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!

IF

Afternoony Peeps :hello:

jaffacakegal

I will I will I WILL get an NSD today!!! (but I won't claim just yet, just in case I don't!)


Trying to start diet today - soup for dinner, and all my stir fry stuff cut up ready for me at home so no excuse!!


JCG x

rising_from_the_ashes

Hi everyone, thanks for all the good wishes .... unfortunately, it didn't go well:(. It was one of the sealed unit scanners and I just couldn't stay in it (rather embarrassing panic attack:o) pretty awful experience tbh and now have to be referred back to the hosp with the open ended scanner (don't know why they didn't send me there in the 1st place as I had one there the last time & the Dr knows I'm claustrophobic:mad:).

So ..... £12 in fuel, parking, train & bus fares down the drain .... totally exhausted & have a thumping headache so just a quick visit to catch up on threads & I'll be heading back to bed (where I've been since I got home at lunchtime).

Will catch up with all your posts tomorrow - hope all is well:)

LittleMissHappy_2

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Hi everyone, thanks for all the good wishes .... unfortunately, it didn't go well:(. It was one of the sealed unit scanners and I just couldn't stay in it (rather embarrassing panic attack:o) pretty awful experience tbh and now have to be referred back to the hosp with the open ended scanner (don't know why they didn't send me there in the 1st place as I had one there the last time & the Dr knows I'm claustrophobic:mad:).

So ..... £12 in fuel, parking, train & bus fares down the drain .... totally exhausted & have a thumping headache so just a quick visit to catch up on threads & I'll be heading back to bed (where I've been since I got home at lunchtime).

Will catch up with all your posts tomorrow - hope all is well:)

Poor you rising :grouphug: Hope you are feeling better soon xxx It is poor that they knew you were claustraphobic and sent you there, such a waste of time and money and that is without considering what a trauma it was for you

LittleMissHappy_2

NSD 6 for me today, got Mr T order delivered but I don't count that as a spend (it was free delivery ). Got a lovely surprise when I got a free Royal Staffordshire (I think!) cheeseplate delivered courtesy of my lovely sis winning it for me I am soo lucky (well, sis is but I get the benefits because I have a lovely sis!) x

lashley82

I'm now in for the night so this is NSD no 4/19 for me. Average one every two days at the minute

cw18

And today gives me NSD #6

No Direct Debits this morning, so I determined not to spend on anything else - which meant I had to be very strong !!

Someone mentioned on another thread yesterday that Mr M have a better deal on the cereal I'd put on my list to get from Mr T on Friday, so I decided I'd better bob down to my local store to check if they had it in..... and decided I might as well check everything on my list while I was at it. So I toddled off to Mr M with a print-out of my Mr T list, and wandered around the store with pen and paper in hand. Several bits are indeed cheaper there, so I now need to rejig my Mr T list to take those off (and find other things I can stock up on to replace them), and on Friday morning I need to call into A!di (some of the veg is cheapest there) then Mr M before heading off to the gym and Mr T (want to do the other stores first, 'cos if they're out of stock it means I can then pick up at Mr T rather than getting stuck without)

mytimetoshine2012

Hi everyone,

Just a quick one today to say that I ahve got NSD 4 today. Had a great day doing OS things too. Hoovering on economy 7 , used up gammy veg for soup at lunchtime:), ordered some freebies , received an unexpected £12 from an expense claim I had forgotten about and got LOADS of work done :rotfl:

Rising - sorry things didn't go well. I hope that you haev a good resta nd feel a bit better tomorrow. Hopefully the doctors and the hospital can get it all sorted out so as you don't have to go through that horrible experience again!

Kerry-gt - I'm glad that you didn't mind and I'll be especially areful with any funny ones

jintyb - it is nice to natter about the underground. I am very jealous of your trips out. I love doing things like that. When are you going?

Freeby - I went to Austria years ago (ahem 20 years ago ) and it was MEGA expensive (for instance a glass of coke not even a whole can was £2.00). We used to get bread from local bakeries and buy cheese slices from the supermarket pretty much as we would over here. Sure it will be fine.

Thanks to those looking after the thread again too. You're all doing a brilliant joband I love it!

I'm not sure about tomorrow as an NSD as I am meeting a cleeague for coffee, although techically it is her turn to pay...so we'll see.

I'll check in anyway as I seem to be addicted!

MTTS

mooomin

NSD #5 here. Still off work but feeling better and back to work tomorrow I think. I already had a day off booked for Friday, so don't have too long to suffer through.