NST: Sailing into September

swimminginaseaofdebt

Evening everyone :hello:

A wee update for today:

Spends – no NSD sadly, ended up being a bit of a spendy day in fact. Spent around £20 on presents for my nephew’s birthday in October and £10 in Pizza Hut. All budgeted for though so not unexpected.

Eating – had a meal at Pizza Hut. Thursdays I spend with my sister and niece and the norm is to have dinner out or a takeaway. Yes, I’m in debt but I’m also a single parent and I find getting out the house and having a treat like this is good for my sanity! Tomorrow, I plan to have cereal biscuits for breakfast, crackers for lunch and a baked potato with cheese for dinner.

Time – the little one slept well during the day so I managed to sneak in an hour and a halves reading time

Reading – I’m reading ‘the couple next door’ which I borrowed from the library and I got through a fair bit today.

thriftylass

Good evening.

Found last year's Christmas list on my computer and will work with that next week.

Did a food audit and listed my freezer contents after batch cooking some bolog/chilli base and a beef stew. Stuck the list on the inside of the tin cupboard door to tick off when stuff gets used. Also wrote an essentials only shopping list. All this should avoid the usual Friday SM overspend. Good start

Buffythedebtslayer

Frankly day one hasn't been great. A really good friend was told by her husband that he wanted a divorce and was leaving her. Soooo we went out for dinner. And tomorrow we are going on a pub crawl. Hopefully Sunday will be a no spend day...........

Lunch was provided by work today and tomorrow I am taking dinner from tonight as lunch.

XXX

FurryBeastOz

Didn't manage a true NSD today. Working near a large Aldi and not back there until next Wed. As I wanted some Aldi specials I popped in.

I'm more bothered about Non-grocery NSD's under my GC budget of £300. I prefer to buy salads and veg every couple of days rather than all for a week as our plans often change despite meal planning. (i.e DH shift 'finished' at 2130 yesterday, so I'd done him soup for dinner when he got home - he got in 0230 this morning and left for work at 0615.) So dinner last night was rescheduled for tonight - he's not home yet. As this happens regularly I'm not going to count planned veg top up grocery spends.

So NSD for me.

Also, made arrangements to meet two friends in the next week. One for coffee so will be a spend tomorrow. 1 for a run so it will be free:T and exercise :T

Florence_J

Hi everybody, the first day of September has been good to me. I decided to crack on with Christmas and after spotting all sorts of adorable things in HB that would be perfect for my nieces and nephews earlier last month I decided to buy up today. They (I have 2 Nieces, 2 Newphews) have a nice biggish bundle of goodies, with some really nice things and so far I have spent just under £5 on each of them, and they aren't lacking in gifts. With top up by another £1 or so as part of my nephews presents is a set of fabric permanent markers, so naturally I have to get a plain T Shirt for them.

Afterwards I ran into my friend and showed her what I bought and she said 'You're so organised, I haven't even thought of Christmas yet'

I also bought some food shopping, got £8 off my £13.50 spend as I was very creative with the vouchers I used, and have been out for a burger with my OH and his friend who is staying with us and after that we went to a free animation screening night, so all in all a good day.

A good day all in all.

greent

Today's update:

Spends: £11.34 on groceries + £1.40 on car parking in town. Had to go and collect DS1's VIth form suit - he is in school tomorrow. WHilst in town (with OH because I was feeling too woozy to drive) we collected 2 x o2 priority freebies from B00ts (Soap and Glory hand creams) and 2 x o2 freebies from B0dysh0p (2 x 5ml Himalayan mud masks) DD has the masks and the hand creams have gone into my under-bed stash towards little presents. (If not used at Xmas will donate to local families-in-crisis charity) Suit was already paid for

Eating - we don't menu plan. OH is very anti it - likes more freedom (Rolls eyes) - but I do try and plan that evening on a morning. Today's food included using leftover roast chicken and roast potatoes from Sunday for DD and pasta using up some frozen ood dbl cream and just about to go ood YS bacon for dinner for others. My lunch was a small portion of lo risotto with ys baked tomatoes. Freezer inventory done last week

Presents - will do when kids back at school.

Myself - was woozy for some of the day so just led on sofa once back from town for about an hour and people brought me cups of tea

Nothing else done on other challenges due mainly to wooziness and / or children around

Carrying on with 'stuff' from last month, DD has been having a good sort of things in her room ready for uni life - lots to bin and recycling or small good items to Op Xmas child or CS box. Some put to one side to price up for next NNS (in 6 weeks) and she will get the money. DS1 got rid of 3 tshirts (2 to textile recycling, 1 to NNS pile) and a hat (passed on to DS2) I took 2 bags of textiles into town and dropped them off at H&M and received 2 x £5 off vouchers in exchange. 2 gorgeous Whittard tea cups and saucers (not used in a least 8 years and we can't think when we would) wrapped and added to (now full) CS box ready to donate asap.

We didn't go out tonight (1st Thurs of the month a group of us go to pub) for various reasons so money saved there (approx. £15)

Bring on the rest of the month!
x

FurryBeastOz

I'm horrified. Just gone to enter my spend in my GC spreadsheet and realised that I had bought non-grocery items - definitely not a NSD. Tomorrow won't be either - main shop at Lidl. I don't need it tomorrow, but I will before Monday and I hate going at the weekend.

Oh well. Onwards and upwards.

mothernerd

SFD no 1 in the bag.

Eating - currently still eating party leftovers. My local history partner had requested leftovers last week so today I fed 3 of us (including lady who then reciprocated with Indian Head massage) on potato salad, tuna and beef cubes in bbq rub, carrot sticks and crisp. IHM lady had fruit so I had some grapes and strawberries (I don't buy them as I am only allowed a few) and we also had lemon cake.
Space for Christmas food has started - I originally planned on lamb kebabs for the party but didn't like the price. Found 2 tuna and 2 beef steaks when I was shuffling space so cooked those instead. May put a couple of party 'bits' (garlic mushrooms/ pigs in blankets) into the bottom drawer of the freezer - reserved for Christmas.

Presents - have a very short present list. need to buy mum some flowers later in the month/ possibly next. As part of her party I asked for only 'consumable' presents (she now has a bag full of her favourite toiletries, £50 in donations to her church, some chocs and other edibles). I have arranged that people who wanted to buy flowers will send them on specific dates so she will get flowers in 2, 4, 6 weeks etc. I have enough cards and wrap, will look out for cheap leg of lamb and think about alternative presents.

Now to Christmas should be good for improving business revnue so I also need to address that.

Time for myself - will do. Want to do more this month but keeping on an even keel and staying in my happy place is a priority.

Empty - decluttering is continuing. The skip was filled last week which means I can walk round my kitchen and I cleared the kitchen table before starting party food preparation. Kitchen is now clear enough to do a proper clean and I think I will look at the new shelves and re-hang things from the bars under the cupboards and shelves.

Meet a friend/family member. The party brought together mine and my mum's favourte cousins, others who couldn't come (health issues) phoned and made contact. If it's okay I will change this to cemetary/ crematorium visits. Not been for a while and mum can't visit as often as she used to.

Bed down - started the garden. It needed it as stuff I was gathering for the skip was preventing access. Green bin was collected this week so I made a start. Roofers are coming at end of month/ beginning of next so need to move things away from the house. Will look at bedroom as well (filing/ tidying interrupted last month although I did empty a sackful of paper).

Exercise will continue. Daily walking (hope to make it to the woods/ country park). General walking has increased, need more fun walks. Will be setting myself SMART goals in healthy eating, exercise and getting money properly under control.

Reading my constant companion. Had to raid DS3's shelves on Monday as I forgot the library would not be open. Re-read Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy and thinking this could be classic sci-fi month. Picked up a book purporting to be the novel on which the film Soylent Green was based. Think it was originally a short story (which I read in my 20s) and noticed another which I read at 15.

Budgets are set. Food is to decrease by £5 per month to get to my £50 per month target by December. Allowed £65 this month but £5 of that could be Christmas prep/ food bank. Travel allowance is increased because I am planning to have a one week bus ticket and do some of the museum/ gallery visits with maybe a longer trip by train one of the days. Have reduced extras budget to compensate for increase in travel.

Money is surprisingly where I want it to be. Roofer's estimate is for £450 so want to replace that by the end of the year.

I had opted out of the challenge this time last year. A house that had been up for sale for nearly a year, cost of running two houses and lack of income as I was still recovering from my total hip replacement forced me into tsking out a TPP (temporary Payment Plan).

However my occasional contributions reveal adventure such as cleaning by sitting in a chair in the kitchen and doing everything within arm's reach, preparing for a viewing at the'up for sale house' including dismantling the attic cupboard (doors went in the skip last week) and the possibility of DS3's gf and her chinchillas moving in with us.

Well plus ca change - only last week I was asked if the chinchillas can come if the gf moves in with us. Even though I am not satisfied with what I can do (and still have to rest after any serious exertation) my mobility, flexibility and stamina are all improved. The house sold in October although I didn't get the money until January but I am debt and mortgage free. The loss I made on the house sale was a blow but I do have a small amount of savings.

Today I am grateful for companionship, for Indian Head massage and for libraries (and authors with imagination).

evkizzy

Day 1. First Thursday of the month is always a spend day as I run a gift shop within a cafe. It's in the next town over so a friend drives and we split parking costs and spend 2 hours working so we always get a coffee and a cake.

Before I went for gift shop duty, I popped to see a friend for a cuppa and a catch up which felt great as it had been months despite not living that far away.

While I was in town I popped to my hairdresser to get my fringe trimmed (free) and did a tiny shop for cleaning products - Astonish items are SFV and are £1 or less in Savers -as I'd totally ran out during the big clean in August; and a few fridge bits (sandwich slices for SO's pack up and dairy free cheese) from Holland & Barrett as they're having their BOGOHP on everything Sale from now-21st September.

My next door neighbour has had her whole family round over the last 3 days doing her garden which has only emphasised how huge the task of doing mine solo will be. She advised me on a local group that will help me clear it for cheap so I'm considering paying the £50 as it it a huge garden.

I batch cooked risotto tonight so we have a healthy "ready meals" this week and to use up some bits before we go on holiday.

I'm vegan so instead of clearing out the freezer for Christmas food I think I'llijust batch cook lots of curries/soups/casseroles/jambalayas etc. so we've plenty of hearty autumn food for if we've no time to cook.

Hope everyone has enjoyed their first day of September!

P.S. for those of you who did August, Minky is fully recovered and back to his old greedy, cuddly self!

nannygladys

Hi everyone, having trouble sleeping so thought I'd do my post for 1/9.

1/14 nsd completed, even though I have run out of milk, but as I was doing a bit of dgd sitting tonight I was able to get a couple of mugs of coffee there!!

Had a day of rest, so I had my 10mins of me time (a few times over) but that's about it. Oh I did make some Tom soup with home grown Tom's and had a lottie grown sweet corn cob for my lunch, which was lovely as I have never grown those before.

I will have to go shopping tomorrow (today) but I have a list and its not much and also go to the lottie to pick more veggies and do a bit of digging.

Better see if I can get to sleep
Nannyg
Just noticed it's my 1000 post!!!!