NST: December 2016: A pared back Christmas

crazy_cat_lady

Evening all
Busy life has bagged me 2 nsd's already so I can't complain.
I've got £35 left of my Christmas budget but it's all done so in theory I should be able to put that into savings for next year. Big cat food shop is done and monthly grocery shop will be done over the weekend.
As for cancelling festivities, I only have 1 night out planned which I won't cancel I'm afraid. I did refuse work's Christmas do though, so I suppose that would count.
Donations to cat's protection done.
Looking forward to a hopefully relaxing weekend ahead.
Seasidegal - so sorry to hear your friend's sad news.

greent

Seaside girl - sorry to hear about your friend's relative. What a horrible thing to happen


NSD target of 12 (Dec is hard!!! - although have achieved 1 today )

Charity - I volunteer at least one morning a week at a small local charity (am also treasurer for it so inevitably have other stuff to do at home). I have a bag of fluffy socks and toiletries (toothbrushes, toothpastes, deodorants and hand and foot creams) for a friend's daughter who is doing a collection for the homeless (through an organised event). We donate monthly to WWT. I have a box of good quality items to drop at local CS (where I am registered for GA) I also need to send something in to school with DS3 for the local animal shelter appeal. Oh - and have bought an Oxfam unwrapped present for one relative. Think I'm ticked off for this one this month!

We actually managed to pay all of our credit cards from last month's money (had some extra) which is lovely - included a good chunk to OH's 0% card which had last of holiday costs on. Will be able to clear that this month when the statement come through. Then we can move on to he next one (new sofas coming in NY)

Will knock £20 off proposed Xmas spending

Have declined 2 invitations! One on Thurs night and one on Sat. Total cost not huge (both cheap evenings) - around £30-40 for the 2 of us for the 2 nights but still a saving (and 2 earlier nights and less alcohol consumed!)

Much of the spending this month will be in retail chains. Last month we managed to buy several presents from small local (often home based) businesses. I have one present to buy which I know I can source from a small family business, so shall do that.

School holidays mean family games afternoons - free and fun (usually!! )

Grocery budget - will increase this month as DD is home from uni for 2/3 of the month. ALso have festive spends (not much extra) and her birthday spends. I am jumping up to £500 as I plan on sending her back to uni (on 2nd Jan) with a decent amount of food to help her budget. She is very good and still has a decent amount of money left (we've not helped her with any cash - she gets full loan) but I like to top up her supplies where possible (will also make sure she goes back with some HM goodies - she's not bought any biscuits/ cakes/ sweets when away - she keeps her supermarket budget to avg £20 per week (she cant bulk buy due to lack of fridge and freezer space in her halls kitchen) and that includes alcohol purchases from there. That means I need to aim for £480 or less - sounds horrific, but not bad for 6 of us (and 3 guinea pigs) and Xmas/ school hols/ a birthday/ uni food (would like to come in at £450 if I can - super stretch target!!)

Will aim to post as much as possible.

For days 1 and 2 - 1 NSD today. Actually - am going to count yesterday as NSD as all I bought was some items of clothing with money my mum gave me yesterday morning with the specific instruction to treat myself - so I went to Sains for 25% off clothing and bought a new pair of jeans, a Xmas jumper (never had one before) and 2 tops for work - full price in total £50 and I then had 25% off. I had to spend it on me - she wanted to see the purchases.

x

FurryBeastOz

Managed a NSD other than the stamps. I borrowed a dog for a couple of hours and had a lovely long walk which cheered me up. It was probably a good idea for other reasons - I had been getting broody about missing the FurryBeast:( An hour and a half with a lively Spaniel puppy, and I was fearing for my nice clean sofa covers and beige carpet:D

mothernerd

Hugs seasidegal, pas some of them on to your friend.

Spent £12.56 on food and washing up liquid. Took me an hour to go to the library and back (can see it from my bedroom) but a lot of that was spent sitting down - I even moved a chair across to sit whilst checking out my books.

I rested for an hour and a half and then went to the chip shop. Called in the little shop and managed to get tortilla wraps, wash up liquid, some bacon and ham and chocolate. There is a 'convenience store' next to the chip shop but it's mostly an off license (with attendant drunks) with sweets and very little else. The little shop is quite dear but I was so tired I was prepared to buy a couple of barm cakes from the chip shop, so spent less than I could have done.

My foot doesn't hurt when I put weight on but it starts throbbing if I stand for more than a minute or two. It is getting stronger, getting back upstairs was easier today.

Today I am grateful for cuddles with a chinchilla (before putting them back into the cage they had escaped from once again - cage has now been turned round so the hole is against the skirting board but there are two bars which have a slightly wider gap so they might be squeezing through there), for a colourful display of lights on a neighbour's garage (just a few, not full on Griswold) and for finding enough bits to get through the next few days (they had tins of spam and one corned beef but with the damage I have done to myself over the past few days, I'm not sure i can be trusted with a corned beef can).

cybertortoise

Seasidegal - how terrible, your poor friend!

Bob - I don't know if it will help but you can buy emergency filling kits with a bit of putty type stuff in to temporarily fill the tooth.

A bit of a spend day today getting cards for my sons birthday and some petrol, as well as a few bits I had missed. All in all I'm up to £92.69 for groceries and £38.17 for gifts. I should get my first NSD tomorrow and another on Sunday. I plan on doing a stocktake of my pantry so I can minimise next weeks spend.

swimminginaseaofdebt

Evening everyone,

Another spendy day for me today. £10 spent at the pub having a pizza and drink (non-alcoholic!) with my little sister after dishing out £24.37 on clothes at Tu (25% off) for the little one. The clothing spend was non-negotiable as he’s now growing out of his 3 – 6 months stuff.

I was having a think earlier and as the theme this month is paring back I’m going to (a) make an effort to de-clutter stuff around the house and (b) read and remove at least 3 books from my kindle.

Oh and I also earned enough SB on swagbucks to order myself a £5 paypal voucher

Bobarella

Hi All

Thanks very much for indulging my tooth situation. As SeasideGal points out with her heartbreaking story, it is small potatoes in the scheme of things.

Dolly and everyone else who asked, I am not sure why it's so expensive. I am with an NHS dentist although they also do private work. I only have one filling but it's really big and from memory affects two teeth. I originally had the filling done 10 years ago and it cost a fortune. It broke just after I had DS funny enough also in a sweet eating incident but I have read before that womens teeth can be affected by birth so having had DD a year ago that might have weakened it again. When I had my last appointment about a month ago the dentist said that my x-ray showed signs of something changing in the tooth. And quoted me £250 for removing the existing filling set up and creating a better one might even have been an inlay. Sounds bad but I wasn't taking it all in as I had both kids with me and was just thinking of getting out of there.

I am in no pain at the moment but obviously having a huge hole isn't ideal either. If I go back to the dentist now I will have the cost of a hygienist visit which he was pushing me to do anyway (£40) plus whatever they decide to do about the tooth. If I wait til January I just have the hygienist bill..but as Abundant rightly says is it worth health complications?
Dilemmas...

Right will take my moaning away now!

Have a good night

Bob

nannygladys

Hi everyone
Christmas shopping more or less done now, only a couple more cards to make and that will be it for me.
Just one dd and dgd for Xmas dinner and she has asked for a simple roast as she doesn't want to over indulge!!! So that's what I will do dd and dgd can have roast something and as I don't eat meat I will make a lentil loaf or something. For pudding it will be pie or crumble as we don't like Xmas pudding so this year it's going to be a very easy year!!!!

Anyway I have 1/18 sfds

I'm not out anywhere this year only at dd1 and dd3 for dinners in a couple of weeks and I'm not that cancelling those so I have suggested to one of my friends that we forgo a coffee on a planned trip to the city, not sure how that will work but we will see.

I have Tosco vouchers to use for my Xmas food so I'm going for a food (and anything else) budget of £80 that I will draw out in full tomorrow. I also have about £60 left in my Xmas fund some will get used but I will check, how much it is and take that out,as well and put it in another empty purse. I seem to go out with several purses everywhere I go but it seem to be working for me. Oh I will need about £50 in fuel next week as I'm away at a friend's having a Xmas catch up and its a fair distance away, but it will then last me until January.I won't be spending much whilst there as she is an excellent cook and spoils me with very nice food whilst I'm there.

Of to bed now, will catch up tomorrow
Nannyg

indigowarrior

Hi all
Yesterday spent £17 on food, £10 on a Chinese and 20 on electric. I got a surprise payment in my account and treated myself. Really struggling with electric bills at the moment. . Combination of a 5 week old and old storage heaters which means I am spending a lot of money.

indigowarrior

Oh and am aiming for 2nsd this weekend.