A fantastic February with the NSD challenge

IF

solventsoon wrote: »

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!

butdoineedit?

Sorry, all that chatting & i forgot what i had come for!!

Not one for me today, as much as i loathe mid week grocery shopping now i had to grab some plain flour & sugar as i didn't have any in & my friend has given me this friendship cake that needed them tonight.

I know that sounds weird, the only way i can describe it, is that it's a bit like a chain letter but in cake farm, she gave me this little bit of sourdough batter & some instructions, i have to add certain ingredients on certain days & then when it's done i divide it up, bake my bit & pass the other bits on so my friends get a cake too, that's why the flour & sugar couldn't wait!!

I hate starting the month on a spend day, but i'll be back on track tomorrow!!

Spendaholic_Chick

oops, accidentally bought something on evilbay today...no NSD here yet!

WelshDreamer_2

1/18 NSD today whoohoo lol

kerri_gt

Evening guys, just a quick stop by from me tonight. Feb hasn't started with a NSD, but it was a LSD ... needed foil for sarnies and picked up two rolls as when we're both using it, we do get through a fair bit. Also picked up some chicken oxo cubes. Total spend £2.97 :A

Had a bash at making some chicken, mushroom and rice soup tonight using some of the left over chuck from last night. MnS used to do it and it was the only soup I really enjoyed treating myself to, but they seem to have stopped it so I've tried making my own using some chicken stock and campbells mushroom soup and chucking in some shredded chicken, brown rice and mushrooms...oh and some white wine (cos it was in the fridge) and some milk (cos it tasted a bit saltly) now got a Mahusive pot of it so hope it was worthwhile - esp as it's my lunch tomorrow :eek:

Got a few coupons with exp dates in the next day or so, so need to plan next few days carefully. Right, off for a glass of wine (purchased courtesy of wombled APGs...thank you Mr A shoppers :T) Nite xx

Wellyboots6

butdoineedit? wrote: »

Sorry, all that chatting & i forgot what i had come for!!

Not one for me today, as much as i loathe mid week grocery shopping now i had to grab some plain flour & sugar as i didn't have any in & my friend has given me this friendship cake that needed them tonight.

I know that sounds weird, the only way i can describe it, is that it's a bit like a chain letter but in cake farm, she gave me this little bit of sourdough batter & some instructions, i have to add certain ingredients on certain days & then when it's done i divide it up, bake my bit & pass the other bits on so my friends get a cake too, that's why the flour & sugar couldn't wait!!

I hate starting the month on a spend day, but i'll be back on track tomorrow!!

I did one of those once, it was called a Herman cake and made lovely cakes.

I have never been able to find the recipe to start it off though, I would really like to start one again

Wellyboots6

Righty, Butdoineedit? You have helped me decide that today was in fact a SPEND day!!

I really need to knock these impulse buys on the head.

Tomorrow will be a NSD, it will it will!!

mf0u1098

Can you please put me down for a target of 16 again this month? Thanks for all your hard work on this thread guys xxx

cw18

Ended up not ordering yeast etc for Friday pick-up. Having checked stocks I realised I didn't actually need sugar (still have 4 or 5kg on top of my kitchen cupboards, as well as 1kg on the worksurface that never made it up there). Spent a couple of hours trying to find my way around the site (seems to repeat some of the same items within a single search result list!), and decided there were a few things of interest but I don't have space for most of them at the moment (mostly frozen stuff) and it wasn't really worth doing the extra mileage just for the dried yeast.... so I'll leave it another few weeks and buy locally for now.

While I was picking my way around the site I heard noises outside the house, and realised the window cleaner was here - so I nipped out and paid him for this month as I had the money on me. This means I've hopefully already earned the possibility of 2 extra NSDs, as I allowed for every D/Debit and regular cash bills to go out on individual days but I've had 2 D/Debits and the window cleaner all go out today :T

I also remembered I needed to get my annual running club membership fee paid in the next couple of weeks, so I did that this morning as well (had allowed for doing it on a day that was already a spend day).

I did nip down to Mr M just after 5pm though, which meant I could check the chilled final reductions while picking up some dried yeast. Managed to get a pack of 6 large chipolatas (which I had for tea), 2xtubs of JusR0l croissants (which I'll keep for the weekend when I'll probably have company), a tub of single cream (don't like drinking coffee made with milk), and a pack of of Tw!x caramel slices (biscuit bars the size of individual flapjack fingers) for £1.25 instead of £6.49. Also picked up dried yeast (79p) as well as a bunch of flowers which are a treat for myself - but I wouldn't have bought them if they hadn't been reduced from £5 to 35p

brummiebabe

I did well last month so am in again, if that's ok. Can you put me down for 15 NSDs please - it's a busy birthday month for us...but I'll try hard!!!

Today was NSD #1 - so 1 down, 14 to go:j