NSK; "The Janus Illusion".

kat143

Hi all - I'd love in on this! I discovered the December thread a few weeks ago and was keen to try this out.. Here's my list:

SFDs 0/20

Petrol £0/£30 (may have to adjust this.. I've lived abroad for the last five years so I'm no longer sure how far a tank of petrol will get me!)

Food £0/£10 (I just moved to my mum's house and she said I have a one month grace period where I pay nothing towards the house.. extended holiday until I receive my first paycheque! Budget is just for top-ups, milk, salad etc to help out where I can)

Food bank £0/£3

Exercise 0/15

No problems on the alcohol front.. lots left after Xmas festivities!

DFD - 22nd August 2015 (day before my birthday!)

And apologies but I simply cannot work out my social budget right now.. I've been trying for about an hour, got everything planned but can't get the figures to work in my hungover state! I'm good for nothing today except lying on the couch.. haha. Will update once I'm back to normal!)


Good luck fellow challengers and of course - Happy New Year to all! :snow_laug
- Kat

loubylou1982_2

Evening all #59 checking in for the first time.

Finally added it all up today and it's scary :cool:

Hubby is currently devising a spreadsheet so I know he's fully on board now. Going to find this first month tough as I don't usually budget ( hence the debt problems) so I'm not entirety sure where to start with setting a budget. Also returning from maternity leave I won't have a normal wage until the end of January.

Anyway.... Pledges

SFS 1/20
Exercise 0/15
Food bank 0/£3

Food budget to be confirmed. Planning on a food stock take tomorrow to be able to make as shopping list to take on Friday or saturday. This is a new way for working for me. Rarely do I meal plan or do shopping lists so I see this a big step forward for us.

Feeling a bit down tonight about it all so I'm going to get an early night and start afresh tomorrow xx

Fmess

Evening all,

Checking in with my first SFD Also managed a trip to the gym, after getting up at lunchtime! No excuse as I went to bed at 10.30 last night, guess I needed some extra sleep.

Unfortunately, I had an issue with my car on the way to the gym and I need to get it to the garage first thing tomorrow morning as I can't trust it to get me from A to B safely. This means I am going to have to take the car to the garage, walk to the bus station, get the bus for an hour to my temping job and then do the reverse in the afternoon This will mean I'll need to pay bus fare and break my intended SFD, grrrr.

As you can see from my budgets, I have already spent a lot in the last 11 days since payday. This included a return train ticket to London for Feb to visit my best friend, a new hair dryer and £20 January gym membership.

Hope you've all had a lovely productive day

Mrs_Toast

Happy new year all. No 10 checking in. No SFD as we went to the zoo and bought a yearly family pass. It should give us lots of free days out though and I had saved up the cash. Here are my targets

SFDs 0/20
Groceries including baby items £30/wk or £120
Downshift 0/5
Home lunches 1/31
Outings 0/1 Yo Sushi with sis for xmas gift but need parking & drinks.
Foodbank 0/£3
Exercise 1/31
DFD October 2014
Beauty 0/£10

I'm also going to try and do at least one thing frugal/MSE everyday. Today was cutting my dishwasher tablets in half & deciding to make reusable baby wipes

missyv30

Happy New year everyone _party_

Well hopefully this year will be better for me I know one thing I will be paying my debt off determined to be debt free by end of year

So far I have

SFD 01/20
Food £0/£250
Petrol £0/£15
Exercise 1/31
No outings
Don't have a food bank but will look into ideas similar
Really looking forward to getting stuck into this challenge good luck to everyone :j

luckystarr

Happy new year everyone ...please can i join Kat i am little late sorry Failed at December challenge but back on track for jan go some final debt to clear ... will change my signiture ASAP

PS don't drink so i will take the chocolate challenge

Good luck everyone

hummingbird

I'm in please!!! Have had a no-spend day today.


I've pre-arranged two coffee meet-ups with friends.


I lost my job earlier in the year so this is so necessary for me. I can still do "take your lunch to work" by making sure that if I have to go out I take something to eat with me, especially if I'm going in to town, as Starbucks, Costa, Nero etc have always been my downfall.


Food budget £60 (includes cleaning products & toiletries)
Public Transport £15
Outings/social £10

charlies-aunt

Member #21 reporting in with my pledges:

SFDs 0/20
Groceries/toiletries £1/£360 - £90pw for 3 adults, 2 dogs & 2 cats
Downshift 0/5
Take your lunch to work 0/20
Outings 0/£10 .
Foodbank 0/£3
Exercise 0/15
DFD 1st December 2014
Beauty 0/£10

KittyBoo_2

Not a NSD today as I needed milk, bread and pet food.
I've bought four, 2 pint cartons of milk and will freeze these so I'm not having to waste a NSD on one item.
I'm trying to eat what's in the freezer before buying anything else and will cook all meals from scratch.
Hopefully tomorrow will be the first of my exercise sessions as I'm going for a walk.
Next time I go shopping, I'm going to go to Aldi. I usually shop at Lidl but I hear great things about Aldi.
Best wishes to everyone and welcome to the new members.

TiptoesDB

Hello again

Just checking back in with my totals so far now I have had time to think them through for this month.

1. SFD 1/20
2. Food budget 0/£180
3. Brand downshift 0/5
4. Lunch to work 0/19
5. Arranged outings 0/2
6. Exercise 1/25
7. Beauty spends 0/£10

We have two social things planned already - a christening that needs an overnight stay and DH's birthday for which we might go for a meal (yet to be decided and dependent on how the rest of the month goes financially e.g vet's bills etc). I have booked us into a cheap hotel without brekky tho for the christening and we'll take our own milk and cereal etc, and will have a car picnic for the journey down :money:

I am aiming to exercise 5x per week as that is my usual aim, as it makes the gym membership worthwhile. I am also starting my training for my first triathlon in the summer so need to step my game up! Been for a swim today so that's a good start. I will run tomorrow, whatever the weather!

Think that's it for now... will have to put some thought into the downshifts as I have done what I can to date but I am sure there is more there to economise on (the things I would like to downshift on but have not done so yet are all DH's - his bagels, his lunch time bread buns etc. He has accepted the shift on his sandwich meat, honey and butter so I might give it a go!)

loubylou1982 chin up, it will feel better, it's always scary and overwhelming at the start, but you are doing great! DH and I really messed up in our first month as we had no idea of our budgets, no idea what money came out of our account when and what would need paying for! We went badly overdrawn, ate rubbish and got very demoralised, but told ourselves that this is how we learn and now we are getting so much better at it all. We have a spreadsheet that works and I am a whiz at meal plans and shopping lists! If I can do it anyone can!

fmess oh no re your car... what a pain!

Mrs Toast I love the 'one frugal thing a day' idea! I might borrow that too if that's ok? Not sure what today's would be? I had a shower at the gym not at home so saved water maybe?

Anyway, night all!