£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

PinotGrigio41 · 7 August 2017 at 8:13PM

Just wanted to drop by and wish you all the luck in the world tackling your debt.

It is an enormous amount, but it is doable. The children are still young enough for a few cutbacks not too affect them too much.

Glad you all enjoyed your camping trip and good luck xx

Hiddenidenity · 7 August 2017 at 8:33PM

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

Wow, lots of posts and ideas to read through, thanks everyone. We had a fab long weekend camping and I'm in the midst of unpacking and sorting/cleaning everything again, but will come back with a vengeance tomorrow morning with my usual lists and plans, having read all of your posts.

One big spend while camping - lunch out for the five of us, with our friends - but literally didn't spend so much as 1p apart from that, so I'm not too despondent. Annoyingly DS1's self inflating mat has sustained a puncture on cub camp, which we can't locate, so I think we'll be replacing that this week.

Anyway, back to the grindstone for now, I'll be back here bright and early tomorrow.

Blow it up, put it in the bath with enough water to cover, it will 'bubble' where the puncture is

Glad you had a lovely time away x

warby68 · 7 August 2017 at 8:50PM

That's brilliant - no unplanned spends and a great time. That must be a boost all round :T

Our inflating mats & beds came with a puncture kit but we managed to rot ours instead !

emmie26 · 7 August 2017 at 9:03PM

Wow sounds like a good weekend!

Also just had a look at the meal planning website, very interesting I don't think I could do the whole plan but might be some good/cheap recipes.

Suffolk_lass · 7 August 2017 at 9:21PM

Hiddenidenity wrote: »

Blow it up, put it in the bath with enough water to cover, it will 'bubble' where the puncture is

Good shout HI Often a dab of glue around the valve fixes it for another year!

Treadingonplaymobil · 8 August 2017 at 8:00AM

Week 26: Day 3

Wow, days and days of not posting. It feels weird after almost six months on this journey.

Let's see, where am I with everything?

First things first, I am loving all our camping trips. I did wonder whether enthusiasm would be waning after two big trips (three for DH) and one more still to go for me, two for DH (and I still have to pack and unpack for DH's last one, as he'll be at work), but I've really loved it. Something so nice about slowing down when you're living in a tent and just the daily jobs of feeding everyone, washing up, keeping clean, pottering around, take up the whole day, and there isn't really any need for any further fancy entertainment. Weather permitting, we're camping next to my favourite beach in the world this weekend, so I'm hoping for another good weekend.

Next up - this month's budget has already received a bit of a body blow - I accidentally invoiced for £100 more than I should have, so had based my budget on that number, then realised I had invoiced incorrectly and had to backtrack! So the budget is £100 down this month before we started. Also I think I've spent cash on something, and I can't for the life of me remember what, so my cash budget is all out of whack, and I haven't accounted for that on YNAB yet because it's too depressing.

Spends - might need to spend a bit this week - I mentioned yesterday that DS1's sleeping mat is probably kaput (although have tasked DH with trying the bath trick before admitting defeat). Also need to buy more charcoal and gas canisters, but they're not wildly expensive.

In brighter spending news, we seem to have lots of food leftover from the weekend, including some snacks and treats, so I'm hoping that this week's food shop will be semi-manageable, especially with all your tips and that website suggestion, which I'm going to peruse in more depth shortly.

Earning - not going too dismally, have had a couple of work enquiries, but nothing concrete this month, and a few little orders with my smaller business. Had been intending to do a little more on it all this summer, but have really been having a totally self indulgent break, so haven't kept things going on social media etc as well as I should. DH is off today and tomorrow so I'll attempt to get ahead a little bit there so I can relax on the weekend again.

to do today
1. plan out August's work.
2. a little social media for work.
3. menu plan/my supermarket (DH will do the actual food shopping).
4. get DH to test DS1's camping mat.
5. book a surfing lesson for Friday (I have a gift voucher, so it will be free).
6. actually balance budgets, including the dire cash situation and the £100 invoicing shortfall. Have a sulk.
7. unpack and tidy the house.
8, start the laundry.
9. deal the with ironing mountain that I left behind last week when we went camping.

to do this week
1. as much work as I can squeeze in - any extra earnings will really make the difference this month!
2. trip to the camping shop for gas, possibly sleeping mat, anything else that crops up as we unpack and clean everything.
3. car service - panic about the price and wish I'd been better about saving.
4. I'm sure I'll add more to this list as I work through my bullet journal lists today.
5. Ooh, talk to DS1 about his birthday party - he seems up for taking one or two friends on a day out to a trampoline place or climbing wall, need to discuss further.

to do this month
1. Pay some extra off the MBNA card - I'd like this card gone asap. More than the £15 I managed in July would be nice.
2. Find ourselves with more than £228 in the savings account on 31st August.
3. Keep that overall spend figure down below £3,900 (baby steps!)
4. business planning and scheduling, so that I am ready to start making some immediate profit in September when DC3 starts preschool.
5. think outside the box with the food budget and keep a close eye on anywhere it might be going wrong.
6. Try not to need the child benefit money to balance August’s money, so it can go towards Septmber’s (it is paid four weekly, which is currently falling towards the back end of the month, so I have balanced the budget to work without it, and will aim to put it towards September’s income rather than August’s. We’ll see).

Treadingonplaymobil · 8 August 2017 at 8:23AM

PositiveBalance wrote: »

Hello ToPM!

Several thoughts....

1) It's interesting that you have noticed a massive increase in your food budget while the DCs are on holiday. I doubt you are the only one. I bet if you analyze your food spending you are bound to find loads of extra snacks that have snuck their way in with a 'Muuuuuuuuum, I'm STARVING' (or equivalent) as, subconsciously, the kids know what while they are in class they aren't allowed to eat, but when at home, the rules are a bit different...

2) Ever considered making your own cleaning products? You seem quite handy at making sourdough etc. which should make this a doddle. White vinegar is brilliant on stainless steel (and in combination with bicarb of soda and lemon on just about anything else) and cuts through grease like no man's business. Also, due to the 5% acetic acid content, it's good at killing bugs of all descriptions and 5L is normally less than £5 wholesale and lasts ages. I use it all the time and it's one of the best things I do in terms of :MSE: and the environment as it's totally biodegradable.

3) It's also very good as a substitute for fabric softener and absolutely encougrages any remaining soap powder to get the heck out of the fabric, which is a really good idea if you have anyone who is sensitive to this kind of thing. You can also add a few drops of lavender oil if you want it to smell like regular fabric softener, which is easy for you as you already use if for your Epsom salt baths.

4) Ever considered making your own cleansers, moisturizers etc? I have a bit of essential oil knowledge and apply it appropriately. I gave a pot of home-made cleanser to a friend who only uses the most expensive organic products imaginable and she raved about it! To be fair, you could really feel the tingle when you put it on, but there must be something going on to get Ms. Neil's Yard Remedies on board!

5) For a less organic alternative, consider BioOil. I worked with a woman in her 50s a little while ago who had literally the *best* skin I had ever seen on a woman her age (a few tiny crows feet and that was it) and she says that she applies BioOil to her face when going to bed at night a few times a week (preferably just before washing her hair in case it gets in her hair line). The rest of us - all on our 20s - all made note and bought a big bottle that same day. I would be more than happy to look like that in my 50s!

6) What do you actually use the maple syrup for? Could you substitute with honey? If not, get thee to C0STC0 as it really is good for this type of thing.

Interesting idea re homemade cleaners and skincare.

For skin, I used to do oil cleansing method, but my skin was never as good, so i'm nervous of trying something homemade again. Open to suggestions though.

Cleaning products - I dislike using diluted anti-bac (which is basically what zoflora is) all the time, so this sounds like a really good idea. Will do some more research later on today.

Treadingonplaymobil · 8 August 2017 at 10:28AM

Have just done menu plan/mysupermarket list for this week's food. Again it's not quite a full week - I'm only menu planning to get us through until Sunday, as I think we're going to stay with family for a few days on Monday. However, it does include the ingredients to batch cook a load of macaroni cheese, and a little bit of booze, for family holiday at the end of the month - I am going to try to batch cook something else and some snacks the week before we go, then we'll have made a really good contribution towards the food before we even get there, thus hopefully minimising our costs while there. It worked out really well with food cost sharing last year, so I'm hoping it will be fairly painless this time too.

All of that means that the meal plan is for seven evening meals (once the holiday food is included), plus snacks etc. We've got quite a lot leftover from the camping trips, so minimal costs for this weekend's camping treats, so this is (I hope!) a fairly realistic menu plan/cost. Fingers crossed!

breakfasts
porridge
french toast
pancakes (on Sunday, while camping, complete with leftover maple syrup)
toast and marmalade/jam

lunches
leftovers
veg and houmous
wraps with cheese
quiche with ham from freezer

evening meals
sweetcorn fritters and potato wedges (from budget food site)
sweet potato soup with brown rice and lentils (we have enough leftover sweet potatoes from camping to make a double batch of this)
panzanella (from budget food site) with leftover sticky toffee pudding to follow, for weekly family meeting, when we always have a pudding
red pepper pasta (from budget food site)
tofu mango curry
kitchari (rice and mung beans)
big batch macaroni cheese for hols

snacks
homemade flapjacks
homemade ginger cake
rice cakes
fruit

household
washing up liquid
tealights
wet wipes

Might break it down into exact items later when i have the receipt in front of me, but here's the rough category breakdown:

Total stands at c.£73 (again, hard to be sure as mysupermaket isn't great at lidl/aldi baskets)
£40 on lunch and dinner (so much more than last week. Weird)
£12 on snacks/treats/puddings (including fruit, almost all sourced from the offers in Aldi)
£4 on breakfast
£5 on baking ingredients (£4 of this is butter!)
£5 on booze (a bottle of wine to take on the family holiday, we will get a couple of beers next week, and so on. we're not big drinkers so won't need loads)
£3 on household stuff (2/3 of this is pricey ecover washing up liquid; I loathe the smell of everything else)

I have always said we're not wedded to brands, but doing this over the last few weeks has made me realise we are brand loyal in a few places:
method spray cleaner (allergic to every other brand I've tried)
ecover washing up liquid (smell)
tate and lyle golden syrup (can taste test everything else and don't like it!)
flahavans jumbo porridge oats (can't find any cheaper jumbo oats)
marigold washing up gloves (nothing else lasts as long)

So not the usual suspects like heinz beans or hp sauce, but still a few places where we could keep an eye out and stock up when there's an offer on.

I will report back later on the results when DH has been shopping!

NB, as it stands, our food spend is over budget because of DH's breakfast/lunches last week. It will be interesting to see whether there are more of these 'extra' spends which pump up the food spend, as the actual weekly shop itself is quite good so far this month. I obviously have all the individual shops noted in YNAB, but haven't noted which are main shops, which are top ups, which are us buying lunch while out and about etc, so have started doing that this month.

quintwins · 8 August 2017 at 10:58AM

I'm just catching up but you don't even need to put your airbed in the bath if you know roughly where the hole is. you just put some really soppy water on it and bubbles will come out. We did this with our hottub and our car (I'd actually never seen it done til hubby did it to his tyre, I thought he'd went abit crazy tbh lol)

Lidl do jumbo oats and you can sometimes get marigolds in discounts stores.

DawnW · 8 August 2017 at 11:02AM

Do you use butter for all baking? I ask because I used to.... but followed Delia and tried using soft margarine for some cakes etc. Some things, such as flapjacks, shortbread, many types of biscuits and crumble need butter as you can taste the difference. But honestly I don't notice the difference if I use Stork for most cakes, shortcrust pastry etc, and neither does anyone else. Worth a try?

Don't beat yourself up too much over food costs -you have to feed your family, and from your menus, you do a good job

Food prices are rising, which makes it difficult to cut costs

£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

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