NST - January. Bobs post bauble debt busting challenge

jeanangeo

I was wondering why people count designated shop days.....

I can understand it if you do impulse buy. However, it doesn't quite make sense (to me personally) if you stuck to your list. Counting all shop days would mean a person who prefers to shop weekly will lose more NSDs than someone who prefers to shop monthly...? Even if the person who shops weekly spent less than their designated budget every time but the person who shops monthly went way over...? Counting every spend day would also penalise people who buy their petrol on a different day to the day they shop even if they stuck to their budget both times...?

I've changed my schedule so I weekly shop on Fridays, batch cooking shop every second Saturday, fill up on Mondays, bulk shop on Sunday's. In my case, in a five week month where I also do a bulk shop, the maximum possible NSDs if I don't count planned shop days is 18...

Trying to bunch all shopping into a single day isn't going to help me achieve my financial goals and would also be very inconvenient.....

I'm probably just going to stick to my original way of doing it which is to count any day as long as I do not spend outside my budget...

Calling14

Hi folks had a sick day today Flu. Another Sfd.
I spent first half of the morning shaking sweating then got into cleaning mode and gave my kitchen once over. Felt awful after had a lye down and then went for a walk in sunshine, wobbly legs then came home. Thought fresh air would make me feel better. Useless at being ill so impatient.

Sorry ramblings of feverish turtle. Thanks for your well wishes folks.

Got a wedding invite so want to get outfit now whilst sales still on. The diet starts 1st Feb!

Had a massive cake given to me another day and I have ate it all. Feeding the fever?

Sorry off to collapse back into bed x

apple_muncher

Today I am grateful for the fact that although I did use up my allocated food budget, I am well pleased with all I got, for my waterproof that kept me dry, for crafting time with dd (although she still spends a huge amount of time on the space hopper and can do some amazing tricks!), for watching WALL-E, for the end of the day being warmer than the start.

themarsbargirl

jeanangeo wrote: »

I was wondering why people count designated shop days.....

I can understand it if you do impulse buy. However, it doesn't quite make sense (to me personally) if you stuck to your list. Counting all shop days would mean a person who prefers to shop weekly will lose more NSDs than someone who prefers to shop monthly...? Even if the person who shops weekly spent less than their designated budget every time but the person who shops monthly went way over...? Counting every spend day would also penalise people who buy their petrol on a different day to the day they shop even if they stuck to their budget both times...?

I've changed my schedule so I weekly shop on Fridays, batch cooking shop every second Saturday, fill up on Mondays, bulk shop on Sunday's. In my case, in a five week month where I also do a bulk shop, the maximum possible NSDs if I don't count planned shop days is 18...

Trying to bunch all shopping into a single day isn't going to help me achieve my financial goals and would also be very inconvenient.....

I'm probably just going to stick to my original way of doing it which is to count any day as long as I do not spend outside my budget...

I love you. It's all different horses for different courses. I think it was two years ago that I first did one of these challenges and I condensed everything onto one day, but that made sense at the time because I bought petrol at a supermarket and I lived so far out that it didn't make sense for me to shop on a separate day.
In some respects I feel the nsd/sfd element has become too competitive because everyone's routines are different and everyone counts different things as counting as a spend, on the other hand, it can encourage you to think of what you can do without. I remember two years ago being desperate for some cake but not having any butter and looking up recipes using oil instead of butter just so I wouldn't lose a nsd. These days, as I don't have a shopping routine revolving around commuting to work, I would go out and buy the butter but also get things I need to eat for the next few days as well.

I think an interesting competition/aspect to the challenge would be a 'what percentage of your budget can you have left over at the end of the month' challenge (working on percentage because everybody has a different budget to work with and number of mouths to feed)...and finding out what creative ways people find to save money, be it learning to bake with the surplus of oil in the cupboard to save buying butter, adding in more vegetarian meals or whatever. Just to shake things up.

Anyway, back to topic, I did have a spend day today, but using the end of last week's budget rather than breaking into this week (my budget week runs Friday to Friday).
I submitted a conglomeration of words at uni (not entirely sure that they really formed an essay but hey ho).
Foodbank was ok today.
Tomorrow I'm going to rhs wisley with family, so it'll be lunch out and back to my brother's for dinner and seeing my baby nephew again. Likely to be a nsd for me as they never let me pay for anything (I'm kinda the poor relation in my family and my brothers never let me pay for anything when they take me out which is semi annoying but also gives me a taste of how the other half live)

XSpender

themarsbargirl wrote: »

I think an interesting competition/aspect to the challenge would be a 'what percentage of your budget can you have left over at the end of the month' challenge (working on percentage because everybody has a different budget to work with and number of mouths to feed)...and finding out what creative ways people find to save money, be it learning to bake with the surplus of oil in the cupboard to save buying butter, adding in more vegetarian meals or whatever. Just to shake things up.

/QUOTE]

I like that idea themarsbargirl. I'm another one who struggles to hit NSDs as my work pattern varies week to week and I need to make small purchases frequently as I can often be 100s of miles away fom home and it is not feasible to do all my purchases on the same day. Maybe turtles could choose NSDs or % of budget left over going forward. Both would require us to be mindful or our spending.

I am over my food budget quite a bit as I set a challenging target but the good news I have reduced what I spent in November and December (I didn't track it accurately earlier in the year until I rejoined the Grocery Challenge on the OS board.)

Although my budget pots get shifted about I haven't dipped into savings or used a CC this month except for house moving costs which are what the savings were saved for.

I have another couple of viewings booked but no offers or even any feedback as yet.

Planning an active but cheap weekend as DH is off this weekend. I may even run for the first time this year :eek: I need to as I have my first trail run ever in 3 weeks and it's steep and in the dark!:eek: I must be mad :rotfl:

Fmess

Evening all,

I like the competitive nature of the SFDs but it's more like a competition with myself to be clever with how and when I use my spend days. I also find group spends into one day often saves on petrol. Having said the above, I had my first impulsive spend day today and bought chips for lunch to go with my salad that I brought from home. They were lovely but now need to be clever as 9 days and can only spend on 3 of them and definitely have two spend days coming up.

Paid £50 extra over to the debt today as I realised it could be moved as payday is on Monday. Slightly annoyed that my tyres mean next month will only have a tiny overpayment to the debt and I'll be a long way off my stretch target, but at least the tyres are fully paid for.

Hope you feel better soon calling

Glad you're feeling better GSR

mothernerd

Rather frustrating and very tiring day (mother just NOT listening to me again).

I have ticked off a few chores and done a lot of clutter clearing (still not showing). Feeling a little better now I have eaten something warm. Spent money.

Interesting discussion on NSD/SFD. I wasn't expecting to meet the target this month as I had several things to do that would mean having to use the bus. Unless I am struggling to resist things I shouldn't be eating, I can usually meet the NSD target but there have been times when it just hasn't fit.

When I first joined these challenges it coincided with me starting to have real difficulty with walking - the second or third month the doctor ordered me to stay in bed, resting for 3 weeks. On days when I managed to walk into town but knew I would have to do the £1 bus hop back, it was sensible to fill my small rucksack and take food back with me as I only had to walk the couple of blocks from the stop where I got off.

However on months when I have been struggling with chocolate addiction, the NSD rule was a useful additional incentive. If I had made it through the day until late evening without chocolate the thought of having to come on here and confess to losing out just because of the craving for chocolate helped (not always). The challenge rules are tough. We don't always meet all the targets but trying can help us think up new ways of succeeding. For instance themarsbargirl's example of finding recipes using oil instead of butter. I can recall instances when people have tried baking their own bread for the first time.

We might not use these tactics all the time - I read a thread the other day where the poster was worried about 'failing' in her efforts to be old style and get the housework done, cook from scratch and spend extra time crafting (several crafts). The responses she got pointed out that as the poster was working an irregular shift pattern, had intermittent ad hoc visits from her partners children and was also studying she wasn't going to be able to add several more tasks and do everything to a perfect standard, something would have to go.

The respondees did give lots of helpful advice eg building up stocks of meal building basics (bulk cooking mince with varied flavours added), putting together a basic but flexible house cleaning routine and getting her partner and the children to do some of the work but also admitted to their own 'lapses' (from a purist OS viewpoint). One oldstyler had no problems using sauces in jars. She could make her own, costed at a saving of 10p a jar and probably a bit nicer but given the other things she could do with the time available, the jars were fine for her. Another poster had a similar philosophy to mine when the children were small - 'we are healthy, we all eat well and we have clean clothes, anything else that gets done is a bonus'.

So try to follow the rules, work out which suit you (and which aren't going to work given your circumstances) and try to think of creative solutions but don't beat yourself up or ever say (or think) you are failing. Followed consistently the rules will get us all out of debt, but sometimes life gets in the way. They are tools to be used not rods for our backs.

Today I am grateful for chocolate (didn't buy it, DS2 brought me a small box and two large bars for my birthday and so far the bars are intact - may try breaking them into small quantities and freezing them but I am not promising), leftovers (stupid dog stole half my sandwich at lunch) and my bed (I am trying to stay downstairs most of the time but it's easier to keep warm up here).

WelshKitty85

Hi everyone!

Hugs to anyone feeling ill or low x

NSD 12 for me today. Moved a little more to the savings account and it's still looking good to be able to pay off the cc in full next month. New job still going well and feeling hopeful that I will be kept on being my temp contract.

crazy_cat_lady

Hi everyone
Mothernerd - your advice is amazing. Thank you.
I've racked up nsd 17 today. I'm with the thinking that if I open my purse it's a spend day - or if I click to buy online. I don't count the everyday banking and PAD's etc. but do include food and petrol shopping.
Think I might have even profited longer term. I can claim mileage back at 45p a mile for a meeting I attended tonight and I got a free and very tasty hot buffet.
Payday is almost here - 7 days and counting.

jeanangeo

Hi all,

I really enjoy this thread. It's such a nice, friendly, supportive place to be. I'm to bed super late this eve and so have just quickly read the posts from since I was last here. I like the idea of tracking percentage budget (themarsbargirl). I was also thinking more about the point made that more shops means more chance to impulse buy (and more petrol). I was thinking that I may try and adjust my schedule again where convenient to reduce these risks. I do like the discussions on here because there is always plenty to take on board and learn.

@mothernerd: I too am a dedicated chocolate lover. I have forsaken all others. I love a few blocks melting in my mouth with a nice hot cup of tea. I have budgeted for this small luxury. It has a place of honour on my weekly shopping list. I started by dividing it up into foil wrapped portions (or I would eat the whole bar) but I've progressed a little bit in discipline over the last few weeks (no idea how). I like to let it melt slowly in my mouth, block by delicious block. That could be why a little seems to go a long way...? Before, I used to just scoff it down .

One other thing. I definitely think this thread helps solidify will power because a person doesn't want to report an impulse speed day too often. On the other hand, everyone is very nice and supportive when someone does.

Anyway, it was a full NSD for me today. Movie night with mum and friend. Watched the Aviator on Netflix and 5th Wave at cinema (with cin3w0rld card, zero spending on overly priced and rubbish junk food).

Have a good sleep turtles