NSK; February 28 Days Later!

Billie-jo

Spent £8.23 this morning plus £10 for a birthday gift that was already budgeted for.


NSD - 3/15
Grocery budget - £12.65/£190
Petrol budget - £0/£110
Birthday present £10/£10
Food Bank £1.00/£3.00
De clutter 28 items 4/28
Outings 2 - £0/£40


Hope everyone is safe and well in this weather, luckily we not too bad here but it must be awful for those who are caught up in it all.

apple_muncher

Just 2/5 SFDs so far. Hmmm. Must try harder!

However, the consultant was pleased with dd's height and weight progress, and I took food and drink to eat while waiting for the chemist. Managed to get the Ald1 shop done, and dd did well not to be blown away on the way home. Hopefully she'll be well enough for sch tomorrow...

kat, how on earth did you manage to forget to have breakfast???!!! Those pesky coffee places are sent to tempt us.

Have done a little money shuffling. Whenever I use a voucher or get yellow stickered food, I'm going to put the equivalent amount in to savings. I realised last month just how much the little bits do add up. And Tilly Tidies are pain-free!

LoveaDove

Hello guys and dolls,

Just a lickle pickle post. I have accumulated 2 SFDs and 2 Exercise sessions so far this month. Today is looking to be 3rd SFD, but do not want to declare until the day is nearly up.

Had a big SD on Monday, towards my 'After Debt' Goal, (which I declared on one of NSK's challenges a few months back when we had to declare what we would do once DF). All from savings, but a bit was required from this month's budgets so I have to be extra extra scrimpy this month! I have cancelled going to a 30th Birthday in London and a weekend reunion this month (postponed until summer now), to prevent any financial damage. Can't be slipping into old habits and using my overdraft!

NinjaSavingKat

I made breakfast..(oats, rice milk, mashed banana with cranberries and raisons with a tub of wheatgerm/ground flax and chopped nuts) to have when I got in. Just right then and there I was gonna drop.. silly silly me. Although I now have a very delicious dinner planned... lol!

luckystarr

hello everyone:wave:

Just caught up with all the posts .. hope the poorly people get well soon and everyone is safe and dry from the weather

Not feeling a 100 % today mon pm to tues pm i was at work but ended up spending in a3da on the way home lots of rubbish food bought !!! and then lost a SFD today because i caved in a bought a 90p bag of sweets from a vending machine i have no self control.:wall:
Anyway next to days are spending days as joining fat club again and having my tattoo removal appointment friday so to say i am feeling meh is an understatment:(

Sorry for the rant must be more productive i have started to declutter so hopefully this will start positive things

Keep up the good work everyone you are all fab xx :T

apple_muncher

NinjaSavingKat wrote: »

I made breakfast..(oats, rice milk, mashed banana with cranberries and raisons with a tub of wheatgerm/ground flax and chopped nuts) to have when I got in. Just right then and there I was gonna drop.. silly silly me. Although I now have a very delicious dinner planned... lol!

I guess the concourse at Victoria isn't really the place to whip out your tupperware and a spoon! Imagine the tutting! And that would be more because you'd dared to stand still... Credit to you for keeping it for dinner :T.

mothernerd

I am #64 (feel like it too,today).

Sorry, didn't set my budgets earlier (still getting the hang of things, will keep adding bits to my signature as i get more confident).

Food budget £130
Bus and taxis £10 (over ambitious, as it turns out - usually do a mega shop once a month and get a taxi back' was getting into walking everywhere at all other times but I know this fell off before Xmas).

I like this challenge but didn't join in January as had started the New Year with a massive £31.50 Indian takeaway. In my defence the oven 'died' on New Year's Eve - just after I had taken out all the reveller's return/New year buffet food and the New Year roast dinner stuff out of the freezer - combination of home made and reduced shelf items but they all needed the oven (salads etc all in the fridge). I thought the Indian snacks would go with all the salady bits and all the defrosting vegetables could bulk up the curries. I got 5 meals out of it and took some stuff to my mother's to cook (party bits did 3 of us for tea there with some for my supper and next day, parsnips/roasties and yorkshires were re-heated at home using microwave and gravy - got told the parsnips weren't crunchy enough).

I had spent £59-90/£130 on food and £5.50/£10 on buses up to the weekend. I have been trying to walk every day but was struggling. Last week of January I counted 41 HM ready meals in the freezer (DS3 is mainly nocturnal when not in university so I cook in a big pan and then divide into takeaway containers and freeze so he can help himself in the middle of the night). Mum and her partner have takeaway once a week so when my stock of containers is getting low I grab another bagload from her.

So for the last week I trawled the pound shops and similar with a list of things we would be needing for February and started pricing things up - downsized 15 items and found better prices on a few. However I found that my leg would start to ache (had taken water and a snack, forgot the painkillers) and ended up getting the bus back home (price recently dropped from £2.10 to a pound. As I was getting the bus I thought it only sensible to bring back at least a small rucksack full of food so most of my February food was in before the start of the month and as it related to this month's expenditure I took £4 off January's bus fares and onto February's.

I know you said not to re-hash all the rules but my local food bank is 7 miles away and it would cost £2.80 on the bus to get there (maybe by the end of the year I will be fit enough to walk 14 miles but it's a way off at the moment). Our local library has a box for food bank donations and also an over-size wheelie bin for charity shop donations. I presume the food bank donations go back to centre in the inter library van. Since these were introduced I have made a point of taking a few things each time I change my library books (at least every three weeks, usually more often). This seems to be an excellent scheme and I intend to keep doing it.

So I was doing reasonably well but have had a few bad days so I only have 1/15 spend free days. On Saturday I was trying to get the sewing machine working. I had changed the plug and ended up running out of the house at 10 to 5 to buy fuses (the tv went 2 1/2 weeks ago and my son swapped the tv and sewing machine fuses - I thought perhaps both had gone). On Monday I barely got through my exercise class (stayed to the end but was reduced to doing old lady sit-down versions of the exercises) so had to get back home on the bus (couldn't even get to the supermarket to get the wash powder tablets I forgot or the10p bread which would have at least compensated for the bus fare).

When I got back from yesterday's walk there was a letter from the bailiffs addressed to DS1 (temporarily here, he and his girlfriend should be moving into a rented house in 10 days time). When he phoned them up they were basically demanding that he pay them £450 or he would come round here from 6am in the morning with a locksmith and take anything which I could not prove belonged to me and not my son.We were both sick with worry by the time he came off the phone - the debt was nothing to do with him but the bailiff wouldn't give the date of the offence or even the phone number of the Magistrates Court (37 miles from us).

I suggested we go to the local police station to ask for help/advice. I called a taxi as I couldn't walk and bus hopping starts to get difficult in the evenings only to find that our local station now shuts at 5.30pm (so another spending day £6.60 and I didn't even get out of the taxi)(would have been £4+ bus hopping).

We phoned Merseyside police who were helpful and sympathetic and found the number for the magistrate's court and told him to go to CAB this morning (and had a few choice remarks about the particular bailiffs).

Last night I came on here and got loads of helpful advice and briefed everyone - DS3 was worried that they might take his laptop. I got about 3 hours sleep at most and my sons had less.

My library books need to go back but instead of a leisurely stroll there and back I bus hopped as I didn't want to leave DS3 in the house on his own for too long in case the bailiffs did turn up. I did grab the wash tablets and some bits - least economical shop this year.

Thankfully the matter has been resolved. Someone with the same first and last names (that's what the middle name is for) and date of birth as my son got on a train without paying and was subsequently fined. When the fine wasn't paid, these idiot bailiffs stepped in and chaos reigned. It could have cost my son his job (needs CRB clearance) and he is still worried that he may lose this house.

Let's look on the bright side - if his spending were part of my budget I would be down the cost of a round trip to Liverpool He's lost his day off for this week as well. Here's hoping for a decent night's sleep

Siouxsie32

Afternoon all How is everyone today? Seems like the tube strike is causing chaos - I switched my London work to Friday instead...although I will drive in later for yoga. I'm taking a later class than usual as I think all the parking spaces will be filled during office hours.

So, I have finished work early today and am now home with the heater on (please shout at me if I decide I'm too comfy to go to yoga!!!). I have a spare 30 minutes so I'm in the process of sorting stuff into piles. Does anyone else do this and later regret starting? I have a feeling in 30 minutes there will be chaos in my living room - bin/Oxfam/ebay/dump!

I had to buy petrol this morning so I took advantage of it being a speedy day and cracked open the wallet to buy a little food at the supermarket and a bar of chocolate for my mum We were talking last night about good food and I mentioned the 100% cocoa chocolate I sometimes get from Hotel Chocolat. I was passing one today so I bought her a bar which I'll send over (already have stamps and padded envelopes so no extra spends required). Eh, while I was at it, I bought a bar for myself too - oops! On the plus side, I was near the till in TK Maxx with a new pink purse in my hand - to be fair, I really need one a) because mine is a little coin purse, not very professional when I'm MSing and b) it's black and impossible to find in the bottom of my bag, or in my dark car, or on my black kitchen worktop..you get the picture? Anyway, I felt justified in buying it, but I put it back. The little black coin purse can be my friend for a while longer

Ah, would you look at that - my 30 minutes has just become 20! That pile of 'stuff' is going to remain a pile of stuff if I don't get a move on!

I'll update the figures later, but we're nearly a quarter of the way through the month so I reckon we're all doing jolly well!!

Siouxsie32

Gosh mothernerd, sorry our posts crossed! How awful! Glad it's been resolved now :grouphug:

Living_a_good_life

Mothernerd hope you have a relaxing evening tonight - sounds like the last couple of days have been horrid for you all

Down in the south west husband is currently on the roof in the dark securing our tv aerial before it lands somewhere its not supposed to be!

Went and did a food shop today as I am under house arrest tomorrow waiting for the fence panels - got petrol too so totals updated.

Right off to finish cooking tea - DS just came through wiggling his fingers shouting filanges!! Cbeebies has alot to answer for!!

Tonight I will be re-modelling a couple of kingsize duvet covers we never use into a single and a double - last night I fixed the knees of two pairs of kids trousers - life on the edge I can tell you!!

Anyways love to all,

LAGL xx

PS if anyone in the south east sees a bloke flying over head with a fence panel and an aerial can they try and catch him!!

PPS he has landed - aerial retrieved - no tv for us until we either get a new aerial or he fixes the bracket with a bit of aluminium - not something we normally have access to but a friends green house took up ballroom dancing last night so that might be an option