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

NinjaSavingKat

This is it!
31 Days are yours.
Make. It. Count.


Let The Games Begin and May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favour!

mothernerd

Targets
Food Budget £110
Transport £25
These are both theoretical at the moment as my income for the month does not cover standing orders and minimum payments on credit cards.Some other bits of money due but had problems last year getting them.
SFD 20/31
Donated £7 of toiletries to food bank
Declutter kitchen Likely to consist of cannibalising leftover shelves to make additional shelves for 'new' units.
Summer holiday Have been promising myself for past 7 years to take a day out on the 'Witchy Bus' (runs from Manchester up through villages including Pendle Hill area) so will DO this (get walking upto3 hours a day first).
Declutter Target 30 items Starting with CDs, DVDs, 'Wires' (computer leads/ phone chargers etc) and DS3's wardobe (I can get him to look at 3 items at a time.Also he says he only has 2 pairs of jeans that fit him and I know I have mended 6 pairs of trousers - loose japanese type -if these do not fit him should be able to cut down for exercise pants for me.

Other budget
Again theoretical at the moment but the following need tackling with varying degrees of urgency.
1) Hair cut for me. Nearly 6 years since I went to a hairdresser and I think it needs to be cut properly. Did chop about 4 inches off last month (still past my shoulders) but resisted going any further -used to cut my hair when I was younger,sometimes successfully,sometimes sheep who had fight with hedge trimmer.
2) Attic stairs - need to be repaired /rebuilt. Friend of DS3's is coming next weekend (he repaired them previously). He will assess what needs doing /whether we have wood which can be re-used but needs paying something /sometime.
3) Oven repair - broke on New Years Eve,starting to get to me now. Have taken things to mum's / son's to cook but not ideal especially as now entering next phase of '5 hours up a ladder,painting' (or repairing). Also reason for increase in travel budget,need to compromise between amount I can carry on foot /time taken-may be more economical to go to old (son's) house,do batch cooking combined with big shop (Tes /Aldi/Pound/Sains/Asd all 5 -15mins walk) +change library books then get taxi to transport everything home (or £5 all day ticket and bus hop it back in evening). Not found anyone to do repair yet.
4) Garden / Paint supplies -both needed to make house presentable for selling. Only bought ceiling paint and u/c and gloss -trying to do as much as possible with what I already have.Again need to get money in from somewhere before spending. I'd better stop -trying very hard to be positive (had a wobbly couple of days) just concentrate on what I can do and focus on solving one problem at a time instead of getting over-whelmed.

So taking last month's over-spend off this month's budget we are on
£39.98/£110 (including food bank) Food and £11.60/£25 travel.

EyesWideOpen

Hi NSK, may I join again this month?

Will do budgets over the next few days.

Thanks for another great challenge!

CEW

Fmess Just seen your post in Feb regarding feeling guilty about selling, throwing or donating gifts people have given you. I can fully understand this as I always felt the same.

Then one day I read somewhere, can't remember where, that you should accept that whoever gave you the item gave it to you freely for you to make use of. If the best use for you is to sell, donate or throw away the item then that is what you should do with it.

Maybe some people will be upset if they know but then the item was not given freely.

I have adopted this attitude and so far no one has been upset or if I'm honest even commented that the item has gone AWOL

Hope this helps.

Will be back later to post my targets :eek:

Chez x

Fmess

Thanks Chez that is really helpful. I will try to adopt that mind set this afternoon when I do some decluttering. Hopefully with that and NSKs advice regarding 'what if someone else wants/needs that item' from a previous month, I might be more successful at parting with items.

Happy March everyone

AlwaysHappy

Morning, having followed February's thread as a lurker, could I join this one? Once I have had the go ahead will pop back with my targets. Quite excited already - bring it on!!!

£ashcow

Morning All

Well here are my targets for the month :eek:

Pay at least £300 off cc

Foodbank £3

SFD's 20

De-clutter 20 items from kitchen

Food now dropped to £280

De-clutter 30 items from house to donate/recycle

LTW 18

Petrol £200 unfortunately have a bit more travel than usual for the next couple of months

Outings £200 - DS's 18th Birthday on the 12th pressies already purchased but will have a bit of a shindig. Also have a trip to Swansea to checkout uni for DS, hotel already paid for in Jan.

Summer Holiday - DH and myself are hitting the Cambridge Folk Festival this summer, already purchased tickets in December instead of crimbo pressies to each other, but will assess clothing and camping gear as part of de-clutter.

Well let's see how that works out!!!

XSpender

Morning all

I have done my usual Saturday morning number crunching and my targets are:

SFD 15
Food £250
Diesel £60
LTW 21
Planned fun £100
Food bank £10 (because I am behind):o
Declutter 30 items/kitchen clear out 30/
Save first -£9 to transfer and £27.50 to pay in and I have hit my target:) not much left in the account so it's gonna be tight:(
Summer holiday planning - just started talking about Malta this week!
Do someone a favour - offered to take DMIL to costco today. Does this count

I also have another couple of targets of my own:

- walk 50 miles. I have signed up for a long distance walk so need to start training for it

- clean eating 2 days a week. Starting with 'Super Sundays' as christened by my DH and Wednesdays (no catchy name for them yet;))

- keep a spending diary all month

My money challenges started on the 21st when I got paid but the rest I will run calendar monthly.

Good luck everyone:)

MrsGSR

Right, March let's 'ave ya! I've worked out everything and I'm ready to go!:j
I got paid last week so I am a bit ahead of the game.

Payment towards debt- in the last few days I have paid off £77.35 off my debt. I started the 365 challenge and so far have £56. I'm wondering as I have various saving pots virtual and physical anyway whether I should just slam this on the debt too? What do you think? I'm thinking :money:would agree! I get a bonus from my work in a few weeks so that will be slammed on the debt too.

SFD 10- I'm going for 10 as that's more achievable than setting myself a target of 15 or 20 which I have managed sometimes but tend to feel a massive failure if I don't.

Food £220- as we went over last month I am setting it at this so that we can stay within it. Ordered a big shop last week so we are pretty much stocked up, just a few top up bits really.

Children's activities- all monies were taken from the bank and have been put into pots or envelopes.

Fuel £30- I put in in £20 just before payday and I budget for £50 anyway as that was one success from last month.

Personal spends-£50 for prescription, paying for my work shoes to be fixed and a planned spa day with my friends, this will include lunch out too. ( sorry Kat, I very very rarely do anything like this and I have sat and budgeted for it)

Take outs- we rarely have take outs anyway as I tend to make my own version. This weekend is pizza which is our favourite, I haven't made curry for a while either so that will be bound to crop up:)

Holiday savings- we have a short break booked in October. I have set up a savings account for it and have about a tenet so far :rotfl:will be stashing what money I can into it. We are also planning to take the children to Legoland but I already have the money saved for this, I just need DH to confirm his holiday so I can book it.

De-clutter- my fleabay mission continues. I will upload 10 items each Sunday. I've now decided that this money will go towards getting a shed, DH has said we would like one for his birthday :rotfl:so I think using the money from stuff we have sold makes sense.

Favour- leave it with me;)

Lunch- I don't work in the day and eat at home anyway, bar that spa day next week.

Car savings- MOT in April, I already have £100 saved towards it and will save an additional £100 next month, best to cover yourself and have more than less money.

Buffer- I've allowed £50 buffer for this month for any additional things that we may need. I think that should be adequate.

Long term goals- we are converting DS's cot to a bed fully tomorrow but we know that a full size single won't fit in his room so we have to focus on the changes we need to make to the house. First step is the shed to put stuff from the garage in then decluttering everything else in there so we can convert it.

Phew! Think that's it. In writing this post I think it makes sense to put that £56 on the debt.

clippy_girl

morning all

so goals are-

pay off remaining debt at £790 :j cant pay at beginning of month as dad only wants one payment per month and i get the money in dribs and drabs throughout the month. however it all goes in a separate account and is not touched until end of month when i do the payment.

foodbank £3- will check toiletries are on the most wanted list of my local as i normally buy stuff from the list. however i have a few toiletries in my cupboard i am going to donate as well

SFD's- will aim for 20 :eek: going to adopt mantra of every penny is a prisoner as will be tight for next 6 weeks to clear debt (will clear in march but pay cycle is up to 19th april so will be tight until then)

de-clutter- hmm need to think about this as tbh i only have clothes left to do and am waiting until i loose weight

food- £100 down to £80- tnh not sure i can manage this as think £100 is minimum (i normally go over £100 so if i can keep it below £100 im happy but will aim for £80)

LTW- this will be every day im at work

petrol £70- inc £30 extra for spa break/parent visit. may increase if need to do work miles but i get this back (eventually!)

Outings-this is very high as i am going on a spa break. this is in march but will use some of my wage on 19th march. have decided not to go to leaving do and do coffee with friends instead of having lunch.

summer holiday- i am going to india in nov so will be saving for this instead from april

so today i am heading to the gym :A first time in 3 weeks also restarting the skinny rules today to get this weight shifted.

i bought an item for a mystery shop 3 weeks ago that i need to return and next sat will be too late so annoyingly i am going to have to walk into city just to return it. not going to buy anything else though. going to pop to aldi after though so no sfd today