NST - January. Bobs post bauble debt busting challenge

apple_muncher

Today I am grateful for another year, for another opportunity to join an NST challenge, for fresh bed linen, for a frost (only the 2nd one of the year here), for warmth and food and love.

Fmess

Evening all,


SFD number 1 here today I ended up going on three dog walks, think I was just a bit excited about them wearing their coats! So I have got in plenty of steps. I ate pretty healthily until I realised that the fajita spice mix that I put in with my chicken and veg had 632 calories in it! I made two potions of dinner so that's 318 calories extra in each dinner, so lesson learnt, although I did get it free through a shopping app.


I took the Christmas tree down, cleared away the decorations, hoovered through the downstairs and changed the sheets on my bed, as well as preparing for my tutoring tomorrow. Pretty happy with my progress and getting to spend the day with the dogs - not looking forward to going back to work next week and having to be out of the house all day

HelgatheHairy

Day 1 NSD (I hope - I have a bit of a stationary/planner addiction and etsy is really easy to order from)

In not so good news I managed to fall off the bed and broke the wooden clothes airer so will need a new one. Was completely stupid, I was getting something down from a cupboard over the bed, stumbled, fell to my knees and then bounced backwards off the bed! I'm fine, just hurt my arm a little bit.

Eager_Elephant

Today was not a NSD as the Chinese was open today after all so I have brought DD's birthday meal.


I can't pay anything to my credit card until at least Monday when all the DD's and s/o's have come out. By my reckoning I have £100 to pay onto it but that seems high so thought it best to wait.

Not done my charity donation yet.


Popped to Tesco yesterday and spent £12.71, this was gluten free bread, GF crackers as I brought loads of Stilton but had no crackers and GF biscuits to make a lemon cheesecake. Grocery budget now £87.29.

I have done a few surveys today but won't count anything until it pays out.

Will check my Experian later as need to do it on a spend day otherwise I might lose my NSD!!!

WelshKitty85

Happy new year everyone!

We had a small gathering at our house last night. To be honest, it was a bit much for me after a full day at work and I struggled to stay awake until midnight, but it was good to see friends. A few stayed over and requested breakfast, so dh had to go t Mr T. for supplies. Spent £4, but came out of money we were given by someone last month, so not counting the spend.

One the plus side, we have been left a few bottles of wine, so counting them as my freebies. I also collected my free coat today and we were given a bottle of juice for DS, so doing well for free items already.

The_Only_Girl

We had a simple New Year's Eve celebration at our house last night. We had a few friends over. The highlight of the evening was the cork popping ceremony to celebrate the new debt free status of 2 of our little DFW gang. Both of them made their last debt repayment 6 and 9 weeks ahead of schedule. Because it was also in 2015 when we earned our DF status, we all had bottles of (non-alcoholic) bubblies to pop. Perfect way to say goodbye to the challenging yet rewarding year that was 2015 and a joyous way to welcome the challenges that 2016 will bring. One of the new DF friends and their family stayed overnight watching DVDs. chatting and bonding all night til they left at 6am. It was one of the best times we've had that cemented our friendship. We didn't get up til 3pm! We had left overs for lunch and supper, and lots of left over drinks and juice too. Freebies on the first day of the year! Hopefully there will be more on the way?

apple_muncher

Eager Elephant - have you ever made gf biscuits yourself? A shortbread one is easy and can then be used for yummy cheesecake base.

chocolatelover93

Evening everyone
Not had a chance to catch up with everything yet but just wanted to pop in and say Happy New Year to you all and hope you had a good one
Me and hubby popped to mum and dad's and spent some time there before going to our friends and spending the night, had a couple of drinks and played a few board games before seeing the new year in
Then today I spent time with my friend and her baby while hubby and her OH went to see the new Star Wars film and then we went to see MIL.
Had a lovely time and I actually got to sleep pretty quick last night!! I didn't even wake when her baby woke up despite being in the next room!!

Fmess

apple_muncher wrote: »

Eager Elephant - have you ever made gf biscuits yourself? A shortbread one is easy and can then be used for yummy cheesecake base.

Apple muncher - do you have a gf shortbread recipe and cheesecake recipe? One thing I'd love to do this year is bake and cook more from scratch, but I'm pretty bad at it so would love a tried and tested recipe or two

Justforme

Just dropping in to update my challenge bits..
1. We are aiming for maximum no spend days this month. There are 31 days in Jan. Aim for at least 21 if not more. I will def aim for the 21 and can claim today as my 1st

2. Pay to your debt as soon as priority spends are complete. These should be rent/mortgage, food, heating etc.
This month we are having a stretch target concept which some of you will recognise but for the new contenders means paying your min payment then calculating what you would like to shift from your total debt ideally. If you don't hit the stretch target it doesn't matter but you will probably have raised your game either way.I have worked hard over the last week to get a grip on every pound owed, I am one debt away from it all being accounted for just need to shake up one more offer, I had a lot of overtime this month so cleared 2 of 3 CC this morning, and have £200 to pay into the bank when they are finally open normal hours again that can come off the third this I would love to stretch to £650 by the end of January, this will then be 50% of last credit card cleared, I can do this if we live off DH wage and pay a chunk of mine straight off the card weekly, it is manageable as we are well stocked up at home on most things.

3. State your intentions. Tell us what your aim is. Why are you seeking this path and what doors do you hope to unlock along the way? My aim is to stop my stomach churning picking up the post after work or dreading DH opening letters of bad news due to my crazy depression fuelled spending of the last part of 2015.

4. Check in every day. The reason we do this is to keep ourselves accountable. If you've set your intentions in a group of like minded people you are less likely to stray from the path. This is def doable I read this challenge even if not posting its a huge boost.

5. You will donate £5 to a good cause of your choice.I will donate for sure.

6. Plan your diary. It's good to be sociable but nights out are costly and a walk with a friend is free. Don't worry about offending people by suggesting an alternative social occasion. Report in at how many events you have to attend in Jan and other people can suggest ways to minimise costs. I don't have a lot planned for January DH birthday is the 15th but his present was bought in the sales, we are owed a meal out as we have hardly seen each other over the Christmas period due to me working a massive amount of overtime due to covering for sickness and bereavement, but we won't go the expensive route.

7. Plan your grocery spends carefully. After the excesses of Christmas you will probably have spent more than usual on food. Can you use this as an opportunity to save on groceries in January? Think carefully about what you do need.Have you got loyalty points for shops that can be cashed in to save on food? This will work well for us this month as we have a £100 Sainsbugs voucher from swapping to Bt broadband to use up, and we are really well stocked at the moment.

8. Get something for free! - they say the best things in life are free, I challenge you to find as many free things as you can in January and report back. For example can you get a free haircut by going to a student training evening? Can you go shopping at 9pm and get food for nothing? Can you set up a clothes swap with friends and all get a new item of clothing for nothing? Hmm DH gets lots free from work grocery wise, other than that I am trying desperately hard to de-clutter at home so will have to think about it, although DH just brought down two bowling balls from the attic I had forgotten was up there whilst he put the tree away, we knew there was a bowling bag there, which was what was needed there as DS had a new bowling ball for Xmas so that is def a freebie and also saved us £25 buying a bag.

9. Earn extra - find a way of making something on the side. I like the term 'side hustles' mine are ebay, spending apps, cashback sites, reward credit card, wombling store points, anything you can do to bring additional income into your house do it! Sadly/Luckily this one is quite easy at the moment although I am shattered the larger weekly pay packets are helping massively and enabled us to clear two CC this morning. So on I go grabbing shifts where possible I guess.

10. Check your credit report- if you have a bad credit report it can ruin your chances of getting a mortgage, 0% credit deals, renting a property. For between £0 & £3 you can obtain a copy of yours and check that there is nothing unexpected on it. - I have a monthly noddle report.

Time for bed for me sadly, loved reading the thread to catch up before posting everyone is gunning for the challenge this month.

I have found Homeland on Netflix I am loving it !! How we have never watched it before I will never know but is keeping us out of bother and stops me browsing hotukdeals lol I spent a good hour in work un-subscribing from emails, 60 sites trying to get my money in the sales :eek:

Night all x