The jubilant July NSD challenge

IF

Evening all :hello:

No worries Spoon, hope your had a nice Saturday off and could relax a little bit today too x :A





Written by solventsoon aka Spoon our hero:-

Hi lovely NSD gang:A
As you can see there is lots of activity on this challenge at the moment and it's difficult sometimes to see how many NSDs you're all declaring on posts.
Could I ask you to highlight your number of NSDs in a colour and in bold so that I can see them easily when I whizz through the posts - red would be best but I don't really mind as long as I can see the numbers easily.




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!

cw18

And today is NSD #6 :T

And I'm very proud of myself today

Went to the gym for a Step class this morning - and took my purse with me, which is normally a fatal mistake as the gym's on a retailpark
Came out of the gym and decided to have a mooch around B'n'M, P0undStretcher and Tesco. Really looking at bedding/curtains, as the next room I want to work on is my bedroom (starting this week) and I'm looking at changing the colour scheme to make it 'mine' rather than 'ours' (had to take hubby's rather uninterested opinions into account 9 years ago).
Saw a few non-bedding bits in B'n'M that I was seriously tempted by, but managed to convince myself that if I saw any bedding etc I'd be taking a few days to think about them - so could pick up the other bits when I'm spending on those
And in the end I didn't actually see any bedding that really had the 'wow' factor in would need in order for me to buy them, so I'm still looking

The current bedding and curtains won't go to waste though, as I have the same colour scheme/curtains/bedding in bedroom 2 (the one I call the spare room) - so they'll just become spares for in there Currently only have one set of bedding for that room, and it'll be nice to be able to take the curtains down for washing without having to wait for them to dry (and be ironed :eek: ) before I can put something back up at the window

Learning2Budget

NSD 5 1/3 of the way there now. This month has been a poor month, cos i was away mid month, so had to buy holiday bits. Shopping day tomorrow so no NSD there either

SillyBlondie

Good evening everyone

I'm back from my hols, had a fabulous time. NSD # 7 for me today and I've nearly reached my target.

slowlyfading

Number 9 for me please

bellkat

It's NSD 10 for me please. Only 2 more to reach my target!!

beanielou

No NSD today as have been to a fantastic Help for Heoro's funraiser.
Had a lovely day though.

positivelypurple

Evening all! Reporting in with NSD 10 :j:j:j Very pleased with myself as I'd seen a few things online today that I was very tempted by, got as far as checking out but then decided to sleep on it

Hope you've all had a lovely Sunday

TizerCat

I think its safe to say I have managed NO 5 today as nearly bed time

kerri_gt

TizerCat wrote: »

Whats with the wombling receipts kerri gt? and how did you get the spam free? I've seen someone else post this too? sorry to ask but I'm a bit of a newbie....

Never be sorry to ask on this thread TizerCat, there's no silly questions

Wombling receipts is err... well basically picking up receipts that other shoppers have discarded, folks 'womble' them and then do the price comparisons at Mr A and Mr T, and also some collect the cc points if they haven't been added to Mr T ones already. I admit I do feel a bit conspicious nosing round the carpark, and I'm not sure what view the stores take but if people don't want their receipts I don't think I'm doing any harm, plus I am collecting litter too

Spam are giving away 100 free tins a day via 'liking' them on FB - search Spam UK and it will take you to the page. They release the cans at diff times each day so you need to keep an eye out, then you get taken through to a printable coupon which you can redeem in store (all the bit supermarkets should accept them, it's not store specifc)

hth