Tescodealqueen

CRANKY40 said:

Mysteriously it was cheaper to buy my new tumble dryer from a catalogue on BNPL because when I added the delivery charge and the charge for taking the old one away together, the total including the cost of the dryer came to £13 less than a high street store was charging which didn't include removing the broken one. 

I had the money in my account so just paid for it as soon as it showed on the statement but the APR if I had to pay interest once the BNPL period ended was something like 34.9% 😨

cranky40 And we did that too when they offered a 160 pound incentive to do that. The money was there so just paid when it showed up. Guess they rely on people not paying off before the interest kicks in in the same way as those magazine offers I like rely on you not cancelling the direct debit before the next full price payment comes out. You have to make the  offers work in your favour and keep your eye on the ball I guess

Humdinger1

BNPL aka the road to h*ll!  The problem in my opinion is the fact it feeds the frenzy.  Instead of encouraging sensible consideration of needs vs wants (but the perpetrators would never want that!) It's all about what consumers feel they must have right now, this minute or face a collapse of identity and self-esteem. @foxgloves you are never smug and I hope I'm not either.  Of course people on here know how to manage the option. My comments aren't about the tactics discussed above! 

Going back to past clothes, I saw a fab description of Alice bands the other day: the daytime tiara.  Love Humdinger x 

Tescodealqueen

Humdinger1 said:

Going back to past clothes, I saw a fab description of Alice bands the other day: the daytime tiara.  Love Humdinger x 

Love that description 

QueenJess

foxgloves said:

Past Spendy Sins of Christmas
No. 11 - Food waste!!!!!!
I have to say that this is one area where I have only ever been silly in terms of overbuying festive stuff in the decades before I became a meal planning convert. In terms of making good use of leftovers, I am pleased to say that I have pretty much always been good on this. I've mentioned before how my Nana had lived through difficult times & how this was reflected in her everyday thrifty housekeeping. Our grandparents usually came to stay with us at Christmas & Nana would always make wonderful turkey soup on the day after Boxing Day, which fed us all amply. I know that there are people who find 'bone broth' type of soup lacking in body & a bit oily, but Nana's soup was never like that. I still use her methodology now, although I don't always add herby dumplings. Whether Mr F & I are hosting Christmas or just celebrating by ourselves, we always have a turkey. On the 27th (Nana's official turkey soup day!), I dismantle what is left, divide up the meat according to what I'm intending to make, remove any useful looking dripping to a ramekin &ask the resident gibbon to reach down my big stock pot & get the carcass simmering. I throw in the usual stock making trimmings, leek tops, bits & bobs of veg, bay leaves, peppercorns & leave it for a good 3 hrs or so. Turkey stock imho is the best stock of the year.....I think it's because of the little remnants of chestnut stuffing clinging to the insides. Like all stock, it takes care of itself, so I would get a cafetiere going at that point, have a mince pie, etc, it's still Christmas time until Jan 6th, after all. The finished stock is strained into a big bowl ready for a big batch-cooking session. I always make turkey soup & chilli. These are great to have ready made in the freezer to eat throughout January & February when all of our finances could do with a little bit of extra care. I also make a curry - often turkey bhuna, which we meal plan in for between Christmas & New Year or freeze for later in the month, & usually some turkey supreme, which is nice with rice or on a jacket potato. I also like to freeze some slices of leftover breast meat with gravy, as that provides a 'free' roast dinner. There is always some turkey stock left, so this is portioned & frozen.

I've never actually made turkey or chicken stock from the carcass... it's always on the "want to do at some point list", but it's never made it to the top of the list.

I have many silly questions.... so I thought you could only reheat meat once safely and therefore you would have to make the stock immediately after the turkey/chicken was cooked?  Then you could reheat to make soup (from fridge or from frozen) but would have to use it then?  This is the reason I've never got round to it as there is so much cooking to do all at once if you want to make a big lot of soup or whatever to portion out into the freezer.

Jellytotts

I will happily pop the cold carcass in the fridge, pick the meat off over the next few days and then make stock when I can be bothered,  I tend to do mine in the slowcooker so no effort required, just the carcass in and cover about half way with boiling water, leave on high for 6 hours and strain....then once the stock has cooled I'll store it in the fridge in a lidded pot until I need it....might be the next day, might be 3 weeks later...that stock can be made into soup/gravy/sauce that can be used straight away or cooled and stored and reheated.   

Baileys_Babe

When making stock we also use the slow cooker. We get the slow cooker out when we start to prepare dinner are add clean peelings from carrots, parsnips, trimmings from the onions, basically from all vegetables except potatoes as that makes the stock cloudy. After we have eaten and the carcass is cold we remove as much meat as possible and then add it to the slow cooker with some water and a couple of bay leaves if we remember. The cooker goes on low for 12 plus hours. Then we strain the stock into a saucepan and dramatically reduce it which we freeze in ice cube trays and then transfer the cubes to a tub in the freezer, it saves us a lot of room and is easy to add to a dish when cooking along with water if required.

foxgloves

Sorry for being awol.... busy, then felled by my Pfizer booster. Hope normal service will soon be resumed.
F x

Four_Seasons

Oh dear! hope you are feeling better soon x

Baileys_Babe

I hope you are feeling better soon @foxgloves