The Awesome Amazing August NSD Challenge

Candlewick

Morning NSD gang

Freeby, thanks for updating and am pleased to read your leg is on the mend. May be you can put some germolene on it which will keep the affected area cool and may be reduce the itching?

Jelly, your foccacia looks delicious. I have only baked bread once and that was during a double home economics class at school!

Fedup, well done on completing your dissertation. I remember my daughter doing hers and it was a tense time.

Sazzie, yes you are right of course about the yearly thing, it's more of a want than a need though but it's for my hobby and decided I did actually need it. I will definitely factor it in next years budget.

I am up early as after my LSD trip to the farm shop, I will be visiting my parents for Sunday dinner and have decided to make a pudding to take with me.

There feels a change in the air here, there was dew on the grass earlier and it gets lighter later now (about 5.20 this morning here in London) and last night it was dark by 8.45 although it was very grey and damp here mostly yesterday.

Have a lovely Sunday.

CW

Candlewick

thriftymissy wrote: »

My haircut was £172 including tips, which I admit is a lot and it is a huge chunk of my budget but it is my big indulgence.

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

Thrifty, can you not go to the hairdressers on a student night? they are well supervised.

I hope you got a full head massage and a glass of wine or two included in that price!

CW

kerri_gt

Up early here waiting for the builders, they had better turn up today. However washing is in the machine so at least its been a productive start. Jam deff not set, think it was the juice that I used, too much of a water content - think it had to be pure fruit juice (not made clear in the recipe) but hey, you live and learn - hoping it will be ok in hm raspberry ripple ice cream as OH will eat that.

Freeby - glad to hear your leg hasn't fallen off, although I did once see Igor with a very fetching wooden one - no he wasn't wearing it, he was prodding poor Hubert with it and I have no idea where he got it put if you see any angry looking pirates about, I'd give them a wide berth :rotfl: Sounds like you got bitten / stung by something you're highly allergic to. Its odd how I'd only had one mozzie bite this year which caused me no bother at all, but the little black flies that are getting me at boot camp are a diff matter entirely :eek:

Candlewick wrote: »

Jelly, your foccacia looks delicious. I have only baked bread once and that was during a double home economics class at school!

There feels a change in the air here, there was dew on the grass earlier and it gets lighter later now (about 5.20 this morning here in London) and last night it was dark by 8.45 although it was very grey and damp here mostly yesterday.

Have a lovely Sunday.

CW

I echo the foccacia, looks lovely, and personally I like my bread slightly doughy.


CW - I know what mean about the change in the air, I noticed it on Fri at boot camp - was decidedly dewy and I was in joggers for the first time in ages (much to everyone's relief I expect :rotfl:)

Thrifty - eeek, that is a lot but I'm not surprised based on the cost last time I was in a salon. Could you perhaps find someone mobile who does it at a lower cost? perhaps through friends / family recommendations?

fedupandskint

Thank you for all the well done's once again - it certainly was hard work while working full time.Results are due in about 2-3 months time. One more piece of work to do for next month then that's it! Have to hand in printed off copy tomorrow then back to work as usual

Enjoying a very lazy day here day the first time in ages without having to feel guilty and a nice long walk with the dog without having to feel like I need to rush back to get everything done and squeezed into one day.

Should be another NSD here as no pennies to spend apart from on milk out of grocery budget. Will have a think about present lists today to start some planning out of the presents budgets

IF

Morning all :hello:


Declaring my 11th NSD

Thank you freeby, spoon and Sazzie
IF

tinkermcjingles

Declaring numbers 8 and 9 here on Tuesday and Friday. Wednesday I had my nails done and nipped the pub for a drink with friends. Thursday I needed some goodies from the shop to get me through the day but only spent just over a pound so not too bad I suppose!!
Yesterday I was at a wedding (Seperate budget!) and today needs some goodies to get me through work! Only 1 more to go before I've met my target - fingers crossed for tomorrow!

Loobeyloop

Hello!! I'm sooo sorry but DS had an operation on his ears this week and I have completely forgotten to come on here!!:( But I only have 1 day to declare so that's NDS #8 please!!
Hope everyone is doing well!!!

MissE001

Hope DS is okay Loobeyloop

I decided to claim yesteray as NSD #10 as DD will repay the railcard money when she gets paid...she's a good wee soul. Today won't be one - I'm off to stock up on petrol and food...

Have a great Sunday - at least the rain's stopped here :T

Jelly_Biactol

freebyfifty wrote: »

Jelly - looks good, too good to eat in fact. Is making bread tricky, you have inspired me

Candlewick wrote: »

Jelly, your foccacia looks delicious. I have only baked bread once and that was during a double home economics class at school!

kerri_gt wrote: »

I echo the foccacia, looks lovely, and personally I like my bread slightly doughy.

It's the first one I've made (well, two, made one on Friday evening as well) so was quite pleased with the results.
It might look complicated to make or sound complicated when you read the recipes, but it isn't really. Particularly if you've got a food processor or food mixer to combine the ingredients, since the dough can be quite sticky/wet and difficult to handle in the early stages, and so it's a lot lessy messy that way.
I'd recommend to anyone that you try making it. (I used to make bread from scratch many many years ago, then got out of the habit, so now I'm starting to practise again almost from scratch.) It's quite theraputic kneading the dough (just imagine it's an ex-BF/GF), you know what's gone into it (no nasty additives) and there's the quiet satisfaction of making something yourself.
Here's the recipe I tried yesterday
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/12336/focaccia-with-pesto-and-mozzarella
The first one, I made the dough in the breadmaker, which was OK.
The second one, I combined the dough ingredients in the food processor - flour & salt first, then slowly poured in the warm water, yeast and olive oil, on the slowest speed with the dough hook, and left it running for approx 10mins so it was all combined, then kneaded & folded a bit more to try and get lots of air in. Left it to prove, guidelines were till it doubled in size, but I got sidetracked and lost track of time so it was about three times in size (trying to climb out of the bowl!), knocked it back, shaped it and left it for another 20mins-ish as per instructions, then baked. Maybe the yeast had already done its work when it was proving and so wouldn't rise in the oven as much as it should? Another thing was, all the recipes I had or looked at, whatever the weight of flour (varied from 250g to 500g), every one specified 7g of yeast - I thought the ratio of flour to yeast would stay the same? Also, specified oven temperature was 180C/Gas 4 which to me doesn't seem hot enough.
But as I said it looked nice and tasted good, so maybe I was expecting too much for a first attempt. I'm having the rest for lunch in a minute, anyway.

thriftymissy wrote: »

My haircut was £172 including tips, which I admit is a lot and it is a huge chunk of my budget but it is my big indulgence.

That's equivalent to three and a half years-worth of haircuts for me.:)

IF

Hiya all and welcome to August's NSD thread :hello:
Could we please ask you to highlight your number of NSDs in a colour and in bold so that Freeby, Spoon and Sazzie can see them easily when they whizz through the posts - red would be best but they don't really mind as long as they 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 thefirst 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!