Losing control, time to take charge.

Caspeia

Today I finally sorted out the freezer. All our food was also taken out the cat food freezer and put into our one.
I've sorted our stuff into 4 catergories in 4 drawers
1. frozen convenience food
2. homemade food and meat
3. vegetables
4. icecream, smoothie mix (not entirely sure when or why I bought this) and frozen fruit

I've decided that the drawers can't be mixed so if one section gets too full (I doubt the ice cream drawer will ever get too full:rotfl:) then I have to use up things in that drawer.
the first drawer is quite full: 6 baked potatoes, chips, tiny portion of wedges, mexican bean burgers, 1 veg burger, spinach falafels, vegan pieces (no idea what to do with these!), vegan mince, hashbrowns and turkey dinosaurs
I want to try and use up all of this as they have been there for a while!
veg drawer is also full: peas, 2 x bags of corn on the cob, spinach, butternut squash, green beans, sweet potato, broccoli &cauilflower mix and peppers.
The only veg we use regularly is the peas (and normally sweetcorn but can't seem to get any) I need to start using up the other veg in my meals!

There is also the pork tenderlion, bacon and some sausages to get used up.

We also are not allowed to use the cats freezer as an overflow freezer anymore. I keep forgetting things are in there and ending up with doubles of things!

beanielou

Hypno is the best :j :j :j

Caspeia

She really is! Shes really motivating me, its amazing how busy she is. How does she have time to sleep? She seemed to be always doing something!

Lasagne tonight for tea, I forgot our lasagne dish broke so made it in 2 loaf tins instead. As per usual I made way too much, I think this might be a record for me overcooking .. I ended up with 2 family portions to go in the freezer and one lunch portion for tomorrow... and we had some for tea! over 3 family portions in total. I had some left over white sauce, not enough to make an adults portion. I blitzed up some of the frozen broccoli and cauliflower and added it to the sauce. While the lasagne was in the oven I cooked some pasta and peas and added it to half the sauce&veg mix. I ended up with enough sauce to put some in the freezer for another day. The pasta portion will be the kids lunch tomorrow and I'll have the single portion of lasagne thats left

I've always overcooked but I never really kept the food. I always said i would do it when it cools down and by the time its cooled down I've forgotten about it, couldnt be bothered to do it or its been eaten by a cat. This week I've been putting it in boxes while its still hot so it already done. Doing this has meant I now have two bolognese, 1 paella and 2 lasagne family sized portions in the freezer. 5 days worth of teas ready for us. To think I let all that food go to waste!
I forget how much I enjoy cooking as I tend to avoid it. I'm also quite good at it and the husband always complains I don't cook more. he is a terrible cook, he tries bless him but he has zero patience and gets annoyed so hes banned in the house unless its simple heat up some food!
I think the lasagne I made today was the best I've ever made, I put a red wine stock pot in it which I don't normally. Wow it was amazing!

remote_control

Hi, I have just read through your diary.

Do you keep your credit cards in your wallet? Is that why you get tempted into spending on them? I keep them in a box upstairs! I've also fixed what I pay each month to them, could you fix them so you pay the same each month rather than the minimum payment? That way you would have a set debt free date. Does that make sense? Can you get 0% deals?

I love lasagne, I'll have some if it's going spare!

Caspeia

remote_control wrote: »

Hi, I have just read through your diary.

Do you keep your credit cards in your wallet? Is that why you get tempted into spending on them? I keep them in a box upstairs! I've also fixed what I pay each month to them, could you fix them so you pay the same each month rather than the minimum payment? That way you would have a set debt free date. Does that make sense? Can you get 0% deals?

I love lasagne, I'll have some if it's going spare!

Yes I keep the credit cards in my purse, I feel kind of helpless without them there which as I'm writing this sounds stupid. I need to take them out, its not helping things at all.


All my debts are on 0% interest deals.

The sofa is 0% interest until it finishes so I'm just paying the payment per month until its finished but want to overpay it eventually but its low priority.

Lloyds card is split into two sections: £1550.88 (0% until 1st October 2019) and £2369 (0% until 28th March 2019) After these date it turns into 26.2%. Annoyingly my payments clear the first balance first.

TSB is 0% until 26th of September 2018 and then becomes 23.39%.

Tesco is 0% until May 2019.

I know I could afford a minimum of £400 each month which I just put through the snowball calculator and it says I would pay it off by December 2019. I plan to overpay that but my husbands income isn't set in stone since he is only on a zero hours contract.

So my debt free date is December 2019 but I want to aim for that to be sooner, around this time next year if possible!

beanielou

I really do think that you do need to take the credit cards out of your purse.
You can do it

Caspeia

The credit card is out of my purse and is now in my drawer in my bedroom :j

I finally have my husbands payslips so can work out the budget.
I'll have childcare to pay this month which I'll do out of my wage, I get my first payment on the 3rd of August. I've decided my wage will be used to pay childcare, pay little bits off the credit cards, save up for yearly payments etc. This month I think the majority of my money will be put on childcare until tax credits is updated.

So our budgets are:
Food £250
Petrol £30
Entertainment/other £100

Payments to debts:
sofa £46.76
Lloyds £40 (minimum is £39.20 but decided to round it up so every month is exactly £40)
Tesco £25 (minimum)
TSB £272.29

Total paid off: £384.05


Little bit under what I want to but I plan to try and make it up when I start getting my wage. I know roughly what my wage will be but don't want to plan something and then realised I've worked out tax wrong or my pension contributions and I've mucked up. So that will start to be included on Septembers budget and hopefully by then I'll also have my updated tax credits payments

beanielou

Well done on the cards

Caspeia

I'm setting myself a goal to pay off one bill by doing things like cashback, selling things, basically anything that isn't our wages or benefits.
I'm going to attempt to do this with our broadband, the new deal we took out means it will cost £209.88 over the year. I'm starting with this one as we signed up on an £85 cashback deal which if it clears will mean that a huge chunk done. Just so it feels like I've done a lot towards it, I'm hoping it will spur me on!

I'm wondering if I should include the bonus I get in my bank account for this, I've got a bonus of £3 in my account for the past 2 years every month. Just for putting in £1500 every month and having two DDs coming out. It kind of feels like cheating if I put it towards this as I don't really do anything for it!

remote_control

Well done for taking the cards out of your wallet. Can you fix the amounts you pay to Lloyds at £40 and Tesco at £25?