It's time to begin.....

joedenise

I managed to get all my washing dry before the rain came.  It didn't last very long and has brightened up again now.

Doris17

Well done on your progress so far, you have do amazingly well.

Kakiste

Thanks.  
Well shopping is done- bought three days worth of food as we're part of a waste food collective that local businesses donate end of shelf line foods or excess produce to. We pay £3 a week to belong to it (comes out of the £30 food budget) and you get a massive bag for life full of food. 

There's usually either chicken or pork- enough for one meal, eggs, lots of bread, butter, sliced ham or chicken, cereal, some tins of stuff, some snacks/pastries etc and then loads of fruit and veg. It usually provides us at least 3 main meals, all our breakfasts and lunches and snacks and then a bunch of veg left over to suppliment the other 4 meals or turn into soup which we'll have for lunch or for a meal on its own. 
Anyhow; last week one of the meat portions was a small beef roasting joint- so as it's the first day of the half term holiday ive made pastry and constructed a beef wellington which im serving with roast potatoes, broccoli and peas. 
The only thing that didn't come out of the £3 waste food from last week was the peas which cost me 69p. Sometimes when you're eating soup and toast or beans on toast for dinner it's easy to feel a bit 'this is rubbish' but Beef wellington (with a mushroom duxelle- Gordan's recipe, nom nom) is a nice bit of luxury. 

I've made 3 times the amount of roast potatoes we need and we're going to put some the rest with gravy and cheese and have poutine  for tomorrow's dinner. Then because of the excess of carbs, we'll probably be back to soup for dinner on Monday.

joedenise

That's a great scheme especially for only £3 a week.

Never heard of poutine so had to look it up!  Not something I could eat as can't stand chips with gravy but could probably eat it with the roasties!

Kakiste

There's a picture doing the rounds on fb at the moment which is a breakdown of what people put on chips by region and the whole of northern England is blocked out by gravy or curry! I bet you are also unindoctrinated as to the wonder that is red salt? (We've got friends all over and red salt seems to be a totally northern and scottish thing) 
Sat in the living room currently; can't move as am too full of potato! 

monkey62

Hello - just wanted to say well done so far, you've done really well. I'll be following and supporting you along the way 

Rgib89

Just wanted to post by and say what an amazing achievement so far. 
Will be flowing your journey x

Kakiste

Thanks Appreciate it. 

missymoo81

Hey just popped in to say what an inspiration you are! I’ll keep reading. Always needing tips for money saving with a family x

Kitten868

I might be totally wrong here but it doesn't sound like your household finances are fairly divided. It sounds like the childcare bill is yours to shoulder alone as is the food bill and are you still paying half of the other household bills and all other expenses for your child? I see this with so many people and no one ever seems to see how unfair it is. Men don't see it as they don't realise that babies outgrow clothes every five minutes and they don't go to baby classes etc. Anyway, whether or not this is the case it won't have been the only factor. Looks like you got caught up in some nasty, expensive debt traps that easily make debt grow without even buying anything too. I'm so glad you're in the position to turn this around now. Looks like you've made a great start already. 
5 years of that mess and now just a year in you're totally rebuilding it and clear of over £15k. Well done you. Keep going xxx