Struggling along as best I can

Moorviews

I am sorry that illness spoiled your Christmas plans but hope that you feel well enough to celebrate tomorrow. 

The No Spend challenges are interesting and I often read how people are doing with them. Because I don’t live near any shops then technically the vast majority of my days don’t involve spending anything, however, now, really this is just due to my having shopped ahead and therefore having food in. I do most of my spending in December, having a lean October and November leading up to it and then not much is needed in January in the way of groceries. I still have milk delivered though. Perhaps the No Spend Challenge concept is good for people who are always passing shops and find it difficult to resist making purchases? This could probably easily be me if I lived in town! 

Last night, I did some shopping online for my skincare items as they were in gift sets and marked down in the sale. I get given some money for Christmas and buy for the year ahead. If I were to just wait and buy at full price in February it would be a false economy.
I have noticed that there are often food bargains to be had after Christmas, for those with room in their freezers and money in their purse. Again, it is an economical time to buy so No Spend January doesn’t make sense to me unless one is trying to avoid further debt and spending money at all. Certainly, I have been in this position far too many times in the past myself and have spent January staying out of shops through absolute necessity, rather than undertaking a Challenge. Now that I don’t have debt, I do still like to have weeks, or months, when I am using things up and I am in the habit of making do with what I already have in, rather than going out to buy missing ingredients. I look forward to reading your diary in the coming year. 

nannygladys

Hi everyone, I must have got hold of the wrong end of the stick with this no spending lark, I thought it was literally spend nothing except for bills, sinking funds - all the stuff you have to pay or saving pots, so no clothes, food spends of any type, treats, going out etc etc. so really by the sounds of it you make your own rules up🤔, anyway for me I'm just spending upto £5 a week on food essentials, no treats out, no clothes etc I'll still put the fuel money in the car and clothes and garden money away and pay all bills etc. I do have enough food in for a few months its just going to be more basic than usual, but its a challenge for me and hopefully they'll be spare money at the end of it to put into the house fund or towards something! 
I went to youngest dds yesterday and had a lovely Xmas dinner and some presents and spent the day there. I've bought pup back for a couple of nights whilst they are visiting friends further south but they are coming back for New Year so I'll have to make the most of it 🤣🤣.
Today is a quiet one, I've been preserving any veggies over in the fridge and seeing what I have in to last the month. I seem to have lots of cheese as I was going to do a cheese board for eldest Dgd and me to have one night Infront of the tv, so I can definitely use that and when going through the freezer I have quite a bit of veggie mince and fillets, obviously lots of potatoes and veggies, and I'll be making bread (well the bm will) when I need it. So I'm set really, I'm not planning any shopping because it defeats the object if you buy a month's food before you start!!! I'll let you know how I go on and what I spend money on. 
I'm all over the place with this front room make over and keep changing my mind on things. I'm now thinking of having an extra plug socket put in as the sockets are all down one end and I'd really like to turn one corner into a reading nook 😏 and have some shelves up so I can put my books up. I'm so indecisive about things !!! 
Well it's just stopped raining so I'm going to advantage and take pooch a walk before it's starts again.
Nannyg 

Makingabobor2

I joined the NSD challenge. I count an NSD as any day when I don't spend anything other than normal DD's going out of bank account and groceries from housekeeping budget, or petrol that is within my budgeted amount, or DH's prescriptions, also budgeted for....as that's pretty essential really. I do wonder about normal dentist  check up fees, as again not much you can do about those. If you read the first page of the challenge, there are lots of tips there

Sun_Addict

@nannygladys this is my reading corner in the dining room - although the dog has taken it over right now 😆The fairy lights stay up all year round. 

tunathe_cat

just a quick hello going to catch up from July posts when you were picking strawberries. hope to be reading current news soon brb ...

nannygladys

Hello tunathe_cat nice to see you on here. I'm hoping the strawberries produce well this year, I could do with some jam sessions 🙂

nannygladys

Sun_Addict - that's the sort of thing I want, including dog 🤣 well on a part time basis for the fur baby🤣

nannygladys

Feeling a bit better today but still coughing well, it seems to take you longer to get over things when you're older, even if you consider yourself to be healthy, but no matter I have the pup for a bit of company. (I haven't been taking him a walk though it's a good job he doesn't mind exploring the garden and having a ball thrown for him!)
Right I've decided to take the bull by the horns and will try to get quotes for the extra plug outlet  in the front room and next week I'll be going to order the fridge/freezer. After that I'll be hunting for a new curtain pole and some new curtains and then I will regroup and see what's left to do next in the correct order and price everything up. So that's my plan so far for next year!
My intentions for 2024 are to finish the front room and bathroom. Make and grow one large raised bed in the back garden and pull the Lottie back into shape after my absence from there - I still haven't been for a look yet 😏 oh be mindful with money, grow all I can and be positive even when things become stressful or not to my liking. I don't make resolutions anymore just intentions, so if I can't complete them all I don't feel like a failure 😏. 
No money spent today, I haven't been out, and tomorrow will probably be the same. I've signed up for a couple of challenges on here, but I will mention them on here when I complete or make a bloop of them🤣
I'm not celebrating New Years as such, but I will have a drink at midnight, I still have some Bailey's left but it may be in a cup of cocoa 🙂🎉🎉
Wishing you all positive, happy, healthy prosperous New Year and I'll 'see' you all next year 🥳🎆🎇🍻🥂🍾🍷🍹☕🎉

Cherryfudge

The colds we're getting this winter do seem rather hard to shake off. I read that it may be decreased resistance due to hiding away in lockdown.

My resolutions tend to be carefully phrased so it's hard to fail. The words 'every day', for instance, are hard to find. 'I will get better at...' isn't too difficult. A bit of practice here and there eventually adds up, though the more frequent and better quality the practice, the better the results.

Have a lovely Baileys and cocoa, and lots of good wishes for 2024, especially with the lottie, which is how I started on your diary.  

Sun_Addict

You are always up at midnight anyway 😆 I doubt I’ll make it much past 10pm but then I’m usually up and raring to go at 5am. You’re just like my mom she was a night owl.