NST June Challenge

Calling14

Welcome Florence j to the turtle gang

Fmess

EE what type of dog is your new one?

I went to a dog charity event today and saw so many cute dogs, but I was good and came home with only dog treats and toys, and no extra dogs!

I'm also eating for England and now have only 4 weeks until I'm a bridesmaid. Eekkkk!

New being good plan starts tomorrow!

SpekySquarehead

Morning one and all,

Unfortunately I spent on Saturday and Sunday, and now that I've forgotten my lunch for today it'll probably be a spend day today too!! Damn.

thriftylass

Good morning,

sorry so far only managed to skim read the weekends events.

However, heads up turtles. Only 4 days to go and we will make it to the end. No one leaves. Don't beat yourself up about not having achieved 20 SFD, it was a very tough target and I didn't get it either. Focus on the positive, on the 5, 8, or 12 SFDs you managed. That is 5, 8, or 12 days you didn't spend money.

Also don't fret about perceived failings, let downs, set backs etc etc. Just accept it happened, learn from it and move on positively. That's what this is a learning process. We are not robots that can switch over to the super duper frugal stingy programme. Live gets in the way, personal things happen.

Focus on your achievements, on the things decluttered, sold, recycled, tidied, painted. On the hundreds of exams you managed to mark over the last few weeks, extra monies earned, money paid off no matter how little, time in the garden etc etc.

Onwards and upwards!!

thriftylass

Apple muncher no objection here for the suggested host list. BTW I also would like to see a bunny too, please.

Another 2 SFD over the weekend (Fri/Sat) taking me to 13, might make 17. Did a LIDLl shop yesterday.

Not much else to report. The rain watered my garden nicely, got the first three strawberries of the bush for the kids. My autumn/winter seeds came so will make a plan what to seed soon. Need to give DH a kick in the bottom to get the hedge cutter person organised and a trailer/van to take the cuttings away.

Day 11 of no smoking, although I had half a glass of red wine with FIL on Sat. Now properly onto healthy eating etc too and proper training. The triathlon is in 6 weeks and I am slightly bricking it. Should we have a wee mini week challenge for those who said they need to get back on track with the healthy eating, getting fir, loosing weight etc? My target today is not to smoke again and not to sneak into the sweetie/crisp cupboard after work. I had muesli for breakfast, fruit, nuts and carrots for snacks with me and a salad with kidney beans for protein for lunch. Dinner will be fajitas. I HAVE to stay away from the kabanossis in the fridge (little polish mini salamis)!

We also decided on a front door, so that is put in motion, just need to choose the handles etc.

Tonight will be the last dry night for a week , so will drag the children in the garden and do sth productive like some more painting or cutting the hedge.

Bye for now

P.S. welcome Florence J

WelshKitty85

Hi everyone!

I feel like a broken record repeating myself but once again I'm sorry for not posting for a while. Life has been busy, which has meant I haven't completely kept on top of finances, but things aren't looking too bad.

To start, our old tenant left. There was a lot of minor damage to the house but I managed to claim back unpaid rent and £60 to cover repairs from the deposit scheme. New tenant has moved in. They have paid a portion of the rent due upfront and we are waiting for housing benefit to complete for the rest, but at least we know it's coming.

Have finally had confirmation that the money I am owed from the election work I did a few months back will be paid tomorrow. I also worked on the referendum (until 3.30am - why do I do it to myself??) so I should get an extra £100 for that next month.

Unfortunately, payments to clear the cc have slowed down and it doesn't look like I can clear it as soon as I hoped. I was hoping to be able to pay it in full by the end of July, but that doesn't look possible now. I'm still throwing as much as I can afford at it though and it will definitely be cleared before Christmas. I have items listed for sale and am working on meal plans and budgets as we speak.

apple_muncher

Thank you for the compliments about my bunnies . I would willingly post photos, but do not know how to do it ! So, if bob or CCL know how, and are willing, could they post a picture?

Bobarella

I think you have to upload to another site such as flickr for example then you can link to it from there.

Bobarella

New threads up yo...

mothernerd

Come on turtles, what can we do in the last few days of this challenge? Any little thing, no matter how small, it all helps. On another thread (may have said it on here as well - dotty old lady repeating herself) I quoted another poster's saying (originally her father's) 'just because you can't do it all, doesn't mean you can't do some of it'. It is what got me motivated to start on the painting (actually the pre-painting clean up - 3 hours of de-grotting the mould from DS3's window chimney).

Even if you can only manage 16 minutes on the housework, 5 minutes for a 'must do' phone call or thinking of how to do without an ingredient you don't have in Get It Done.

I have done some painting today. Finished off the long stairs wall, attempted the second stairs wall (wasn't sure if there was enough paint, there wasn't - will have to re-do or see if I can paint the last bit a different off white without it looking weird, I did get to the bottom of the stairs but the bit above the door to the front room was too much).

Then started on the front room. I had moved various things into the kitchen, the remaining laminate flooring (2 and a bit packs) I pushed up to the window wall and covered as much as possible. I had also spent some time cleaning and drying trays/ rollers/ brushes most of which have been left soaking outside.

Did two scoops (approx 1 litre scoop) from the big tub into the tray. Started with the ceiling on the window side and part way down the walls - leaving the new plaster and not quite dried out bits. Did another two scoops, chimney breast completed and ceiling out to half way as far as floor cover went.

Put another two scoops in the tray and left some in the scoop with a brush. Went to eat (lovely veg curry) but when I stood up again my ankles were aching. Settled for using the brush to fill in all the corner joints and covered the paint up. Shouted to DS3 to start running my bath.

Was slightly worried as the paint looked a bit streaky and I remembered it as being easy to use. Thankfully it has all dried uniformly - think it goes on very dark (nearly brown) and dries quickly so you start thinking the pale bits have been missed (they are dry).

Resting now and going to try for an early start and do all the bits I can get to before I have to ask DS3 to help move the furniture. I have taken some more money from the bank (need to get on with changing again, no interest atm) and I am planning on buying some 'dry goods' - feel better when I have a little stock-pile (I would use a variation on the 'second purse' scheme and buy from myself for things I used in the month). It will be a useful way of trying out the shopping trolley I acquired.

Today I am grateful for veg curry (lots of liquid left, may add more veg and cooked meat tomorrow), for a lovely sunny day which dried all my washing and made outside jobs much simpler and for hot baths (I asked DS3 to please make it a little hotter than yesterday's [lukewarm], he forgot he was in charge and it was so hot I had to wait for nearly an hour to get in it.