Debt Free 2007?

[Flamesparrow]

Keep thinking about this since yesterday...

Am thinking that my aim for 2007 is to be in a decent(ish) money situation next Christmas BUT I don't wanna take the swing out of the budgie's cage completely...

I need to work out how to save money, pay all the bills, but still be able to have the odd treat here and there.

I thinking:

• Decent food budgetting/planning
• uswitch (I think I am on the cheapest anyway)
• s/o for savings AND a s/o for treats
• Work out the birthdays that will be coming across the year and make sure I put aside enough each month to cover the hell months.

What else should I be doing?

CC I think you are right and i will have to swallow my tesco online pride! The resteraunt deals are really good, I look forward to getting those vouchers.

restaurant sorry.

We eat a lot of pasta! I buy a lot of value peppers/tomatos (in the summer I have my own!) and make loads of pasta sauce and veggie lasagne.

We eat lots of spuds.
Mash n pies, chips n eggs, corned beef hash,
Leek n potatoe pie, rice n gravy and whatever falls out the freezer.
Lunches, kids have at school, packed. Sausage rolls, cooked the night before
and had with mash for dinner, a packet of cheap crisps or biscuits and a yoggy and fruitand variations of.
I dont eat breakfast and have cereal for lunch.
And I greet them with an egg mayo sarnie straight after school.
No cheesestrings/lunchables/prepacked expensive shite here.

i now have a pig for our bathroom. It is dire we have nearly £40 in it. also collecting £2.oo coins in a house shaped monet box for mortage

on moneysave this morning I was reading that he reckons yopu shouldn't save if you have debts. Interest payments and all. got me thinking. What do you all do.I think the biggest tip on here was the budget envelopes tip from charliecat

Im not in debt. I have literally, just enough money to survive, without falling in the red.
Im keeping out of debt 2007
there is no point in saving if your getting 5.7% interest and being charged 18.9% interest on your cc.

(I say im not in debt...I owe my mum a fortune...) But she doesnt charge interest. So it doesnt count...lol

I have morphed from envelopes to jars, btw.
Coz the envelopes would too easily end up empty.
I can seeeeeeee the jars.(empty cranberry sauce jars etc)
And I dont want them empty.

I'm budgeting £70 a week for shopping. DP and I eat lots of meat. We don't eat pasta, rice, veg etc, so that's where most of it goes. Lunches are sandwich, yoghurt (usually one type BOGOF in Tesco), a small pot of fruit or box of raisins (own brand), and some kind of biscuit/cereal bar. Breakfast & lunch for me is toast .

DP ha done well at work again. They had some Christmas stock left over, so raffled it off. He came home yesterday witha hamper of meat; A large chicken, huge joint of beef, joints of pork, lamb, gammon, a big 'ready to roast' type turkey joint, bag of sausages, bacon, chicken drumsticks. So I now have a full freezer, and Sunday dinner's sorted for a couple of months (as are sandwiches for the following days .

Also agree, best to not bother saving if you have debts, unless you absolutely have to. We are getting the house rewired in the summer, so need to save £2500 for that as well as paying off credit cards.

Feb will be a bad month for us. We've just had to buy the new bunk beds for the boys, plus new storage as we lose all the space in the bedroom. We also have to go to FILs 1/2 term week in North Wales. That costs us about £200 when we go up. So the next 6 months will be even tighter than the last.

One good thing though, is that I do quitea few of thise online surveys. For one of them I get 6 months of Cosmopolitan sent to me FREE and then have to fill in a survey about the mag, so that's cheered me up today when it arrived.

Washing machine has died
New one is £150 for reconditioned one (good one too) so not as bad as it could have been but there goes most of my ebay money

Argggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh. Bloody typical.
My car stereo broke and I brought a new one with the ebay money....not essential..but good grief driving is shit without tunes!

Thanks for that all. Interesting - I always figured it would be cheaper to buy pasta sauce, but of course it probably isnt and that way you can control what goes in which is a bonus - whenever i try making pasta sauce it is always minging though.

I also buy into the organic thing a bit cos ds is only 18 mo and my first so I buy Rachels yogs and Organix biccies, if i make a batch of bolognaise or veggie soup it is pretty pricey but then i dont do it regularly and ruin it by giving him rich tea biscuits for snacks and oven chips with heinz baked beans as a regular dinner! I guess if i plan a sensible menu on a budget of £80 to start off with I could buy those kind of treats for ds if i have money to spare. It is still higher than others but would be a saving of £1040 a year

Oh sorry nikkie and charliecat just noticed about your washing machine and stereo

how easy is it to stick to a budget?? just wondering really do you do it or do you find yourself buying stuff before you realise it/?

I find it's not too difficult to stick to in the shop. Write your list as you run out of things, don't forget to take it with you (obvious I know, but i so often write my list & leave it on the side, Doh!), and STICK TO IT. Do not go down aisles that you don't need to, that way you're not tempted to buy other bits & bobs.

For your extras during the week, either go to the corner shop, where everything is so ridiculously expensive you won't be tempted to spend money, or if you go to Tesco Express just take the money you need, then you can't buy goodies.

Oh yeah, the reason I said 'in the shop' is because that's the easy part. It's later in the week when you want some chocolate or some biscuits that you have to stop yourslef!

I find it difficult to stick to a budget, I draw money out each week but if I start using my card i am done for as I forget to work out how much the items in my basket will cost and get a shock at the till - today we spent £25 in wilkinsons on kitchen spotlights and halogen bulbs, dishwasher tabs (2 4 1), rinse aid, handsoap (2 4 1), large tresame shampoo and a snickers bar (I felt faint ) that is a huge chunk of my budget. I also had to buy nappies this week which is always a bummer.

£25 on that wee amount of stuff? Shhhrrriiieeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkkk.

LOL. Crap when that happens.
Its liberating going into tescos for milk and bread and leaving with JUST milk and bread though. Not 18 quids worth of stuff you needed, but didnt need before you entered the store...

you ignoring me charliecat???

I have been actively avoiding the handwash thats very cheap in tescos at the moment, and am begrudgingly using morrisons 2 in1 shampoo...I long for some tresame, am waiting for it to be on offer

you must be cry cry

Not on MSN, just going to bed. Will sign in 2moro

I frequently check my receipt thinking - there must be some mistake! on the otherhand i was once charged 5X for a loaf of bread and didnt notice until dp questioned why i had spent so much! Groan, i must sound (and infact am) really dizzy and careless. Annoying about the large tresames they are always on offer when I dont need any but decided to bite the bullet because even not on offer its quite good for the money. Handsoap is a real guilt trip for me I know its prob more sensible to buy bars but i cant stand the gloopy mess at the end.

Just got onto internet banking.My out goings are much more than I thought
I have 2 accounts ,one for paying bills d/ds etc and had £580 going into that every month, just worked out it should be £660 how did I go that wrong ?????????

On the plus side my overdraft is going down!