Trying to Save

As the title says, I went Christmas shopping with my mum yesterday. Actually, it ended up being her doing all of the shopping because I only went fpr a couple of things. I came home feeling disheartened because I felt like my mum was spending way more on the kids than we have. I think she has. Practically everything she bought was for my kids. I shouldn't complain but I felt like I should have been buying the same. When I got home DH reminded me that we've already spent a lot of our money on the kids.

I was tempted to buy SG a dolls house for her xmas because she really enjoyed playing with one last week. After discussing it with DH we decided that it can wait till March for her birthday.

I thought I was being organised, decluttering etc in the run up to Christmas. DH doesn't think the flat will be decluttered by then. All of the clutter won't be gone but there will be less than there is now. I didn't do anything yesterday because I was out with my mum so I feel as though I've fallen behind today.

Well more money went out today than should have. We got pizza for dinner. My idea. There will be no more treats for the rest of this pay period. There;s plenty leftover to have for lunch tomorrow.

Sent hubby to Aldi with a list for our shopping. £71 later

While he was at Aldi I ordered enough formula and nappies (hopefully) for the next four weeks. That was another £71, maybe 72. This was all things that we needed. I got another pound delivery slot so that's being delivered on Wednesday.

I'm making a roast for dinner tomorrow. I'm expecting to get three meals out of the huge chicken that DH bought.

Today was payday. There's not much to report. I paid some bills. We went to the local shop and bought some groceries and formula, that was 19.xx. I'm waiting on my credit cards updating so I can make a payment.

I've still got some presents to buy for Christmas. They're in shops that don't take my vouchers. The plan is to not go crazy. Next year I think I'll have some cash savings for Christmas.

I was really tired and wanted to order a takeaway. But I didn't.

Today was a NSD. I haven't had one in a while.

Yesterday I posted MIL's birthday card. It was a homemade one from SG, which hubby helped her to make. We also included copies of professional pics of the kids - J's newborn photo shoot. These have been sitting gathering dust for months and technically aren't really a present since she was meant to get them ages ago. Hubby still isn't talking to her. I missed the last post so the card will be late, but hubby's was late from her. I wanted to make it at the start of the week but it was SG that needed persuading. In the end we gave her the new crayons and pencils that were meant for Christmas to use.

http://www.flylady.net/d/flyladys-kitchen/thanksgiving/thanksgiving-menu-mailer-part-1/

Turkey Talk:

Menu and Grocery Lists:

http://www.flylady.net/d/flyladys-kitchen/thanksgiving/thanksgiving-menu-mailer-part-2/

Gravy Train:

http://www.flylady.net/d/flyladys-kitchen/thanksgiving/thanksgiving-menu-mailer-part-3/

Recipe Roundup:

http://www.flylady.net/d/flyladys-kitchen/thanksgiving/thanksgiving-menu-mailer-part-4/

Thanksgiving Timeline:

http://www.flylady.net/d/flyladys-kitchen/thanksgiving/thanksgiving-menu-mailer-part-5/

I've been subscribing to FLYLady to try to get the flat organised. I get emails everyday. This one was about Thanksgiving. I've tried to copy it in case it will be of help to someone.

Here it is (hopefully):

Six Tips for Stress-Free Cooking


Do you need help with Thanksgiving Dinner? Is this your first year to prepare Thanksgiving Dinner. We can help you put this meal together and be stress-free. Leanne and I have a cute video for you. Get your Free Thanksgiving Menu Mailer by going to Leanne's Website.

Thanksgiving Tips with Leanne Ely and Marla Cilley

Spend a few minutes and get Leanne's Thanksgiving Menu Mailer.

I have used her Thanksgiving Menu Mailer since 2002! She helps me get rid of the stress. Print it out and place it in your Holiday Control Journal. I keep mine in a red office in a bag.

FlyLady

Dear Friends,

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holiday meals to prepare. We always have a pot luck meal and this saves me from trying to kill myself. I will do the turkey and the ham, mashed potatoes, corn and rolls. The rest of the family will bring their favorite things to cook; angel eggs, broccoli salad, cranberry salad, stuffing and gravy. Oh and I almost forgot the desserts. They are in my freezer right now. We will have enough food for an army and everyone will go home with the leftovers. I have a secret. When we put all the food up, we bag it into Ziplock bags and everyone takes them with them so I don't have all those leftovers go to waste in our refrigerator.

If you have never cooked a big holiday dinner then we are here to help you. Leanne has put together a Menu Mailer that is up on our website. If you don't won't turkey then substitute ham. It has the grocery list and the timeline. All you have to do is read over it WELL, before you go to the grocery store. All the information is there for you in the timeline if you will not panic. So go print out the 5 parts of her Menu Mailer. You will be the hostess with the mostest! Here are all the link in case you have issues with this email and its links.

Part 1 Menu and Grocery List
Part 2 Turkey Talk
Part 3 Gravy Train
Part 4 Recipe Round Up
Part 5 Thanksgiving Timeline

Angel Eggs This is my way of doing eggs. Test a few first.

Leanne and I joke that I help you get the kitchen clean and she helps you put dinner on the table. There are a few little tips I want to toss out to you before you start cooking your head off.

1. Put hot soapy water in your shiny sink before you start to prepare anything. Get out clean dish cloths and towels.

2. Make sure the dishwasher is empty before you start. Hand wash as much as you can and run the dishwasher and empty it before you sit down to eat. This way you will have an empty dishwasher to put the dinner dishes in. Oh and you can run the good china in the dishwasher if you don't put any dishwasher detergent in it. You can wash your good silver in there too. Just not the hollow handle knives.

3. Now this is a hard one for us, since we love to pretend to multi-task. The truth is we don't really do it well. You know what happens in your kitchen when you try to do several things at once. Your kitchen looks like a bomb went off in it. Only prepare ONE recipe at a time and when you have put it together; CLEAN UP AFTER YOURSELF.

This means getting things ready to cook not necessary putting them on the stove or in the oven. You can do things a head of time and put them in the refrigerator to wait till its scheduled time to pop in the oven or put on the stove. Leanne's timeline will help you a lot. I actually make appointments for my oven.

4. And this is the most important tip. Put on good supportive shoes with laces. Don't try to stand up all day and cook in cutesy shoes. Your legs deserve better than this.

5. After you put together each recipe and you have cleaned up after yourself! I want you to sit down at your table, drink a cup of tea and check things off your list. This is not a request; this is an order to help keep you from looking frazzled for your guests. You need to take breaks and drink your water!

6. Set your table the day before and cover it with a clean sheet, if you have a cat. This way you can have fun with the pretty things.

You can have fun preparing a holiday dinner; if you will just pace yourself and take breaks. It is really just a piece of cake if you will take those babysteps.

Are you ready to FLY through a stress free holiday?

FlyLady


Links to follow because they didn't work.

I went shopping today, spent 6.83 at Aldi on fruit, bread and some meat. It was freezing. I had my warm jacket on but I was cold waiting on the bus. Hat, scarf and gloves next time I think.

I sorted out some of J's clothes today that we were given. It didn't take too long and now there's more space in SG's room. I also tried some of the clothes on him while I was doing it. It's so nice to have a willing model; SG is a different story.

I paid 30 to the new credit card yesterday. It will take a few days to update though.

I'm starting to think about next year's goals.

Today, as usual, I devoted 10-15mins sorting through paperwork. I noticed a large gift bag in the kitchen that was full that hubby had left there (it was on top of SG's wardrobe). My new wrapping paper and tags arrived today too so they were waiting to be dealt with too. Well, I decided to sort through the bag. I thought I'd find old wrapping paper, cards etc.I found a couple of pieces and old cards that I recycled, but it was mostly bank statements and unopened mail. It's all been sorted through now and my new wrapping paper is sitting proudly in the bag now waiting to be used.

Next on the list: shredding, and wrapping presents.

Our electric company sent us 12.00 to top up electricity today. It couldn't have came at a better time (week before payday) I've been to the post office and cashed it already.

I made sausage casserole in the slow cooker today. It's all gone now, and so are almost all of our dishes (the slow cooker is still waiting but will be done tomorrow)

I'm using a ham hough for the first time in lentil soup tomorrow. So I guess it's really lentil and ham soup. I had to search for a recipe because I've never used it before; I only bought it because it was so cheap. Actually, it was hubby who bought it because he couldn't find a pork shoulder joint.

On Saturday I'm making a tortilla bake. I would normally only make one using the Old El Paso kits - a box with tortillas, sauce and seasoning, you just need to add mince, peppers and cheese I think - but I ordered a lot of tortillas from Approved Foods and they're sitting in my freezer waiting to be used.

I watched a Christmas cooking show on the Food Network. They made a mixed berry cheesecake and it looked amazing. I've decided to make that for Boxing Day.

Tomorrow after work I've asked hubby to buy a new pack of blank cards and envelopes. We agreed that SG will make a card for MIL even though they still aren't talking. I'll also include a few professional pics from J's newborn shoot that have been sitting here for months. We were supposed to give them to her ages ago but they fell out. I want the card made this weekend so I can send it second class on Monday.

I've been thinking about my goals for this year. One of them was to get CC1's minimum payment to 25. Well that's the minimum payment for my new card. Does that count? I don't feel as though I've earned the right to cross that goal off my list because all I did was do a balance transfer.

I'm exhausted after officially starting my Christmas shopping today (using my vouchers) It felt like we spent all day shopping but it was really only three long hours. I need to get hubby's gift still, something else for my mum, J's stocking and my two cousins but apart from that I'm basically done. I also need to get a birthday present for my cousin. I'm going to check the box of stuff I won from the charity though and see if I can use anything.

I spent roughly 170.00 and I was 2.00 OOP so not bad.

I've invited my mum over for Boxing Day. The three of us discussed it - me, hubby and my mum - and they would both like me to make turkey (even though we're having it on Christmas Day) and have crackers too. I only agreed on the basis that I will make two different recipes and have different starters and deserts. I'm also going to use a turkey crown for both days and cook it in the slow cooker.

It's been a few weeks since I've updated. I can't believe it's November already.

Payday came and went. We are plodding along as usual. I ordered from Approved Foods, got free delivery this time. Almost everything has been put away from the order. This is a first, normally there's not enough space in the cupboards.

I'm going to start meal planning properly again. I'm taking a whole chicken out of the freezer tonight so that will last us three meals.

I've registered my new credit card online, I had to activate it too. I got a letter from them saying one of the conditions of my account is that it has to be activated. If I didn't then I would need to discuss how I was going to pay off the balance. When I phoned, the adviser ended the call by saying "Happy spending!"

Our Christmas vouchers arrived, so I'm going to write my list and go shopping soon.

I've been keeping up with Fly Lady, well trying my best to. I'm slowly noticing a difference in how the flat looks. There's still a lot to do but we're getting there.

I'm going to invite my mum over for dinner on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas) I need to start planning my Christmas and Boxing Day menus.

Today was an average day, although now it includes an afternoon nap. Yesterday I slept for over two hours while J napped, today it was for an hour and a bit. Now that J is in our room - and I'm not in the livingroom with him - I don't see the point of hubby doing night feeds because I have to wake him up. Then I hear everything, get involved and can't get back to sleep. Hubby said I couldn't do this forever and that I need to catch up on my sleep so I should sleep when J is. He said I was grumpy, forgetful, making mistakes etc. Basically exhausted. My motivation had gone out of the window but it's back now.

I got caught up on some washing this morning and our dishes are almost always practically up to date. This is new for us so we need to keep it up.

Hubby's friend is visiting from England. She's got a little boy who is eighteen months. She brought up three huge bags of clothes for J. Ranging from 9mths-18mths. SG "helped" me sort through them.

I realised yesterday that I still had cottage pie leftovers and my attempt at meatloaf in the freezer. We had the cottage pie today with turnip to bulk it out. It's now put hubby in the mood for haggis, neeps and tatties (haggis, turnips and potatoes to everyone else) I'll pass on the haggis for that meal, which won't be until after we're paid.

SG is almost completely out of snacks. I'm buying milk and bananas tomorrow. She loves bananas. I also found a flapjack recipe. I haven't got the right shape of foil container, I#ve only got a flan foil container, but it will do the job. The plan is to bake more snacks when we're paid.

I need to phone the new credit card company. I tried to register my details online but it said there was a problem. Just send me my statement already so I can make a payment please. I want online access so I can view the statement ASAP.

I've decided that when we get paid I will buy fruit and veg, and possibly meat that's on offer in Aldi's Super 6. Nappies and formula I will get from Tesco by doing an online order and getting a £1 delivery slot.

The government start charging 5p/carrier bag next week. I don't think it will go down well but I'm pleased about it. We've got plenty of reusable bags so we will be fine.

I think that's all.

We're still struggling by but getting there I think. Five days until payday.

Meals have been mostly potato and pasta based with veg and sauce. We've been living off a 2kg whole chicken for the past few days. I'm making it into a curry tonight. Our cupboard is jam packed with pasta, cous cous and tins, it's just lack of meat that's the problem. We will need to buy bread and milk this week, and more formula for J. I've made a batch of lentil soup too.

My new credit card - or debt card rather - came through. I noticed today that an unexpected bill came out of my bank, hubby suggested using the card. No. I will buy the bare minimum. No extra debt is getting added. I don't think he expected me to agree anyway.

I've listed a few more things on FB. I'll set up a page on hubby's days off this week.

Decluttering. I'm trying to sort out our paper clutter and get rid of old clothes, toys etc. It's a big job. I'm hoping once I've caught up it won't be as hard to deal with. At the moment i can only spend 10-15 mins doing something before I'm needed. But it's progress.

The PIN for my new credit card arrived the other day. I didn't even bother to read it, I just put it in one of my files. I haven't got the new card yet but when it arrives I want to have a plan about what I'm doing. (The last time I transferred debt to a 0% card I didn't have a plan, see CC2's balance) It's either 33 or 34 months interest free. I don't want to just pay the minimum, although maybe I should so I can focus on the extortionate balance that is Bank of Scotland aka CC2. I do plan on paying extra to CC2 now that CC1 is 0%. Obviously, I know I'm going to have a tight month this month.

I checked Capital One's statement and the interest hasn't been added yet so I will need to pay that from my October pay, which is two weeks away yet.

Even though I now have this huge balance "available to spend" I guess I just want to remind myself that it isn't there for spending. In fact, I haven't activated the card
This post is really just to tell myself that I can't celebrate when the new statement comes through because I've still got the debt. It's just on a different card.

And when this new card arrives it will go somewhere safe (my folder) I'll set up my details so I can view the balance online. I'll make a payment. I WON'T USE IT!!

Ok. That's all.

I've gathered up some more clothes and toys of SG's that I can sell on Facebook. These are toys that she had two of or a similar one. I'm going to comment on my posts on the selling pages to take them to the top of the page. I'm also considering creating my own selling page since there's a lot of clothes to get through.

I've joined a new site to earn rewards: www.superpoints.com

Last night I found a page on FB: Feed Your Family for £20 a week. I liked the page and was reading it last night. It shows a lot of easy recipes and tips e.g. bulk out meals with veg, buy a whole gammon joint instead of pre-packed sandwich meat, which I already do. Also the creator of the page seems to go to her local supermarket each night to get items which are reduced to silly prices such as 5p. I think I'll have to stick with what I'm doing which is shopping at Aldi and meal planning. I'll check back in with my cooking websites, Resourceful Cook and All Recipes to come up with inspiration.

Oh I got it wrong we're still short, but it's by 27.45 not 40.00.

I worked out this morning everything that has to be paid between now and payday (15 days away) Even after I withdraw savings - which I really really don't want to do - I will still be £40 short. Hubby told me not to panic, he's on his way home from work so we can discuss it. But there's nothing he can say that can make it better.

My overspending over the past few weeks has gotten us into this mess. That, and my maternity pay being less.

This is nothing compared to how bad it was when I was off sick, so I'm at least grateful for that. At least I can use my savings. Again.

Recently I've noticed that I've been trying extra hard to save money while at the same time having a lot of unplanned - usually impulsive - spending. This is a new problem.

I'm a member of a FB page that auctions of items to help a charity. I love this charity. I'm not sure if it's because I've been a member for a few years and read their story (their nine month old died) that I really feel involved with their story. Lately, as in two weeks ago roughly, I won my first auction. I had only bid £1 but it was the highest bid and I won. I paid the money, feeling great about giving to charity. The following week, I bid on some more items, not intending to win but just to start the bidding process and help raise money. Well, I won. I've won two more since then. I've spent almost thirty pounds on this charity. All unplanned. The good news is that it's for SG and J's xmas.


I've managed to stretch a 750g packet of mince into three meals for us. I think hubby is sick of mince now but he knows the situation.

We went through next pay's budget with a fine tooth comb and it's going to be just as bad as this month (not due to impulsive spends though) I might have to transfer money out of savings this pay because it is that bad. I'm so disappointed in myself because I already did this in May I think it was, and now I have to do it again. It was nearly at one hundred pounds again. I don't want to do this every few months, it's like one step forward, three steps back.

A quick update. I'm on my phone.
Mil got in touch: total owed is 364 I think hubby said. 20 this month then 60 each month till March. I didn't offer to pay half like hubby expected although I will probably reign in spending. Going to try and sell more on fFacebook and I tthink he should do some overtime.

I meant to post about this last year, but, well life got in the way.

Before Christmas last year, hubby really wanted to get a PS4. He knew the only way that we could have got it was either from our catalogue, or planning it out and saving it up in advance. Saving up for it was the best option as far as I was concerned and clearly we hadn't done that. Well, one day while I was at work and hubby was at MIL's to get SG he joked with her about her paying for half for his Christmas present. She agreed, they spoke about it. He told me about it later and I wasn't happy he was agreeing to more debt. I think he said it would be fine. At some point later, mil told hubby that his brother wanted to contribute something towards it as his Christmas present. In the end he put £40 towards it and I MIL paid the deposit then put money towards it. I think this was eighty pounds cash. The rest she put on her credit card. Hubby wasn't pleased that she was putting so little towards it.

Now, no-one should have agreed to this since clearly none of them had the money. Well, she put it on her card and I ended up in hospital having emergency surgery. Hubby was off sick taking care of me, I was off for months. So, they agreed he could pay it later. Hubby asked for her credit card details to pay it. She said she wasn't willing to give them. She transferred it to a 0% card.
Hubby still hadn't paid anything to it.

Well, they fell out last month. Yesterday she text asking about when he could pay it since her 0% deal runs out in March. She said she could transfer it to one of our cards (which aren't at 0% interest) Hubby phoned me on the way home from work askinf if I could look at 0% credit card balance transfers. I told him I would apply in my name since my credit is a lot better than his, but not fantastic.

I had a good look and found one for either 33 or 34 months at 0%. I thought there's no way I'm going to get that since my credit rating isn't that good. Well they accepted me. During the application process it said that you can only transfer balances in your name. So I transferred Capital One (cc1), less some pennies although this month's interest hasn't been added yet.

So, now I have transferred my balance on Capital One. I checked my statement and it was in the eight hundreds. They charged me £25 for the privilege of the transfer. So my balance will be 900 and I have 33 months to pay it off.

My questions are:

- what's the best way for me to pay off debt now I have a 0% card (in five-ten working days)
- how would you deal with MIL? The debt must be about £300 I'd guess. We don't know actual figures.

I've been plodding along since payday last week. We've done two separate shopping trips this week - hubby was in town with SG so they went and got some things then we all went together. Ideally I'd like it to last us a few weeks. Our fridge is jam packed but our freezer isn't.

Hubby went back to work today after having a holiday for his birthday. While he was off I done all the night feeds for the entire holiday to give him a break, make him feel like it was a holiday you know? For future reference, I am never doing this again. He sent me for a nap today because I was falling asleep on the couch while holding J. I'm so tired and possibly at my least productive in a while.

Tomorrow is our wedding anniversary. No plans other than hubby doing the night feed. A full night's sleep is the best gift ever at this moment.

Friday was payday, and hubby's birthday. He's still not talking to his mum or brother so I was feeling bad about that. Add that to the fact that I never had a gift for him to open (although I did buy him game credits months ago) We went into town to go to a cheesecake place that I've walked past a few times. Well it's smaller than I thought. We wanted to sit in but there wasn't enough space for us plus SG and J so we bought four slices - two each to try - to go. That was £10. Yep, 2.50/slice.

Then I decided i was hungry so we went to a cafe. Hubby only wanted a coffee, but that was another ten pounds.

Later that day, hubby went to Tesco while I stayed home. £69 later.

On Saturday we bought SG new boots. 24.99 She needed them and we were at the shopping centre anyway.

I also spent £18 in Asda on new tights and jeans for SG plus some toiletries and snacks for SG.

Oh did I mention that I made hubby a cheesecake for his birthday? Crazy that we still went out and bought some. Sigh.

My bank balance is abysmal. More money is going in tomorrow but I'm just feeling so depressed. I've paid extra to CC1 so I'm not slacking off with debt repayment but I still feel bad. There's more bills to pay. Part of me thinks I'm worrying for nothing but I doubt I am. Either way, we've been in worse situations so I'm sure we'll cope.

Not much happening here. I'm still in the process of using things up. Bought a whole chicken from Aldi for £4.xx and so far we've had quesadillas and italian chicken from it. I was wanting to use the leftovers for a stir fry but hubby bought in a frozen cheese pizza and wants to add it to that. I'm now thinking I could slice a pepper and add that too, maybe a tomato. Well that's tonight's dinner sorted then. SG will have the cheese and vegetable pasta that I made yesterday. I've also got some ready rolled pastry to use up so I'll use that today.

Our kettle stopped working. I've never been so happy to have the Perfect Prep machine for J. We'll get a new one when we're paid next week.

Speaking of J, he slept from 10.20-5.20am this morning. I actually started feeding him at five then realised he was still sleeping so I could have left him longer. I would have had a great sleep last night if SG hadn't woke up between eleven and one.

It's hubby's birthday next week. His request? The ultimate cheese toastie that Jamie Oliver made in his new show, and a cheesecake. I'll buy the stuff in to make both next week. We don't need to worry about what to do for his birthday since he isn't talking to MIL or BIL. So no need to work round other people, we can do what we want. I think he might want a takeaway though since we usually get one for his birthday.

Tonight I turned leftover bolognaise into lasagne. First time I've done that. There's still some left for tomorrow. I just need to buy some chicken in this week so that I can use up an italian chicken sachet which expires this month, and chicken enchilidas too. It's taking ages for me to make a dent in the cupboards. I can use a few other things in the cupboard when I make the enchilidas - well, that's the plan anyway.

I posted a few more clothes on Facebook's selling pages. A couple I put up because I had kept them aside for hubby's friend but she never responded. Well, she responded today. Would you take them off in case someone's interested or just leave it? I've not had a lot of interest in my posts, so I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

I've updated my sidebar to show my new credit card balances. Still more than I'd like but at least it's decreasing.

I've almost sold my first item on Facebook: one of SG's Christmas dresses. As long as the girl picks it upon Monday. Ironically, this was the item I was going to take off because I thought it might be too early. I've added some more clothes and two Moses baskets so I'm hoping for some luck. I'm actually finding it quite addictive but decluttering is taking longer than I'd like.
I've got two bags of SG's old clothes to donate, a lot more to sort through too.
stills using up what food we have.

Spent 9.99 in Aldi today. Got nappies, washing powder, fabric conditioner and juice for SG.

Posted my first items for sale on FB a few hours ago. One item was a Christmas dress - too early for that? No-one's been in touch yet.

Had fish fingers, potato waffles and macaroni for dinner: everything that needed using up.

I cleaned out my cupboard today. That was an enlightening experience. Less than half a pack of cous cous, cocoa powder, two bags of pasta which are practically finished and a nest of noodles are all waiting to be used up. I've got plenty of stock cubes, spices and herbs (some not even opened) No tins of chopped tomatoes, one carton of passata, one tin of mushy peas (for hubby, I hate them) and garden peas. Plenty of tins of fruit. I've also got soy sauce, a tin of sweetcorn and at least a dozen packets of angel delight - half can be made into ice cream. In addition to this, there's microwave rice and risotto, and sachets to be used with meat and fish. I'm going to have to buy some meat to use some of this up.

A pointless entry cos I noticed the spam. I'm on my phone. Will update properly when I get the chance.

Yesterday I used the packet mix of berry cookies, which went out of date months ago and was sitting in the back of my cupboard. I actually enjoyed them though.

Today I'm making macaroni and cheese for dinner. We've got a lot of pasta to use up, and a lot of plain flour too. I'm also going to make corned beef hash - not one of my favourites - for tomorrow's dinner. I've got all the ingredients in for it, and the last time I made it we enjoyed it more the second day. Lastly, I'm going to make some oaty biscuits since there's no treats in the house for us (that are already prepared, I mean)