NST October ORGANISE OCTOBER

sashanut

Hi all :j

NSD now 15/15 ...done it, but not easy for me. Have to say I find it better to be accountable on here...

Organise: No sorting done in bedroom today, but quite a bit in downstairs room. Threw out loads of pens that don't work - and discovered loads of (working) Sharpie pens..Also in kitchen, took out one chair that is really too good for the kitchen, replaced with a new one from the 'big shed' in our garden, also brought its twin in to replace the other ugly chair also in kitchen. Amazingly, there is more room, I have no idea why that is...but it's a lot better already. And I will now be able to get the dresser cupboards open which I couldn't before & maybe, just maybe be able to put away some of the clutter on the work surfaces...

Lunch: Bacon sandwiches made by DH as always. Tried turkey bacon (?) BLT tasted fine & obv no fat..HG toms same today

Supper: Made fish pie with veg broccoli & carrots, Pud was Hummingbird muffins, made to use up soft bananas. Amazingly, had all ingredients in to make them, plus they actually looked like the photo...also got rid of another couple of eggs

Food budget: £191.96/250

Be kind: Tricky but had to be as DD v stressed & tearful. She had a long shift which was extended by the extra hour to 12 hours so quite tired but had booked a driving lesson. She is stressing as they keep asking at work when she's going to pass her test for a manual car. She drives an automatic & there was only a requirement for her to drive to get her job. Now they want her to drive a manual car & she is finding it very difficult as we only have automatics here.. so no practice possible .grr

One more time: hmm as ever start well but fall off the wagon later on

Extra Income: Not today but did photograph some stuff for ebay

Christmas: knitting away

Exercise: not today

Heating: still off

Grateful for: fine & bright day, got washing dried. Eating buns & laughing with family later, heated duvet..

Frog: Will deal with small frog before bed!!

mothernerd

Step into my shoes
and walk the life I'm living
and if you get as far as I am
just maybe you will see how storng I really am

Clutter is the physical manifestation ofunmade decisions fueled by procrastination

Stop beating yourself up.
You are a work in progress
Which means you get there a little at a time, not all at once

You are not fat. You have fat. The fat does not define you.

laurenh1

Good morning all.

Today will defo be a spendy day. Chickens need food, car needs a new tyre & hub is looking at dates at work to book next years holidays. We haven't got a huge budget so Ive noted the cheapest weeks to go to c parks, fingers crossed we can find something that matches up.

I am going to walk to Tesco to see if there's any good YS deals to be had later. I am keen to get the freezer stocked so I have plenty in.

Starting to consider budgets for 2018, savings goals etc.

Xx

Pauper1

Thank you everyone, for your well wishes. I had a bit of a break over the weekend and I'm feeling much more myself today. I have no real idea what I spent over the weekend, and it included two Co$tas but I will try to update spends in a bit.

DS and I are having a really chilled morning before tackling some housework. I feel like I'm always doing housework. Hopefully I'll do something more fun with him this afternoon. Today should be a NSD.

I'm off to join the November challenge now. I'm excited to start right from the beginning.

Groceries £84.79/£77.41
Petrol £45/£58.06
NSD 2/6
"Beauty" and Entertainment £55.02/£63.87
Extra income £50.78/£24
Exercise 3/6

Toni'sfriend

Flooring is up. Today I need to tackle son's bedroom if he has unplugged all his equipment like he promised yesterday. All the washing is up to date - just need to iron it now - but will have to change son's bedding whilst I doing the room.
NSD 13/12
Leftover chicken for tea.
Goodness this clearing up is taking up all of my time.
Have a good week everyone

mothernerd

Yesterday was a lovely sunny day so mostly spent drying clothes - the ones on the line were swapped out 3 times, the chicken sunbathed on a garden chair and some larger items were draped over chairs, the water butt and even the dolly truck. Later brought in as much stuff as possible and filled radiators, the clothes horse (airer for younger viewers) with sheets tented over them.

Room is still a mess (not helped by the fact that I have brought more boxes in here) but I did sort some rubbish, a bag that had fallen over and the button box (now decanted into an old pill bottle.

For yesterday I am grateful for lovely weather, peace and quiet (they took Beloved to the walk-in centre, ear infection so bad it has stopped her sleeping for the last 3 days) and simple food (had a ys ready meal for lunch - venison sausages, sweet potato mash, kale, beetroot and slow gin gravy, came under the heading of trying new things and sounded super healthy - need all the help I can get).

thriftylass

Hello,

spend but productive weekend. Bought paint and finished the bedroom. Only to take the mirror of the sliding wardrobe door, now need to do the wood work too. Not too mad about it as it looked a bit manky against the fresh walls and I now definitely have a reason to do that too. Luckily they never sanded the doors before painting, so the paint chips/peels off easily.

Got some gardening done too and my first food shop that will count towards November. Will need to sort my numbers out soon. Got enough food in till at least Friday.

Yay, and finally new washing machine is on it's way. Had a wee struggle with Curr7s. They said it'll get repaired, the engineer told me it's written off, etc etc. Finally sorted and will get a replacement (the bearings went just after 5 months!).

greent

Great news re replacement washing machine, thrifty! :T

greent

Organise/ Cook from Scratch/ Use things up - used up odds and ends in flapjacks and fridge cake. Finished off random cheeses for lunch with crackers

Pay your debts/ savings - £25 transferred to kitchen fund

Budgets
* Food - 293.82/ 325 (stretch 290) - includes spends yesterday and today - including stocking up on teabags on offer in A5da (300 PGT for £4 x2 boxes)
* Fuel 60/60
* Clothes 40.47/75 - another pair of joggers for DS3 and 2 x Pudsey socks @ £1 each for DS2 & DS3 for CiN day
* Gifts 103.67/150 -
* Toiletries 7.75/10 -
* Social 180.97/200 (stretch 150) -

NSD - 10/12 - definitely not one today - had dentist apt @ £95 for check up and hygienist visit (only need to go once a year and last had any treatment over 20 years ago, so I don't pay into a plan, just payg). Also paid £5 for school trip and then the shopping in A5da

Improvise - cobbled together packaging for latest flebay sale - OH suggested buying a box :eek: - my solution was free and got rid of some of our packaging stash

Exercise
* Week 1 - 3/4
* Week 2 - 3/4
* Week 3 - 0/4
* Week 4 - 3/4

Jan Goals - "By the end of the year I want to have halved the (non mtge) debt we have and have lost 20lbs - and also get fitter along the way"
Debt at start of year more than halved.
Weight/ fitness = 2/20lb (will weigh on Weds to see month end)

Extra income - another item sold on ebay - net funds transferred out from paypal to kitchen fund and 1 x yoog0v survey. Listed one more item on flebay (also got 44p APG )

Christmas -

Get Ready Checklist
1 - Health -vitamins 13/31
4 - Maintenance - kitchen deposit paid/ fit date fixed
Plumbing/ bathroom - Kitchen designer is meant to be emailing me a possible one
Electrician - still to do
Plasterer - messaged him - need to send pics

Gratitudes:
* unexpected day off school for DS2 - school shut due to no water in local area - thankful for technology enabling me to find out before he caught the bus!
* lovely weather
* catch up tv for catching up on more ironing
* freebie toiletries from my mum
* heaps of YS veggies bought yesterday in Tesc0

DawnW

OK, confession time , check in 30 / 31, and round up for October:

Organise - I try to be organised most of the time, but things did get a bit out of hand when I was ill for over a week earlier in the month. But we all survived, all bills were paid on time, no debt was run up, very little food was wasted, so on the whole a success

NSDs - Managed a NSD today, and expecting another tomorrow - this will bring my total for the month to 11/15. Not great, but as I only award myself a NSD if I don't spend a single penny, on anything except for direct debit bills if they happen to go out that day, not too bad either.

Supermarket / food / household spends - Did a big food shop yesterday as I was low on lots of staples - like Thriftylass I am going to count this one as the first one for November (as most of the week it will cover will fall in November). Therefore final shopping / household total for October is £286.40, which is not great bearing in mind my aim was £160 However, this covered all the supermarket shopping and the milk bill, some items for Christmas and a big meat order which will last for several months, so I am not going to beat myself up too much about it.

Specific beauty spends came in at £26.99. This covered a haircut and a pot of moisturiser.

Fuel - £157.76 :eek: I was surprised by this as I didn't think we used so much - on the other hand, both vehicles are full up atm.

Banned - I must confess to one pub meal for OH and myself, during October, £26.50

Other discretionary spends, just the ones I was involved with, came to £169.30. This included the renewal for joint membership of a local attraction we visit quite often (which was budgeted), but still :eek: and it doesn't include OH's individual personal spends or his golf membership (which is an awful lot more, but again, annual and budgeted for). And I cancelled a magazine subscripton that I decided I could live without, and put the money for that towards the local attraction membership.

Extra income - I didn't keep a running total, but I sold some bits on ebay, mostly items for my little business, but also some decluttered personal junk, and did surveys for cash.

Be kind - I always try to do this

Frogs - A memorable one this week was logging onto mine and OH's HMRC accounts to see if any tax owed. Not especially worried about paying it if owed (as I knew it wouldn't be a lot, our income is low now we are mostly retired) but just the hassle of finding all the details and doing it - and OH had received an ambiguous letter from them prompting me to want to find out what was going on :eek: Anyway, now done, no tax owed until next self assessment time

So all in all, some scary numbers, but it has been very useful to keep such a close eye on spending, and it will be interesting to see how next month compares. I have allowed myself to take my eye off the ball a bit lately, and I must get more of a grip For food / household / supermarket etc I am going to allow myself a weekly amount going forward, as (it comes as no surprise) different months have different lengths, different numbers of weekends etc (which is when I tend to do my shopping).

Looking forward to November now!