NST Joyful July

apple_muncher

Today I am grateful for the opportunity to accompany dd + her class to a classical concert they were performing in, for not having rain as the walk and bus trip would have been miserable, for superb tennis, for a chance to thank dd's Head for moving dd and to let her know that it is going well, for a peaceful day, for my £3 sandals being super comfy to wear, for my workout (shred level 1 workout #7), for the UFM emails causing me to ponder.

swimminginaseaofdebt

mothernerd wrote: »

swimming are you allowed to play at soft play. DS1 and DS2 went to tumble tots until they moved to a new location, but as they were in different age groups I had to entertain the other one (sessions followed on).

Mothernerd, yes I go in with my wee one as he is only 1 and is just learning to walk so easily flattened by other kids if I don’t supervise closely! Hadn’t heard of Tumble Tots before so I looked it up online to have a nosey. Looks good but sadly they don’t run classes in my area.

So Sat, Sun and Mon have been spend days for me. I had brunch on Sat with friends and Sun/Mon I spent on groceries.

Went for a walk around the park on Sat and I tried to get the little one to walk in shoes but no luck as of yet.

I bagged up some vests and sleepsuits the little one had grown out of yesterday and today they have been dropped off at the charity shop.

I also returned three library books which I've had for about 6 months and never got round to reading.

Decided to finally open the toy storage unit I bought the little one 2 months ago only to find the boxes that come with it are really small and barely fit anything in. Will now need to hunt for an alternative.

Been doing my surveys and signed up for some mystery shops which I shall hopefully finish tomorrow. I had to purchase train tickets, at my own expense, from various websites and evaluate them in the process. I went to collect the tickets from the train station ticket machine today and tomorrow I will need to go to the library and print of some paperwork so I can return them to the mystery shopping company to have my money refunded and hopefully collect my assignment fee. I did 4 of them at £3 a pop, quite a lot of work I felt for £12 but if it helps me reach my debt free date sooner then so be it!

I have also had some money come through from survey sites and have added that to my buffer fund.

f0xh0les

NSD #2 (get me!) would have been 3, but I spent £4 on ice cream for DH as he has a vicious sore throat and feels drained. Everything else today was YS or free - 2nd hour of dentist drilling my face (boo!) he wants to go one millimetre deeper so I have to go back again. For one millimetre. One!

Today's gratitudes

the dentist only wants to go one more millimetre into my face. Yay!

Ice cream in the freezer

Hayfever meds.

Cthulu

PlaysNicely

:wave:

1) NSDs: not achieved today, OH went to town (literally) whilst I was at work and as he was passing certain SM in town he bought a job lot of cat-food as it's cheaper there than it is at our local one, still at so 5 /16 but at least spending was from pet budget.

2) At least one store cupboard menu week this month: longest run so far 5 days.
No extra dinner spends today, OH made lots of dips, including looking up how to use up over-ripe avocados, so we had a salad, dips and wraps dinner in garden.

3) Try to up my own income in some way (legally of course)! Achieved! Extra weekend job has now started with a couple of training days this week, which I've frantically rescheduled my other work around.

4) My NST health goal: 10,000 steps a day (as total of 70,000 across a week)!
Achieved this today: slightly short of the 10k mark at 8970, mainly from being on feet all afternoon and dog walking this evening. Total so far 36,750 / 70,000.

5) No FleaBay shopping for the whole month - achieved again today so 10 / 31.

6) Frugal focus: sourcing instead of spending: remaining work in progress ...
* Valance in progress - one panel hemmed, still needs sewing to base.
* Doggy glove puppet in progress.

Simple pleasures:
Sunshine, despite wet weather warnings for our area!
Dinner al fresco, think this is about our 10th in a row, let's see if it gets to 14 days!
Wearing nail varnish for a change!

Sleep well all, hugs to those who need them, PN x

misstara

Yesterday was a NSD 4/16. Today I bought a birthday present and card for a friend, had a meal out with friends and got milk on the way home so quite a spendy day.

Today I'm grateful for a work meeting I was dreading going better than expected, a hospital appointment coming through for OH that he's been waiting ages for and laughs with friends.

mothernerd

:T:T:T Do More of What Makes You Awesome:j:j:j

Very tired - we nearly had Joyful July Day Elvan. Could have been interesting.

Fmess

Quick check in as yesterday was SFD number 3, I'm getting there slowly.

Nothing much else to report except having the time to put my feet up after the marking contract finished

Jo_Blogs

Good morning folks

Great posts as always and super going with all the NSDs :T:T:T:T

Loving the Frugalwood's e-mails and challenge. It's great to refresh and rethink - I'm loving each day

Today will be NSD No.11 here - It's going to be another very busy day, but I won't miss spending at all :D - Thank goodness for the simple things in life. Going to have a walk sometime today. I've made sure that I've exercised everyday so far this month, and I have to say, I feel energised

Wishing you all a wonderful and inspired NSDay!

lcc86

Oops I forgot to post yesterday! So just to catch up, it wasn't a NSD as I had to pay for my riding lesson. All budgeted for and I REALLY enjoyed it so am really pleased. Also popped to the horse wholesaler and bought a big bale of wood shavings dirt cheap for the gpig - works out less than half the price of high street stores and will last AGES. I also love the smell of fresh wood shavings lol.

Achieved a healthy day yesterday, am aching today from the riding lesson as she pushed me quite hard so I won't exercise much, if anything, today. Will report back this evening.

Lauralozzle

Morning Turtles

I'm a bit disappointed today as I found out my overtime hasn't been approved yet (my main manager is on holiday and no-one else has sorted it) and now this months deadline has passed! So, I'll not see last weeks and this weeks efforts until the end of August now. Pretty gutted about it but at least August's pay packet will look good!

I've got a relaxing day at home to today should be a NSD - might go In The garden and do a little more weeding. I've also got some bark in the shed that I might put down on the little flower bed. It'll neaten it up a bit I reckon.

EDIT: Bagged a NSD so I'm at 3/14. I got some bits for the wedding but that comes out of a totally unrelated budget that I do not count towards NSD. This is because wedding bits have nothing to do with my living/lifestyle budget (well, I suppose it does in the sense that we are saving for the wedding) but if I didn't spend that budget they'd be no wedding! I suppose I treat the 'wedding' as a bill - I put money in the wedding account at the beginning of the month as my 'bill' and what comes out comes out as and when!

I didn't manage to get in the garden today. Relentless rain saw to that! Will attempt it again in the morning.

I did have round 2 of wedding cake testing though. Plain sponge with raspberry jam and buttercream frosting. I'm trying to make a semi-naked style cake but my frosting skills need some work. It looked a bit messy. Tom approved though, and I've decided I'll have a slice tomorrow as I'm trying to be good. We are menu tasting tomorrow at the venue so one piece of cake won't hurt with everything else! And then I'll jump straight back onto my new plan of no snacks, sweets, seconds unless it's a weekend or 'special' day. I'm counting tomorrow as a 'special' day - once we've picked what we are having we can get the invites ready sonthe guests can decide on the choices available (they get two choices per course to pick - I'll ask for the choices to be sent back with the R.S.V.P). It feels like it's getting close now - less than 4 months to go!