NST: November 2020 - Madness!!!

Narola1976

Morning, please do sign me up. I really need this.

March to a different beat - for so many of my early years I wanted to fit in, be accepted, be like others. Now I just want to be the best version of me. I used to hate being alone, now I crave it. I learn from others, but I do not want to be them.

Alternate Day Spending - I am definitely aiming for 15 NSDs. I was abysmal at it last month. Mostly because of a lack of planning. 

Donate - yes, I have quite a few bits to donate to the CS which will also help to declutter. The biggest challenge is getting there, it does require a bit of planning and organisation. 

Nesting - well this I confess is one of the hard ones. Having limited space, my office is also the dining room - I work from home (not Covid related) so unfortunately the table gets limited use for family life. It is always a mess. Staying on top of the house is a real challenge for me, not being a domestic goddess in any shape or form, plus having a good dose of laziness. So I am trying really hard to use the advice I have learned on here, such as try to do 3 things before you leave the room. 

Exercise - say what now?? Actually I do zero exercise but I know I should do something. I won’t make any promises, but I will try in my own way. Today I need to collect my vitamins from H&B and I intend to park the furthest away so I can get a few steps in. That’s more than I have done for absolutely ages. 

Spending - well this one I can say I am all over. I check my budget multiple times per day, constantly tweaking as I need to. I am really focused on being DF, and not frittering money as I used to. I have a long journey ahead, but plugging away at it. My biggest area for spending is food, so I have been trying really hard to keep the grocery spend to £150 per month. I managed to spend £170 last month and while I did exceed the budget it was still a real achievement for me. A couple of months ago, it was £400   

Stay strong and true to yourself - I am doing all I can to stay on top of the finances. But there is one area I need to really work on and that is diet/health. I need to lose weight but I also need to control my sugars which currently are out of control. So today is Day 1. Which as it happens is rather painful as DD brought home from work reduced profiteroles and a passion fruit cheesecake. How will I resist. But resist I must.  This is the most challenging part of my life right now, apart from the house of course. 

Good luck everyone

f0xh0les

March - the 2 smallest kids now want to be more involved in the cooking.  I think my future is going to have a lot of  spaghetti and tomato sauce in it.  So be careful what you wish for!

Alternate - I have everything I need for lunchboxes on Monday, so no need to shop today.  Good job too, as the money is not in my account because although we are a 24/7 society, the banks still cannot cope with direct debits over a weekend. 

Donate and Nesting - The House of Swede delivery has arrived, so I am going to put it all together, and offer the ancient sofa on the NotWastingStuff site.

Exercise- flatpack is exercise, doing a strange dance shunting a sofa stood on its end between rooms is a form of exercise, cleaning and hoovering

Spending - see alternate

Stay Strong - to be honest, apart from the closure of charity shops, the lockdown rules will have no impact on what we have been doing since March. Still have the school run, still residents only inside houses, still a key worker, but I am glad they have not boxed the healthy old folk again. Just told them to be careful.   NSD 1

f0xh0les

DD brought home from work reduced profiteroles and a passion fruit cheesecake. How will I resist. But resist I must.  This is the most challenging part of my life right now.

The freezer is your friend when dieting - it does not taste as good whilst frozen solid   Freeze in one person portion sizes. Add it in to your menu plan on a soup day.

Shrewbie

Could I join please Apple? thanks so much for the challenge! 

IndiJonesi

Good afternoon Turtles

My November....

March to a different beat:  to grow as a person and to compare the person I am today to the person I was this time last year and maybe just see a little bit of an improvement.

Alternate Spending – 15 NSD’s:  have signed up for the November NSD challenge with @cathybird and set a target of 15 NSD’s on there.

Donate: When my husband and I moved in together, I donated about 95% of my house contents to the Charity Shops so I’ve no goodies left.  I will, however, donate the crinkly eye smiles all the time.

Nesting: I will endeavour to finish one of the jobs that I have started on the house instead of creating “another job for DH”.

Exercise: I’ll do a Callanetics (anyone remember this?)workout once a week, take the long way round when I’m walking at work and only ever use the stairs.  I’ll also count the housework as exercise too as there is a fair bit of that in my hoose.

Spending: This is a really difficult one for me due to Xmas fast approaching.  I always leave shopping until the very last minute, end up spending hundreds of pounds and then practically keel over when I look at my statements in January.  So this year, I have removed people from the present list, reduced the amount that I spend per person and shopped on ebay for cheap deals.  So my Xmas shopping has now been started and I need to concentrate on not caving in and buying more than what I’ve budgeted for just because I feel bad that I haven’t spent enough on people.  Phew, Pressure.

Stay strong and true to yourself: I’m trying to eat well so that I lose weight and feel healthier instead of stress eating 20 bars of chocolate followed by a multi-pack of crisps.  This is right for me.

Toni'sfriend

Afternoon, Turtles. Miserable and wet north of the border.

March to a different beat. Well, the first thing I have to accept is that I won't be going on my annual holiday to the Lake District. Lockdown and the instruction not to cross the border have put paid to that. Looking on the positive side we can save the money and maybe go in the spring.

Alternate spending -  No NSD today. Food order arrived.

Donate – Nobody about here today to smile at let  alone talk to but I've bagged up some Halloween sweets to give to any children we see in the next few days. I bought lots but only one little girl came to the door last night. I know she shouldn't have really but we do know her and she was with her older sister who was being very responsible wearing a mask and socially distancing..

Nesting – Loads needing done. Actually, I don't know where to start. A good clean and clear out required.

Exercise - Just not possible to get out today. Weather is awful

Spending - Nothing today apart from the food shop

Stay strong - I've started a non alcoholic November and a healthy eating plan.

I don't seem to have achieved very much today

lcc86

Afternoon all. NSD number 1 here, woohoo! Went horse riding and have the slow cooker on with a sweet potato and coconut curry on for later, yum!

Weather is a bit questionable today, got up early yesterday and washed, waxed and polished my car ready for winter and it's dirty already! Wiped it down with a cloth and it looks fine again. Just wish this rain would stop.

This month I'm not going to set myself lots of goals, just going to take each day as it's comes and try to be grateful for the little things. 

ditty1234

Good afternoon everybody, I am scrolling when I should not be scrolling so just want to say hi and brace brace for an other week. Managed my first NSD day yesterday. Lost NSD today as paid for DS to be insured to drive my car as learner for two hours, and we were out for 1.5 hours. I feel I deserve a MEDAL, but he is driving better now - so I last longer - as he stated. My goal for this month is to stay sane and somehow I am foolish enough to think I can run 60M in a month! Well it's worth a try, it's free, and nobody can stop me, as long as were allowed to leave the house. 
Happy Sunday.

apple_muncher

Today I am grateful for all of us getting to church for the 1st time since March (and prob the last time for this year!), for getting my school prep finished, for 85% chocolate (as always!), for having a job, for getting a morning workout done.

greent

Day 1 and I've spent @ smkt (although no stocking up/ panic buying!)

Food has been ok and I've just made myself go for a (short) walk in the rain as my step count was pitiful - and is still less than 6k, so I can see I need to do some more! I did say hello to everyone I passed whilst out walking, though

Nesting - half way through having new lights (ones that work!!!!) in the kitchen  and a stud wall taken down in the family room- lots of mess and dust - cleaned most of it up last night but more will be created tomorrow, so this week is all about getting rid of that and getting the house 'back together' (we currently have guitars, gym equipment and several other things in the living room which normally live in the family room....)

Exercise - short walk in rain. My new gym membership starts on Thursday this week!!! Hmmm - shan't be using that this month, then! Will aim for 10k steps/ day. 

Grateful for: a warm house, food in the cupboards, my lovely children