NST July 2022: A Turtle Triathlon

apple_muncher

Hugs, Polly. And it's good to have you along for the ride with the turtle gang.

apple_muncher

Today I am grateful for seeing my GP, for my marking team all progressing, for chatting with some really nice characters, for the evening's prize giving being short and sweet and very celebratory, fordc benefitting from a day at home, for cheese!

grandmanerd

No money spent. Five generous portions of veg chilli and two boxes of rice salad - one can be eaten warm with whatever is on the menu tomorrow, some eaten today. Earmarked a few recipes in the library book and some more veg boxed ready for roasting or making a pasta bake. Possibly crustless quiche but not sure how many eggs there are. Very tired, couldn't do my second exercise - low on hayfever tablets and had put the few I had left in my bag, Couldn't find the bag this morning, had spares of most pills but not hayfever ones. When I tried to do the lying down exercise I started coughing and choking, gave up after my third attempt. Lots of rubbish to various bins, DW set off, WM ready to set off and washed my mask and hose.

Grateful for lovely food (watercress yum), getting some things done and starting a new drama serial (don't think I watched anything all last month).

Thrifty_Taylor

Hugs Polly.

I've had a great first day of the holidays. Piddling with rain outside, but it dried up midday & got quite warm. Started off by driving to town, walked up & down a road in the rain trying to find a customer's house. Knocked on another door, surprisingly I knew the woman, who told me which house to go to. Picked mum up & did a charity shop haul. Got a nearly new pair of knee high leather boots for next winter  (£10) & the latest book by one of my favourite authors (50p), plus some sweet pea plants for hubby, as he never managed to plant any this year. Did the big shop, went to get my haircut, then back to buy frozen foods, before home. Absolutely shattered, so had a half hour nap. Put all the shopping away, watched an episode of a programme with DH, final one ever can be watched tomorrow night. Had accrued £30 in Amazon vouchers, so used them towards some solar fairy lights (best buy according to Which magazine), so only had to pay £9.99 for them. 

The vouchers were earned from submitting photos of receipts to the Amazon Shopper Panel, points earned from having an Amazon credit card & also for being part of the Royal Mail survey, oh & I swapped swagbucks points for a £5 voucher too.

Grateful for being on holiday, finding some bargains, fun day with mum (she treated me to a savoury pasty, which we ate sitting on a bench near the cathedral)

greent

Things that made me smile yesterday- DS3 being delighted by the £1.25 order of leg0 brick pieces we'd ordered on Monday (bargain!), DS1 and DS2 helping me lay out an awning to try and measure it for selling, chatting with the staff in the chipshop, Mrs Blackbird finally flying away after stunning herself for around 20mins flying into the kitchen window, pigeons trying to land on the high, thin and whippy branches in the cherry tree to get the ripe cherries from there- they are far too big for those branches and end up almost falling off

£9 spent in chippy last night - but that was between 5 of us. Budgeted for, as Friday night chippy is a "thing' here - 4 of us don't have the things to go with chips from the chippy but buy the same item from smkt and cook/ heat at home cheaper instead  

f0xh0les

Good and productive morning today. Had to buy a lipstick because suddenly, the colour I have been using for the last 20 odd years just does not suit my face.  It is too dark, so maybe I have become more pale?   How weird is that?  So went to the shop that sells Super Drugs and found one that does suit - since when did cheap lipstick cost £6 ??? anyway, that is that job done for another couple of years .  Found a white top for work for £2 and a pair of black jeans £1 in the c/s, and was surprised that the cheapest litre of cooking oil is £1.55 now (in Herr L's not the c/s) Bought non-dairy Fl0ra butter in Mr T's as it is on offer again.

Should not need to spend again this weekend.  I have a button to sew on to some work trousers, and ink to get out of a white shirt - no cow's milk in our house (it dissolves ink from fabric) - so will have to attack it with an eco friendly laundry stain bar I  was given for free because .... it .... was ..... out...... of...... date ( I kid you not )  madness!

Persisting down outside, but did a load of laundry before I went out, so hopefully it stops soon as I am not putting it in the dryer.   Have a great weekend Turtles! 

3.5 School Days left to go

grandmanerd

Sorry f0xh0les, it's that pesky impending birthday. Your skin tone changes as you age and you need to change the colours you use, a cream or ivory scarf instead of white, softer hair dye (one of mum's friends persisted in dying her hair to the black of her youth and it looked horrible - not sure the bright peach was great but it was better for her skin tone). Mum had always worn a lot of brown and I had to persuade her that softer pastels reflected colour onto her face and looked more youthful.

abundant1972

Good Afternoon 🌞

July's Goals >>>

Say ‘NO’ to the consumerism - I plan to swap to 'own brand' foods if I haven't already. 

Waste nothing – especially food and your energy - My aim is to not waste any food. I have bee really bad at this - especially salad stuff. I buy loads then it goes to waste. The supermarket is 2 minutes away so I can buy what I need for a few days if I don't have it in. No need to hoard. 

Identify your stress buttons and find ways to switch them off - My journaling helped me realise lack of sleep is my biggie and worrying about things beyond my control. 

Me-time is vital – Nailed that one now! 

Budget absolutely EVERYTHING before the month starts - Despite a wobbly start - I will write in at least 16 NSDs on my calendar now. I've planned ahead by buying a bulk train pass for 8 days and paying for classes upfront so I don't waste NSDs. 

Improve your money-saving muscles - I will challenge myself to be more thrifty. 

Kick your debt’s @$$! - DFD set. Am increasing my debt payment to £250/per month. Had a pay rise so the extra is going to debt as I won't miss what I've not been used to. 

Each and every spend is weighed up and, if made, is written down in the notebook - I have a budgeting app which I use to record everything. So that's my virtual notebook. 

Remember those who are worse off than you - I donate £10 to WWF but will give £5.00 to the food bank too 

Use up your toiletries before buying new ones - I lifted out all my old moisturisers and am working my way through them. I had a ridiculous amount - like 6 of various types. 

No Spend Days (aka Spend Free Days) shall number 16 - Last month I only scraped 10 through poor planning. This month I'm going to smash it. 

f0xh0les

grandmanerd said:- not sure the bright peach was great but it was better for her skin tone).

Like Mrs Slocombe?

Toni'sfriend

I was up at the crack of dawn this morning - changed the bedding and had it washed and on the line before 8 o'clock. All dried, ironed and put away along with yesterday's lot. Walked through the park  bought some cold meat that I like from TESCO. A round trip of 4 miles. Think I might struggle with NSDs this month as I'm eating a lot of salad and I want the vegetables to be as fresh as possible.

Having filled pasta for dinner and I've made a sauce with the YS tomatoes I bought yesterday.

Oh and I disposed of some empty carboard boxes to the recycling bin.

Been quite a productive day.