Debt mutual support thread number 4 .... every journey starts with the hardest first step

[TalkinPeace]

This thread follows on from Nerf's incredibly useful
FIRST www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/1969188-Can-we-have-a-support-thread-for-people-who-are-massively-in-debt
and then SECOND
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/2011878-Debt-support-thread-2?
and my THIRD
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/a2062902-Debt-Number-3-For-those-who-feel-they-are-drowning-and-want-a-way-out?msgid=48505428#48505428
threads about realising you are in and supporting each other out of debt.

I am not in debt, any more.
Here is a link to some spreadsheets that might help
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/1987219-SPREADSHEETS-for-Debt-Control-Budgeting-Mortgages-etc

and lots of people use this
YouNeedABudget

The important thing to remember is

• yesterday is as past as the Crimean War

( we will not judge how you got into debt, but we will support you on the way out )

• this is an anonymous forum

( we will not tell your employer, family or friends of the reality of your numbers )

• this thread is about supporting people through the huge mindset changes needed to come out of debt

( feel free to offload all of the feelings that drive you to want to spend, that make it hard to save and that generally make life crap at times )

Join in, bare your soul and come out the other end.
Its worth it.
You are worth it.
The long term results for you, your marriage and your children are worth it.

If my hairs too long I feel really down. I haven't had a cut since November so I'm going to book one.

I'm going to try and buy some big bags of veg next week. I'm a bit nervous about doing that because I'm worried I'll end up with cupboards full of parsnips and potatoes and nothing to do with them (no one will eat soup here either for left overs!) But I'm going to give it a go.

I now have £24 to spend until Monday. Gulp. That's 3 days and 3 meals to go. My oven was supposed to be fixed today but they've had to order the part so I'm oven less for another week which is annoying as I can't really do anything cheap from the freezer section.

I have eaten a lot of rubbish today. One big bag of toffee popcorn and a whole big bar of galaxy caramel. plus my actual food - toast for breakfast, ham and cheese omelette for lunch and we all had fajitas for dinner.

I hardly ever get my hair cut. It's just very long.. occasionally if I can't bear it any more I cut it myself (!) Or I go to one of those cheap £10 hair cut places you get in city centres. The one in Norwich is pretty good - crop shop.

I used to have my hair very short but there's no way I could afford the up keep now.... I can't believe how much I used to spend on my hair.. I once spent £150 getting it dyed blond and cut into a bob. This was when I was living in London and worked full time. And I put it on a credit card. How daft.

Fairylea : recipes for veg.
Start with easy stuff like carrots and celery that can be chopped up into any tomato based sauce (how to bulk out a bolognese .... LOADS of veg)
mushrooms are great in sauces ... and cheap .... try in stews
bags of odd shape peppers are cheap and yummy in stir fries and chillis and sauces and curries

onoins : nobody can have too many onions in their diet

spuds : jacket, home made oven chips, roast, boiled, sauted - loads of ways
mashed on top of a shepherds pie .....

parsnips - I admit I hated them for the first 45 years of my life
then I was served them cut into quarters lengthways, coated in maple syrup and roasted ... I've never looked back

keep the veg in the fridge so you do not forget about it and bulk each meal out a bit : you'll save money and get healthier at the same time

Thanks for welcome badvoc

fairy my oven is broken - Iv been quite inspired by microwave mug cakes and savoury muffins and even meatloaf! Amazing what you can grill - we've had griled battered fish and chips done in a temporary 'chip pan'. I've also had my slow cooked out and have been doubling up when i cook a casserole, plenty lentils and pulses in then I freeze half.

Ive been doing MN haircut for 2 years but not even managed that. However I do have a groupon for a cut n blow dry for tomorrow.

I just buy tesco value frozen mixed veg, it goes in chillie and bolognese along with lentils. They also do a stir fry veg bag (also frozen) for £1 - i put this in curries or sweet n sour pork (pork is cheap at minute)

I've managed to get both kids onto porridge.

Fairylea about those kidney beans - have you tried these burgers? They are delicious! agirlcalledjack.com/2013/04/06/carrot-cumin-kidney-bean-burger-9p/

In spite of the fact that on the outside I look like I only eat crisps, I do use a lot of veg as I am a vege and I am bloody determined that DC will eat something other than chocolate. It doesn't seem to work, but I am persistent...

Veg Stew

Get a big pan.

Put in a chopped onion, 3 stalks celery chopped, 4 carrots chopped, 2 parnsips chopped, 1/2 swede chopped (this involves a lot of chopping ). Stick on 2 veg stock cubes and a good covering of water. You can add a handful of pearl barley too, but allow more water for that. Bring to boil and simmer for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook sausages - we have quorn (bags of 8 frozen). Either make or indulge in premade yorkshire puddings. I use 15 for 49p value ones.

When 20 minutes are up, stir in 1 heaped tbsp gravy granules to thicken your stew a little. Serve over yorkshires and sausages. You could even chop sausages up if you want to chop some more.

My mum puts a tin of butter beans in too in final few minutes of cooking.

If you have leftovers, is lovely on 2nd day too.

Make enchiladas with kidney beans.

Fry (VALUE) peppers, onions, mushroom until soft. Chuck in tin of (VALUE) chopped toms, tin kidney beans, tin baked beans. Add chilli to taste - I use tbsp powder and a good sprinkle of flakes, season. Cook it down for about 15 minutes - it still needs to be runny.

Get oven proof dish.

Cheap wraps - I use own brand 8 for £1. Allow 2 per person. Use a slotted spoon to put some chilli into each wrap. Roll them and line the bottom of the dish (I spray frylight in first so they don't stick). There will be mixture left. Just chuck it all, including juice in pan, over the top of the rolls. Then add a good couple handfuls grated cheese. Bake for about 20 minutes until bubbling.

Had this last night - was lovely. Even DH (who moans about vegetables in sauces of vegetables again, but can sod off until he either a) does the cooking or b) earns more money) really liked it.

yes those are the bean burgers that are "nicer" than Pizza Express

Okay today's mission is to use the kidney beans! (And for dh to like them... despite being only 27 he acts about 67 and if it's not meat he doesn't like it ).

Thank you for all the support.

I have decided to do as per the earlier post re my overdraft and keep it overdrawn rather than pay it off with the cc as a stark "Oh shit must sort" every time I check the bank accounts.. going to pay this off first and then use the money from paying off that to tackle the cc - going to pay £100 a month off overdraft and then £40 a month off 0% cc - still over minimum payment not that it matters I guess on 0% but feels good. I will need to switch to keep 0% in December.

Trying really hard... its so difficult not to browse shops online and put things in baskets and then click "buy".... Arghhhhhhhhhhh!

Hello flakey.

Interested in the recipes, will be buying a load if veg at the coop in a minute.

In a weird place, know probate granted but solicitor still has to do some letters and tax return so sort of in skint limbo. I'm hoping by christmas we can halve the debt but it's so hard being worried in the meantime.

Sorry I feel a bit rude. .. I also meant to welcome flakey!

I am all Delia today with the recipes .

I am checking out the burgers Miss. If they are better than a £50 meal out, must be worth a shot .

I serve them in buns with sliced tomatoes, leaves, home made salsa and sweet potato wedges.

I like carbs.

Me too. I think it shows.

The worst bit is that DH is a total, unashamed carb monster who would literally live on bread, toast, biscuits, pasta, rice, pasta, biscuits, cake and bread. And he's like a beanpole.

That's the worst bit - the beanpole bit - I've lived on that diet and have the gut to prove it!

Lidl do really cheap ramen noodles. If you make extra broth and add a bag of cheap asian veg, you can make faux Wagamamma dinners. Chips are like crack cocaine to me, and I'm trying to quit the habit!

For a while the boyfriend and I were so broke, we had the same spaghetti and Lidl sauce for dinner for about 2 weeks straight! I can't even walk past the sauce now without wanting to scream!

I am so angry I can hardly think straight. We paid off DH credit card with a well known high street bank about a month ago. He rang up and closed it and they dragged their heels and it kept not happening etc. He finally got it closed last week and received a letter confirming the zero balance etc. THEY HAVE JUST SENT HIM A BRAND NEW CARD WITH A HUGE CREDIT LIMIT. WITHOUT BEING ASKED.
I can't even ring them and yell because it's his account. I can't believe this.

That is ridiculous. How is it even legal? It's opening an account in someones name without permission. One of us doing that would have the book thrown at us!

Email the banks ceo & say you want to open a complaint.

You might get some goodwill money to avoid the ombudsman.

MissAnnersley
Post information about it on their facebook account
on their twitter feed

send copies of the statements and the card to the money editors at the Guardian and the Telegraph
and to You and Yours
and tell your MP

it is COMPLETELY contrary to the current lending guidance to have done as they have just done.
A donation to the CAB and a decent amount of compensation to you for emotional distress are in order.

we got a thing from sky that if we activated sky5 (a new channel) we'd get 2 years' free broadband. dh has done that.
he reckons our sky + costs about £30 a month. now.
£15 for the landline and £15 for the tv. broadband was £7.50
it used to be a lot more because dh had the films too.
we now only pay for the basic package plus sport (which he does watch)
it's amazing how many channels there are, and we really make use of the sky+ part and record and watch a lot of the recorded stuff.

bloody hell! missa! what complete fuckwits!
words fail me :(

I was about to post about food....
we often go to asda really late and buy their ready-prepared veg packs for 10p each! they're always doing it. then we freeze them and use them in stirfries (use standard rice because it's stypidly cheap and cheap supernarket brand noodles that cost 28p a pack)
there's something you can use your red kidney beans for - great for bulking out stirfries, baked beans, mince dishes etc.

nickelbabe
That veg trick is GREAT : with a quick bash on the worktop you need not use the whole pack at once
ON CONDITION
that the reduced price per kilo is less than the price per kilo of non prepared (you'd be amazed)

Pennies that's awful! that's got to be against about a billion different rules, surely!

Well I've had in interesting day. Took the dc to the nearest garden centre / aquatic centre as it's free and kept them busy for a bit. The littlest one (2 yr old) suddenly burst into tears on the way home and promptly projective vomited over us all. so that was a bit of a sad end for him and for the rest of us, all sitting in a vomit covered car for the ride home. Oh well. Poor ds. He seems fine now though. Might have just been a bit car sick. I rarely use the car at all to be honest - dh walks to work and petrol is just another expense so maybe ds just wasn't used to it!

I'm down to my last £10 now till Monday. Not sure I can do it . I still have 2 dinners to get out of that and nothing in the cupboards now. Hmmm. Other people manage so I'm going to try to!

On another note I've made the kidney bean enchiladas for dinner tonight and they've been a hit! So thank you very much for the ideas