NST September: Sunshine Challenge

Kerry_Woman

Set your budgets now. Have done this.
NSDs – 19/20 Was an NSD today. I did order a book but the money came from birthday money so not counting it as a spend. Did work out what I had in for dinners until the next big food shop in October. Luckily I have enough, so only need potatoes.
Spread some sunshine – Talked to a lady with 2 dogs in the park.
Healthy eating – Need to be more mindful with what I am eating. Was ok today.
Invest in yourself. Did wordsearch, mindfulness colouring, read some of a book. 3rd day of not playing computer games. Catching up with some programmes I recorded.
No spending on takeaways, drinks out, etc unless prearranged and budgeted for. Try to find free activities to do.
Exercise - Walked one lap of my usual route in the park.

Coxy11

Hi everyone,
Monthly craft group at the church tonight. We do a mix of knitting, crochet, sewing, felting, card-making. We have tea/coffee and biccies and have a natter which is great. I love to craft but haven’t had much time/mojo lately so this 2 hour slot means I get on and actually do some! Mothernerd – come and join us lol!
Hope all poorlies are doing okay. Group hug.
Updates as follows:
S – DH got paid today and I will get paid tomorrow for last week. Payslip came today and my tax-code is something weird so rang the agency payroll team to check. Hate not paying the correct amount and need to get it sorted asap with HMRC.
U – Two portions of (bland) SW cottage pie leftover from last night as DS1 is away. I had one for lunch today and bought Worcestershire sauce with me to pep it up. Yum. Used up a packet of bacon today for SW carbonara. I cooked as DS2 (who was meant to) wasn’t feeling well today – such a quick, easy and tasty meal.
N – 9/15 – No spends today (see below).
S – Donated to the office’s MacMillan Big Coffee Morning – great cause. Money from purse already accounted for this week. Delicious carrot cake – yum!
H – All healthy eating today (except for the cake!). Determined to lose something at fat club this week. Weighing in on Saturday instead of tonight due to monthly craft group.
I – Finished my book last night – great twist at the end. Will be lending to DD to read, although she is doing English Lit A level and probably has enough to read right now! Looking forward to starting another book tonight – got 4 new ones for my birthday 
N – None this month yet and none planned.
E – Walk around the block today at lunchtime plus took stairs (14 flights) out of the building x 2.
Hope you all had a good day,
Coxy

apple_muncher

Today I am grateful for good weather, for the cancan music, for a good day at work, for dd enjoying school, for a catch up with a friend, for getting the grass mowed, for dh putting the mower away, for a friend giving me some runners from her strawberry plant.

mothernerd

A nice relaxing day but not a lot done. It was an effort to get myself in and out of the bath and also went downstairs to put food in the oven. Rubbish binned (there is more). Took cans and bottles to the recycling bin, carried on to the library - returned 2 books, picked 4 more, put a small bag of books and clothes into the charity bin and 5 tins into the food bank box.


Written 4 headings of things to do - October/ Christmas/ my room/ kitchen and want to get mum's tax return sent asap. Currently sewing (from Christmas list).


Today I am grateful for put it on a tray and put it in the oven food from the freezer, for lovely weather, for finding enough sewing bits to continue with something that I had put aside.

f0xh0les

Still on NSD 15

Budget reset tomorrow, did a YS raid and got loads, combined with supermarket grocery shop today should see me well into October.

Going to try for another 3 NSDs in a row!!! can't hit 20, but still can do 18........

sashanut

Hi all:j

Out yet again today after DD driving lesson; did need quite a few things & stocked up on others so did go although had said I wouldn't. Upside was that we had main meal after lunch & after that DD went to her own home :j Won't see her now until Saturday pm (DH birthday).

Set your budgets now. Pay to your debts/savings first and live off the rest. Make sure you're on the best deals for utilities, phones, broadband, etc. Are there any areas in your budget that you could cut down on? Will go through budget again & see where savings could be made. Remembered to ask about dentist subs, hopefully she will go at least for checkup as all paid for already.

Use up. Have a look through your cupboards and identify any food that's been lurking there for a while and incorporate it into a meal plan. Likewise toiletries, any half opened bottles - use before opening/buying more. Lunch was a Chinese takeaway (!) but in honour of DHs birthday (his choice) and as a lunchtime special was only £3.50 each, I can live with that this week.

NSDs - there are 30 days in September so a minimum of 15 or 20 for a harder challenge. Usual exemptions for ys items, petrol and medical expenses. Still 11/15

Spread some sunshine - be kind to others, help out friends, neighbours, colleagues and strangers. Share your tales of any random acts of kindness. Chatted to an older lady in the supermarket.

Invest in yourself. Make sure you take the time to do things that you enjoy. Try something new that you've always wanted to do. Did sit & do a small amount of knitting this afternoon as no meal to prep. Lots of jobs to do outside still, so when the weather gets bad, it will be a more usual occurrence.
No spending on takeaways, drinks out, etc unless prearranged and budgeted for. A takeaway today - DH birthday treat.

Try to find free activities to do. Will do.

Exercise - it won't be long before the darker nights start drawing in so make the most of it while you can. Get outdoors for walk/run/cycle even if only for 10 minutes. Outside for a short time, hopefully more tomorrow.

Go Turtles!!

GlendaSugarbean

Another NSD yesterday so it's 13/15. Think that might be it for me - not great but better than it could have been!

I've had a couple of mini income bits come in - was listening to one of the YNAB podcasts and they were talking about unexpected windfalls and how to make the most of them. In the last I'd have been any extras (10 or 20 quid, not major amounts) as spending money, but not I'm making the effort to add at least some of that cash into savings pots. Next step is to keep the money in the pots and not spend it!

f0xh0les

Windfalls are important to me, any extra goes straight into a different 'pot', be it a refund, a cashback, a monthly bribe from the bank, and a couple of times a week, the bank balance gets tidied, (a la Tilly) down to the nearest .00 - otherwise it seems to evaporate.

From small acorns... and all that.

greent

Windfalls / extra cash have a purpose here, too. Currently they are going towards paying off the BTL mtge (int only, so all cap reductions are very welcome . Our original plan was to have sold the property around now, so IO was perfect at the time. However, we're holding onto it as a source of income for when we are retired/ an asset we could sell then if necessary) Extra income is flebay sales, fb00k sales etc, cashback payouts (which I take as Tesc0 vouchers for the increased amount), bank rewards and even invigilating income (I treat this as 'extra' as it's seasonal and can vary so much from £0 - £600 (only twice have I ever achieved that in a month!) I then 'round up' all extras (so if the cashback Tesc0 voucher was £12.38 I round that up to £15) to OP to the mtge and then the mtge stays at a nice round balance

Previously extra monies were used to help pay off our own mtge, then as a Florida holiday fund, then the new kitchen fund and then paying off OH's car finance fund. I always try and make them have a purpose because otherwise they disappear without a trace all too soon....

dolly84

Payday for me today, my missing weeks wage turned up in the bank today too. DH joined th gym this week so my wage has paid for that (he paid for the year as it was £10/month cheaper when working it out), paid off the rest of the cc balance and an overdraft on another account with is free so I use it as a cc really. Will be taking out kids bus fares in cash from my wages and paying for a takeaway for tomorrow with it.