-£99,152 net worth - scary figure

charliedavis

On a weight management front, logged back to MyFitnessPal app and been sticking to 1200/1300 calories in the last 3 days to drop these 6 pounds that have crept back on! Even managed to avoid eating birthday cake lol

annandale

Approved food for a stock up. If you don't use the site I would suggest it.

Yellow sticker items if you can.

Colleges for hair cuts and colours. I used to get highlights and then I got fed up maintaining them so I colour my hair with superdrug colour. 4 quid a packet.

My Internet is with first utility. 22.99 a month and I got cashback on quidco as well.

Buy one of jack monroes books. You could easily cut down on your shopping bill.

Cleaning products. Go to home bargains or pound shops. You can also get gifts in places like poundland.

Charity shops for clothes. And we all need a treat sometimes but I don't think you need a higher eating out budget. You need to lower your eating out/takeaways until you have tackled more of the debt.

charliedavis

Feeling a bit !!!!ed off. DS (age 17) needed new trainers. I said on Friday he could have £40 from me and if he wanted anything more expensive he could put the rest himself from his job. My ex - his Dad went out yesterday and bought him £110 trainers and a £40 pair of trousers. DS says he would have been "teased" if he wore £40 trainers (this is no more than we spend ourselves on trainers and we still manage to buy decent brands from Nike).

I know I want to teach him not to be so materialistic but I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle here!!!

enthusiasticsaver

Your ex is doing your DS no favours. As you say encouraging such materialism will lead to a lifetime of misery unless he is a very high earner. I think it is very sad that kids tease for such frivolous and superficial reasons. A chat about values might be a good use of time.

charliedavis

Totally - will have a chat on the school run tomorrow. On a more positive note he’s now bored as he’s not working this evening and - shock horror - would rather be at work so that turned out well!

charliedavis

Had our 4th NSD yesterday, ate from the freezer.
Dropped 1lb this morning, 1 down, 5 to go, so it can be done on a budget, just needed to focus.
Definitely getting addicted to constantly updating budgets, I love knowing where we are financially and feel like I am learning so much at the moment!

charliedavis

Thought you might be interested(You never know!) in how I'm achieving 1200/1300 calories per day while on a budget, so here's what I ate yesterday:

Breakfast
100g Greek yoghurt (500g is around £1.60 in Aldi) 102 calories
Blueberries (one pot will last me 3 days so works out 50p per day) 31 calories
I find that protein fills me up in the morning for longer than carbs and I love the taste of Greek Yoghurt

Snack
Satsuma 41 calories

Lunch
2 slices multi grain bread 250 calories
Scraping of butter on one side 36 calories
One slice of Aldi smoked ham (it's only 25 calories but has lots of flavour)

Snack
Aldi Fondant Fancy 104 calories
Red wine glass 150 cals

Evening meal
1 piece Cod fillet from freezer 241 cals
100g potato wedges 201 cals
Frozen peas 35 cals
Tomato ketchup 18 cals

Drinks
Zero cal squashes and 4 cups of tea with skimmed milk 44 cals

Total 1278 cals

charliedavis

Just worked out that if we pay the current minimums on our debts, DFD date will be 61 months away, i.e. Dec 2023.

If we overpay £1,000 per month it will be 30 months away, May 2021.

If we overpay £2,000 per month (sounds like a huge sum but OH business is due to make this amount extra this month and possibly even an extra £3k so could well be doable) then it will be 22 months away in September 2020

The snowball calculator is amazing how it can show you the benefit of overpaying those debts!

g_attrill

charliedavis wrote: »

Mobile phones:
Reimbursed by our businesses - I know it looks expensive :-)

Just something that jumped out - if you are self-employed then the business' money is still your money!



Switch to a SIM-only plan as soon as you are able and don't upgrade your phones.

charliedavis

Didn't manage an NSD today as OH needed to buy a couple of small things from Aldi. OH also bought a coat and hat for work which he put through his business account as he works outside a lot. I moaned about the spend but I suppose it's essential. Am questionning every penny we spend, I even complained when he spent 99p on chewing gum earlier...haha.

Getting to grips properly with YNAB now although it doesn't agree with either of our current account balances, I think starting part way through a month throws it out, I think it must be the uncleared items or something.

Nearly finished reading the book The Millionaire Next Door which is SO enlightening, talks about how 90% of millionaires got there by being frugal and you wouldn't even know they are rich - they live in normal houses, and drive old cars etc. It also talks about spoiling your children, and how people who spend a lot on their kids set them up to high spenders in later life. It also talks about how much that are high spenders/consumers think of themselves as wealthy when actually they are anything but! Been reading it for a few days and absolutely loving it.