NST November: battening down the hatches!

speakingofart

Happy monday everyone! Very productive day yesterday, got three more christmas presents which means only 5 to go - and three of those are small token gesture type gifts. Can't wait to be done with Christmas shopping, also got all my cards! Did lose a SFD but I think that was well worth it to be done with the shops until December....

mothernerd - we're all thinking of you, hope you are feeling better!

dottydaisy - if you haven't already, filling in an SOA is a great place to start, even if you don't share it here. You get an occur picture of your finances and that makes dealing with everything easier I think...

New totals below, this month is going to be a little tight, but that's mostly because of Christmas shopping and me putting £200 away for the MOT fund. So I shall be batch cooking next weekend to get me through... roll on December!

£33.00/ £150 groceries till 15th December
£40.85/£60 petrol till 15th December
£28.75/ £36.70 spending money till 15th December
NSDs 5/20 (till 30th November)
8/20 exercise sessions (lunchtime walks, till 30th November)

CoffeeandStitches

Morning all,

Sorry I didn't manage to check in over the weekend, we had a fairly busy one. Budgets are still on track though, but it may be a turbulent end of the month!

Loving the mid month challenge. The car quote is £350 (sob!) and I'm going to use that as my focus. I need to scrape as much of that as possible in cash, I'm determined not to end the month worse off than I started it! I'm going to do this by:
1. Swagbucking like crazy to pay for some remaining Christmas presents with vouchers, and use the cash saved for the car.
2. Have another ruthless clear out for flebay (not sure how many more of these I can do!)
3. Music Magpie all the dvd's that aren't selling on the bay so I don't get charged for re-listing them.
4. I'm struggling to think of more but there must be SOMETHING!

Feeling a touch disheartened today... so today I am grateful for.... My DH and Cats, who always make me smile. A two day working week. Sweet potato mash for dinner. A cup of tea being made for me this morning & having neighbors who had their heating up so high yesterday, we didn't turn ours on at all

Happy Monday all, I'm off to catch up on your weekend shenanigans.

LoveaDove

Hey all,

Still in Scotland until this evening, but have had a great time meeting OH's family! Have been keeping within my holiday budget, which is grand! But also finding it bizarre to be eating out and buying hot chocolate from ol' c0sta (I am absolutely not used to this, but I am so good all year I'm letting myself off whilst on holibobs)

mothernerd -Thinking of you, hope all has gone well!

Really need to get myself more organised with finishing off Christmas bits and bobs. Am looking forward to doing my big Foodbank shop. A couple of months ago I made an agreement with my closest friend's, that we would not buy each other presents but would instead purchase food for our local foodbanks, which most agreed to. Only exception was little gifts for the kids.

I really am starting to feel Christmassy. I think half way through November is a fairly acceptable time to start embracing the pending festivities!

Anywho, best get up and about! Hope you all have a fine Monday! x

shyspender

hey folks,

For those asking. I know about Kat's travels through her fb page so you are not missing anything from her blog. I don't want to give out her fb page, even though it is not her real real name. I think though she mentioned it on her £10000 diary here.

shy

stewby

Nae worries. I was just worried I had missed part of the blog.

traveller

Hi everyone, sorry been absent for a while. Mothernerd, thinking of you!Well I submitted an application form at 2:am lol. It had to be in for 9am this morning. It took forever and a day to do,lol. We were told today we have to reapply for our own jobs-ooh the enthusiasm,lol. We will know by the 19th December if we are successful. It's been a right carry on. But as it will involve an interview, at least i'll get to brush up on my interview skills,lol. Today was a little spend-bread and mince meat,lol. Did some brisk walking too. Have a good evening everyone!

sazzlebgood

cash isa opened to stash payments for cc until 0% interest runs out, so will just repay the minimum amount until then.OH idea things have really improved since he's got his head round it all,:jMind you interest rates aren't great but I'd rather the little bit of interest in my pocket rather than theirs. Been shopping for guinea food £9. small spend on food only need a couple of things( £18.00) and a birthday present (£10) for a party DD2 going to on friday.Hopefully thats it for the week. Need to eat out the cupboards and freezer until pay day.Managed to get my friend who has a wheat allergy some reduced gluten free bread for £1.20 should of been £12.98:eek:, she can't afford to buy it at that price so i get it and freeze it until i see her.She even has her own freezer drawer at our house LOL:rotfl:
Mothernerd hope your ok missed your posts

apple_muncher

Oooh, sazzle, I could do with someone like you to find gliten-free bargains for me! Well done on opening the isa. :T

traveller - 2am, eh?! Good luck with the job applications.

LoveaDove - glad you had a good time meeting OH's family. Mid-Nov is fine for getting Christmassy - I've been following 2 Cmas threads for months already!

C and S - ouch to the car costs! Hope you can scrape the money together.

Dotty Daisy - ya boo hiss to people who eat all your food!

Aphidgirl - good luck on being a hermit for the rest of the month.

Fmess - well done on ordering your mattress. You won't want to get out of bed!


NSD number 10 gained today :T.

stewby

So... went shopping yesterday (Sunday) and finished our budget. Did get an impressive haul of shopping though. Enough to see us through to the end of the month (apart from milk and bread as OH seems to be demolishing both).
:eek:

Saturday was a spend-free day (for me anyways, OH was out at a horse racing night, spent a fortune and got drunk. It was for a very good cause though so not complaining).

Looks like I haven't been on since the 13th. Sorry, I tend to eat and sleep when on nightshift. I have been reading, just not awake enough to write anything.


Spend-free day number 8 today!!!!!
:j

My annual treat (a music festival) announced today and it is an amazing announcement so feeling very happy today.


Have seen my offduty and it appears I am working nightshift over xmas and then off for a lovely large block of new year which is great as OH's parents are coming up for the first time. Very nervous time as they have never seen the house before.
:shocked:

Missing mothernerd's posts. I do hope that she isn't too sore.


Hugs to everyone.

Fmess

Evening all


What a good friend you are sazzlebegood, can you tell me where you got it so cheaply? I am a coeliac.


I am hoping to hibernate and be a hermit on my new mattress when it arrives applemuncher and Aphidgirl


SFD number 8 Took my lunch to work, ate it and avoided the canteen :j Posted my books off to Am4zon and sold an item on eB4y which I will post tomorrow. Also arranged for the mattress to be delivered on a random day off that I get later in the month so that is another thing off my mind


Tomorrow I promise to go swimming after work. I have been walking the dogs but have done very little other exercise in the last week, so need to get back on this, and curb the eating of warm comforting food.


Hope you have all had a good Monday