Just say NOvember!!! ( are you brave enough )...

WantToBeSE

killerpeaty wrote: »

.. That sounds amazing! I want!

*cheers on*

hahaha, i hope it tastes as nice as it smells and looks! Just waiting for it to cook so i can spread the buttercream, dust with isong sugar, and do the taste test

CandyCupcake

Spend day done and out the way. £10.50 for a full weeks shop!! The vouchers certainly helped

Candy
x

gelmc

wannabee_in_credit wrote: »

Hello
I am so sorry that I haven't been able to get online to report in with my NOvember progress for a few days. Unfortunately the proverbial has hit the fan at work. I won't moan about it here because I'm just about to moan about it on my diary on here - suffice to say that I'm another teacher (who gets 13 weeks a year off), and I haven't gotten home before 6pm any night last week (one night was 8pm), and I've done 6 hours work last night and today.

Keep hanging in there! Plus the month will be gone in the blink of an eye. You know how quickly the weeks fly by in our game.

I've had a spend day today. Took a little trip to Lidl, which seems to have a lot more lines now so was quite impressed but only bought some strawberries, water, blueberries and a tin of butter beans. Also went to a little town near here, to go to the green grocers and I asked the girls working the tills to recommend a butcher. They told me to go to the indoor market and I was able to buy a very large chicken breast (which was the size of two anemic supermarket ones put together), that cost £1.56. I'll certainy be going back there!

Will be batch cooking butternut squash and sweet potato soup and chilli tomorrow.

Hope you're ok Kat?

Over and out...

searching_me

just ordered my free graze .. thanks abundant you reminded me also well done on your determination thumbs way up ...

i came well under my budget for today for my budgeted spend day so im put the rest with my xmas budget for monday ...

apart from that its been a NSD .. that counts right ... which was hard as i had to go in to aldi with my aunt and boy did i have to fight the urge to spend but said NO! (even mentally smacked my hand) .. it was like devil and angel on my shoulders and thankfully the angel won ..

got sausages out the freezers for bangers and mash for tomorrows dinner and i'll make my lunch in the morning ..

wic ... massive hugs .. :coffee: and biccies for all xx

WantToBeSE

This evenings materpiece. Sponge cake with chocolate buttercream icing:

Cranny44

Well yesterday was a spend day as expected but got some xmas shopping done, thanks to the L'Occtaine grabbits....even got OH nice set as he has just about run out of everything - and he wouldnt be getting smellies for xmas from anyone as we dont really buy for adults in the family and his mum is giving us $$$$$ for our Texas trip at easter so nice treat for him, and extra gift set for another birthday next year. Also 2 pairs of Boden jammies for grand-daughter for £12 - bargain as gave me 15% off full price then £10 off regardless and free delivery so bought a bigger size to last us next year when shes here.

Most shocked yesterday to get an offer of going to the SIL for xmas dinner - never had an invite in almost 20 years but as i am trying to be very MSE and need to stay on the NO wagon til easter then we accepted as it will be all done for free, as she wont want us to take anything and i already have a couple of bottles of champagne i won left which i will take.

Shopping total updated now at £102.37 /£120, hoping to stay in target still as i go away on 25th should be do-able as freezer still full most of spend went on 1/2 price mouthwash which i like that was on offer so spent extra stocking up on it til easter. On the plus side i would normally have spent alot more than this already so i am really being aware of what i have spent so far this month.

I now have approx £50 of Mr T vouchers plus £6 off a £40 spend before 19/11 so contemplating this to stock up for free???? I dont use the vouchers for anything else really so need to think about this.........

NinjaSavingKat

[FONT=&quot]Well now....

A very good evening / morning / afternoon to one and all! Sincerest apologies for being incommunicado for the ENTIRE day but one was otherwise engaged... I shall explain!

I am a volunteer with an organization who aid the emergency services. I cannot go into detail and will always keep my identification a secret - even if I ever manage that book:rotfl: - and am sometimes drafted in to do training days. Today was one of them.

This is in addition to my work which is intense during the week so having arrived home late on Friday from walkies around town I hit the hay to wake early today. Went to training, came home around 5pm, went to bed until 9pm and am now at work until 7am.I will however earn myself another £160 though so I am chuffed about this and have scored another NSD as well. Oooh plus another guaranteed £12.50 so far on an item on eBay that ends tomorrow. :T

However.. I am sorry for leaving you all for so long. I don't like doing that and usually want to check in at least twice a day to see how you are all going. I am impressed with so many NSD's coming in and the baking that's taken off...

I do feel though that now we are in the second week people are becoming more resolute, stubborn and down right protective of their pennies. We will have bad days - days when people annoyed us an we want cake, where kids drive us mental and we just want a drink.. I knew these times would come.

The gloss is wearing off and we are hitting the reality that we might not be able to stretch the month or that things are getting that little bit tougher...:o

What can I say.. GOOD! You are all soldiers in the war against debt. Simple as that.. We are fighting a fight that will could bring us to our knees. Well I say while your down there look under your sofa for loose change. Then get up and push on.

I was desperate for some Tesco cheese puffs last night but walked straight passed. I put bread in the machine before my nap and it didn't work - now I have wasted an entire loaf of flour and have nearly ruined my landladies bread maker... but I am going to do another batch tomorrow!!!

You are all doing SO well! Those of you who are having a horrid time with NSD's and shopping tomorrow is another day..

I want to say thank you to those worried about my absence.. you are all very sweet.. now then.. I need to check in...

Cranny44 - what is the SIL? Well done on scoring a free visit though. You are clearly thinking very MSE for everything! Well done the shopping - you are coming close to your maximum so be strong! Stay under it - where are the holidays planned for?

WanttobeSE - well done on your cake! Very impressed!! Now gimme some...:)

Searching_Me - well done in Lidls.. its very tempting to splurge as they are so cheap but thinking about what we already have prevents waste in the long run - not that I would ever suggest an MSE'er wastes food..

A good point has been raised in Searching_Me's post. What are you all doing with what is left over in each weeks food pot money? I know some of you are doing large shops to last a few weeks so maybe this is something you can think about toward the end of NOvevmber.

But those of you who are doing it week by week as I am, are you putting what is left to one side and then working with a brand new crisp £10 or £20..? Abundant I believe you are doing this.. This should then mean you have a nice little pot of spare cash that you can through straight at a debt?

I have managed to squirrel away £38.63. This boils down to change from a week of no shopping ( £13.63 ), £10 from no train ticket on Friday and £15 as I over estimated my camping trip. So that will be going straight to my Bike loan fund I think. bit by bit I will chip it AWAY!!:p:p:p

GelMC - I like the sound of your soup and well done for supporting the local butchers instead of the SM!!

Candy - I think you have inspired me ( along with all the other posts ) to get my vouchers out and use them this week. I have actually brought them into work in order to study them!

Wishing My Life Away - right lady. May I just say you are a ruthless MSE chickadee if you are not going out on a Saturday night yet attempt to make profiteroles instead? This is HARD and I want to know how they came out? I love them - generally eat them until I am sick. It's how I roll...

JamieDodger - despite the little ones being fussy eaters you seem to be getting along ok. They have been created to challenge you..:):)

Wanna-Be.. work can really get us down sometimes and good grief yours especially. its tough but it sounds like BF is looking after you! Great news with the shop though!! Come to rant when you want.. its what this thread is made for...

Right.. that's enough for one post I think!! I am off to work a little, order a graze box, work out this weirdness on the Lovefilm thing I got cash-back on.. and do some surveys if I can...

Onwards and Upwards!!!!




[/FONT]

rising_from_the_ashes

*delurks* ....... quick question & playing devils advocate a bit here .....

wannabee_in_credit wrote: »

We did need some shopping and spent £32.32 in Ald!, but my lovely hubby footed the bill so it doesn't count

Wannabe honestly not picking on you in particular - I have noticed several people saying similar things ...... (both here & on the NSD thread)

Just wondering everyone's views on OHs paying for shopping / meals / treats etc ...... seems a bit unfair on the singletons (who obviously don't have that luxury) to me?

*relurks* (and awaits wet sponges being thrown at her)

NinjaSavingKat

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

*delurks* ....... quick question & playing devils advocate a bit here .....



Wannabe honestly not picking on you in particular - I have noticed several people saying similar things ...... (both here & on the NSD thread)

Just wondering everyone's views on OHs paying for shopping / meals / treats etc ...... seems a bit unfair on the singletons (who obviously don't have that luxury) to me?

*relurks* (and awaits wet sponges being thrown at her)

I have noticed this and said nothing for one simple reason. A user's debt on here might be their own - something that they do not want to weigh their other half down with.... a person should not EXPECT another to help them clear the debt they themselves created hence an OH maybe not getting involved or wanting to "treat" the contender... but if that OH wants to buy them treats now and then so be it. But that person has to contend with the OH wanting a different meal than them, wanting to do out, the pressure of creating something "different", yummy and cheap.. or thinking the challenge is silly and not helping at all!

Us singletons - yes we have no one else to buy things for us. We also have no one else to buy for hence some of us are keeping our maximum food spends to £40???

It swings both ways but I am glad you brought this up. If we ASK our other halves to buy us something that is cheating - we are doing this to break habits and realise where our money goes. If they OFFER to buy something this is different...

I cannot get involved in peoples lives to the point where they swear an oath but there is no point doing this challenge if indeed a person is hiding the truth...

NO wet sponges though don't worry...

Onwards and Upwards

NinjaSavingKat

Can everyone PM me their food spend as it stands today!!!
Please do not POST this as it will create unnecessary length to the thread.
I am off to bed for a few hours kip and hope to wake to MANY MANY messages..