Trying to Save

-Chicken enchilidas
-Baked potatoes with beans and cheese
-Beef enchiliads
-Soup with bread rolls

Bought a four-weekly bus ticket for £73.50. Hubby paid for half since we are sharing it. I've been driving my car as little as possible since I know something is wrong with it, but I am getting rid of it this month. One of the drawbacks of getting the bus is that I end up shopping while I'm waiting. Keep spending two-three pounds when I'm at work. On the plus side though, our cupboards have more staple items in them now since I have been finding things reduced e.g taco seasoning for 40p. I also found some Christmas decorations for 50p so they have been put away in our Christmas box.

Still not managed to find any snowflakes but I am not giving up.

Meal planning has stopped since I have been back at work, although I really need to organise it again. Hubby has been pulling his weight in the kitchen now so things are a bit better on that front.

Today hubby and I took all of our glass bottles to the supermarket to recycle them. We also recycled all of our cardboard and emptied bins too. The flat is looking a lot better now. I just need to start decluttering other areas now.

Spent some time yesterday and today making up meals for SG for next week. I put them in the freezer and take them out when needed.

It was payday yesterday. Paid more than the minimum to CC1. Still aiming to find snowflakes to throw at the credit card debt. CC2 hasn't updated yet.

I've spent £57.xx on food shopping so far... yet we are debating whether to get a takeaway tonight. Bad I know.

I still want to get rid of my car this month, waiting on my updated documents arriving first though.

One of my goals for this year is to snowflake money towards debt. Tonight I went on music magpie to hopefully sell some of my old CDs. I can't remember the last time I bought a CD. Well, it seems most of my CDs are too old because they kept getting refused. Out of the CDs I tried, they only accepted three at about 25p each! I need a minimum of ten to claim money.

Next I tried cash for clothes. I set up a paypal account. Well it seems that there was a problem with my form on the cash for clothes for website - it kept telling me to check my details. It's just not my night. I think I will try again in a few days when I'm not working.

If I can't sell anything, the extra money towards credit cards will have to come from other sources.

Ok I have updated my sidebar and done the math....

This is my credit card situation:

Credit Cards:
Balance-current min. payment

1 £1679.16 - £83.96 (highest interest rate @ 29.9%)
2 £4397. 41 - £76.92 (december min. payment, waiting on statement update)

Total CC debt : £6076.57!!!

The total is scary! I have to get it sorted! In the past I have cleared CC1 to zero then used it later for car repairs. CC2 has been used for "little" purchases, £10 here, £20 petrol etc and also bills, and car repairs too.

This better be my year for getting rid of a lot of debt. I'm going to try my hardest. Wish me luck.

We are now four days into the new year and I would love to say that I had started to work towards my goals. Honestly, I haven't. Payday is a week today so I will make some progress then, hopefully.

I wanted to be really productive this week since I am back to normal working hours next week. However I have been more tired than normal thanks to SG waking up standing in her cot during the night, and fighting her naps. So, I've just been tackling everyday tasks.

We have been living off leftovers the past few days. On Hogmanay hubby was working and I bought a few things that were reduced. One of them was a medium chicken for £2. We had roast chicken one night then I made the leftovers into chicken curry. First time I've made curry and it tasted good. We had the last of the curry last night then we had some leftover tortillas which I fried with some onions, peppers and cheese. I will be making soup either today or tomorrow since MIL gave us a dozen rolls she got for free from her work.

Over the next few weeks I want to declutter. I want to get rid of some old CDs - I won't get much for them - and some old clothes. Any money made will go towards CC1 which has the highest interest rate (30%) My car will also be gone within the next month since I can no longer afford the repairs - well to be honest I haven't been able to afford the repairs for a while now since they have all gone on the credit card.

I cannot believe that today is the last day of 2012. It has been a quick year with a lot of changes for us. We moved from my mum's to temporary accommodation, then finally to our home now. We also became a family of three when SG was born in March.

Unfortunately, I didn't accomplish the goals I had made for this year. I had to find my entry stating what my goals were, and this was them:

[] Reduce CC2 by half
[] Reduce CC1 by half
[] Car fund to £100
[] EF to £100
[] Savings to £700

Highly unattainable goals since I spent ten months of the year on maternity leave. While on maternity leave I added to my credit cards for things such as car repairs, utility bills that we had to pay from our old flat, petrol and food when we were really struggling. I hate that it's come to this when I was doing so well before maternity leave at the beginning of the year. Oh well, I can't do anything about it now other than not adding to the debt I already have.

This year's goals are slightly more realistic I think. Ideally I would love to achieve them all but the whole point of them was to make them realistic so I can achieve them. At the very least I should achieve my four basic goals.

I need to write down my budget for 2013, and adapt it towards achieving these goals. I'm also going to start trying to find snowflakes to put towards debt.

I started back at work on Sunday. Anyway now that I'm back DH has been asking me to pick up shopping after work. Well I just looked at my receipts and I must have spent close to £70 since we got paid a week today. This includes baby food so it might not be as bad as I am thinking. I'm stressing now since we still have three weeks to go until we're paid, and I've overspent. Yesterday I bought things for Christmas Day e.g. mayonnaise for prawn cocktail, parsnips, desert. I spent £18. I still need to pay my credit cards.

The only good thing I can say is that all of this money came out of my pay, credit cards haven't been touched.

Hubby hasn't seen my receipts, he obviously knows I went shopping though. I just wanted to vent here first.

I thought I was doing so well when I got paid last week aswell cos it was more than I was expecting.

Today was payday. My pay was better than my normal maternity pay due to the fact that I have some holiday pay included.

I'm home alone tonight.. Hubby suggested I get a takeaway since my pay was better than we thought. Well I checked a few menus and decided that I definetly wasn't going to pay £7 for a portion of curry! So, I bought a rogan josh sauce, two chicken breasts and microwave rice. Sauce and rice were £1 each, chicken was £3.

My extra money will be going towards CC debt. I was thnking this morning that it's going to be difficult to reach my basic goals next year... but I will give it my best shot.

I go back to work in a few days after nine months of maternity leave. I was meant to be going to a friend's for lunch today but I cancelled because I have a lot to get ready for going back. It's little things like making sure SG's meals are ready for hubby that are taking up a lot of time. I'm not looking forward to going back but I know I have to.

I need to think about meals next week. Hubby will be at home while I'm at work, and I don't finish until 5pm. All hubby can make is baked potatoes. I guess I could have something prepared for the slow cooker the night before?

It's only Tuesday but I feel as though I have had a busy week. On Sunday I met up with my friends from school, and yesterday me and SG went to M&D's theme park to see Santa. (I only spent £1.80 on a portion of chips) It was a good day. I had packed my own lunch but bought chips because I wanted something hot to eat.

It's been a bad week. Next month I will be charged £15 for an unpaid direct debit fee cause I was a few pounds short. This is the second time this has happened. Well it will be the last.

I didn't phone my CC company to ask them to reduce my interest rate since there's not a lot going in my favour just now: CC is almost maxed out. When I'm in a better position I will get in touch. I am up-to-date on my payments though, I don't think I've EVER missed a payment.

Next year I will focus on CC debt. I just want to find extra money to throw at it.

I go back to work on Sunday. I will be working three days a week. When I get paid in January I will know how much money I will be getting every month since this pay will include the last of my maternity pay.

DH asked MIL to borrow some money this week (£10) just to tide us over. We are giving her a high street voucher of the same value so she's not losing anything.

I didn't do my usual meal plan post this week. Yesterday I made up pasta with leftover bacon, mixed beans in tomato sauce, peppers and onion. It was ok, would have been better if we had more meat in it. I'm cooking beef casserole again tonight, it's in the oven just now. Going to try making homemade dumplings for the first time. Tomorrow we are having chicken tikka masala. We've ran out of rice though so will probably just have bread with it.

Basic Goals:

[] Pay off fridge freezer by September 2013 (£259)
[] CC1 min. payment to £60
[] CC2 min. payment to £60
[] Snowflake towards debt - and track snowflakes

Would-love-to-achieve:

[] Savings to (at least) £200
[] CC1 min. payment to £30
[] CC2 min. payment to £30

Right now, both CC min. payments are close to £90.

If I don't pay off fridge freezer by September I will be charged interest.

I need to think of ways in which I can get "snowflakes" to put towards debt.

My dream world would be to cut my CC debt in half but that isn't realistic - not in one year anyway.

This year will be SG's first Christmas, and also our first Christmas in our own place, so we told our families that we are having it here, just the three of us. (We'll visit them in the morning though so they can see SG) Hubby wanted a turkey so I bought the smallest one I could find: 3.6kg. We will be eating leftovers for days.

Does anyone have any recipe ideas? I've looked online and found a few but I'm not sure which one I will use. I've never cooked a turkey before so I'm hoping to find an easy recipe.

This week I will make:

-spaghetti bolognaise
-soup
-bbq chicken with rice and veg
-baked potatoes
-leftovers

I can't remember what goals I made for this year - and then had to abandon - but I've been thinking about next year's goals. They have to be realistic. Yes I want to get rid of my credit card debt but it's unrealistic for me to think that I can get rid of half of my CC debt in a year. Especially since I have used it more than I would have liked since we moved into our own place. I spoke to DH and he suggested that I just aim to get my minimum payments down, instead of focusing on the entire balance. Obviously I won't pay the new lower payment when I (hopefully) achieve the goal, I'll pay as much as I can. Actually I think I will find a notebook to keep track of extra money towards debt repayments in 2013. It would be nice to total it up at the end of the year.

This year I was on maternity leave for ten months, in fact I go back to work in two weeks. Next year I will not be on maternity leave so money should be better.

My car has to go next year. It's making a noise, I know it will fail its MOT in February since it hasn't passed yet. I don't have savings to pay for it, or enough on my CCs so it has to go. Me and DH can share a monthly bus pass until I get a new car. We should have at least £150 extra each month when it goes. I know it will be a pain getting public transport, but it makes the most sense to me. I think I will have to scrap it since there has been so much wrong with it, it's not right to try and sell it to someone.

This week we will have:

-toastie and tomato soup
-baked potatoes with either tuna or baked beans
-beef casserole
-fish and chips
-leftovers for me when hubby is at work

I made tomato soup today while I was making SG's food. I also made chicken stock for the first time. I've got a tub in the freezer and one in the fridge. I better make more soup this week then to use up the stock.

We went to the baby market again today. We got a baby walker for SG for £15 (RRP £50) and some books for Christmas.

What a week it has been! I meant to do my usual meal planning update at the start of the week but I just didn't have time.

I've got my receipts in front of me so I want to keep track of that first. It was mostly little shopping trips, they all add up though:

19/11: SCOTMID £8.06 (reduced fresh meat)
20/11: ASDA £82.28, only £12.14 out of pocket due to savings cards (xmas shopping)
21/11: MORRISONS £7.88
22/11: ASDA £13.69

I have a lot of food in the house. The only things I should need to buy soon are formula and nappies. Plus bread and milk too when we run out.

This week we got all of our belongings from my mum and MIL. It's amazing how much we have, I feel like we have moved in again. We're actually getting to use wedding presents that we hadn't opened yet, so it feels like Christmas has come early in a way.

Meal planning has went out of the window this week. I cooked the chicken a couple of days ago so we had that last night with some microwave rice last night for a quick meal. There's some left so I'm going to make chicken stock for the first time. Hubby wants a chicken sandwich tonight so I will make that.

I spent my £5 free gift card yesterday. I got a cook book, 200 slow cooker recipes.

On the way home from dropping hubby off today I heard on the radio that some stores in the UK are starting to have Black Friday sales. Anything to get more sales I suppose.

I need to start thinking about my 2013 goals since I was unrealistic about this year's, especially with having a newborn and being on maternity leave. I will try and make them realistic and manageable this time.

So, today I had to drop my hubby off at work. Afterwards I was supposed to meet my cousin but she cancelled. Since I was at the shopping centre, I spent some money:

ASDA: £11.99 (formula,milk,white wine,potatoes,mango,greek yoghurt)
parking: £1
Scotmid: £1 (multipack of mars caramel, bought to get change for parking)

I withdrew £10 from the ATM today. I have £8 cash left after buying sweets and paying for parking.

MIL gave us half a dozen frozen burgers from her work, so my whole chicken is still in the freezer. I bought some potatoes today to go with the chicken when we have it. Tonight I will have a burger on a roll, hubby might have the same when he comes in. Tomorrow possibly tuna and sweetcorn pasta, or macaroni. Normally I would have bought more since we got paid today but we have stuff here that needs used up.

Yesterday I done some more Christmas shopping. I bought children's books. They were on offer, 3 for 2. Also, spend £15 and a get a £5 gift card. I spent £15 exactly. I was going to use the gift card for some more Christmas shopping until I decided that I deserve a treat, so I will buy myself something.

I have £40 of my high street vouchers left. There is also £30 on an ASDA savings card. I need to get my little cousin's pyjamas and birthday present with those. Also need to get another gift for the grans, most likely a photo book.

I seem to only update with meal plans. Boring but it makes me feel organised. Here's this week's:

- roast chicken with potatoes and veg
- steak fajitas
- something with leftover chicken
- macaroni (i always end up making something else so I want to make it soon)

Our flat is very slowly coming together. It seems to be at a snail's pace though. I'm going to have to order a carpet for our livingroom soon. SG can crawl backwards, and a little forwards. Right now we have tiled floors, so she hasn't been able to crawl on the floors. I read the children should spend as much time as possible on floors etc. I don't want to hinder her development, and it's not safe right now for her. That reminds me, we also need a stair gate too.

We've decided not to spend a lot on SG for Christmas (my mum took this to mean that we weren't getting her anything!) We don't have a Christmas tree or decorations so we have to buy those first. For SG we are just going to get her a few things that she needs, a few books too. My mum has spent far too much on her already, and she said she still wants to get her more. I told her not to bother but she's determined. I told her that lately SG is happy with the remote! (with the batteries taken out, of course)

I am going to make:

honey and mustard chicken (never had it last week)
smoked sausage pasta
hot dogs with french fries
omelette and chips (we have a lot of eggs)

As usual I will have leftovers when hubby is at work. I don't need to buy anything for these meals.

Until payday. I'm counting down now. No reason to stress though. I plan to do as little food shopping as possible between now and then.

I had baked potato and some leftover sausage casserole with it. I sprinkled some cheese on top. There wasn't any sausages left so it was really just sauce. I've never had that for dinner before. However, I didn't need to do any prep so it was good. Quick and easy.

Hubby has got overtime for tomorrow morning. I think he has had three or four extra shifts so far.

Last night was our first Halloween in our own place. I made up bags of sweets to hand out to the trick-or-treaters. Well, we didnt get any so I now have sweets that I can easily take with me when I leave the house.

My meal planning is going ok, although I have more leftovers than I thought I would. I had to make vegetable soup a few days ago because I had so much fresh veg that needed to be used up. Also MIL gave us a dozen rolls so we had some with our soup.

I got a letter from my power company, Scottish Power, informing me that their prices will be increasing from the start of December. Great.

As for my menu, I think this is what I will make this week:

Monday: macaroni with garlic ciabatta bread
Tuesday: herb and garlic chicken with potatoes and veg
Wednesday: sausage casserole
Thursday: tuna and sweetcorn pasta
Friday: leftovers for me (hubby at work)

If I hadn't paid £1 for parking today, it would have been a no-spender. Oh well, maybe next time.

My mum took me out for lunch. We had McDonald's. I haven't had one in a while, it was good. The food court was full of people. It amazes me where they get the money from. Most of the tables were families of four. That's at least £20 surely.

We have a wedding reception to go to tomorrow. The plan is not to spend a lot. Fingers crossed.

I just googled "fiscal fast" after reading NGG's post. I like the idea. Maybe I can persuade hubby that we need to do one soon? You never know.

We started Christmas shopping yesterday. I'm about halfway there. It seems to be mostly kids that I'm buying for this year.

It's MIL's birthday soon. A while ago we received a leaflet offering a personalised mug and a free t-shirt for 99p. We uploaded a pic of S to put on both the mug and the t-shirt. Mug will be given to MIL for her birthday; t-shirt for BIL for xmas.

Meal planning is still going ok. We have some leftovers in the fridge. I went to Asda the other day and spent £11 buying some more fruit, veg and tins. I think we will be ok for a few weeks. There's lots of food in our fridge, freezer and cupboards so I am determined to make it last.

Went to a baby and toddler market today. Spent £30. Got S's outfit for Christmas Day, plus a few other dresses and tops. Also got a bouncer for only £5.

Needed petrol: £20

Bought a subway after we had been to the market: £10 (impulse buy)

I decided to get tomorrow's dinner ready today since I have more time. Chicken curry is cooking in the slow cooker just now, I will reheat it tomorrow when we come home.

I headed to the shops today, with my list in hand. I went alone. And I walked. It's only a twenty minute walk. My reasoning for this? If I know I'm walking home I'll buy less and I save on petrol too.

I spent £23.18. Bought a few impulse buys (multipack of chocolates that were £1 and a few tins of soup at 50p each, which DH will take to work) I got roughly half of the items that were on my list. The rest of the list can wait.

Next week's meals are looking something like this:

Monday - chicken curry
Tuesday - hot dogs with fries
Wednesday - macaroni with garlic bread
Thursday - mustard chicken
Friday - soup and a toastie? - dinner alone
Saturday - something quick, have a wedding reception in the evening

This will be my 500th entry

I've just finished writing my shopping list for when we go shopping. It probably won't be until Monday but I feel so organised doing it now. I found a recipe for bacon and sweetcorn potato cakes. I've never made them before but a lot of the stuff that I need to make them I'm either already buying, or I have it in the house. So, I'm going to try making them next week.

Today is payday. I paid my bills this morning and my credit cards.

I got a letter through from another credit card company, trying to tempt me. They are offering 16 months interest free, with a 2.5% charge for balance transfers. It's tempting to do but I don't know if I can juggle three credit card payments, two is more than enough. On the other hand, if it would save us money in the long run. I'm still thinking about it.

I'm going to start planning our meals. Tomorrow is payday. When I go shopping I want to make sure that I only get things that I need.

Tonight we are having beef pasties (free from MIL) and baked beans for dinner.

Tomorrow DH is working late so I will have whatever I can throw together. I made leek and potato soup so I could have that

Saturday we will have chicken curry, pilau rice, garlic naan and vegetable pakora. The curry and pakora are in the freezer. I bought them from the reduced section. Naan breaed was on offer at 50p.

Sunday: another late night for hubby. Possibly pie and chips for me.

Next week I would like to make:

- macaroni (need plain flour)
- chicken curry (need veg and chicken)
- hotdogs (need rolls)
- minestrone soup
- bacon cheeseburgers (told DH about LR having these so he's in the mood for them)

I need to have a look through my recipes to come up with some other ideas.

Hubby got lots of overtime.

Got a letter from the council, our council tax is now half of what they were originally saying. I think it's due to when we moved into the property.

I used my slow cooker (crock pot) for the first time at the weekend. I made chilli on Saturday. We had the leftovers for dinner yesterday. I want to try using it more in the future, think it will definetly save us money.

I have started Baby S on solids. Made a batch of food for her yesterday. I'm not buying jars of baby food for her, it's healthier and cheaper for me to make my own. She seems to be liking them so far

We have a wedding reception to go to in a few weeks.
After that, it's MIL's birthday so I've been looking into cheap personalised gifts.