The thriftyish way to debt freedom

MagicCat

Thanks so much for all the cauliflower ideas, will definitely give some a go and see if I can get DH (and possibly even the children  ) to eat them,!

I'm going to get some uniform stuff for my DS next week, he's starting reception in September - am going to leave the shoes til later though as like all of you I'm a bit worried about what might happen and the shoes are the most expensive bit. 

WelshKitty85

Hi @thriftyish I've just read your diary & it's very inspirational. Your allotment sounds great. We've got a fair sized garden and we've been trying to grow our own produce this year. We've got sweet corn, pumpkin, tomatoes, cabbage and rhubarb, but nowhere near the quantities I wanted to aim for. Luckily we do also have a community orchard and an incredible edible scheme locally so there's always some free fresh produce on offer.

thriftyish

@MagicCat I am at the same conclusion. I've just had a check and 3 out of the four have shoes that fit at the moment and would do for school:- that way I could try and shop towards the end of September if needed.

@f0xh0les @Baileys_Babe I've had a few shoe shops where I have taken them in and they have jumped a few sizes, and had the feeling of guilt for the rest of the night that they had been running around in shoes too small, but I can't ever remember one of them telling me anything was uncomfortable! @Mumoffourkids - 3 shoe sizes in 6 months sounds very expensive!

@Kakiste That's brilliant with pr0lific! Do you have any tips? Do you mind sharing the shopping scanning apps you use too? I am not sure what they will benefit from my mostly reduced shops, but it's worth a go!

Yesterday
Allotment
I shopped my allotment yesterday and came home with potatoes and a small handful of green beans - not quite enough because we had picked most of them midweek. We definitely need more next year, for every lot we pick to eat I would like two lots for the freezer for winter.

I picked a tiny cauliflower from my neighbour, the others had all blown. Also picked a cabbage as mine aren't quite ready yet -  some of my plot neighbours are much bigger than my head! I think next year I will have a better idea of what to sow, and better successional planting, as all my time & energy this year has gone into homeschooling and entertaining the children.


This was taken yesterday at the plot, the sunflowers (next to the two sweet peas teepees about halfway down) are about 2 foot taller than me!

Overpayments
I've done the budgeting and overpaid £417 to the loan. All the holiday budget, all the house budget, all the allotment budget and part of the fuel budget. This should take us to exactly £2800, and mean we are on track for being debt-free by the end of 2020.

3D printer fund
DH sold his surround sound system today for £80 which is a great start for his 3D printer fund. I really want him to sell his dad's old electric bike that looks like a moped and is taking up a good chunk of room in the shed. DH suggested he may want to use the motor to make a motorised go-kart as part of his summer engineering project with the kids. I hope he's joking, but suspect not! 

Slip and slide
The kids have been wanting a slip and slide for ages, and the couple who let us the incubator have offered us a huge sheet of plastic to use instead and brought it round today. The kids are super excited, I just hope we make it to the end of the day without any broken bones. Everyone I've met through the allotment has been really kind, I need to think of a way we can repay the kindness. 

Wipe-out
I've completely been wiped out today - tired, aching, headachey & exhausted. I've spent most of the day on the sofa, feeling really guilty as my to-do list grows, I have probably been overdoing it will late nights and early mornings. DH has used the tumble drier a few times recently - I can't moan too much from the sofa and part of the reason its gone ahead is my lack of energy to intervene! I think we are going to put it in the shed soon, which will hopefully mean it's forgotten about.

tgtg
I have had our 'magic bag' or box cancelled for the last three days, so no further shopping has happened! I am hoping I am feeling okay to bake tomorrow because we need bread and desserts.

Toothbrush heads
We all have electric toothbrushes, I tried to go down the bamboo route but the children were struggling to keep their teeth clean. DH prefers the expensive branded heads, but I usually buy non branded ones from HB for the kids. SIL recommended some from amazon, she says they are a bit more like the branded ones and I think they might be cheaper than the ones from HB too, as they are £9.99 for 16 heads.

Happy debt-busting.

thriftyish

@WelshKitty85 That sounds fab, homegrown sweetcorn is just the best, so delicious.  I've heard of incredible edible, I would love to visit some of the spaces they are using to see how it works, it sounds amazing - its brilliant that you have one near you! 

Tonight
I realised that we didn't have any bread for DHs pickup - and so he nipped to see if he could get some reduced bread because I was reading to the kids and still feeling rubbish. He did brilliantly on the bread front, 2 loaves and 4 small french bread for about 30p. And 6 packs of 5p ham, and 2 packs of 10p strawberries. But then he bought 2 x lyynx body spray, boost bars and mini rolls. Spent spending best part of £7 just on those!  He says he has used his printer fund money. Note to self -  find cheap lyynx and buy enough to fill DHs Xmas stocking that he no longer needs to spend £2 each 

MagicCat

Sorry to hear you've been feeling a bit rubbish @thriftyish, definitely don't feel guilty about taking things easy, you do so much. The allotment looks beautiful.

f0xh0les

I had to laugh my head off at the linx bodyspray - we are drowning in the stuff at the f/b.  One is included in the government shielding food boxes, and it seems everyone who gets a weekly box is donating the stuff straight into the f/b donation baskets. It is one of those Marmite things.

joedenise

I managed to get packs of 12 Lynx sprays from Ama*on a couple of years ago and think they worked out at about £1 a can IIRC!  They went into all the men's Christmas presents, LOL, whether they liked it or not!

Baileys_Babe

I detest the smell of Lynx, it smells of teenage boys and is usually extremely generously applied. Thankfully nobody in my immediate circle uses the stuff.

I can see how they are useful for filling stockings and you might as well if the recipient already uses the stuff.

Kakiste

' Regarding receipt scanning I use;
Receipt Hog
Huyu
Shoppix 
Zipzero 
The last one only let's you put the money towards essential bills but you can pay it off anything (inc. council tax) I'm saving it up to pay off my energy bill deficient. 
The rest all let you get PayPal credit or Amazon vouchers. I'm saving them up towards buying Christmas presents. 
Totally sneaky but I've started grabbing receipts that people abandon in trolleys or baskets when I go to the supermarket. That way I put through my £28 weekly shop but also get the credit for other people's mega shops (Picked up a receipt for £89 yesterday!) The way I see it they've left rubbish and after I've scanned it at home then I put it in the bin, stopping it ending up on the floor as litter. 

thriftyish

Thanks so much @kakiste - I will sign up to those tonight. - I would be the same with extra receipts! 

Thanks @MagicCat - I felt guilty all day yesterday, mostly because we had been invited to a garden party of sorts with a couples grandchildren - DD1 really wanted to go but I am still in lockdown mode and don't feel safe. DS was then invited to see his best friend (a girl, after years of avoiding girls, his best friend is a girl and I suspect might be his first GF) and I said no to that too, I am really good friends with GFs mum. I don't have any C0v symptoms and suspect its a mixture of being worn down & hormones but it just isn't worth the risk. That's two children who although understand arent too happy.

12 years of marriage this year, and I had no idea he liked lynxx so much... He's not too fussy usually and he normally has a years supply of whatever arrives in giftsets from Xmas. He has a cupboard full of slightly dodgy smelling Av0n aftershave, which I might get him to sort and I will sell. Another SIL sells Av0n, and has only one customer, my MIL. DH daren't smell them in the supermarket anyway, so had no idea what he was buying other than the brand! He's nothing like his mother who opens everything fragranced she can to have a good sniff!

Today
Slow sofa day. I seed sorted & watched some gardening stuff on youtube. Felt much brighter by afternoon so collected our tgtg box and picked up DH from work, before heading to the allotment to dig potatoes. There is nothing better than digging up free food! I also returned with 5 more courgettes, despite giving 4 away at the weekend!

Lunch was ys sandwiches with ys strawberries. Dinner was pan haggerty with 'tgtg' onions and allotment potatoes. Pudding was paw patrol cake from the 'tgtg' box, much to DD3s delight! I also roasted some tomatoes up with some courgette to go with the pan haggerty. My tomatoes are dire, lots of excuses for that, but mostly it was down to neglect, but we were given a bag of tomatoes and 2 bags of plums. SIL also gave us two cucumbers.

I managed to scrub the chicken coop while tea was cooking, so I should hopefully be able to paint tomorrow while the children go mad in the garden. We are hoping to let the two older chicks out to explore the garden for the first time on Friday, if it's warm and not too windy - With the lack of anything else happening, and not being too well, the chicks exploring outside is probably the highlight of our week, along with the homemade slip and slide tomorrow.

Surveys
I managed a prolific payout for about £10, which will be thrown at the loan when it clears. The payment has cleared for the loan, and they have amended the interest down by around £15 so the amount outstanding is £2785. I definitely want to be below £2000 by this time next month.

Advice, please!
We have been cooking the bhajis in a pan of oil and DH loves homemade deep-fried chips. But we have been using a small pan, using a tiny sieve to lift stuff in and out. It works, but we have to cook everything in several batches which takes a while with a family of six! Should I;

a) buy a bigger frying basket, so I can use a bigger pan for around £10
b) buy a deep fat fryer for around £30 (extra appliance to store is the negative)
c) buy a health grill (costing an astronomical amount, even second hand, but is it worth it? Also needs storing) 
d) buy nothing, and tell DH I am cooking the chips in the oven (extra faff to parboil, but healthier)
e) or is there another option?

Courgette Total :6
Debt: £2785