MY FIRST STEP TO BEING FREE FROM DEBT.

As I write this, I am currently £2,667.66 in debt (and that is only my bit, my partner owes around the same amount of money), all because of various reasons, like trying to buy everything me and my other half need before my daughter arrived, needing to secure a new home really quickly as I was living in a bedsit, and just the fact that I wasn't as responsible as I should have been and I was very depressed, full of anxiety and heavily pregnant- these things are not good at what should be the happiest time of my life.

Over a matter of months, I got myself into more and more debt, and what hit me was last week, when I got paid, after going on a weekend trip away, we ended up spending WAY more than we thought we would, and were totally broke, with £5.00 in cash, and £28 between 2 credit cards left to last us till my payday, which was every friday, and we still had to buy formula, nappies, food,top up the electric meter and buy travel for myself to get to work.

This indeed, was one of the tightest months we have ever had, especially cos I had to resort to a payday loan in order to afford the rent. The first thing I thought when this happened was "sh*t, what am I gonna do?" and panicked so much! I think you could officially say that we we JUST surviving on the breadline.



So first of all we thought about what we had in the cupboards, and went to Sainsburys local to snap up a few staples to last us till Friday. We got a combination of things to make sweet chilli chicken, spaghetti bolognese, sausage and mash and pasta bake, which all came up to, say £8. That then left me to buy things for the baby and top up the meter and travel- then it came to me that the gates at the train stations that I use are usually open when I do my night shifts, so I could get away with not touching in with my oyster card, only then needing £10 (cheeky, but necessary!). Then I remembered that the local convenience shop sells formula a lot cheaper than the supermarkets, so that was £6.99 spent. It felt empowering that we still were on a roll even as broke as we were. Then there was the electric meter- I topped up £15 and was an eco warrior with the electric usage in the house, making sure everything was switched off and unplugged while not in use. Surprisingly all this left us with money left over! With lunch, I get a free meal at work, which was lucky, but my partner doesn't so he had to survive on pasta bake till I got paid (sorry hun!).

But after I got paid I thought "we are NOT getting ourselves into this position again!" and had so much drive to get myself and my Mr out of debt and on our way to financial freedom, as we both want so much in our lives. and be able to afford even the most basic things for our child without going totally broke. And I took steps towards financial freedom. I drew up a budget, I started meal planning, but most of all, I did this:



This was one of the toughest things to do because I thought, what if I need the money on my credit card for an emergency? and then decided to have an emergency fund jar for times that we need stuff and don't have the money. I think it's time I grew up and took active steps to gain some control back in my life.

Ify Katherine xo

SKINT AND FABULOUS RECIPE- LEFTOVER WEDNESDAY PRAWN FRIED RICE

This recipe is especially good, if you have leftovers or are low in stock of food and you are sooo hungry! I always have some rice in the fridge left over and wonder what I could create that is easy, yet healthy and enjoyable?

Then I thought- I have some prawns in the freezer too, why don't I make some fried rice!

It is very cheap to make, yet plentiful!

Ingredients:

1 pack frozen prawns

3 mugfuls brown rice

1 tbsp salt

2 eggs

1 tbsp soy sauce

1. Get 3 mugfuls of rice and wash out the starch before cooking for 20 mins. 
2. Leave to cool down- this will mean it would cook a lot better. If you have some rice in the fridge, you are already halfway there!
3. Heat the wok/large frying pan with a little drizzle of oil and fry up the prawns. If you find that there is water left after cooking the prawns, drain them before adding the rice.
4. Gradually add the rice, and add the eggs into the mix, and stir in. Add salt and soy sauce for flavour.

MY TOP 10 TIPS TO SAVE MONEY

Hi guys,

It has been a while since I wrote anything on here- I've been really busy juggling motherhood and sorting out things around the house, and now working and slowly working on my business!

Anyway, here are my top 10 tips this month to save money and stay fabulous.

1. Buy your beauty products in bulk. That way, you can focus your money on other things, AND avoid having to run to the shops just as you have run out!
2. Be bargain shop chic. I personally love shopping at charity shops, £5 bargain shops and sales on the high street. Sometimes, when you go to these places, you can piece more unique outfits, as less people are likely to want them. Also, vintage shops are ones that are not to be missed- when you buy a good quality product it can last a lifetime. Also, there are sometimes sales where you can fill a bag for £10- you cant say no to a bag full of bargain buys, now can you?
3. Put aside a small percentage of your income every week or every month (however often you are paid), and buy all the things for yourself or your family that you would need!
4. If you think you need new clothes, have a look in your wardrobe first. You may find something in there that you haven't worn in a long time that you would like to wear again, and you haven't had to spend anymore money on it. If you still want new clothes- have a clothes swap party with your friends and see if you can get some new lovely things without opening your purse! Or if anything, if you haven't checked it out already, mobile app depop is great for swaps.
5. If you haven't got much money to decorate your home, or your tenancy doesn't allow decorating but you still want to give it a homely touch without spending so much, you can just make do and mend! turn old t shirts into cushion covers, old fabrics as curtains, or spray paint furnishings that you would buy from a cheap/bargain/charity shop and make it look very much distinctive!
6. If like me, you are a mum, and don't have a lot of money to spend on your family, then the best way to cover yourself is to buy own-brand products. Everyone that knows me knows that I am an advocate for Sainsburys Basics/Tesco Everyday Value/ASDAs own products. The branding may look awful but believe me when I say that the taste is not! Some products are even healthier than the more expensive ones so definitely give it a thought. Even with nappies- Tesco Baby nappies are really, really, good! Almost like Pampers. :)
7. Get a nectar card/tesco clubcard! the more you spend, the more points you save, especially when you use your nectar card for spending on eBay/Expedia, which means more discounts for holidays- its a win-win situation.
8. If you don't mind secondhand clothing for your baby- I recommend you buy a clothing bundle on eBay- you can get them as cheap as £15 for a bin bag full of products. You can easily resell them as your bubba grows out of them and make your money back.
9. If you have time, batch cook your meals every 2-3 days. It saves so much electricity, if you have an electric only property and equally as much gas!

And finally, plan your meals, every week. I follow a meal plan, up to a months worth, so you get variety every week and not get so bored. If you also buy your groceries online, save that bus fare/petrol and have it delivered to you!

Happy Scrimping- and don't forget to stay fabulous ;)

Ify Katherine xo

MONEY FIX: HOW TO CREATE AND STICK TO A BUDGET

With Christmas come and gone, it's all easy to forget about the trauma of buying your loved ones so many presents, as well as prepping for the dinner- until you realise how much you have spent and realise how much you gone into your overdraft/credit card limit and spend the rest of the year paying it all back. I have been guilty of that in the past myself, and for the new year, why not break the vicious money cycle and become more organised and realistic with how much you can afford to spend- you can save a lot of headache later on.

1) Create a savings account, especially for Christmas and Special Occasions
Start up a standing order to come out of your income every week/fortnight/month and by the end of the year you have a nice mountain of money to spend and NOT feel guilty. For example, I try to save £20 a month, and by November I have a decent amount to spend.

2) Create a budget, a realistic one
If there's any time to start streamlining your finances, now would be a good start. Take a look at say, 3 months worth of bank/credit card statements and see where you can make the necessary cutbacks. All those "little treats" you've been having do add up in costs, so if you can, make that treat once a month, or once a week at most.

3) List the names of people who you are buying for and how much money you would spend
This way, you are only buying for those people, and no one else, and you maintain your focus to stay on budget,

4) Buy 3 meaningful gifts for each loved ones and then no more.
You don't need to buy loads of presents- you really don't. One Christmas I spent about £500 on my family members and I don't think they really used all the gifts I got, and I just made myself more broke for no good reason! Just by getting the things they need as opposed to buying in bulk would be better appreciated. If you do have to buy in bulk, at least do it the smart way and buy these things on sale as opposed to buying at the full retail price.

I hope you do find these tips helpful!

Lots of Love,

Ify Katherine

Grocery Shopping Online

Hello!

Today I am going to talk about something that has grown increasingly popular- grocery shopping online.

Whilst I wasn't a fan of this at first, I could appreciate the convenience it had for people, especially those who couldn't get out and about easily, or if you were a big business wanting to do a bulk buy. From my first experience (this was with Asda) I didn't have a good experience, because I didn't have assistance with taking the bags upstairs to my studio flat (which was up 4 flights of stairs, and I was pregnant!), most of my items were substituted, and the fact that I have to spend a minimum of £25 (now £40, by the way) didn't appeal to me and cost me £6 to have it delivered, because at the time I was living by myself and only spent a maximum of £20 a week on my food shopping in person.

Anyway- I moved to an area where there was literally NO big supermarkets, only express shops, which is an expensive way to spend money on food long-term and I couldn't travel to the town centre every week as it was costing me £2.90 a week, and I was 9 months pregnant and was pretty worried that my waters would break in public, so at that time, online was the way to go.

So I curled up on the sofa with my fiancee and browsed Tesco online and was pleasantly surprised- I was able to buy quite a lot of items with the budget I had in mind (as I always bought shop branded) and always had at least £5 left to spend, and saved me £20 every week in comparison to shopping in Tesco express.

Also, the price promise that is going on these days has proven to be a godsend, as they email  you codes on discounts for future purchases, which for Christmas, was very useful, as I had saved £16 in one shop thanks to this.

If you have yet to try out food shopping online, then I will give you my 3 top tips:

Plan ahead

Shopping online can be just as, or even more distracting than shopping in person, as there are deals EVERYWHERE, ready to tempt you into buying things that you don't need, so create a shopping list and a realistic budget.

Select a weekday evening

If at all possible- you could pay at least £1 by doing this, which was much cheaper than travelling to buy the things I need at a bigger supermarket.

Collect points

Get a clubcard and register it- every few months you could get a money off voucher which you can use against other purchases.

I hope you find this helpful!

Ify Katherine xo