Debt support thread #2

[Nerfmother]

Here we are! Can't be bothered to think of an exciting title, sorry

Hi Puffer, don't make it complicated for yourself. I start with a list of what I have in fridge/freezer/cupboards. Then put together meals with what ingredients you have already...then look at what meals you can make by buying 1-2 additional ingredients (eg I have chicken in freezer, noodles/rice and a stir fry sauce in cupboard but need an onion or pepper to complete it). The additional ingredients become your shopping list. I write my meals in post it's and stick on calendar then I can switch days about easily if needed. I don't do breakfasts (usually cereal and toast) or lunches (packed lunch for work and soup or sandwiches at weekend).

I stick to my shopping list which had been instrumental in getting my outgoings down and getting debt paid odd...but keep a degree of flexibility in store to let me buy any reduced items/bargains. I take my fridge/freezer/cupboard list with me, so if there is a good buy I know if I have all I need to make a meal, or if I need to add something to shopping list.

I also have 3-4 days in the week where meals are kinda related/similar. Eg Sunday we are having chicken (done in slow cooker), Mon chicken/mushroom pie with meat stripped from chicken, and Tue is chicken/veg soup from the carcass.

I cook 3-4 meals a week in slow cooker, love it. And try to always cook more than I need to let me put some meals in the freezer.

Actually mum2fergus has added the bits I missed. I always check the cupboards first and often find I already have a cple meals ready.
And I do everything in one go - toothpaste, loo roll, shampoo, detergent etx.

I also keep a list of 'stock' in my Armaggedon store (loft lol). I buy in bulk whenever I can, or if it's a real bargain, will buy as much as my budget allows. Eg I have 3x branded shampoo that was 75p/bottle, 4x talc that was 25p/bottle, 2x 24 pack toilet rolls that were less than half price. Bulk bought pasta too, I just fill my jar from the kg bag I got wholesale...

Thank you much! Mouth is watering with missA's list. That's exactly what I was hoping for (and I adore how much veg there is). Right, will copy slavishly (hope you don't mind) to get into the habit of buying to a list hopefully, then as a next step will try my hand at the stock list/ post its/ flexibility skills. Have a lovely weekend.

Mum2Fergus I occasionally bulk buy, but I am not very organised at using it up. The only things it's ever been useful for for me are things like laundry liquid or pasta, that I know we use up at a reasonable rate. I love my slow cooker too - especially since using the energy monitor to work out how much more I use on days when the oven is on for any length of time! I was really shocked, just never thought of it as a massive thing.

Puffer I can't help you with my menu plan for this week as we are just having a massive freezer clear out, so apart from jacket potatoes one day and Jamie veggie curry tomorrow if I can pick up some paneer from somewhere today to make saag paneer to go with (tons of frozen spinach in the freezer), my mission is to produce everything else from the freezer.

Am feeling pleased as despite rent going out and sending me to the very bottom of my overdraft on Thursday, I have already managed to transfer across £85 from paypal from ebay sales and my other little online business to give us a teeny weeny buffer. Am desperate to not be all the way at the end of the overdraft for rent payments as well as doing all day to day spending on the credit card for the next couple of months.

possibly that rings a chord. I have bulk bought from wholesalers and have tonnes of unused stuff in the freezer - currently scallops, deer, hare, duck (what was I thinking!) which we are not making inroads into, as DCs refuse to eat. The pasta of course is gone in the twinkling of an eye and the huge bags of already chopped frozen veg are fab. Anyway, buying to a (yummy) list first, everything else next.

Need to get the shopping sorted out; this week have spent LOADS again and am sulking. It's all been at cheap prices, but I need to start using up what's in rather than stockpiling. I need to start a proper stock take/inventory and meal plan.

Weekly shop to MissA's plan plus household/ breakfasts/ snacks done for 78 quid, hurrah. And there will be some left over. Thank you all again.

Hooray to meal planning! We're off to Aldi in the morning - my mission is to avoid Waitrose where I usually do my top up shop. Spendy day today on unbudgeted stuff (mainly because we've only had a proper,ynab budget for 2 weeks). Onwards and upwards! We needed the stuff we got (DC shoes, work desk for me at the grand sum of £17, love ikea), so I don't feel too bad. Also took DC to a free museum, and stayed out of the cafe .

Thanks for the meal plans - will reinvigorate ours. I want to try frugal queen's bacon and lentil soup for lunches, and have just received her 'feed a family of 4 for £40 pack', so v excited [saddo].

Still not paid off student loan - have to wait for a letter, as they couldn't issue a settlement figure over the phone. I have a feeling it's not going to arrive without a helluva lot of hassle.

Themoneyone I normally find an Ikea lunch is pretty good value - we can either share a couple of portions between us all, or it serves as our 'proper' meal of the day and therefore we have a cheapo dinner. I am quite excited that an Ikea is opening not a million miles from us at some stage - nearest one is currently about 70 miles away.

Evening all!

Spendy day yesterday on big night out - was budgeted for though. Today sold a few items and new tv fund stands at £190 - all from selling bits and pieces in the last 4 weeks! Yay!

NSD today...dinner was pizza made with flatbread (2 for £2 so one in freezer), some pesto and pepperoni (fridge) and value mozzarella (47p), with side salad...cheap and easy for a Saturday night!

ishe I like watching your tv fund creep upwards! How much are you aiming to save up?

I reckon I need just over £200, say£220? I want a 32 inch tv and a wall bracket. Some of the fund to date is amazon sales which take a while to hit my account, so I think at the start of April I'll hunt for bargains- although tesco have a good deal at the moment for £169, not sure whether to just bite the bullet and get it...

sounds very good!

I've enjoyed saving my ebay sales money and watching it mount up, I don't think I could have done that without ynab though. Previously The money from sales just came in and I did nothing specific with it. I'm thinking I might keep the category on ynab and rename it and save for my next "treat". I quite want some white converse for summer so that might be the next savings incentive. I know it could come off debts but I'm a long way from paying them off and need to treat myself occasionally to keep going, at least by buying treats from ebay sales money I am not buying them from my budget.

Well I think I can tentatively say that doing the big monthly shop with small top ups has been a success. It's still a week and 2 days until payday but the shopping budget has not been blown this month. I have got food until pay day and will just need a really small top up of £10 or so next weekend. I shall definitely be doing it again. This time I will do it on My Supermarket to see where it would be cheapest.
We had a bonus free day out yesterday. Fil had invited us out for a Chinese buffet for his birthday and we decided to have a stroll around Nottingham afterwards as it was such a lovely day. Whilst walking we found out that the Brewhouse Yard Museum and Nottingham Castle were free just for the day so we took advantage and had a reat afternoon.

£59 at Aldi and only a £2 top up waitrose (usually between 20 and 30, so feeling v smug - plus 50p in the cafe for a babyccino and 2 free coffees ). Having a v dull day, but at least it's cheap...

Doing a batch cook when the kids are in bed later - bacon & lentil soup, shepherdess pie, spag bol, roast veg pasta sauce. Will bulk out the mince in the spag bol with lentils and see how that goes.

I've spent just under £200 this month on food (including a coffee pod order and £10 to my own school dinner money account for can't-be-bothered days), and the cupboards and freezer are looking VERY healthy indeed. Hoping to get to the end of the month with a spend of under £250.

Sausage and mash today, chicken korma tomorrow and maybe Quorn chilli on weds, or a pasta dish if there are leftover sausages today

Wow ishe that is a great total. We have had our food budget set at £300 for months now but we always go over. My target for this month was to stay within it and I think I have - fingers crossed.

aleC4 that's really interesting that the monthly + top ups has worked for you. Did you menu plan for the entire month?

themoneyone enjoy the batch cooking! I have Tuesday set aside for that. Need to do a careful menu plan next week for the following couple of weeks as have my mum and MIL down helping after DC3 arrives, and don't want to spend too much especially since MIL eats four times as much as anyone else in the family.

Me eBay total for the bunch of stuff I put on is up to £148, which has really surprised me, was expecting more like £100 total. Plus a couple of days to run on some things, so am keeping fingers crossed for £150+.

Yes possibly I did a meal plan for the whole month. I just did evening meals as dc have school dinners and dh and I tend to have the same things for lunches. I stocked up on loads of things like cereals, squash, beans, chopped toms etc and everything has lasted well. I did wonder whether dh would manage to make his months ration of beer last the whole month but he still has some left with 8 days to go!
I also felt much better knowing that if I did run out of money, there was still plenty of meat/frozen veg in the freezer to make a meal out of.

So frustrated that I just cannot manage YNAB. Got it at new year and have yet to get any month n to balance out!
Can you change it from calendar months to a fixed period? We operate from the 25th of one month to the 24th of the next one and I have tried splitting the income across two months but got in such a muddle I had to wipe the whole thing and start over!

Its really frustrating. Also can't get it to sync with drop box so can only use it on PC and not on mobile devices!

No, you can't change the months. I guess your options are to either (a) get to a point where you don't touch your income until 1st of the month; (b) split the income as you have tried or (c) just let it all come in on the 25th, budget it all out into the categories and then unspent money on 1st will just roll into the next month. I'd probably go for C if I was in your position.

Oh, and try again with syncing, the mobile app is crucial to it working for me. The forums on the ynab website are a good place for help and advice.