NST Jolly Joyful July

Thrifty_Taylor

Morning all, wishing dd a speedy recovery & congrats on her interview @Deni_debt-free_dreamer, also well done on passing your qualification, you won't know what to do with yourself now you don't have to study!! 

Happy holidays @apple_muncher, we are now coming to the end of our second week, don't know where the days are going!

Still on NSD#4, went to town yesterday to get food, creosote substitute & sacks of bird seed. Mum had a visit from the housing association, so pleased I could be there to give her support. Had a nap when I got home, feel really tired & have had an ache behind my eyes for 3 days.

Grateful for a relaxing bath, supporting mum, the lady from housing association being nice & helpful

Calling14

Dr Carrie apparently a lovely local market on in Ludlow, my friend is there atm. Not sure what day it is on.

Off to see dd2 in less than hour, excited after 18 months.  Looking forward to lunch out as well. Going to be a spendy day also got a birthday pressie for gs this morning, used survey vouchers so minimum spend.

Glad it's Friday, had a pamper night last night ignored tv and had nice bath and just chilled out listening to music and read my new book. 

See you Monday folks, have a good weekend. x

f0xh0les

Last day of primary school forever!!!!! 

Got confirmation of the free summer school 'arts and sports' sessions DS4 has been allocated.  So that will be nice for him. Sadly they are all afternoon sessions - 12-2

Found a free walking group that you can book to go on 90 minute guided walks of various bit of town I do not know,  and booking starts tomorrow at 10am, so will book me and the kids up for a few wandering adventures over the holidays.  

Need to look to see if there are any free swimming sessions on at the local pool.

Cashed out another £5 from p/a

Still on NSD4, bought milk, bread and oven chips.

Deni_debt-free_dreamer

thanks Thrifty.  DD1 has just been for lunch and looks well.  I am enjoying the break from studying; i left my books and files out on the breakfast bar from Dec - May so there was no excuse not to study ....  I've filled up some of the time though as have taken on a 4th job in that sector - it is temporary till summer 23 which my brain decided was one year, oops!  It is only 10 hours a month though.

I've never been to Ludlow but would like to as Shropshire is lovely; Shrewsbury is worth a visit if near enough

i'm glad it's friday, just a couple of hours of day job then it's chill time and lots of pottering at home.  It's 11 days to payday and i am broke   Got quite a bit of food so should be able to manage with minimum spends.  I do have some savings but allocated most of that to holiday and self asst tax bill.

gratitudes - sunshine, Wimbledon, DD1 popping in for lunch & looking well

Love Deni 

ldee2111

I took time this morning to look back at my plans in January and do a bit of a review.

In January I planned:

Drinking 1500ml a day - now drinking water is a habit so I’ve dropped this as a goal.

3 exercise sessions a week - what was I thinking. I am not that disciplined! I do need to do regular exercise but I’ve not found my groove yet. Will keep searching.

meal planning - now a habit with the odd ‘fell off the bandwagon’ day

measuring out ingredients rather than pouring unconsciously - same as above

bulk buying regular use items - my bulk buys are starting to thin out. Need to plan for my next one.

keeping weekly shop to £50 with £20 leftover for top ups and saving £10 underspend to mortgage OP - now trying to keep my shop to £40 with £20 for top ups, and anything leftover goes back into pot for another time until OH has an income

Have fun trying out some extra thrifty ways:

dilute the fruit juice ✅

dilute the laundry detergent ✅ 

cut the exact amount of baking parchment I need ✅ 

Fill kettle with exact amount of water I need ✅ 

Reuse teabags ❌ tried a few different ways but this didn’t work for me

Turn off switches before going to bed - still trying to get into the habit

I also said in January that I was aiming to not buy clothes or books this year. I’ve still not bought books for myself (DS is exempt from my challenge), but I caved to the clothes albeit I’ve only bought 5 items: replacement leggings, replacement trainers, and three tops to freshen my wardrobe and lift my mood.

In this second half of the year, I’m aiming to keep meal planning/trying new recipes, keep reducing household waste, reading the unread books I have and using the library’s free audiobook service, keep trying to find an exercise routine that works for me, keep trying to get into the habit of cutting off vampire energy, and to reach a £300 mortgage OP from selling unused items in house, saving any little bits I can, doing surveys, etc.

Grateful today for a day out at a park with Mum and DS, meeting up with cousin at the park, OH making dinner while I rest on the couch doing surveys.

mothernerd

Friday 9th July 2021
(apologies for lateness)

Days to Celebrate 
July 9th    National Sugar Cookie Day (bad for us, we'll give that a miss)
July 10th  Pina Colada Day or National Smoothie Day, National Kitten Day 
July 11th  National Free Slurpee Day, Blueberry muffin Day, Mojito Day
July 12th  Pecan Pie Day, Eat your jello Day
July 13th  National French Fry Day, Embrace Your Geekiness Day
July 14th  National Grand Marnier Day, Mac and Cheese Day, Cow Appreciation Day
July 15th  National Tapioca Pudding Day, Gummy Worm Day, Give Something Away Day
July 16th  National Ice Cream Day, Corn Fritter Day, Fresh Spinach Day
July 17th World Emoji Day, Peach Ice Cream Day

mothernerd

Wanted to get outside to do as much as I could of the task I was doing last night, before the sun got too hot. Then I worried that it might rain so kept plodding. Reached the 'I will not feel sorry for myself, I will not cry' stage fairly early but have kept going and the end is in sight. Decided I could not cope with the broken container bag. Checked and I had 3 whole ones which was as many as I needed. Unfortunately they were on the other side of the yard and had soil in.

Put down a tarpaulin and pulled things out of one bag - luckily this pulled out lumps of soil as well (think it was the good 'compost' soil as it was lighter than I was expecting) and I was able to turn it over and tip out what was left. Unstapled the broken bag from the fence and wrestled it to one side (one half was full of soil, the broken half had a bit in). Put the good bag in and stapled it in place. Went to get the roll of waterproof tape to do one corner (because I can't staple into the concrete fence post) and filled it from the soil collected and sieved yesterday plus the stuff in the broken bag.

Swept stones from the remaining 3+ metres of the bed, forked it over before lunch. Continued to dig, sieve, chop, pull roots out and work my way slowly along. Came in at 7.15 pm, washed, put a clean tunic and leggings on. Ate my food sitting outside, Was going to go back to digging but changing my mind. Every time I stand up, it takes about 5 minutes for my feet, knees and legs to remember how to do their thing.

Grateful for bees, hitting patches of good soil, doing stuff even though I felt awful

Thrifty_Taylor

Very inspiring @Idee2111 & @mothernerd.

Achieved NSD#5 today. Made 4 more taggy blankets this morning (sold one this evening). After lunch drove to town to collect the butler sink which had finally come over from another island, going to put it in the garden & fill it with plants. Then spent the rest of the afternoon weeding. Sold an item for mum on 3bay, will have to start listing my own stuff, have a pile in my bedroom waiting! Watched a film this evening & did some more on the poncho I'm knitting, just finished another book.

Grateful for achieving with my sewing, that eldest & youngest have gone off on an adventure (wild camping in a wood), & great books

greent

Thankful for getting a job offer despite messing up the (zoom) interview (I felt), for an easy dinner of burgers in hm rolls, for getting 2 books read this week,  for feeling much calmer now the job stuff is all put of the way, for self isolation giving me the time to sort some things, for lots of cherries on the tree in the garden- and watching the birds eat the high up ones

mothernerd

Saturday 10th July 2021

No Spend Challenge Ideas (mostly taken from tuppenysfireplace.com)
No Spend Days
No spending for 24 hours including food (regular dds for utilities etc don't count - get the best deal possible when renewing)
Focus : reducing frequent small spends 
Turtle exemptions: medical - don't want people delaying treatment to keep their NSD,
travel: all spending must come from within your travel budget but you can't always predict which day you need to put petrol in your car or renew your public spending travel pass,
YS (yellow stickered - reduced price) items at the SM. A good way of stretching your budget to be encouraged.

No Spend Weekend
Focus : entertainment
Finding fun for free, activities, events, taking your own sandwiches/ drinks, home cinema night, making not buying, fakeaways.

No Spend Week
The difficulty is ramping up so choose your own rules on what spending will count/ be exempt.
Focus : Working on challenging unconscious daily habits - coffee on the go, forgetting to bring your lunch from home, sugary snacks 

No Spend Month
Focus : Building new habits, reset ones that have slipped, thinking about wants/ needs, essential / non-essential (the frugalwoods run no spend month challenges twice a year).
Need to think ahead on what activities and plans you have. Grocery shop needs careful thinking.

No Spend Year (or a period longer than a month but less than a year)
I like this blogger because she says those who have successfully completed the challenge don't have children (or even partners). Children NEED things (like replacements for outgrown clothes and shoes, not the latest 'must have' toy, game or gadget) and I'm sure we've all collected a child from the school gate and been told that child needs a eg 'bee costume' for special assembly the next morning.
No Spend Year needs careful planning and preparation (and if you have a partner a certain amount of negotiation)
1   Decide how long
2   What do you hope to gain (if it's increased savings they should be transferred to a savings account at the end of the challenge - or monthly save as you don't spend)
3   Decide on your spending rules (housing/ utilities/ insurance and contractual commitments allowed, set monthly amount for groceries?). I remember a series on tv (probably > 10 years ago) where a vicar was having a No Spend Year *- I think the cottage he lived in was paid for by the church and they also covered basic bills. He wasn't using money * but would barter to cover his food and other needs - he was young and fit so I remember him doing a lot of gardening (and elderly parish ladies would send him home with baskets of hm goodies)
4   Have a planned start date
5   Preparation work - groceries

Tips for No Spend Challenges (we do/ have done many of these but there may be some you haven't thought about)
1   Pantry challenge  AKA eating/ shopping from your cupboards and freezer
2   Meal Plan Looking at what you already have and basing your meals around it reduces waste and you only buy what you don't have in. I binned a recipe that was in my old address book (space used for recipes) - it had 4 ingredients that we wouldn't have in the cupboard, not things we sometimes have in but not atm, things I'd never think of buying. It even suggested which SM might possibly have one of the ingredients in.
3   Fall back Options Easy meals for when you're too tired to cook - toast meals, hm 'ready meals', sandwiches (frozen), cheese and apples, things on crackers.
4   Free things to do
5   Work on Your 'To Do' list all the things you never had time for because you were too busy shopping (please don't throw things)
6   Stock up on household goods Toilet paper, toothpaste, batteries, basic meds - painkillers and plasters. Things that don't 'go off' and you won't use extra just because it's there. This is also a useful way to start preparing for big holidays. Biscuits and chocolate can disappear (even when you hide them in your underwear drawer or at the back of the wardrobe) if bought early, toilet rolls don't (boys at university do come and take away whole packs in their friend's car). When things started to get more difficult for me (I spent years bringing stuff into the house in my rucksack) I used to do a monthly trip to the SM for all the bulky and heavy stuff (cans of tomatoes, bags of cat litter) and pay for a taxi back home - saved hours of time (divide all those goods into 65- 80 litre loads with a walk there and back).
7   Unsubscribe from tempting emails
8   Have an accountability partner I'd go with a friend even if you have a partner/ spouse/ significant other
9   Have a wish list  Wait for 30 days if considering a big purchase (an extra not a replacement)
10 Transfer any savings Don't let it get lost in your normal spending (I was going to use the money I got for my 21st for driving lessons, but then I got my house and everything went into that).