Nst; fearless february

mothernerd

And we're off.


Budgets
Food £50 for the month of which I have spent approximately £30, including two litres of UHT milk which went into the food bank box at the supermarket and 3 packs of sardines bought after checking that Arseda's were still cheaper than Aldi.
This modest total is only possible because I still have some stock of tinned goods and a drawer full of meat in the freezer, both of which were purchased before my hip replacement operation last November. My total spending for January was £19.83 and that is not sustainable long-term but want this to be another good month. I am also in possession of a bargainaceous carrot mountain.
Travel £12.40 to cover two hospital appointments and 4 visits to mum's assuming I get a lift back from mum's or she will offer to pay for a taxi. Hope I can walk to mum's before the end of the month and have not allowed anything for house viewings (selling larger house).
Entertainment £10 to buy drinks at cousin's sixtieth birthday meal – hoping this won't be needed but taking it just in case. Had allowed £5 for buying a cardigan but have now sorted a no cost outfit – short dress, linen trousers underneath and borrowing a short black cotton kimono of DS3's to wear on top (dress is sleeveless) with grey walking boots.


15 minutes a day
Housework at least for the next week I need to continue to chip away at areas of housework I can do (still some things I am not allowed to do) aiming for 10 x 15 mins a day, except when doing something else (today I had a house viewing/ Fridays I visit mum). Spend some of the time on cooking, especially new recipes.
Relationships – have one that needs work but may just reduce contact atm.
Decluttering needs to continue and there are a couple of grot spots that need sorting.
Exercise Walking over an hour on good days, must manage 15 minutes on the bad days.
Quilt dry it out and assess how easy/difficult it is to pin the new cover over the silk.


NEED TO FOCUS ON MY BUSINESS work out what direction it needs to take and what skills/ resources I need to acquire. Continue to finish off small projects (didn't make my target of 100 in January but done a lot of work on 2 large and three medium pieces so overall a success). Works well as thinking time. Want things in place at the start of the new financial year.

Dottydaisy

Please count me in Mothernerd.
Thanks for January challenge Loveadove.


January has not been good health wise. I have fibro, diabetes2, osteoarthritis in 3 joints, psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis in all sorts of places. I've had a lot of pain and the black dog has visited for the best part of the month, so I didn't post much although I kept up with the thread.
I didn't do too badly on my budgets, I am under on petrol but spent £43 on rail travel to see my grandson, dd1 dsonil, well worth the money and I have decided to travel by train instead of driving the 130 miles each way in future. I am 68 and the road journey gets harder each time.
Found 7p road kill and food etc was under by £17. Donated to food bank each time at tessimo, took along stuff from my mum as well. Changed my month from 20th to 19th, to 1st to end, still a bit of a challenge but doing ok, getting to grips with YNAB, so changed tactics and now planning on getting rid of overdraft first as everything else is on 0% for at least 12 months and it will be easier to plan with a current account in credit - I hope! I still have my pots in place with credit balances so doing well.
Had a fine for being in a bus lane. I didn't know you could not drop people off at bus stops in bus lanes - this one stretches for 2 miles so where do you drop off people who want to catch a bus going in the opposite direction to you? It was Christmas eve of all times, but I appealed and common sense reigned and the fine was dropped , but I won't be able to appeal again. Be warned!
So I have posted at last and will be along later in the day with my budgets and action plans - looks like a good challenge - thanks Mothernerd.
Night all Dotty

speakingofart

Morning all... can't believe it's February already, but I'm looking forward to starting a new challenge and hopefully to a better month. Goals are below, hoping to start the month off right with a NSD today and lots of studying. It's only 28 days.. bring it on!

Set your DFD (Debt Free Day) N/a as I'm not in debt, but I have a goal to have saved all my rainy day funds and a small emergency fund by June 15th.

You will pay towards your [STRIKE]debt [/STRIKE] savings FIRST and live on what’s left. Choose the amount now. I get paid on February 13th and £230 will go into savings, for my car insurance and long term pot. Ideally, I'd like to have a really frugal month and also put in another £100.

Set all budgets before the start of the month, think ahead for any birthdays, outings etc.
Groceries to 15th Feb: 0/ £20
Groceries 15th Feb - 15th March £100 (have aimed for £50 lower, let's see how I do!)
Fuel 15th feb - 15th March £60
Spending money for whole month £30

Random Rule for February 15 minutes a day

I need to use this to accomplish some studying every day - by the end of the month, I want to have drafted two essays and a good bit of my research project, so 15 mins will help with this. I'm hoping once I get started, it will be a lot more than 15 minutes.

Aim for 15 SFD (Spend Free day or No Spend day) 0/15

Focus on changes you need to make - primarily, this is good eating and exercise, as I never quite got back on the bandwagon after Christmas. So goals are to use my lunch hour to take a walk every day and start couch to 5k, as well as eating within my WW's points for the day.


Lunch to work everyday 0/20
Lunchtime exercise 0/20

So there you have it....
Groceries to 15th Feb: 0/ £20
Groceries 15th Feb - 15th March £0/£100
Fuel 15th feb - 15th March £0/£60
Spending money for whole month £0/£30
Lunch to work 0/20
Lunchtime exercise 0/20
SFDs 0/15

Thanks for an excellent challenge mothernerd! :beer:

Bobarella

Dotty - sorry to hear about your fine. I've had loads. I live in London and I swear they just do it to raise revenues. I gave up on my car in August of last year and have never looked back. I have had fines for parking in areas that have highly misleading signs regarding what time you are allowed to park, driving in a bus lane, parking outside a local shop that only allows parking at certain times of the day. Even got one for parking a bit squiffy in a B & Q car park! Hundreds spent over the 15 years I've been here. I know I'm not a bad driver as in all that time I only once got points and that was for doing 37 in a 30 again in a rural area that had an end of speed limit sign in a very ambiguous place. Don't miss driving

Bobarella

NSD 1 here as off to work and have all the food I need for today. Will be doing a chicken curry tonight.

WelshKitty85

thriftylass wrote: »

Hi welshkitty, good luck with the interview.
I could use your help. I guess from your previous post there is OH and kids. We are OH and 3yo DS and 10 mo DS. How do you manage a budget of only 185 for food and household. I'd be really gratefully for any tips like what would you meal plan look like or a weekly shop? Where do you shop. Thank you very much

Hi, yes it is me, DH, 9yo DD & 6 yo DS. my plan for Feb is to do 1 trip to the butchers for enough meat for the month. This should be about £25. Then 1 home bargains trip for loo roll, kitchen roll and toiletries, which should be about £15. That leaves me £145 for groceries. I shop at Aldi and meal plan and check costs on mysupermarket before I leave the house. This weeks meal plan looks like:
Ginger pork ramen
Sausage pasta
Sweet and sour chicken
Bacon and Brie baguettes
Chicken burgers
Roast chicken
Chicken hot pot

When I shop at the butchers I get things like a big bag of mince, so will spend a couple of hours bulking it out and turning it into bolognaise/lasagne/chilli etc and then freeze in takeaway trays. I also try making enough at meal times to have left overs for lunch the following day. Children have packed lunches and I have got them food flasks to take hot food. I feel happier knowing they have a hot meal at lunchtimes, plus I find it a lot cheaper and healthier for them.

My mum picks children up from school 3 or 4 days a week and feeds them, so it is often just 2 of us that I have to cook for.

I think the most important thing for me is to go shopping alone. I find it hard to say no to people when they put things in the trolley, so it's best they are just not there and I stick to my list.

shyspender

Good Morning Turtles!

Think I've got everything sorted out with budgets etc, I guess only time will tell!

• Set your DFD (Debt Free Day) n/a
• You will pay towards your [STRIKE]debt[/STRIKE] savings FIRST and live on what’s left. Choose the amount now. £200 to savings
• Set all budgets before the start of the month, think ahead for any birthdays, outings etc. Best friends main hen do in feb, weekend away
• Random Rule for February 15 minutes a day
• Aim for 15 SFD (Spend Free day or No Spend day) shouldn’t be a problem, hen do does not count in this budget, money already put aside for this
• Focus on changes you need to make
• Food budget should be set realistically £150
• You will NOT use any of the following; takeaways, restaurants, cafes, work canteens, vending machines, Starbucks, Costa, Nero or any other chain cafe! Will only do this for the Hen Do weekend
• Lunch to work everyday and plan for appointments and days out. Not an problem
• Travel budget – £300 – this is maximum, still trying to work out my costs for a normal month, Hen Do travel is included in this
• Any other regular budgets Ents £80, not including Hen Do, General £40
• Healthy eating – Working on this, trying to avoid waste
• Make a food bank donation Will do!
• Exercise 5 times a week Losing weight for aforementioned wedding, signed up to a challenge on here

Good Luck Everyone!

[Deleted User]

Hello Turtles! I am so sorry for disappearing abruptly in the autumn - my cancer diagnosis took a twist and there was a rapid return to hospital and more surgery. Its taken longer mentally than physically to bounce back this time, and one coping mechanism I had to avoid sinking too deep was to lose the virtal world - web and social media for a while, and to ease off panicking about cashflow too much. Hospital and then not being able to do as much for yourself as you could is really expensive :eek: but I think we have stayed loosely on track. I am back to work now and was hoping you might let me re-join the fold here today too! I've missed you all and thought of you often. Haven't read back yet and skipped totally news from the last three threads, but I hope to pick up your stories as I go along! :wave: Today is my January 1st - start of a new year!!

abundant1972

Happy 01st February everyone!!!

Sounds like everyone is off to a good start. I really like the idea of '15 minutes a day' - a time for reflection and focus. I realise how much lately I fill my day keeping myself distracted from doing just that... I think sometimes things lurk just below the surface that we can feel, but don't want to look at... Time to be still - and listen - and see what comes to light.

I have combined my spends and food budget - allowing £40 per week in total = £160 for Feb.

I already tackled my credit card on pay day clearing £350, and I am about to pay back £250 to my parents, who loaned me £750 for a rental deposit on my flat.

I need to sit down and work out my SFDs as I got out the habit - and it's amazing how little spends here and there happen, and mount up.

One thing that has got me all :mad: is the price of gluten free stuff. I was experimenting cutting out wheat and I felt heaps better. The trouble is - it's like 3 times more expensive. A pack of gluten-free Warbutons 'thins' were £2.50 vs £1.00 for their usual ones. A loaf of bread was £2.99 vs £0.60 - £1.00 for regular bread. I guess it's to do with production costs etc but can't help feeling they are cashing in on it! Grrrrrr! MaybeI just switch over to buckwheat rice cakes again <groans> as they are cheap.

Ok - off to do my 15 minutes reflecting

abundant1972

Hugs to crazylady - and welcome back. It sounds like you've been through a lot - but is really positive that you're back and as determined as ever! x