NST March: Marching to a different beat

f0xh0les

Today will be NSD 1

Just put the chickpeas on to soak for a falafel feast tomorrow, a chickpea and potato curry for the freezer and a big tub of hummus for the fridge.

Tonight is toad in't hole, roast potatoes, veg, and gravy.

Eldest 2 are off school, youngest 2 are in school, schools are 3 streets apart.
Mutiny on the landing

Will do some baking with my new tins this morning - new toy! I have plenty of flour and sugar in the pantry so I might as well use them while it is the perfect weather for hot drinks and staying in eating a bun. (I used to be so rock and roll)

Cleaning and tidying house in preparation of the weekend, nearly all laundry done , folded, returned to owners, and put away.

Just keeping warm today. my toes hurt from the standing on the playground twice a day waiting for them to open the doors. Brrrrrr.

apple_muncher

debtfreewannabme - could you work on building up a buffer of a month's worth of bills so that the incoming and outgoing monies don't need to coincide?

apple_muncher

Consistency is what transforms average into excellence

Debtfreewannabme

f0xh0les wrote: »

Try and set a weekly budget and factor in whatever bills are due that week plus what you will spend on food and travel.

thanks for this. We are DFWs so will I need to do a week by week then factor in whats left to pay debts?

Just shunt the meal plan along one day, or drop a day and have a meal in hand for next week. Can you have his meal for lunch instead? or freeze it and use as an emergency 'ping' meal. Well done on the meal planning. It will get easier with practise. The main thing is he is safe and warm, and at least he has not missed a day of work, so your budget will be spot on for the month.
It is annoying when things don't go to plan, but hopefully you will get him back tonight, my DH always appreciates a home cooked meal after he has been subjected to hotel food.:rotfl:

Thanks so much for this. He 'might' be happy to have a shop brought curry tonight instead of ordering a takeaway on sunday haha then he can have his curry that was due for tonights tea then instead. That was budgetted at £15 so with his £6 spend today that means a £9 saving...will see what he says!

Debtfreewannabme

apple muncher how would I begin to do this. Ahh I tried the week by week but now feeling overwhelmed lol my budget has my 2 yr olds scrawls and tears all over it. Today is going to be a long one!

mothernerd

Debtfreewannabe hugs, just keep plodding. I think apple meant to try and get a little ahead each month (maybe just a £1 or 2) until your bank balance has a whole month's bill payments in. Sounds daunting but just do a bit at a time. As I advised last month, if your food budget is £100 a week and you think it should be £50 (or need it to be) you can't go from £100 to £50 - it won't work. But if you write everything down this month and then look at cutting £5- 10 off per month, eventually you get there.

All sorts of things you can try, some will work, some won't - I once tried stetching hm curries for my son into 5 portions instead of 4. He took one look at them and got 2 out. Don't do too much (or too many) things at once. Add one good habit (or remove one bad one) at a time and when they are automatic, add another.

Just hug the little one for now and look at it again when it's quieter. Mine still hug me (if I need it) but being hugged by a nearly 28yo (think young Hagrid) isn't the same - The other two are 33 and 31 in the next few weeks.

abundant1972

Morning all...

First off - CONGRATULATIONS Debtfreewannabeme on taking control of your situation! We often call that instant where you have a wake-up your 'Lightbulb Moment' - mark the date... it's important as it's the start of your journey to freedom. I remember that feeling too - facing up to my situation... It was like being in quicksand being pulled under - and suddenly there was a way out... I knew it wasn't going to be easy or instant - but - I'd taken ownership and was back in control. Awesome job! These forums were pivotal in my trip so welcome aboard!!!

I'd go with AppleMuncher and Mothernerd - Having a little buffer fund... Even if it starts small at £50-£100 in reserve. It's amazing what a feeling of well-being having an 'Emergency Fund' (EF) can bring. Over time you can build it up a little larger covering you for emergencies.

I think the only exception may be if one of your debts was charging an extortionate amount of interest. You may want to tackle that first. If they're all on 0% though I'd honestly think about starting an EF.

I found some of Dave Ramsey's stuff helpful. It's American but you can adapt the principles. I followed that to clear my debts. It seems contradictory at first saving into a pot that just sits there when you could be paying it off debt... but I found it eased my anxieties having it there.

I'll post a link anyhow:

https://www.daveramsey.com/baby-steps

Hope it helps...

abundant1972

Hello again...

So, Yesterday = NSD number 1

I spent much of the day prepping food and made 7 portions, some for the freezer, and some in the fridge. Then made some banana ice cream which was to die for!!! (healthy version):

Slice and freeze 4 bananas for at least 4 hours
Put them in a blender with 50ml almond milk (regular milk would work just fine too I'm sure), I added some vanilla protein powder, but you could use vanilla essence, and a big tablespoon of nut butter. Sprinkle and serve with flaked almonds. Yummmmmmy!

[That was courtesy of Joe Wicks :happyhear by the way]

I'm going to stay in today due to snow, and may prep some more food. Catching up with all my domestic chores so it's all good.

Today = NSD number 2

Keep warm folks x

BadBookkeeper

Hello all, good to be back!
I'm being made redundant end of March so very much need to stop messing about and get stuck in!
Given myself a few rules to follow telling you so I have to stick to it.....
Use empty CC to pay for budgeted spends to earn cash back in Arg0s vouchers handy for kids parties.
Withdraw £20 cash on 1st 10th 20th monthly so every 10 days instead of every 7.
Any 10ps go in ds money box 20ps in my Xmas jar.
Any difference in dds go into paying od off
Any grocery savings go in Xmas 18 pot
Use topc@shback when possible
Stop wasting food
Treat myself somewhere along the way!

So far 2 NSD days of of 15
Sim only DD payment £2.01 less than budget so put in od pot.
DS didn't eat cereal this morning (he has it dry) so put in a tub to use again tomorrow!

Really feeling for homeless people so will do something for homeless charity this month definitely have duvets, trainers and coats that can be donated.

Feeling quite positive. My new approach is to do something each day towards saving money and clear my debt instead of cutting right back and clearing big chunks only to reward myself with a blip! Bit like dieting I suppose! Sorry for long post!

f0xh0les

If you put water in balloons with a little food colouring and leave them outside, you can make magic globes (when you peel the balloon away, and they can either be garden ornaments, fortune telling balls, or footballs.

Do not do this if you have white pebbles in your garden.

Cheap bit of fun.