NST July - Bobs Bucket & Spade Boogie to the beach!

The_Only_Girl

Good morning turtles.

Reconciled the bank and envelopes late last night. Child benefit came through yesterday and was immediately transferred to kids' ISA's. Further payment of £25 was also sent to the cc. Total debt repayment this month is £625. Still £123 to find before the end of the month to reach my target and another £200 to reach my stretch target. I am neither optimistic nor pessimistic about the stretch target, anything can happen. We are trying our very best to be on top and mostly we are winning. Considering that when I first joined the NST challenge, I only managed 8 NSD's for that month, achieved 19 NSD's last month and 10 NSD's halfway through this month is good going.

One item sold on eBay last night and another one ending in the next 3 or 4 days. The item sold for only 99p and I will get a bit from the p and p. But every little helps.

I thought today will be a doddle being my third early shift, but I am feeling worse for wear this morning. I need either a massage or an energy booster dose of vitamin b complex or even just Paracetamol. Or maybe caffeine as I haven't had coffee since I woke up this morning. Can't wait for my breakfast at 9:00. Tick tock tick tock.

My contribution to the WOTS. I collect mini jam jars (the ones you get from hotels and b&b's.). They are very handy for packing salt, pepper and spices when camping, also useful for my DS2's ingredients for his cooking classes, and a mini container for my coffee granules for my lunch bag for work.

academiablues

Happy middle-of-the-month, everyone! I have another day off today (back at work tomorrow) and will be spending it completely blitzing the house. I'm hoping to get everything cleaned and tidied before OH comes home later, but decided to start at 9 so that I could have a little lie-in, have breakfast, and hit my Sw@gbucks total for the day :-) also had a browse of Martin's latest e-mail; nothing for me, but the holiday tips might be useful for those going abroad this year.
Have a lovely MSE day!

dolly84

Hi all. You are all doing so well it is very inspirational.

I am going to the hairdressers this morning, I have put off having my hair cut and coloured long enough so today is going to be expensive. I don't colour it at home as it just doesn't last and is so messy and I have very frizzy curly hair so it needs a professional to cut it.

I also need to nip out and buy bread rolls for the kids packed lunches but that will only be £1. Today is school sports day (sunny today at last) then tonight we are going to a fun night/BBQ - this is free :j.

wishus

Hi everyone - so sorry I haven't checked in, I've been so busy with work day and night. I have been managing to read my daily updates as I toddle off to bed in the midnight hour, but it's too late then to think about replying.

I've only been shopping once, and have accumulated another no spend day to add to my total. Hopefully a lot of good karma too!


My OH's first day back at work today - so I'm probably feeling all the anxiety for him. He's going to cycle in - exercise tick! - and when he gets home he will begin bottling our homebrew - frugal red nose day, tick! hick! :beer::rotfl:

Calling14

Wow so many posts and everyone is really doing brilliantly. Proud to be part the turtle team.

Academia, thanks will still do gigs, got a few already paid for up to the end of year to look forward to. Shoes sound a good buy, my gosh what dainty little feet you have. I am a 5.5 size but I find M & S shoes too wide for me, narrow feet.
Bob - how I am supposed to keep up when you smash your target 2 weeks early. Darn you but brilliant news.
Fmess - thanks instrument of torture put away so I won't grab it in a hurry.
Not sure I could be trusted to be a feeder ant, I would munch en route. Wow what willpower resisting coffee very impressed.

The Only Girl - I started using the tiny jam jars for sugar for picnics as only my daughter takes it, no point bringing huge containers.

Abundant glad your credit checks come back okay. Probably is the move that the put a spanner in the works. Hope you get it sorted.

Mothernerd - don't stress too much about your weight, you have had major surgery and not been that mobile. Sure it will drop off soon when you are more mobile, main thing is your healthy. Raw broccoli helps to fill me up when I need to snack.

Half way through the month, today will be a SFD. 8/20. Pleased to report still hot on the heels Bob a 100 pounds wiped off my debts today Total stands at 4530.00 now will try to find 30 pounds by end of the month.

Working on the freezer running down still, got at least another 10 days meals left in there. woo hoo.

Well have to hit my tuna salad and paper mountain on my desk. Have fun x

Bobarella

Evening All, said in my best bobby voice

Well. Today was the 3rd busy day in a row at the shop. I am very grateful for that. This unseasonal weather is good for coffee sales obviously.
Fmess - Please never feel like you have to apologise to me about anything eating out related. I say the same to my DFW gang on the small things thread, when I vent about 'people' I never mean anyone here. We are all in the same boat. Good for you being so strong!

Apple - Did you get any wooly bargains? How will you cope sans internet for 12 days!

The Only Girl - You are doing so very well. Amazing repayment total already, & NSD count. Love the WOTS entry too. As others have said, most of our entries are actually extreemly sensible arent they!

Academia - Hope you had a good day off, & enjoyed the spring cleaning.

Dolly - Hope you enjoyed your trip to the hairdresser. Its nice to be spoiled every so often. A good cut can do wonders.

Wishus - Glad your OH will be back to work, that must be a weight off? Extra points for cycling obviously Go steady with the home brew.

Calling - Go us! We are so doing this!

Have a good night everyone!

Bob

apple_muncher

Well, 12 charity shops yielded no decent wool, and just 2 books for when we go away - a grand total of... 30p!!! So I then popped to 1ce1and to get the bits of food we needed (do not usually go there as it costs substantially more than aldee) and bought some kangaroo burgers for our tea. They were yummy!

Bob - hopefully it'll only be a week without tinterweb! Then I'll be at my sister's where the tablet will automatically log me in. And just think how much lovely reading I'll have to catch up on after a week not reading...


Today I am grateful for being able to walk out of shops without buying, for good coffee, for good chats with people, for a mega workout this morning, for the Tour on telly!

apple_muncher

ps Love being called Turbo! Just don't put a 't' on the end, eh....

WelshKitty85

calling I am very sorry for all the noise. We were over your way at the smoke house and they made the mistake of giving me free champagne to celebrate - I'm afraid the bubbles went to my head and it all got a bit loud. It won't happen again!

The_Only_Girl

Good evening fellow ant turtles!

Nice to read all your posts. It's something I look forward to in the morning, at noon and at night. I think it's bordering on addiction, at least that's what my hubby thinks. I say it back to him with his Dave Ramsey obsession although he's moved on to listening to the audiobook called The Millionaire Next Door, upon the recommendation of who else but Dave Ramsey. We don't really mind each other's addictions, if indeed that's what they are. At the end of the day they are the ones that pushed us forward to have this momentum that we have now.

Some of you might remember the issue I had with my car. A few weeks ago, the dealer did a health check on my car and found several issues, including a full service, to the tune of £650. We didn't jump straight in. We saved the money so as not to touch the emergency fund. Today, OH took the car to the dealer/garage. We managed to get the price down to £550 which is good news. However, they failed the MOT due to a crack on the windscreen that resulted from a stone chip whilst driving in the motorway. It was fixed by Autoglass but was not completely restored. Because the stone chip was on the line of vision, the MOT failed. They quoted £440 to replace the windscreen. Needless to say my OH's stress level went through the roof. When I got home from work I phoned Autoglass straight away and asked if they could replace my windscreen. It turns out that they could do so via my insurance without affecting my No Claims Discount. I just have to pay excess of £75. They are coming on Monday to do the job. Whew. What a difference. - from £440 to £75! ahhhhh his stress level slowly went down. All the while I thought I was calm and collected until later in the afternoon I felt slightly dizzy and a quick check with the BP machine showed my BP was 192/105. Waaaah danger zone! I was made to sit back, out my feet up and relax.

On a positive note, I made zero spend today. (The car is still in the garage and will not need paying til tomorrow) DS2 came back in one piece from Light Water Valley. Some may think I'm too morbid but after what happened in Alton Towers, one can't help but worry when your kids go to amusement parks. DS1 is ready to go to Italy for his school trip, all bags packed. He struck a deal with us. He has €265 as his spending money (equivalent of £200). He has calculated his daily allowance, separated his emergency fund and said if he could save and bring back the equivalent of £100 could we change it back to pounds so he could deposit the money to his bank account and his Cash ISA. That's like music to my ears! So he has been paying attention to our cost-cutting ways! Who would say no to that? Proud momma here. Tissue please. Sorry for being too Melodramatic.

:T for your triumphs on NSD's, debt repayment, cost-cutting and diet modification. Two more weeks til the end of the month. Let us all keep up the good work! Good night all!