NST: February: Back to Basics.

apple_muncher

Well, I feel rather a fraud, asking those questions and not giving my own answers. (ButI have loved reading all the turtles' replies - thank you!) The simple answer is that I cannot answer them! I really have no idea how money matters will go this year and having had to realise that we won't be paying off the mortgage within 3 years, I've not yet properly got to grips with the pennies.

So I guess we are already on the backup plan here in appleworld...

Outside of financial gubbins, there are plenty of housey jobs we must do. #1 is tomend the leaking roof and then deal with the issues that throws up as cheaply as possible.

And I could do with losing about 30lb by next feb...


Anyhoo, tomorrow is a fresh start. I do not have to sort out dd in the morning, nor rush home at the end of the day for her. No excuse not to finish my marking now...


Today I am grateful for the rugby, for dd having fun with friends, for the containers that are faithfully catching the drips, for my knitting, for good coffee.

mothernerd

Painting done but no inclination whatsoever to go up the steps to screw the uprights in place (I did get out all the tools, garden stuff and painting stuff and the shelves they were on, out from under the stairs whilst waiting). I have brought one unit upstairs - hoping I can use 2 in the bathroom for now and then the thin black shelves in there can be used to make plinths in the kitchen. Also brought up the four pieces of wood that will make the door frame for one of my doors - not confident about this as one side will have to be 'spliced' using two of the pieces but sure my attempt will be better than Mr Builders.

Re-using these uprights has saved me about £50 (cost of buying equivalent new less cost of hammerite paint)

Brought out two boxes which I thought held material - all the material I expected was in the first box, the other was DS3's 'bottom drawer' - set of towels, some tools, kitchen tools, cheese board (heart shape) and mugs. He has other things, these were bought 2 or 3 Christmases ago and I was beginning to think they had been charity shopped.

I have taken out a bag of frozen fruit to be used in jellies and have poured water onto one of the coir blocks so I can set some seeds off.

Had a phone call from mum - she is in despair over the lack of organisation at the bungalow. Apparently when they went out for a meal and pantomime yesterday, comments were made about her partner's trousers. When she got home she found out he had taken a pair of her trousers out of the wardrobe. I did allow myself a gentle comment that if I had been asked all the confusion would have been avoided - move would have proceeded in an orderly fashion with each box labelled with contents and pre-sorted before being taken there. Chaos is a result of her partner's childrens' insistence on moving them asap, shoving stuff in boxes and 'dumping' it at the bungalow. Sorry for the whinge but I am fed up of decisions being taken and me being kept out of the loop.

Planned to go there tomorrow anyway (buying an any bus ticket and making an early morning trip to the hovel and another couple of trips in the evening to remove more items she has agreed to let me take to the charity shop) but sorting clothes and bedding is top of the agenda (so diy bits still on the list for later). His children want his house on the market by the end of the month so must be clear by then.

Today I am grateful for getting some things done at home (for me ), for hot baths (not got all the paint off but will keep rubbing cream into my hands rather than scrubbing) and an entertaining film (gm sheep, daft enough not to be too scary).

WelshKitty85

Hi everyone!

SFD 5 today. Made a feast of homemade pizza, dough balls, wedges and cheesey nachos for lunch while we watched the rugby. Extremely cheap to make but I must say it was as good as a take away.

Just about to prep packed lunches then head up for another early night.

Good night all!

Eager_Elephant

Declaring a NSD for today.


Have been busy on the field and allotment for half of today and the rest was spent on visiting relative and doing housework including cooking tea.


Tomorrow may be a spend day as I need to pay the deposit for the works Xmas party.

dizzyblnd

Monday to Friday were nsd but today, yesterday n tomorrow will not b. I need a day really to catch up on my finances n check everything out. I can't even remember if I signed up this month- I think I did. U can tell it's nearly the end of term ��

misstara

Works Xmas party?!? Eager

Right have thought about the questions

apple_muncher wrote: »

Where do you want to be this time next year?
I will be debt free by the end of this year and hopefully have some savings towards a deposit on a place of our own.

How much do you want to have paid off your debt or your mortgage? Or how much do you want to have saved? I have £2980.52 left to pay off to become debt free so current plan is to pay it off by the end of the year while saving money to then put into a help to buy isa.

Do you have plans and schemes to keep yourself on track? And a back-up plan for when life gets in the way? Continue joining in with the turtle challenges and posting on my diary and the MMM thread. All of these keep me in check

What do you also want to have achieved/completed/done by the time we are in February 2017? I would like to achieve more of a work/life balance as at the moment I feel like all I really do is work. Also I hope by the time we get to February 2017 OH will be better both physically and mentally.

Today has been a spend day as I went to the supermarket after work to get the supplies for the week. Tomorrow will also be a spend day as I'm meeting some friends for tea, really looking forward to it but then hopefully will have a few NSDs during the week.

Fmess

Morning all,

Didn't post last night as was knackered after a busy day. Clung onto a SFD after managing to eat out, go shopping and park the car all for free

Final week at work before half term and I'm knackered already. Can't wait for the week off and a chance to go do some temping! So much less stress!

GSRcat

Sorry I've been quite busy the last few days and haven't had the chance to post only briefly browse. ( thanks to constant demands from the kids for my iPad!)

Where do you want to be this time next year? I want to be working more hours, either in my current job or another that fits in with the children. I want to have a little more disposable income so we can do things As a family.

How much do you want to have paid off your debt or your mortgage? I hope to have all the cards paid off (which I'm on track to do by at least April) I'm hoping that we can start making over payments on the mortgage by at least October (if I have more hours)

Or how much do you want to have saved?
I also plan to put all my overtime wages in a savings account for our holiday in October.

Do you have plans and schemes to keep yourself on track? And a back-up plan for when life gets in the way? Watching the savings grow but if need be using them if life throws a curve ball. We had a pretty awful year last year so I am hoping that this year will be a bit quieter!

What do you also want to have achieved/completed/done by the time we are in February 2017?
I'm hoping to be doing my forest school course which I am also saving up for as I have to self fund.

Calling14

It's Monday start of a new week my spending ways will change.

Apologies didn't check in yesterday was naughty so I kept quiet.

Confession time - spent on a dress 29.00 it did have 25% off but still feel bad about spending. Then bought coffees and cake out 8.00, daughter bought lunch and ice creams later. Popped into Lidl and somehow spent 14 pounds on food, got lots of nice things for pancake day.

I will not be spending now until next weekend. Will have to pay for new window as ordered and budgeted for so hope to gain 4 SFD.

Paid 15 pounds off my debt today, only another 30 pounds to go and I am down to 2 cc.

Have a lovely Monday folks. :wave:

The_Only_Girl

Hi all, I'm home sick with the flu . My first day off sick in my new job - not happy about it but it's better to stay at home than to infect everyone else.

Managed to earned NSD number 4 yesterday. Did our weekly food shop on Saturday instead of the usual Sunday rush and spent a whopping £70 for the weekly food budget. I don't think we need to do anymore shopping but there's still £30 in the kitty in case. I am hoping not to have to spend that so I can divert that to the EF. While shopping last Saturday, the teller overheard me say to my hubby that we were on budget and she couldn't help but say that is well below what she spends on food shopping - she spends £250 a week for a family of 6, a whopping £1000 a month! Wow! I nearly fell off the proverbial chair. And then she hastily added that half of that amount probably consists of junk food like crisps, biscuits, chocolates, juices, soft drinks and water! I didn't want to say, there's your answer then, if you reduce all the junks you could reduce your food shopping bill. Oh well.

DS1 made his first ever sale on ibay last night. He was so delighted that his shirt, which he bought for £1, worn a few times has sold for £2. He can't wait to make further listings. I think I need to take that hint and make my own ibay sales as well. I've been planning that for a few months and haven't done it yet. Aargh the mañana habit needs to be kicked in the butt.

I attended a birthday party/cookware demo last night. The dealer made a good job of pitching the sales, using health as the main factor. Healthy or not, I wouldn't pay over £3000 for a set of pots and pans (that's the basic package; it could go up to £8000!) That's much more expensive than my car! And my dilapidated, falling-apart kitchen is need of replacing not a £3000 basic set of pots! And I thought my stone ware pots were expensive at £200! I had to respectfully say I couldn't afford to buy such an item in this stage of our family life. She said I could put it on credit card or put it on financing! Hahaha! I just got myself and my family out of debt and there's no way I am going back there. Thanks but no thanks. Unfortunately my friend who is drowning in debt got a set on finance. This is my friend who asked me to tell her more about snowballing and said she would start snowballing. I didn't realise she was snowballing the debt not the debt repayment! Ah the Joneses, eh? At the end of the day, it's their own choice. Some people asks for advice about finances but still do what they want to do, some times they just want to validate what they really really want and when they don't hear what they want to hear in the first place, they still do what they want. Did that make sense? The flu has made my brain go mush.

I am banking on NSD number 5 today, one of the perks of being shut in!

Have a good Monday everyone!