NSK; February 28 Days Later!

ikesmummy

Well done on your busy day fmess. Think I will try your method for washing duvets mothernerd but maybe wait for some drier weather first

Had a pretty good day today, lunch to work, dinner from freezer and a NSD.

won't make all of the targets of the challenge but not going to beat myself up especially as it is my first attempt at doing this.

Starting to look forward to hearing what March's challenge will involve.

TiptoesDB

No spends, no exercise.

Dolly84, totally know what you mean about this manky murkey last dregs bit of winter, it’s so depressing, come on spring! I saw some daffodils peeking out today which totally put a spring in my step… it can’t be long now. I also know what you mean about working from home. I have freedom to work at home or in the office when I have reports and paperwork to do (my job also involves a lot of meetings and visits all over the place) and to save petrol I often work from home for stretches at a time rather than drive into the office. I get a lot more done and the house jobs get done more, but it can be so very isolating…

Made a lovely kedgeree tonight with yellow sticker smoked fish. First time attempt and definitely on the regular meals list now. Yum. Double helpings is not going to help that weight loss tho. Going to a posh do with my sister in a few weeks and I need to check that I can zip up my bestest dress otherwise there is going to be some serious crash dieting going on – I will NOT buy a new dress!

• 8/15 SFD’s
• £130/£180 food budget
• 11/20 exercise
• 2/3 planned outings

apple_muncher

Our lovely dark purple crocuses were showing off today in the sunshine, along with a coupke of brave daffs. Dd and I went out for a walk and she ended up taking off her hat, coat and cardi, whilst splashing through the puddles - such pleasure!

Tomorrow's our Londinium trip. Have researched the National Gallery for kids and printed out a kiddies' guide. So if we get the culture urge we can pop in. Dd is very excited about the trip! Dh less so, as he's still full of cold. I've set a spends limit and WILL NOT exceed it!

We've been offered an appointment with a dietician for dd. This Monday! Have requested the time off work, but given that this week is half term, there's not much opportunity for them to refuse! Hope it's a good meeting. And many thanks to our consultant who's been hounding them to see us - I only asked to see them 15 days ago!

Got another exercise session in this morning and was joined by dd copying me - so cute!

stewby

Spend-free day 14 of 15.
:j

I did spend money, but it is was birthday money on a pressie for myself so I haven't counted it.


Have gotten some brilliant presents which have made me very happy. OH has spoiled me rotten... even taking me out for suppper.


My dad is impressed with our saving schemes and thinks that I am doing very well with my debt-busting.


I had a bit of a shock yesterday and I want to tell you about it just cause it really kinda demonstrated how careless I used to be with money.
We went to tescmios yesterday so my mum could get some shopping for going to my auntie's house. One of the things was a tub of ben and jerry's ice cream. We used to buy this all the time and eat it in the afternoon watching tv (normally diagnosis murder). Went in (in my new mse mind frame) and realised that the ice cream costs £4.99!! A fiver for one wee tub of ice cream!!
:eek:

Nothing else really to report. I have managed to get pretty much everything I "wanted" with the money I was given for my birthday or with the presents I was given so no need to buy any "wants" for a while.


Hope everyone else is doing well.
Hugs.

[Deleted User]

Hi everyone! Just checking in with a mid month post as I haven't updated here for a while. Feeling very proud of zombie dodging today, claiming a NSD despite a leaving do lunch at work. After deciding to go for a drink but not eat (as I had a lunch already at work from yesterday when it turned out there was lunch provided at a meeting ) the queue at the bar was such that I managed to go, join in conversation for an hour or so, and not buy or consume a drink without really it being noticed. Hot footed it back to the office afterwards to enjoy my YS hot cross buns from the other day instead!

Budgets I set at start of month for food and fuel have been smashed (see sig) but I am not too worried. Car used a lot more than usual whilst I was ill (but then not at all whilst I was really ill, so sort of balanced out). Will be back on my bike in the next week or so. However I took the strip-£20-off your-last-food-budget from the fuel instead, as my food budget was tight already for me and DD, plus breakfasts for paying guests come out of that too.

And food budget has gone, but not by too far really. I kept a very close eye on it. Restocked the freezer of some portions of hm meals and at long last we have some tinned toms, which you kind of need to make such a lot of veggie meals stick together :j. So I feel we are set up for next month - suspect I will need to buy about 2 lots of milk, but determined not much else before end of month. Lots in the freezer for DDs lunches, lots of bread flour now for our new bread-making habit (inspired totally by your use up stuff challenge Kat. Unfortunately we haven't found any flour currently in our supermarket that is as nice as our 2 year OOD granary flour was!). The one thing I find myself craving is fresh fruit and veggies. I have stashed a pack of frozen summer fruits in the freezer for when it gets too overwhelming and we have about 4 precious oranges left. Anything else will now be random harvesting from the amazing YS co-op runs. I can only pull the food budget so tight really because I know that DD gets very good food (as in good for you) when she is at her dads, so she is not craving fresh things as much as me! We don't eat badly - lots of wholefoods etc, but I do find myself really relishing when I get the chance to eat fresh things. Every time we are at out somewhere and get offered some sort of snack, I always choose the fruit!!!!

I did my FB donation during the last shop. Hope it is ok with them but I split up some massive multipacks I had bought so I could keep a few of each type of tin myself. It meant I could afford to give more, iykwim.

I am very excited to have paid down some of my debts today! Withdrew cash from paypal from ebay sales, plus money from paying guest. In total about £450 off various cc's. I was very tempted to wipe out the smallest debt totally but it made more sense to throw extras at one of the bigger ones as its 0% rate ends soon.I have space and another 0% deal I can transfer it too within my existing cards, but obviously want the transferred amount to be as small as possible. There is 6 weeks until the deal runs out and about 4-5 weeks until the optimum time to swap it all around. So this will be my focus until then.

Have just agreed to let our house out whilst we are away on holiday at Easter. This means A LOT of tidying and de-cluttering but will cover the cost of our own accomodation whilst we are away (cheating those zombies). As I gave DD her flight for xmas, and grandparents etc chipped in with euros for her for spending money as her gift, and are buying us one of those passes for the museums instead of Easter eggs - our long awaited hol is becoming much more affordable! We are also travelling with a friend so lots of the overall costs will be split roughly 1/3 for her and 2/3 for us and keeping the price down using a mix of Airbnb and hostels.

Best of luck to everyone else dodging those zombies. I am off for a proper read of the thread now!

Billie-jo

NSD - 12/15
Grocery budget - £86.32/£190

Will be spending tomorrow as its shopping day and there are a couple of things that have run out that don't buy weekly.


Have a bond up in two weeks so now have to consider how long I ought to tie the money up for and also try to judge what interest rates will be doing over the next 3 years. Its not for a huge amount so wont make too much difference but would like to think I had it right.

[Deleted User]

Fmess wrote: »

NSK I went to Cafe in the Crypt this weekend when I visited London. We were playing Hidden Cities it was on our treasure hunt It was lovely and had gluten free cake

Fmness, what is Hidden Cities? I am always trying to find quirky things to see on my work trips up to Londinium.

This won't help people this holiday, but we have really enjoyed the free tickets you can get from your MP to go on the House of Parliament Tour. You email your MP with a date in mind and their office sends you a form to fill in with the peoples details, then you get an E-ticket. The tour took about 90 minutes and the guide was brilliant. We are booked for another freebie tour the same way in the summer holidays - climbing up inside Elizabeth Tower to see Big Ben close up! Quite special memories for the kiddies really.

Mothernerd...I can't wait to try the duvet in the bath trampling session. But like the earlier poster, I think I might leave it until the suns out a bit more. Great description though!Thank you.

cottage_retreatist

oh crazy_lady2009 - try to go for the 12 o'clock bongs at Elizabeth Tower so you get the full effect! I've done that too!!!!!!!!!!

really recommend it! to everyone

Well - we have been plodding along and this month has been tough due to OH only getting a small pay packet in January due to having to leave his job so we have spent on credit card so will have to pay back at the end of the month

can't wait to start beating these debts again - 5 days and then I can pay off about 1500 quid! yay!!!!!!!!!!! :j:j

hope everyone is well?

xx

clippy_girl

grrrrrrr rant alert:mad:

i updated windows 8 last night to the latest version which i did. i now cannot access my online banking as money manager doesnt work anymore! it wont let me download the add on firefox needs with no option to overide :mad: i only used firefox as google chrome has never let me use it. even if i get it working on another browser i cant access my details as have forgotten most log on details as i never enter them manually will need to reset them all good job i did most of my money shuffling already after payday

hate windows 8 :mad::mad::mad::mad:

have managed to get sky go to work finally on laptop (it is not compatible with windows 8) so have logged into dads account and can now watch all the tv box sets for free even works when plugged into tv :T if only the software was compatible then i could download instead of streaming and could get rid of my sky package!

today i have three mystery shops to do including greasy burger lunch. not had one for a while so looking forward to it. not sure whether to go for favourite bit fat burger or healthier chicken nuggets!

also going to hang the washing out which is a novelty as it is not raining!!!!!

not much else to report!

its definitely getting quiet on here like it always does towards the end of the month!

ikesmummy

Yay payday :T had decided on trying to leave all the money alone until 31st when hubby gets paid but was too excited by the healthy looking balance and so I ... Paid £600 off our debt Hong paid 8.95% of our debt off I am really keen to try and push that up to 10% which I have calculated is an extra £139.80. Not sure if I should just shave that off other budgets now and bite the bullet and transfer the money or if I should be more cautious and wait to see how health DH's pay packet is this month (it varies quite a bit due to a very complicated bonus system). I am hoping March shouldn't be too expensive, no trips or anything planned and only two birthdays (presents will come out of my presents fund pot unless I feel we have enough in the main account) but don't want to leave it too tight and risk going back into our overdraft after any surprises. What do you all think??