NST: October: Letting go of the love of stuff.

crazy_cat_lady

Hi everyone
Checking in with my first NSD of the month. Most of my regular payments have left the bank, including my donation to cat's protection, so charity stuff is done. The budget is done and very, very tight this month because I have to find the money to finish paying for our little break between Christmas and New Year. I know that I've stretched myself to get that Christmas DFD but this month will be quite tough.
Hoping to get this week's groceries done for less than £25. We'll see, but the fridge, freezer and cupboards are all overflowing so it really will just be cat food and milk, bread etc.
Hope everyone is doing ok - it's so interesting to hear everyone's stories of their lbm.

Mrs_Toast

dolly84 wrote: »

Mrs Toast - well done on the extra payment. If the weather where you are is anything like it was here this afternoon a walk by the river must have been very nice.


It's been another glorious day here in Cheshire so was lovely at the river. I'm hoping this nice weather will continue to the weekend as I'm doing a car boot sale and a trip to a castle with the family (using a voucher of course )


As well as a NSD I've managed to make £30 selling our old electric fire and hoping for another £5 tomorrow. This will all go into an envelope to go towards car repairs this month. We should need around £150 this month and I'm hoping we can make enough at the car boot to cover it.


Oh I forgot to say our charity donation will be for the local foodbank via my son's school as it's harvest festival on Tuesday. As it'll be a spend day on Saturday, I'll go to Asda and see how much I can get for £5 and maybe have a womble while I'm there

The_Only_Girl

Hello and good evening fellow turtles.

First spend of the month today. Spent £30 on food for the DS's for the weekend. Hubby and I are going on a husband and wife retreat somewhere in the Midlands, which we prepaid in September, which includes the hotel accommodation, all the food for the weekend (including a 3 course banquet on Saturday night) and some giveaways. It has cost us £250 which is not too bad for what we will be getting. Hopefully it would be a No Spend Weekend. Fingers crossed.

Just watched this week's episode of Eating Well for Less and I was gobsmacked at the reaction of the feature family when they were told they spend an average of £320 a week and the mother said "No wonder why we have no money at the end of the month." A few things resonated with the old me or the old tog household - lack of budget, lack of meal plans, lack of shopping lists and lots convenience foods. I am proud to say I am a new woman guided by a written budget, shopping lists, more food cooked from scratch rather than the ones that go "ping", less take always, daily packed lunches, and oh yes, YS shopping!

The_Only_Girl

Bobarella wrote: »

What do you count as high milk consumption? Surely just buy a bigger container when you do buy it? So you have more for longer and less NSDs lost? I normally pick up a 6 pint container per day for the shop but sometimes that lasts 2 days. And that does a lot of coffee!

Or alternatively you could buy 4 pint non organic supermaket own brand milk for 89p and get 25p cash back on shopitise? Hubby and I have two separate shopitise accounts so if we get two 4-pinters on 2 separate transactions and get 2 x 25p cashbacks. It sounds complicated but definitely worth it.

Bob when is your due date?

The_Only_Girl

I forgot to say while shopping this evening, I bought a few Mickey Mouse pyjamas (tops or bottoms) from b n m for 50p each to start off my Christmas shopping. I also saw some flip flops for 10p a pair which I thought would be ideal for Christmas shoe box appeal. I didn't get any yet, as I need to check first if they are accepting flip flops in this year's shoe box appeal (last year we were told not to include flip flops.). Will investigate further.

misstara

Just a very quick post tonight to say I went to the gym (1/12), it's been a NSD (1/20) and I've eaten no chocolate.

Fmess

Hi all,

Done my super long day at work and now I'm in bed SFD as I only went to work and back

Will post my LBM etc at the weekend. Night all

stewby

Good evening.

Spendy day but have only spent £5.00 of the food budget.
Normal water makes me feel sick unless it has ice in it and diluting juice can sometimes upset my stomach. As a result, I have spent £3.00 of my own money on bottles of flavoured water.


Diet started today with good news... Because I have been so ill and not able to eat, I had lost six pounds since I last weighed myself. Doesn't count in the long run but allows me to only need to lose 68 pounds to reach my goal weight.


Exercise completed. 70 minutes of wii fit (stupid machine gave me 1 hour and 1 minute so had to keep going to reach the next whole number). Also walked the dog with my dad... fitbit currently at 9330 steps.
:j

* Going to aim for 15 spend-free days.
* One meat-free day a week will be attempted.
* Envelopes is no problem, we started off doing this.
* Tech-free day is going to be a massive issue. No idea how I am going to manage this to be honest. Will give it a shot though.

Debt is very almost gone... only three months to go. As a result, I am starting to plan the next mission. The money I am paying towards my debt is going to be split into two parts:
1) overpaying the mortgage by £200.
2) wedding fund of £125 (OH will also be paying in £125).

My plan is to take £100 of my budget money and start funnelling it into a savings account. Initially the plan was to only do this for 10 months as I wanted to create an emergency fund but I think this will be a long term plan.

It's a bit scary to realise that the money I have been paying out can do so much. It almost feels like a waste... apart from two holidays, I can't really think what I have spent it on.
:shocked:

Rabbiting on a fair bit tonight. Sorry.
Hugs to everyone.

Synonymous

Hey everyone, and welcome to the newcomers :wave:

Today is counting as a spendy day as I bought my first Oct shop yesterday but the cost and the loss of the SFD is staying in this month! Spent thirty-odd quid in Aldi which should last me two weeks.

I haven't exactly set my budgets yet, but think I'll drop my food to £50 this month as I've got stuff to batch cook. Travel needs to include 8-10 trains and maybe a night in a hostel as I'm on a course. I'm going on a retreat for a weekend but that is from my holiday fund. Need to book accommodation and flight/train for Berlin next month and claim that back on expenses. This is the kind of stuff I always forget to factor in. Will work out budgets properly and update my sig. Was thinking about doing the envelope system, but I hardly carry cash so I don't think I'd remember to take it with me!

Similar to academia, I've never had debt and was an avid MSE reader (website more than forums) before I bought my house 5 years ago, so I've always overpaid my mortgage, but not as aggressively as I could have done. I started the NST challenges almost a year ago and discovered MrMoneyMoustache before Xmas 2014 and read the whole blog start to finish! Financial Independence is my main goal now, and retiring by the time I am 45, which includes being mortgage-free at 40. Having less but living more, and creating my own happiness at the same time.

My main income which is quarterly arrived today, so I'll transfer my three months of mortgage OPs this evening, and allocate my monthly installment. Didn't work in August so no pay on payday this week from side hustles

Bob, I can almost imagine you delivering your own baby as part of a normal day - you are SuperWoman!

Thrifty, what kind of chocolate tempted you off the bandwagon on the first day? Hope it was suitably decadent!

luckystarr

Evening all.

No SFD and it's not looking likely over the weekend (but everything is budgeted for)

Will post budgets etc over the weekend.

This will sound awful but I haven't had my LBM yet as I am still a really bad emotional/spontaneous/wasteful spender !! I will need to have a long think over the weekend and get my priorities straight. There is no hope for me !!

Hope you all have a lovely evening and I will check in tomorrow

Night all x