Just Say NOvember 2013!!!

cottage_retreatist

Hello all! Quick drop in! SFD today and car looks like it will be 400 quid for work and MOT-we'd put 500 away so success!!!! No extra expense to get which is a massive relief!!!!

So going to sort money out later from OH's wages and we can reach that grand target for this months debts repayments!!! Whoop!!!!!!!!!

Been catching up with all the posts-well done everyone!!!

Xxxx

kangadoo

Currently on SFD 11/25 and making a huge pot of cupboard stew. It just has a bit of everything in my cupboard: barley, lentils, pasta, rice, beans, quorn... I'm sure I read someone on this forum suggesting adding HP Sauce to a sauce - I can't remember what it was meant to be going into, but I got a free bottle via Shopitize this week, so it'll be going in too! What do you mean, this is going to be disgusting...?! (It'd better not be, it has to feed me for a week!)

Finally got a long-running argument with Scottish Power sorted today. Pretty sure it's because I was routed to the wrong department on a call, but they guy I spoke to was amazing, empathetic and apologetic, and escalated it for me. Complaints worked out I'm due £67 pounds and added £5 to cover call costs - they also assure me it will be used to pay my bill next month rather than just sitting in the pot as credit, so set my Direct Debit to be the lowest it can be. I fully expect this not to work, but if it does I'm going to marry that SP call centre guy! :rotfl:

PiggyBankShaker thanks for the reminder on expenses - haven't heard anything about mine so far this month (hrm...) so will chase them next week!

NinjaSavingKat

Look what Mamma NSK sent me today...



She is so sweet. A little something to make life easier...;-)

Siouxsie get a julienne peeler for raw "spagetti" salads. I have used mine and it's so cool. I used my birthday money on spirulina, wheatgrass powders, chia seeds, probiotics, b vitamins and such like..Maca and Lacuma is on my list. I have a coconut sat on my fridge for the last few weeks - not sure what I am going to do with it once I get it open and drink it dry. Tesco's have coconut water reduced so bought a few yesterday near work to blend with spirulina for "shots" of goodness. I am going to put money away each month for top up's every few months. I do feel better I must admit and just got "It's Not On The Label" from the library... worth a read!!!

SO... passing the little Sainsbury's when I got off the train today. There were Fairtrade bananas in plastic bags.... THEY WERE REDUCED TO 20p EACH... just cause they were going a little black???

I got 26 bananas for 80p cause they didn't divvy them up properly.

AMAZING for smoothies and banana bread which I will freeze. I am SO chuffed!!!!

Am also waiting for the bath now cause LLL beat me to it....

Thats all my news for the minute..

Siouxsie32

NinjaSavingKat wrote: »

I have a coconut sat on my fridge for the last few weeks - not sure what I am going to do with it once I get it open and drink it dry.

Scoop out the flesh and whisk it up in a smoothie - use the coconut water, berries, nuts and some of those powders and vitamins

Literally rushing out the door for a long night at work but I can't decide if I'm happier about Mama Kat's purse or the banana story :j::T:j:T

MrsGSR

Quick end of the day post for me as I have work tonight.
Today has been SFD 12, I'm pretty shocked actually!
Hetty arrived today and the special brush I got for it and now my carpets are cleaner than they have ever been, I am really, really impressed with it and so glad I got that instead of a dyson, the kids love it too! I've done quite a bit of cleaning, washing and sorting out today so I am pretty pleased with myself.
My neck and shoulder is a lot better than it was, still achey but vastly improved.
10 days till pay day for me so 10 days left of NO for me.
Happy friday everyone!

cowboymum

Irritating day today - got told off twice which when you are 38 is a little annoying to say the least! Tried not to stamp my feet and say it's not my fault! Argh!

Paid £1 for car parking for kids swimming lessons (plus 50p per child as encouragement to run back to car park so we didn't have to pay £3.50!). Annoying as if we can get into swimming pool car park we don't have to pay anything.

Also just eaten a wheat based pizza (HM by my DH but he used the wrong flour!) so going to regret that tomorrow!

Only good thing is that DH made another £30 looking after puppy.

Hurumph. Is it bedtime yet?

tennisfanatic

Hi everyone,

Sorry this might be a long post as today has been a spendy day.
Spent £5.94 in Co0p and £25.40 in A!di but that includes £3.59 food bank purchases. I tried to stretch the money to get the most for the food bank but they didn’t have all the items I had been planning to get so had to make some on the spot substitutions which is why it was slightly more than £3. Managed ten items - 1kg of porridge oats(75p), 1 litre UHT milk (53p), jar of strawberry jam (29p), 500g penne (29p), jar of pasta sauce (39p), tin of peas (19p), tin of carrots (19p), large tin of new potatoes (15p), tin of peach slices (32p) and tin of tuna flakes (49p).

Then I got the bus to larger town (£4.80) to start Christmas shopping – spent £11 on crafty bits to make presents for my grandparents and other family members. Spent £6 on tights for work in M&S and £3 in wilkos on toiletries I had ran out of. Also was a bit naughty – sorry Kat – and spent £5 on a really unusual necklace that had been reduced from £16….in my defence I did carry/drag the three very heavy bags of a!di shopping for 25mins to save getting a taxi home as I don’t drive.

Meal planned and all ingredients bought until 23rd and aiming for 7 SFD’s in a row now (particularly as not much of food budget left)

SFD 9/25
Lunch to work 9/18
Food £78.27/£100 (including foodbank donation)
Foodbank £3.59/£3

Toiletries £3/£10
Moneymade £0.42/£80 (but 3 items with bids on eb4y ending this weekend)

TiptoesDB

Thanks for such a personal and inspirational post NSK, it’s so good to hear about us all as real people, not just debt eating machines! Good luck to you, but it sounds like you make your own luck my lovely!

Well, not much from me. A spendy day as I got the weekly shop in. My meal plan for next week includes two untried agirlcalledjack recipes, so fingers crossed. We both loved the savoy and smoked cheese pasta, and the daal. This time it’s the fish tagine and the (much media maligned) kale pesto pasta. I will report back on how they went! Also got a xmas pressie in with the shop to bump our total up to £40 to get the xmas voucher. I am still hoping we can get the rest of our pressies with vouchers and points rather than ker-ching cash from the bank.

Off to Oxford this weekend to see friends. It’s a long trek for us, and I am worried about the money as the plans for the weekend are out of our hands, thus so is the spending. I wanted to cancel, but we have already postponed once, so I just couldn’t do it. I have reduced it from Friday night to Sunday, to Saturday to Sunday, so we don’t have to spend anything tonight, and will get there mid afternoon tomorrow instead (which means we can do our own lunch in the car rather than eat out). I have texted and said we are on a ‘bit of a budget’ so not to go crazy with any plans. Everyone’s idea of budget is so different and I bet hers won’t include spending no money at all! Ah well. We have budgeted £30 for it, but I think it’s going to be more... sigh. I wonder why there are some people in my life I am happy to say ‘we are massively in debt and trying to pay it off’ to, and others I say ‘we are saving’ or ‘on a bit of a budget’, or even nothing at all… they are all supposed to be friends and family.

Fmess

Evening all,

Thank you for the post NSK, it looks like you had lots of fun spending your OT money.

I need to go on the stupid step, not the naughty step. I looked at the bank accounts today and realised they were a little lower than expected at this stage in the month. But my spreadsheets still showed that I had money in my misc, food and animal food budgets. I did a bit of investigation and realised that my calculations at the beginning of the month were off, and in fact I didn't have the money to supply those budgets (due to a payment coming out this month, when I thought they had already come out last month).

The result is that my budgets are smaller and already spent

I confessed to OH that I had miscalculated and spent all the money so we couldn't afford food, and I couldn't afford any petrol next week. He admitted that he was about to ask to borrow money as he had spent all of his petrol money!!! :mad: and :rotfl:

We did a bit of head scratching and figured out that if we pay one payment on the payday instead of the previous Friday as it was scheduled, then we have nearly £40 between us to last until payday for petrol and food. Unfortunately, we have already emptied the cupboards over the last few weeks so we have made a cheap dinners meal plan and a tiny shopping list and going to go food shopping tomorrow (max £20 spend). Wish me luck

Anyway, its Friday and my bed is calling, night all x x

PiggyBankShaker

SFD for me. OH did some shopping spent £16.29 on groceries and £10.82 on beer! Oh well, it's his money.

I did my mystery shop. I have 5 scheduled for tomorrow and one for Sunday. Will also try and do decluttering, tidying and cleaning.

Petrol £24.43 / £67.50
Groceries £113.21 / £200
'Outings' £25 / £30
Food Bank 0 / £3

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Lunches 9 / 20
SFD 11 / 25
Declutter 3 / 20
Make extra £116.37 / £80
Not using GCH 4 / 0