NST May 2018: May the odds be ever in your favour!

Fmess

Thanks Apple and ccl

Spendy day today, walked the dogs, swam, mowed the lawn, did the shopping and did a five and a half hour round trip to visit my grandad in hospital. Glad to see him and hold his hand and talk to him.

sashanut

Hi all :j


Motivation: what is your personal motivation for joining in with the turtles? My motivation is to cut down on the unnecessary spending and pay for some renovations to this property. In order to do this I think we need to be saving money by doing any jobs we can realistically (!) do ourselves. Stayed dry so finished painting big shed, looks much better. Then did fence panel, many more to go.


Money: know your income and outgoings. All DD bills should have gone out by now and I am going to add up our income, that won't take very long.. so far have done now two grocery shops. Grocery bill so far £57.07. Another shop today from farm shop as friend round for lunch. NSD today as no shopping necessary. Waiting for paydays which I should have 3 of this month.


Me time: look after yourself. Get enough sleep; eat well; move; do things you enjoy. Good nights sleep, eating not great as made butter chicken curry from a sachet thing I had, for DH really. Then found an OOD curry side dish in the fridge, plus already cooked rice & the end of a naan. Cleared out fridge without sending for a takeaway. Enjoyed being outside & painting, find it therapeutic tbh.


Move: being active benefits your body and your mind. You know that. Now do it. Not much gardening movement but plenty of painting in the fresh air.

Activation: what spurs you on to keep on the path? Have not done much decluttering but have identified some items to sell to a fellow collector. Just need to find out how to price, which will be tricky as rare items & not available so need to research somehow. Got reply from friend re collectables; need to send her some photos & she has a source that she can consult. Sadly also told me she is very unwell with heart trouble. Sorted out some things to sell this morning which I will photograph & list tomorrow.


Arm yourself : you have chosen to follow a path that many mock and despise - that of ridding yourself of debt and financial constrictions in order to be free; free to choose what to do with your money and time, not enslaved to repaying or to other people. Glad we are not bothered about 'keeping up with the Joneses' - have done that a long time ago but really do not care any more. It's how some people validate themselves & that's fine, but not for me. We are now free from paid work commitments but spent many years getting there, wish it had been sooner. Desperate need of decluttering & getting rid of old lifestyle. Am going to do this so will post progress on here to keep me accountable. Some progress today as I sorted a few clothes to sell, tip of the iceberg/ Will now iron them before bed so they are ready in the morning, no excuses.

You. Are you happy in yourself? Know what brings you joy, what cheers your heart, what makes you pause and wonder. Don't just stop and smell the coffee in the morning; practise stopping and looking around throughout the day. Appreciate what you have. Be grateful. [B]Gratitudes[/B] For the dogs breaking off my flower bud of one of my tree peonies - rescued it & it has opened indoors, so exotic looking; for sourdough loaves turning out good this time; for the space here & freedom; for (tonight) a heated duvet :rotfl:

NSD now 6/19

Check ins: 12/31

Not done charity donation yet but will arrange asap. Need to do through euro account. Nope. Not done yet but must do - the charity vets bills etc come to 20,000 euro this month & that has cleaned out their account. Can spare a few euro to help.

dolly84

I had to return my popcorn maker yesterday. We used it on Friday and it fired out scalding hot pieces of unpopped corn which then scorched my floor. Argos took it back with no bother and I'm not making a fuss about the floor as it is quite old now and has several other marks plus the scorches were tiny but we though it might burn us if we carried on using it.


Bought dog food yesterday, called at the library and had a peruse around the CS in town but didn't buy anything. Went cycling later.

f0xh0les

Anyone want a slightly used 13 yr old? Grrr..... kids!!.
They know just what buttons to press don't they?
Happy Sunday morning .

Today will be NSD 6

Fun filled day of stripping woodchip wallpaper planned.
Very slow progress.
Strangely, nobody else wants to help. It's a mystery!

Went into the c/s yesterday at 4pm. There were about 3 pieces of furniture / mirrors I would have bought in a second. But they were all sold already. In fact nearly the whole shop was sold, There was a lovely fire surround that would have fit my bedroom brilliantly. But also sold.
Oh well, will have to be more vigiliant,
or volunteer to work there!

I accidently poisoned myself yesterday. Who knew we had coriander (yuk, yuk, yuk) in the same pot as two kinds of parsley. It must have been quite stressed as its leaves resembled the curled parsley, and was trying to put out flowers, so I nabbed them, cut them up and put them in a cous cous salad. Bleugh!! stuff tastes like Fa1ry liquid. 4 of us can eat coriander, so they ate it. It did not go to waste.

Eurovision last night was great fun, but the kids still got up at 6am after a post 11pm bedtime. Not looking forward to grumpy people later - well DS1 and 2 are already grumpy.

Right, my ladder is calling me.

Chin up Turtles!

greent

Motivation: have short/ medium/ long term goals. Paid £5 to short term goal today to make up for the change nabbed form piggy bank for car parking
Money: All DDs except gas/ elec have gone out now (just changed suppliers) so all money left is ours... and there is already virtually none left now until the CB arrives!:eek:
Move: 10k steps achieved yesterday, inc a half hour walk Not today - slept in late and have spent a while cuddling poorly DS3 - whoc is now snuggled up asleep on a sofa
Activation: What spurs you on? - Boxed up a small amount of books and CDs for MMagp1e - ready to post tomorrow. Only just over £5, but better than nothing. Will pay off CC when monies rec'd.
Arm yourself :Used freebie vouchers to buy DS3 a reduced leg0 book and minifig (reduced to £2.09) and part of friend's bday present. Used remaining vouchers to buy a top for nephew for his bday.
You. Appreciate what you have. Be grateful.
* sunny weather
* good friends
* more line dried washing
* snuggles with DS3
Foodbank/ charity donation of £5. - monthly DD to WWT. 2 bags of items donated to shoebox appeal - new bag started HAve also added 4 unsold items from flebay listings to CS bag - will take it there later this month

Pay to your debt/savings FIRST and live off the rest. - done Few small extra payments made since. Also took remaining balance from OH's switching c/ac (unused for several months) and paid to CC (just over £65)

Plan the month: every single day: what you are doing, what you are eating, - sort of - have written in work days, day when collecting DD from uni, DS3's, my mum's, my sister's, my aunt's and bestie's husband's bdays... Am not going to plan food, though).

Check in every day.here -:)

NSDs - 5/19 - not one yesterday nor today - yesterday, 2 x presents, 2 x cards, meal out with friends, car parking. Today - small shop in A1di. Tomorrow will be a scary repair bill for OH's car........

Kerry_Woman

NSD: 9/19 Was an NSD today.
Motivation: To be more mindful regarding spending. This is going to be ongoing. So far doing ok with not doing emotional spending and not spending without thinking.
Money: The budget for each category is done.
Me time: Started to read a new novel. Did wordsearch and mindfulness colouring.
Move: Did not do today.
Activation: To get my spending down to a reasonable amount.
Arm yourself: Will have to stand strong in my quest against consumerism and acquiring more. Still doing this. Not being tempted by emails regarding discounts.
Donation to charity: Done for the month. Looking into doing another charity walk.
Grateful for:
Having a good night sleep.
Went to a remembrance service organised by an hospice. My Mum's name was in the service booklet along with others who had passed away in the last six months.
Nice weather.
Managing to get more rest this morning.
A chilled out evening.

apple_muncher

Today I am very grateful for very good friends, for cake, for dh, for discovering a £5 bab voucher so dd got something for free, for a dry day, for having a relaxing day, for dd + friends having fun with noisy balloons.

LavenderBee

Hmmm, not checked in for a while again!

Budgets looking a bit sad:
Groceries - 157.36/200
Personal - 1/23.45
Diesel - 30/30
NSDs - 8/19

Pleased with no personal spends this month beyond £1 for hospital parking. Think the fuel in the car will get me to the end of the month as long as I've no unexpected trips. Groceries are tricky as hubby is now home for weekends (hooray!), I can't stand long enough to prep food which means more easier-to-cook stuff that costs more, and I'm shopping for ingredients for batch cooking to be consumed next month (that can be batch cooked without much prep :huh:).

Grateful for:
- Having hubby home at the weekend
- Every day that gets me closer to having baby (and not being pregnant any more!)
- Getting more than 2 hours sleep for the first time in a month :T
- Sorting out hubby's mobile contract :money:

swimminginaseaofdebt

• 12 NSDs - 6/12
• Budgets - £250 food and £100 social - £133.29 food and £31.38 social
• Continue batch cooking for the little one (remembering to include a larger variety of meals) - 3 portions of veggie omelettes, 3 portions of veggie lasagna, 4 portions of butternut squash soup and 5 portions of vegetable curry made. Plan to add risotto, cottage pie and fish cakes to the menu sometime this month too
• Make an extra £93 through surveys - £58.67 made to date
• Continue building the full and final fund - £201.27 added to date
• I'm making up Christmas gift boxes for local disadvantaged children. So far I've done two teenage boys and started on a boy 9-12 months but still more to get for him so I'll continue with that
• Plans - safari park and dinner/new avengers movie. Will also allow for a visit to soft play and I need to take the little one swimming as we're holidaying in June and he's never been in a pool - safari park cancelled, soft play on the 12th with friend and her daughter turned into a free teddy bear picnic at the park, food and avengers on the 19th and lunch with work colleagues on 23rd (just remembered!)
• Read as much as possible - 1 book in progress, 3 books finished
• Finish my final OU essay for this module - 6 weeks of reading to catch up with first, week 1 still in progress!

misstara

Still on 5/19 NSDs as keep spending :mad:
Money - bank account is looking very sad. I spent way too much on a girls night out last night, it was a lot of fun though. Today I popped some petrol in the car and also bought some hangover busting food and juice. I redeemed £22.83 from surveys so that should clear at some stage during the week
Move - went for a short walk today
Me time - have had a very lazy day other than the walk
You - grateful for my lazy day, getting a wee bit of fresh air, hm scones