The October Awakening!

TiptoesDB

Hey all, SFD 19 here.. one day to go. Think I'm going to make it!

Going to stay at work a bit late tonight and then pick OH up at the train station in town, head to the gym together, then home to forage for a quick late dinner. This way, we'll definatly go to the gym, and we'll save on petrol as normally OH comes back home on the train to our village and I drive back from town from work, and then we drive back into town together to the Gym. Money saving! :money:

Feeling good about money and looking forward to the major challenge of November! I dug out all the presents I have been squirrreling away over the year to look at what we can give away for Christmas and there's more than I thought, so we should not have to buy much, and the things I do have to buy are coming from gift vouchers we have been bought for Birthdays / xmas / leaving jobs etc in the past year. My personal challenge to myself is to not spend any actual cash on pressies at all this year. They should all be re-gifting, or from vouchers or points from loyalty cards. It's a toughie, but I'm feeling hopeful. Except one present we have to get for an NSPCC project where we are buying a pressie for an unknown child who needs one. We have drawn a 13 year old girl from that hat - any ideas anyone?? We only know babies and toddlers, so my knowledge does not extend beyond Dora the Explorer and Peppa Pig! We are supposed to spend about a tenner I think...

Hope all are well, and feeling good about the end of the challenge being nigh.

stewby

Hey tiptoesDB, I don't know if all teenage girls like this but my niece is really into her "nightmare before christmas" stuff.
:undecided

Unfortunately, her other stuff is all branded kinda things. Do you know anything about the girl at all?? As my niece loves doing nail art and things like that??

example:
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Search/searchTerms/NAIL+ART.htm

Obviously, if you are to spend a tenner, this sort of thing is too expensive but there might be other options that fall into your budget.
:undecided

The only other thing I can suggest is colouring stuff. My niece is still very much into colouring, drawing, painting, etc... crafting basically. Maybe you could find something like that maybe??

Hope any of this helps.

stewby

Today is a spend day but it was always going to be.

My parents bought my nephew and niece a tv/dvd combi for their xmas last year and it broke yesterday. So I took my mum so that she could put it back (warranty runs out in four days!!) to get it fixed.
:eek:

As a result, we ended up in eisland and housie bargains. Slight disaster but hey ho. Ended up buying some frozen stuff which will be ideal for meals and also some stuff which is amazingly cheap compared to our usual haunt of tescimos.


So.... heading back to tescimos soon as I want to try and hit the yellow label jackpot again. (Someone on another thread said 18:00 was the best time for tescimos). Have only managed it once but am feeling positive. Using my last £30 to do this so it better be good.


Hope everyone is having a great day.
Hugs.

Fmess

Has anyone else seen the Carphone Warehouse advert? I've been making a note of all the MS ideas

LoveaDove

TiptoesDB wrote: »

...Except one present we have to get for an NSPCC project where we are buying a pressie for an unknown child who needs one. We have drawn a 13 year old girl from that hat - any ideas anyone??

Great admiration for you partaking in this!! Is this a local project? Sounds like such a lovely gesture! I only seem to be around smaller children so I'm not really sure what is 'cool' at the moment. 13 is a difficult age, it can be a bit of a transitional age, but I think by this age kids are quite image aware. It is hard buying 'blindly' for someone as it would be ideal to match their interests. Hmmm here's a few ideas- may be a first sewing kit (I still have mine which my Nan got me for my 12th birthday)...although not sure what rules would be for sewing needles etc... a little make-up kit- eyeshadows/lipgloss, a little pamper kit may be, a craft kit- e.g. decorate your own photoframe, friendship bracelet kit. Tis a difficult one. Let us know what you do get though!

*Finally* got my tax disc so a spend day today, but I had budgeted for this so it wasn't a big hit to the finances (plus I only went for 6 months- can't be certain my lil rust bucket will last a further 12 months).

My stats stand at:

SFD's- 22/20
Toiletries- £3.28/£10.00
Fuel- £80.04/ £80.00 (I will adjust my November Allowance to £80.10 to allow myself those frustrating sneaky pennies that jump into my fuel tank when I'm not paying attention)
Food Bank- £3/£3 worth of food donated.
Absolutely failed on making extra money this month- F@cebook has done me no favours- my local group is so busy my posts disappear off the page after 2 minutes...ebay it is then!

Total Debt remaining - £200!!! The end is nigh!! It would be great to try and make this extra in November and not just rely on my wage at the end of November...we shall see how this goes. I need to try and make £80 anyway in-line with next months challenge...BRING IT ON!!! :T:T

andrar

I did my next months budgets today and am about to cash up the envelopes, might put glitter on them to stare at when I'm in the house on me tod at the weekends not spending!

I'm quite looking forward to NOvember now, i think it will be good to focus us all and we might see a reduction in the posts where people 'just had to have' this or that.

Maisie_M

SFDs: 16/20
Food budget: £403.10/£350:o
Donation: £0/£3
Planned outings: 1/1 Meal out for birthday with OH (paid on voucher already)
Takeaway £19.40/£20 - Chinese to celebrate birthday with children,
Take lunch to work: 17/18
Beauty spends £2.67/£10

Spent £4.36 on the stuff for tomorrow's hallowe'en party but that was all so quite chuffed with that as normally I would have blown £20+. Another take our lunch to work day so 1 to go and will have hit target.

I have set a couple of budgets for NOvember but need to work out the rest.

littleskintdragon

Naughty old me has had a spendy day today, but for a good cause! I bought a bread maker. Second hand from a friend for £30

Trying it at the moment but with bread mix from a packet, then ill use it properly tomorrow with all the ingredients.

Any tips anyone for using it?

TiptoesDB

Thanks Stewby and Loveadove - there's some great ideas there! :T I think we'll go down the crafty or nail art route - hopefully should be pretty safe. Unfortunately you don't get to know any more info than gender, age and first name (so you can put a gift tag on it). It would be easier if we knew a bit about her. I'll let you know what we end up with!

I think it's a local project Loveadove that my DH's work have signed up to, but I know from my work (which is with disadvantaged children) that there are schemes like this nationally - usually Barnardos or NSPCC. It's a good idea as kids who won't get much this Christmas at least get something.

Ooo, Littleskintdragon lovely home made bread... perfect for winter - bargain!

stewby

No problem. Just hope it helps.

Continuing in my helpful mood... I am sure it was NSK who bought a heap of millet. I am not very bright so yeast might not be allowed in your lifestyle (sorry, my words never really seem to make much sense) however, I found this recipe whilst looking for bread recipes and thought it might help you use up some of that millet.

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/1445/ethiopian-injera-flatbread.aspx

Only four ingredients... and you can pick up yeast from tescimos for 99p (a wee container which has enough for 14 loaves apparently).


I don't know about bicarbonate of soda but it may be something you have lying around the house.
:undecided

Hope it is something useful for people.
Hugs.