The thriftyish way to debt freedom

Honeysucklelou2

Your photography sounds amazing!

f0xh0les

I would charge £400 for the photos! no, really I think you are going to have to write the money off.  At least you know exactly where he is coming from, and if you do decide to ever do anything for him (including looking after their kids if they have/ ever decide to have) then it is cash upfront, no freebies. including hand me downs.  

I bought wedding outfits for my kids off The Bay of E during the low season (Jan - April) and afterwards I lent an outfit to a mum with a kid in the same year as one of mine who was worried about the cost of hiring - we had a chat with some other mums on the playground who all thought it was ridiculous the amount of 'wedding attire' we had pooled between us, and we wished we had set up a sharing circle for it. For boys a cravat and waistcoat is all that is needed really- white shirt and school trousers/jeans  work fine.  Sold them on during wedding season (May-August) for double what I paid for them!  It really is worth asking around if anyone has anything you can borrow. It is so easy to spend a lot on something that really is not suitable for day to day life.  It is the kind of thing people have sitting in wardrobes gathering dust. Also asking in local c/s if they get anything 'weddingy' in the back - it is not usually something they put out on the shop floor and they often stick it on BayE instead. So you might save yourself postage.  

Always worth asking the question. 

janb5

Could you OH say something to your brother in law to be- so dishonest of him to do this.  It doesn`t augur well for your sister in law.

Bluegreen143

When is the wedding?If it’s before Christmas can you combine getting a dress for your daughters with that also then being their designated Christmas/party frock? I get my kids a smart outfit (just from a supermarket or similar usually not necessarily very expensive) at the start of Dec as both their birthdays are in December, Christmas parties plus we have a few December birthday parties usually due to all my friends from antenatal classes. The idea of dressing up school trousers & shirt for your son is good too. It’s trickier for adults as it does show if the dress is very cheap, but getting something formal from a charity shop or eBay is often quite inexpensive. And there is always the potential to sell everything on again.

thriftyish

Hello @DayDreamerandGeneralWaster and @Choccygirl123. The food budget has been my biggest change this month, I didn't think I could lower it and still eat a fairly healthy diet, but we are eating healthier now than before! Mainly with the 'too good to go' boxes, reduced y/s foods and l1dl wonky veg boxes. It really helps being surrounded by likeminded people!

@Baileys_Babe The photography as a present is a good idea, I am going to go with that. I think I am more annoyed that its kind of expected, so asking is done in a very roundabout way. It's more of a 'you are taking the photos, aren't you?'

Re: The car & SIL / BIL-to-be I have learnt my lesson with that, there was a long sob story and I fell for it with high hopes, I am not expecting anything now. The general consensus back then amongst DH's family is that its not SILs problem, as they were just dating when it happened. SIL has a bad history with money. She's in her forties and MIL for a long time paid a lot of her bills, without FIL knowing. DH once gave her money for nappies for his niece when he was a teen working a Saturday job, she said she didn't have any money & she had run out, he spotted her out drinking with friends later that night. She's a serial offender, there are lots and lots of examples. BIL-to-be makes her look like a ray of sparkly sunshine. I still wish them well, from a 10 mile distance.

@f0xh0les I've taken the high road and done exactly what you have said, it's much easier since we have moved, we used to be on the same street (as all three SILs and MIL/FIL!) Great idea with the charity shops, I was thinking eBay over winter, but will definitely ask them too, and I'll ask around to see if there is anything I can borrow. 

@Bluegreen143 We usually do that too near Christmas for outfits, as they always have a Christmas party, and a few other occasions they can wear the same thing - and they aren't old enough to complain! Luckily DH has his 'everything' suit, and when I photograph I need smart trousers and flat shoes as I have a fixed lens camera so I have to move to frame the shot. It usually involves all kinds of squats and awkward positions, I usually can't climb the stairs the next day - I am definitely not the dress kind of photographer, not if you want your guests to be able to eat the wedding breakfast!   

Today
We had NSD, and it's looking like a good week for them! I've decided that instead of wishing away the days till the start of the month, I am going to plough through my todo list and see what I can get done while the weather is miserable and the kids just want to play indoors.

Vinegar
I have 35l of vinegar sat in my indoor porchway (white and malt vinegar) while I decide where it will live. I can't decide if that's weird enough to be the best burglar deterrent yet.

Decorating
I've finished emulsion-ing the dining side of the kitchen, just need to tidy around the window, caulk and gloss. When I say dining side, it was previously two rooms that have been opened into one with an RSJ. Which means the dining side looks modern and fresh and the kitchen side looks dated. But I haven't decided what to do with the kitchen side yet and I am not ready for that battle! 

Chicks
Since the chicks have overtaken the office, I cant decorate in there till they they are evacuated, which will be in around 6 weeks, feathers depending. The second set of eggs have just gone into lockdown and will hopefully have two more baby chicks by Thursday. We are planning to rescue chickens next year when these are full size, because with the cost of fertilised eggs/heat we could have bought chickens & I love the idea of rescuing. The children have absolutely loved the chicks, they refuse to go to bed without saying goodnight & have spent a lot of time with them (while I play chicken momma, trying to make sure that they are clean/warm & safe from over-excited children)

Carvery style Sunday dinner
I decided to serve Sunday dinner carvery style and let the children choose what they put on their plates. This meant that most of them cleared their plates & I got to have leftovers for dinner today - A second roast dinner with no work involved, I am totally living my best life! Less waste too, so will try and do this from now on. We had chicken curry with leftovers today - well chickenless curry, with chicken on the side in case veggie DD2 wanted it without meat. She chose to eat chicken anyway. It's her choice so we try to support her to make sure she has an option and let her make it without judgement. I made chicken stock with the leftovers, so will make more chicken soup for lunch tomorrow.

Beetroot Obsessed
Also need to use my new burglar deterrent vinegar to pickle rest of the beetroot. We tried the beetroot I pickled last weekend as you are meant to leave a week, and it was delicious. I want to try beetroot burgers too this week. I definitely don't have enough beetroot to keep us over the winter - DD2 could eat a jar a day. I'm going to sow some more beetroot seeds and hope we have a longish summer so it grows - yes we are beetroot obsessed!

Happy Debtbusting!

thriftyish

Another NSD!

Food
Breakfast was YS bagels & tgtg toast. Dinner was chicken soup and I froze three more portions. The children didn't want soup and chose sandwiches with tgtg breadcakes. Tea was Panhaggerty - we haven't made it before but it was a winner with 5/6 of the thrifty household which is impressive these days. Plus its mostly veg I can grow at the allotment, which means with some good planning it could cost pennies. Naturally, the awkward one was DS, and he is the one I am trying to get to eat more veggies! 

Decorating
I made a start cleaning around the window in the dining room, but the edges of the PVC window are all covered in layers of gloss, and the caulking has set like cement, both are really hard to remove,  I managed about 1/8th of the PVC edge cleared, and cut my finger in the process! Just thankful it was the kitchen knife and not the stanley knife or this may have been typed with a finger less.

Debt
Completed another prolific survey that pushed me over the threshold to withdraw, so I've sent the £5.75 payment to the loan - so the loan should be down to £3216.87 when that clears, It should definitely be below 3k after payday. Hopefully closer to £2800 if I want to stay on target for being debt-free by the end of this year.

Plates & Cutlery
We have only 6 (chipped) dinner plates left now. They really need replacing because I keep finding excuses to stick the dishwasher on when it's not quite full to clean the plates for meals - doh! I am reluctant to replace everything as we have loads of the side plates/bowls/pasta dishes and they are just plain white. But I would like to buy from somewhere I can add to the set later if I need to - I was thinking Ikkea, but their individual white plates are £1.50-2.00 each, and we probably need at least 10- ideally 12 for entertaining. We are also using our super-cheap camping cutlery alongside half a set we bought before about 13 years ago, and although it works the camping stuff is looking rather battered. I think I would rather spend a tiny (teenie-weenie!) bit more on a set that is likely to be available in 5 years time, in case we need to add bits for both cutlery and plates! Thoughts and suggestions are more than welcome, I was thinking the Ikkea 365 range as they have been going a while, but are a bit more expensive, is it worth it?

f0xh0les

The Swedish store's plates are very large. You can easily be fooled into eating more. Mind you, you could get away with feeding the kids off the side plates.

I have gone with Wilk0 for my last few purchases- the plates with the little curved lip to hold the gravy on.  But I tend to cash out l0ve2sh0p vouchers from surveys to update my stock of  ' new' plates/ cutlery from there.

  I use Mr T's 25p drinking glasses, and often use them for layered desserts too as they are a nice size, and pick up nice serving bowls, or  'Moroccan- patterned' bowls or side plates in the c/s to compliment what I have - in sets of 8.

Colour themes of white or blue or Moroccan.

Bluegreen143

I love @f0xh0les idea of having a colour theme and then picking up co-ordinating sets from the charity shop. All our plates are just a mishmash of hand me downs and the remains of old sets and nothing matches at all. The kids use a plastic set, Monkey at 4 could just use side plates but easier to use the same for both. When they get bigger we will definitely need more plates though!

Food all sounds lovely and you make great use of your allotment and the reduced boxes you pick up! Where do you get the too good to go boxes from? 

How cute re your chicks! My kids love our chickens too. We’ve never had chicks but I’m sure they would love that - be a bit dangerous with a 1yo though - she would no doubt squash them!

That’s quite handy with your wedding attire! Bonus that you will be comfortable all day, normally I’m freezing with sore feet at weddings 😂

f0xh0les

I used shot glasses (very chunky ones) for my kids when they were very small - because I never did bottles or plastic - and the spills were much smaller, and they learnt to drink from the glass without  choking to death or drowning themselves or spilling it everywhere and so there was never any 'x's special cup' that had to come with us wherever we went.  Sheer laziness on my part, but wherever we stayed they had an egg cup or similar for them to use.  They had their breakfast cup of tea in an espresso cup ! I miss those days of teeny tiny cups and glasses. 

Jophi2b

@thriftyish Just wanted to say that I am really enjoying reading your diary and have picked up lots of tips from it already! I had never heard of Too Good To Go before, but joined earlier today after reading about it in your diary and have just secured my first Magic Bag from my local Morrisons to collect tomorrow. I'm a bit over excited about it, still a bit hyped from managing to secure the only one they had on offer! Anyway, thanks for making me aware of them. I will continue to follow and read - I think I have a lot to learn!