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

dolly84

Morning all. I am enjoying reading everybody's targets, everyone seems to positive and ready to go, spring is in the air which must be helping.

I have washing out on the line and the kids off the xbox and out in the garden, DD wanted to go to the church craft fair this morning but she told me she had no money to spend there as she has put it all in her new bank account.

We have £80 budgeted for miscellaneous/fun spends this month and DH will be taking a chunk of it as he is paying for a £25 ticket for a meal out with DS's football team next month. He rarely goes out so I don't begrudge this at all.

We have a caravan and have four trips away already booked for this year, we are having 4 nights at Easter, 4 at Spring Bank, and two other trips during the 6 weeks holidays. I already have over £500 set aside to go towards this and any AVON money earned will be added to it aswell.

On the decluttering front DH has taken a car load of stuff to the charity shop this morning most of it from DS's room. He has the smallest room in the house and the most stuff. We have got rid of 56 children's books, about a million key rings which MIL wins on some sort of arcade game and palms off on us, 32 Match of the Day magazines, a huge play mat and loads of other stuff. They were car bootable but there are not many round here now and I hear bad reports of people not even covering costs.

The next free listing day on ebay will see the good stuff going on there.

This morning I won enough costa coffee points to get a muffin and I have already enough points for a latte so that will be a little treat later in the month, probably when I go into town to collect my £5 birthday gift from the Body Shop.

Hope the weather is good for you all, it is gorgeous in our part of Yorkshire today.

NinjaSavingKat

Afternoon Tortoise's...(ha that seems weird to write!)..

How are we this fine and thankfully dry Saturday! !st of the month - Rabbit Rabbit to you all...(very American sorry).. picked that up from friends and it's always a race between me and my Dad to see who can get the other... Quite apt for this month no?

So I am off to the cinema to see the 3D version of Gravity in Central London - expensive you say? - nah I say! For those of you who are unaware my one "treat" to myself on a monthly basis is the Cineworld card for 15.90 per month. It brought me through my debt busting times with a slight smile on my face... and tonight in Central Londonium one can watch it for an extra 2 of your English pounds...

Mr Archer worked on this films visuals so it's quite nice seeing it together to go "ooooooooh ahhhhhhh" etc etc....

Mother Nerd I like the fact you cut your own hair. It's been quite amusing when I do mine and over the months I have gotten a little more brave with how hard I cut my layers back. Someone complimented me on it once and I didn't have the heart to say "Yeah I did it last night thanks" and said a friend cut it. There is one thing being a complete miser (ME!!!!) and another admitting it to your work colleagues who have more of a propensity towards gossip than admiration.... so professional this time? Where? Salon or local college?

EyesWideOpen and AlwaysHappy (are you) you have been numbered!!

Dolly84 I love the fact you have decluttered SO MUCH on the first day! This is epic and you have a treat day out as well for free? How did you earn the Costa points exactly..?

Clippy_Girl - how much you saving for India?? And how long are you going for?

Right.. more form me later so I am looking forward to hearing from everyone who has their name down. Realise now I shoulda written "one daily check in" in the rules...:rotfl:

Onwards and Upwards!!!

luckystarr

Hello Everyone :hello:

well feeling very proud of myself have been at work today and i supported people to the local pub , normally i would have had a fizzy drink but had two glasses of water instead as i was determined to keep my SFD .. it has been tough, but i have come straight home and locked the door so no going out for me. doing a little victory dance :dance: as i am impulsive spender ...so i am declaring tody my first SFD

Love everyone's targets this month and today has been a cool but sunny day where i live and it has put a spring my step. :T

Me and OH have put some money aside so we can have a night out this month so now just need to decide what to do.

Hope you all have a lovely evening going to make a cuppa and put my feet up then get on with reading the hunger games.

SarahB1989_2

All moved back into my flat now and we're definitely in frugal measures. It's freezing! Currently have a candle for light and warmth, going to cook dinner shortly and leave the oven open after to keep the kitchen warm.

So, aims for this month:
I don't have any debt that can be repaid more than it is already (cc is repaid in full each month by direct debit, overdraft is 0% and a necessity til I start work), at the moment I'm saving every penny for my months of absolutely no income over the summer so that I don't get into too much more debt.
Budgets for everything are written down. Food budget is £85. Did a survey the other day about brands and which ones I was fussy about and realised I still buy lots of non-basics stuff, though on discount. Will work on this!
Went through the cupboards yesterday - will be eating porridge til the cows come home at this rate.
Have donated £3 to a foodbank online.
Decluttering is well underway - 5 items on eBay today, need to go through my wardrobe and see what can go from there.

Small spend day today - went to Sainsbugs for eggs and came out with butter and maple syrup as well.

apple_muncher

A spendy day as dd's ballet fees were due so we took the opportunity for a top up shop and charity shop visit. I'd dropped off a bag (and got my £2 credit, taking my total to £10) yesterday, with a view to doing another bagful today. Achieved! And the next bag is nearly full as we/I work through the kitchen. I'd got to a point where the kitchen grime was overwhelming me, but after a chat with dh and writing a mahoooooosive list of different bits of it (and it's only a tiny room!) to first sort and then clean, I feel better.

It's all about having a plan to deal with stuff, isn't it? And a steady tortoise approach. I plan to knit 31 items this month and accept that some days will get more done than others - but a little is better than nowt, so even going a little is GOOD.

I will be ruthless with kitchen cupboard contents - I promise!

Enough wittering!

dolly84

Have clocked up my first SFD today, decluttering, library visit and a dog walk so no temptations.

Collected my reserved book from the library (they reserve them for free) I got Moon over Soho which is the follow on from Rivers of London which I loved. The postman brought me two magazines which I was bought gift subscriptions for last year so I have plenty to read.

Kat - When you take out a Costa card they give you some points for free when you register it then you collect points as you go. I think I have only been a couple of times but have 260 points and there is a game on their facebook page to earn more points, I won 190 this morning which they tell me is enough for a ginger muffin and that is what I shall have as it sounds lovely.

I have made a batch of berry and white chocolate muffins today, if we get time on Sunday's we do an afternoon tea type thing so some are for that and some for the freezer.

I have decided that for mother's day I am going to make my mum a coffee and walnut cake instead of buying something, she will be really happy with that. MIL is another question though.

Me and DH are having nachos for supper and some more of our yummy pick n mix - we are easily pleased which is just as well:rotfl:.

Have a good Saturday night all.

CEW

Hi All,

Well after much thought here are my targets:

SFD - 0/20 - I am hoping this is achievable. I am not counting fuel or prescriptions as a spend day so long as its in my budget.

Groceries - £96.31/£150 - Last month was £170.67. It looks like I've already spent a large portion of the budget but I have most of the shopping for the month. Only need Dog and Chicken food plus top up shops for milk and maybe some veg. On the plus side I saved £11.44 in Aldi due to vouchers :j

Fuel - £0/£100 - under budget last month but this month is a little longer so kept the same budget.

Kitchen - Had a major declutter of the kitchen including all food and equipment in Feb so this target has been achieved ahead of schedule :rotfl:

Take Out - 0/0 - We have not had Take Out at all in 2014. As others have said we make our own and actually prefer this so don't think this will be a problem

Summer Holiday Plans - No plans for a Holiday this year. But I do have a couple of weeks off over Easter, which also happens to coincide with my birthday. Mainly planning to do stuff around the house and garden but will have a few days out so I will plan my budgets for those.

Toiletries for Food Bank - £0/£3 - I may donate some toiletries I have been given that I will not use and then use the £3 for some food items. Hope this is within the rules.

Declutter House - 0/30 - Hopefully this will be achieved tomorrow. I am planning on listing a few things on 3bay, I only have a 10 item a month allowance as I'm a new account, and I also plan to sell all of my remaining books using a number of sites. I think it has now come to the point of donating any that are not accepted to my old university and/or charity shops.

Favour - This is easy - I will take some eggs, from our chicks, over to some elderly neighbours, he has dementia and she likes to have someone to talk to. We take her shopping and help wherever we can. I will also take more eggs into people at work

LTW - 0/21 - I failed big time last month so I am determined to redeem myself in March :rotfl:

Sorry for the long post but felt I had lo list all my targets here so that I will be motivated to achieve them.

Happy March everyone and good luck with all your challenges.

Chez x

luckystarr

me again

forgot to ask does anyone have a link to donate to a online food bank ??

Thanks in advance

Fmess

luckystarr wrote: »

me again

forgot to ask does anyone have a link to donate to a online food bank ??

Thanks in advance

I have used this one before

http://www.trusselltrust.org/donate

Fmess

Evening all,

I love a new challenge

So my plans for the rules this month are...

SFD target is 18 days. I know I have managed 20 days before but I am going to be kind to myself this month as I really want to achieve my target. 18 is do-able but not easy so I think its a good compromise.

I have paid towards my debts, £225 to the ccard and £188.82 to the loan. I have also paid the £44 I earnt from tutoring this week (after tax) to the ccard and intend to do this throughout the month as cash burns a hole in my pocket and is too easy to lend to OH!

Budget for outgoings is £150. This includes one night out (my first since the beginning of December) and one family afternoon out tomorrow. This budget is my main aim this month as I usually blow this budget and it annoys me as £150 is a lot of money and I should be able to cope with this for socialising and odds and ends.

Food budget is £160. I have spent a lot of this already as there has been two food shops since payday and the cupboards were bare by payday last month. I have also stocked up on most of the animal food for the month, so it is just top up shops and fresh food for the rest of the month.

Decluttering the kitchen will be a pleasure as the cupboards are rather disorganised at the moment.

No takeaways is fine. I will endeavour to not buy any but will accept if OH buys me one out of his money We have stopped having our routine payday takeaway already and have made a vast improvement on a couple of years ago when I was working very long hours and we probably had 4 takeaways a week.

No summer holiday planned, we may go away later in the year depending on how the finances go. We do however each have a hen do or stag do to go on. This is budgeted for and I am paying for this in instalments over the first half of this year.

I have bought the £3 of toiletries from B&M today so just need to drop them off

Declutter 30 items is good and I have already started this today I have made a charity shop drawer and I am moving items into that drawer as I decide they can go.

Do one favour - will work on this.

LTW is fine, getting used to this now, just have to stop cheating when friends offer to buy me lunch.

Hope you've all had a productive day. I am knackered as did a 5ish mile run/walk this morning with one of the dogs.