NST NIFTY NOVEMBER

Dfw38

Thanks @ldee2111 and @grandmanerd. Wowsers your poor son, and I really feel for the stress you must have felt going through all that to ensure your son could have the treatment needed. The school my two dd are at have a habit for giving us a couple of days notice for anything needed  🙄. Every month I put aside some money just in case.... last month we had requests for panto money for both dd, money for diwali workshop and a school trip to a local historic place for eldest dd. By the time my ds starts school I think I will be working just to pay for their school activities 😁. Glad that the dc get to experience these things, we certainly couldn't afford to go to the panto as a family this year. 

grandmanerd

NSDs part 3
This is a reconstruction. My original post was too long (over 3000 characters too long), I tried to save it to the clipboard in sections but the middle bit went awol (you don't know how lucky you are)

Travel Costs
If you have a car you need to put fuel in it but you don't know when you will need to put fuel in. In this case the limiting factor is the fuel budget you set at the beginning of the month, when you use that budget is up to you and your car - we don't want any turtles stranded or marooned because they tried to make it home on fumes just to keep an NSD. Similarly if you use an oyster card or monthly/ weekly/ daily ticket for public transport. You need an idea of how much you will need (set a budget) and stick to that but the day you buy doesn't mean losing an NSD. If you don't know what you're spending on fuel/ fares, start making a note now.

If you have a car approaching the end of it's life, consider the costs of keeping a car, especially if you're a multi car family. If you are a trades person and you travel from job to job all day, carrying the tools of your trade, fine. All the people who drive to work and pay to park their car all day, what are you thinking.

When I was close to finishing my foundation degree, one of the tutors was outlining available jobs, which needed a car (just to drive to the headquarters as you'd be driving a works vehicle around all day, collecting water samples). I asked what sort of salary we were talking about. It was awhile ago so we'll say £16 k. I had one of my 'not able to sleep in the middle of the night' moments and staring with the £16 k, deducted tax and N.I., calculated losses of Working Tax Credit (lose a proportion of each £ you earn above a certain amount. I looked up the estimated running costs for a modest second hand car (road tax, insurance, mot) and the purchase cost averaged over 2, 3 and 5 years (as I didn't know the expected useful life of the vehicle). without even considering the unpaid time spent commuting, it soon came down to the equivalent of a local job (or jobs) bringing in about £5,000. There's also the stress of driving and that caused by other road users.
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Use car pooling and car share schemes or public transport, especially if subsidised or free. Think about this more as you get older. Better still lets get back to people working close to where they live or at home (the pandemic proved that going into the office is mostly about employers desire to exercising ever tighter control over workers' lives). 

thriftylass

x_raphael_xx said:

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

Now I got curious too, initially I thought it was an introvert show (like a special theatre production for shy people or sth) but then got confused how you can spend so much money there

Made two batches of soup yesterday, The lentil soup tastes so delicious. The random veg one not so much. I thinks its the root veg like parsnip and swede that I put in that completely change flavour when cooked. Will see if I can rescue it by blitzing it and maybe turning it into a cheesy one or add some more herbs and spices as it doesn't have much yet.

Got my new more expensive October bill for leccy and gas yesterday. We're with bulb and they're forever trying to increase your DD unless you complain and explain that you can do maths. They wanted to put it up to £250 from £150 although we only used 100 in September and we have £500 credit. Plus now we get the £66 per month from the government. So this month we used £166 (that's higher usage and new prices and I don't think it'll go over £200 even in December) but I managed to convince them to reduce the DD to £100, add to the that the government help and our credit I think we should be fine over the winter. 

Went to the food waste place again at lunch and got some free salad (healthy lunch tomorrow) and a grey pumpkin (next weeks' soup experiment).

I just realised that today will be a spend day as I need dry cat food and coffee, however, I thought I make the most of it. The last few years we bought Christmas cards etc last minute. Not this year . Trailed through the net to find the best cashback (installed the SB link thingy now too that tells me automatically although TCB was better in the end) and ordered cheap cards, some plain brown packing paper and a couple of cute tags and ribbons as I know I'm running out of those in my wrapping stash. Although I just realised I missed a 20% of £20 voucher on their site. Think it would be cheeky to try and cancel and reorder? Just checked and I can't cancel. Oh well, at least cashback. Still learning to get back into the cashback and voucher routine.

DawnW

Afternoon all

Had a day at home today, nothing spent, so NSD1 for me   Squashed a couple more frogs too, sorted out some necessary changes to the car insurance, which involved much listening to much rubbish music while in the queue to speak to someone, but it is done now. Also booked the car in for its MOT test. OH wanted to take it to the garage across the road, which would have been more convenient, but they couldn't do it until after the MOT had run out   so it is going to the main dealership, which will be a bit more pricey and is a few miles away, but at least it will get done! The garage across the road have started doing buy now pay later repairs and servicing, and has become extremely busy as a result. I don't want to use this service, but the garage itself is good, and convenient as very close by, so I will in future have to book further in advance than the two weeks I allowed. None of this involved spending anything today.

In other news I have rounded up all the rest of the veg from the Lidl £1.50 veg box that I got at the weekend, and made a big veggie curry, which will do for dinners for tomorrow and Friday when I am at work all day, and won't feel like cooking after. We have chilli to finish off tonight, which we will have with jacket potatoes and coleslaw that OH made yesterday.

It is much colder today, with a chilly wind and rain forecast, and we have lit the stove already, rather than put the heating on. As well as keeping the room toasty (and I will open the hall door later to let some of the heat upstairs), I have a kettle sitting on top and an airer full of washing close by.

Grateful today for nice food choices, and toasty toes!

f0xh0les

Yesterday was not a NSD - kids bus fares, my bus fares, and an emergency 2 pack of glazed doughnuts (not sorry!) then, when I got out of work, the bus driver had sold me a return ticket for a service that finished at 6pm.  It was 9.45pm. Caught a bus back with the same company, the bus driver would not honour the ticket (I did ask!) so another £3 to get home. Boo! Very unimpressed. Will do better next time.  Lesson learnt. 

Today I have tidied the hall and living room, made Dr and Dentist appts, left messages with roofers (when they do a drive by and see the height of the house they don't even bother to ring the bell) if they do not get back to me, I will talk to the crazy lady across the road who seems to know everybody - people who live 4 miles away ask 'Do you know W?' When they find out what road I live on.  She knows everyone.  She is utterly bonkers though, not sure if she is dangerous bonkers or just famously bonkers.

Lunch was a packet mix Sambal soup - it was fab! with steamed Idli, and garlic butter roasted padron peppers (Good old magic box from Monday at Mr L's) - DH says he feels like he is permanently fighting off a cold. Feels rough, but it isn't turning into anything, so I thought I would Healing -Indian-Spice him up, and then Garlic-beat-everything-into-submission.   It did nothing for his headache, but he is happier in himself, and two packet mixes gone from the pantry.

Tonight is some form of spinach and potato curry, oat idli (packet mix) and some other kind of steamed Indian thing that soaks up sauce like a savoury sponge.  All to be gone from the pantry, or at least half used, and they were all cheap and have been sitting around for A-G-E-S.  Unless they start paying rent, they can go!

Oh, there's the rain on, the wind is rising (oo-er!) time to batten down the hatches and close all the curtains.  Our heating has been on for 2 hours today.  It is going to go on if we are cold.  We are currently £700 in credit.

The kids saw an advert for the Max of T. K on tv this morning and shouted Mum!! That's where you work

They are getting new coats this week (20% staff discount weekend)  Where is that spinning Martin head when you need it?

ldee2111

Staying on NSD 1/15.

OH and I worked from a cafe this morning (OH paid for coffees) but we nipped next door to Em&Es for ingredients to make soup for lunch. OH made a very delicious roasted pepper soup.

And since I'd lost the NSD anyway, I also bought MIL's birthday present. I'd recently got a 20% off voucher through the door from the Shop for Bodies, so I got a discount on some nice vegan products for her. 

Person who asked to view DS’s for-sale bike last night was a no show! She’s apparently coming tonight… not holding my breath. It’s frustrating because I literally moved our evening routine to accommodate her. 

The SwagB bonus arrived! I have used it all on... not the South American River Retailer that I went on and on about... but Tezc0! I thought I only had the option of the South American River Retailer vouchers, but delighted to discover I could select a more beneficial voucher i.e. where I can buy foodstuffs... some for us and some for the foodbank. 

I've been quite healthy today... did a 10 minute YWA, eaten well (resisting OH's offer of a cake in the cafe), and drank a good amount of water.

Grateful today for OH paying for coffee, for OH making lunch, and for receiving the SB bonus! 

BadBookkeeper

Evening turtles,

Very wet & windy here in North Wales!  Hope everyone is dry & warm! 

For my 15 minute a day task I prepared a meal plan & wrote a split shopping list for a cheap supermarket & another for brands we won’t comprise on! 

Bcard making it hard to overpay and they reduced my dd so I’ve made another payment to keep on track. 

Ate healthy today.  No alcohol.  Few silly snacks from DS choc stash. 

Temperature has dropped here and I’ve put the heating on a bit earlier than I’d have liked. 

Added a couple of items for Christmas to grocery shopping list, plan to do this each week. 

Read a couple of magazines.

NSD 2/15.

Completed yougov survey.

A regular bill was £1.21 less than I’d budgeted for so added to my personal spends.  Received a small amount from tcb and that’s gone in ds birthday party pot. 

Instead of allowing myself £1.50 a day personal spends I’m going to allow £15 every 10 days so it feels a bit more but it’s the same!! 

I have been pondering about my debt and how frustrating £300 going out each month to pay it back is. I’m so cross not only I got into debt so easy, but that the credit limits on any cards I have are so big with no checks that I was still earning what was on my original application.  My income significantly reduced when I left work to be a sahm and then when I had a part time job.  I should never have had access to that amount of money with the income I had!!! Guess I’m trying to find someone else to blame but I know it was my own doing.  If I knew at that time how hard a slog it is to pay back, that I was stealing from my future self, I doubt I would have spent so much mindlessly.   I definitely needed some of it but not to the extent I used it for.   Thank god I had my lbm when I did.  I wonder how many people at the moment are about to go on that slippery slope.  I’ve managed to pay so much back interest free and my DFD is before my current deals finish.  But anyone going wild on Christmas on their cards this year may not have that option with the way things are and what a mess they could end up in! 

apple_muncher

Today I am grateful for talking over some future plans, for dc managing the morning at school and for being around to collect them, for swallowing a frog or two, for leftovers for tea, for getting on with making elephants and stuffing them.

x_raphael_xx

thriftylass said:

Now I got curious too, initially I thought it was an introvert show (like a special theatre production for shy people or sth) but then got confused how you can spend so much money there

I'll be sure to post pics of my haul when I get home.

F    FIRST debt/savings. £22.81 moved into savings. Nothing spent today. 1/15 NSDs

T    THINK AHEAD - Meal plan. Took some tandori chicken thighs out of the freezer this morning for tea. Overnight oats have been prepared for breakfast.
Y    YOUR HEALTH is important. Got up before work and hit the gym.
E    EVALUATE any home made presents. I have decided what to make for my friends birthday (on the 14th so I need to get on it!) I'm going to make a plushy apple with a smilie face. She's an artist and it's something she added to a picture. I can't get to the store for supplies until Saturday, so I hope to spend a lot of time on Sunday making it.

M    MAKE  A LIST Check it twice. My to-dos:

• Make birthday present
• Frame the moth
• Frame the tarantula
• Rehouse tarantulas (will do this when I get back from the invert show
• Set the tortoise up for hibernation
  

B    BASICS Scorplings fed and watered, frogs fed, chameleon fed, baby tarantulas fed, assassin bugs fed, axolotl fed, snail fed.
E    EVERY DAY give us 3 things you are grateful/ thankful for

1. I am grateful bf cooked my tea
   
2. I am grateful bf bathed the tortoise for me while I was at work
   
3. I am grateful for the rain (I love the bad weather). The lights filckered in work at one point, so thought we may get thunder, but sadly not.
   

R    Read Rest Relax Recharge   
Got into bed last night 9:15, and started reading Dune. I've never read it before, or seen the films. 9pm bedtime planned again for tonight.

DrCarrie

Evening Turtles, after a couple of days of a bit of upset and late nights I am resting, relaxing, and recharging. 

Grateful for: getting out to do a little walk in the blustery dark evening, hot water bottle, lovely message and pics from my best friend.