NST April 2019 - Spring Forward

GlendaSugarbean

Count me in please!

Great challenge this month, I slipped a bit last month so will do my best to focus.

On the invest front, March ended with a hefty spend on new glasses - very necessary as my prescription has changed, and the money was set aside, but I still resent the fact that my tricky prescription means that I pay twice as much as DH for one pair against his two! £300 but I will wear them every day for about 2 years, so price per wear is good? Also flummoxed the assistants who help you choose frames - no I don't want to know the best frames for my face shape, there will be about three here that will work with my lenses so show me those and I'll choose the one that's least awful . The current trend for big, round frames does not play well with high prescriptions. The only glimmer of light is that increasing age means my prescription is down into single figures for the first time in years!

Aiming for my first NSD of the month today.

laurenh1

Hi lovelies,



Sorry I was AWOL last month, I was on my own with a poorly toddler & feeling fairly grim myself. Turns out my iron levels were low & I've been taking spatone to boost them back up & now I feel much better , I've got all my energy back. So theres a recommendation if anyone else has low iron!


Simplicity- taking my children to the park, tucking them into bed, having good friends.

Persevere- hub & I have been struggling recently, weve been saving our house deposit as long as I can remember & its getting tiresome. Hubs fed up of all the working away but, were so close. 4 more car payments, hopefully 6 more months until we have our house deposit. We need to keep plodding on.:D
Reduce- I always try. I will keep trying to cut down on plastic, I'd like to invest in some wax wraps but they're so expensive! Weve also turned the heating off, not indefinitely, it's allowed on but the timers off now.
Invest in youself- I've lost half a stone this month & Im really trying to eat better & look after myself, I'll keep trying.
New- chance to drawer a line, start again.
Grab- take life by the horns, love this one, will have a think.
NSDS- will aim for 15, today should be number 1.kids are off so need to plan lots of fun for as cheap as possible. Just returned from Thomas land this weekend which I paid for using Tesco vouchers. :A

I have £177 left in the pot this month but full cupboards & £120 for fuel. I've put money aside for everything I know I've got coming up


Good luck Turtles :beer:

SpekySquarehead

Me too, please?!

Although I am about to make a dreadful start as late last night, I realised the feta cheese which is a key ingredient for my work lunches this week was off. Plus I found out this morning that I bought ground coffee instead of instant coffee and I need pecans (and not walnuts!!) for some healthy cookies I was planning on making to satisfy my sweet tooth,

In short, no NSD today. A great start.

Lovelifeloveliving

Hi all:j:j

Simplicity - think about the simple pleasures in your life which you really appreciate, friendship, family, cake. Focus on those this month as much as you can
Firstly no more cake for me Dolly, that's one of my problems :rotfl::rotfl: I will focus on the simple pleasures this month, more quality time with the kids, DP and my two besties, spend more time outdoors in nature, enjoy and appreciate the simple foods and try and avoid processed foods, continue with a little me time.

Persevere to reach your goal can sometimes seem never ending but try to remember that each time you waste money/time it can take you further away from what you really want for the long term.
First thing that comes to mind is my divorce. The kids and I had to leave the matrimonial home due to my exs behaviour. He refused to move out and my teenage son was so desperate to move out because of his Dad's behaviour that I put my son's emotional needs first and moved out of the home despite legal advice. It's been a long journey to try and reach financial resolution due to my exs continual obstructive behaviour despite court orders. I will persevere with this process for the benefit of the kids.
Healthy eating and weight loss is another focus. I will set myself a target of 10lbs this month and I WILL achieve it:)

Reduce - I wouldn't be me if I wasn't asking you to reduce. Think about what you really need and what will be left at the end, is there a better way to consume.
I will continue with recycling/ repurposing. Remain focused on reducing utilities. Continue on my decluttering journey and pass things on to family or charity shops.

Invest- in yourself, your family, your home - the things that really matter to you.
Myself - I celebrate my 50th in the summer alongside my two beasties who turned 50 in January and February. It is a year of celebrations in many ways. We have a spa break booked for 4th April. Already paid for. Continue with a little pampering.
Family - Plan some fun activities to do together. Support my daughter with her literacy as she struggles a little.
Home - A spring clean and continue with cleaning routines.

New - new month, new beginning. Don't look back at past mistakes and failures, there is nothing that can be done about them, learn from them and move on.
I will give this some thought.

Grab - take life by the horns. Do something which takes you outside of your comfort zone at least once this month.
I live rural and there is a mountain I would like to climb, a bit of a challenge I hasten to add.

I will aim for 15 NSD however the Easter holidays are in the middle of the month.
I have updated my budget for the month. Transfered money to savings.
I want to reduce some areas of my monthly budget to allow for my spending money for my spa break. I need to be very mindful of my spending for the month.

Good luck turtles:T:T

poppytattoo

Hi everyone - I haven't done this before but would love to join if you'll have me? I am simultaneously paying off debts and saving for our wedding in November (booked & various deposits paid long before I realised what a state my finances were in!)

I was wondering - how do people track their NSDs? Is there like a habit tracker app, or a chart, or do people use calendars? I often find it helps if I can see what I'm doing visually...

dolly84

Morning all. Thanks to everyone for joining in this month, welcome back to indigowarrior and lauren.


I'm not much of a one for inspirational quotes but I know many of you are so please feel free to post them if you like.




I said I wouldn't spend money yesterday but I lied. I got the kids easter eggs (bunnies actually), some black beans from Sainsburys as Tesco don't sell them and I use them in a soup, some supper snacks, ys bread and some dark chocolate.


I do not plan to spend today.


Have cycled this morning and it was really chilly. Washing is on the line, dog needs to be walked and I will get some cleaning done. All meals from stores as ever.


apple - whatever happend to bob?

dolly84

poppytattoo wrote: »

Hi everyone - I haven't done this before but would love to join if you'll have me? I am simultaneously paying off debts and saving for our wedding in November (booked & various deposits paid long before I realised what a state my finances were in!)

I was wondering - how do people track their NSDs? Is there like a habit tracker app, or a chart, or do people use calendars? I often find it helps if I can see what I'm doing visually...

Of course you can join in. Welcome to the other newbies too. We are a friendly bunch on here.

Munchin

Hi

I would like to join this month as well. As always I'm trying to stop my frittering ways - haven't been successful so far

laurenh1

:jOver paid my car by 300 pounds this morning:j

mothernerd

Not done my figures but I am celebrating. Spent the weekend doing more of the same - trawling through all the stuff in my house working out what I can get rid of and getting the rest down to manageable categories. All at the pace of paint watching snail (various health issues including living with a 'flu' bug for the past 8/9 weeks and a 'sprained' ankle which has not resolved itself within the anticipated 6 weeks - now past 3 months plus long-term issues too boring to go into).

This weekend I switched focus to trying to clear things into their appropriate rooms mostly in my bedroom and also cleared the top of the stairs which veers between mildly inconvenient and hazard warnings needed.

Used the usual bag for recycling/ rubbish/ cs/ clean clothes etc but the 'as though it were on steroids' version (quick count up last night had me on 14 bags) and the bath was empty and dry so I put all my bedding (huge duvet, two covers, sheets, pillowcases) in there to give me more room (and less of a trip hazard were they trailed off the bed).

One bin bag out in the bin (tend to fill a large bag up slowly over one or two weeks and use a small bag for anything I want to go out sooner), half a charity sack full - stuff to go out of the house is going today, I picked up half a dozen charity sacks and can monitor the fullness of the charity bin in the library (more convenient for me).

Just kept plugging away, really tired by about 10pm but kept going (reached the point where I needed to finish it off, if I'd stopped it would have slid back into mess). Finally finished about 2 am.

My bed is clear, everything is in categories - some need further sorting but a lot is gone or going. Nothing left under the bed except my suitcase. landing was cleared but now has things for the kitchen (usual categories plus 3 bags of 'good' stuff - storage boxes I brought up to match with lids and random purchases, extravagant things like 2 new teatowels) and all the diy and painting stuff (some been there for a while but was buried by an overflow of clothes from 'their' room (DS3 and his gf live with me - DS3 works from home and prefers to live in his underpants and his Beloved is a gadget freak).

Quite happy to keep the kitchen and diy stuff on th landing for now as I want to work more on the kitchen before adding anything else into the mix. I love simplicity and had trimmed my kitchen equipment to the bare minimum (until recently I could mix/ beat faster by hand than with a mixer so billy blender covered all my needs). DS3's Beloved is a gadget girl - she brought at least 10 kitchen appliances with her and probably has another half dozen acquired since then - I don't know what most of them do (except take up space/ residence on the worktop). I did my best to make her (and the gadgets) welcome and I know it's always difficult to share a kitchen but to some extent my kitchen is alien territory to me and for a while I just gave up. I am my mother's carer and spend part of most days with her, I come in between 8 pm and 9 pm and at some point I just stopped caring.

I had a home visit by my occupational therapist several weeks ago and my house is just one giant trip hazard so my current goal is to reduce my possessions by half (working with mum has shown that she has hung onto many things for 10 or even 20 years after she was able to use them, determined that that will not be me).

OT is coming back in 5 weeks so I am currently chatting with Beloved about what we need to do next - this works well as when I tell DS3, she will back me up if he subsequently cannot remember the conversation.

Finished off last night (well 2 am this morning) by making my bed, having a 'sit on a stool in the bath' shower and washing my hair (one of the 'flu' symptoms still hanging on is continual sweating). Is there anything so lovely as being all clean and snuggling down between clean sheets?

Slept for about 8 hours with only 1 or 2 breaks and still feeling good. My foot really hurts so will be a quiet day. I may not get to check in tonight as I am planning to take all the paperwork (2 bags for life worth - that's all mine and mum's apart from house sales, death and divorce stuff) and stay overnight if necessary until it's done. Hers can now be kept at her house again (I removed it as her partner had dementia and he kept 'sorting' it) so another batch of stuff NOT in my bedroom.

Today I am grateful for clean sheets, clean hair, clean everything, for visible progress (I knew all the bits were helping but it takes a while before you can actually see the difference - f0xh0les 'puddles of space' starting to join up), for my mood improving (think the antibiotics are helping), for adopting a more positive attitude (very low on Friday but now back to fighting mode - I may only be on my knees and crawling but forward is forward), for good drying weather (need to set the wm and dw off before I go to mum's) and for taking time to rest (reminded myself that I have to take pills, eat and add various creams to my body), for taking things one at a time, for lists.