NST: May the odds be ever in your favour!

liltdiddylilt

Messymare that sounds like a beautiful and heartfelt wedding. It is what it should be about. I went to 2 weddings for 2 best friends in the space of 3 months. One... a £10k budget which included brand new suits for all of my bestie brothers, and the dresses for us bridesmaids (sisters and me), plus a wedding outfit for her mum and a suit for her dad as they are really not very well off. She had the wedding and venue in a very lovely hotel which her MIL&FIL paid the deposit for, and they came in under budget. Family made cakes, the food provided was lovely, presents were genuinely for them to set up house as they had been living with his parents then in rented accommodation which was part furnished so they had nothing for their new home. It was the most beautiful wedding and we all had an amazing day and night despite 9 inches of snow!

The other friend... spent over £40,000. The wedding was ok, but nothing special. Everything was bought, everything was expensive, from the flowers to the cake, to the dress (she had 2 because the first one didn't fit right but she kept it) and the meal was pretty rubbish. It was an outdoor wedding, and it rained. Cue there being no action plan by the seasoned venue and us all stuffing ourselves into one marquee to get out of the rain while the bride and groom did the wedding paperwork before the ceremony because they could only do it in the gazebo outside. There was a hog roast, which was left unattended and a 3 year old niece of the bride was rushed to hospital because she burnt all of the skin from her palm touching it. It was just farcical sometimes for all the time and effort she had put in. Sometimes it is a lot more about why you are doing it than how. It should be that way all the time. I applaud you!!

traveller

Lilt-you've really hit the nail on the head with that post :T

Morning everyone and what wonderful posts regarding the challenge :T
I can't get past motivation as I'm too tired to think of anything so i'm sure this cues the start of my PMT :mad: My brain always turns to mush :rotfl:

Anyway my motivation is my children- I want to be able to do things for them if I want to. I'm not well off at all and try to balance the books each month. I've been very lucky that my oldest has his own business which he is trying to make stable, my daughter is striving and my younger two hopefully will be ok. But, i'm aware, that if they ever needed help, I can't help them My ex is a different story, he can if he wants, but a business case has to be made for anything of need/use but to be frivilous-he's your man :rotfl: I also want financial independence. For those that have seen Les Mis, the song 'can you hear the people sing', kind of sums up my feelings if we use debt as in 'slaves to debt'.

I also need to make me time where it is not on a time somewhere, don't know where though,lol.

I will finish my goals this weekend :T Well carpet at long last has been ordered, so i'll see how it all pans out

I still need to catch up The little fella turns 7 on Monday and their dad is planning celebrations spanning the whole bank holiday! He's booked a top steakhouse for his birthday dinner-why? Then karting then another dinner! I've had to explain the little fella is not auditioning for MTV's sweet 16 or rivaling the opening of the Olympics. Just the karting and a nice dinner is enough. He won't hear of it! I think he is having a mid life crisis,lol.

Well have a good day everyone and take care

academiablues

Hello Turtles! Lilt, you're absolutely right about weddings - the point is to get married, not to show off! MessyMare, hope you have a lovely wedding day
Well today was meant to be a spendy day as I was going to see a friend, but I'm poorly so I can't (feels like food poisoning but really hoping not), so today is an unintentional NSD as I can't really leave the house! Oh well, every one counts right?! I'll call my friend later too, which fits with my goal of calling/texting people more trying to look at the positives! Weather is rubbish here today as well, but going to try to get out in the garden later if I can - tomatoes need re-potting. Hope everyone else is having a nice day

Caeraugirl

Sorry, have had problems with internet last couple of days, but have still been with you in spirit. Finally back up and running and have missed more than two pages of updates! Off to catch up, then revisit the challenge and set my goals.... See you later x

Fmess

Afternoon all,

Checking in now as I'm off out later for a friend's birthday. Also did the food shopping this morning and as usual I've spent most of the money in the budgets and the month has only just started! Part of me thinks I'm just being too ambitious with my budgets; they'd be fine if I was doing it for a month or two but September will see the second anniversary of my debt free journey. Anyway they cupboards are full and I only have one other cheap outing for the rest of the month so shouldn't be too bad (I think!)

Hope you have all had better weather than here, I've just done an hour long walk in the rain. One of my goals is to hit 11000 steps everyday this month and I've already done it today

apple_muncher

Managed another NSD today, so now am 10% of the way there! 20 is going to be tough (says she who set the rule!!) and will need planning. We'll need milk tomorrow, so will stop at 1ce1and and get 2x, plus their loo roll is brill!

I'm loving all the motivating factors in our lives. I think that when the month gets tough, reading back over these posts wil be inspirational.

Today I am grateful for a 'fairy house' being built outside our front door, for pansies, for my exam board work going well, for hugs with dd, for a lovely PO lady.

Calling14

Messymare congratulations your wedding sounds perfect. My daughter refused to get married as she wants an extension on the house first. Wonder who she takes after? To be be fair her bf family is massive and she couldn't get away with a small affair.

First Sfd for me, baked huge veggie lasagne and lots soup. Just thinking wish I had made a cake and like magic went in my porch and there was 2 raspberry peach melba cupcakes left from a friend.


Fmess well done on 11000 steps will try tomorrow to do more. Done 2 short walks today but this morning was cold and wet. Will get up early tomorrow only time it's dry here

Doris17

Well done Apple on your NSD, I achieved one too. Need to do a shop tomorrow, won't need much as we are using put what is in the cupboards and freezer. Raining here this morning so I took my car to work,will get out tomorrow and Monday for a long walk with Mr Doris. Well done Fmess on your walk in the rain.

Been busy listing on ebay since I got home from work, had a 100 free listings,will list some more tomorrow evening. Hopefully all will sell, so I can make over payments and have less clutter in my house.

nannygladys

Hi everyone

Well it's been my first sfd today, so
£2.25 spent
1/20 sfd

Been out this afternoon with dd and dgd, took flasks for making tea and hm flapjack for a snack! Very nice it all was too, but oh so cold and when it started raining we came back here for a hot cuppa and a warm.

Hope everyone has had a good day.
Nannyg

Bobarella

Lilt -that is terrible about the poor 3 year old. £40,000 for a wedding is obscene. We spent £13k back in 2006 which got us a wonderful venue, & incredible food. But we deliberately went small with only 50 guests, my dress was a Debenhams off the peg 2 piece (bodice and skirts) & we kept costs low in lots of ways. Most importantly for us we had the day we wanted, no one got burnt! & we are still happy almost 9 years on.

Traveller - I hope your little boy has a wonderful birthday. Mine will be 7 this November too. I think you are right about them not needing all of that. Sounds like it's more for your ex

Fmess - maybe it is time to loosen the purse strings? Have you done any projections on what the effect of increasing your grocery budget would be on your debt free day?