NST - January. Bobs post bauble debt busting challenge

stewby

Hello hello.

So today should be spend-free day number 3 for January.
:j

Yesterday was a spendy day. Was a wee bit naughty but hoping you will forgive me.
Just before Xmas, our fairy lights broke. It was sad seeing our tree all unlit and green looking (our lights were bright blue and really brightened up the tree) but we resisted our old ways and didn't go out to buy new lights... until yesterday.
I went to the local garden centre and bought two boxes of lights (100 in each box). One box will be plenty for our wee tree and it means we can put lights up in another part of the house too!!


The lights were half price (all xmassy stuff was) so we got both boxes for £10.
We then went to tescimos (morries was closed by the time I finished work) and bought our weeks shopping.
To be honest, I expected it to be cheaper as we hadn't bought any meat (other than a packet of sausages). We are using up the stores in the freezer for January as we have a lot of meat in there. I think we have a yellow label addiction.


Oh... I did do one good thing yesterday!! We were quite badly short staffed at work (one of my colleagues is trying to salvage what is left of her elderly relatives' property following the floods) so I went in from 15:00 - 19:30.
Also have a training course tomorrow for an hour... will get paid for that too. Not a massive amount of pennies from either of these but it's a start.
Only problem is that I won't get paid those bits until February so not sure if it counts.


Hope everyone is keeping safe and warm in this horrible weather.
Hugs.

GSRcat

Hi all,
I'm not sure if I am joined up for this month, I have some personal things to work through this month so I don't want to overload myself. However this month needs to be frugal as I paid a huge amount off my credit card and then I had a few things I needed to pay out so it will be tight but I will make the best of it.
The other day I discovered the joy of tescimo vouchers when exchanged my measly £7 for £28 of restaurant vouchers, I never knew this before! Knew buying all the kids clothes from there would pay off.
I'm on NSD 3 today, more cos I've just not wanted to go out more than anything. Kids are back at school tomorrow so I've got all their stuff ready. Looking forward to getting back into a routine.

chocolatelover93

Hello everyone

Themarsbargirl/Welshkitty - thank you for the advice re. the lunch the Thermos sounds good for the summer and think I will get one of the cool bags and some ice blocks

TOG - hope the new job went well for you today

Dolly - thank you for the packed lunch advice, I like the sound of the rice will give that a go.

Feeling better today, got another nights sleep last night I think the whole coming off the internet earlier and reading before going to bed is helping. Still taking me a while to drift off but not as long as before which is good Made a docs appointment today but it is not until next Tuesday. Was a little bit annoyed at the receptionist (think something had wound her up) she asked what it was about and I said I didn't want to say so she said "Well I'll have to put down you don't want to talk about it then!" Surely they should respect people's privacy I know it might sound a bit silly and when they normally ask they ask a bit nicer and are fine when I said I don't want to tell them. Anyway enough rabbiting on!!

I am aiming for mu 1st NSD today I am working today but doing the evening shift so had my lunch at home. I have water with me to drink at work and bought some biscuits with me (I know it's not very healthy) to nibble on in my break.

Not got anything out for dinner but I have some bits in the freezer that I will use for tea. Need to do a proper meal plan at some point. I have some plumbs that aren't nice but could be used in cooking any idea? And I have lots of parsnips and celery that I am not sure what to do with, anyone got any ideas?

Had a water meter fitted today so that should save us money too

Was sorting some washing out earlier on my bed when a massive spider come running out of it!! So scared now and left the stuff there I hate spiders.

Tall_order

To keep up with point 4 (which I haven't up to now, my apologies) I will do a progress report

1) 21 NSDs or conversly, 10 Spend Days. Currently spent something every day this month (although I am not sure whether to count yesterday or not) and hubby has just said that he is going to get his hair cut today so that's yet another spend day! Why he couldn't have done this yesterday I don't know...

2) Pay Debt as soon as priority spends are complete Priority spends are spread throughout the month, so I have transferred £200 into a separate account ready to cover the minimum credit card payment (not a priority as interest free for another year and a bit) but the rest will go onto paying off the Very account.

3) State Your Intentions My Intentions are to clear the 'bad' debts. The Very account will need to be used again (fridge and tumble drier are on their way out, and both are over 9 years old so they owe us nothing!) and keep them to the minimum rather than spending because I can. I also want Christmas paid for in advance, so am putting money away each month (via the £1 a day challenge) and also aiming to try to win some competitions and do a tonne of surveys to build up gift cards and paypal as well .

4) Post everyday See beginning of this post!

5) Donate to charity. Every month we donate (by direct debit) to the Dogs Trust £8 odd and also £15 a month to Plan UK as we sponsor a little girl in Nepal.

6) Plan your diary I am going to the stables on Saturday. Haven't been in a long time. Can't wait

7) Plan Grocery Spends I am on the Grocery Challenge with a monthly budget, to include fuel, of £400. Spent just under £48 so far, but didn't meal plan so that will be done for next week!

8) Get something for free. Working on this. It would be cheating to include the gift cards we got for returning unwanted christmas presents :rotfl: I've also started comping so fingers crossed.

9) Earn Extra I am doing every survey I can and we're selling anything we can as we start packing but other than that I'm quite limited

10) Check credit report I know it's pretty good as we have a fair amount of credit which is always paid on time if not early. Never been declined for anything. Other than that each credit report will mean different things so I'm not worried about checking it to be honest

Phew, that was long, I'm sorry!

stewby

chocolate lover... have you ever tried the allrecipes website. They have a search function for ingredients.

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipes/tag-3145/parsnip-recipes.aspx?o_is=DH_5

This is the link to the parsnip section. They have 78 parsnip recipes. Hopefully one includes celery too.


Just finished making the sausage curry. OH has tasted it (still needs at least 30 minutes for the flavours to develop) and he likes it already.

chocolatelover93

stewby wrote: »

chocolate lover... have you ever tried the allrecipes website. They have a search function for ingredients.

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipes/tag-3145/parsnip-recipes.aspx?o_is=DH_5

This is the link to the parsnip section. They have 78 parsnip recipes. Hopefully one includes celery too.

Thank you I will have a look through them

FunBrum

My sister gave me Hessian shopping bag a few weeks ago and I decided to use it today. I found a penny inside, so that's another penny in the pot. At this rate....this time next year, we'll be millionaires!:D

As my DD come out of my bank throughout the month. I'm going to wait until the end of the month to pay down my debt with whatever I have left and make. It makes things easy for me as I'm not the brightest spark!:rotfl:

I've taken photo's of a sofa and matching pouffee, plus a metal and glass shelved unit to put on Gumtree. Part of my minimising regime, but also for a bit of cash towards my debt.

Food today is storecupboard/freezer again. It will be interesting later in the month when I start to run out, exactly what meal concoctions I will come up with.:eek:

Fmess

Here's this week's fly lady thread


https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5386927

lindor

Hi,

Can I rejoin please? Got lost some time last year. Trying to get sorted again,

X

short_bird

Well, there's the answer. I used the basic monthly budget spreadsheet from Windows 10; I'm spending at least 200% of my income. I knew it was going to be dire.
:eek::eek::eek:

Today is going to be an SFD (first this month as out of town till last night) as I have budgeted for my bus fares and brought my lunch to work.

Anybody wants me tonight, I'll be hunting yellow sticker food on the way back home and doing an inventory of the fridge, freezer and cupboards. Onwards and upwards