81 weeks to debt freedom

Caspeia

5th work day of bringing food into work, I'm feeling a lot better from it. I'm not having the sugar crash 2 hours after break times anymore.

Today a cheque came from Scottish power, I've recently changed providers and they owed me £5 apparently. It was a nice surprise to have!

I've cooked some veggie fingers, chips and veggies and put them in the kids thermos. My plan is to bring it with us so after swimming lessons they can just have it straight away. Normally we go to McDonalds, I'm hoping the eldest won't moan too much!

Still have £91 left for the next 8 days. I will need to go shopping soon but hoping too hold out until Saturday at least.

Gonna_Be_DF

Loved reading this Caspeia, seems like you're really determined to get there (loved the bit about being excited over nappies!)

Good luck with your journey, just try to focus on how you will feel in 81 weeks time and you will get there no problem.

Best of luck

Caspeia

Yesterday was another NSD. My daughter moaned a little bit about no Mcdonalds which I had thought she would. I made up some chocolate milkshake (need to get more powder - Lidls own one is dairy free!) I brought it out when she was moaning and she was won over. Win!

Last day at work this week and I've got more porridge for my first break. For second break I have a packet of veg couscous thats best before May 2019. I'll make up half today and the rest on Monday at work. I'm amazed how much we have in our cupboards, I always go food shopping and then decide to eat out for our meals so most of the food doesn't get used! Hoping to clear out most of the cupboards and freezer over the next few weeks.

One week till payday. Tonight I'm thinking just to have some pasta, I have an 11hour shift today so it needs to be a quick easy tea when I get in. I can't see myself spending any money today

Caspeia

Very spendy day today. I'm now at £66.51 left.
Spent £24.49. We went out for breakfast. £7.65. I promised kids pancakes and when I went to make them there was no eggs left. Husband ate all four yesterday. So we went to a cafe for breakfast. We then went to the park and I made an error of not bring snacks so we ended up stopping and buying drinks. For tea we all wanted a takeaway but instead we got some frozen pizzas from Tesco.
However it meant I got to try out my new starling card, I'm really loving the feature that lets you add notes/pictures to transactions. Planning on writing a note if I take out money or taking a picture of my receipts so I can remember what I bought. Husbands account still isn't set up, still waiting for them to confirm his identity.

We have 4 cats and the food I buy is frozen and comes in these wool wraps to keep it cold. If you send back 8 they give you a £5 off voucher, we have 8 now so I've requested my shipping label. I should get the voucher before our next order. Oue order is normally £32 which is monthly so we should be able to get this for £27 next month!

Tomorrow won't be no spend day as i need to buy some fruit for the kids lunches. I made some soup earlier so they'll have that for their lunchboxes for the week. I also need to get some veggies as we have none left! Last of them went into the soup to get used up.

5 days to payday. Normally at this point we are using our credit cards to buy food. I still have cash left!

katsu

Well done on all the food from home. Saving money and being healthier - double win.

I hope you find going to the gym goes fine when you get there and you enjoy exercising.

Caspeia

Thank you katsu. I still haven't been to the gym, I know I'll enjoy it when I'm there but its just making that first step back in. I can't see myself going tomorrow so I won't have achieved that goal for week this week. I will look out all my gym stuff and charge my headphones for Tuesday. I have a 5 hour gap without the kids before work so I'll make myself go then.

Embarrassingly our cupboards were so full that the shopping I bought 2 weeks ago couldn't fit in the cupboard so had to sit on the counter. today I noticed there was enough room to fit all the food into the cupboards! My counter looks so much better now, it's amazing how much better something so small has made me feel.
We used the last of the dairy free pizza today, my youngest can't have dairy. We bought a premade one reduced price (they are £3.50 full price!! managed to get the last one for £2.18) and cut it into 4 and froze it. I'm not sure if I should do that again or try to make my own and freeze it. I don't want him to end up not liking my one as the dairy free cheese is so expensive. Also need to do a stock check on his milk, he has the alpro 1 - 3 growing up milk. Its between £1.35 and £1.45 a litre. I try and bulk buy when its on sale for 3 for £3 but its not often at this price. I'm hoping we have enough left in the cupboard to last him a while.

Caspeia

Fourth batch of cupcakes this week and finally got the perfect ones! They have to be dairy free and we've been testing different ratios of ingredients to see what tastes good!

Writing the recipe down so I don't forget:
100g vitalite spread
100g caster sugar
100g plain flour
15g cocoa powder
1tsp bicarb
2 eggs
1tbsp alpro milk
1 capful of vanilla extract

Spent £26.78 at the shop today. Fruit, veg, cereal, bread and eggs!

enthusiasticsaver

sounds like you are doing really well. Love the dairy free cupcakes recipe. My granddaughter is dairy free too so I make dairy free cakes for her as buying free from is so expensive. They are much nicer too if baked at home.

Caspeia

£7ish spent today. Sent husband out for cheapest bottle of wine for the risotto we were cooking, he bought a £3 bottle and then spent £4 on chocolate and juice!

On the bright side the risotto was delicious and theres two portions left so I'll take them to work for the next 2 days as I'm on a late shift.

3 days until payday and roughly £33 left!
I'll need to get fuel tomorrow, will only put £10 in.
Can't wait to make a dent into the debt on payday!

Caspeia

Only one payment left to pay the childminder and then we are childcare free for the next two months! (almost two months, we'll get the nursery bill when they go back mid August but its always nearer September by the time they issue them!)
I need to do my updated tax credits but I'm waiting until Monday so I can update it without the childminders details on it. I think we'll lose most of the tax credits when they get my updated income for this year as its more than last year, also childcare will be cheaper by £75 a week. I've been looking into the tax free childcare as I think if we drop tax credits then we'll do that instead. I've done the entitledto calculator and it estimates it we'd lose £100 every 4 weeks in tax credits but I've learnt from the past these calculators are never accurate!

Two of the cats are due their vaccinations next month so I've booked them in for mid month. The other two cats are due the month after. I also need to get the smaller two spayed and chipped this year. I was going to get it done last year but I was on maternity leave and I completely forgot we didn't get it done! I'm hoping I can get this done by Christmas time. When I'm at the vets in a few weeks time I'll find out the costs of it all.