NSK; "The Janus Illusion".

Avogirly

Hello, just a quick check in today. Not a SFD for me as had to give hubby a couple of pound for parking. However machine did eject change as £2 coins so that will be going in my debt account to pay off something. Will do proper update tomorrow. I was too absorbed in Sherlock tonight! Sorry Kat! Hope everyone has had a good day today.

Tea-lover_2

Hi all, happy new year
Spend day today needed butter and a few other bits so £9.44 out of the food budget.

Sfd - 0/20
Food budget 9.44/250
Food bank 0/3
Petrol 0/40
Outings 0/1
Excersise 0/12

Also need to set aside some money for driving lessons (£80) and car tax due this month (£70) Will hopefully be booking my driving test too so that's another £50 plus think £100 to hire instructors car :eek:

[Deleted User]

Hi NSK, could I join you too...scraping in just before midnight!

1. SFD 0/20
2. Food 1/£70 (fingers crossed, cupboards will keep us both going!)
3. Diesel 0/80
4. Brand downshift 0/5
5. Lunch to work 0/22
6. Arranged social events 0/5 (0/£70)
7. Exercise 0/15
8. Beauty spends 0/£10
9. Zero purchased alcohol or chocolate!

Taranaman

Put me down too, will account for my plan and progress v plan on the weekend in more detail but so far my grocery spend is 28/300 and no SFD yet. Did 1 hour running in the rain today.

CariadsNewStart

Just popping in with numbers.
1/20 NSD..
0/£225 GROCERY BUDGET.
0/5 Downshifts of brands..
1/22 Lunches to work.
1 outing for D/H birthday.
Will avoid all take-aways etc.
£0/£3 foodbank. (need to research this)
2/48 Exercise sessions 2x20 mins a day with s/w.
£0/£10 Beauty spends.
Enough booze here to sink a ship!!

I am struggling staying away from sales at mo boots is calling me for gifts for prezzies but will def do my damnedest to stay from there...

traveller

Hi Everyone. I did my monthly shop to be delivered later today. I managed to get it for £195.00 :T For the 1st time in a long time I did a proper stock take and left of snacks. I will be home baking, as the next two months will be very tough indeed. The only amount I've spent is the shopping. Today will be NSD.

I am having my once in a blue moon evening out with my friend on Saturday. It's a Nandos job and I don't drink, so a tenner, will be more than sufficient I'm giving myself a going out budget of £20.00 this month.

I have not done any exercise, but will tomorrow.

Good luck everyone and keep going :T

speakingofart

Morning all!

Back to work today after a week and a bit off... slight shock to the system! Challenge starts for real today... numbers below. Today will be a spend day as we're having a team lunch - nice idea but knocks two of my numbers out for today

1. SFD 1/20
2. Food budget 0/£150
3. Brand downshift 0/5
4. Lunch to work 0/17 (minus a week for holiday)
5. Arranged outings 0/0
6. Exercise 0/20
7. Chocolate free (0/31) (but the christmas stash is gone now and I'm not buying anymore!)

Siouxsie32

Good morning everyone :wave: Wow, second day and we're already on page 9 I'm getting good vibes for January!

I was so exhausted when I got in from work last night that i went straight to bed so I'm up with the larks this morning. I'm looking forward to a day of domestic bliss - been on the go since 22 December and my house looks like a tornado has bulldozed it's way through it. Already on my second set of washing!

Yesterday was my first SFD - it almost wasn't though. I relented and spent 55p on a chocolate bar at the vending machine (no sleep, headache, tired...only chocolate was going to cure me!! Sorry Kat ). Anyway, popped 55p in to the vending machine (incidentally, when did chocolate start costing 55p?) and my money got rejected. Then my chocolate got dispensed :j Woo hoo, free chocolate (surely the best kind?). Not only that, there was an extra 5p in the change slot so I actually profited from it.

My budgets for January are the same as usual (they've been finely honed over the last 16 months )...
Food: £100
Misc: £100
Petrol: £60

I'm going to continue with my domestic day and also get meal planning - a supermarket trip is on the cards as I'm low low low on everything!

beckyboo1980_2

Morning one and all.
This sounds ridiculous but woke up bright and early thinking about what I could do to pull back some extra money or make some money today. Only day 2 of the new year and the new challenge but feeling a new determination to try and make this the year we really break free from the chains of debt.
One of the first steps has been actually telling people about what we are trying to do so they understand when we turn down evenings out, etc... Through the year. My mum has been the main one to tell and she has been incredibly understanding and encouraging. So glad I told her as really feel I can go to her now when motivation is perhaps lacking and she will cheerlead me along.
Have also spoken to the older children (have girls who are 15 and 9 as well as twin boys who have just turned 2). Have explained that we are trying to pay off all the debt so that sometime next year we can either move to a bigger house or perhaps extend into the roof of our current house so that they can have their own bedrooms and a bit more living space. Have said that although we will do all the school trips and they won't miss out on things like that, they might have to make some compromises about entertainment during weekends and holidays etc... I have to say I am incredibly lucky and proud of my eldest who is 15. She already has 2 part time jobs - one cleaning and one waitressing and works incredibly hard. She earns a good wage for her age and so buys most of her own clothes, going out with her friends when she wants to and has even contributed towards her own music lessons when things were really hard financially last year. Its some thing I feel incredibly guilty about as I really feel she shouldn't have to be paying towards things like that, but she is very insistent about it and really knows the value of money. School offered a skiing trip to Italy 18 months ago which was £1000. Usually we couldn't have afforded to have paid for that and she would have missed out. She was desperate to go however so we agreed that if she raised half the money, we would raise the other half. To our amazement, she earns her half within 6 months and then announced that she wanted to save for the other half so that she could go with the satisfaction that she had paid for the entire trip. We argued with her for quite a while about it, but she was really determined and ended up taking some of the money we had saved as spending money whilst paying the full £1000 herself. As she got on the coach to go on the trip she said to us, "I am so glad I saved for this because I know I am going to enjoy and appreciate this trip so much more than anyone else!". Proud was not the word and she continues to amaze me with her work ethic and hard work. She's also a thrifty girl who loves a bargain. She loves to shop in primark for all her basics and will then get key pieces in the sale from more expensive shops. She also loves a Hand-me-down or charity shop bargain! That skill will def come in handy for us all this year.
So, plan for today is:
- root around in freezer to make up some more meals for freezing as back to work Monday and need to have a stock of meals frozen ready for when we get home.
- look around for possible second weekend job - thinking a couple of hours cleaning etc... At the weekend could bring in a bit of extra money towards the grand plan!
- spring clean throughout house - took all Xmas decs down yesterday so house is looking rather bare and dusty!!!
- Find someone to look after doggy for free when we are away for the weekend in two weeks time (all paid for last year, just need to take food money out of our budget).
Hope everyone has a fab day!
Beckyboo

apple_muncher

Yesterday was NSD 1, exercise 1, and sugar-free 1. I also did some more towards a knitting project that's been on the go for 2 years now - oops! And a lovely friend came round specifically to set up my sewing machine and check I knew how to do the basics. I has a Singer hand operated one (been irrationally scared of electric ones since schooldays!), but it finally kicked the bucket several years ago and dh bought me a lovely electric one. Must make use of it now!

May take dd to cinema today - her first ever time! Tis not cheap!!:eek:!! However whe went to sleep super late so am not going to wake her yet. There's always tomorrow....

Today should be sugar-free 2 and if we don't do the cinema it should also be a NSD.

I am grateful
- that dh has started his new job and is enjoying it
- that the jsa finally paid up
- for my lovely friend sorting out my sewing machine
- for the optimism and plots that abound at this time of year
- for a warm house to come home to after tramping about in the wet, windy and muddy woods!