Spend Free Twenty Twenty Three!

x_raphael_xx

NSD no1 for the first day of December.

I was going to buy a box of xmas cards to send to the family today, as I don't have enough. But there were no boxes in the co-op, and I wasn't going to spend £3 a pop. So instead I've decided I'm going to make a photo card and email it to everyone. Will save me in postage too, and what with the postal strikes, I know for sure it will get to people!

I have a little santa hat my mum knitted for the tortoise last year (tortoise is currently in the fridge hibernating) so I'm going to see if any of the tarantulas are in the mood for a photoshoot

Me and the boss had a little outing away from the office this afternoon, its Great Union Day in Romania today, a lot of our drivers are Romanian & have a big community here in my city. They had a big get-together & raised the Romanian flag at the Guild hall, then shared out some food. We were invited to attend too  it was a fun couple of hours. La multi ani romanasi for any Romanians out there!

LadyWithAPlan

This is looking like a fabulous diary what with tarantaluas, crickets and now a refrigerating tortoise.

Look forward to your NS 2023 - I may need to join you 

x_raphael_xx

LadyWithAPlan said:

This is looking like a fabulous diary what with tarantaluas, crickets and now a refrigerating tortoise.

Look forward to your NS 2023 - I may need to join you 

You are very welcome to join in! The more the merrier.

Dec NSD #2

Finished my Christmas 'card' last night, I managed to get a single photo before she got irritated, so I was grateful for what I got. Here's the result:

I just need to email them out.

I also spent a little time this evening making candy cane reindeer for my work colleagues.

I forgot to say I decided to cancel Netflix a couple of days ago, I have until 15th (I think) to keep watching, but there is very little I want to watch, so a good time to cancel. I will probably sign up again for the next series of The Witcher, although I'm upset Henry Cavill is retiring from his role as Geralt. So that will save me £10.99 a month.

x_raphael_xx

Spend day today

£10.95 on socks for bf's xmas present (Allowed spend from the gift fund)
£12.99 on new pants for me (New clothes - Not allowed spend)

I do need need new underwear, and my reasoning was Dec is a dry run before the real challenge in the new year. So I'd rather get them now than break a NSD for realsies.

I took the candy canes into work as I had to drop in the milk supplies. They were very well recieved.
I also took in a baby scorpion, to show my colleague who hasn't seen them. Another colleague has decided she wants one of the babies, so thats another one sold.
I also messaged someone on facebook last night, we've agreed to a swap - a couple of scorplings for one of his tarantulas (I don't have the species yet). Because of all the postal strikes combined with the usual xmas backlog, we probably won't post until the new year.

x_raphael_xx

Oh I forgot the main news. Our oven has packed up. We knew it was on it's last legs for a while, I'd be quite happy to just cook on the hob, but bf was very upset to realise he can't cook his nightly chips.

Luckily it's SILs turn to cook xmas dinner this year, and bf has ordered an airfryer to tie us over until we can be bothered to get a new oven. We went for something middle of the range, rather than like a Ninja, as they are just as expensive as a new oven.

x_raphael_xx

Dec NSD #3

Another no spend achieved. Mainly as I didn't get out of my pjs
The air fryer arrived today, and bf christened it with a roast. We only got a small one as the most we cook is like a couple of chicken breasts and a handful of chips, so we had to cook the whole chicken in the slow cooker for room. It turned out very well for our first go with the machine.

Animal chores done today, axolotl had some juicy worms, and the baby noodle had some mice.Tomorrow I need to snip some fresh brambles for the leaf insects.

x_raphael_xx

Dec NSD #4 (for yesterday)

and

Dec NSD #5 for today!

Brambles were snipped for the leaf insects yesterday. I have 5 in the enclosure, the biggest one does a very good job of pretending to be a leaf and just falls to the floor when I transfer them.
Today I had to do the office bank run in town as the boss was off sick. I was tempted to pop into a shop to see if they had any xmas tights, but I refrained.
I sold a scorpling to my colleague, so made £5 that I shall pop into my EF savings.

x_raphael_xx

Dec NSD #6

My early birthday present arrived nice and safely yesterday. They double boxed it and added a heat pack, so while the outer box was freezing, it was toasty warm inside. Davus sp. panama - Lava tarantula. That's my thumbnail in the picture. He'll end up bright red on black.

I have decided I'd like to add some bits and pieces to the scorplings I've donated to the invert charity raffle. Rather than just the animals I'd like to also send a starter kit, small beginner enclosure, substrate, water dish etc, to make it more of a prize.
I was going to pop to the pet shop today, but I don't need food yet, so held off.

Pet chores done today, chameleon enclosure cleaned, everyone fed & axolotl tank water changed. I just have to feed the baby noodle later (her mouse is defrosting)

x_raphael_xx

Two spend days in a row.

Yesterday I bought some pet food, and also a couple of small enclosures and 2 tiny spiderling waterdishes, with an idea to make a little starter kit to go with the scorpling prize donations. As they are part of a donated charity prize, I would consider them part of the gift fund.
£9.00 for crickets & locusts. £9.40 for 2 enclosures & waterdishes.

As it happened, my prize was drawn yesterday and won by a mantis breeder. So he has plenty of enclosures handy and doesn't need a starter kit. I can still use them when my smaller tarantulas grow, so not a total waste of money.
As it was a spend day I also made my usual charity donations in lieu of xmas presents to family and friends. I like to give £200 to charity, split between a few, which is what I would probably spend on xmas presents anyway.
£48.00 to sponser a dog for a year at the local c&d home.

£50.00 to a dementia charity

£51.50 to Help for Heroes

£51.00 to a special school.

The donations for the special school are collected by a well known guy in the invert community, its the school his son goes to.
Each £5 donation also gets you a raffle ticket with the chance to win a prize donated by the community (such as my two baby scorpions). He runs a live stream every day in Dec as an advent, and draws daily prizes. So while I'm donating to a good cause, I could also win something fun too. Last year I won twice and recieved beetles and mantises.

All these donations come out of the gift fund.

x_raphael_xx

Today however was totally a naughty spend. The gent who won my scorplings, also breeds and sells mantises. He currently also has a stock of green lynx spiders, that I've been on the search for, for a while.

He's currently got a christmas offer of a free mantis with each invert purchase, so its a good deal.

£12.00 for the spider (and free mantis), plus £9.00 postage (has to be next day delivery & will have a heatpad added in the cold weather)

Due to the postal strikes and the current freezing weather, he might not send until the New Year, but I don't mind waiting if its safer for the animals.