NST Penny Pinching GoSober Stoptober

apple_muncher

Today I am grateful for working with some great people, for classical music, for being able to help out a colleague, for dh making tea, for quick n easy ginger cookies for dd and my own style banana/almond/seeds cookies, for dh being more open to the benefits of more veg/less sugar (he may be close to a vegetable lightbulb moment...!), for time to step back and ponder a little.

Shrewbie

Thanks thrifty. I managed 7 days sober mainly by hiding from everybody I know. not sure how I will fare this week when I actually have to see people. haha.

Challenge – 8 days sober... went to free group meditation last night. Will donate something to them on payday. Going to add improving my Spanish to my challenge - I speak it only usually at lunchtimes with my students and a bit at weekends. Need to up my game and start learning more.
Organise - was super organised at the weekend with batch cooking. although i hate it when planning for work encroaches on my weekend.
Regular budget Budget done.
No Spend Days NSD achieved today. 5/15
Exercise Walked home from work 40min.
Christmas need to start putting money away for this.
Banned - no takeaways. Did eat some lovely maple syrup truffles that my sort of bf brought me back from Canada.
Extra Income none
Report - Reporting in.

Today I'm grateful for my super warm woollen €2 bargain scarf from charity shop

I_Want_to_be_Free

How is your wrist, GreenT?

Mothernerd, I was going to go and see the giants too but the crowds put me off! That and the fact that this was my first weekend to myself in over 2 months.

Coxy - Oh my word, when I read your post about your DD's house party I literally time travelled back 20yrs to far too many drunken nights as a teenager :rotfl: But seriously, the friend's parent was being a (insert expletive here) :mad: Hope your DD is ok too :A

Apple- what is mrmoneymustache? :think:

Gometra - how are you feeling now?

laurenh1 - Thanks for the info re-the pants :A

Sashanut - wow, you got loads done yesterday! :T

thriftylass - That is so lovely about your decorations. I wish I had sentimental decorations that had been passed down through the generations. :A

Kerry Woman - I'm so sorry about your mum. I literally cannot imagine how you cope with something like that I'm so glad that you're taking this year to look after yourself

crazy_cat_lady - I hope you get an early night tonight! Monday's are the busiest days for me too :eek:

Well done everyone! :j

apple_muncher

mrmoneymustache.com

financial independance, retire early through badassity. I love it. Well worth a read - go on the 'all posts ever' bit to pick and choose from the start, and get a flavour of the journey he and his family are on. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I like him!

WelshKitty85

Quick check in to report NSD 4 and still 0 takeaways.

mothernerd

Day 2 of spend freeze successfully completed. No meal planning done but have just decided to manage as long as I can with what's in the house (may draw the line when we get down to tinned butter beans and tomatoes only and had planned to pick up a bottle of milk at weekend).


Chest wheeze and cough are back, lots of sleeping and finding it hard to move much. Sunday I did some bedroom tidying, rubbish out, picked up the stuff in the narrow gap between the bed and drawers and some stuff on the far side of the bed - very aware of 'stuff' now as it's mostly on the bed with only a small triangular slice for sleeping in. Good because once I can sit up properly, I can tidy the small stuff without moving.



Also thought it was going to be a good drying day, put my wet clothes over all the garden chairs (and the waterbutt and the buddelia) at about 5am (sleeping in 3 hour chunks, then waking briefly) and brought it in about 3pm - still a bit damp but hung on hangers with sheets 'thrown' at the doors as I really needed to lie down again by that time.


Today has been mostly sleeping. Luckily mum phoned to say she didn't need me as she was full of a cold - she had even got back in bed - and I had already stocked her up with anything she might need. I went downstairs to make bacon butties (was going to have curry from the fridge but decided it would exceed my standing up limit), filled a 2l bottle with water and brought back sandwich filling, pasta salad and a head of celery. DS3 opened the sugar free cough medicine for me.


Think I will aim for doing one bit of tidying each time I go to the bathroom (have had a bath today but was wary of falling asleep there). A bit of reading done (now reading 3 different books as have failed to find the one I was reading when I fell asleep). I have yoghurt and diabetic ice cream if my throat goes worse (ate a tin of peaches last night and also have two tins of rice pudding bought when I was ill before).


Today I am grateful for peace and quiet, for sleep, for easy food from the freezer.

Coxy11

Hello all,
Thank you all for not being judgmental about DDs party. I was nervous about posting yesterday as I was worried I'd get trolled! I felt really rubbish yesterday and was blaming myself for having allowed her to have friends over. Anyway, she is feeling better, has had chats with friends at school and another friend bought flowers and chocolates round for me tonight. So we are all good.
DH is back from his camping trip to the wild west of Scotland. So grateful to have him home.
Hugs to all who could do with one. I know a lot of us are struggling at the moment, whether it be work or family stuff.

Organise - didn't manage to batch cook yesterday, but did a great roast pork dinner and had lo pork for lunch and dinner. Sausages for DH and the teens.
Regular budget - all done.
No Spend Days - currently on 4/15. Colleague paid me back for her lunch on Friday.
Exercise - walked from LG floor to 7th floor today after delivering guests to a meeting room. The lift lobby was rammed, so quicker to walk. Couldn't speak afterwards mind!
Christmas - list made, will be taking some days off in half term and also beginning of December to go shopping.
Banned - no takeaways or coffee shops
Extra Income - checked Qu!dco last night and have £16.25 in there, so will get that transferred towards the end of the month.
Report - I'm here!

Have a good evening all,
Coxy

laurenh1

Apple

I will give that a read too


Had a pretty good MSE day-



Got a pretty good deal with sky, 12 month contract at just a couple more ££ a month than I am paying now. It was due to go up to about £70 & there was no chance I would even consider paying that. Got it for £37- internet, line rental and the entertainment package



Hub gave me back £30 quid that he didn't need for something- putting budgets up to £121 plus whatevers left in my purse.yay.



Got a refund for my gas & electric supplier too (£36) but I'm not counting my chickens til they've hatched. Left £100 in the account to see me through winter plus leaving my DD higher than the recommended amount.



& finally got given some pears from my lovely friends garden, which will do us through the week



I hope everyone has had a good Monday & a good start to the challenge

f0xh0les

Coxy So the wasted guy would not take responsibility for his irresponsible wasted son? Wonder where the poor boy learnt that from? Hopefully that will have taught them all an important lesson. We all have to go through it, at some point, although the ambulance might have been a little excessive for most of us. Well done you for not only being the responsible adult, but a decent human being. He should be kissing your feet, not being a d*ck.
Sadly this has happened to every single person who I know that let their kids have a 16th or 17th birthday party. At least you still have a front door (I kid you not). Luckily my kids still think alcohol tastes (in their words) like bin juice. DS1 is 16 next Monday.

Organise -went nuts and reorganised some shelves and moved stuff to the shed.
Challenge - all from stores - baked flapjacks, made a lemon tart, a vegetable stew and a tomato soup.
Exercise - ran 1km this a/m - day 2
Autumn -organised my clothes. Jumpers out. Found kids waterproofs, ordered wellies
NSD 6
Improvise - using stuff up - cocoa nibs from the dark ages went into the flapjacks.
Christmas - £10 T0sc0 vouchers.£5 Football survey vouchers, £30 Postal Vouchers, £30 V'O vouchers,

Vices - been exceptionally good, no takeaways, no coffees, nada.
Investigate things for half term - NOTHING - not a sausage.
Extra income - vouchers all over the place, will cashout in November
Win some stuff - have started on the competitions again.

I_Want_to_be_Free

Well this weekend was great. I tidied my room and pulled out half of my wardrobe to sell then yesterday I spent the day shopping for the challenge and then batch cooking and baking. It was a brilliant weekend until my dad ruined everything. I'm 37 and live with my parents in the home I grew up in since I was 8yrs old. I moved in several years ago to save for a house deposit but then something happened and I had to incur a LOT of personal debt so I've been stuck here ever since. My parent's marriage has been rocky for the last 7yrs and I'm pretty sure my dad is cheating. Anyway, he said some really cruel things yesterday. And I'm talking, really cruel. My mum was in tears. I'm finding it so difficult to deal with more than my 3 other sisters but they haven't lived at home for years. My world is about to turn upside down and I am completely financially dependent on them so I cannot even get me and my mum a mortgage. I feel like such a failure even though the debt wasn't my fault. I have a real love hate relationship with my dad and at the moment it is definitely in the hate category. He is splitting this family up because of what's in his pants. He suffers from depression but won't acknowledge it but we've put up with his !!!! for years. I'm just struggling with dealing with this
But on a brighter note, I paid extra onto my highest interest credit card and moved all my direct debits to come out at the same time so I can budget properly. I am on my 3rd NSD so far and except for a meal out for my friend 50miles away as he is going to climb a badass mountain in Nepal which is budgeted for, then I don't forsee me spending until the weekend at least. This debtbusting has turned from a desire to be debt free and buy a house in a few years to the desperation of not knowing where I will live come the new year. Me and my mum will more than likely rent but I need to get this debt gone NOW so I can get us a mortgage. Anyway, sorry about the rant...:o