It’s been a year – 1st anniversary

Since I started this blog – wow how time wizzes by.

This was my first post.

Thank you for all the comments - I do enjoy reading them; welcome to all my followers, for those of you just popping in for a quick look - why not leave a comment and become a follow.

Challenge #1 was to reduce food spending – we are now in the swing of things after a year of looking for yellow stickers, buying meat when it’s on special and putting it in the freezer, bulk buying – stock pile non-perishables when they are on special.  We spend £500- per month; I think it can be reduced but that will depend on everyone on the Hen house being on side.  [Yes you, you there I know you read this?!?]

Challenge #2 build-up emergency funds. This is added to each month and is now £2,000 – it has been used a couple of times and then replaced. I am aiming for £3,000 by year end.

Challenge #3 debt snowballing.  This was perhaps the most revealing; shocking to start with when we realised how much debt we were in - putting it on paper in black & white is very cathartic.  We started with six credit cards and owned over £54k between us; we are now down to four and owe just over £34k (still way too much), a third card will be paid off in the next 3 months, the final payment on the car loan is in September after which snowballing on card #6 can start in earnest.  This card has the lowest interest but I will look at if a balance transfer to a completed card is viable to save.

Sealed pot challenge is continuing;

as I don’t spend much in cash what goes into the tin is limited but I am always on the lookout for £2 coins and £5 notes – both Daddy & SonnyHen feed the tin when they get either.  I weighted the tin back in April and it was 7.1kgs today its 7.5kgs – I have added all this;

 in the spirit of challenge I didn’t count it but it must be around £120.

MummyHen X

 

Some good news

This week I heard that I will get a pay rise – yeah.  It’s only a few per cent but it’s the first pay rise I’ve had in 4years and I’m please but also little disappointed.  I know it sounds awful when there are many who’ve not had a rise in a while or expect to get one in the near future but my company have been talking about it for months – since January – I thought I’d get it back dated until beginning of May but no – it will start 3^rd June.

It means that there will be more money available to pay for the heating – it is so cold at the moment we’ve had the heating on the past few evenings; has anyone else?  I think I will have to put some money away for the extra cost, as it’s during these fine weather months we build up some credit with the electric and gas co for the winter – but not this year. I took a meter reading at the being of May, will take another beginning of June and work out how much the extra has cost and start a purse for extra funds.

Don’t forget to look at my 100th post give away

MummyHen X

Money Saving and Credit Cards

My sealed tin has not seen much action over the past few weeks as I’ve not been spending cash – no cash = no money to put into the tin. I'm not tracking what goes in but I did weigh the tin and it was 7.1kgs - I'll weigh it again in a couple of weeks.  OK the notes won't register but as its mainly coinage - I'm hoping for £1,500 when its opened. In the tin today 1 £5, 3 £2, 3 £1, 3 50p, 3 20p, 1 2p, 3 1p - this lot weighed 120g.

 

 

So I have made a decision to draw out £50 cash each, any change and fivers will go into the tin and any £10 or £20 notes will go towards building up the emergency fund. So it’s a win win all round.

I did get three £2 coins and a fiver this week.

DaddyHen did the sums and transferred the balance from CC#3 to CC#2 and paid off the small amount remaining on CC#2.  Yippee he’s gone from having three cards to one – this card has the lowest interest; yes the balance has gone back over the £10k mark but with 0% on the balance transfer and the £1,000 (after snowballing) minimum being paid each month CC#2 will be paid off by beginning of February – sooner if there’s any spare cash.

We plan to clear out the loft during May – any items that can be sold will be and the money put towards clearing these cards.

How are your plans to save money and be debt free going?

  

MummyHen X

No – I am not a miser

Frugal Queen asked recently  Are you a miser?

In short – No.  But (there’s always a but and this is a BIG BUT) I don’t want to chuck my hard earned cash away so I am careful how I spend and with whom I spend with.

My preference for grocery shopping is to spend with the local butcher, baker and greengrocer; but in practical terms that’s not always possible so Mr T or Mr S will get a visit, on occasion Mr A but he’s the furthest away.  My corner shop Mr CoOp has some great yellow stickers; I always look for yellow stickers, whoopsie, items marked down; most things can be frozen but only buy if you will use it.  I recently got some yellow sticker chicken reduced from £4 to £2.05 and pork shops from £4.00 to £1.99 – they also had some Clover spread and Pizzas reduced but as they aren’t things we eat there’s no point in buying but because the lure of a nice brightly coloured yellow sticker.

We reviewed our energy supplier at the end of February.  We aren’t the best at turning lights off or unplugging equipment – do people really crawl behind the TV each night to turn it off at the mains? The dishwasher is used once a day on average, the washing machine is used on average twice a day, tumble dryer same during the winter – although we have made a conscious effort to reduce this. TVs in four rooms and satellites boxes; DVD player, two laptops, two monitors, a printer, a shredder, phone chargers, clock radios, kettle, fridges, freezers, oven, microwave, boiler, outside light, pond pump, charging drills and other equipment SonnyHen needs for work; it all mounts up. 

For a week every evening we turned off at the mains or unplugged as many devices as we could (obviously it would be foolish to turn off the freezer), took electric reading as we went to bed and then again first thing in the morning – we had used 4 units whilst we slept. The next week we just left everything as normal and we used 20 units – so YES it does make a difference

Do you unplug and switch off at the wall each night?

 

MummyHen X

The journey to a debt free life

is full of pitfalls, obstacles and temptations.

This month we have started to pay down the two credit cards that WILL be paid off later this year.  DaddyHen has snowballed a loan, CC#1 (both of which are fully paid off) & the regular payment to CC#3 and paid £850 to Mr B’card this month.

 

In the post yesterday morning was a letter from Mr B’Card in big bold letters – Important News about your B’card credit limit.  Baring in mind, that the card was last used well over a year ago, minimum +£50 has been paid each month, our initial thought was they were going to reduce – silly us

 

Good news … … your credit limit will be increased from £10,900 to £12,000.  NO NO NO NO 

The letter goes on to say ‘ text KEEP to  blah blah blah if you want to stay at the current limit.  If DaddyHen does nothing then on 19^th March the increase will happen.

 

What annoys me is it should be the other way round; DaddyHen should text if he wants the increase NOT text to stay at the same credit limit. Credit limit increases should be ‘opt-in’ not ‘opt-out’.

 

Needless to say a quick text was sent – roll on December when the card will be paid off.

 

Ohh another weekend of free listings on ebay – I have been busy sorting out a few cupboards

 

MummyHen X

Activity in the Hen house…

Actually there is very little activity in the Hen house – my five hens haven’t laid any eggs since October – each egg they do lay must be worth a fortune (too scared to work it out).  I did notice today that their combs are getting redder so hopefully eggs are going to be back on the menu very soon.

Last weekend was free listing on eBay so I listed 44 items magazines, crafty books, unwanted perfume gift sets that I’ve read and are just taking up space – I don’t need them.  If I can make a few quid for the tin then that’s just a bonus.  These items were making nothing just piled on a shelf.  I plan to get rid of stuff on eBay each month; DaddyHen reminded me that I had boxes of blue and white china in the loft; butter knives and silver spoons; all from many years ago when I when through a collecting phase. 

 

Work has been extremely busy – I work for a large multinational that has offshored many of the back office activities to various locations in Asia.  I was reconciling 2012 budgets and preparing for 2013 activities when I noticed some missing data; I questioned it – nothing happened; I escalated it – nothing happened; I made the onshore team aware – a little movement – just forwarding on my emails; my weekly update with my Leadership team brought it to their attention.  Well this Thursday all hell broke loose when it was realised I was correct – and yes you’ve guessed the offshore team wanted me to fix it; I don’t think so – your processes are broken, you don’t understand what you are doing – you claim to understand when we have conference calls and are shown the issues but clearly you don’t have a clue

 

AHHH – thanks for listening to my rant

 

MummyHen X

Spending Summary September

Moneywise September not good, actually I am very disappointed.

Keep within food budget – Success; we spent less on food shopping actually we had £134 left over. SonnyHen complained we didn’t leave him enough money whilst we were away – WHAT!??! He’s working and earning well no VERY well – he had to food shop for him and GF; maybe he will now realise the cost of food.

Pay extra on CC#1 – spectacular Fail.  Not a penny extra was paid on CC#1.  Really hopeful we can recover in October.

House maintenance – Fail again for second month running; I have given up asking [DaddyHen says I’m nagging] so I will leave this one for a few months.

Keep to holiday budget – Fail – over spent by £50.  After the refunds for the activities that were cancelled, the hotel we had to spend an extra night in, due to the weather, was a little more expensive than the hotel that got cancelled. 

 

I work for a massive organisation and one of the many things I do each month is MI (Management Information) reporting; the group standard On Budget KPI is +/-10% ((spend-budget)/budget)), however, my department works on a +/-5% On Budget KPI.  I try to adopt the same principle in the Hen household.  This month we missed the KPI big time – A big fail during September.

 

Now that we are back home there will be a very tight control during October – unfortunately I’m not organised enough to participate in Stoptober – we will be sticking to no more than £125 per on shopping and trying to eat out of the freezer and cupboards as much as possible.

 

MummyHen X

Eek – cost of printer cartridges

I had forgotten how expensive ink cartridges are.  I have a HP Officejet 7500A.  Its newish; forget how long I’ve had it but must be coming up to a year.  For my work I have to print, sign, scan documents to PDF, so when I was looking for a new printer I needed one with scanning and faxing capabilities – the fact it can also print A3 is a bonus for some of the Family Trees I send to older members of the family.

DaddyHen wanted something printed – the out of ink message came up – checked the cupboard no replacements.  Opened the printer took out the cartridges and gave them a shake – I’m sure I read somewhere that it can trick the printer into thinking it still has ink. In any case I don’t just change the cartridges when the printer tells me.  I keep going until the read quality is totally gone.  We don't actually print that much - may be a dozen sheets a week.  Patterns for knitting and crochet I read on iPad in PDF, likewise for any recipes - although I do worry about the ipad in my very small kitchen.

Previously, I have tried refills – very messy and the print quality wasn’t that good.  Own brand (some large computer stores sell own brand) – tried those; print quality was poor and they didn’t seem to last that long and I had issues with the printer accepting them.  So I stick to branded cartridges – unfortunately my Mr T and Mr S (both of which I have loyalty cards for) don’t stock the type I need.  It wouldn’t be so bad if I got a few loyalty points for spending so much.

 

Black cartridge £24.99; each of the colours £9.99; total spend £54.96.

Lets see how long this lot will last.

 

MummyHen X

September Goals

Wanted to post this a week ago but too much happening – things at work have calmed down, it’s the weekend it's 29 degrees the sun is shining – I’ve been baking (more on that tomorrow) and have the time to finally post about our goals in September.

 

Keep within food budget – four week month and we're away for 10 days but SonnyHen will be staying to look after the cats, chickens, fish and the house; the budget will be £550; however as we're away I am hoping to spend £100 - £150 less.  We will see.

Pay extra on CC#1 – we have really concentrated on paying down this card.  Back at the beginning of July we owned over £8,300, paying extra and snowballing* in the past 10 weeks the balance now just over £4,200; still on schedule to pay this off by end November.

House maintenance - redecorate the dining room

Keep to holiday budget – flights, ferries, some hotels and activities paid.  I have allowed a budget of £80 per day for all extras including lunch and dinner each day – perhaps a little generous but this is our main holiday and don’t want watch the pennies too much.

 

 

 

*Snowballing – finished paying off a loan in July, this monthly sum was then added to the regular monthly payment on CC#1, this means that the monthly payments are now £650 + whatever is left at the end of each month.

 

 

Work life balance struggle

 

Far too much happening – I don’t seem to have got the work-life-balance right at the moment.  So a quick update.

 

These were August goals

Keep within food budget. August is a long month with five weeks so our food budget will be £675 (£125 per week + £50 bulk buy). Met with £12.64 in the kitty 

Pay extra on CC#1 – met paid extra £1,000 

Increase the monthly payments to other CCs – will only be rounding up to nearest 100 but it will help – Met – it’s always a boost to when the statements come in its good to see the amount owing going in the downward direction

House maintenance – redecorate dining room; Failed this will happen before our holiday later in September (I have no control over this.  Paint has been bought I just need a willing body?!!?!)

Book holiday – looking forward to a break at end of September.  Met flights, ferries, hotels & activities all booked.  So looking forward to this

  

MummyHen X

 

Friday in the coop

DaddyHen does the main supermarket shop on a Friday morning.  I try and ensure I finish work early or at a minimum limit the number of meetings – I need the time to wind down after a hectic week.

I popped into the CoOp first thing to see if they had any bargains; oh yes they didn’t let me down– chicken kebabs marked down from £3.00 to £1.45 and asparagus down from £2.10 to £0.99p.

SonnyHen has been asking me for ages to make cheesy bread – so his wish is my command; - after trying to look for a suitable recipe I decided to adapt my regular white bread recipe and add a couple of cups of grated strong cheddar cheese, 2 tbls caraway seeds and 2 tbls of tarragon – I will let you know how I get on – it’s in the oven at the moment proving.

Two of my girls - yes, I keep five hens (well I’d didn’t get the name MummyHen for nothing) are broody again.  They are Lemon Cuckoo Orpingtons named Linda (after my Mum) and Betty (my aunt; mums sister).  I don’t have a cockerel so no point in them sitting on eggs – they'll go into the broody cage for 48hrs

 

Not sure what the weekend offers – nothing planned except perhaps some Olympic viewing and some crochet

MummyHen X

End July Spending Round up

A month has gone by, the pounds have stopped flowing into the cash registers of retailers and into the pockets of the banks – I know it sounds weird but that’s what’s happened during July in MummyHens coop.

It’s been an interesting month of getting into the routine and habit of shopping differently – I am obsessed with looking for yellow price reduction stickers; we found a few joints of meat that were reduced. 

The slicer has been used at least once a week to either slice homemade bread or slice the joints of ham, beef or chicken; I don’t think about buying ham or chicken in packets any longer and the yield from each joint is so much more with the slicer.  We have set aside an area in the summerhouse for bulk buying household items; toilet rolls, dishwasher tabs, washing power – basically anything that’s not perishable – it now looks like a duka [Swahili word for a shop]

Achievements

1.  Yeah - our food budget came in on budget – OK £3.90 to roll over; spent £498.76 plus £47.34 on bulk buy

2.  Emergency Fund - £1,000 is safely ensconced for emergencies.

3.  Paid off loan - this money will be snowballed to pay down CC#1.

4.  CC #1 – extra paid; this card will be paid off in November.

5.  Summerhouse maintenance – Re-felted the roof, painted outside.

August Goals

1.  Keep within food budget. August is a long month with five weeks so our food budget will be £675 (£125 per week + £50 bulk buy).
2.  Pay extra on CC#1.

3.  Increase the monthly payments to other CCs – will only be rounding up to nearest 100 but it will help.

4.  House maintenance – redecorate dining room.

5.  Book holiday – looking forward to a break at end of September. 

Lots happening in August: Tall ship cruise; Climb the Dome; DaddyHens birthday; visit MummyHens mum. 

MummyHen X

Fortnightly spending roundup

Well - we’ve been trying to be frugal and carefully with our spending for two weeks now.  In addition to the mortgage and the regular bills we have spent.

	Amount
DIY	£239.68
Food	£350.77
Meat Slicer	£40.99
Petrol	£40.00
Vet	£211.17
Total	£882.61

The food amount includes part of the £50 allocated to bulk buying – some good bargains to be had on items close to use by dates (I seem to be attracted to yellow stickers!!) and some household items reductions on washing power and dishwasher tablets.  The DIY spend was to complete a project, new workshop, that had already started before our new way of spending.  Of the £882.61; £491.84 won’t be a regular monthly expenditure as these were one offs. 

There’s £200 in the food budget for the next two weeks; DaddyHen is convinced that we will come in on budget – which will be great; I'd like to come in under but let's see.

Eight no spend days in the last 14, would have been ten but we had two visits to the vet.

MummyHen X

PYO

DaddyHen and I went PYO –Pick Your Own; on Saturday morning; yes it rained but then it’s been raining here in England constantly since beginning of April.

We went to Hewitts Farm– it’s a vast site with lots of lovely fruit and veg.  We picked Yellow Chard, Broad Beans, Peas, Strawberries and Raspberries.  It was a little wet underfoot but had gone prepared with wellies, coats, and hats, although there was a short shower not long after we arrived it was rather nice to get out into the open air.  This past week had been very busy with work and I didn’t get much time to get away from the office.

 

With all this awful weather we’ve been having some of the fruit was just rotting – people haven’t wanted to get out in the rain to PYO; which is such a shame as the taste of the fruit is just so real; like you remember from years ago before the polytunnel.

 

In a month or so the apples will be ready – the trees were just laden with fruit.

 

In an adjacent field was a mare with her delightful foal

MummyHen X

Sliced meats

I mentioned in the last post about how much we were spending on sliced meats each week; well, I bought this meat slicer.

From here, had to order it as my local store didn't have any but the click and collect service is very efficient.

Cooked the meat, left it to cool on a rack, put in the fridge overnight and next morning got slicing

Pork 2.6kg £7.18 *bargain* yielded 800g of sliced meat - Lower right

Chicken 700g £5.00 yielded 450g of sliced meat - lower left

Turkey 700g £5.00 yielded 450g of sliced meat - top left

Beef 2.0kg £12.18 yielded 1.385kg of sliced meat - top right

If we had bought this sliced in the supermarket, usually 2 packets for £4.00 (a packet is 100g) it would have cost over £60. These four joints cost £29.36.  Yes, we had to buy the slicer but that will pay for its self very quickly.

I’m really very pleased, I have 20 packets (4 slices per packet) of sliced meat; 16 of which will go into the freezer, we had some of the pork for supper on Saturday evening, and we have one packet of each in the fridge.

MummyHen X

What's it about …

It’s about me, MummyHen, and my family’s (DaddyHen & SonnyHen) journey to becoming thrifty, debt free, the things we like doing and places we like visiting; I hope you’ll drop by and see how we get on.

Having read other blogs, see My blog lists for my favourites and those that give me inspiration, for a few months on how others have managed to change their lifestyles, some forced some by choice; I took a look at the MummyHen household and decided we spend far far too much, we have far too much debt (mortgage & credit cards) and it’s not reducing quick enough, we have far too little savings and its time things have to change.

So a plan was hatched – we will start today 1^st July 2012.

Challenge #1 – Reduce Food Spending

1.      I calculated that we spent way over £1,200 in June.  July’s food budget will be £500.

2.      Cash will be used and when it’s gone it’s gone – a daily record of spending will be kept.

3.      Decided not to use the milkman any more – not an easy decision as we’ve used him for years but he’s way too expensive.  This is what we had each week from the milkman:

a)      3 Skimmed Milk @ 66p per pint = £1.98

b)      1 Semi-skimmed milk @ 66p per pint = £0.66

c)       3 pints orange juice =£3.45

d)      3 pints apple juice = £3.45

Total spend per week £9.54, that’s just short of £500 per year

Equivalent at supermarket

a)      1 Skimmed milk 2pts = 89p

b)      1 Semi-skimmed milk 2pts = 89p

c)      3 Every day/basic orange juice 1ltr (2pints) @ 56p =£1.68

Total spend per week £3.46, that’s just short of £180 per year

It’s a no brainer; we have to use the supermarket as it will save over £300 during the year.

Challenge #2 – Build up an emergency fund

1.       We don’t have a easy to get at cash emergency fund – in the past it would have gone on a credit card – these are now band

2.       £1,000 cash emergency fund will be put together during July

3.       It will only be used for emergencies – ie boiler breakdown. Not to be used for food shopping 

Challenge #3 – Snowballing debt

Six credit cards between MummyHen & DaddyHen – all nearly maxed out, total debt over £50,000. Wow, OMG that’s really freighting to see it written down and for us to admit this level of card debt.

1.       Minimum payments have been setup to ensure there are no additional charges EVER.  The card with the highest interest rate will be targeted.

2.       Our aim is to pay off the first card, by 1^st January 2013 – that’s six months

3.       DaddyHen as a loan that will finish in August, the payments previously for the loan will be rolled over to the 1^st card, plus

On a lighter note there will also be posts about what we do as a family – well SonnyHen is getting older so most times it just me and DaddyHen.