NSK;The Tortoise and The Mad MARCH Hare!!!

clippy_girl

morning all

no check in for me yesterday

sunday ended up being a spend day as i was having a little look for duvet sets for when i decorate my room. saw a lovely one last week for bargain price but the pillow cases had sold out everywhere on sunday someone listed 2 brand new in pack pillow cases on ebay :j so i bidded and bought the duvet set from hof. going to count the purchase of the pillow cases as sunday even though they dont end for a week as that is when i committed to buy. should win them as happy to pay decent price as got a good deal on duvet.

also spent £1.59 on sweets :mad: but back on wagon again!

yesterday was a sfd :A

didnt end up going into city to return item on sat as need fringe trimmed and they dont do it on sat so going in today. wont be a sfd today unfortunately as i am booking the spa break for next week to no sfd but to spa! to make the most of spend day i am going to get the last part of mums mothers day present, order nanas bday present (amazon voucher) and pick up a few toiletries in wilkos. means a sfd on sat

will watch the panorama programme at the weekend as sounds interesting. congrats on your course kat :T i can remember reading about the teenager that used all those vouchers in tesco and donated all the food to the food bank and thinking it would be good if he could teach the food bank users how he did it!

traveller

Morning all. Yesterday after spending the day feeling awful, I made the decision to take two days off to holistically sort myself out! I'm actually starting to feel better already. I will have to spend though, as I will need to buy some tinctures as a temporary fix.

Kat-never a truer word spoken! I see the effect of debt on people every single day ( and yes I do see the irony of it all) I literally weep when people are only concerned with when they can have access to credit again! You think, can't you see what's going on! Please, please, please, leave it be. All these initiatives of making your payments go to the highest rate of interest first ect, are to make us dine with debt more easier-not to get us out of it!

The problem is, people are not taught how to manage money. You either can or can't or in some extreme cases won't. I am so proud of all of us here! No matter how hard we fall, we all pick each other up and most importantly of all, we are all painfully aware of the consequences of not waking up and are in this for the long haul! So, today I'm grateful for my beautiful family, the fact i'm in a position to attempt to change my ways and that when I chose to change my way of thinking, I found this challenge, Kat and you wonderful people as friends along the way :T

MrsGSR

On a slightly different note I was reading an article about change4life which was going on about the country's obesity crisis. With so many people needing to use food banks is this really a big a crisis as suggested?

mooomin

MrsGSR wrote: »

On a slightly different note I was reading an article about change4life which was going on about the country's obesity crisis. With so many people needing to use food banks is this really a big a crisis as suggested?

Poverty and obesity are definitely linked. Unhealthy processed food seems cheap (although I'm sure most of us know how to make healthy food cheaply!) and for people who have never been shown how to cook decent food it's easy to buy a pizza for £1 as their dinner rather than knocking up a healthy home-cooked meal.

mooomin

SFD: 0/17
Food: £2.38/£160
Food bank: £3/£3
Decluttering: 0/50 items
Exercise: 3/15

I still haven't managed a SFD and today won't be one either as I've just realised we're out of margarine. Bah!

Tomorrow I'm aiming for a SFD, which should be doable as I'm working at home and will get any food we need tonight. I've added a couple of additional targets for the month to my list - focussing on exercise seems to help me, so I've added a target of 15 days with exercise. I'm also setting a target for items decluttered as I think it'll help me to see progress being made, even if the house still feels cluttered!

dolly84

crazy-lady - your family cooking get togethers sound really nice.

I know what you mean about water, I can't abide tap water but when I have drunk water from streams in the hills I like it, it doesn't taste of anything really but is crisp if that makes sense.

Kat - well done on the course. I feel the same about the 'stuff' we just don't need it do we? I sometimes have myself in tears about the things my kids don't have or do compared to some school friends and feel like I am letting them down. DH gets cross with me and sets me straight, they are well loved and know it, they are safe, I am home with them every morning and every day after school, they are warm and well fed, the list goes on.

I am hoping to be clocking up another SFD today, working, walking and making pancakes later. I did the grocery shop at Tesco last night for the £5 off a £40 spend only to find out it finished sunday :mad:. Anyway I was savvy and only got things I knew were a good price. Called at Asda after and got 2 bags of 14 packs of Walkers for £2.97 each or 2 for £3, these will last ages and work out cheaper than supermarket own brands.

I did forget one item which I will need to pick up at the weekend though.

Do you remember me mentioning my friend a few weeks back who will be losing her job soon? She is one who spent £180 on groceries in one week. Well today she told me that she went to Aldi and got a weeks shop for £60, you could have knocked me over with a feather. She has a Tesco delivery saver and said she would do her next shop with them but go from branded goods down to own brands, I said go the whole hog and get value brands and then any that you really hate go back up a brand - maybe it would be too much too soon but I am never know for the softly, softly approach.

I am helping her as much as possible, I have given her some of my recipes, introduced her to cashback and searching for discount codes before buying. It is hard though, she went out with her DD at the weekend looking for bedroom curtains for DD and ended up spending £90.:eek:

thriftylass

Another SFD today, number 3. Home with DS as nursery won't have him as he's been sick yesterday, but he's grand. Anyway, just been to the playpark. My tummy isnt great, plus back pain, cold symptoms, all pointing in the direction of it not being too long now.

Also started making soup for the freezer, potato and kale yesterday, carrot and coriander today and not sure yet tomorrow.

Re debt: I was shocked when I moved here from eastern Germany. The concept of debt was alien to me. Back home no one had debt, 90% rent (diff. market), no one had credit cards etc. At the most people leased a car. Not sure if that changed now, but 10 years ago you just had the money you had. Plus it helped easy credit like here just isn't available.

karmachilovething

TiptoesDB wrote: »

Back home to real life now, and no real feelings of envy at all about it. Yes, I would like three wardrobes full of reiss and boden dresses and three bathrooms full of aveda and white company toiletries.

You know, I don't know whether it's this challenge, or just a general shift towards simplifying my life, but the idea of three wardrobes of clothes and three bathrooms to clean terrifies me :rotfl: good thing too as i won't by getting either anytime soon.

Deleted_User wrote: »

I will look out for the programmes on iplayer (no tv here for the last 5 years, but the licence guy does not believe it!).

Oh I enjoy baiting the TV licence people! They bounce up to your door expecting to get an easy kill, and there's nothing there. Is that cruel of me?! It's not that I think that the BBC doesn't do good work, they do, and if they still did radio licences I'd happily pay up because I think that's worth the licence fee alone.

Planning a SFD day today. And going to call B4rclaycard about my 3p balance. I did a transfer to a 0% on another card and this is the remaining interest, which it won't allow me to pay on-line. Very irrating.

TiptoesDB

I think that’s true Thrifty about access and attitude to credit being part of the problem – my DH is a bit younger than me (5 years) and he said credit was thrown at him from being 18 and it was ‘totally normal’ to be in thousands of pounds of debt during Uni and beyond as all his friends were. For me, it wasn’t as available or acceptable during my formative money years and so I didn’t have the same attitude to it. Good luck btw – fingers crossed it’s nearly thrifty-baby time! Eek!!

Done my totals below and feeling a mixture of 'start of the month' hope and excitement, and panic about all the spends that have to be done this month… and that I can't say no to. I am getting that ‘out of control’ panic back again… checking the spreadsheets numerous times a day for no reason other than to stare at figures willing them to change!

Going to go out for a run in a bit to try and take my mind off it all.

• 1/20 SFDS
• £40/£180 groceries
• De-clutter that kitchen! To be done on 6 March
• 0/15 LTW
• 2/20 Exercise

TiptoesDB

karmachilovething wrote: »

You know, I don't know whether it's this challenge, or just a general shift towards simplifying my life, but the idea of three wardrobes of clothes and three bathrooms to clean terrifies me :rotfl: good thing too as i won't by getting either anytime soon..

I know what you mean! I am very much enjoying the simpler life - but then they do have a cleaner who also does all the washing and ironing, so I guess that's not a problem for her either!!

But, I am happy that my smart price soap works fine and that DH happily accepts me without make up and expensive toiletries and in my cheap scruffy joggers all the time I am at home! :rotfl: