NST November: battening down the hatches!

Aloofdragon

Hiyas all I hope it's ok to join especially as I am being cheeky and presuming by posting ... I have a quiet night shift so using it wisely
My budget is as follows..


Groceries is set at £240 so will aim for the £10 less.


Transport costs I will pop £40 in a pot as weather is starting to break here in lil old Wales so more bus rides will be on the cards. Anything left over will go back into Christmas pot.


Exercise will be to walk my dog daily and walk whenever possible if weather allows with DS.


I will def find out about a food bank if not I will donate to a local cause for raffles there are always lots locally next few weeks.


Christmas presents- I am ahead with presents as bought some in the month of setting up our DMP so I had no big obstacles to negotiate whilst everything was up in the air, so I will allow a 3 for 2 in Tesc0, and a 3 for 2 in arg0s, I have love to shop vouchers to cover Arg0s spends and Ccard vouchers for Tesc0 spend so will say £25 for anything else.


Outings- It is my wedding anniversary this month so will be a meal out here or maybe will opt for Sunday dinner out I prefer that to be honest, and we are going to Euro Disney on the 30th so will count that as the second we have our Euro money saved thankfully.


I really love the 'appreciate what you have' sentiment I am going to borrow this too as I am so guilty of not doing this I am always chasing the next purchase, or the next decorating plan Inever sit and look at what we have only what we don't so that is def one.


18 NSD this is doable as picking up lots of shifts in work at the mo as is my hubby so don't have a lot of time for anything else.


My personal plan is to lose 10lb I have lots to lose so this is doable and will start now not Monday.


The only thing I can't plan totally is after school clubs as this happens as and when needed with overtime etc.


And that's me.

speakingofart

Aloofdragon - you are very welcome to join and you now have a number!

Great to see loads of progress and planning from everyone as we sail into November, welcome to our new turtles!

NSD for me yesterday, had a very quiet day catching up on sleep and not doing very much. Today will be studying and more of the same, so hoping for another NSD. Would like to put as much of my remaining grocery budget into christmas on the 15th as possible, so have been playing around with numbers on YNAB. Hoping not to spend more than £100 overall but will depend what my mum wants! New totals below...

£60/ £150 groceries till 15th November
£0/0 petrol till 15th november
Outings £0/£20 (takeaway with friend, trip to see Levellers play)
NSDs 1/20
0/20 exercise sessions (lunchtime walks)

speakingofart

Welcome Sailors to our first weekly mini challenge. These challenges are all designed to think about long term attitudes to our money. If you had asked me a year ago (before I found NSK's challenges and YNAB) I would have told you that the reason I ended up £1800 in debt was that I changed career and had brief period of unemployment. And whilst that's literally true, the real reason is that I didn't ever put aside any savings for a rainy day, so when I needed to roll my kayak... no paddle!!

Rolling a kayak is a vital safety mechanism if you want to paddle anywhere other than a swimming pool - so, for example if you want to go from our ship to land at the end of the challenge It involves planning ahead, and rehearsing the movements (a sort of undignified hip flick) so that you can do them when you find yourself unexpectedly upside down.

Money wise, this means thinking about big bills and how you will pay them, and setting aside a monthly amount so that when they are due, you can pay them with ease and not add any more to the credit card/ overdraft/ your debt of choice. For me, this means that in January, when my car tax is due, I will have enough to pay it out of my rainy day funds for the year. This has NEVER happened before! :rotfl:

So, our challenge for this week:

- find a spare half an hour. Tea and biscuits help this exercise.
- write a list of all the big bills you have due before November 15.
- work out how much you need to set aside and by when
- develop a plan for how much you need to save each month to meet your goals.

You don't have to post here unless you want to, but just the act of writing down what you have due will be helpful... I promise! If you don't know the exact amount, estimate - for example, I'm saving what my MOT cost me last year as a best guess.

* fellow YNAB-ers may note a theme in these challenges.

dolly84

Hi guys.

Half term is nearly over, the, the kids don't actually go back until Tuesday but I am not planning on spending tomorrow. They have been to the cinema, been for a day out on the train to our favourite little town, had a long walk with a picnic and also been out for tea to the pub over last week so they haven't done too badly.

On Friday they went out for Halloween on their own for the first time, we gave them instructions and we knew where they were going, they got a huge stash of sweets and £6.50 each in cash (I may go myself next year).

Today I am going to get up to date with surveys and try to claim a voucher.

moohound

thriftylass wrote: »

won't replace them till the kids are bigger and the cat is in heaven.

Same here, but dog rather than cat.

Samiszel

NSD yesterday. Have set budgets, and like many others, my extra goal is to lose 10lbs this month on the run up to Christmas. Hasn't been very possible this weekend- visiting my brother at uni who baked homemade choc croissants for breakfast yesterday and delicious cinnamon buns this morning.

Flying back home to normality in a few hours

vintagebrighton

Good morning all Wow, what a change from yesterday! Down here on the south coast people were back in shorts and sandals yesterday, this morning it's cold, wet and windy.... glad I'm snuggled inside. Not put the heating on yet though, gonna hold out a bit longer.

So today I will definitely have NSD no1. Went to a car boot last Sunday but it's not the weather for it today. Not sure about a walk either... we'll see.

Will be spending the morning sorting out my son's receipts for his company and putting them on computer. Then a bit of studying. I'm changing my career after a long illness but everything seems to take longer to 'stick' in my brain these days. Must be an age thing :eek:

Also trying to get to grips with YNAB which we got FREE. If any of you are students of any sort you can get YNAB for nothing.. how MSE is that! I read it on this site somewhere but if you need the link just holler.

Am looking at where to put my helping hand money, I'm sure there's lots of projects up and running here. We have a family centre not far from here so will see what they're doing. I won't be able to volunteer yet but will do something.

Will also get back to healthy eating without extras. I eat healthily but it's the extras that are stopping me losing weight. I do love my food and OH's a great cook....

Will be back later..... this thread moves very quickly!

VB x

angelicious

Hi everyone, can I join thi smonth's challenge please? :beer:

traveller

Hi everyone, so far, so good! Did not spend a bean yesterday on our little trip I should explain though, that I actually live in London, so it was easy to resist spending anything Up to date with exercise too. My only Major expense for this month is my credit card bill due on the 12th for just under 500.00. However, as this is my everyday spends card rather than 'debt', it's already accounted for

Today will be a quite day, so don't expect to spend. Have a good day everyone

sazzlebgood

not gone on planned outing since i'm not well.OH and DD1 have gone though so told them to use planned budget and go and get fish and chips.Felt good to say that as usually i say no but since it was planned and DD2 has decided to stay with me they've got enough to have coffee and cake too:T.
]vintagebrightonI've just started a degree course after been at home for the last eight years caring for DD2. I'm also finding hard to keep info in my head:eek:, Keep telling myself it will get easier.
SOAlike the challenge we already have a car fund and slush fund but keep using the money for other things. So have decided to use one of the ideas i saw on another forum and freeze the car fund card.Worried that it might damage the card though.
Just looked in the kids hallowen bags and they have enough sweets to last them till christmas.:D