Giving up Money for Lent

TurnaroundSue

6 no spends days for for - yippee!!! :j

But I am in a bit of a quandry - my dad passed away 7 years ago this May and I have always promised myself that one day I would plant a tree/buy a specific plant for my garden - as he was cremated and so nowhere really to visit (sorry to be so morbid at this time of the morning). Anyway for xmas I bought my mum a lovely personalised pot with an inscription on it as a rememberance thing for my dad. They have now e-mailed me (and this is were my quandry lies) and said they are closing down and all orders need to be in by 31/3/07! :eek: Now I would like one of these pots for my own garden with some subscription on as a rememberance to my dad, but it would cost around £75 and I haven't allowed for it in the budget, so would REALLY be breaking my no money for lent challenge - but I really would like one of these pots for my dad - what do I do?

Any offers/advice/tips gratefully received

flowerofscotland

TurnaroundSue wrote:

6 no spends days for for - yippee!!! :j

But I am in a bit of a quandry - my dad passed away 7 years ago this May and I have always promised myself that one day I would plant a tree/buy a specific plant for my garden - as he was cremated and so nowhere really to visit (sorry to be so morbid at this time of the morning). Anyway for xmas I bought my mum a lovely personalised pot with an inscription on it as a rememberance thing for my dad. They have now e-mailed me (and this is were my quandry lies) and said they are closing down and all orders need to be in by 31/3/07! :eek: Now I would like one of these pots for my own garden with some subscription on as a rememberance to my dad, but it would cost around £75 and I haven't allowed for it in the budget, so would REALLY be breaking my no money for lent challenge - but I really would like one of these pots for my dad - what do I do?

Any offers/advice/tips gratefully received

Hi,
You asked for comments so here goes: this is a very difficult situation but reading it without emotion (easy for me because I am not involved) the first thing that struck me was that £75 is a HUGE sum for a pot, personalised or not. Does this include the shrub? Could you do something similar but at a lower cost? Planting your own tree or shrub would cost a fraction of this and I am sure you could come up with some kind of marker if you need it.
One suggestion is the plant a tree charity http://www.treesforlife.org.uk/helping/pat_life.html
For a minimum donation of £15 they plant a tree for you and send you a certificate - OK it isn't in your garden but perhaps you could do that later.
Another suggestion - do you have a birthday in the near future? Could you ask for a contribution to this as your present?

Hope some of this helps - I'm sure you will get lots of helpful ideas

flowerofscotland

5 NSDs and 1 day where I only spent budgeted money so feeling quite pleased so far. Yesterday was easy as I was so busy but today will present a challenge. I have to fill up with petrol and know that I will be tempted by the magazines if they include coverage of the Oscars so intend to use a Pay at Pump petrol station. Also removes the temptation of chocolate etc at the till

the_optimist

TurnaroundSue wrote:

6 no spends days for for - yippee!!! :j

But I am in a bit of a quandry - my dad passed away 7 years ago this May and I have always promised myself that one day I would plant a tree/buy a specific plant for my garden - as he was cremated and so nowhere really to visit (sorry to be so morbid at this time of the morning). Anyway for xmas I bought my mum a lovely personalised pot with an inscription on it as a rememberance thing for my dad. They have now e-mailed me (and this is were my quandry lies) and said they are closing down and all orders need to be in by 31/3/07! :eek: Now I would like one of these pots for my own garden with some subscription on as a rememberance to my dad, but it would cost around £75 and I haven't allowed for it in the budget, so would REALLY be breaking my no money for lent challenge - but I really would like one of these pots for my dad - what do I do?

Any offers/advice/tips gratefully received

I agree with flowersofscottland, £75 sounds quite expensive. But you've got a month, so see if you can get something cheaper but equally good. If you can't, then buy it. I think, there is a difference between buying chocolate or magazines just because you fancy some, or buying something meaningful.

Anyway, if you leave the order til 31/3/07, with a bit of luck, the money won't come out of your account til 07/04/07 - end of Lent!

Purpleroses

flowerofscotland wrote:

5 NSDs and 1 day where I only spent budgeted money so feeling quite pleased so far. Yesterday was easy as I was so busy but today will present a challenge. I have to fill up with petrol and know that I will be tempted by the magazines if they include coverage of the Oscars so intend to use a Pay at Pump petrol station. Also removes the temptation of chocolate etc at the till

For Oscar coverage go to one of the celeb blogs, they're full of the pictures and who won etc and they're free! Its helped me cut out the magazine anyway!

Going to help mum at the charity shop today. I have a "business budget" so if i see any material it will come out of that. now just need to avoid the books to sell on Amazon.

hypno06

Got through yesterday with difficulty but did manage.

A friend was in need of help and some looking after following very emotional and difficult day so I did use some of my grocery money to get chocolate cake to take round. However, knowing of my financial predicament, she gave me the money for it!!!!

Then had to do ASDA (I hate that place!!) but went armed with meal plan and shopping list. I didn't buy anything "off list" and was really careful buying reduced and own brand, but still ended up spending £55. I was really disappointed because I still felt as though I had scrimped and saved all the way round but ended up with a hefty bill at the checkout! I did check my receipt afterwards to make sure that -

a) I had been charged correctly for all the reduced stuff
b) I had not put stuff into my trolley that I conveniently "forgot" the moneysaving thing about (not good english, but you will know what I mean!)

But, it was all correct, so I just have to try harder next week. But I do promise that there was nothing extravagant, or unnecessary in there - no nice shampoo, no nice coffee, no biscuits, no nothing!

So, essentially a NSD for lent challenge purposes but a difficult one!

hypno06

How did my post appear twice so far apart - I wasn't even logged on at 11.59!!!!!

Not going mad - honest.....

CAFCGirl

TurnAroundSue,

I can't remember if I read this previously, but do you have kids? if so maybe you could utilise the family and personalise your own large pot from a garden centre?
As for a remembrance garden, could you maybe ask friends and family for a contribution toward a tree, that way it's something for everyone?

And dont apologise, we're all here to help

Hypno06:
What sorts of things did you have on your list? And how many people was it for? I'm sure if we juggle about with the laws of averages it wont work out too bad.

I too am going to need to be very regimented with my shopping bills so I'm going to spend an hour or so reading thru OS and see if I can find the cheapest meal plan known to man!!!

postingalwaysposting

afternoon all... well i have just got back from my driving lesson but that was budgeted nothing else needed today so another nsd :T

ShirleyPark_2

Lunchtime on my training course and I'm hiding on MSE so I don't get tempted with shopping ! I managed to find an empty bottle in the BF's study last night, so I grabbed that. He'd bought a multipack of snickers as he's off on a 1 day seminar thing and decided that he'd better take some food with him as he's a really fussy eater and probably won't like most of the food they have provided, so he gave me 2 of them, so that's my chocolate fix sorted for today and tomorrow.

My sister is cooking dinner tonight while I'm over there, so that's tonights food sorted as I won't get home until about 10pm. Tomorrow is traditionally pay day takeaway in our house, our reward for being good all month. I tried persuading the BF that we should skip it this month because of going out for dinner last weekend, but he said no, and then agreed that he'd pay for it - hurrah !! It's actually in my budget, so I'm going to move the money I've saved by not paying for it into my savings account.