NST March: Marching to a different beat

Debtfreewannabme

Thanks for sharing that Lauren. Well done for paying it all off - yes totally personal depending on situ. All our Debt is 0% so we would actually earn some money on having EF. My DFD is end of June and I cant wait! x

archwaysaver

NSD yesterday - even though I went out, to a music night run by a few friends, I’d signed up to volunteer behind the bar so go two free drinks. Much better than paying club prices and lots of fun too!

LavenderBee

Clippy-girl another tip for dry noses and all that results is putting vaseline around the bottom of your nostrils (I sort of go for an inside and out approach!). It moistens the air you breath. Supposedly helps catch bugs too and it's practically free.

With appliances, I think it varies so much as to the age an efficiency of the appliance. We bought a new build house the other year which had some built in appliances, and we needed to buy the rest - I went for the best energy rating on everything, didn't care what it looked like etc! I then use everything on an eco setting. Would love a smart meter so I could measure the cost. We have a washer dryer - the tumble is a godsend as hubby is only home for 48 hours a week and needs to do all his laundry, uniforms and gym clothes as well in that time. It'll be useful for the baby too (we're going to cloth nappy). I'm trying not to use it for my clothes so much as I don't have the time pressures of being a soldier or a newborn baby! Our fridge is so good it keeps food past it's dates too which helps with our no food waste rule. Our energy bill for this house is less than I've paid in previous old properties with gammy old appliances, that were quite literally only an eighth of the size. Obviously we were lucky to be at a point in our lives wanting to buy our first marital home, and we had cashback on the mortgage which went exclusively on appliances, but I think they were good investments.

Budgets updated:
Groceries: 38.41/200
Monzo card: 6/110 (mothers day gift)
Diesel: 0/120

NSDs 0/18. Had 2 grocery trips and present to buy hopefully today will be number 1.

Gratitudes:
- Hubby bought me breakfast in bed this morning. Was up at 5:45 but managed to crash out between 6-10. I can't remember the last time my body let me have 4 hours deep sleep!
- Someone has bought an item from a selling app this morning, which will add to the baby fund and help our spring tidy. Glad it's going to be used too.
- Discovering Good Housekeeping's free email blasts are just as helpful as the advice in the magazine, and are free. Picked up some good slow cooker recipes recently.

Frogs eaten:
- I read meters and checked energy deal yesterday, no action needed, made note to do it again next month

Igamogam

Bit late to the Mad March Party - been ill in bed all week..........has it snowed??? Awww I missed it all and I love snow! Anyway I am feeling well enough to be upright today but talking it easy. February worked OK for us so will be sticking to what I did last month but going to start a super low carb diet too so food budget might be a little off kilter to start with.

Looking forward to the new month

shabbychic12

Well think finally lve got my head in gear and focused and determined that March will be the month to embrace Marching to a different beat - abit my beat might be more a little Northern Soul

Debtfreewannabme

Afternoon - DH got £20 birthday money today. He says he want to treat us to chinese with my family today ( had previously told them we would be bringing our own dinner). Said thank you and smiled. Feeling very thankful for him. Children wont eat chinese so have cooked for them. So even though we are spending its on money gifted so feeling happy about that. Does this count as a spend day?!!!55357;!!!56834;!!!55357;!!!56834;

BadBookkeeper

#18 checking in....
NSD 4/15 only because I'm snowed in!!!
Wanted to make cakes yesterday but needed eggs so instead of going to the shop and buying eggs ( plus more)! We made and iced shortbread instead. Everyone happy for free!

Toni'sfriend

Hi Turtles

Spoke too soon. The snow came back but luckily not too heavy. Still haven't ventured out so NSD no 4

Used the chicken carcass to make stock and then chicken noodle soup for the boy's lunch for the next couple of days. Still some chicken left for C and I to have some nice snadwiches for our lunch tomorrow and I think there should be enough curry left for our dinner.

I have a kind of meal plan for the rest of the week but really must have a good look at the freezers and cupboards and make a supreme effort to use what's in there.

I changed our bedding and did a quick wash at 30 degrees adding some light coloured items to fill up the load. I've hung it all up very carefully to dry so I'll see tomorrow how little I can get away with ironing.

Plans for this month:

All I can report is I've started to read The Day of the Jackal. Really must get out of this lethargic mood. It's not that I don't have lots I could be doing.

Hope the weather's improving for you all.

Jonesy88

Reporting NSD number 2 for me.

I'm also interested in the talk of appliance usage and charges - we have a tumble dryer and I think it's used far more than it should be because we don't plan and leave enough time for clothes to dry before they are needed.

I've also sold something on eb3y today so that'll be going to the credit card

Debtfreewannabme

Smoke alarm started beeping so we've just spent £16.99 ( landlord fitted them so we have to replace with same one, 10 year life on it so fingers crossed we wont have to spend on this again) 0.85p also spent in Sainsburys on the way out. I forgot the chopped tomatoes for the childrens dinner so 0.60p spent and 25p for a freddo for DH. He asked for a Dairy milk (50p!) so I got him a cheaper choc instead haha!