Diary of a 30-something idiot

foxgloves

@foxandflowers - I think you have really identified that lack of planning is key to you where high food spend is concerned. I know that you know this & would not want to sound judgemental. You see, while I may sound like Queen Budget of Budget Land these days,I had my LBM quite a lot later in life than many & we did not pay off our last bit of debt until we were in our 40s - I was 46, my partner a few years younger, despite the fact that we were both working full time in fairly well paid professional public sector roles. We just spent on impulse all the time, whenever we wanted, with no planning & not a hint of a whiff of a teensy sight of a budget! Planning overall has been absolutely key to getting ourselves out of debt, & meal planning has been a big part of that. Wednesday is meal planning day. I write it but we both have some input as we are both eating it after all, & my partner cooks Fri to Sun & I do Mon - Thurs. I then write the shopping list strictly from the meal plan & check stores for everything as it is easy to forget that I bought, say flour last week, & just stick it on the list again, thus spending money that was needed more for a different item. I write everything needed for the main meals first, then check our stores of breakfast stuff, then lunches, as Mr F takes packed lunch every day. Then I add in the rest of the stuff, eggs, any baking ingredients, cat food (I sometimes think we accidently adopted 2 greedy pigs instead of 2 cats!) & finally household stuff like loo roll, soap, washing powder, etc. While we were debt-busting, we shopped mostly at Aldi & this made our money go further BUT choice of supermarket is very definitely not the only tool in the box where cutting food shopping is concerned. We both agree that it is meal planning which has saved us the most. At the moment, now we are debt & mortgage free, we mostly shop at Waitbl00m, with Sains*'s, occasional A*di & weekly local market visits for meat & fresh fruit & veg. Yes, we could save a few quid if we prioritised different supermarkets, but we still come out of the shop with a reasonable within budget spend because of those meal plans & our zero food waste approach. 
I know you do honestly intend to meal plan, because you have mentioned it before. I wonder how you could set it up as a weekly activity so that you do  get it done. I like the routine of it on a Wednesday, then food shopping is usually on Thursday night so I have the list ready because I know what we are going to be eating. Maybe you could choose a slot in your week to sit with a coffee & make writing out your meal plans a thing? I know I am a bit evangelical about them.....it' just that back in the Spendy Era, I wasted so much money just wafting around supermarkets with my trolley with no shopping list, because what sort of list would I have with no idea of what we were going to eat. I just couldn't go back to that again.
It would be great to hear that your partner has got that training done & is now all set to contribute to your household economy. 
Take care now,
F x

warby68

When my sons were growing up I got into a routine of shopping twice a week instead of once. Various reasons made a full 7 days meal plan hard work but shopping twice means you only have to think for 3 or 4 days and commitments and numbers for meals are less likely to change over that timescale. I also had a max amount per shop which was a self-fulfilling budget and waiting 3 days for the next shop meant it wasn't long to wait if there was too much for one shop.

The other thing which was useful is to have standby emergency meals for when hiccups occur. Something anyone in the household can pull together and already in the house. Ours were mostly fishfingers, jacket potatoes and pasta/sauce.

Take care, I think you know your budget and the spends you are allowing yourselves are not sustainable on one income  and I hope things are changing in the background for the better in this regard. Remember, you set a deadline for this.

satchmo1

Long, long ago, when my sons were rising teens and I worked full time plus studied part time for my degree, we would sit down together on a Saturday morning and write out a menu for the week. Then write out a jobs list for the week with each of them having at least two tasks to complete (hoover / load and unload the washing machine, etc). Then I'd drop them at the library whilst I went to the supermarket. 

foxandflowers

Hi hello, I have a cup of tea and I wanted to check in after yesterday's misbehaviour. 

I have managed my first NO SPEND DAY of 2024. 🎉🎉🎉

Actually. I'm richer than I was this morning, as I was waiting for my manager to get back to me about something at work, but I was WFH today, I decluttered my bookshelf and used Ziffit to get myself a bit of money for books I have read and didn't love, or books I had on my "to read" shelf that have been there for yonks and realistically I just won't read. I got £6.20 for decluttering 15 books, with a 15% extra code, and I have a code where if anyone else feels like clearing out their bookshelves and reaches £10, we both would get an extra £5. Feel free to message me if you want the code. So decluttering, and making money = win win. 

We did our food shop in Lidl yesterday and I paid £61.04 cash and £25.88 on my card. I have £30 left in my bank But we have food for the next week at least. And I can try and sell things in the mean time to get some more money! 14 days until I get paid. It feels forever away.

I have a question for you wise people. What is this called and how do I stop it leaking? The lower down one is plumbed into my washing machine and isn't causing problems, but the left hand higher up one is dripping constantly, hence the kids beach bucket on top of my washing machine. I'm emptying the bucket every two days, and it's preventing me from using my spare worktop to make a proper laundry station because of the constant drips! If I have to get a plumber out, I will do so when I get paid, but I would really rather not do that if it's an easy fix. (I have tried to tighten the bottom to no avail, and I have tried pushing the blue lever all the way down but it doesn't make much difference).



Thank you xx

SuzeQStan

That’s your old hot water isolation valve. New washing machines only use the cold water now so the hot water one is obsolete.

id turn off the water and cap it off permanently. Utuba vid time! 🤣

foxandflowers

@SuzeQStan Thank you! I tried that at 10pm last night and almost caused a flood! Shall have to get a proper plumber on payday as I am useless. Have made a request on the local trades group. Also just saw your signature - congratulations on being free of the mortgage!

Aiming for another NSD today, but feel like I very much need to deep clean my office space before I can think about doing anything else. There is stuff everywhere. I'm logged on at work, but I just have zero motivation for anything. Probably time to make a very strong coffee.

Can I sell used perfume on Vinted? Like I've used it a couple of times and it really isn't for me, so I don't have the box, but also I don't want to keep it? Or is that not very ethical. I just feel like I am once again drowning in stuff. 

vampirotoothus

Hi Suze is right, you should be able to get an isolator valve cap for that from your local hardware store for a couple of quid that should sort it out. It looks like a 15mm valve. For reference when the blue lever is in the same direction as the pipe that is on, when it crosses the pipe that is off. V x

SuzeQStan

foxandflowers said:

@SuzeQStan Thank you! I tried that at 10pm last night and almost caused a flood! Shall have to get a proper plumber on payday as I am useless. Have made a request on the local trades group. 

Were you able to turn off water to your property? No shame in getting trades in if you don’t feel comfy dojng it but this should be a very quick/cheap job so wld recommend getting quotes

Also just saw your signature - congratulations on being free of the mortgage!

Aw cheers Fox - gonna put the money we used to pay for mortgage DD into pensions now. 

Can I sell used perfume on Vinted? Like I've used it a couple of times and it really isn't for me, so I don't have the box, but also I don't want to keep it? Or is that not very ethical. I just feel like I am once again drowning in stuff. 

Dunno bout Vinted but you defo can with eb@y - box or no box and there is a strong contingent selling part used fragrance on there. I caught lucky with a minimally used bottle of vintage Silver Rain La prairi@ scent for which I got a tidy sum couple years back 

Hope you get sorted with the leaky valve soon 🤞🏻🤞🏻 xx

teamkathy

Hello! Just popping on to say congratulations on the new job 😊 I’m really pleased for you!! Sounds like you have got the year off to a good start and really happy that you have found a social outlet that you are enjoying with the outdoor swimming. 

To second what others have said in terms of the leaking valve, I had the same problem when I moved recently and disconnected the washing machine. The exposed pipe was dripping so I picked up some valve caps (pictured below) for very cheap from T**lstation. They worked a treat and essentially blocked off the drip! 

PurplePhoenix62

foxandflowers said:

@SuzeQStan Thank you! I tried that at 10pm last night and almost caused a flood! Shall have to get a proper plumber on payday as I am useless. Have made a request on the local trades group. Also just saw your signature - congratulations on being free of the mortgage!

Aiming for another NSD today, but feel like I very much need to deep clean my office space before I can think about doing anything else. There is stuff everywhere. I'm logged on at work, but I just have zero motivation for anything. Probably time to make a very strong coffee.

Can I sell used perfume on Vinted? Like I've used it a couple of times and it really isn't for me, so I don't have the box, but also I don't want to keep it? Or is that not very ethical. I just feel like I am once again drowning in stuff. 

I've sold used perfume on both eBay and FB Marketplace a few times