NST NIFTY NOVEMBER

ldee2111

@x_raphael_xx I had to Google ‘what is an invert show’ 😂 

@Dfw38 household bills don’t count as spend days. Another turtle will be able to list what does and doesn’t count. 👍🏻

grandmanerd

Went to Art Therapy (not thrilled with the work I produced but love the new exhibition I've been waiting for). It started raining heavily before we finished and mostly been raining since so the green bin has gone out only half full. Two full black bins, Beloved agreed that some gadgety things with missing parts could go and after watching a clutterbug video on what to get rid of before the holidays, I've ditched about 10 very ood things from the baking supplies. Also binned some disgusting rags from the kitchen floor - we've had spills, leaks and mini floods. I have at least 3 full sized towels to rehabilitate and loads more old towels and curtain lining to use for rags so not wasting more energy on these sorry specimens.

I took the bins out and it was hard work so tomorrow may be a gentle pottering day. Grateful for getting things out of the house, making quick decisions on things I was saving to make things I won't have time to do and currently have no usable space to do it in. Have discovered a few things in a cupboard and have asked DS3 to get Beloved to check it out when she comes down for food - think they've already eaten today and she isn't at her computer so must be asleep. She thought the cleaners threw out her nearly new mixer (DS3 insisted I wasn't allowed to bring things back in) but I've found more gadgety things and I'm pretty sure I brought mum's nearly new mixer back as well. 

x_raphael_xx

ldee2111 said:

@x_raphael_xx I had to Google ‘what is an invert show’ 😂

Last one I went to I spent like £600
I already have the £250 custom enclosure to pay for, as well as four other enclosures to collect (will probably be about £25 each)
Then I know I'll want a couple of mantises and anything else that takes my eye

apple_muncher

Today I am grateful for camaraderie with some y11s when we were all stuck sheltering in a gazebo (think uprights and a roof, no sides) in the hail, wind and pelting rain, at the furthest spot from the door into the building (!), for dc's head of year, for finding ys bargains in sainz once I'd dropped dc off at their group and had 2 hours to fill, for DH prepping tea again, for sending some emails rather than putting them off, for the chance for a table at a table top sale this sat (eek- so soon!).

DrCarrie

grandmanerd said:

Own your
Enoughness 

Love that G'nerd. 

Gosh been wet and wild on the south coast. Intense weather all day.

Grateful for, a glimpse of fading rainbow, the view form Blackfriars station and coming home. 

BadBookkeeper

Happy November Turtles,
here’s my update:

DS footy training cancelled I should have used the time to do something but instead I pottered!  Put Halloween decs away as my 15 mins a day task.  

All pots replenished yesterday and debt overpayment made.  I’ve got £1.50 a day personal spends! So now have £3 as haven’t spent anything yet. 

Decided to go local fire work display on Friday.  No travelling and only a small donation on the gate I believe hot dogs & drinks are on sale for £1.  DS has money for anything he wants there. 

I cannot stop eating rubbish.  I need to have a no snack rule and stick to it.  Keeping alcohol for a treat twice a week at the most.  My weight has maintained all year, even though I think I’m healthy and trying to lose weight. 

DS doesn’t go out in the dark without us.  DH has done all the mechanical winter checks on the cars.  I need new wipers apparently but there is money on my car pot for when that happens. 

Have set up 2 charity dds & have been making monthly donations.  Will hopefully fill a charity bag this week. 

Trying to be reasonable about my family and their choices for Christmas Day.  Will try to be more understanding.  There are plenty of days over the festive period to spend time with everyone.  Will also be mindful of wider circle circumstances too. 

Will be more thoughtful with presents and try to spend cleverly.  Nothing will be home made though!! 

I have a notebook I carry around for Christmas stuff & another for financial stuff.  Also have about 10 lists on my phone for different things. 

I buy postage online as and when needed.  I do need cellotape and batteries and tealights.  

Checked in ✅

Walked to my parents earlier it was pouring down but nice to get some fresh air. Mum passed on some magazines she knows I like.  Once read I’ll pass on to work friend.

NSD 1/15

Thrifty_Taylor

@Calling14 if you look online, it shows videos of different ways to lace your shoes before tying, which helps with plantar fascitis. Well, it's helped me!

@ldee2111 🎉🎉 well done on persevering with SB! Also on your OH not having the heart condition, hope he's relieved & doing ok.

NSD#1
Started out with yoga, then introduced some sit ups, which I'm hoping to do each day too.

I don't think there's any rain left in the sky today, it has been bucketing down! Lots of roads & buildings flooded.

Storage cards arrived for mine & DH's phones, so spent an hour sorting apps, etc out. Then spent 4 hours cutting up baby clothes for a blanket, still more to cut out! Collected DS3 from seeing a friend after school.

Washed the dishes after tea & sorted through 2 baskets of CDs. Wiped all the spines, took out ones I'll never listen to, & stacked the baskets on top of the other 2 previously sorted. Can now store my knitting bag in the empty space before the cats sharpen their claws on it any more!! Had a bath, read my book & nodded off for half an hour.

Grateful for the sound of rain, everyone loving DS3's new hair do (which his brother shaved last night), starting on making the blanket

hazeldreams

Morning all,

Good day yesterday;

- went to EMDR therapy; we're working on managing the guilt I feel
- Paid £1000 off cc yesterday, that'll probably be it this month
- spent £5.92/£580 on top up shop
- managed 16 pieces of fruit/veg + 2L water and AF- got combat and yoga at gym tonight
- Trying to avoid top up shops so no NSD yesterday
- grateful for all I achieved yesterday; lots of fruit, veg and water; the means to clear 1k off cc; having an AFD.

Hazel x

grandmanerd

Wednesday 2nd November 2022
NSDs
Some people include household bills, most people don't. My account head says they're fixed costs, they need to be deducted from your 'Income' before you carve up your 'disposable income' - the stuff you have some control over. Some super organised people do any shopping required on the same day that a DD or SO is being paid but even when a bill is paid on the 15th of each month, it may come out on a different day if it falls on a weekend. That's an extra hassle I can live without. I am grateful that banks take cyber theft seriously but attempts to foil hackers just seem to mean I'm locked out of my account for long periods (unless I can assemble the passwords book with account numbers, bank personal ID number and card number; the card reader it will inevitably demand and my phone for when it sends me a code after I'm through communing with the card reader; and the phone needs to be charged up - if it's near needing charged the code number won't get through).

So 'disposable income' (most of which isn't). You need to buy food -  will you splurge on a takeaway, buy a sandwich or will you make all your own meals and bring your lunch from home (or to an appointment). You can affect the 'fixed costs' by eg trying to use less energy but this is a long term strategy (the DD will keep coming out of your bank each month for now). You need to focus on costs you can control and the way you buy your food/ ingredients can reap big savings. 

The NSDs help you focus on everyday spending. If you're in the habit of picking up a chain coffee on your way into work or 'popping in' to a shop on your way home for one or two bits (which turns into a full basket) the costs soon mount up. The site has a demotivator tool which shows how much that morning coffee or regular takeaway costs you over the course of a year. Cooking from scratch, using what you already have in as a base for your meal plan, making up a list of only what you need and sticking to it, will all bring rewards (financial savings which can be thrown at your debt, overpay your mortgage or locked away in an interest bearing account). 

YS (yellow stickered) items. These are the items that SM especially reduce before they 'go off' in the case of fresh items or also seasonal items or lines the SM will no longer stock. Ripped or torn packaging with a couple of items missing also feature but that seems to be less common (I did get a huge bag of seed compost half price this year because a corner was torn and maybe a cupful had fallen out. The staff had packed it up with 2 extra bags (all of which were reused by me) - my biggest challenge was getting it safely home on the walker. 

YS goodies seem to be less available these days and the competition is fiercer. When I went to SW classes (hated the diet but the free exercise class organised in collaboration with the local Council was great) it wasn't much further to nip into Tessimo's for the end of day reductions (some SM reduce items at various points in the day and savings vary from just a few pence off to half price - aka extravagant to reasonable down to 10p items). Well  9 pm at Tessimo's was 10p veggie time (but often a lot of the same thing - I love raw mushrooms but 3 boxes was my self imposed limit on how many to eat before they went off, the bagged leaves have chemicals in them but I love spinach and watercress and baby leaves - some people buy them to supplement their pets' diet) but would also pick up cakes and sandwiches as sub 30p and sub 50p and I'll always buy 4 pack muffins at 10p and freeze them individually.

SM with fresh (fish/ deli/ salad/ bakery) counters tend to sell reduced items when the counter is cleaned up, often a few hours before the store is to close (all the 'rounded ends' of carved up hunks of meat tend to go on the reduced shelf too) and mid-week is often a good time for bargains as they clear away all the previous weeks meat / fish/ cheese and dairy items to start stocking for the 'big shop' days - Th / Fri/ Sat. I prefer shopping at quiet times and the last hour of Sunday opening hours can be bargainaceous (most people preferring to sleep off a heavy lunch in front of a football game or film). I sometimes find it quite difficult myself, waiting until it's late enough for the good reductions but then motivating myself to go before it's 'too late' to bother going.

Some MSE'ers base their whole shop on ys goodies (if you have a regular shop and the best reductions are available at a time that coincides with your regular schedule, why not) but these days I mostly look on it as a bonus - plant based ready meals (and low traffic light ones) at half price to make my life easier and add some variety. I'll always look at the fruit and veg but don't buy stuff I don't eat or won't have time to use. I will buy 'luxury' items I love when they're reduced - Scottish raspberries, bulb fennel, other ingredients I'd like to try but not full price in case I hate it (very good for getting small children to try new tastes - 9p mango, yes please).

In my defence I should say that we only had apples and oranges regularly when I was a child - bananas and grapes were Christmas specials and strawberries an occasional summer treat. I was 15 before I tasted afresh peach (I prefer tinned, don't like the furriness) and even older when I had fresh salmon (I hated the annual tin of salmon bought at Christmas - possibly because I was given the job of removing all the skin and bones - if a single scrap of bone remained my father was sure to find it in his portion which would set of both his rampant hypochondria and his determination to ruin everyone's Christmas - he always worked on Christmas day and there was always a collective sigh of relief as he left for the day). In the next few weeks I'll happily buy multiple bags of reduced parsnips, sprouts etc and prepare and freeze my own but it's to supplement my shop. I will buy 'party food' items if the reductions are good and have had some wonderful little treats in the past - a triple layer salmon thing, wonderful mousse with smoked salmon scraps. 

 

grandmanerd

NSDs part deux
Some medical costs are emergencies. DS2 once fell out of a tree which I'd specifically told him not to climb, hit a 6' wall, bounced off that onto a pile of bricks (newly demolished garage) then told me he'd fallen off the car park wall centre (only 3' high). I let him rest until tea but he was still in a lot of pain. Cue visit to our walk in centre (after making arrangements for the other 2), followed by transfer to A & E in an ambulance, lots and lots of questions, admittance and then a trip to surgery at near midnight (to allow for any food he had eaten to be properly digested) to have his elbow pinned back together.

The elbow injury was a  pain - he couldn't have a plaster cast, school didn't think they could keep him safe, I spent weeks chained to the house as he wouldn't be left at home and any shopping could only be done at a speed which didn't jog his elbow, i collected school work every two days, supervised him and returned it for marking. fast forward to last day before the big school holidays and DS2 had an afternoon appointment to have the pin removed. Made arrangements for the other two to be collected from school. Doctor tried to remove the pins and DS2 started to cry. Doctor got upset then decided he would admit him overnight and remove the pins in surgery, under anaesthetic.

The two theatres at our hospital were going to be deep cleaned that weekend so would have to be done in Wigan. Only one bed available in Wigan. They gave me his x-rays and I had to take DS2 and get him in that bed before someone else took it. Quick phone call to mum's cousin asking her to hold onto the other 2 until I could make more arrangements. Bus from infirmary to town, another bus to Wigan, then another to the RAEI. DS2 down to the ward and in the bed. They gave me a voucher to take him down to the canteen and feed him as he'd missed the evening meal (no voucher for me, only the half a can of leftover baked beans and a slice of toast at 11.30 am).

Quick walk back to town (I know that road like the back of my hand). It had been a very hot day, several days each hotter than the last. On my way back into town it started to rain and I nearly took my shirt off to dance about it (that's the moment of joy in a bad day). Then back on the bus, to mum's to leave a note asking her to collect the other two and keep them overnight, back to mum's cousin's asking her to keep the boys until mum came to collect them, back home to pack the rucksack with everything DS2 needed and a change of clothing for me, cash from the machine, just in case, quick phone call to the place ex was working to tell a complete stranger to leave a note telling him where DS2 was (I find that it's easier to drop the ex in cases like these, same when ex's mum was hospitalised whilst on holiday).

Then back to the hospital to spend the night not sleeping on a WW1 folding canvas 'bed' (the floor would be more comfortable). I was next to the nurses station (only the bed curtain between us) so I heard the nurse talking about the leaks in the roof, dripping into the brand new surgery. I saw the strategically placed washing up bowls placed on the sterile side of the line when we took him down to surgery the next day (this meant a further hospitalisation in September when he developed an egg sized lump on his elbow). But that's a story for another time.

Other medical emergencies just make you miserable (coughs and sneezes, D and V, nits). Stock up now at best available prices but if you need to spend cash as you stagger into a local shop for medicine and supplies before going home to crawl into bed, do it. I'll even allow any purchases that make you feel better/ more comfortable - ice cream, soft  tissues, throat tablets or barley sugar (other boiled sweets are available). Do not abuse this bonus - hot and cold Chippendales are not allowable, no matter how good they make you feel. 

As an extra Christmas bonus if a child tells you after school, about something required for the morning after - a bee costume for a special assembly, two dozen cupcakes, a secret santa present or card and gift for a birthday party (other parent was on parent duty and did not search the bag daily for permission slips and letters), anything in addition to the 'expected' requests (yellow bear day, fundraising, something to go in the hamper for a raffle, cakes and staffing a stall at the Christmas Fair, the Blue Peter appeal, buying tickets for the raffle, bringing home all the drawings and work done during the term and cleaning and returning their tray), I'll give you a free pass. Use what you have, buy from a cs but buy if you have to without losing an NSD.