NST; January Challenge- The Money Saving Game

LoveaDove

:jHAPPY NEW YEAR- 2015!:j

speakingofart
vintagebrighton
ilovetea
Charly27
moveit
£ashcow
Purpleroses
LINKYPIE2009
WelshKitty85
millionaire in training
blubella
dolly84

Thank you for joining us, you are all IN and have been assigned contender numbers! :T

Bobarella

Logging in with my first NSD. We've been out for our walk/cycle already this morning & the weather is so grim I don't see us moving again today.

mothernerd

Boberella (sorry if I've not got that right) it's just a stage on the road to recovery following my hip replacement operation - it's a lot more fun than the constant pain/ struggling to walk (and keep doing house repairs to get it ready to sell) and then finally being told it was so damaged I shouldn't be walking on it that made up last year. So much less pain now, just got to be careful and follow the rules as my body heals (Doctor even said it's perfectly normal to still be sleeping a lot and dozing off during the day). So no guilt and try not to worry about things I can't do anything about atm like having no money and not being able to do most housework. I could get used to this.

timetrade

Hi everyone, happy new year! I'd like to join this group.

2. Set ALL of your budgets at the beginning of the month:
Groceries: £200
Social/leisure: £40

3. Pay money to your debts first
Done! £850 to my debt this morning.

4. You MUST bring your lunch to work every day
This is huge for me - I'm so lazy at lunchtime. Looking forwards to lots of lovely leftovers.

5.Donate £3 from your food budget
I love this idea - we have a food bank drop off at my work, so it will be really easy to get my items to the right place

6. Down shift 3 of your branded food items
Will look at my current grocery order and give this a go

7. Meal Plan!
Planning this week as we speak

8. You will aim to achieve 18 Spend Free Days (SFDs)
I really like this idea! Unfortunately I know I need to pop into town today, but I'm sure I can do this.

9. Document your spends
I've been using YNAB since mid-2013, and it's a huge help. Now I just need to push to make better decisions.

10. Time to get moving
Yes, I need to lose more than 40lb this year to reach a healthy BMI

11. Choose your Debt Free Date now.
25th December 2015

12. Share your 2015 Goals- financial or other.

• Pay off all debt
• Get to a healthy BMI
• Take more pride in our new home

13. Check in regularly
I will!

Bobarella

@mothernerd - I see. I really hope you heal very soon. My grandmother had her hip done years ago & eventually needed the other done but she refused due to how bad she found the op. Not great. So I know how painful they are said to be.

sazzlebgood

2. budgets set see sig
3. Already done and will continue to.
4. OH already does this, I'm a housewife and kids take packed lunches to school most days. DD1 3 a week and DD2 4 a week.
5. Will do
6. Will try but this is quite hard to do as we eat an organic diet and there's not alot of choice to downshift brands.
7. Already do but will try and actually stick to meal plan
8. 18 sfds not going to happen will aim for 8 instead. Need to plan spending.
9. already document spends
10. walk the dog everyday for an hour
11. Aiming for december 2015 to be debt free
12. 1) complete first year of degree
2) plan and enjoy scotland road trip
3) focus on today's happiness instead of the futures (still important)
4) enjoy my children more.
13. will check in as much as possible.
also joined the £1 a day christmas savers forum

lindsaygalaxy

Hello everyone and Happy New Year :beer:
Here is my list for January

Set ALL of your budgets at the beginning of the month: let us know what your budget is for: groceries, fuel/travel, social/leisure, Birthdays and any other saving goals for the month.

Groceries £200
Fuel £150
Birthdays £30 (ongoing monthly)
Car savings £30 (ongoing monthly)
Savings goals: £1000 (house saving deposit)

You MUST bring your lunch to work every day

Lunch to work: 0/20 x2 people

Donate £3 from your food budget - £1/£3
£1 donated to a homeless person so far

Down shift 3 of your branded food items - 0/3

Meal Plan!
We are trying really hard to be better with food. I want to defrost the freezer so need to work our way through joint of beef, joint of pork, pork steaks, 3 x lamb mince, 1 x beef mince, lamb for casserole and 2 packs of bacon.

You will aim to achieve 18 Spend Free Days (SFDs)

SFDs: 0/18

Just came back from Tesco with all christmas stuff for next year. Now to find a box for all the cards/wrap/tags/paper.

Document your spends - notebook at the ready.

Time to get moving

Share your 2015 Goals - financial or other

1. Reach 10% house deposit savings goal and buy a house.
2. Regular weekly exercise
3. Have a better work/home life balance

Check in regularly -will try to do daily!

LINKYPIE2009

So not going anywhere today - so I declare today NSD #1 for January!!

Meal Plan for today -

Breakfast/Lunch (as got up late) Bacon Sarnies
Dinner Homemade Lasagne/Veggies/Garlic Bread (all here already)
Pudding Christmas Pudding/Custard (already here)

Steps thus far 996/10000

£3 donation to Trussell Trust done last night (by text + gift aid!) - did it so i wouldn't forget - still counts right?

Catch up later xx

speakingofart

Checking in for day 1 - thanks for my number loveadove! Have played with my budgets a bit to take into account the fact that I have a full freezer/ cupboards and that I have two social activities planned, plus bought myself some trainers for the gym as I didn't have any that I could run in and want to start couch to 5k. So new budgets below after some WAM-ing as well as my other check-ins.

Groceries until 15th January £0/£31.16
Groceries 15th Jan - 15th Feb £0/150
Fuel until 15th January £0/£20
Fuel 15th January - 15th February £0/£60
Spending Money: £0/27.65 until Jan 15th.
Lunch to work: 0/20
Food bank 0/£3
SFDs: 1/18

Today will be a SFD - staying in for the rest of the day and studying. Am hoping to make my first gym visit tomorrow to commence week 1, also going to pantomime, but hopefully neither of those will involve spending money.

Happy new year all :beer:

LoveaDove

Bobarella wrote: »

11. Choose your Debt Free Date now.

very tricky this one. I am self employed with a fluctuating income. If I stick to the bare minimum of repayments that have to be made I will get to below £4,000 by December 2015. But all being well I can do a lot better. I do feel this one is a very hard one for me. I will maybe go for December 2016 but that almost demotivated me....

Sorry Bobarella - I was meant to expand on this rule- but clearly got distracted! It should have read- 'Choose your Debt Free Date Now or the % of Debt you aim to clear by January 2016.' I will go and adjust this now as I can completely understand how overwhelming and demotivating this can make some feel.