NST March: Marching to a different beat

Toni'sfriend

Dolly - Restaurant is called Bar Napoli. The menu is on their website if you want to take a look. There are lots of really nice little family run Italian restaurants in Edinburgh
Had a lovely lunch with the relatives yesterday. My cousin's husband insisted in splitting the bill so not as spendy as we anticipated.
Been really wet here today so stayed in. NSD No 11. Weekend meals are in the freezer but will probably have to go out tomorrow to stock up on a few things.

x_raphael_xx

Evening gang.

abundant1972 wrote: »

Solution 2) I am upping my food budget. I know... it could feed a small family of elephants with that but... trying to eat a quantity of chicken/meat/fish 3/day and all fresh veg is working out expensive.

We buy our chicken from the butcher, 5 kgs of chicken breast for £25, we freeze it in twos and it lasts us the month (so may last you two?) . Maybe see if there is somewhere near you that does something similar?

I've been MIA the past few days, busy day back to work tues that left me shattered, boxing wed evening, free theatre trip last night (we know the manager throu work schmoozing and got free tickets to Sunset Boulevard.) Very enjoyable.
Could of spend days, but very low - £1.45 for half a pint pre-show drink yesterday, and £1.00 on superglue today to fix my shoe!

• · For the striders: [STRIKE]18[/STRIKE] 25 NSDs 12/25 I'm left with 2 spendy days this month if I want to hit my target! One of them will be tomorrow as I have a coffee date with a couple of friends!
  
• · Set your budgets before the challenge starts. Payday, budgets updated.
  
• · [STRIKE]Be generous. There are many who are far worse off. Do not forget to give to your choice of charity. Donation donated. [/STRIKE]
• · As ever, always take your lunch to work, and drink and snacks when out and about So busy today I completely forgot to have lunch, didn't realise until colleague pointed it out as we left for the day!
  
• [STRIKE]· [FONT="]Pay towards your debt first! [FONT="]Done[/FONT][/FONT][FONT="][/STRIKE][/FONT][FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
• · Plan. Look ahead to the month and what your commitments are. *Coffee date with a couple of friends *10k race *Maybe a trip to Bristol Zoo.

indigowarrior

No spend day 7:T
Took a nice slow walk and got to stroke the most loveliest horse.

Swagbucks paid me £5 and I earned £4.69 on other survey sites. :T

I am hoping that I will have a five day streak but, know how much it can go wrong.

dizzyblnd

Can I ask everyone's opinion: I'm still house hunting and the house I like, I put an offer in a month or so ago with the estate agent and they declined it. They have since stopped using that estate agent. Would it look like I'm harassing them to put a note thru their door saying we are still interested?

x_raphael_xx

dizzyblnd wrote: »

Can I ask everyone's opinion: I'm still house hunting and the house I like, I put an offer in a month or so ago with the estate agent and they declined it. They have since stopped using that estate agent. Would it look like I'm harassing them to put a note thru their door saying we are still interested?

I wouldn't think so, they want to sell their house right? They'll either reply or ignore you, what have you got to lose?

mothernerd

Quite a productive day yesterday. :j I can chop onions :j. I made a vat of chilli (soooo good) and a vat of bacon soup. Chopping is easier sitting down - all the parts of my arm are differently aligned, although as I suspected, still some after effects today. Chopped up sweet potatoes by holding the knife firmly on the top of each potato and rocking the potato backwards and forwards with my left hand - the knife cut deeper into it each time.

Read something this week about not identifying with your disease - theory is that if you comment frequently on 'the disease', your mind is focusing on that and any resulting pain. So instead of severe and progressive arthritis, I am going back to having creaky knees and a clicky shoulder and the pain will be put, as much as possible, back into it's box, unacknowledged. On the CBT course, one of the leaders mentioned people who are in 'constant pain' - often they are not, but by repeating the phrase, they stop noticing when they are having a 'good, relatively pain free day'.

Anyway I am very grateful for all that got done yesterday and a worn out day today (my own fault partly) is a fair price to pay. Hoping I can forge ahead again for at least some of the weekend - think my room and the kitchen are reaching crisis point again.

Tiredness today is my fault because I stayed up until 3am discovering more 'challenges' (no problems only fresh challenges) associated with DS1's wedding - and then had trouble sleeping for a while longer.

When discussing the wedding last week, mum kept saying that I 'would have DS2 to hold my hand'. Last night DS2 came to borrow back the money he returned on pay day (health flare up has forced him to take some days off and the new position/ more pay he is waiting for is held up in a recruitment freeze - even though the department he is moving too would generate vast amounts of new business with more than the current p-t workforce of one).

DS2 was grumbling because the f e c k l e s s one (exOH who never paid a penny maintenance) has comandeered him for wheelchair duty. They have looked at a rental place for the two of them and will probably be flying in for the wedding and then leaving, not having any days to look around. The place they looked at is not far from the wedding venue, but DS2 is concerned by the steepness of the slopes and possible steps.

So no DS2 to hold my hand, I will be travelling alone and possibly staying somewhere on my own? Decided to look for more information. Silly me. The one thing I have clung to is that the wedding is in Sorrento and on one of my 2 trips abroad, I actually stayed in Sorrento. Went with college, in the Easter holidays (late March/early April) and the weather was lovely. I had been assuming that Autumn would have similar weather - oh silly silly me.

As the sun moves away from us in Autumn it moves more directly above the Mediterranean countries (this is probably obvious to all of you regular travellers) so September is peak season (high prices) and then saw something on climate (av temp 26°C compared to Manchester in high summer av 16°C). I struggle with the heat in a Uk summer (+ hayfever + being bitten by midges and all manner of nasties + ankles swelling). I only managed Sorrento in April with full body cover of sunscreen (including behind my ears) and a large straw hat.

On a positive note I can cross one challenge off the list. I don't do 'girly' and was actually thinking about having a make-up lesson but in those temperatures, any make up will drip off my face within 5 minutes.

Tired today, did minimal shop for mum and went there. Moved more tins and added several items on to the buy/ look for something that will do a, b or c. Woke up and was waiting for DS3 to come out of the bathroom, dozed off and then had to hurry. Used antiseptic cream, could not find moisturiser so used vic k on my feet, knees and hands (it worked). Made food for us both, watched supervet and came home.

Today I am grateful for peace and quiet, good books and supervet.

apple_muncher

dizzyblnd wrote: »

Can I ask everyone's opinion: I'm still house hunting and the house I like, I put an offer in a month or so ago with the estate agent and they declined it. They have since stopped using that estate agent. Would it look like I'm harassing them to put a note thru their door saying we are still interested?

I agree with x_raphael_xx.

They changed agents because their agreement ran out without a sale. So see if they will now consider your offer. Go for it!

mothernerd

x_raphael_xx wrote: »

I wouldn't think so, they want to sell their house right? They'll either reply or ignore you, what have you got to lose?

You might have to wait for a while, if they go for it, so that the EA cannot charge them for 'selling' the house (a notice period may apply, especially if the EA introduced you to them - have to see what their contract with the EA says).

apple_muncher

Today I am grateful for an amazingly fast journey to bham, for time with mum, for a seat on all my trains, for lots of walking, for finding a new route between stations in Lunnon that avoids the main road, for catching up with a friend, for a simple yummy tea, for starting to go through my dad's slides and finding ones of my sister and I that I don't recall ever seeing before.

sashanut

Hi all :j:j:j

Day has been rather bitty & disjointed so not an awful lot of progress, but some. DD came and actually commented to us both separately 'How big is the landing here!' Yes I guess now you can see most of it, it is:rotfl: Still more to do to finish it off & then the fight begins to keep it clear. A NSD today, we are expecting some more snow but shouldn't need anything. Only prob is that DD is on nights & finishes at 4am, so may have problems getting back here as too early for gritters to be out.




· For the striders: 10/18 NSDs double figures!!

· Set your budgets before the challenge starts - did a fair few spends, need to update spread sheet. still ongoing.

· Be generous ; will do

· Note down Certainly need to do this, in order to get a handle on spending. Have noted down spends & will update. Have all receipts need to log .

· As ever, will do

· Pay towards your debt first! Do not have debt now but have been there before so am very wary. Do have a CC paid off in full every month. Will make a payment on cc today. tried to make payment but lots of error messages, double tomorrow. Hopefully system will let me in tonight, not tried yet.

· Plan. Will make list of places to go - need to have it in reserve for impromptu trips out. Still A WIP, but found another to add to the list. DH suggested another day out. list growing.

Check in every day. Will do from now on