NSK; February 28 Days Later!

SarahB1989_2

Put the zombies 3 miles behind me with a run this morning. Planning to negate the calories burnt with an afternoon in the pub watching rugby but contemplating swapping my cider for a diet coke (and have spare change in a pot for this so nothing coming out my purse or bank account today!). Going with a friend who's doing WW so hopefully we'll both not be tempted by chips and a chocolatey dessert!

ikesmummy

Well as 4 o'clock (shop shut up time) approaches I am feeling more hopeful we'll have our first SFD of February. Hubby has run out of sugar for his tea (I don't take sugar and so hadn't realised how low we were when I went shopping :mad:) but he seems to be making do okay with the jam sugar (says he can't stand caster sugar in his tea) No bread in the house but rather than approve his trip to the shop he seemed to be angling at I have put the bread maker on, sure it works out cheaper and I am much less likely to snack on a couple of slices when I am not really hungry this evening. We took the boys out on their bikes earlier for some free exercise (not that it was energetic enough to count it as one of my exercise sessions). Dinner all prepared Roast beef including home-made Yorkshire puddings and lots of veg - yummy.

Am starting to think about what free and very cheap things I can do with the boys over half term, amazed how quickly it is approaching! Hadn't really thought about it when doing my budget so may need to be even more resourceful elsewhere.

Had travelled away down a slippery slope when my office base changed a few months back. I now work right in the centre of town and have been paying £5 a day to park :eek: I am in the office two days a week and due to timings with dropping the kids off to school I had reasoned I couldn't really make it into the office for my core hours if I parked in the nearest location which is free mainly because you never know if thee will be a space and sometimes have to drive around for quite a while looking for one getting further from the office. My friend has just moved into the town and lives about a 15 minute power walk from the office so I have the use of her driveway :T:T So it is only going to cost me about 20 minutes a day but ill save me £5 a time and will make hitting the SFD target much more possible. As a bonus I am hoping I'll get to catch up with my friend for a cuppa occasionally when I pick my car up on the way home

Hope you are all having good days.

Siouxsie32

Afternoon everyone So, here I am with my first February posting. With one SFD under my belt, so far it's been so good. Today will probably be a spend day though as I have no food - I could probably scrape by til tomorrow, but then I'll have to go tomorrow so I'm as well getting what I need tonight.

So, other than yoga and food shopping, I apparently have a load of housework to do :eek: I cleaned the bathroom before I went to work last night, but I still have a lot of vacuuming to do! My street is flooded and my hall/kitchen floor are filthy from me walking mud in from outside. Time to get scrubbing!

So, before I turn into a domestic goddess before your eyes, I'll set out February's Financial Flowchart

Food: £100 (this is what it is most months and I struggle when I make it less. I went over it in January by around £20, so if I base the 'reduce it by £20' rule on last months figures, that brings me back to £100.

SFD: This is one area where I kinda do okay, but lose track by the end of the month. I have now added a column to my spreadsheet to add my SFDs to so I have no excuse for not updating. As of today, it stands at 1. See, the spreadsheet is working

Food bank: I didn't get round to dropping off last months goodies, so I'll pop along this week with a few bags of stuff from last month and I'll top it up with this month's contribution too.

Exercise: After a sluggish December, I've fallen back in love with yoga. I'll go to at least 3 90 minute classes each week so this is another target I'll have no problem with

Misc: I have a £100 miscellaneous budget which is to cover everything else. It pays for nights out (currently have one planned), visiting nieces (ditto!), posting gifts/birthday cards, post yoga smoothies and all sorts of things that crop up during the month. By having the money set aside, I don't have to resort to credit cards or overdrafts. It sounds a lot, but it's amazing what crops up during the course of a month, but usually I can stick to it.

Declutter: I'm looking forward to getting stuck into this one! I seem to have stuff that I don't need and little space to store it...not to mention, a few extra pennies made if I can sell it would help too! I got my bag tags from Oxfam (to collect Nectar points when any of my stuff gets sold) so it's time to start bagging, charity shopping, eBaying, Gumtreeing and throwing out what's left!

dolly84

Decluttering has started, I have listed some outgrown clothes of DD's that didn't sell last week, a bike of DH's and some kids bikes and scooters. I have a bag ready for the charity shop and have also taken a mountain of plastic bottles and cardboard to the tip for recycling.

I made today's tea yesterday (lamb hot pot) and just need to put the potatoes on and cook again. Don't have anything out of the ordinary planned for next week so the only spend should be the grocery shop.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone.

clippy_girl

hello,

this is off topic but know there are lots of you with pets. i am struggling a bit atm with my cats hair all over my brown sofa as its quite a rough texture and he always rolls around on it! he has long fluffy hair and its white and tortoiseshell so very noticeable! currently i just use the attachment on my dyson for fabric (the one like the clothes brushes) but it doesnt seem to picking it up as well atm. wondered if there were any better attachments? i know you can get the ones to hoover your pet but he is scared of it so dont think that would work!

i currently comb him once per week to get all the knots and clumps out. wondering if a brush would help as well? he doesnt mind me combing him until i do his trousers and tail then i have to pin him down! :rotfl:

knew this would be an issue when i got him but he was the cutest and most playful!

hoovering my cushions is a better arm work out than the gym i think!

will also need to decide what to do about his food as hes just on cheapo whiskers biscuits atm and no wet food but he seems fine on it and looks very healthy with shiny fur etc.. vet said most cats are fine on whiskers but you get what you pay for and he recommended science plan etc.. there is just way to much choice (even just within science plan!) so im a bit :huh: dont see the point in getting ridc priced food if theres not much difference but if its better for him then i will switch it (as he doesnt have wet anymore so prob about what i was paying before anyway!)

traveller

Hi all. Another one a bit under the weather. Time of the month and feel a bit tired. However, when the suns out, as it was this morning, i'm always up and raring to go:D

I woke up at 6 and baked 36 cupcakes and made loads of portions of different style rice meals for the week. Since I've switched to full-time i've been exhausted and just don't have enough time to cook from scratch and spend quality time with the little fella, so this should help.

I was a bit miffed this morning with eldest son. He will be 21 next month and has just registered his company and is in his last year of uni. I told him from next month I will expect a small contribution from him (i'm talking between 10-15 quid a week).He was saying how is he expected to pay his share of the council tax (when he leaves uni) and pay rent too :mad: He then was saying, how can he build his business with extra payments-he cannot afford it! He also knows other parents that pay all the council tax without expecting a penny! I told him, most of his friends are only children., they do not come from a family of 5 and I have more than supported him by having nothing off him for years. He needs to realise as you grow up, you have to pay your way! Cheeky so and so To be honest, this is more for him to realise nothing is free, rather than me profiteering,lol!

On another note, Kat by accident, I discovered your travelling plans/diary! How amazing! Travelling is my absolute passion and I've dragged the kids all over the place over the years, lol. I'm really out of sync, as this year is the first year since i started going away, that i'm not going anywhere. You mentioned on that thread, you've read blogs of people doing long stretches with their children in tow. Could you tell me the names of some please Thanks. I love stuff like that.

Well today is a SFD and I hope to do some exercise today.

catshark88

The thing to remember with science plan is that vets get a very hefty commission on any that they sell. I wouldn't for a moment suggest that that alters the likelihood of their recommending it but......

I've started feeding our dogs raw (meat, offal and bone) and I know a lot of people who have put their cats on this regime successfully too. It's not for everybody, but if anyone wants to research it, there is a lot of advice on suppliers' websites (raw to go, natural instinct, Nutriment etc.). I don't know about cats, but raw works out pretty cheap for dogs too.

Sorry, bit of a hobby horse of mine,I'll shut up now. ;-)

rubywhatashmoo

We feed our cat one pouch of wet food a day and dry food the rest of the time - he used to get mostly wet food but the vet said it wasn't doing his teeth any good and to change to dry, but he was miserable and this is a good compromise - no more fangy comments from the vet
He tends to get Go Cat or Whiskas dry food because it gets the least disgusted looks from him but his favourite are Brekkies and they're harder to get hold of round here at least.

rubywhatashmoo

Right so I've got home and had a good look over my spreadsheet and checked in the kitchen and found out what bits I need to make actual meals this week so I've got a list prepped and ready to go for Aldi tomorrow night! :cool:

My bank is in chaos at this time of the month with loads of things having half come out of the account but not showing up on the statement so it will be lovely when they all catch up with each other in a couple of days, but I do know exactly what is expected to come out so that's something! :rotfl:

I can't believe I've spent over 22 quid on shopping already this month - based on what I've actually bought we haven't got a lot for the money, we did get a 16 pack of loo rolls for £5 but also got a fajita kit for £3 something or other which I will definitely need to find a cheaper alternative for next time as that doesn't even include all the ingredients I would need to actually make a flipping fajita!! :mad:

Ah well, the whole point of signing up to something like this is to really make you think about what you're spending and it's certainly done that! Supermarket pizza for tea and leftovers for lunch tomorrow :A

Living_a_good_life

Back from the beach. Dinner from the freezer hurrah
Clippygirl have you tried wiping the sofa with your hand in a rubber glove. It sounds basic but works for us!

Off to eat cake - does a walk on the beach count towards exercise? It was about an hours worth but we were walking not running?

love lagl xx