Teetering on the brink

EatingBeans

Still no more sales, but equally no more takeaways either. 👍

List 5 things a day ✅

A couple more surveys completed too.

Feeling a bit more on track today despite being back at work, super tired and in between everything else, giving dd2 a crash course on how to do a literature review, conduct primary research and write up a research report. Thankfully she has gone from complete deer in the headlights stage, to just a confused traveller in a foreign city when they don’t speak the language kind of stage. Now she’s the one asking lots of questions (using me as translator), coming up with new sections all by herself and has started thinking about questions for her questionnaire. I am very impressed. I didn’t do what she is doing until I was working on my dissertation at university. How they expected a 16yr old to just learn all this stuff by themselves I have no idea. I get the impression everyone else is just doing an essay but her assessor approving her idea specified she must do primary reach not just an essay. No-one considered that people aren’t born with the knowledge of how to do primary research! 🤦‍♀️

ellen_vannin

Good programme currently on Channel 4 batch from scratch.
Covering meal prep , nutrition and budgeting.

SuzeQStan

Hey EB - thinking about sluggish sales - there’s probably a lot of folk skint & waiting on payday next week. Maybe have your girls look at your listings with a critical eye - maybe photos/ keywords could use a re-fluff? Am sure it will pick up soon.  

satchmo1

I have a 2 week meal plan which forms the basis of the shopping list. Having a plan might help avoid the takeaways

We batch cook mince,  chicken and chickpea curry and tomato & lentil soup. The mince can be transformed into chilli con carne, lasagne, spaghetti bolognese or fajitas. Fish in various formats fills any gaps. 

I was going to suggest that you ask if you can sell your daughter's muffins at work's next few network days to raise funds for the DofE costs/fundraising target. 

EatingBeans

Ah hah, so I woke up to a few offers on Vinted and they were even reasonable prices I, so I call that progress! I accepted the offer but it didn’t convert to sales so I am a bit confused about how Vinted works but it has at least made me want to keep listing. 

Food wise, I am totally with you all when it comes to meal planning, I know it really helps me. I usually batch cook ahead of time too when I’m feeling up to it so that when I’m not so great I don’t have to cook. The problem is I currently have a ram packed freezer so little room to store anything and I am still crazy tired so cooking is a real challenge. I have at least just accepted it this week and had shopping delivered yesterday with lots of very low cooking requirements attached. I slowly need to incorporate the random freezer stuff into meals to make space. Somehow I have managed to end up with 6 bags of peas, several half opened?! I know I was ill for months but really, did every week I think I had ran out of peas? 🤦‍♀️

Selling dd2 muffins is an awesome idea I had not considered @satchmo1   Sadly selling them at work isn’t really an option as people regularly bring in mountains of homemade baked goods and just give it away for free. Asking for any money at all would be very frowned upon. Basically it is a big office filled with very well off people and it’s bad enough that I am clearly of a different social class - I try not to make it more obvious. For example, I was the only person I spoke to who was not flying to some far flung destination over Christmas and people looked at me odd when I said I wasn’t. The assumption was, oh, where are you going for Easter then? Nowhere. Your birthday, that must be big then? Oh, still not going abroad. Summer then? You MUST be doing a couple of trips during summer? Still nope… You get the idea. It’s difficult to fit in. These people don’t even notice the insane prices of lunch on site. 

That said, I might put the idea past the two dd’s and see if they could come up with somewhere else to sell them. You never know.

EatingBeans

I sold something on Vinted! It’s only gone for £2.10 but that’s really all that item is worth imo. In fact, you couldn’t even pay me £20 to wear it so I am totally fine with having £2.10 in my account instead. 😆 Everyone’s different though right? Maybe it will be just want they are looking for? 🤷‍♀️

Take_a_hike_Elon_and_Jeff

EatingBeans said:

Ah hah, so I woke up to a few offers on Vinted and they were even reasonable prices I, so I call that progress! I accepted the offer but it didn’t convert to sales so I am a bit confused about how Vinted works but it has at least made me want to keep listing. 

Food wise, I am totally with you all when it comes to meal planning, I know it really helps me. I usually batch cook ahead of time too when I’m feeling up to it so that when I’m not so great I don’t have to cook. The problem is I currently have a ram packed freezer so little room to store anything and I am still crazy tired so cooking is a real challenge. I have at least just accepted it this week and had shopping delivered yesterday with lots of very low cooking requirements attached. I slowly need to incorporate the random freezer stuff into meals to make space. Somehow I have managed to end up with 6 bags of peas, several half opened?! I know I was ill for months but really, did every week I think I had ran out of peas? 🤦‍♀️

Selling dd2 muffins is an awesome idea I had not considered @satchmo1   Sadly selling them at work isn’t really an option as people regularly bring in mountains of homemade baked goods and just give it away for free. Asking for any money at all would be very frowned upon. Basically it is a big office filled with very well off people and it’s bad enough that I am clearly of a different social class - I try not to make it more obvious. For example, I was the only person I spoke to who was not flying to some far flung destination over Christmas and people looked at me odd when I said I wasn’t. The assumption was, oh, where are you going for Easter then? Nowhere. Your birthday, that must be big then? Oh, still not going abroad. Summer then? You MUST be doing a couple of trips during summer? Still nope… You get the idea. It’s difficult to fit in. These people don’t even notice the insane prices of lunch on site. 

That said, I might put the idea past the two dd’s and see if they could come up with somewhere else to sell them. You never know.

I'd question whether all of your colleagues are actually well off, quite often the image projected is not what all it seems. A lot of people on high salaries suffer from lifestyle creep as their salaries have gone up so have their mortgages, car finance etc more expensive holidays etc . Maxed out on credit cards. A lot of people live pay check to pay check even on big salaries, no emergency fund and if they were to lose their job then they'd be up sh*t creek!!!  I think you are doing absolutely great. I'm a single person with no dependents and I have absolute respect for people like yourself taking control with dependents, it's challenging enough for oneself but immensely challenging when there are dependents to consider.
This forum has educated me immensely following people on their debt free journeys in addition to  watching videos on ***Tube (obviously one has to filter out the rubbish)
It's a long journey and I'm not there yet, but 4 months in from my LBM it's getting so much better and my mental health is so much better. I changed the name of my monthly budget spreadsheet to monthly financial wellbeing. We are all different but sometimes the word budget can be a psychological block, like the word diet because it means restricting one's self and likely to fail. In my monthly financial wellbeing spreadsheet I have created a fund for fun money which is a set amount and I load it onto a separate card and I can spend it on whatever I like guilt free but when it's spent that's it!!!
Once again thanks for sharing your diary and give yourself a big pat on the back you are nailing this!

stymied

Do you have a garage or shed with power and space for a second freezer? I don't know how we'd cope without our second freezer for special offer shopping and batch cooking!

EatingBeans

Thanks @Take_a_hike_Elon_and_Jeff I really like the idea of renaming my budget spreadsheet to be something more positive sounding. I think a recognition that this is where I am choosing to spend my money would help feel more in control and reduce the anxiety. Good idea!

As for the second freeze idea @stymied oh how I would love to have that! Sadly not possible to run power to the shed just because of the way we have an access route running through our garden, and there is no room in the house either. In fact, when the previous owner fitted the current kitchen he didn’t even leave space for a freezer at all! He put a built-in fridge in, but apparently he didn’t consider a freezer as necessary!🤔 So as it is, our one and only freezer is current sat next to our sofa in the living room! 😱
Did I mention that I can’t wait to move house?! 🤣

dawnybabes

Ooh your own ice cream freezer in the living room, just need the popcorn machine in the other corner 🤣🤣🤣