£50k to £0

jbkmum

Debt£52,418.66/£52,184.14 0.3% paid
Balance Transfer completed and £169.58 paid as my expenses came in.

Selling
Collectible has been posted! Just waiting for the £250 to be paid
Sold DS Kindle for £40 on ebay, waiting for payment
Going to list Philips Face Laser thingy and just will have to continue shaving my face!

Buying
Mooncup and washable liners arrived, worked out I will break even in February 2019 (usually spend £6 to £7 a month on sanitary products
Ordered bras from Sainsbobs to try on, I have had to buy them from plus size places and I'm almost at a size where I can buy from supermarkets. I've ordered a few to try on just to see what they're like, might keep one but will 100% return the rest. I just hate sifting through all the shelves.

Food
We had our planned Tacos last night.
I've rewritten the next weeks meal plan after doing the cupboard inventory.

Using the inventory I can make the below meals, with a couple of things that need to be bought.
So:
Tuna Pasta Bake = Thursday tea
Hummus = snacks for Friday (I am off work with DS)
Heinz Big Soup = Lunch Friday
Chickpea and Coriander Burgers = Friday Tea (buy enough buns for burgers/soup)
Tomato Soup = Soup for Saturday lunch
Red Pesto Pasta = Saturday Tea
Waffles = Lunch
Bolognese = Sunday dinner
Tomato Soup = Monday Lunch
Macaroni Cheese = Monday tea
Spaghetti Hoops on Toast for Tuesday Lunch
Home Made Pizza (Pizza Flour plus passata but don’t have any topping) = Tuesday Tea
Usual packed lunch = Wednesday Lunch (back to work)
Tuna Pasta Bake = Wednesday Tea
Usual Packed Lunch = Thursday Lunch
Lasagne = Thursday Tea

So I might need to get a bag of carrots, bread buns, milk, cheese, cucumber and maybe 2 x mince if I can’t find it in the freezer. I also have frozen fruit so will make DS a smoothie every day.

I have £6 cash, £3.38 ASDA voucher, £10 M&S Giftcard. Redeemed £24.42 Natwest rewards into my account. = £43.80 to fuel my car and buy food


Oh and I've emailed our letting agent to find out if the landlord would let us remodel the garden, its so hard to maintain as we've got every bush in there. From buddleias to fuchsia bushes its just too hard to maintain.

jbkmum

Debt £52,059.14 0.68% paid
Forgot to pay the £135 to OH old employer will do that tomorrow but it's not counted in the debt total anyway.


Selling
Collectible £250 - being paid next week.
Received money for DS Kindle which has paid for his new school uniform. Will post Kindle tomorrow

Received offer from ebay for £1 max selling fees for 100 items - so I am getting on with that tomorrow.

Haven't made a list of things to sell yet. But going to start with uni books, cook books and makeup.

Buying
Had to buy a new laundry basket and bathroom bin. Really didn't want to spend the money but fed up of picking DS clothes up from all around his bedroom.

Food
Tuna Pasta Bake = Thursday tea DONE
Hummus = snacks for Friday (I am off work with DS) DID NOT DO
Heinz Big Soup = Lunch Friday NOPE
Chickpea and Coriander Burgers = Friday Tea (buy enough buns for burgers/soup) NOPE


DS had leftover tuna pasta bake for tea tonight (Friday) and DH took it to work for lunch.


Tomato Soup = Soup for Saturday lunch
Chickpea burgers instead of red pesto pasta = Saturday Tea (Also making rice pudding)
Waffles = Lunch
Bolognese = Sunday dinner
Tomato Soup = Monday Lunch
Macaroni Cheese = Monday tea
Spaghetti Hoops on Toast for Tuesday Lunch
Home Made Pizza (Pizza Flour plus passata but don’t have any topping) = Tuesday Tea
Usual packed lunch = Wednesday Lunch (back to work)
Tuna Pasta Bake = Wednesday Tea
Usual Packed Lunch = Thursday Lunch
Lasagne = Thursday Tea


£6 left in food budget (milk and bread this week)
£20 in my car hoping DH doesn't need fuel!

Fmess

Well done on your diary, just had a read through and it’s really motivates me, thank you!

DancingUnicorn

Sounds like you're keeping on top of things! Definitely taking inspiration and going through my cupboards this weekend. I suck at sticking to my meal plan and end up buying random things that do not equate a meal and then go off because I forgot I bought them!

jbkmum

Thank you both!


I am the worst for buying food, I am a total food hoarder however have realised we could probably live on the contents of our freezer(s!) and cupboards for 3 months as a guesstimate. I've been good recently since focusing on what we have however I did pick up an indian sides reduced box yesterday that I couldn't resist, so got to find room in the freezer. Ugh



When I am meal planning there does have to be room for movement especially on nights where we are both shattered. I've hopefully managed to cover those bases with the mass of frozen bolognese which is pretty easy to heat up from frozen in our Instant Pot. In fact I have a load of prepared meals in the chest freezer (which I cannot get to as they're at the bottom) where I can dump the contents in to the IP in the AM, set it so that it's ready for half an hour after we get home and then it will start cooking at the appropriate time. All I have to do is walk in the door and put the rice or pasta on. It's amazing. Sometimes if I'm really clever I can do a one-pot meal.



Tomato Soup = Soup for Saturday lunch (Didn't happen as we were in town getting DS school shoes so DS and DH had sausage rolls from Greggs and I didn't have anything)
Chickpea burgers = Saturday Tea (Was yummy but we have enough left over for Sunday's dinner and I also have some 20pence marks and spencers bread rolls to use up)
Waffles = Lunch (Changing this to tomato soup to use up some more bread rolls)
Bolognese = Sunday dinner (Left over chickpea burger mix)
Tomato Soup = Monday Lunch (If the bread rolls have had it then we will change to Waffles)
Macaroni Cheese = Monday tea
Spaghetti Hoops on Toast for Tuesday Lunch
Home Made Pizza (Pizza Flour plus passata but don’t have any topping) = Tuesday Tea
Usual packed lunch (sandwich/wrap, fruit, cake etc) = Wednesday Lunch (back to work)
Tuna Pasta Bake = Wednesday Tea
Usual Packed Lunch = Thursday Lunch
Lasagne = Thursday Tea


I also need to make carrot and lentil soup, butternut squash and carrot soup. I've got some brie leftover in the fridge and also a mattesons smoke sausage. Oh and a ring of chorizo. Chorizo will keep, not sure on the brie, could do brie and bacon toasties instead of tomato soup but I'd have to dig the bbacon out of the freezer.



Taken the plunge and added all our debts, even the 0% ones to a Stepchange debt management plan. Saving money by eating through the house was never going to get me to break even and this is a huge relief. The budget is reasonable, we will have 7 years and 4 months of this, although it will be shorter than that because DH will get on call payments from the end of the year and I can get bonuses. Having said that we will need a "new card" in 18 months so we need to save for that. It will be the first time I've ever had a car bought in "cash" as opposed to on finance/loan/car lease. I'm aiming to have saved around 3k for a car, a decent sized family car. We'd like to have a second child, my biological clock is ticking but it would be irresponsible to have one whilst heavily in debt - still, we will get a family car just in case!



Back to food, discovered that I have more than 4 (or whatever it was) mugshot pastas, its more like 40. So thats my lunch for the next month sorted....why did I buy 40 mugshots?!


As the pressure was taken off by knowing we're going into a DMP and I don't have to scrabble for payments in September (starts 1st October), we were able to buy DS school shoes and PE trainers. Unfortunately he has super wide feet and Clarks seem to be the only place we can get them. I had checked the outlet website first but alas, nothing suitable so ended up coughing up enough cash to make me feel sick. Having said that, we did once get cheaper school shoes that only lasted half a year, whereas last years Clarks shoes lasted the entire year so maybe it's value for money. He's still got his old PE trainers which he's keeping for the house. We got a voucher for 20% off womens footwear so I bought some shoes as well. Due to being overweight and having wide feet, I've spent the last few years living in crocs but today I discovered I've gone down 4 width fittings.:eek::eek: We worked out how much leeway we have since we're not paying any debts next month and I was able to get a paid of ballet pumps for work and some casual trainer/shoes. I've thrown 6 pairs of cheap nasty shoes away, just need these Clarks ones to last long enough to justify the price!!



We also bought a filofax and have ordered some zip wallets for it, have worked out our envelope budgets for September and will fill them up when the wallets arrive tomorrow. All my bank cards and loyalty cards are in the filofax now.



Also going to fill both cars up tomorrow with the rest of the leeway cash. We've also got room to start off our emergency fund with £200.




Tomorrows jobs are to throw away old shoes, sort out the coat rack as I've discovered DS has 4 coats although I think one is too big for him.

I need to buy some brown hair dye as I can't afford to maintain my fluro pink hair do anymore.

List everything on ebay that I dug out today
Sort shed out so that Dad can service my bike for me (aiming to cycle to work one day a week when DS goes back to school)

jbkmum

Still haven't paid husbands employment overpayment, must do that today.


Totally changed the meal planning again today as Dad is visiting.

Chickpea burgers again for tea tonight - will buy salad. I also have some out of date single cream so going to bake a rice pudding later.


Will persuade dad to service my bike tomorrow as its miserable today.

Tomato Soup = Monday Lunch (If the bread rolls have had it then we will change to Waffles)
Chickpea Burgers again = Monday dinner
Spaghetti Hoops on Toast for Tuesday Lunch
Home Made Pizza (Pizza Flour plus passata but don’t have any topping) = Tuesday Tea
Usual packed lunch (sandwich/wrap, fruit, cake etc) = Wednesday Lunch (back to work)
Tuna Pasta Bake = Wednesday Tea
Usual Packed Lunch = Thursday Lunch
Lasagne = Thursday Tea

Carrot and lentil then butternut squash and carrot soup being made today, I ended up spending yesterday clearing out all the junk and currently have a huge pile of junk sat by the door ready to go out.


In other news the dog just weed on my expensive wool duvet and my washing machine is not big enough to wash it. Which means it's going to have to go to a laundrette tomorrow, to be fair I haven't washed it in the 7 years I've owned it so not a bad idea for a wash. Husband wants me to go buy a duvet from asda but I've refused as we can just use the sleeping bags. Money saving!!


Need to post our forms back to Stepchange - will do that tomorrow. Written all our account numbers down, need to cancel any direct debits and also move two direct debits over from my overdrafted account to our joint account.

My zip wallets for the filofax turned up yesterday so those have been labelled up and I just need to withdraw the cash for September now. Firstly need to make sure I have enough money to take it all out and also to pay the bills up to next payday. If I can't then I'll withdraw the most important bits. Also getting any other Direct Debits moved to the end of the month


I did throw away a load of old shoes, sorted out the coat rack - couldn't have ebayed the shoes as they were very worn out. I've put one of DS's coats into the car as we always forget to take one out, and then he's got a waterproof and a school coat. The other one is upstairs as its too big for him at the moment.

jbkmum

Debt £52,059.14 0.68% paid
Paid £130 wage overpayment, it was supposed to be more but I couldn't remember the exact figure so paid it and waited for solicitors to email back with exact amount. They just closed the account so I'm happy with that!


Selling
Collectible £250 - being paid soon hopefully

I've been really bad and haven't posed a few things from ebay in time so I MUST do that tonight.

Buying
Bought a few bits for my Filofax, a hole punch and paper cutter. I make my own inserts but it was starting to hurt my fingers cutting everything up. I've also brought my laminator home from work and have made my own dividers. Really happy with my filofax set up (will go into that further down)

Food
No idea if OH made his wrap today or not, I had defrosted the pulled bbq chicken for him and there was coleslaw in the fridge. If he hasn't had it then it's going to have to get binned grrrr.

I'm doing relatively well at not buying things, only taking cash etc. I did buy a few unnecessary things the other night but we haven't gone over budget so there's that!

We're supposed to be having Tuna Pasta bake for team tonight however I forgot and defrosted some bacon so I can make bacon and brie risotto. Also defrosted a rice pudding that I got reduced at the co op.
Bacon and brie risotto will make enough for us to have for tea tomorrow as well. DS is off to his G'mas on Friday so I hope OH has room for it all! I have some brioche burger buns in the fridge that I got at Marks and Spencers for 20p, I've been using them to make home made garlic bread which OH likes but DS hates. I've got some leftover garlic butter in the fridge so that will definitely fill them up tonight.

I need to start making room in the freezer as I cannot make any ready meals using the cupboards contents without room in the freezer. Tonight, I'm going to inventory the bottom two drawers, there are a few things to throw out like the weird bratwurst I bought from sainsburys.

I know for sure we have some pork belly, maybe some more bacon, maybe a chicken? We've also got a lot of bolognese that I made and froze in portions. OH gets bored of it though so perhaps it's time for a lasagne.

In other news

Making use of my A5 filofax. Using free printables, my laminator, hole punch and paper cutter (and the work printer :rotfl:) I have set it up as a household planner.

We have
CALENDER -Yearly tab, Monthly Tab, Weekly Tab, and Daily Tab.
BUDGET - Monthly budget on a printable
EXPENSES - Track what we spend from our cash evenlopes
DEBT - Trackers for Stepchange, then two credit cards we're paying off and not putting into DMP (paying middle of September)
SAVINGS - money leftover from categories will go into a mix of emergency fund and xmas
MEALS - Meal plan weekly
GROCERIES - Inventory and shopping lists
XMAS - Gift tracker, food budget and recipes for this christmas

I then have set up my smaller filofax with 12 cash envelopes for September. Living cardless and only with cash. Also have an expenses tracker in this.

I've got another filofax that I am setting up as a recipe binder because all of my recipes are in a book that has no particular order etc. Just need to decide on categories for it.

Finally, I washed our Baavet duvet 7 years after buying it, it's been drying for the past 3 days over the banister with a small dehumidifier running under it. I think it's nearly dry. We've been using single duvets in the mean time. Our washing machine door broke, whilst trying to fix it with his non-existant DIY skills husband managed to flood the kitchen and rip a kitchen cupboard back off. Luckily a friend sent her husband round who sorted it all. Door is fixed and inlet hose replaced for £11 in total and to be fair the cupboard back was hiding the stop !!!! so its not a bad idea that we've removed it. Our kitchen is a bomb site however and I have so much to do tonight

Chrystal

Wow - You've been busy, and you sound so organised. Can you send some of your Mojo in my direction please.... my mind is in a bigger muddle than my house! :eek: :eek:

jbkmum

If I was really organised I'd be able to stick to a meal plan for longer than 3 days hahah. And my house would be clean and tidy.

We're getting there....

jbkmum

So after the success in inventorying the double cupboard I decided to do the freezer. I don't really need to do the baking cupboard or oddbits cupboard as I do know what is in both of those. I know we have all different types of sugar, chocolate chips, rice etc. And then different oils, stocks etc.


So whilst my husband was out collecting DS from his grandmas (2 hours away) I started with the bottom drawer of the tall freezer. I full intended to just do the bottom two drawers but got carried away.



Are you ready for it?


535g of stir fry pork
12 mini pitta breads
Pk of 2 Birdseye chicken in tempura batter
Pk of 4 chicken kievs
2pks x LM vegetatarian sausages
4pks of LM Mozzeralla burgers
8 raw chicken fillets
3 steak pie
3 ball of frozen mozzeralla
Yeo Valley Vanilla ice cream
6 bags of bbq pulled meat (chicken or pork)


2 bags of Tomato Basil and Chicken (leftovers goes with pasta)
7 x Sliced cooked beef (enough for 3, we have this in a roast dinner)
1 pk of turkey bacon
Irish Soda Bread
Pk of giant crumpets
2 pks of Spicy Korean Beef MeatBalls
4 pks of Tuna Chunks 220g
1 pk of cooked chicken in fajita spices (looks quite dry might chuck)
1 pk of 4 quarter pounder beef burgers
Bolognese or Chilli x 2 (not sure!)
2 portions of cooked chicken for wraps
30 piece indian platter
Cauliflower cheese
400g of cooked ham
5 bags of raw cooking bacon
Stew that only I will eat
Big bag of cooked chicken breast
Chickpea sausages
3 packs of belly pork
2 pork loin chops
2 packs of chili and coriander king prawns
3 packs of Belly Pork (herbed)
1 pack of smoked salmon
pork shoulder
2 bags of cooked gammon chunks
2 packs of chilli and garlic chicken pieces
Cauliflower cheese
green beans
brocolli
2 packs of frozen strawberries
1 pack of blueberries
Low fat ice cream
frozen onion
peas
aldi couscous and veg
aldi thai stir fry
forest fruit mix
spinach
sausages
onion rings
mango sorbet
ice cream again
grana panado
unopend vanilla carte dor
chicken poppers
3 small yorkshire puddings
small m and s cumberland pie
dessicated coconut
chickene frankfurters
3 chicken grills
1 boil inthe bag chili fish
skinny bagels
small wraps
crispy chicken (pk of 2)


I didn't even bother with the top two drawers. The top one has some frozen chicken stock, frozen soup and ice pops. The next drawer has about 30 frozen meals (very small portions) for me to have at lunch and some Mr Freeze pops.