NST February Challenge : A Winter Voyage

SkintTeacher

NSD 3 and grateful for
1)my OH keeping the little one up after parents evening so i could have cuddles
2) a delicious slow-cooker stew waiting when I got back
3) just two more days til the half term and much needed rest and recuperation

Calling14

FurryBeastOz we have all been there. Sounds yummy.

Are we having ships equivalent of the naughty step this month? Hehe.

Well bought milk today and a cooking apple, yogurt and some strawberries. Thought I needed a bio yogurt been overdosing on too many sweet things last few days :-(

My barley risotto was surprising nice, probably bit less cooking next time. Must start using slow cooker more was so nice to come home gorgeous smell and hot food. Did have a pork chop with it however.

Made blackberry and apple crumble . Sad only one more portion of blackberries in freezer. Wasn't a great year last year for them.

grateful for
Phone shop helping me change my SIM card over. Had activated new sim but I couldn't get it in my phone. Seems to working but bit strange!
Boss in good mood
nice walk with dog I am looking after, sun came out
more paid off my debt

misstara

Not much to report over last few days - been working a lot for both usual work and 2nd job.

I am grateful for earning extra cash, prepping meals at the weekend to make life easier, 3 NSDs in a row, a day off today, a lovely (although very cold) walk along the beach with OH and catching up with the rugby I missed at the weekend.

abundant1972

Ahoy!

So today was a planned spend day as I had a haircut and bought myself a hair dryer. I will be growing it and attempting to style it from here on. Let's hope it doesn't end up like this...
:eek:
In my last post I said I was going to RESIST buying any food today, and use up what I had in. However... As I was putting the receipt in my wallet, I noticed a £5 M&S voucher I received a while back for applying for their 0% Balance Transfer card via a link in MSE. It needed using up, so in I trotted and bought some milk (sorry herbal teas!), oven chips, onions, bananas and broccoli - et voila! One voucher later and it cost me all of £0.04!

So technically, yes! The Sirens did lure me in - but I'd say I made off with their booty and the joke is on them HAHARRRRRRR!!!

I am doing great guns with my meditation, and also clocked up a walk today.

I decided I will be posting more fully on Fri/Sat just before I leave the SS Abundant to sail up North for the week. Have no fear, I will send regular carrier pigeons when I can, and I will be giving Mothernerd full control of the ship in my absence... So don't ye be slacking off any - there still be a plank ye can walk along!!!



Yikes - realised I didn't post my gratitude list:

Today I was grateful for:

• The lovely hairdressers who help me feel a million dollars!
• The surprise £5 voucher I had forgotten I had
• YouTube - for the people who make channels and post great stuff. Aint modern technology great!?!
  
  
  
  

apple_muncher

ChasingSunshine - congratulations on the unexpected pay rise!

Today I am grateful for a chat with mum, for being able to do the school runs, for my warm coat, for cuddles from dd, for finishing off some craft items that have been loitering and bugging me.

Moll

Moll shouting Ahoy to everyone. Have to say even though I didn't sign in yesterday I found myself thinking about you all wondering how everyone was doing. Another NSD for me . I gave my Dad one of my old Be Ro books as hes wanting to learn how to cook ,,,and he arrived today armed with scones and cheese pasties that he had made ,,,,,,yay..,and even bigger yay they was edible . hes getting better, so that sorted some of tea out for today . Did a big walk twice today so achieved my exersize goal........weighed in at my SW group didn't hit my target of 1 ib a week but I got half and im happy, id really gone off the rails with my healthy eatingll until I put it down as one of my goals.. so I pulled it all back and no damage ,ill catch up next week
Furry Beast, Dia Pita & Toni's Friend you have done brilliant with the weight loss ,keep it up,
DS came to tell us they are having another baby in August,so that's wonderful news, , looking forward to the next scan to know if it will be a boy or girl


NSD 3/15 EXERSIZE 3/15 SW ON PLAN 4/15 EARLY NIGHT 4/15
Raise £46.50 by feb 25th for SW countdown offer £35.56/£46.50
Weight loss goal 1b a week / total 1/2

x_raphael_xx

Hi all,
Stuck on 4 NSDs, food shops done sat & mon, dog food yesterday and petrol today.
We had a takeaway tonight too, but I used some birthday money I had squirrelled away. Poor BF got up at 5am for work and got home 7:30! I was really hangry by then and just thought nuts to it. BF didn't argue.

Lifes been ticking nicely along otherwise, work going well, trainee has been left mainly to her own devices this week (I've been floating around keeping an eye on her and getting the background stuff done (like feeding a paper box full of credit card receipts into the shredder).
I'm really impressed with how quickly she's got it, especially as my last trainee is still having difficulty after a year & a half. It's not difficult work, she just doesn't focus and makes silly mistakes.

Looking forward to a day off tomorrow, relaxing with some candles this evening.

mrshubbard

Ahoy there! Permission to come aboard captain? I missed the launch, those damn sirens and pirates got me but I escaped and have been paddling away in my row boat to catch up.

Signature -I have set up my signature but need to do some tweaking once I can get back onto my online banking and see what my 3rd cc balance is

My budgets - for the rest of the month I'm going for £120 food and £30 spends

I have no idea how many NSDs I've had so far but will aim to get in 15 before the end of the month still

3 things I'm grateful for today are - time off with my hubby, getting a better mortgage deal and my little boy sleeping well last night

2017 goals
Money - get our CC debts down to 4 figures, it'll mean clearing £7000 this year. To do this we'll put all our spare money to the ccs at the end of each month. This month we're focusing on sticking to our food budget of £50 a week so we've more spare. I've done my cupboard/freezer inventory and some batch cooking so hopefully should nail it

Health - stay healthy through pregnancy, we are expecting our 2nd in July so I want to keep active as much as possible. This month I am going to look out for a 2nd hand pregnancy fitness dvd or something free on youtube I can follow. Also drinking my flask of water a day and starting each day with a smoothie.

Relationship - have more quality time with my hubby. We have a date day/night a month and we're going to start weekly tech free nights too this month.

Preboarding tasks completed

I already did a stocktake as part of another challenge. Apologies to my cabin mates but I'm going to be eating a lot of baked beans this month, 9 tins to work through squirreled away here and there. I can see 8 meals I can make with spending maybe £10 on a few extra bits. Have some batch cooked lasagne left and mystery casserole - can't remember for the life of me what I made and froze last month.

Have gone through my wardrobe and sorted into sell, charity and chuck. There wasn't much but hopefully I can make a little to buy some 2nd hand maternity pants.

My lucky charm is a stone with swim imprinted in it, having a sink or swim financial feeling and seems apt for this challenge too!

Reducing food spends for 5 days
I think with the batch cooking I've already done and the freezer cupboard inventory I should be able to spend £10 to see us to the end of next week, just need to avoid putting any extras in the basket, apart from the dolphins of course! I think we have about 20 different bread related ys products in our freezer - mostly naans and brioche buns, need to clear some room for batch cooking

Phew! Think that's me caught up? Apologies for the mahoosive post!

bizzie

Looking forward to half term just 2 more get ups to go. Will be roping the DC in to go through their cabins and make any stowaways walk the plank - aka unwanted books/toys/clothes to the charity shop.

Sorting out the galley kitchen is also on the horizon so any suggestions for what others keep in as a minimum for rations?
Really need to get to grips with making, and keeping to, a meal plan as knowing what I'm cooking, and when, makes life so much smoother.

Up to date with bills all paid for the month, 5 NSDs so far and bag of gold coins (gift cards / vouchers) to treat DC if I take them along for shore leave.

Grateful for
time spent with friends catching up
fleece blankets
mobile phones for keeping in touch with distant family members

mothernerd

wh Awake now but not for long. Have already had quite a long sleep
but will have more (busy day).

Woke naturally at 5am yesterday. Had my morning pills then dozed for a while longer. Pulled my clothes on, went for my walk (grey, slightly foggy and the air was so cold that it set me coughing again BUT need to do it daily, even when I am not feeling it so felt good about that. Was really slow coming back across the car park but remembered to swing my arms and hold my head up.

Had a bath, breakfast and dressed for the day, all before 7.30 am. Go me.

AS it was crafts day I tackled the bed (filing cabinet) from a different angle. I had a large box with business stuff and crafts stuff in (don't think I had enough containers when I sorted through and the 2 were different enough to be clearly identifiable). Used a box lid for the crafts and placed it on top of the box of business stuff, having emptied out all the bits of stationery, nails, curtain rail bits and stuff that migrates to the bottom of boxes, then sorted through several amll piles, locating odd items that belong in tose categories.

Those are now on a small stool in the corner of the room. Domestic stuff (bills, house deeds, house sale and purchase stuff - normally not needed for years on end but kept dragging it out to persuade Council and other service suppliers that I had sold the other house (in Jan 16) - last to settle was the dreaded energy supplier (Nov 16) is going onto a small chest of drawers to one side, as I come across it and embroidery (and general sewing stuff) is still in the bed for now. I should add that my file box and mum's file box (partner has dementia so I am now keeping most of her paperwork) broke during the year, so roughly sorted but bits escaping (found the grave papers in the middle of a pile of stuff and I haven't needed that for anything - grand-parents and great-grandparents grave)

The remaining stuff is now down to 3 - 6" high rather than tottering piles about to fall over on me in the middle of the night. Don't know how I let it get into such a state - must be a testament to the depression and low energy levels all last year.

Walked to crafts and back in the afternoon. Took my snowman embroidery but forgot the pattern so stuck to doing the white parts.
Too tired to carry on to the infirmary for my repeat prescription so came home to relax/ carry on rounding up stray bits - lots of bending down to get things that were on the floor.

Ate early. Dozed off. Woke briefly at 9pm but decided I was too tired to fire up the laptop and slept again. I find I am having chunks of 3 to 6 hours sleep which is unheard of. Fingers crossed, I have finally sorted the sleeping pattern.

Spent money, mostly on oil, vinegar and pasta - DS3 didn't like my alternative suggestions when he asked for bread (to dip in his soup) the other day - "Seriously" he said and then realised I was. Not sure he could cope with 'cider or balsamic?' and running out of pasta is a no no.

For yesterday I am thankful for getting back to walking (the rest will come), for sleeping well and for adjusting to my future/ adjusting my future to suit me.