NST; January Challenge- The Money Saving Game

thriftylass

OOOOK here we go.

First the good news and I started my dry January succesfully (hopefully last till my birthday mid Feb) and I've been smoke-free for 5 days. Feel great about it.

Here are my numbers for January

food £117/250
HH £24/190 (that includes 90 for a year at the uni pool)
excersise 0/11
SFD 3/20

Off tomorrow again as the nursery is till shut so I got DS home but DD will be in her nursery. Will tackle the tip that is our house

DD helped me with my first declutter mission (she's 9 mo). Let her empty the plastics cupboard and only put back in what I really needed to keep and chucked the rest.

See you later

P.S. also paid my CC of today and put money into savings.

Caeraugirl

timetrade wrote: »

I'll be ordering next weekend's groceries in the next day or so, so I'm looking forward to including items to donate to the food bank. Does anyone here that's worked with a food bank know what kind of items are in the greatest demand?

Hi Timetrade, our local food banks are run by the Trussell Trust, if you look on their website www.trusselltrust.org you can find your local one - mine gives me a link to a shopping list of items they need each month. Even if it's not the same organisation local to you, it may give you some pointers. Usually it's staples such as pasta, rice, tinned veg, long life milk etc that has a long shelf life.

Traveller, so sorry to hear about your cat, as others have said, think keeping him at home rather than taking him forcibly to the vet was the kindest thing to do. Still devastating to lose a pet :-(


Lilt hope you're soon on the mend, take care of that back as much as you can, sure MacBook will be a good distraction... enjoy it, you've saved hard for it x


Keep meaning to do my proper check in with goals for the year, but never seem to get more than 5 min snatches on here. Will do tonight - there, that's my first goal!

Bobarella

Hi All
Just checking in.

Food £112/200 so £3.51 per day until Jan 30th
SFD 2/18
Travel £0 spent so far
debt paid off £117 - I should be able to pay off another £10 soon via swapping nectar points for food. And I have £29 in Top Cash back funds waiting to turn to available.
I also looked into selling our oldest laptop to music magpie and it looks as though we'd get £48 for it. So I'm Optimistic of finding almost another £90 in side hustles for debt payment.

am not back to my main routine till Wednesday which means I haven't done any long walks yet but I am getting out every day and keeping up with son on his bike (most of the time)

I have kept to all generic branded shopping so far since the 24th.

bob

thriftylass

Hello again,

forgot

LTW: 1/19 (got a good soup recipe book and a soup mug so that should be a doddle)

Downshift: we don't buy any brands apart from instant coffee, everything else is shop brand or Aldee etc. So my goal is to find more YS time (like I did this Sat for YS veg in my local Tescimo) and make more use of that

Foodbank: Done

My goals for 2015 are

1. stay smoke free
2. be happier, more content and grateful
3. manage all spending without the CC from savings, vouchers
4. save, save, save
5. craft, read more
6. declutter house and mind

Finally caught up with the previous 4 pages.

Traveller, sorry to hear about your cat. Ours is 14 and as much as I wish she would stop scratching this and that (is now mainly inside, due to age and bullying by other cats), peeing here and there - I can't imaging loosing here soon too. They are part of the family.

Lilt hope your pain gets better soon.

BIL found three more of my boxes that my parents brought over 4 years ago when they cleared my stuff out back home in germany. Mainly old toys, doll house furniture etc. Some will be passed onto my kids but some will hopefully go to ebay.

Calling14

Happy days.

Managed to register with a NHS dentist seeing me in 2 weeks so instead of trying to find 660 for 2 crowns this month it will be 180 in total. Jumping with Joy.

Today another NSD. Need some petrol tomorrow won't make it till Thursday as have to collect grandson next few days.

Feeling smug, boss not in work this morning and I rang him, he hadn't set his alarm - great start for Monday, gave me an extra hr to play with my much missed spreadsheets lol.

So please about my teeth unreal.

Racing hope your okay, sometime if you not feeling well can be a bit dizzy, take care we need all our turtles to battle on this month.

sazzlebgood

been and did this weeks shop came under budget and not planning on going again this week. :jPicked up some reduced gifts today spent £10 for 4 . Thought kids could use them for birthday presents for friends as that usually sets me back £10 a time. Been a spndy day as kids back to school so had to pay for lunches, clubs and guides but all budgeted for. DD1 started her fudge (yummy) making and the kitchen looks like a bomb hit it. I'm refusing to do it so looks like its up to her although i will help her test it to make sure it tastes ok.:rotfl:
calling14good news about the dentist

liltdiddylilt

Calling that is the BEST news I have had all day!! I was worrying about you starting the year with such a hefty setback but £180 is much much more manageable. Now, no boiled sweets etc

sazzle oh of course, must help her test it so glad I don't know how to make fudge. That would be a very costly habit! Not to mention each pound of fudge hitting my waistline..

Not a SFD. I had to cave and buy milk so I thought I would save my breadmaking ventures for another day and buy a loaf as well, since I am back to work this week. I had a list to stick to, but unfortunately the moment I started trying to push the pram my back was horrifically painful. The passers by were giving me odd looks as I dragged my feet and gurned along the street to the nearest supermarket rather than the much cheaper furthest. Spent £18.25 on only half of my list (9.75 was food). Got a 50p off voucher but I am almost insulted by it, as everything was so much dearer. £4 for 40 bin liner bags? Or £2.70 for 20.. FML

Macbook wasn't delivered today so still on cronky old one. Couldn't have made the walk to work and back anyway as it turns out with my back so am happy enough sorting out bits to do before I switch to it.

SFD: 3/18
Groceries: £50.74/£150

No more groceries desperate. Got everything to make my meal plan work this week so it is just a case of sticking to the plan. May have a taxi spend tomorrow for the macbook but we will see. If not, I foresee at least 4 days of no spending ahead

Fmess

Evening all


Well done on giving up alcohol and smoking thrifty :j


Congratulations on the dentist calling


First day back at work today and a spendy day as did a food shop. I took lunch to work (Bolognese and bread) and walked the dogs for more than 30 minutes. I have apparently done 16000+ steps but I'm a bit sceptical.

cupcake-queen

Hi, checking in with a progress report

Groceries £77/£100 - big shop for about 3 weeks of planned meals
Travel (bus fares) £8.90/£50 - I'm ahead of schedule because the ticket machine was broken this morning so didn't get charged!
SFD 2/20
Day 5 of Dry January complete!

nannygladys

Hello all,

sfd number 5 achieved but tomorrow I will be doing a small shop, as I need some fresh veggies and salad stuff, never thought I'd miss salad but I do.

Decided I must work on the life/work balance and get my head round the fact that I can't do as much as I could 10years ago. Trouble is my mind tells me I can but my body says it can't, so I have to start listening to my body I suppose. I need to do less hours at work after I retire but not sure how I will manage money wise it's all up in the air for the time being until I know how much pension I'll get, and I'm finding it a bit frustrating.

Anyway off to bed in a moment, I'm on grandma duties the next two days. (On my days off!!) See what I mean about balance I don't seem to have time to myself to get it balanced, how does everyone else achieve it? Anyway feel a lot better today after the lurgey of the last two weeks so I'm finally shaking it off.

Will try to call in everyday from now and be more selective in the threads I read, as I can lose a few hours just catching up

Nannyg