2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

Janey51

carrottopsuk don't mind at all. We had a house that was a buy-to-let so we sold that and paid off a big chunk to RBOS who were our main creditor. We didn't have any choice in the matter as they just took the money before they would release the redemption figure for the mortgage. CCCS were furious and said we should have taken them to Court as they could not provide the documentation to say this had been in our Terms&Conditions. But, we were so worn out with all the hassle, we just walked away. If I knew then what I know now, I would have fought.

Then DH managed to get a job after being on the dole and he took his pension early so we had a bit of an extra income.

And of course, with all the MSE advice, we managed to reduce our outgoings so we increased our monthly payment from £105 per month to £418. CCCS were a bit concerned that it was such a huge increase but we have managed to keep paying even after DH lost his job again. We still have some money left from the house sale which is not enough to make Full and Final acceptable offers to our remaining creditors (we tried) so CCCS told us to keep it in a high interest account and it remains untouched so that it will help in the debt repayment in the future when we have saved enough to try again with F&Fs.

mama67 yes, we usually have milk in the freezer but DH is not very ggod about telling me when he's used the last bottle and I don't always remember to check. My freezer is not very tidy:o

whitewing MIL coming to stay:eek:

poorandindenial

keren29 wrote: »

Edit: I'm going to do this one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vow-kxTPatc

They look amazing when they come out of the oven! I know naan is technically for indian food, but it's still a flatbread .

I had never thought about youtube for recipes, this was brilliant, thank you for signposting Keren - this recipe looks great, I will be on there all the time now looking for more exciting things to make.

Burlesque_Babe

I've decided to do it in the breadmaker on the dough setting and it is pounding away as I type. Her recipes look really good. I might do a few more at some point. My OH gave me a small pizza stone the Christmas before last. I've only used it once but it is good. i'll use it again tonight.

I've got loads of dried fruit to use up at the moment - prunes, dates, apricots, pineapple and apple. Asda put loads of the individual size bags in a clear big bag for £1.50 in the yellow sticker section so I grabbed one. It felt like lucky dip when I opened it to see what exactly was in it. I'll be using some of the dates and apricots in the tagine tonight.

Janey51

:j When we went to the pictures last week and I spent the vast sum of £3.20 on Maltesers and then discovered they were yuk, I sent them off to Mars.
This morning, got a voucher for £5 :j

I am going to treat me and OH to some more Maltesers (just little packets this time) and buy some more to put away for when we make my niece's Maltesers wedding cake later this year. Not 100% sure this wedding will go ahead so might have to eat them ourselves.
What a chore

bails

Morning all! :hello: What a beautiful day it is here!

Janey, that is seriously impressive, congratulations! :T I am sure that you will be able to reduce the 12 years even further. And well done on the voucher too, result! When something like that happens to me, I put the £1.80 difference into my savings.

As some of you have been mentioning, MSE has had a massive impact on my life too, monetary and otherwise. I just wish it had been around when I was with my fiance - he got hugely into debt and I simply couldn't handle it, despite trying really, really hard:(. It didn't help that I am from a family who are very good with money - I've always been the 'black sheep' despite never having been in debt . I just hope that he has found this site and is now debtfree and happy.
Thanks for the Youtube link, I'd never thought of looking there either so have saved it for another time.
Hmm, I'm meant to be cleaning our bathroom, a big job after all the decorating mess...can't quite face it but OH is beavering away cleaning downstairs bless him so I'd best go :rolleyes:
Have a wonderful Saturday everyone, catch you later x

Frugaldom

Hello all, hope everyone is having a good weekend.

Whitewing - MIL coming to stay for MONTHS and you have NEVER MET her?? :eek: We'll be here for you, don't worry. :rotfl:

Janey, you are doing so well, you must be really proud of yourself. Keep up the good work.

CA, I forgot to mantion about your egg situation as you can always get a plentiful supply. I used to have a dozen hens and quite a few quail, so I used to swap excess eggs for other stuff - I love bartering

I'm now in to my fourth no spend day. Believe it or not, DS hasn't even noticed the powdered milk that's been used to refill the milk cartons in the fridge!! And everyone seems perfectly happy at eating home made bread - I have 3 loaves worth of dough proving just now - nor do they mind the homemade cookies that have replaced Digestive Biscuits! I'm amazed! I was positive that I'd need to dash out for milk and bread. 4 no spend days... bliss!

Back soon, got to go beat up some dough. If anyone's about and has bought any 'I Can't Believe It's Not Butter' recently, please grab your receipts as I have a few prices to compare. There's something not right about supermarket pricing policies when everywhere is different! As per the following prices, ALL from Co-ops during their BOGOF offer:

£1.10
£1.15
£1.52

Exact same items, different stores.... why?

grandma247

I noticed pricing differences a long time ago ( about 10 years).
We had a mr. S in town which was in the commuter belt for London but whenever I shopped at Mr.S where my friend lived just about four miles away in a poorer area the prices were cheaper so I always incorporated a shopping trip with my visit to her. I never could understand it and just assumed that as people were better off in our town on the whole they just paid what was asked.
I think they charge what they think they can get away with.

lingojingo

nykmedia wrote: »

. If anyone's about and has bought any 'I Can't Believe It's Not Butter' recently, please grab your receipts as I have a few prices to compare. There's something not right about supermarket pricing policies when everywhere is different! As per the following prices, ALL from Co-ops during their BOGOF offer:

£1.10
£1.15
£1.52

Exact same items, different stores.... why?

Got some this morning, £1.15 here :rolleyes:

Frugaldom

Not wanting to get into politics here, but if the rate of inflation is set against 600+ items (I haven't been able to find the actual list of items yet) but different locations charge different amounts, how the heck can the Chancellor work out the inflation rate in the first place? Is it like a London based thing? I get quite annoyed at price differences because the shops/small supermarkets in the outlying villages cost LESS to run than those in towns, so you'd think they could afford to keep their prices down a little. Commercial rates, for example, can be almost half what they are for the exact same square footage in town. But then this is coming from someone who assumed that council tax bands were the same everywhere - how stupid was I to think that? :eek:

bails

That is a really interesting point about the varying prices from the same store, I'll be keen to hear what others think.
Nyk, I forgot to say the other day, I have had two courses from the Writers Bureau - sadly I can't give you much feedback as I have done so little of them (due to illness, although perhaps I could start them again...thanks for the reminder) - what little I have done though has been good, and there is no time limit in completing the courses, which was essential for me :rotfl:If there's anything more specific you wanted to know do PM me.
Another NSD here, from this challenge point of view at least!:rolleyes: Still, we are definitely spending less - we've got £200 stashed away from our joint account, normally we're always chasing our tail with that! :j