2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

bails

redglass wrote: »

I'm totally addicted to this thread! And even though I'm not in the challenge I'm so inspired that I'm following lots of the advice and my spending has halved. :T
A few people have mentioned pets and vets. I remember my old dogs cost me a fortune - the drugs they needed for their various ailments were so expensive. It wasn't until both dogs were dead (of old age - I didn't bump them off to save money!) that I read you can ask your vet for a prescription instead of buying the drugs at the surgery - you then take the prescription to the chemist's just like you would take a doctor's prescription and it's often a lot cheaper. The vets won't like it but apparently they have to give you a prescription if you ask for one. Has anybody actually done this?
Keep up the good work!

Thanks for this, I'm definitely going to give this a go! We had a locum vet last time we went and OH asked him for the name of the drugs so we can get them ourselves and inject (we both know how to do this, not for any dodgy reason ) but I didn't know about the prescription so that's promising.
I too love all the support we are getting from people not directly involved in the challenge - it's fantastic to be encouraged on from the sidelines, and extra brilliant that others are saving money from all the great advice on here! Perhaps we can get an outfit for all our cheerleaders?

bails

mumzyof2 wrote: »

Hiya, thankyou so much, iam so proud of myself but i get upset if u will when something sets me back like today. Iam proud i have paid 2 debts off today even tho i have found myself i owe 300 more than i did when i first joined due to stupid lloyds. But today i have sorted my oh's littlewoods out and told them we will pay £35 a week (balance £350) and i have lloyds sorted now by paying them £70 a month. Iam proud iam sorting all my debts out, i want a better life..i want to go out and by all the things i would like to buy and pay for them out right. I want my children not to go with out and want them to have things they like (but not spoil them). I think anyone who is around my age (20) and is sorting there debts out should be proud..i dont think alot of people my age do sort there debts out. I want to have a morage..and get out of rented and live my life i want it. I wish i had never ever got into debt..But without the catalogue or c/c i wouldnt of been able to afford anything when my ex left me and the kids to find a new home (all in a day) i just wouldnt of survived i had no furniture so i do know how easy it was to get into debt.
omg i have talked too much over nothing really lol must of had something on me mind lol sorry

Mumzy, you should definitely be very proud of yourself for dealing with your debts so young :T Many people spend years with their heads buried in the sand (no offence intended to anyone here) and it only makes the situation far, far worse (I had a fiance like this). Congratulations on taking control now and having such determination for you and your children's future. I have the utmost respect for you x

bails

mini_huny_money wrote: »

and Ive been so good and following the no alcohol in January thread......you can tell I havent joined it, just lurking........

Mini huny, can you point me towards that thread, just ha a look but can't find it? Thanks. I do seem to have this problem quite a lot, can anyone help me with the best way to find stuff? I've only just started exploring the forums properly

bails

wmf wrote: »

Re prescriptions at vet - I'm such a wuss as I'd like to but feel a bit squirmy.
After that I'm going to bite the bullet and ask for the prescription. It'll be my feel the fear and do it anyway thing for the day :T
W

WMF, I can completely relae to what you're saying - my OH has no fear when it come sto these things but I've always been 'No, I can't! '... Well, not any more, b***er that! I'm on a no-holds-barred it-can't-hurt-to-ask mission! :rotfl:So watch this space... and join in! The worst that can happen is 'No'.

Rafiki, have to say your posts are so full of energy and positivity; I absolutely LOVE the way you've seized this challenge :T As always, thanks to everyone for continuing to inspire and support me along the way; thanks for all the great links in the last couple of days, I'm looking forward to the soapnuts results and have added the lentil and potato recipe to this month's meal plan so thankyou! xx

sweetpea03

Hi Bails If you go back out of this thread you will see "search this forum" at the top of the dfw menu, just click on it & type whatever you want to search for eg alcohol & hopefully it will come up with the thread you're after. you can search all of the mse forums in the same way if you go to the main menu page all the best

bails

Thanks Sweetpea, that's what I've been doing but I put the whole title in as I thought it was the neam of the thread. Did an advanced search too... Will have another go, I WILL learn how to use this site as well as possible!

I can't remember who had the sweet potatoes left over but my friend KPC gave me this recipe . I haven't tried it yet but she says it's delicous:

Sweet Potato and Chickpea Tagine

(SW Green - 1 syn total)

Cribbed from some celebrity chef in JS magazine and sw-ified a bit

1 large onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic peeled and crushed(or 2 teaspoons lazy garlic)
1 tablespoon grated ginger (or 1 tablespoon lazy ginger)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads soaked in 3 tablespoons water
570ml chicken bovril stock(or vecon or substitute)
800g sweet potatoes peeled and small diced (i used a 750 pack for ease - worked fine)
1 400g tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
200g fine beans, trimmed and cut into short lengths
1 teaspoon clear honey

Fry the onion in some frylight until soft. Add garlic, ginger, cumin and cinnamon and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add saffron threads and water, stock sweet potato. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes ( I left it much longer and it just made it a bit mushy - no real harm). Add the chickpeas and beans and simmer until beans are tender ( again, it doesn't hurt to leave it longer). Stir in the honey before serving and serve with rice/couscous and vlf yoghurt, sprinkled with coriander. Reheats well. Absolutely gorgeous!

MRSMCAWBER

Hi everyone.... still keeping up with you all

Just wanted to say "carlsberg" LIDL bread flour is great -im using it at the moment!

sweetpea03

moanymoany wrote: »

I use Tesco value powder and it works very well and it's cheap. I am interested in the posts where people don't cook from scratch. It must cost a fortune. The only prepared thing I buy is value frozen oven chips. This is an example of my menus for January.

January 2008 menu plan


9) Mock Goose

10) Frozen Quiche home made a week ago.

11) Frittata

12) Pizza – frozen base made the base

13) Workman’s Goose – breast of lamb

14) Frozen Quiche home made

15) Dhal Curry and bulgar wheat

16) Homity Pie – frozen pastry home made in a batch

17) Frittata

18) Bacon and Pasta Bake

19) Quiche – frozen pastry

20) Toad in the Hole

I did 2 month shopping for basics which was delivered yesterday. It cost £97.35. I will do top up shops for milk, eggs and fruit. This will cost about £50 a month. This is for 2 of us and we eat very well.

Hi moanymoany, your menu plan looks great! Did you try the hommity pie recipe that i posted for you on the mealplan thread? Just wondered what you thought of it

I am chuffed today as I made up my own recipe for sweet potato & tomato soup as I got bored trying to find one. It tastes quite nice, like rich tomato soup. If anyone [strike]dares[/strike] wants to try the recipe i'll post it

Please can you all pray for my fence panels as they are about to blow down in the gale force winds we are having here :eek: thanks!

was just about to submit my post & I saw your recipe Bails, thank you so much for typing it all out, it sounds delicious. I have everything, even the vecon, only thing I'm missing is the saffron, I wonder if it would be ok to miss that out of the recipe? Will let you know what we think of it Will try & hunt down the challenge you're looking for in a mo for you

Hi MrsMcawber, how are you doing?

whitewing

Yesterday was a very bad day emotionally. Started off okay. I get quite cross with OH as, although he supports me on the challenges etc and don't cause too many money issues, I am still the one who has to drive the family forward with long and short term goals. I've tried to go thro the budget with him and he isn't that interested.

Anyway, yesterday I decided rather than trying again to get him interested in setting up budgets, it would just be useful if he got to grips with online banking, so if at any point I end up in hospital in a coma, he can at least know enough about the household to start to ask questions. OH is younger than me, comes from a country where cash is the norm, and didn't have any long term responsibilities before he met me. Boy! Has his lifestyle changed!
So I spent three hours showing him how to read the bank statement, explaining the direct debit system etc and generally giving him a thorough understanding of day to day money life. I wish someone had done that for me years ago.The next step for him will be to read Martin's book, which arrived today.

It also looks like OH's mum will be coming to stay unexpectedly for a couple of months. It's good news as he worries about her since his dad died. I am happy that we can incorporate this into our current situation without it changing our goals or being anything other than an enhancing situation for all of us. But yesterday when we first heard before we could really think it thro, it was quite stressful to know what to do for the best.

Also yesterday I had a big complaint from a customer that I had to meet up with this morning to sort out. That preyed on my mind all day as it was to do with the business I run myself. However hard I try I find it so much more difficult to handle my own emotional feelings in a complaint situation in my own business, than when I deal with disgruntled customers in my part time job. I think it's because my own business is going to give me the money to overpay my mortgage, so if the business doesn't go well (which would be horrible anyway) then I lose out on a really important goal. Overpaying my mortgage within its fixed rate is crucial for us, if I am to be able to have OH's first -and only- biological child, and any degree of financial security.

So yesterday was worry, worry, worry and only slightly mitigated by the fact that everyone was having a rubbish day too. I even wrote a post about it and it was totally the last straw when I lost that!

Today we have sorted things out with OH's mum and that seems more hopeful. Customer is still retained and have new processes for going forward and feel quite happy about that now. Still could do with a sob of relief.

Now I've just got to work out why the amount I have in my signature is wildly over the amount of my budget spreadsheet. What is going on?

Got my free room thermometers today so I can heat the house based on the proper healthy temperature, rather than freezing everyone on a money saving mission!

Spent £1.80 on chips for tea yesterday as I was so miserable, then felt bad for doing that. Today I can laugh at myself.

Moneysaving is a real emotional thing for me and depends so much on how I feel? Does anyone else find that?

sweetpea03

bails wrote: »

Mini huny, can you point me towards that thread, just ha a look but can't find it? Thanks. I do seem to have this problem quite a lot, can anyone help me with the best way to find stuff? I've only just started exploring the forums properly

I'm not sure but it maybe its this thread

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=643807