Out with the old, in with the new: the January NSD challenge

BigMummaF

Bam-biddy-bam-bam.

solventsoon wrote: »

Some helpful suggestions and ideas to follow below from our sponsor and godmother, BigMummaF :A

NO SPEND CHALLENGE.

1. Have a good, long think about what YOU want to include in your Spend & Excluded categories.
Some of us count everything from Direct Debits & school expenses, while others do not include things like essential Bills or emergency medical costs. If you plan what is or is not a Spend for you now, it will help you decide on a realistic Target.
2. It is NOT a race!
We all have very different demands on our time & bank balance, so please do not think you have to buy everything on 1st January & make it last till 31st December! A few of us have been following this Challenge for a long...long...LONG time so have developed plans & ploys to help us along the way
3. Most important of all, WE..DO..NOT..FAIL!
Sometimes we can't quite reach our Target, but that is fine Everyone knows how Life will try to trip us up, & that is when you will find us here to help you back on to your feet.

OK, an idea of how some of us do things.
1. What you will or will not include as a 'Spend'.
Some people are doing other Challenges too, & don't include the money spent on those for this one.
Some will try to shop for other bits on the days their direct debits etc go out of their bank accounts; they're the real hard core of the bunch & have been l-o-n-g time Nsders so don't panic
Some won't count those annoying last minute demands from school & collections as you can't plan for them in advance, likewise emergency prescriptions or visits to the vet
Personally speaking & providing I don't buy anything else, I don't count parking for hospital appointments.(..but then I usually do my shopping because I'm already out :whistle:)
General thoughts on €bay sales is the buyer has paid P&P so no cost to you
2. It takes Time to reach mega-numbers!
The First suggestion is the first, because a bit of planning will work wonders on your road to your Target. Have a look at Solvent's (aka Spoon:rotfl:) first posts each month for a hefty list of other Threads that may be of help. For example, there's a few giving ideas for packed lunches so you can avoid standing in the queue at the bakers for 45mins of your lunch hour! A good incentive to tweak your healthy eating & the pounds you save will show in your bank balance AND your waistline
It helps to have various 'money pots' for the different costs that happen like Scouts, dinner money, yoga, window cleaner etc etc. The idea is you "spend" all that money in one hit by..:think:..let's say **putting the week's bus fares into the pretty coffee jar, Jo's tumble tots SIZE=2]Weds mornings[/SIZE in the cracked teapot & Ben's £1 coin for the gym locker SIZE=2]Friday lunch[/SIZE in the pocket of the changing bag, on Tuesdays every week when you've got some change from doing the food shop, so an already spendy day. At least four 'spending days' condensed into one (**mine's jam jars for windows, milkman & a bit towards the bills!)
3. Any day the money stays in your pocket is a bonus!
If you look at it as a day you beat the system, you can't help but :j so don't fret it--ENJOY! If nothing else in here, we do manage find something to make us smile

We have virtual outings to wonderful places that never cost us a bean :rotfl:New York, Edinburgh & Brighton have been a couple & Spoon usually pilots the Tardis but you can use your own transport; my personal favourite has been a sit-on lawn mower borrowed from the cricket club The only thing to be aware of is Hubert the donkey who is partial to anything remotely edible but is not yet house-trained

And Remember;
there are no silly questions, so don't be afraid to ask us anything!

chris81418

Good morning everyone!

solventsoon wrote: »

Had the day from hell at work and my eyes were sore last night so I didn't really feel up to coming on here last night and staring at the screen again:(.

Hope things are looking up today Spoon.

cw18 wrote: »

What I didn't spend was £2k+ with Emir@tes !!

Hope you had a good holiday Cheryl Don't worry you're secret is safe with us! ... Mum's the word! Seriously though, I'm glad that the cc company managed to pick up that random spend and put a stop to any other unauthorised spends!

slowlyfading wrote: »

I’m feeling better today, thanks for asking

Glad to hear it SF!

butdoineedit? wrote: »

I've missed you all over the last few days which have been frankly, a total nightmare, started with t'interwebby problems on Monday, followed by a friend in crisis yesterday & today was a burst pipe & a horrible situation at work when i found out that someone i work with has been making up horrible stories about me ...

The good news is that this afternoon i got offered a new job :j
(i applied last October & had written it off as no chance by now!!)
It's more money, the perfect job for me & under the circumstances i can't wait to start!!!!

Sorry to hear about the tough time you've had BDINI - that's great news though about the new job! Congrats!

suzie_wong wrote: »

Even though I have BIG debts, I actually feel in control of my spending for the first time I can remember. It feels such a relief

Well done suzie! And now you've got the NSD bug, you'll never be able to drop it - it's highly addictive, and it'll creep into all corners of everyday life - but you'll soon see the debts falling!

niccatw wrote: »

Chris, I've been anthropomising with insouciant abandon today. How about you? :rotfl:

Oh yes! :rotfl:

Anyway - now I've caught up with all the posts, I can declare that yesterday was NSD 20 for me! Woohoo!

Have a good day everyone!

jintyb

Good morning all!

Sorry I missed you all yesterday and also Burns Night, but sadly my MIL passed away on Tuesday night.:( As you can imagine everything is a bit up in the air ATM.
Just been catching up with you all, good to have you back in Blighty, Kerri!:)
BDINI - sorry about your day on Monday, but well done you for coping and congrats re the job, that's brilliant:T
Spoon - hope things have improved for you work wise and you're feeling a bit better (((hugs)))
I was at the hospital yesterday re psoriasis, so Im starting drug therapy next week and Ive got new cream to try to calm the inflammation down - here's hoping Im on the mend;)
I'm also seeing the GP today to have a chat about the sleep pattern - really fed up with this routine of waking up at 3am!

I have clocked up another NSD which brings me to 17 - target met!

Moneypenny and Chris- my word for today is
- discombobulated:rotfl:

Have a lovely day everyone:)

moneypenny2k

niccatw wrote: »

Chris, I've been anthropomising with insouciant abandon today. How about you? :rotfl:

I hope the dr has a pill for that Niccatw, nice cuppa might help though

jintyb wrote: »

Good morning all!

Sorry I missed you all yesterday and also Burns Night, but sadly my MIL passed away on Tuesday night.:( As you can imagine everything is a bit up in the air ATM.
Just been catching up with you all, good to have you back in Blighty, Kerri!:)
BDINI - sorry about your day on Monday, but well done you for coping and congrats re the job, that's brilliant:T
Spoon - hope things have improved for you work wise and you're feeling a bit better (((hugs)))
I was at the hospital yesterday re psoriasis, so Im starting drug therapy next week and Ive got new cream to try to calm the inflammation down - here's hoping Im on the mend;)
I'm also seeing the GP today to have a chat about the sleep pattern - really fed up with this routine of waking up at 3am!

I have clocked up another NSD which brings me to 17 - target met!

Moneypenny and Chris- my word for today is
- discombobulated:rotfl:

Have a lovely day everyone:)

How very Ken Dodd of you Jinty

Seriously, sorry to hear about your MIL. Sending good wishes to you and yours

Going for a nsd today, hopefully my grandson won't want to stop off at the sweetie shop. I'm going to get him helping me to decorate the chicken and ham pies I made with the left over chicken from the carcass and ham trimmings... Very old style but yummy

Spoony and Slowly, hope you're both feeling better very soon

Have a good one all, will report back as long as I'm not too discombobulated. :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

boultdj

:grouphug:Hug's to you and hubby, Jinty.
Hope everyone who's feeling ill start's to feel better soon.
And I'm declairing early,so #20 in the bag.

butdoineedit?

((((((Huge hugs)))))))) Jinty to you & OH, so sorry to hear your sad news, you are both in my thoughts x

mummyroysof3

I am now on 17 NSD :j

will have a spend day today at the kids school book fair and will need to get a few bits of shopping tomorrow, then thats it(i hope) till my tesco delivery on tuesday to start the new month :j

cw18

Jinty - (((hugs)) to you, and a special ((hug)) for your OH if you'd be so kind as to pass it on for me.
didn't think you'd mind in the circumstances?

elf06

CHRIS - can I just say that you hit the nail on the head with all your comments to everyone so (with fear of seeming a tad lazy) ditto to it all - couldnt have put it better mysef.

JINTY - I am so sorry for your loss big hugs to you and your family, please remember to take time for yourselves xxx

As for me well 25th was number 11 (not sure if a round up has been done since then as I'm still showing on front page as 10 but given that both spoony and sf have been under the weather I'm not surprised - please both look after yourselves) but I am pleased to announce that yesterday was NSD 12 for me . It has been a long month for some reason but, to quote bigmumma, it doesnt matter if its 6 or 106 its still money in MY pocket rather than the shops .

I did spend on 26th but purely on woopsies and it was stuff that was on shopping list to be bought at some point anyway so it seemed sensibe to get them when they were going cheap. Which brings me onto my next question (cheryl might be the one to hep me out but any other advice or thoughts are more than wecome). I now work 3 evenings which makes finding the woopsies a whole lot easier for me but could mean that I am spending on each of those 3 days. Would it be acceptable to put aside say a fiver on a normal spendy day to cover any woopsies so as to keep them as NSD's?? If I went over the fiver (which to be fair is unlikely) then I'd count it as a spendy day but if I stayed under then they'd count????

cw18

elf06 wrote: »

Which brings me onto my next question (cheryl might be the one to hep me out but any other advice or thoughts are more than wecome). I now work 3 evenings which makes finding the woopsies a whole lot easier for me but could mean that I am spending on each of those 3 days. Would it be acceptable to put aside say a fiver on a normal spendy day to cover any woopsies so as to keep them as NSD's?? If I went over the fiver (which to be fair is unlikely) then I'd count it as a spendy day but if I stayed under then they'd count????

I did that a couple of months ago, on the proviso the Whoopsies were something I needed rather than fancied on the spur of the moment / just because they were reduced. Ended up spending very little of it, with what I did spend being spent on days that were spends for other stuff anyway, so haven't bothered since.