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

SiannieLaz

Evening All,
No SFD for me today as had to get milk and nappies, so not really the start to the month I wanted, but on the plus side, I've got an extra £40 which has popped into my bank account today! My mobile bill was lower than expected, and I've finally got a refund on something I ordered ages ago which never turned up. So am shoving it into the savings pot, and feeling very pleased with myself (even tho I didn't actually do anything!!).


So totals today are:
0/15 SFD's
£5.49/£100 groceries incl cat food
1/18 LTW
0/£40 petrol
0/30 donations/declutter


I also gave away a bag of old toys but I'm not going to count it towards my declutter as I packed them up months ago and forgot they were under the stairs!


Anyhoo, I'm off to find something productive to do with my new found motivation! Cheerio xxx

shyspender

Good Evening fellow Tortoises

I've sketched my budgets out, there may have to be a bit of tweaking over the next couple of days because I haven't had time to really work things out, but, we'll go with what is in my signature for now and I'll update if I need to

Food £28.58/£80 - this is £20 lower than Feb. In theory other than some milk and cheese I have more than enough in stores to see me through a good two or three weeks. I did a stock take on Wednesday and put the list on the fridge so that I can tick off what I have had. Went to tescimos today to get some beer for my few days off. Grabbed some pasta bake sauce to go with the mountain of pasta I have and did my Food Bank donation. I added some because I didn't get round to it last month.

Fuel £0/£80 - This seems to be my staple budget for a normal month. i.e no real distance travelling

General Spends £0/£60 - I've decided to add this one in for the bits and bobs that I sometimes need, like parcels etc. The last few months I have been lumping it in with the Ents budget.

Ents £0/£60 - as above really. So this budget will be only for going out or treats

Gifts £0/£40 - Mum's Birthday and Mothers Day

Medical £0/£20 - this is a just in case for prescriptions. I have lots of painkillers etc in stock

SFD 0/20 - I'm going for 20 but hoping to get closer to 25

Food Bank £7.43/£3 - Trip to tescimos today sorted this out. All own brand stuff, tolietries and some coffee gone into the Overseas Forces Food Bank

LTW 0/18 - I think I have the count right. Again, this may need to be adjusted due to the work load I have on at the moment and absence and holidays for my team

Kitchen Declutter 0/30 - going to struggle with this. My parents came in October and stripped most of my gadgets to go in storage. I went through my storage drawers last month. I will see what I can do though

Still working on figuring out where around £200 of my wages goes after going through my budget with the Mortgage Adviser. I know there are a few DD's that I forgot about but that's only £30 or so. Need to keep checking both accounts and try and tally stuff up. I'm not overly worried but it is money that I need to know where it goes or can be paying to the CC.

Maisie_M

Well big shop of the month done today £190 which was okay. Had lots of vouchers and I have just added up that I saved £55 on that shop by using vouchers, going on my supermarket and checking deals. Worth going to 6 different supermarkets for lol. I'm quite lucky that all the big supermarkets are fairly close to me which really pays at the start of the month.

Hoping for a lot of sfd now as freezers cupboards etc all well stocked.

cottage_retreatist

hey all!

checking in on day 1! and a NSD to start off the month! I have set myself a target of 17 NSDs this month - i was able to do around 17 in the challenges last year and I need to get back up to that level of frugality and money management so that's why I've chosen it!

Food and tobacco inclusive this month has a budget of 200 quid (including cat food)

My only expense this month will be hair which I'm getting via a Wahand@ voucher so will be half price for a full head highlights and cut (its been 8 months since i last went to the hair dressers so the roots are pretty bad as you can imagine!!!)

I have my personal debt-busting challenge so that is my focus as opposed to savings - the debt-free day is still set for August 2014 all going to plan - so throwing everything I can to it!!

I am also in the stages of de-cluttering to help us move in November hopefully! So all that carp always lying in cupboards and under the stairs is my target! Goodbye GCSE geography notes! hahahahahaha!!!!!

Good luck everyone for the month ahead and thanks again NSK for setting up this month's challenge!

xx

AlwaysHappy

I'm going to aim for £280 food
10 SFD's
£80 spends budget
£100 petrol allowance
plus all the others. Let the fun begin.....

traveller

Hi all. Food shopping for the moth delivered yesterday (from Approved foods) and today from Asda. Total £278.00 for the 5 of us. I went up slightly, as this also includes my food to take to work. What I have found happening, is I will run out of stuff in week two ad a half/three and end up in a supermarket for one thing and coming out poorer:o So by having enough, I have no reason to go elsewhere. Other than that, I haven't spent anything.

Had a good restful day today. Hoping for a more productive one tomorrow and to visit my neighbor. Her husband has dementia. I do try to visit, but my days and evenings are pretty much accounted for, so when my ex takes the kids on Sunday, it's really the only day i have. I'm also hoping to finish off decluttering my bedroom too.

Well have a good evening everyone and don't give up!!!

mothernerd

No spend day. Spent a few hours up a ladder. DS3 kindly offered to go out for the day so that I could finish painting his room (started last weekend). Really didn't want to go up the ladder -took over an hour moving things out of the way. Started on ceiling (filled in cracks last week,just wanted a nice even coat so the crack filler bits blended in. Pesky roller flew off the handle -4 times in 5 minutes.

Went downstairs to find another tool -sure I brought a large brush from old house (maybe a paste brush but past caring by this stage). Found a large roller (one already in the tray of wall emulsion) and 2 large thin plastic dust sheets so covered bed and the 2 old filing cabinets used as bedside tables. Blissful half hour as managed to do whole of ceiling using roller taped on end of a broomstick with no major disasters - just hope it looks even when it dries. Finished edges with small brush.

Switched paint and did the 2walls (window wall and chimney breast -between 2 fitted wardrobes in alcoves). Managed to fold all dustsheets and sweep floor clear while bath was running. Clean,warm and fed (HM turkey stew) so 1 room nearly done.

DS3 not happy (came home before paint was dry) as apparently I should have put the room back how it was (resisted the urge to ask if that included the pizza box, sweet wrappers and dirty clothes floor covering)and where/how was he supposed to sleep (think he wanted a row as he kept asking where things were and seemed disappointed that I knew where I had put them. Suggested he move his bed 90 degrees and put it against a different wall (one filing cabinet slightly out of place because it,usually against a wall that was still wet). Grumpy so and so.

Niggling worry because my figures don't add up. Will correct in next couple of days as next installment of bank loan is due and any additional adjustment will be made when DS1 pays me the money he lent last month (should have been in my account yesterday but wasn't when I checked). However am still niggled because I haven't worked out what mistake I have made and where it is-will only be happy when I track it down.

Keep going tortoises- slow but steady wins the race.

Buffythedebtslayer

oooo I want to paint my room now! had almost given up on it as Mum is back in two weeks.


Sorry Mothernerd, can't believe DS3 is so ungrateful! I had to paint my own room and certainly would have been roped into help!


He needs to buy you an amazing Mother's day present or make you breakfast in bed. so there.


Just popped on with the Link for the food bank


http://www.trusselltrust.org/foodbank-projects


probably already been posted but can't hurt to have it twice


XX

SarahB1989_2

mothernerd wrote: »

Niggling worry because my figures don't add up. Will correct in next couple of days as next installment of bank loan is due and any additional adjustment will be made when DS1 pays me the money he lent last month (should have been in my account yesterday but wasn't when I checked). However am still niggled because I haven't worked out what mistake I have made and where it is-will only be happy when I track it down.

Keep going tortoises- slow but steady wins the race.

Mine aren't adding up either but putting it down to it being the end of the month and a weekend so the bank has taken out DDs for Monday but not credited amounts that went in on Friday! Drives me nuts that the money for my CC 'disappears' for three days at least, and with it being Feb they took the payment that usually goes on the 29th on the 28th but it won't clear my card until the 3rd... It's all in the same bank!

£ashcow

Evening All
Just a quick check in to claim first SFD of the month and four de-cluttered items.
Have had a lovely relaxing day lounging around reading for most of it.

Hope everyone is taking it easy!
Night