Jak's 'I will not spend any money on rubbish and I will pay off my debts' diary

beanielou

Whens the baby due then?
Well done on getting rid of so much of your debt BTW.

cat4772

jak wrote: »

By the way: re:free food, you could try nettle beer or sloe gin...
Be a nice change. God look like an alchy now...lol

I have gott ask for the recipes for these (just out of interest you know, not that i'm an alchy :whistle:)

Well done on getting rid of so much debt in 4 years and I really hope that you're debt free by your deadline of 1st Agust... I fully appreciate the sentiment behind the thrift money; even when I realised we had £80k of secured and unsecured debt, I knew we had to have some money for emergencies and some money for christmas etc but that's the beauty of budgets - you get to decide how to spread the money.

I think I have enough cash assets to get rid of the unsecured debt Wayne acquired, BUT as I've paid his debts for him before and he obviously hasn't learnt anything cos he's only gone and run up bigger debts we've decided to pay them off by budgeting and put any extra money (overtime etc) in the mortgage offset / savings account for when the mortgage fixed rate deal ends in 4 years as we'll need to either pay the SVR for two years or if we've got enough saved up, we can just pay it off:j.

Good luck, Cat.x

jak

Sloe gin- collect sloes- try and do this with someone who hasn't seen a sloe before and tell them they are delish- then watch their face as they chew a sloe---priceless.....
Put sloes in freezer for 1-2 hours- this splits the skins, or poke with needle several times per sloe. Put in gin bottle- fill with gin, add 1 spoon of sugar -I think will need to check amounts. Put in dark cupboard for several months. Usually about 2-3 months until goes purple. Drink...hic...
Nettle beer, collect stingy nettles, wash off sting with water. Put in bucket, add suger, citric acid, yeast leave for 5 days, drink. Can't remember exact amounts of stuff will have to google. Really nice tho! The nettle beer isn't very alchoholic but the sloe gin is lethal!!!!!
The baby is due i July 16th! I am so excited...So is dh. I've been washing baby clothes all day, and yesterday. I've got enough for at least 10 babies! BUT I appreciate it!
Yesterday I did end up spending money but it was all budgetted spends...
I got : 2 packs newborn nature baby nappies, 1 pack pampers newborn. Free change bag in boots also. This cost £4.49 as had £6 nature baby voucher, 75p pampers voucher. Got 544 points also so Boots paid me 95p to take the nappies away.... So chuffed. Going to do the same next month with dh's parenting club vouchers. Also got 200 points back for after birth ladies things...but need them so had to buy! Cost £3.89.
Then we got chips out of our socialising budget and sat in the sun! It was lovely.
Also bought ice lolllys and cornets. Yum yum- out of food and grocery money and some bread. Then £30 electricity!
BUT I had to have anti-D injection and blood tests yesterday so I deserved a treat. We STILL haven't been food shopping for our monthly shop yet this month...We'll have to go soon, got virtually no food. I've done a list and it should come to about £35. I'm planning on using lots of coupons tho so that should bring the price down substantially. We already have staples like potatoes and TONS of pasta, toilet roll etc in so that'll keep the price down too.
Problem is, I LOVE ASDA! I really do...I could quite happily spend a fortune in there. I get all the stuff I can, cheaper else where- usually Aldi. But ASDA is my true love.... I am SO SAD!
Oh well, off to the shops now as I've got to get some more antenatal vitamins. Get the Wilko ones for £2.99 and they're great!
Be back later with an update on spends....
J
X
ps. Thanks for all the support...really appreciate it
X

jak

Nettle beer- ps. I've never done it with toast!!!Just leave that out!!!



Ingredients

900grams (2lb) young nettle tops
3.8lts (1 gallon) of water
230 grams (8oz) of sugar, brown or demarrara sugar works best.
7.5 grams (0.25oz) of fresh yeast
small piece of toast
7.5 grams (0.25oz) of ground ginger
Method


Boil the nettle tops in the water for half an hour (you will need a very large pan for this or preferably a cauldron).
Keeping the mixture, strain and add sugar, stirring to dissolve. I mentioned keeping the mixture as the first time I did this I strained it and poured the liquid down the sink, so had to go out and pick more nettles. Also stir in the ginger. Pour mixture into a sterile container, ask at most home brew shops for details, if you don't have a home brew shop near you then a big branch of Boots should offer a Brewers bucket.
Spread the yeast onto the toast and float on the surface of the nettle liquid. Cover and leave for about 3 days at room temperature, do not allow the temperature to fluctuate too much as this will ruin the fermentation process.
Strain again and put into clean, strong screw top beer bottles, or sealable wine bottles (I used plastic bottles and it still worked). This can be drunk after about 2 days. Still not sure how alcoholic this beer is I have never drank more than one pint in a go, it does taste like it should be though

jak

Sloe gin- yum yum

The Sloe, or Blackthorn, is a wild ancestor of the plum. The bushes grow in hedgerows all over the country, bearing blue-black, marble-sized fruits which develop a light blue, powdery bloom in dry conditions. It's often said that you should pick them after the first frost, but in my experience (in S.E. England) early September is the best time; later in the year you'll be lucky to find any left, and the all-important sharpness which makes this drink special will have diminished (if you bite into a raw sloe you'll appreciate why they don't tend to be eaten by humans). Incidentally, don't be put off if you dislike the taste of gin, because it's completely transformed in this drink.
Pick 1¾ lbs (800g) to infuse with 1 bottle (700ml) of gin to make 1 litre of liqueur. Depending on their size, this equates to 350-550 sloes, but I always take a small spring-balance with me to check the weight. Another useful accessory is a long pole with a hook at the end to pull down the higher branches. Watch out for the long, very sharp spikes which are the plant's first line of defence!


Buy the strongest gin you can, at least 40% abv, preferably a bit more ("export strength"). You'll also need 10oz (280g) granulated sugar and 2 clean, dry 700ml bottles with screw tops (e.g. old gin bottles). There's probably no need to wash the sloes, but if you do then make sure you dry them thoroughly. The secret of making this, as with any liqueur, is to keep the the alcohol content as high as you can - weak gin and/or wet sloes are bad news.
Put 5oz (140g) sugar into each of the empty bottles then divide the gin equally between them. A plastic funnel and kitchen scales ease these tasks. Then you are ready to process the sloes, which means piercing the skin of each one as it goes into the bottle, so that the gin can get in and the juice out. For this rather lengthy job, sit down with a skewer and some good company or background music. You'll soon fall into an easy rhythm of picking up 2 sloes, stabbing them with the skewer, and dropping one into each bottle. Stop when the level of the displaced gin has nearly reached the top of the bottles, then screw on the caps.


Now all you have to do is keep the bottles in a dark place, agitating and up-ending them daily; the sugar will slowly dissolve as the gin starts to leach the colour out of the fruit skins. Once the sugar has vanished just give them an occasional shake during the next 3 months or so. The colour will deepen through various shades of pink to a dark maroon, and the sloes will shrink to the size of raisins.
Now you're ready to decant the liqueur off the remains of the sloes. This is easy if you pour it off into a new bottle through a tea strainer held above your trusty plastic funnel.


Finally, reward yourself for your patience. Sloe Gin is especially good after a large, rich meal when it has great palate-cleansing properties! I prefer this drink young, but if you do keep it for a year or more its flavour will mellow, becoming less sprightly and more nutty/plummy, while the colour veers from ruby to tawny.

jak

Ok I have spent £10 on phone credit and £6.81 at Aldi- both budgetted spends so that's good. I also cooked dinner for my friend which was yum yum!
I checked dh online banking, and was confronted by the fact he spent loads of money in the pub over winter when he wasn't earning anything and his parents sent him money but he didn't even tell me about it. What a s***. I am so cross with him. I'm trying not to get stressed because of the baby but it's doing my head in...
Be interesting to see what he says when he gets in from work... I wait with bated breath!

jak

Just paid £230 off my credit card! Yey! Now owe less than £2000! I can't believe it! So chuffed! Just £233.35 to pay off plus whatever interest there is for this month! Thank God. I can feel a weight being lifted.... and i'm sure the baby's happier!

jak

So yesterday I had a happy day. i managed to work in the evening which was an extra shift so that's good- an extra £25! We are going to put it towards a new chest of drawers for the bedroom as we literally have no where to put our clothes!
Nearly all the bills have come out of my account this month so that's good.
I'm having a bit of a conundrum...at the end of the month when dh gets paid...do I clear my overdraft and then cancel it or reduce it to £100 buffer? Or do I pay money off my personal loan? They both have the same APR so money wise the interest is the same. I owe more on my pl but i've been in my overdraft for years and years- psychologically I don't even see it as debt- just and extention of my bank account. This is really dangerous thinnking and it's partly this kind of thought that got me into this mess to begin with... I'll have to give it some thought.
Today I must work out how much money I need to put into dh bank account to cover the cheques he's written. Go to the post office as i've got a parcel- cue great excitement!!!! And tidy the house- it needs a good clean and pot up my carrotts.
Also I need ot buy a couple of long trough pots for my veg. I need to decide where this money is coming from tho as it's not budgetted... Food and groceries perhaps???
Anyway, heres to a lovely DFW day!
J

X

Keeping_Positive

I would put it against the loan. There is a risk the o/d could be run up again if reduced.

beanielou

Reduce OD to £100 buffer.