NST November: battening down the hatches!

Aloofdragon

Can I join please, I put my name down last month but life seriously got in the way and don't even think I posted at all !! Pathetic attempt I am more organised now and know what money we actually have and as we have a little more than usual I don't want it to go walkies x

stewby

Good afternoon turtleys. Thanks thrifty for letting me have number 8. Can't believe how superstitious I am about numbers. It's a bit weird.... another one of my quirks.


So we have started a new month and due to our "tight" week last month, we have spent the 1st day of the month shopping.
:eek:

However.... we used a heap of vouchers. Tescimos (shows how much they overcharge) owe us £6.34 off our next shop... despite the vouchers.
:undecided

We normally use Morries but had a heap of vouchers for Tescimos. We did go to morries as well but bought very little there.
Grand total of £25.60 for all our shopping which is under our weekly budget. Hooray!!


Our pots have been filled as follows:
£100 into holiday pot (£50 each).
£110 into our bongo pot (£50 each plus the £10 shopping excess).
£62 into our xmas pot (£31 each).
:j

Feeling very positive and ready to go. Hugs to all our turtley friends.



P.S: Thanks Apple Muncher for a fantastic thread last month. It was brilliant. Looking forward to our in-month challenges becoming a regular thing. It certainly split up the month and kept my attention more. (Not that the other months weren't fun, I have attention issues).

vintagebrighton

Evening all

Have sorted out what I can... here goes

1) Budgets; Food already set at 300. Our month goes from 20-19. We do an online monthly shop then divide the rest of the money up and put into pots. When it's gone, it's gone. Savings already gone by DD. Easiest way then it becomes a bill to pay.
Outings ~ One meal out already planned, will budget for one other. If it doesn't happen then will put the money saved in the Christmas food savings. £50
Christmas presents ~ will budget £100 this month as not bought anything yet.

2) Debts first ~ see 1)

3) 15 NSD will be done

4) Noted and will do by the end of the challenge

5) Outings budgeted for ~ see 1)

6) Off work at the moment so will commit to a healthy home made lunch

7) Will make sure I at least go for a walk every day. Need to work my way up to swimming!

9) Personal challenge ~ I'm going to be predictable and go for weight. I've lost my way and need focus.

Will alter my sig and make sure my post is shorter next time :rotfl:

Good luck everyone.... it's gonna be fun (honest)

VB x

mothernerd

Spent £11.39 on food, 11 items, 7 were YS. Things to go on sandwiches mostly plus a large pack of turkey lumps which will either be stewed or curried to use up as many as possible of the remaining frozen veg.

Spent most of the day at the other house but not happy with progress. The yard is now safe, scraped moss from most of the 4' wide path, dealt with nettles, brambles and briar and cut 4 branches off the ivy this afternoon. Only done bits inside as DS2's stuff is everywhere.

He paid me a small amount of what he owes me today (snook in without saying anything and locked me in the house - he broke a key off in the lock a while ago so it can only be locked/ unlocked from outside) but far too late to put in the PO.

By the end of today I hope to have dispatched two sackfuls of stuff to the charity shops (using a hopper later), 3 sackfuls of paper back to this end to go in the paper bin and may take a couple of rolls of rubble sacks and dump all DS2's clothes and shoes and coathangers in and drag them down to the front room. Clean clothes piled on the kitchen table and in and out of wardrobes in both the bedroooms.

Many more sacks of garden waste but that bin will be collected the week after so can sling them in the van after the first run and bring them back here (then request a green bin at the other house from the Council - not routinely given to terraced houses but think you can have one if you want one).

Cleaning is going slowly - squirted the bathroom 5 times now but even the gunge round the taps is dissolving. Want to measure rooms and plan them. Also spent £9.77 at Wikos on mainly housey bits including a pack of small post-its - going to stick on pieces of furniture according to which room they are going in.

Will get there, just so discouraging when so many things are in the way - may throw anything that won't get damaged into the yard (or the backs). need space. Rubbish bins at both houses are nearly full to the brim. Every time I cut back a layer of greenery there is a layer of rubbish underneath - tried counting number of cig packets but lose count. Must clean all fridges/ freezers (would like to leave the oven but it needs doing as well - maybe after the move, could use one of DS2's throws if he decides he doesn't want them). That's the problem really, he doesn't need or want most of this stuff but hasn't dealt with it. Moan over.

Today I am grateful for YS bargains, that the small tree saw made a difficult job easy and the sounds of the little girls two doors down playing.

apple_muncher

Today was a spendy day... Some bargainous bits, some full price.

I've been after some fleece throws for a couple of months and had decided to get ikea ones. They are to line the curtains and also make 2 door curtains. And, ultimately keep us snug and warm and able to keep the heating lower. However, getting to ikea was simply proving too complicated and not worth the hassle - and further delay. So a trip to primarni produced lilac ones for dd's room and cream bigger ones for the door curtains. Dd is happy with her's - hung up with safety pins from Habibiboo .

Dh has put up the pole for one curtain, so I'll try to get that one hung up tomorrow.

I had a bargainous visit to Holl and Barr where I ended up getting 400g raw cashews for £3.50, plus a half-price-on-anything-voucher for my next visit.

And tonight, dd's school had a fireworks display which we weren't going to. However, we saw much of the display by leaning out of the back bedroom window!

I guess fireworks aboard ship is dodgy, what with all those powder kegs lying around...

apple_muncher

Oopsie!

Today I am grateful for a free firework display, for such warm weather in November, for tea being yummy, for dd and her bouncy hopper, for apples.

Fmess

Evening all


Very spendy day today. Got lots of food and household items. Also decided to use the money I didn't spend on holiday to buy two new pairs of jeans (my usual pair had worn so thin on the derriere that I had to wear black knickers to try and disguise the fact they were practically see through!) - and they were 20% off today


Did a session at the gym this morning, so that is one exercise session done, and have ate fairly healthily all day - slightly ruined by Daim bar cake for pudding!


Glad we've all had positive starts to the month Love that feeling of the new challenge.

sazzlebgood

allotment rent paid, paper and bread purchased and that's all:j. Short walk today so no increase in exercise as i'm full of cold and lost my voice. OH couldn't wait to fill in the spreed sheet, so funny wished i'd thought of this earlier. Off to bed to be gently rocked to sleep by the sea.

CEW

Hi All,

Just popping in to log my targets for November

Shopping budget usually £150 but I am going to aim for £100 this month. I do have quite a bit in the freezer which I want to defrost soon so plan to use everything up.

I have a separate budget for the animals, 5 dogs plus 2 we are still dog sitting for while my Mum recovers from her hip operation, 4 chickens and a parrot. The budget for the animals is £30

I will aim for 15 SFD's. Today was nip it one and nor will tomorrow be either :eek:

I have a few outings planned for this month so will add a budget of £100. This needs to cover a breakfast out, 2 lunches with work colleagues before my redundancy and hopefully a meal out with OH to celebrate the start of our new chapter in our life.

My personal challenge is still under consideration. I will update this once I have decided.

Other than this I hope not to spend anything else as this month is tight due to having to get our camper van back on the road so we have a vehicle after my car goes back on my last day. This will be before my redundancy money is paid. If we can't manage it we will just have a week or 2 with no transport which could be entertaining.

Busy day tomorrow so may not be able to post.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend everyone.

Chez x

thriftylass

Hello, not had a chance yet to read all the posts but will later. Just a wee update. First outing and not a penny spend. Went to Asda however and spend 27 quid mainly stocking up on baby food and baby/toddler snacks that were on offer and should last the month. Amended my Tesco order for Monday. Will come to about £95 but stocked up on loads of stables, nappies, cleaning products etc. Tomorrow another spend day as I will fill the freezer with meat from Aldi. Not sure I make my budget again. But this months attempt involves having everything stocked upand only needing to get some veg and fruit, milk, coldcuts and bread. Made sure everything was needed rather than wanted and at the best price. Our "downfall" is fresh fruit as we go through loads but since I got everything else in I have no excuse to go to expensive Tesco and the like but to get it cheap in aldi or lidl. Will see if that works better.


Cracked open my penny jar, should be at least 20 quid. I will use that to hire a carpet cleaner which I had planned to do for years. We still have the previous owners carpet and they desperately need a clean as we won't replace them till the kids are bigger and the cat is in heaven. Might use one of my Mondays off for that.

Off to read the previuos posts