NST February frugality and frolics

Lovelifeloveliving

Hi all

F Food Expenditure. Decide on your food expenditure for the month - do not exceed it.
£200 per month. £0/£200

E Excursions and entertainment should be planned before the month starts.
BF 50th birthday party 23/02/19
Concert - 2 night City break 24/02/19. Paid previously. Frugal efforts in February will provide spending money for the trip.

B Budgets should be set before the start of the month.
Updated budget on spreadsheet with direct debits.

R Reduce your planned food expenditure in accordance with the table below. Will be tough, but will attempt it to keep as close to it as possible.
Reduced my food budget by £50 this month and will evulate at the end of February.

U Useful leftovers. If there is anything from last month or a previous challenge which you found useful, keep on doing it (tackling those frogs, ditching bad habits and replacing them with good ones). Small changes that last are preferable to dramatic ones that peter out.
Used up some limp mushrooms. Made mushroom soup for lunch. Previously I would have thrown them in the bin.

Aim to take your lunch to work every day (unless you have a free
or heavily subsidised canteen. Similarly prepare for hospital appointments or days out by taking your own food and drink when possible.
0/12

R Remind yourself of what you have and be grateful. This is a tough challenge but I am not asking anyone to live on a bowl of rice a day. You can choose to add your gratitudes on here or to record them privately.
Grateful for a walk with my DD, my homemade mushroom soup, my day off work and the sunshine.

Y You should pay to your debt or savings first and live on what is left. Ideally pay it on the first of the month/ payday. I appreciate that some of you have money coming in at different times and may need to accommodate existing standing orders/ direct debits.
Credit card payment made.

S Spend Free Days (SFDs).
Aiming for 18 SFDs.
3/18.:j

R Regular check ins are recommended, daily if possible.
I'm here.

V Turtles generally avoid the consumer fest of bad taste on the 14th of the month. If you and your significant other choose to celebrate, make it yourself. If there is no significant other, then celebrate your singledom in whatever way you choose - pampering, slothing, singing a la Bridget Jones or hiding under the bedclothes. Think I will be doing pampering. See when the day comes around.
DP present bought in the sale.
DP planning on cooking.

I Indoors/outdoors. Regular exercise is important. Will try and go out for a walk each day.
Indoors - I mentioned being a hermit. I would like you to see this as a positive step. Spring may be around the corner but winter often has a sting in its tail. Nurture and protect yourself. Huddle by the fire, go to bed early, read, have hot drinks and comforting home made soup. Recharge your batteries. Rest and conserve your energy. Guard your mental health. Write down 10 things that help improve your mood and practice them regularly.
8000 steps and 2000 to go.

V Vending machines, coffee shops, takeaways (everything from an Indian banquet to a pastie or a bag of chips) are forbidden (except for those who have them as part of a budgeted family evening).
None

A Advance planning.
Meal planning and making meals from scratch (no food waste) are your friends.
A cleaning day tomorrow.
All meals tomorrow from the larder and freezer.

Have a good evening. Xx

apple_muncher

Today I am grateful for my quiet hour in the morning before I wake the others, for getting through the day at work, for some nice times with the classes, for minimal contact with toxic colleagues (another of my mental-wellness things that I do), for getting home before dd and surprising her, for an easy tea, for dh buying more bacon, for tuna mayo, for being able to re-arrange a dietician appt for dd easily on the phone.


Lauren - you sound like my neighbour. She's a cleanaholic! I hoover so rarely that she must wonder what the strange noise is when I actually get around to it...

mothernerd

Bonus Quote

Don't be so hard on yourself.
The mum in E.T. had an alien living in her house for days and didn't notice.

ponypal

Evening all!
Had a fall on some ice this weekend so feel a bit battered. Need to focus on self care I think. Made my first purchase this year of a replacement pair of jeans as my old (and only) pair tore. Feel a bit bad because I can mend them, but also I wear the jeans to one of my jobs so felt like it wasn't worth the risk, so will save the new ones for work initially. Also bought some new laces as the laces on one of my shoes broke completely! Feel quite good that the only things I have bought so far have been replacements for essentials.
Need to do meal prep, look after myself etc. Feeling quite overwhelmed though! Might do some youtube yoga to clear my head. Take care everyone x

mothernerd

Did not sleep well so feeling a bit ropey. I was up early in case the community matron came as she has a habit of turning up at 8.30am. Phoned the doctor's for the prescription. Stayed with mum until it was time to go to my appointment (dietician and physio today).

Interesting meeting. They have set easier targets than I would have - eat more veg and aim for 3 x 15 minutes housework a day (will include decluttering and sorting the yard once I am firmly back on both feet and hoping to increase it to 10 x 15 minutes eventually).

I had to do four simple exercises, all of which were timed (so that we can compare at my six month review), they made me stop one of them (stepping up and down) as I was starting to go a bit dizzy. They were inducting a new physio (it was his first day) so i had one of them standing either side when I went wobbly).

Have been signed up for the group sessions (every two weeks) - short information talk and then gentle graded exercise. I was going to go back to mum's but she said I could go home (I left her with sandwiches for tea/ supper). Did not protest more as I probably need a good night's sleep in my own bed. I am going back tomorrow and will take a change of clothes and sleep over until Wednesday.

Went upstairs to the doctor's for the prescription but it has been sent through to the pharmacy so should arrive tomorrow with mum's other pills. Felt strong enough to catch the little bus and walked (without the walker) from the bus stop, across the town hall square and the car park. Ankle is really hurting now. The physio offered to refer me to the MSK team but I have decided to wait a few more weeks to give it a chance to heal on it's own (with a lot of help from me).

Spent 2 pounds on bus fare (taxis to mum's and the infirmary were paid by mum). I have been into their room and extracted more pots and recycling, some cardboard all of which have been put in their allotted places.

Today i am grateful for the help and advice I have been given, for being able to help mum and anticipate the things she needed and for doing more walking, unaided.

Very gentle hugs ponypal, I'm a past master at dramatic ice falls.

sashanut

Hi all :j

Bit of a funny day as had a falling out with DD this morning which resulted in her going back to her own home....result! Actually it wasn't nice at all but she was very angry that I wouldn't take her to a beauty appointment (!) and sit in the car for about an hour whilst she was in there, then go shopping with her...heyho and she's not a teenager, she just behaves like one. :mad:

She stomped out & didn't speak to me all day, but then contacted me eventually, couldn't resist sending me a pic of the meal she'd made herself ..

F Food Expenditure Aiming for £225 for the month, down from about £275.. already done a bit of spending so no NSDs as yet. Shopping already spent £80.75/225 but hopefully most stuff bought for the month. NO spending today...


E Excursions and entertainment should be planned. Planned visit to shops tomorrow to use up voucher that expires. Doesn't fall into the entertainment category AFAIK. Neither does the dental appointment on Wednesday, but it is an excursion....we may though go out on Friday to look at a new to us car...

B Budgets [/B]None set as yet - other than food - & all DDs already out.

U Useful leftovers Will also carry on with frogs. Still frog dealing with although giant kitchen frog had to be slain last week as engineer came to service cooker. Well I say slain but there are still several areas that could do with more attention, need to keep up to what's been done too so no backsliding.

A Aim to take your lunch
Don't work outside the home but will aim to take snacks/lunch/etc when we go out. Will take a snack to CS shift tomorrow. Free tea is provided!

R Remind yourself We have much to be grateful for and remind ourselves daily, have had tough times in the past and appreciate the difficulties that people face. Grateful for snowdrops peeping out, fine day much milder & DD contacting me.

[/COLOR]Y You should pay your debt or savings first Have no debt other than a cc paid off in full each month. However, savings needed for dental work & also for house renovations, so will take care of that. Paid back joint account for dental work last week, more to come this week.

S Spend Free Days (SFDs) Now 1/18:T

U Use it up Keep using up what we have, have done some shopping already but should only need fresh F&V & bread, plus animals food/litter. Used up some soup for lunch & made a pasta dish for supper with fridge bits. Was very tasty.

R Regular check ins Here

V Cards only ..

I Indoors/outdoors My only regular exercise is gardening, which I try to do most days. Walked a lot when away need to have slightly better weather to do much around here. Out in garden today, sorting out border & digging out some of compost heaps to spread on garden. Did about one hundredth of the borders...

Indoors - being a hermit. Had some time indoors today but had to prepare a lost of posting for tomorrow.

V Vending machines etc Rarely use but do have the occasional takeaway as part of family meal. Maybe once a month, but no plans so far.

A Advance planning This is a problem for me, I don't plan in advance but decide what to have on an almost daily basis. I know I have to get more organised, so will inventory both fridges...as a starting point. Have not inventoried yet but have sent DH round to DDs with all her stuff that was cluttering up my fridge.

Garden prep - up to today - has been going on apace, not with planting as the ground has been frozen but with pruning & some greenhouse stuff. No veg as yet but it's a bit early for here. Will go through seeds - I have loads - and see what I need if anything. My problem is if I go away nobody is interested enough to water etc, so I have to choose my time. Milder today so it was possible to get into the borders a bit. Seeds still await evaluation.


Go Turtles!!!

apple_muncher

ponypal - hope you're not too bruised.

f0xh0les

Yesterday was indeed NSD1.

Did you know if you only buy reduced items at Mr ALDee's the cashier has to buzz for the manager to ok the transaction? I do now! Still not stopping though.

Boiler has cost £170 so far, and he says the other bit that needs replacing will cost £110. So all spare cash this month that was heading to the savings pot for future building works, has been eaten by the boiler monster. Well, all spare except £3. It needs doing so it must be done. Two steps forward, one step back, you still get where you are going, it will just take a little longer.

Happy Chinese New Year Turtles

Maisie_M

[FONT=&quot]Food Expenditure – Setting a budget of £200 - spend £59.70[/FONT]
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E Excursions and entertainment – none
B Budgets all set[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]R Reduce your planned food expenditure in accordance with the table below – done[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]U Useful leftovers. used up left over leeks, mushrooms, peppers and bacon with pasta to make dinner. I had bought a tub of spice/herbs to add to the dish about 18 months ago so I used that up. Very tasty and filling.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
A Aim to take your lunch to work every day – last nights left overs for lunch

R Remind yourself of what you have and be grateful. Grateful that it’s a 4 day week for us this week.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
Y You should pay to your debt or savings first and live on what is left. dds done[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
S Spend Free Days (SFDs). 2/18 [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]U Use it up. used up last of frozen leeks and peppers and the last of the mushrooms from last week. Also used up a pot of spice which had been languishing in my cupboard for ages.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
R Regular check ins are recommended. here

V have steak in the freezer already which DH and I will have and we are getting each other the matching Dark and Light Night Furies [/FONT][FONT=&quot]😊[/FONT][FONT=&quot] which we love[/FONT][FONT=&quot]

I Indoors/outdoors. steps done today[/FONT]
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V Vending machines, coffee shops, takeaways – none[/FONT]
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A Advance planning. Meal planning done for this week [/FONT]
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L Let the challenge commence at midnight on 1st February 2019 and end on 28th February 2019 at midnight.[/FONT]

SpekySquarehead

After a delayed start, yesterday was my first NSD.

However..

I have a work trip to London tomorrow, for 3 days, which I'll need to pay my own way and then claim back on expenses. So I don't think I'll manage my lofty target this month given the poor start in the first week. I'll keep trying though!