Becoming debt neutral - a long haul!!

leftatthetrafficlights

So, I've decided against purchasing a pressure canner for now - it's getting close to the end of the main growing period and I'd like to do a bit more research first - plus I need to work out storage for the produce before I start canning stuff as my space is a lot more limited than it used to be! 🙄 I've decided that I will put the purchase off until the spring and use my 'round up' pot that my bank does to fund it - that way, it's money that I don't have to find and seems less of an imposition on on my finances! 😉

Yesterday I made a curry from leftover beans (black and cannellini) and roasted carrots, some runner beans and kale from the garden, half a carton of passata that my dd donated as she's going away and a couple of spoonfuls of curry paste from the opened jar in the fridge. Served it with naan bread from the freezer and some chutney - it was really nice and we'll be eating it again tonight as there's plenty of leftovers! I am going to try to make as many meals as possible from things we already have in - so far I'm managing to stretch the August grocery budget further than expected - payday is not the same every month so I'm trying to do a start date of the 1st to simplify things! I'm fairly confident that I can achieve that now as long as I can keep dh away from the shops! 😂

Yesterday was a much more spendy day than expected (all from my persie spending money though) as I was looking after my grandbaby and he wanted to go out - all my suggestions of free activities fell on deaf ears so we ended up at a soft play and I bought lunch - the soft play was actually very reasonably priced but my food was horrendous so that was a complete waste of money! 🤦‍♀️ My grandbaby really enjoyed himself though so I can take the hit! 😉😂

Today was the penultimate £200 payment to me from a family member I loaned money to so I have added that to my DNF - the next decent payment will be at the beginning of September then it's back to the odd cashback etc .

I love adding to the fund and sometimes find it tricky to remember that every penny I'm not spending or wasting and every action I take to reduce the need to spend is just as valuable - I need to remember that on the days it's just ticking over! 😉

Today I'm going to sort, organise and inventory my tins/jars/packets cupboard - I've still got to do the freezer inventory but I'm going to do that on Monday when it's easier to access my chest freezer. I know that I'm going to find things in the cupboard that I have probably got far too many of due to it being so disorganised that I’ve no idea what's in there already - once my full inventory is done, I will make sure that I keep an updated list!

Anyway, time to make a chamomile tea and sort the moggies!

DNF: £827.81/£1000

leftatthetrafficlights

Didn't get round to sorting the cupboard so will have to do that at the weekend!

I was gifted some figs from my dd along with the passata so I'm going to have those tonight - I'll pop a bit of vegan greek style cheese into them and roast them (I may drizzle with a bit of maple syrup towards the end of the roasting time) and serve with new potatoes from the garden, salad and the mushroom tofu with cashew cream. I'm looking forward to it! 😋

We're hoping to be able to harvest the elderberries this weekend so I may need to buy sugar to make the cordial but I've still got £12.50 of August's grocery budget left so staying on track with that! 🙌

Today will be mainly cleaning - two of my grandbabies are here this weekend so I need to make it as fur free as possible - I am hoping that within the next 2 months, the moggies will be back with their owner and then my house can go back to normal - they destroyed another blind last night so these expenses are just piling up! 🙄🤦‍♀️

I did clean the washing line yesterday so that's back in action now - it won't be used until the weekend as today's laundry is sheets and towels and I always put those in the td.

Ds has just paid me back £100 that he borrowed last week so I'm putting it straight into the DNF - I'd sent it to him from the bill account surplus so it makes sense!

It's definitely a good month for the DNF but I know that it's mainly down to moving the surplus from the bill account - it's still nice though to be a few days away from doing my first 1k! 🙌😁

DNF: £927.81/£1000

leftatthetrafficlights

We didn't get round to harvesting the elderberries at the weekend but we did empty, clean, inventory and organise both of the freezers and the tins/jars/pkts etc cupboard! 🙌 Now that I have completed the full food inventory I should be able to really reduce the grocery spends over the next few months. I'm starting this month with the full budget so it will be much easier to monitor 😁

I made soya milk and tofu yesterday so have lots of okara that I need to turn into 'meatballs' and possibly burgers - we have loads of sausages of various types in the freezer which I wasn't aware of until yesterday so I'll avoid making any of those! 😂

Dh actually liked the soya milk I made yesterday so that's a real bonus - we have been buying oat milk for him (organic and just oats and water) which is stupidly expensive - he doesn't have a lot of it but now I've perfected the soya milk, it will save a bit of money.

No use out of the washing line yet as it rained most of the weekend but I'm hoping to get the next load on there!

I need to re-look at the general budget sheet this week - I used to have individual 'pots' for categories but when I was offered a boosted savings account, I moved all of them into it. That wasn't an issue at first as I kept a detailed spreadsheet but with everything hitting the fan this year, I haven't updated it! Basically, I have no idea of what should be in any of the pots as I have put the money in but don't know what has come out 🤦‍♀️ I could spend hours trawling through my accounts, emails etc but frankly, I just don't want to! I think my best option is to decide on a figure I want the various pots to be at (based mainly on where they were at the beginning of my year) and then start to use the spreadsheet again with those figures.

On the plus side - interest from various accounts and some cashback rewards landed today - £160.60 - so I'm past my first 1k and into the next!! 🙌 So many more to go but I'm happy to have made such a positive start 😁

DNF chunk 2 - £88.41/£1000

leftatthetrafficlights

This morning I have pulled up the old spreadsheet, looked at my overall balance and decided on how much belongs where!

🙌 The balance is split into 4 main funds - savings, pots (there are 7 of those), a house fund (to replace the things the cats have destroyed) and the DNF.

The pots are:

Heating oil & household fuel; Car expenses; House insurance; Solstice and birthdays; Creature food and household; Bulk buy and Slush fund.

I have allocated a 'starting' amount to all the funds and will monitor them from now on. I've been able to allocate a bit more to the DNF fund too which makes me happy! 😁

I've set up my new spreadsheet now and will update it as required - I've also got a 'surplus' column so that I can move pennies across when they become available!

Today I have my grandbaby so I won't get much done but to be honest, I had a really busy day yesterday so I'm looking forward to just kicking back with him and seeing where the day takes me 😉

DNF chunk 2: £988.41/£1000

leftatthetrafficlights

Yesterday was a bit spendy - I went into the city for a few bits and ended up taking dh out for an impromptu lunch! I don't mind though, it's out of my personal spends so doesn't impact my budgets 😉 I don't have anything to add to the DNF today but I was really pleased with myself yesterday - I knew what I needed to buy and that's all I bought; I resisted the temptation to buy anything else which is good as I found a few things that I liked! 😁

Today I am making okara balls - very money saving as the okara is the 'waste' product from making soya milk and I used to discard it - now I make balls, burgers and sausages from it; I also add it to a variety of other things (gardeners pie, bolognese, chilli etc) to bulk them out a bit 😋

I have a load of laundry to do today but it's hurling it down outside🤦‍♀️ Looks like it's going to be the tumble dryer instead today as I can't put it off - oh well, hopefully the laundry at the weekend can go out 🤞

I'm waiting to hear back from my bank regarding two fraudulent transactions on my card (within minutes of each other) - I'm slightly concerned as apparently it was via Google pay which needs biometrics or a one time pass code - I've never used Google pay, never done biometrics and had my phone with me constantly 🤔 I'm just hoping they refund the cash - if not, I'll have to top up the account from the DNF, close my account with them and find another savings provider with reasonable interest rates which I could really do without! 🙄 I just want it sorted! 🤦‍♀️

leftatthetrafficlights

Bank issues sorted! 🙌

leftatthetrafficlights

My bank balance yesterday was rectified after the fraudulent transactions so I've updated everything, done a sweep (£66.77) from it and also have transferred 66p in rewards 😁

£13.33 was spent on groceries while I was in the city - hair conditioner x6, lemon juice x2 and a tin of tomatoes. That brings my September grocery challenge at £20/£350 which I'm pleased about - it's all storecupboard stuff but I can only get them while I'm in the city so had to take advantage!

The okara balls taste lovely but I couldn't be bothered to add oat flour or gram flour so they are quite mushy in texture - I'm either going to make mince from it, add oat/gram flour to it or if that's not successful, it makes a great sandwich filler! Nothing lost there 😁 I also made a roasted tomato and basil soup yesterday - it's absolutely beautiful; even dh who doesn't like tomato soup is raving about it! I've got some sprouted wheat in the cupboard so I'm going to mill that and make some bread to go with it - I've never made it before but if it's successful, I'll put more wheat on to sprout. I'm slightly intolerant to wheat (white bread is the main culprit) so I'm hoping that I won't react to sprouted wheat 🤔 I've got kilos of wheat grain so my fingers are firmly crossed! 🤞

£67.43 to DNF today

Eta: That takes me past the second 1k! 🙌 I'm very happy with that - the best month is over now though and I won't be making such swift progress again but I'm taking the win! 😁

DNF chunk 3: £55.84

leftatthetrafficlights

Bit of a result yesterday - it occurred to me that at the beginning of the year I used topcashback to sort my car insurance and breakdown cover and hadn't gone back to the site since, so I went on to have a mooch - £52 sitting there!! I lose £5 of it for the annual fee but £47 was available to cash out! 🙌 I have requested it now and will add it to the DNF once it's available - I'm really pleased with that - definitely a bonus 😁🥳

Shopping was done on Saturday and came to £25.67 - strawberries x2, black grapes x2, raspberries, blueberries, toothbrushes, bottled water (needed the bottles to freeze the elderberry cordial I made), sugar x3 (for the cordial, damson jelly and damson chutney), bread, watermelon and oranges.

I've got a rough idea of food this week - we had casserole yesterday and the leftovers will be eaten today, tomorrow will be butter beans, mixed grains and salad, Wednesday will be chipotle barbacoa tempeh with refried beans in quinoa wraps, Thursday will be an amalgamation of leftovers from Tuesday and Wednesday. After that, who knows!! 🤷‍♀️😂 We won't need any additional shopping though whatever it is 😉

I got the bedding washed yesterday along with the other laundry (I need to do towels today) so I'm going to try very hard this week to time the laundry so I can use the washing line - so far, it's not been successful but I've been disorganised so it's no surprise 🙄

It's important for me to do things to save money (and acknowledge them) when I can't add money to the DNF; building the balance can only be achieved if I don't waste the money I have on unnecessary expenses and being actively mindful about that helps keep me motivated 😉

It's hard in the middle of the month when next to nothing can be added to the fund - especially as this is a long term thing - but things like processing excess homegrown produce for future use, using up and/or repurposing leftovers, using washing up water to clean out the litter tray, growing broccoli sprouts indoors for salad, turning off lights and appliances, making laundry liquid from horse chestnuts and ivy, hanging out laundry, only putting the dishwasher on when its full etc all these small day to day things reduce my daily expenditure and ends up with more going into the fund eventually!

Anyway, that's my little pep talk to myself! I received 52p in 'rewards' today so transferred straight to the DNF.

It's progress - it's tiny, but everything added is a step closer to where I want to be so I'll celebrate it anyway!! 😂

DNF chunk 3 - £56.36/£1000

leftatthetrafficlights

The £47 has landed so I've transferred it over! 🙌

DNF chunk 3 - £103.36/£1000

KajiKita

That’s the first 10% milestone achieved 😊👏

KK