NST February 2022: a month of fives

Esmeralda2662

Here are my intentions for Feb:

FIVE fruit and veg a day. Will try.

FIVE minutes of outside time. Daily. So continue with this. 

FIVE minutes of moving every day. Ditto.

FIVE gratitudes each day. Will do.

FIVE minutes in the morning (or last thing at night) to plan the day ahead. Will try to do this to avoid chaos in the mornings!

FIVE things every day that you enjoy. Need to choose these.

FIVE items to leave the house. Will try for 5 a week to start with.

FIVE things that take you out of your comfort zone. Will try but might not suceed.

FIVE donations to charity if you can. Food bank and Extra Mile.

FIVE non-negotiables: setting budgets and saving, Will do.. 15 NSDs not likely.

Good luck everyone and thanks Apple for starting us off! X

f0xh0les

NSD 1 - all the bills out on dd, and a mortgage o/p made.

Kettle Time Saving -1) hung out washing, 2)emptied draining board and put dishes away, 3) sorted laundry into colours, filled washing machine and set it off 4) swept kitchen floor, 5)wrapped a present -  I really do boil the kettle an awful lot, but DH keeps complaining how cold  the house is, so I make him a hot water bottle at the same time. I have stripped and remade all the beds today, so I am toasty warm after wrestling duvets and pummelling pillows and running up and down the stairs liberating dirty clothes from boys' bedrooms.  Also sewed a button back on - how domesticated am I?????

I have to make a birthday cake tonight (coffee and walnut) for one or another of my kids (not really, it is DS3), and DH has just gone out to the dentist as he broke a tooth at 9am, and they have wedged him in for an appointment this afternoon

All hail the NHS, and all who sail in her.

greent

Count me in please apple - and thank you for last month and this month.

Apologies for absence - January turned out very differently to how I thought it would...

A month of fives.

FIVE minutes a day on clearing some clutter or tidying up. - at least this amount is done daily. Am also clearing things out at work.

FIVE fruit and veg a day. Minimum. - usually manage this. We shall see.

FIVE minutes of outside time. Daily. - not going to necessarily happen every day - unless I can count sitting outside (fingers crossed it's dry!)

FIVE minutes of moving every day.  Hmm - that could be a little dodgy at month end - although I will have some stretching exercises to do.

FIVE gratitudes each day. - very much so. Today's and yesterday's are: the NHS, screening services, all of the wonderful staff at the local breast cancer clinic, my bosses, my family, DD for buying me a box of ferrer0 r0cher,  for a warm house, for having an office to myself that I can shut myself away in, for the NHS  (that may be a repeated gratitude most days!!)

FIVE minutes in the morning (or last thing at night) to plan the day ahead. Prioritise. - yep. I prep lunches, get clothes ready and take a couple of mins to check my emails first thing so I know what flights await me when I get in to work.

FIVE things every day that you enjoy. - eating! Watching old Silent Witness episodes on iplayer, ironing..

FIVE consistent good habits that you can do all month. - I need to do my exercises, get enough sleep

FIVE books read throughout the month - lots of leaflets to be read and probably a couple of books..

FIVE items to leave the house (you can choose 5 each day, 5 each week, 5 bagfuls...) over the month. - 2 gone already - whoop!

FIVE frogs to be swallowed over the month.  - 1 swallowed at work today.

FIVE things that take you out of your comfort zone. - the frog above was this.

FIVE donations to charity if you can. - will do.

 

And FIVE non-negotiables:

-pay to your debt/savings FIRST and live off the rest.- done 

-NSDs – 15 please. Not monitoring.

-set your budgets and note all spends. Not monitoring.

-plan the month: anyone attached to education will know half term falls this month, so think ahead and plan accordingly. Annoyingly (in some ways!) my surgery is planned during half term - and isolation for several days beforehand. All plans out of the window (all of visiting DS1 in his seaside uni city, afternoon tea, meal out with friends, a day out with smalls) 

-go out on 2 outings and splash out £5 on yourself at some point. Might carry this forward to March! 

So I have a confirmed diagnosis of breast cancer - fully treatable, starting with surgery in half term. Somewhat knocked for six, but am carrying on carrying on - because that's what we do!

Don't forget to check yourselves, turtles xx

firsview

No NSD for me today as I had to buy some underlay for my new kitchen flooring that is coming tomorrow. I did give ds2 a lift to work though so I could use his staff discount to buy it.
Was a beautiful day here today, 15 degrees but I have injured my foot again so couldn’t go for a walk along the seafront as we usually would. Spent the time producing a Jambalaya and minestrone for dinners this week using up some leftover chicken and veg though, so my time wasn’t completely wasted.
Most of the DD’s out, must move the rest to the 1st. 

Today I am grateful for my lovely daily drive to work along the seafront and past the harbour, my heated steering wheel and seats (it certainly wasn’t 15 degrees when I left for work this morning!), ds2’s staff discount and a visit to my Dad and Sister.

abundant1972

Good Evening 🌑

Started off slow today, but gained momentum and ended up being a really productive start to February. Today was a spend day - quite a hefty one, but came back and batch cooked 12 meals using up some leftovers in pantry. Whilst I was doing that I defrosted the freezer - first time in 2 years! OMG it was so satisfying when this iceberg came away from the roof of the freezer! So it is now full of freshly cooked healthy meals for the month ahead. I also bought ingredients for a new recipe for me - one of my monthly FIVE challenges; Lasagne. Ok - so there may be a jar of white sauce and a sachet of Lasagne seasoning but it's a start! Got home only to realise I don't have an oven Lasagne dish haha! Typical. I will see if I can loan one from family. 

Had a £10 win on Postcode Lottery, and had 2 x £10 Amazonia vouchers for people where I live who have left. So I bought myself a new daylight standard lamp for behind the sofa, so I can start my reading FIVE book challenge! The only reason I don't read on an evening is because my side lamp is too dim, and the overhead lights too glaring. I want cosy, but good light - and should be less eye strain if it's simulating daylight. My only other buy this month will be a new fitted bed sheet as mine has ripped after lasting over 2 years. Will look around and buy for bargains online. 

Went for a walk and am on 7800 so far (target 5500 per day) to clear the cobwebs, then came back and did some cleaning and re-arranged a few things. No gym today - but that's ok. I went yesterday so plenty of time to get another 2 visits in. Mindfulness/visualisation done - and bumped time up to 15 minutes for this month. 

Today I am grateful for:
1) A lovely blustery day and walk in the park
2) An opportunity to clear out the old and make space for the new
3) My cooking bonanza - for food and nourishment for the month ahead

Today was a spend day so no NSD as of yet. 

Have a lovely evening folks x 

lcc86

@greent sorry to hear about your diagnosis, hope the surgery goes well and you recover quickly. 

Tackled a couple of frogs - chased up my car insurance claim. Sent emails to 4 addresses as they're so appalling at getting back to me, fingers crossed I get something back.

Also tackled a P45 related frog, my previous employer has really messed it up so not only did I pay emergency tax on my final salary last month but looks like I will also be paying it this month. Just have to hope I overpay and get it all back in the long run.

Got my steps in with a walk this morning and one this evening. Also did a workout at lunchtime for my core/back - determined to do whatever I can to help my back pain.

Shopping delivery tonight. I also had a simplycook offer - 4 meal packs for £3. I really like the recipes but never pay full price, only ever buy when it's on offer. Makes me try different things (had Iranian vegetable stew last night which was yummy). 

Put myself forward for some work this weekend at my part-time job so at least I'll earn some extra. Also put some money aside to make my first investment (grand total of £25 haha). Going to take Feb week by week and try not to do what I normally do which is spend too much at the start of the month and then end up skint towards the end.

ldee2111

NSD 1. Made an OP to the mortgage. Ate 5 fruit and veg today. Had leftovers for lunch, and I should be able to do the same tomorrow using up tonight’s leftovers. This week I’m trying to use up all the batch-cooked freezer meals. I want to eat up as much from the freezer and fridge this week as possible. 

Work was busy but that’s because people know I’ll be on annual leave for 3 weeks so they’re firing stuff over to me. 

Grateful today for tea in bed, for finishing a couple of pieces of work, for good chats with colleagues, for DS being a great sleeper, and for a new TV series to watch with OH tonight. 

beanielou

@greent.  Sending you positivity & strength for your journey  xx

Shrewbie

f0xh0les said:

We got our Madrid  Correspondent back!! Hiya @Shrewbie , missed you.

I missed you too! Looking forward to getting started.

Non negotiables - I am calling today as NSD1!

Have worked out all budgets and am now tracking spends much to the annoyance of bf.

Good habits - Meditation and morning pages - Done. Attended zoom call in Spanish but did not speak and did no actual study. Exercise done. Ate well and all from stores.  (overnight oats parmesan pasta, tofu and mozzerella tahini salad, )

Outside time - Went for a run (see photo evidence! can you see the snowy mountains?) and did my splits exercises. Knee is hurting,  I’m prob doing sth wrong. 

Five fruit and veg - Did 4!

Enjoyment  - Managed to read a bit in the morning 

Did 5 mins damage limitation tidying in the morning. So much easier when you’re working from home. 

Frogs - No frogs today. Sure some will rear their ugly heads tomorrow. 

Grateful for, beautiful blue skies and a warm breeze, having a tidy flat, being able to read and get all my tasks done today (inc posting here!) although I felt super tired, god knows why.

Good luck to all the turtles!!!

DawnW

Thinking of you @greent, do take the time you need to recover from your treatment, term time or not!

Most of the DDs have come out today, and I did the bit of shopping that I needed in Mr S, so no NSD today. Used up some nect*r points, so it only came to £11.19 in actual money. Some items for the food bank were included in this, too. While I was out, I collected my prescription, returned an Amaz*n purchase, and changed some euros that OH had found in one of his old wallets back into sterling. These must have been hanging around for ages, as neither of us has been abroad for 3 or 4 years at least. That is £76.74 now in our bank account that we didn't even realise was there.

Grateful today for a good day at work, money I didn't realise I had, and a lovely day weather wise, the first for ages that hasn't been either freezing or dark and wet.