NST: May the NST force be with you

The_Only_Girl

Hello and good morning turtles! Thanks ccl for this fab challenge.

I hope you are all enjoying your bank holiday lie in! I am stil in bed enjoying mine, partly expecting a breakfast in bed, but just realised hubby is at work doing overtime (yay to the extra income but boo to the fact he's not here to enjoy the bank holiday with me and the kiddos). Sorry forgot to post yesterday! Had our first event - an meet up and lunch with fellow money savers (I'll explain later). The meet up took longer than expected that by the time we got back, it was time to cook dinner again. After dinner, I decided to have a date with my Brother (sewing machine) for a bit of crafting/sewing fix until the wee hours of the morning.

So here's my plan for May!

1. You will aim for 16 NSDs - Will need to be more focused to achieve this. I think it's doable.
2. Budget the month ahead and pay your debts off at the beginning of the month. Live off what is left. May budget already drawn up and funds allocated. Happy to be able to put a big chunk away for various savings pots including the emergency fund. Will try to throw more into them using every pennies saved/earned along the way.
3. Plan your social activities. As there are two bank holidays this month I suggest a maximum of 3 activities. Try not to be impulsive.
May is my birthday month as well as a few of my friends but will try to be more sensible and limit to 3. Tricky but may be achievable. As previously mentioned we've already had our first event yesterday - a meeting with fellow money savers. We are invited to do a Personal Finance presentation in Leeds on my birthday (two in one, yay!) The second outing is on Sunday, another invite to do a workshop in Budgeting and getting out of debt (in Derby) but fortunately (I hope) that will be all paid for by the lady who invited me (at short notice - she only told me about it last week and I'm a mug so I said yes.). The third one is a baby shower for a friend and fellow church member on the15th of May. Will tell you more details about it on the day. Oh no I've just realised its actually 4 outings! Hmmm. Maybe I won't include the Derby one because I'm not spending anything anyway. What do you think?
4. Take your lunch to work every single day. We are doing this already. This has been one of the biggest lifestyle change my family and I have made since being on MSE and has saved us LOTS of money.
5. Donate time or money to the charity of your choice. Done. I make regular donations (£80) to our church (also a registered charity.)
6. Try and make an extra £50 over the month, either by decluttering and selling, crafting or wombling. I am an avid wombler though I am not very good at posting it on the wombling thread (sorry Bob.. Also haven't done any selling yet, which I am intending to do SOON!

Post one kind thing that you have done for someone else.
During our meeting yesterday my friends' 4 kids were bored to death and had a hard time sharing one iPad between them. They are good, well disciplined kids so I let them use my iPad and I downloaded one game of their choice. They proved to be worthy of my trust and was happy to be of help to them.
Post one frugal/moneysaving tip; budget recipe or bargain to share with the other turtle.
Before we went on our holiday last month, I chopped some of the vegetables in the fridge and put them in the freezer. Examples are leeks and onions. I chopped them up really finely and divided them into half a cup portions and stored in the freezer. Now that we're back from our holidays everytime I saute anything, I just chuck them both in the pans with very little oil and the ice crystals provide enough moisture for the sauteing process. Saved me not only money but time too.

Fmess

tog I'm in Derby! Where's your event?

clippy_girl

Morning, loving the tips

Sfd yesterday

Thing that made me happy was going to friends bbq and catching up with everyone since my holiday

Good deed was I took a guest who had stayed with me before I went on holiday to the BBQ as she has moved here permanently and is looking to make friends. Trying to persuade her to join the social group where I met my friends as well!

Money saving tip for yesterday was invest in a backpack! I walked 30 mins to my friends and I had a load of stuff to take (g&t) and crisps plus a bottle of rum for a thank you gift, chocolates and a bottle of gin for friends bday. Rather than drive round I loaded it all up in the backpack so I could carry it all. Sorry that's a bit lame but didn't do much yesterday am considering getting a granny trolley to walk to aldi with along the same idea!

Very good news is my tummy is finally starting to scab so hopefully it is on the mend :j

Today I am going to spend the day batch cooking. Was lazy on Friday so I now need to make L&P soup, veg and chicken soup, yellow curry and also a Moroccan beef thing.

Also need to continue the mountain of Airbnb washing. Still not reached the bottom of the bag and added to it today as had a check out. My little washer/dryer has been on pretty much constantly since I got back from holiday. Not had much luck with the weather for line drying

The_Only_Girl

Fmess wrote: »

tog I'm in Derby! Where's your event?

I think it's in Derby conference centre. I'm still waiting for details from the event coordinator.

-Selene

Yesterday I typed up a reply, pressed backspace and lost the post so here I am, slightly late


•You will aim for 16 NSDs
Yesterday had to do a top up shop at the corner shop, today another top up shop was needed. Must plan better for the rest of the month if I'm to get 16 NSDs!
•Budget the month ahead and pay your debts off at the beginning of the month. Live off what is left. I get paid Thursday so will do this then.
•Plan your social activities. As there are two bank holidays this month I suggest a maximum of 3 activities. No social life here either :rotfl: I'm another May baby (when is yours, TOG?) so any activities this month will be free or low spend
•Donate time or money to the charity of your choice I've been meaning to set up a charity SO/DD but keep forgetting, will make more of an effort this month.
•Try and make an extra £50 over the month, either by decluttering and selling, crafting or wombling Advertised things for sale and someone is coming later so fingers crossed

•Every day post one thing that has made you happy today.
Yesterday: finding £3.52 while decluttering :j
Today: that ibuprofen exists

•Post one kind thing that you have done for someone else.
Made bacon sandwiches and a latte for my mum.

•Post one frugal/moneysaving tip; budget recipe or bargain to share with the other turtles
Upcycle old furniture with paint and/or fablon. Much cheaper than replacing.

crazy_cat_lady

Morning all :hello:
Happy Bank Holiday – I hope you’re all enjoying a nice relaxing day. It’s chucking it down here but I’m happy enough indoors with my laptop and crochet.
Thanks Speky, Calling and Bob – no extra challenges required. We are all in this together and we have plenty to keep us occupied for the month.
Mothernerd – you amaze me. You are always so busy and doing so much, I’m in awe of how you keep it all together.
32b3 – I am most jealous of the banana and chocolate cake. Banana cake is one of my favourite foods ever.
greent – I love your compost tip. I wish I could enjoy gardening more than I do
Eager – I hope that your relative is on the mend really soon…
apple muncher – it’s my aim to do more exercise this month. I’m using you as my inspiration. I’ve been for a hard training session already this morning so I can tick that off for the day.
FMess – I love your knickers tip. :rotfl: I think I’ll put sorting through my underwear drawers onto my annoying list.
Misstara – I definitely think that spending time with people counts as kindness. As you say, sometimes you’re the only people they see.
Speky – Good news that steps have been made with GF and her dad
TOG – if you need to make it 4 outings this month then that’s absolutely fine. As long as it’s planned for.
Clippy – I think the backpack idea is brilliant. And an additional way of getting some exercise in as well.

Aren’t we a kind and helpful bunch? I’m loving reading all of these good things on the challenge already. I had a funny kind of day yesterday – I woke up with this really weird feeling of complete acceptance with myself. I’m happy(ish) with who I am, how I am and my life. Other people’s stuff isn’t my fault so I can just get on with enjoying my life. I’ve had 2 days of complete relaxation and it’s been brilliant. I need more of that in my life. Not much planned for today – the boys are at a football tournament, but I will be back to check in later on with my daily goals…

thriftylass

Paid £500 off the CC today and signed up for their online service. Till now they only had a mobile thingy that never really worked. Decided to focus on the CC (last official debt, i.e. from external source that might charge interest some day, other debt is immediate family) and try to pay that off by October. £1800 to go. As when I can and from November I'll focus on the remaining £1677. I also now shoogled my numbers so that I can save enough for a front door and do the garden etc. I will try and do as many surveys as possible and use these Amaz@on vouchers for presents esp for christmas. Although got some HM ideas for friends already (HM German Eierlikoer-egg nog for instance). Might also leave OH alone about it for a while as he has to pay for new tyres etc this month unless he can't and asks me for money. Any money I can make goes onto the CC although I doubt it'll be much. DH is away for a night next week and then on a stag do at the end of the month. Hopefully I should be able to have a good rake through stuff and list things on ebay that are worth the hassle and fees. Or gumtree.

apple_muncher

I have my first outing of the month today - dd and I are going to see Annie at a local theatre. She is super excited! It'll be an exceptionally late night for her - she even suggested she should wear her jamas under her clothes! I said just to wear leggings and a tee shirt so she could just go to bed if necessary without changing. We have just looked at parking at the theatre - would cost £7 :eek:, so we shall pay to park on the road and walk the last 5-10 mins instead.

Am happy today to have spent time with dd and dh all companionably sitting in a coffee shop with out £1 filter coffees. Not dd, may I add!

Frugal tip? We'll be taking our own drinks and snacks along tonight, and the parking research has proven to be worthwhile.

CCL - so pleased yo have had such a lovely couple of days. Long may it last!

Dizzy_Imp

What a great feeling to have CCL - hope there are more days like that to follow!

We have had a great Bank Holiday Monday so far. Turned down the offer of an outing as we just wanted to be at home with the kids. DH is now chopping wood, which he loves and a lamb tagine is cooking slowly and smells divine, so all good in the Dizzy House.

My neighbour made me chuckle today when he came zooming out of his workshop on his (now grown-up) son's scooter to join in with my boys (aged 1 and 4) on theirs up and down the yard. He's so funny.

Before that I'd taken round a dozen eggs to his wife, so I'll claim that as my good deed. Came back out to find the husband up a ladder fixing a new flood light to our garage with my DH. Our neighbours are so lovely

I made some yummy crepe pancakes with my hens' eggs for brekkie today. No special receipe to quote, but our corn and grass fed free-range bokkins lay eggs with bright orange yolks, so they were a sunny start to the day. I haven't bought any eggs in eight months, which is great!

Bobarella

Hi Gang

Just wrote a long post and lost it. Boo hiss.

Anyway have been keeping the frugal faith.

Back later

Bob