Sass' 2008 DFW ramble thread

Sassamac

Hi Ali, thanks for reading and replying. My figures do look a bit of a jumble because I tend to 'ramble' on (clue is in the title LOL) with whats in my head at the time. So well done for getting to the end 'cause I realise my train of thought doesnt make easy reading for anyone else.
Thanks for the tips re Lidl's etc. It is the reduced bargains that are keeping me on track. I have just found a farm shop near me actually (well its about 12 miles) so am planning on visiting one w/e (when its not peeing down) to see what they have and how it compares. I get a 10k sack of spuds for £4 from the market which lasts about 5 weeks, though they were starting to go a it manky towards the end so I think I would struggle to make a bag last any longer uness I had lots of freezer space, which Im working on. As for the rice, its a distinctly unethnic (is that a word?!) area, though again I could head to the city and probably find something like that, which would be the same distance as Asda and Lidl, so definitley worth a try if Im in the area.

Well done on being DF. Do you mind me asking how much debt you had and how long it took you to shift it? Like you say it is an ongoing battle and I know we cant continue to live this frugally forever, and I know the struggle will continue for a long time.
As soon as we're DF we'll be MFW and we've got 23 years worth of mortgage to try and condense. Id really like to be MF by my 40th birthday so we need to knock 10 years off, as well as make up for lost ground caused by going IO.
Right Im rambling again I'll stop there.

SarahNeedle1872

Hiya Sass, I know ur not supposed too, but we always keep our spuds in the fridge, as we don't really eat them much and they always tend to go off......Don't think 10kg would fit, but you could put some in if u have the space

Sarah x

PS I love reading ur ramblings every day, even if I don't always post

Sassamac

Thank you.
I always keep my f&v in the fridge and find it lasts ages so might give it a try with the spuds too, maybe after about 4 weeks the amount left will fit. They do look bl00dy ugly sat on my beautiful kitchen dresser (which as I recall was the first thing I ever put on my CC and didnt pay in full, so technically still isn't paid for over 2 years later). Oh well, live and learn!

Sassamac

Sassamac wrote: »

Right MSE / OS missions for this w/e;
- go to 2 nearly new sales and grab some bargains - Just the one as they were at the same time
- bake bread rolls for DH's lunches - just proving the rolls, nearly ready for the oven.
- bake a traybake for the family cake fix - choc orange, done yesterday afternoon
- use up the 8 pints of reduced blue milk - rice pudding,...... - all gone, infact had to nip to Tesco just now for 8 more to last the week
- update snowball - done, no exciting changes

Made loads of progress on the things I wanted to do this w/e.
Also organised some 'free dinners'. Ive made good progress vacating space in the freezer both last night and tonight and even managed to find lunch in there today.
Spend £3 in Tesco which was unplanned but was just milk and reduced deli ham. The weather has been miserable though so otherwise stayed in and saved money.
Bad news though - DH's laptop is kaputt and its just cost us £25 to buy a cheapo (unbranded) replacement part. Mind you the laptop is 5 years old so cant complain.

Keeping_Positive

Well done on your "missions" this weekend but bad luck about the laptop.

gallygirl

Here's to warm spring days when we can all go out & spend no money rather than staying in & spending no money .

Sass I owed about 10.5k and paid it off in 13 months - yes, I know, I was in v v different situation to you. However, 10 years ago I was a single parent living hand to mouth so I know what it's like :eek: . Now I'm hammering the mortgage (well, tapping it lightly, last year when I paid debts off I had better circs with more spare cash. now DS & DD at uni so costs a fortune :eek: ). Old habits die hard and I get great pleasure in updating spreadsheets showing £1.27 paid off or whatever . You'll get there soon.

Did your Tesco vouchers turn up? If so please say you haven't used them!!!! I've just sold some for just under double face value on ebay - def. better than giving them back to Mr T :rotfl: .

Have you room for another freezer? If so, have you thought about asking for one on freecycle?

lauradora

well done sass. As for the shopping out of all the stores I would recommend Ada, cheaper than aldi etc... and you can get a full shop also I find its the best store for yellow labels x

Sassamac

Thanks Laura, will try Asda first when I do my experimenting. I think its the most familiar of them all anyway as I have bought clothes and nappies etc. in there before, and found them to be good quality, just never food.

Wow Ali, well done on debt busting so quickly. Oddly enough 10.5k was my debt at its highest point. 13 months is impressive, Im actually hoping I can do it in double that. 26 months came up on the snowball when I doubled the snowball amount.

Sassamac

Im getting really frustrated. I am constantly (like every other day) having to transfer money from the savings account to the current acc to cover the bills and spends, then as soon as payday comes, I replace everything that was borrowed, which leaves very little to live on, and so the cycle begins again.
We seem to be all out of synch since the week DH lost the last job and only did a 25 hour week, but he did 53.5 hours the following week which should have compensated (all bar 1.5 hours) so Im not sure why we're so behind.
Just getting rather fed up with being within touching distance of the OD limit. I think we need a 5 Friday month to get us straight, but the next one isn't til May.

I really wanted to start swimming this week, but there just isnt the spare cash to do it. Theres only 3 weeks til school hols when I wont be able to go because the creche will be closed and the timetable changes, and theres bank holidays and inset days and allsorts between then scuppering my plans.

Talking of which, DH has Good Friday and Easter Monday off, so this week and next week will only be 4 day weeks. He hasn't accrued enough holiday pay from this agency to cover it, though thinking about it, he is owed about 50 hours holiday from the old agency and he was earning more per hour then so thats about £450 gross hes owed. Must get him to chase that up as thats well over a weeks pay and could put a serious dent in the OD right now.

Whinge over!

Keeping_Positive

Hi

Whinge away thats why we started these diaries isnt it? To track the ups and downs. You still doing really well especially given the knockbacks such as DH losing his job.

Hope tommorow goes better for you. Today started badly for me but has ended on an unexpected high.