NST January: Health, Wealth and a Life Well Lived

Eager_Elephant

apple_muncher wrote: »

Eager_Elephant - is it your dd's birthday tomorrow? Happy birthday to her and some cake:bdaycake: too (if I'm right!)

You've got a good memory Apple, she is 15 today!!! Thanks for the birthday wishes.

1st Jan is never a NSD as birthday people get to pick their evening meal and DD likes takeaway.

Eager_Elephant

Janus is the god who looks both backwards and forwards. So this is a time to look forwards –
where do you want to be in 12 months from now? I hope to have purchased the house I currently live in, I want to get my house decluttered and really think about what ‘I’ want from my life.
5 years? Have paid off all my debt and have money in savings
10 years? Have a smallholding with campsite so I can think about retiring from employment.

Activity. I don’t really have any hobbies so I will start reading more and also start doing my colouring as I find it very relaxing.

I will have 18 NSD’s
Petrol budget for the month is £150
Food budget was £375 but spent on Xmas so now only £34 left
Spends of £20
Already donate to charity by DD
Tomorrow I will double check my budget against bills and then pay some extra to debt.
No meal planning in my house, I only cook meals at weekends and we have loads of meat in from our pigs and chickens so will be eating pork or chicken (or turkey)
Will take lunch to work all week as the shopping and spends budget is very tight.

I want to re-introduce Bob's s t r e t c h challenge for January: how much extra an you earn / save off your food shop / move / remove. I have just got back in to Swagbucks and need to keep doing surveys so hopefully that will earn me some pennies in January.
Does reading mrmoneymustache or frugalwoods inspire you? I love frugalwoods but am a bit behind on all the emails so need to spend this month catching up with them.

Saveforabetterlife

Please can I join in? Tried last year but fell off the wagon!

f0xh0les

Today is NSD1 - not going out, not going up a ladder.

Today is Paddington on the sofa and being at home.

Light cleaning and tidying just to make it a bit more presentable today. Today is a day for lists and planning and diary organising. Old diaries/calendars into the drawer under the bed. new diaries/calendars filling up with kids stuff so quickly this year already.

I got out the sandwich toaster at lunchtime and spent too long making toasties for 6. I want a bigger sandwich toaster but not until I find one in the c/s / second hand electricals shop. So handy when feeding kids. Quick and easy.

Other easy quick meals in our house are soup (tomato and red pepper / potato, corn and butter bean/ broccoli soup with garlic bread / cauliflower soup with melted cheese ). There are lots of cook once, eat twice things. Any tomato sauce can be turned into pasta sauce, recycled as pizza topping, spiced into a chilli, and used up as a soup or as a base for curry. You cook once but it feeds you many times. I think there is a rubber chicken thread somewhere on the old-school thread - how many meals you can get from a roast chicken. It is proper eye-opening stuff. I am a firm believer in frozen pastry - any left over or deliberately extra cooked veg get a white sauce topping/ bathed in gravy and tucked in as pasties or pies. Anything that can be put in the oven and left on its own is just as good as a quick prep meal, Pittas, hummus and pickles - can't get quicker than that!

We spend a lot of time beating ourselves up over what we feed our kids these days. With a tiny bit of forethought and planning it becomes quite simple. But it is that panic of 'what am I going to feed them fast' when you have just got in from football and you need to get them out again in half an hour for cubs and they go 'yuck I don't eat cheese anymore' that you start thinking you are the worst parent ever and you feel guilty. Get out the blender and hit the smoothies- can't get quicker than that!.

Keep a fruit bowl next to the tv remote control - anything going brown goes in the smoothies.

Beans on toast is lovely, you forget how nice it is until you have it again (we had it this week after ages of not) / cheese on toast / scramble on toast for busy nights is fine. Just make sure there is a pudding! Yogurt, fruit salad, tinned fruit and cream/ice cream, all healthy(ish)

Toni'sfriend

Happy New Year, everyone.
Well NSD 1/18 but the shops were closed!
Trying to be productive and not putting things off. I've made stock and soup, done three loads of washing and changed the bedding. Dinner coming from freezer. I swear there are gaps appearing but I could be wrong.
I haven't watched any TV (worst Christmas and New Year programmes ever) but I am just about to watch a DVD of The Duelists, one of my favourite films. I've chosen the first book I want to read. Going to start tonight and I've downloaded three free books for Kindle.
Did a little bit of decluttering as well and avoided alcohol and snacking.
Let's hope I can keep it up.

Lauralozzle

Happy New Year! :j

So, I’m off to a cracking start! Bagged my first NSD. Christmas decorations are down, although the living room could do with a tidy. Will get on with that tomorrow I think after work (or before, if I get up early enough).

We’ve been outside in the garden chopping down some of the trees and sweeping the patio. I’ve used some fish (another yellow sticker bargain) from the freezer for dinner. Have turned it into a fish pie. Diet has been good today.

I have to get back into the swing of working tomorrow. I think I’m on queries tomorrow so will get to work early(ish). Not looking forward to it, it’s been nice to have these two weeks off and getting back into the swing of it all again (early morning and late evenings) is something I’m not looking forward to. Will have to have a look at the work diary and have a look which days I can work from home and get them requested. I’d rather work from home and start early as I have the late afternoon to myself then.

apple_muncher

Today I am grateful for a fresh start, for a walk in the rain with dd to hand deliver a thank you note, for dh coming to meet us on our way back home bearing brollies, for warm snuggly clothes to put on, for getting nearly a hundred owl pieces cut out for a craft activity at dd's party, for our printer behaving well, for the WSM finals.
c

mummylewis

Evening all!

First NSD today, starting the year off as I mean to go on. DD has passed on the lurgy to me, so to be fair wouldn't have gone out to spend even if I wanted to!
No intention of spending money tomo either.

DH cooking dinner now, then an early night in the hopes im well enough to drag my !!! to work tomorrow. Well I have to go either way but I'd rather feel good about it!

Xmas decs should be down by now but will likely get done later this week now.

Don't need fuel for at least a fortnight and food should be good for at least several more days.

Night night turtles!

lcc86

NSD and healthy day here :T managed to get an hour of studying done, OH and I went for a walk, I did all my back and neck stretches and then went for a run so very pleased with myself for putting the effort in.

Back to work tomorrow, got my clothes out and lunch made already, I plan an early night and will try and get some reading done - still haven't finished December's National Geographic so would like to do that before January's comes through the door.

Probably won't get to update much during the week but will update and check in as and when I can.

abundant1972

Happy 01st January!

Off to a good start... woke early and got up and did my morning meditation - aiming for just 10 minutes/day.

Today = NSD number 1

Today I am grateful for:

• Family - and the love and support they give
• My car - it enables me to travel far and wide
• Food in my cupboards and fridge

I am truly blessed and abundant and give thanks.

I'm going to spend this evening exploring my goals for the year ahead, and make sure I get to bed in good time. I'm planning to limit my gaming time, and use some of my evenings to read and relax in other ways.

x