NST December Challenge - Festive and Frugal

Calling14

White rabbits !

VB glad to hear you are on the mend, feel guilty now whinging about my back.

Well December not starting great in agony with my back. In work and struggling, sitting is hell. Booked tomorrow off work and a session to sort it out. Could have just had my back sorted 25.00 pounds but treated myself to a facial and hand/ foot massage as well an extra tenner. 35 pounds in total but not got lots of outings planned this month so my treat time.

Today will be a SFD going out around the shops for a walk to ease my back in a minute. Purse staying in office.

Not excited about Christmas it can be bit lonely with 2 weeks off work.
Would like to plan something cheap to look forward to for New Year any ideas?

Caeraugirl

So, have done budgets and although food ridiculously high at £500 I've decided to go for realism rather than aspiration - I have my mum here for two weeks, when the kids off school they tend to eat anything that isn't nailed down, and I've yet to get any alcohol or Xmas nibbles so I know it's gonna be expensive. That said, in my head I'm aiming to keep it under £400, will try my best...


Petrol also higher than usual as have to pick up and return my mum either side of Xmas (lovely brother always meets me half way with her, but still another tank of petrol once both return journeys taken into account).


The upside is that I only have two cheap Xmas dos planned, so have budgeted accordingly for that - the rest of our celebrating will be at home or in the local with DH buying the drinks. Gift buying almost done but have some last bits and pieces and hairdresser's to pay for, so lumped that all into a planned spends category, again overbudgeted but need to have a month where I stay in budget, if only for my morale!


Have paid the hideous overspends from last month off CC, and also £100 to offset account for MFW (lower than usual savings but will be back on track next month), planning 15 SFD - today not one as have paid dinner money for both DS's plus birthday cards for mum, need to post them as it's imminent - but the month is young so I have high hopes of meeting that at least.


Will sort foodbank donations asap as Mr T currently doing collection, and good deed is to buy gift for the Xmas appeal locally. Need to think about achievements but will put them down in next couple of days.


Phew, will keep next few posts shorter, I promise!

liltdiddylilt

Well today is not a SFD for a darn good reason. I have donated £10 to the Trussel Trust via their justgiving page. I cannot get to either Tosco or the foodbank near to me in order to donate the items that they need, as both are out of the way and require a bus journey with heavy cans. So I hope they like my donation and use it wisely. I am sure they will.

Whilst I am on a Spend day, I have grabbed some bread, milk, soya milk, frozen chips, potatoes & ground almonds. I may also try and see if I can bag the final Xmas gifts online before the end of the day to make it only one spendy day. I do have to spend again on Thursday but in the meantime I have no plans for spending, and Thursday is necessity, train & bus fare to the hospital and back. I was going to buy it online, with a plus bus. But it was a minimum £0.75 booking fee, and then £3.10 for an all day all places bus ticket when I only need a return which will be cheaper. So I will spend and be glad it is cheaper on Thursday

It sure is wintery outside. I am sat in my indoor jogger bottoms, a t-shirt and my giant wooly jumper and even still I am quite chilly. Slippers on for extra warmth soon. The heating keeps kicking in at 18 degrees! :eek:

I was going to be all domesticated and bake either biscuits or bread, but looking in the cupboards I have more than enough of both so it would be a waste of effort. Next week instead. I will spend my time meal planning

Have a good Monday all. I hate this feeling of going to work tomorrow

maria3104

Hi everyone.

So far december 1/1 SFD. I had almost won something on ebay by accident, but fortunately got outbid. It was only wool. My knitting habit is abit out of control.
1. Have done budget, £500 for groceries as mine is a mad house. I will feel a success if I stay under this.
2. Have paid towards debt. Done
3. Done Donation, £10, to reflect our massive xmas costs,our church was organising this. Did it sat night.
4. Plan all outings. Yep Done, and a few nice free days out planned and a gorgeous XMAS fair that is reasonably priced and I will get to see Reindeers, REAL ONES.
5. 1st day of own lunch done.
6. Good deed could be difficult. Do not want to give family ideas of a softer version of me..
7. 5 achievements of last year. Difficult one. It appears after reflection I have achieved nothing.Oops

apple_muncher

NSD 1 achieved :j. Including lunch to work.

Like others, my budgets seem to add up to rather a lot - but at least it is less than the total I have been paid.

I shall get my donation sorted on Weds when I do the food shop.

Tis a month of few outings - just a parents' evening and a governor meeting, dentist and doctor visits, dd's school performance and a soft play place with dd that she won at kids klub. And dh is away for 12 days, so I couldn't go out then anyway!

One achievement from 2014 is to have paid so much off our mortgage - I worked an extra 2 days for 2 terms and every single penny went towards the mortgage.

I have set myself a challenge for 2015 already, and started a thread for it. 2015: sell £1000. (can't do links on the tablet, sorry, but it is there if you want to have a look).

lilt - do hope you get bettr soon. Listen to your body, m'dear, and slow down a tad!

Bex - welcome 'back'. No one fails here! We keep the naughty step nice and warm.:D:D

shyspender

apple_muncher wrote: »

:j:j You've moved!! :j:j Co gratulations!! :j:j

Thank you AM. I'm quite relieved that it is finally over. Just wish it wasn't right now. Work is mega hectic at the moment and I can't get a lot of time off to unpack and sort properly.

sazzlebgood

well i fell overboard in november and had to swim through shark infestered waters. Did really badly with food budget last november which is becoming a major issue. I often feel guilty about spending money but not when it comes to food. We used to spend about £150:eek: a week on food but I want to get this down to £100 per week but I just can't seem to do it:mad:OH lectured me today because even though the cupboards etc are full I still managed to spend £140. I used the excuse of christmas but if I'm honest its just become a really bad habit and i need to break it. Tried everything to stop, the only way would be to get OH to do the shopping but I can't see that happening.The food bill is what is tipping us over into debt each month. Sorry, about the rant tis the season to be jolly after all not fed up

apple_muncher

shyspender wrote: »

Thank you AM. I'm quite relieved that it is finally over. Just wish it wasn't right now. Work is mega hectic at the moment and I can't get a lot of time off to unpack and sort properly.

No more hiding the microwave, eh? (it was you, hiding the microwave u der a cover, wasn't it? Trying to get to it before it beeped? Sorry if I've got the wrong person!)

Sorting will happen as and when - you've done the hard bit - the moving.

liltdiddylilt

vintagebrighton wow, I don't know whether to clap :T or say I am so sorry you had to go through the chemo. Well done for coming out of the other side. You must be an exceptionally strong person, so well done you. My mum is just about to have her second op for this bout, then onto radiotherapy and chemo. Like you, she is a strong one big hugs to you!

Calling about your back. I have been dealing with two bulging, torn & compressed disks for 18 months now, and two things have finally really begun to help after popping exceptional amounts of codeine and valium to get me through. The first one, is an osteopath. It isn't cheap, and for 5 sessions it was a little over £200. Luckily for me work health plan covered this, but I think if I had to continue, then I would happily pay myself. The relief was profound almost immediately, and better with each session. Secondly, a tablet called 'Amitriptyline'. I take 2 x 10mg tablets each night. For the first few nights I slept like a zombie, but after that I was fine. The effects build up as you keep taking it, and it has more than halved my codeine intake. Like you, I struggle with sitting at work. That is really the only time I take the codeine tablets and I know their worth as well, although the idea that I will be on them in some form or other for life is a bit sad, as I am under 30.

shyspender congrats on moving. Don't worry too much about unpacking. If you have the kettle, some pans and plates/cups/cutlery and a bed, you're good

sazzle something you said reminded me. I had a mini LBM about my out of control grocery issues this month and it has actually helped me to sit back and look at what I have and stop worrying. In a past relationship, all of our money was pooled. I didn't feel like I could touch any of it for things for me, and so the only thing that I could spend on wilfully without guilt was groceries. We needed food, so I could buy that without worrying. I wonder if maybe you are similar? Is there a reason why your crutch is grocery shopping?

Caeraugirl - I saw on November that you have totally restarted YNAB. Good for you!! I am half tempted to do the same from 1st January. I am going to try and resculpt what I have so far tonight though.

apple I have just had a slight ticking off from Hohum over my overuse of spoons I like to think of myself as Uri Geller am feeling much better thanks!

SFD: 0/18
Groceries: £14.30/£100 (£6 of soya milk to last the month in there!)
Donation: £10 to Trussel Trust for foodbanks

Achievements for 2014:
-Successfully held my family together after a lot of adversity
-Managed an excellent and mature handover of my position at work to a colleague & made the best of the rubbish one they gave me to do instead
-Spent less than I have earned, and just made the final installment into my regular saver for the year. On the 5th January it will kick out just shy of £3700 with interest of nearly £100 on top of the £3600 I have saved
- I have savings on top of those just mentioned. All accrued in the last 12 months!
-Bought budgeting software, stuck with it, and got extreme control over my spending

CEW

Hi All,

Well I have sat down and set my budgets. Like some others my budgets are a bit higher this month but if it's budgeted for I'm happy

SFD - 1/15
Food - £0/£200 - Includes all Christmas food, Turkey etc.
Animals - £0/£50
Christmas Presents - £0/£750 - I have a large family extended family and we have not had the 'let's not buy presents' conversations yet :eek:
Outings - 0/2 - Both outings should be free. Afternoon Tea on Christmas Eve (a lovely way to start Christmas) courtesy of a voucher from my ex work colleagues and New Years Eve meal with family at BIL's. Wine/bubbly will come from either food or Pressie budget.

Not counting fuel as OH covers this from his expenses, also got a new (to us) car and don't know what the fuel consumption will be :eek:

Regarding the good deed I'm sorry not sure on this one. I already help one neighbour who has recently had a hip operation with shopping and odd jobs etc. I also help anther couple of neighbours with shopping, walking their dogs and odd jobs They are both in their mid 80's and the husband has dementia. I will try to think of something else to do to fulfil this part of the challenge.

I will work on the list of achievements over the next few days and post them as they come to mind.

Night all

Chez x