NST: September: the Turtles go Wombling

luckystarr

Hello everyone

Bob I can't remember why I picked the name.. think it was because it sounded pretty

abundant sorry you are feeling under the weather. I hope it passes soon

Stewby how do you manage to only spend only £120 ? that is awesome.

Hugs to all that need them.

The past two days have been spending days but on a positive note OH has been paid and we have cleared a chunk off the overdraft and with me getting paid weekly I am hoping this will get cleared quickly.

It's been a long week, so I am off to catch up on some TV and relax.

See you all tomorrow

Night Night

Fmess

Evening all,

LSD today as went for a drink at the pub with colleagues, cost me £2.50 but I'm counting it as a good thing as I need to make myself be more sociable. I'm pretty happy with spending every night on the sofa but I don't think I'm going to meet new people that way!

Had a lovely combo of batch cooked bolognese from the freezer with roasted sweet potato and grated cheese . Tomorrow should be a quiet day and a SFD as although I'm out and about in aiming to make everything be free

Hugs abundant, feel free to don some Lycra and Pom poms.

Bobarella

Morning Turtles

Channeling some turtle power this morning. Have all the sprightliness of a 80 year old myself

MissTara - good I'm glad you decided to have a rest period. You'll be better for it once the bug is truly gone.

Caling - It must have been really nice to see your old school friends. It's funny, I feel my year (95) were sort of the last where the teachers got away with a lot of bad practises. The year below mine had a lad that got the maximum A*s and from there the school seemed to go upmarket. I think I was one of the few in my year to get out and go to Uni leave the home town. It has definately affected what I want for my family education wise.

Fmess - I agree enjoying yourself & meeting people is a good use of funds. I'd be exactly the same. I love staying in at night.

Dolly- so the residential trips are this academic year or next?

Syn - your course sounds interesting. Hope it's not too much on top of work? I'm pleased about your lodger that will help with the ££
You wouldn't call me Whirling today, more like a load stalled on the Spin cycle

CCL - enjoy DDS birthday weekend. Hope you make some lovely memories.

Lucky Starr - well done on your big payments

Abundant - sorry you feel blue. Have a break from it all. Your EF is looking pretty marvellous however! You've smashed the savings.

Stewby - how much over your expected food budget are you going on a monthly basis? Is there an easy reason you can spot like doing top up shops instead of main ones? Are you batch cooking less or not finding YS bargains as much as before? I think I'd want to examine it a bit more before I decided I'd got my budget wrong.

Apple - well done on your NSD, I hope you enjoy the Rugby this weekend.

Hope everyone has a great day.

Bob

Fmess

Morning all,

Hugs to those who need it and bob it sounds like you could do with putting your feet up for a few hours today!

Today should be a SFD. Need to go help my sister move a piece of furniture, using my large car, but I've got half a tank of petrol left so no spends needed. Also going for a drink at a friend's house for a birthday later but as I'm driving I'll have a soft drink. Have s few jobs to do around the house and need to collect more blackberries so I can make a crumble. My friend and I have exchanged half of the cooking apples she got given for a Tupperware of blackberries that I'd picked so we're both making crumble this weekend.

Tomorrow will be a spendy day as I'm meeting a friend for a dog walk but will probably need to spend on car parking and a cake and drink somewhere, so I'm holding off on buying the few food items I'll need to keep me going until Friday's payday until tomorrow.

Last night I put what I think is a winter quilt on the bed (why do I never have ones with labels on!) and also left what I think is a summer one on top, it was blissfully snugly so I'll be keeping both of them on throughout the cold months. My aim is to massively reduce my gas and electric bills this year as there is now just me and OH never really tried to conserve energy, so I figure that if I try, there must be some decrease. I've been using about £35 a month (gas and electricity combined) over the summer, does that sound about right to anyone? Last winter it went up to £120 a month but I'd like to see if I can keep it below £100, again does that sound reasonable?

Have a lovely day, the weather looks dry here so I'm off to start the washing and hopefully dry it for free

dolly84

Bob - DD's residential is next month and that is paid for and DS's is April so plenty of time to pay for it which is not a problem, I just think it is overpriced particularly compared to DD's trip at £65 less and having now seen a slide show on DD's residential it looks blooming awesome I feel even more so.

Stewby - I do my grocery shopping on the same day of the week each week and if it is a 4 week month we have a budget of £320 and if it is 5 the budget is £340, this is for two adults and 2 children (11 & 9), the dog is not included in this. We usually come in under this but I don't think I could manage on £120 for 2 adults unless it was just food and didn't include household products and alcohol.

dolly84

Our plan for today - me and DH are going cycling very soon, then we are packing up a picnic and going for a nice walk on the moors. We will spend a bit today as there is a lovely ice cream shop/cafe in the town we are starting our walk from so a spend there. I also need to call at the music shop to get DD a music book if they have it in.

We did a full shop at Lidl last night for £68 including beer and wine. We bumped into some friends there (it was their first time) and I think they were just a bit mortified as they are a bit snobbish. We have £23 left of our food budget so I am leaving the £3 for miscellaneous grocery spends over next week and transferring the £20 into my Christmas/Birthday fund.

apple_muncher

fmess - have you looked at the getting ready for winter threads here? There are some great ideas for reducing bills. I know I spent a lot of time reading them last year, even though I can't remember what they were called! Do yo have a smart meter reader thingy installed? All companies have to install them and they give you an idea of how much gas/leccy is being used. I wince every time the visitors have a power shower as it zooms over 10 (lights and telly usually make it hover around 0.350 max)!

The rugby last night was excellent. The behaviour of the players was good, so few injuries. And we won, which helps! I hope it has set the standard for the following matches.

traveller

dolly84 wrote: »

Our plan for today - me and DH are going cycling very soon, then we are packing up a picnic and going for a nice walk on the moors. We will spend a bit today as there is a lovely ice cream shop/cafe in the town we are starting our walk from so a spend there. I also need to call at the music shop to get DD a music book if they have it in.

We did a full shop at Lidl last night for £68 including beer and wine. We bumped into some friends there (it was their first time) and I think they were just a bit mortified as they are a bit snobbish. We have £23 left of our food budget so I am leaving the £3 for miscellaneous grocery spends over next week and transferring the £20 into my Christmas/Birthday fund.

Lol about the mortified friends :rotfl:

Morning everyone. Sorry I've been AWOL, just knackered after work these days.
Abundant, I hope you feel yourself soon,take care of yourself and totally agree with Bob,financiallly your doing great :TT

Stewbyy, I spend 325-340 per month for myself and 22,18,16 and 7 year old. Although my daughter is at uni, I'll still pay towards her weekly shop.we also have a kitten and when specials are on,his food comes out of this too. I do think food prices have gone up as before my shop was 312.00 at the most,a few months ago.

I'm sorry, I need to catch up still,so hugs to be everyone that needs them and have a great Saturday everyone x

Fmess

apple_muncher wrote: »

fmess - have you looked at the getting ready for winter threads here? There are some great ideas for reducing bills. I know I spent a lot of time reading them last year, even though I can't remember what they were called! Do yo have a smart meter reader thingy installed? All companies have to install them and they give you an idea of how much gas/leccy is being used. I wince every time the visitors have a power shower as it zooms over 10 (lights and telly usually make it hover around 0.350 max)!

The rugby last night was excellent. The behaviour of the players was good, so few injuries. And we won, which helps! I hope it has set the standard for the following matches.

Thanks apple. No I haven't read the getting ready for winter threads but should have guessed there would be something like that on here. I'll have a hunt.

It's interesting that you say they have to install a smart meter as my company (the dreaded FU) and they advertised that you could have one but only if you signed up to a contract until 2018! I'll investigate! Thanks apple

dolly84

We have returned from our walk on the moors, the weather and the scenery were gorgeous. We had ice creams in the town as planned, I'm not sure how much they were as I stayed outside with the dog.

We called into the charity shops and spent a bit more, I got DD a gap shirt for £1 and a Red Herring wool coat for winter for me for £6.95, DD bought herself some boots for £2. We also bought the 2 music books she needed at a cost of £9.90:eek:. We have bought a £1 bag of marshmallows for toasting tonight, we are going to light the chimenea later.

I am not spending anything else now until after payday (25th) apart from teeny tiny grocery spends.