NSK: MAY the Odds Be Ever In Your Favour!!!

dolly84

Hi all. I'm back and have had a quick catch up. I'm at 14 SFD's and may manage to get one tomorrow to just scrape in.

To the person asking about the Sky Rewards, they scrapped the rewards system in December I believe so the tab is no longer there on your account.

NinjaSavingKat

mothernerd wrote: »

..............so now have a card for the food bank tomorrow and they will interview me to see whether they will give me a parcel.

Honey what is going on that you need a food parcel..? I have clearly missed something in your posts if I didn't realize how this came about..? I really hope they say yes anyway - and are the boys still living with you..? Contributing to the household or are things tight for them too...?

Veg progression is going well - 3 tiny lettuce (only an inch high yet) now have their own pots on the kitchen windowsill, together with 5 chilli plants. All the potatoes and onions are outside in 'sacks' and as soon as there is a five minute break in the weather, the courgettes are being planted out too. Set off another batch of lettuce seed. The first batch of 'toilet roll middle' dwarf beans are now 6" high and I nearly have enough toilet rolls to fill the second washing up bowl. Just a matter of deciding what needs urgent attention - cabbage and broccoli are coming out of their current containers but need to be grown on for a couple more weeks yet (a half hearted slug would make mincemeat of them overnight in the garden)..

Love love love this quote! Super exciting to see the little blighters grow isn't it. The more I read and study about the food industry (did anyone see The Food Inspectors last night?? ) the less I want to partake in the big conglomerate of supermarkets and grow my own. But alas I have no home.... and don't have the option at the current place. So please keep me updated and I will live my desperation-to-grow-things through you. :T:T

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If I don't get the food parcel I may just decide to see how far into June I can get before spending anything on food - even if I end up eating slightly peculiar combinations..

I have done this before. It's quite thrilling knowing how far you can go - as long as you don't get to fussed on having something specific for dinner and know you have to deal with what you've got then I think you will be fine. I have made broad bean and pea humus, pea humus on it's own with lots of garlic and lemon juice and red lentil humus - anything can be done with a blender... :p:p

NinjaSavingKat

Ok so I have had to do a shop for some green smoothie basics, avocados and seasonings... I am being very adventurous in my cooking recently and learning so many different recipes that I am quite proud of but am reigning it in to ones that are easily learned off by heart (great memory for this) and ones that will last the week... £21.74 spent with a "75p off your next purchase" back.

Great swap tesco's... lol!

Siousxie I made polenta chips last night with pre-prepared polenta (75p) which feels like rubber and something I won't buy again - however frying it in black&cayenne pepper they were AMAZING so I discovered a bag of cornmeal for £1.75 (or just £1) with my little discount and I will grill them next time - needed to share - cause it's the carb fix I need without the fatty fat bits.. I think.....

apple_muncher

mothernerd, I'm so glad they gave you a parcel. I did wonder how you would manage to get it home afterwards, so it's good to hear that you were just about able to do it. Do pace yourself, physically. Your shenanigans tire me out just reading about them!

Your gardening's inspiring too. I'll get maybe a few apples, loads of raspberries and some blackcurrants. But it's been several years since I was part of the toilet-roll-compst-in-an-old-washing-up-bowl brigade. Guess it's too late to do anything this year - tho if I'm wrong please enlightn me! Either here or on June's thread.

NSD again. Will be interesting to see what number we set ourselves for June. As it'll be a month with no school holidays, I find it easier to keep to a routine, and hence it's easier not to spend.

apple_muncher

Part way through the month, I started wondering if I could get the mortgage down into starting with a 6.

I've paid over the usual amount that I would put in + the usual amount that I'd normally put into the savings pot, and our joint usual payment has also gone in. AND SO HAS THE PESKY INTEREST! So we are now just £57.71 short of that elusive number!

Will have to do another look tomorrow and 'find' that money! It would be so good to start June in the 69,999s...

Fmess

apple_muncher wrote: »

Part way through the month, I started wondering if I could get the mortgage down into starting with a 6.

I've paid over the usual amount that I would put in + the usual amount that I'd normally put into the savings pot, and our joint usual payment has also gone in. AND SO HAS THE PESKY INTEREST! So we are now just £57.71 short of that elusive number!

Will have to do another look tomorrow and 'find' that money! It would be so good to start June in the 69,999s...

Wow that'd be an amazing achievement! Well done on paying so much so far!

MrsGSR

Hi everyone,
Just wanted to say hi. Back from Legoland and we kept pretty much to budget, in fact I came back with cash!
Still As this month has gone a bit pete tong I have decided to start over on 1st June to the end, the monthly shop has arrived with all the store cupboard and meat then we have £60 to spend at Iceland on freezer stuff so that should be us sorted (especially as I am having my op in a few weeks) June will be tight. See you on the other side.

mothernerd

Was going to be a quick check in. Another SFD. Lovely day out, good (very inventive) picnic, sunny but just enough cloud to make sunscreen unnecessary. Journey back was a little difficult - just had to grit my teeth and hang on as was still an hour away from painkiller time.

Came back to mum's to drop off dog and bring in washing (and stretch back and legs) before going out for lovely free meal. I am blaming the pain for my subsequent lack of will-power - had a set meal with unlimited salad (tried to eat my veg allowance for week), had a fried egg (not had one for 3? years) with gammon because there was pineapple in the free salad and had the (included) ice cream sundae (definitely not had ice cream since 2012 - allow myself a tub of frozen yoghurt at Christmas and I think I bought one for over last summer). So may not feel well tomorrow but it was blissful and I enjoyed every mouthful - but am trying to relish every thing I eat nowadays.

Will post again in a minute.

abundant1972

Evening all...

Sorry for absence... I've been laid up with the flu and still feel like death. As a result haven't made the gym - but on the up - haven't spent anything so reached my SFD target - even though I am overspent I know.

Roll on June.

mothernerd

Okay Kat - the food bank. Been trying to write this for the past 2 hours and still not sure what to say.

Money crunch was always going to happen sometime - doing serious house repairs on very little money. DS3 has paid until September but I needed to pay him back the money I borrowed from his interest free overdraft which I used towards the damp-proof course last October.

I wanted the house up for sale by the end of March and everything has been on hold for the past 10 weeks. Two rooms are in mid -paint (shower rail still needs finishing), attic stairs still not finished (progressing). I am struggling to do essential housework (and I do mean essential).

I have lost about 2 months income (very small earnings from self employment, can produce work atm but not do a craft fair). Have a few things that might make a few pounds on ebay but until I can walk to the post office carrying a parcel the cost of a bus ticket to ferry parcels back and forth would wipe out any potential earnings and to be honest when the doctor first said I had to go to bed and rest, the thought of sitting on a hard chair trying to list things was too much (did say there were things I was putting off).

No SSP as am self employed (currently get £52.20 per week Working Tax Credit). If I scrap the business I would be required to be available for work and if I can't manage my own housework or stand up for more than 1/2 an hour, how employable am I? I am not ill enough to qualify as disabled.

I don't have enough money. The shortfall in income has wiped out any small advantage from things like 2 council tax free months. The past 2 months have been tight but in June the first half of the water rates is due (£250 roughly). Next week I will need to phone them and possibly the council to pay those bills by credit card (the fee for this will be less than incurring bank charges by not being able to meet the direct debits). Any food bought will also have to go on the cc. This would have happened at some point (that is why I signed up to this whole process) but I know I must keep control of every penny and get those balances back off the cc asap. July has 5 Wednesdays and August 5 Fridays (money in days) so should not be so tight.

And (yes I know its ungrammatical to start a sentence with and) I haven't said much on here because the very worst thing would be to spend too long thinking about it and be overcome by depression so every time I start to dwell on things I talk myself out of it and keep positive.

I love your signature but it isn't me. I am more a dogged refusal to ever give up. The house needs to be sold. I will get better. I will not cry. I will not feel sorry for myself.

At the food bank I was also invited to take a couple of things from the toiletries table. The soap and toothpaste were the same brand as the ones I donated as per your earlier challenge - what goes around comes around. I didn't take those as I bought for myself at the same time as the ones for the donation - I picked two toilet rolls. Always being able to see the funny side of things is a great survival tool, as well.

Sorry this has ended up being a mega post again. Hope it makes sense - hacked it about again and again.

I still see myself as someone who helps others. Maybe learning to accept help is something we all need to do, like learning to accept compliments.