Why is spending money so easy......

[Deleted User]

Agree with your OH. We usually have a couple of dinners a week like that (we had veggie finger wraps last night, for example). Also helps with stressful nights as it's so quick to make! We usually have at least one night of simple spaghetti and tomato sauce (made with the 20p spaghetti and some 35p passata from Aldi) or something or other on toast. Pasta dishes in general are great and cheap.

Meat is expensive - see if you can replace 1 or 2 meals with something else - like green lentils in a bolognese or a chickpea curry instead of a chicken curry once in a while. Dried pulses are particularly economical.

We eat vegan at home (me and DS are fully vegan, OH will have meat out of the house) and it honestly saves a ton!

Seasonal produce also saves. I only buy strawberries at the height of summer, for example, when they're cheap. In the winter it's apples, bananas and oranges. Same for veg - if you buy with the seasons you'll save a lot! Frozen veg helps reduce waste too.

We buy a lot of fairly extravagant things like vegan cheese, branded crisps and some treats and seem to have hit a steady £250 a month for 2 adults and a very hungry 5 year old, but we can do it for £200 when we're being more conscientious. However, we've chosen not to cut down too much as it always inevitably leads to us getting frustrated and getting an expensive takeaway - completely defeating the objective!

We mostly shop in Aldi but also get a monthly bulk delivery from Tesco - I buy all their cheap own brands of baked beans, pasta, soya milk, bread etc and stock up for the month so I don't have to log things about every week as we don't have a car. I tend to spend £80-90 on this bulk shop at payday and then spend £40-50 in Aldi every week after that.

[Deleted User]

For what it's worth though - I think £350 a month is actually really reasonable for what is essentially 4 adults!

Are there other food-related expenses like takeaways, top up shops, lunches out that you could cut down on instead?

quintwins

I don't think £350 is bad either. I've been looking at step change and they think we should have £571 for 6 of us! That's double our normal spend! Saying that we do have one or 2 cheaper meals-pasta bake comes in at £2ish or we will have hotdogs, or even beans on toast, or cheapy soup with cheap garlic bread.

Snwps

This is all great feedback, I'm glad the £350 sounds reasonable. We used to eat loads of take aways on top of this but this has been cut right back and to be honest feel better for it. (can get the odd free pizza from work so that's a bonus).

With regards to cutting down on meat. We eat meat with every meal. I have tried a meat free meal in the past (pasta dish) but DH has added some ham to his and says he can't have meal without meat. I have definitely cut the amount of meat in the meals mind. We would usually have 3/4 chicken breasts in a curry or 500g mince in a bolognese but I've cut this to 2 chicken breasts which is plenty and 300g mince in bolognese. Then topped up with veg and lentils.

I'll be looking into the meal plan over the weekend to see if we can fit in some easy/cheaper basic meals.

[Deleted User]

If you can do meat with every meal for 4 adults for £350, you're already doing really well!

Snwps

Wow almost another month has passed since posting. I visit the forums regularly but as nothing major has happened in my journey since my last post I feel there is not much to update.

So debt figure at today stands at £35,681.49. £1,811.76 paid since 13/06/2019. This seems to be taking forever but it's the first time in years this figure is going down. But I know we can do better. By the end of the month this figure should be down in the £34k's. My target is to get the figure below the £30k mark by end of the year which is do-able as should get a bonus in December.

The shopping budget didn't go as planned last month and ended up spending more, so I've gone back to the weekly shopping with a budget of £80 per week. However should save some money this month as still have loads of meat left in the freezer and the pantry is still looking pretty good from last month. Lets see how this goes.

My phones contract is due to end next month and have already been in touch with them to see about switching to a sim only deal. I can't do it until next Tuesday but someone is due to call me to go through it. They've offered £8.80 per month (per phone) for 4GB data plan for 18 months. But I've found the same plan on Uswitch for £8 per month for just a 12 month contract (same provider). So I'll do some haggling next week. If I can get it at the £8 per month (£16 for both phones) we're set to save £49.81 per month. I'd like to think I can pay this off a debt when the normal DD comes out, I need to be more disciplined.

We've had a letter from our old Argos Card account (closed about 3 years ago) saying we've not cashed a refund cheque issued to us ages ago. I remember finding the cheque and phoning them as it was out of date but they said they had no record of it on the system so put it down to having lost out on the £13.99. So this letter was out of the blue and phoned the yesterday to reissue the cheque so its on its way now. Bonus.

2nd job going really well. Was payday on Monday and I've used it to pay towards one of the cards today. It was so tempting to leave it in the bank as it was nice to have some spare money just sitting there but I know it'll be squandered. Feel better now it's done.

Plus I paid off the last of the Park vouchers this morning. So I'll be stopping my £5 per week from Friday until I decide if I'm to do it for Christmas 2020. So we've saved £1200 in vouchers and it's taken a huge weight off for Christmas. This year even the food is included as it was split between high street vouchers and Tesco vouchers. The vouchers should be posted as soon as last payment clears. I love Christmas and the run up/shopping/parties/family get togethers. We're out for Christmas lunch this year so that will be a huge saving.

Take away spending going good so far this month (I know it's only the 9th) we've only spent £13.51 and to be honest that was me getting something on the way home after the delivery job.

We've had to have some work done on the car the last few weeks like new front tyres, new windscreen wiper and change fan belt. These repairs normally go on the credit cards but this time I've been using the cash I've been saving from deliveries/tips from the 2nd job.

Got 10 payments left on my loan, July can't come quick enough. It will free up £223.63 to snowball onto the credit cards. Then we should start to see some quick movement. At the moment between paying just above minimum payments and the pay from job #2 we're paying about £1500 per month off the debt but we're paying about £200 per month in interest. Once the figures come down I'm hoping we can get some 0% balance transfer deals to do some shuffling.

Snwps

Debt figure now £35,645.12.

Have today contacted mobile phone provider and switched to Sim only for the 2 mobiles. The offered 4GB plans at £8.80 per month for 18 month contract. So have saved about £49 per month.

Managed to get a free boiler service this week as my boiler cover (pay £8.66 per month) is due to renew in November I phoned to ask if I had already had the annual boiler service but was told that the cover was only for an inspection service not a full service. So I complained and they were unable to locate the paperwork for the original visit (last Nov/Dec) so agreed would come and do a full service. Will be going elsewhere come November as they tend to price 1st year really cheaply then the price rockets the second year, so I switch.

Still waiting for the £13.99 cheque from Argos card.

Had a text this morning to confirm Park vouchers on they're way. Will be starting the lists over the weekend to make sure only spend what I need and look around for best price (obv limited to only being able to shop where they accept the vouchers).

I'm now doing 20 hours per week in job #2 plus the normal 35 hours in job #1, it's hard work. I am tired and house work going to the dogs but it's for the short term (that's what I'm telling myself).

Hope everyone else doing well, and keeping warm/dry in this horrible weather.

liselle

Congratulations on your journey so far - it's a long road, I know, but at least you're on the way now.
Have you considered insurance for your white goods? It's well worth having.I found it invaluable,especially as it meant I didn't have to resort to using credit cards.

Chrystal

Congratulations on your journey so far... you seem to be getting the hang of things

Has OH started his 2nd job yet? That will make another huge difference. X

Snwps

Starting date next Monday. There was a delay but fingers crossed should all be good to go. Will be hard first few weeks juggling everything and the kids but sure it will sort itself out by end of November.

Got the £13.99 cheque - will be banking it today.