NST: February 2023 Freedom

firsview

Evening Turtles.
I am afraid I have been very naughty today. I spent quite a lot of money on some skin products from Boots that I would normally only ask for for Xmas and birthday. I am very aware that I will be 60 later this month and I know I look 10 years younger and I would rather like it to stay that way. I am vain and need to go on the naughty chaise longue. It was within my budget but the money could have gone to something more practical!
Today I am grateful for it being Friday, a lovely walk in the sun and being gifted a big bag of wool to give to my almost 100 yo customer who knits blankets for charity.

f0xh0les

Today was a good day.  We have located the rat, so I trapped it in one room, bought a humane rat trap with survey vouchers (£0), it arrived I have baited it with Xmas pudding, and now we wait.....

Cashed out p/a, cashed out cashback on something bought in November 2021 - it finally cleared this morning, it is not called QuikCo for a good reason.    Switched a bank account for £200 bribe, got £50 for scrap gold.  I end the day £'s up on what I started with, and I keep my NSD #1

thriftylass

firsview said:

Evening Turtles.
I am afraid I have been very naughty today. I spent quite a lot of money on some skin products from Boots that I would normally only ask for for Xmas and birthday. I am very aware that I will be 60 later this month and I know I look 10 years younger and I would rather like it to stay that way. I am vain and need to go on the naughty chaise longue. It was within my budget but the money could have gone to something more practical!
Today I am grateful for it being Friday, a lovely walk in the sun and being gifted a big bag of wool to give to my almost 100 yo customer who knits blankets for charity.

See it as a self-care related early birthday present to yourself.

I got ID'd till I was 31 (when the asking age was still under 18 or 21) but have now caught up a bit. I luckily have my mum's good genes but also started valuing my skincare routine as I got older

DawnW

Evening turtles,

NSD #1 for me today

F - Freedom - Sorted out my corner of doom (and cupboard of doom), filed all biz receipts etc for mine and OH's self assessment tax thingies, recycled some old magazines and diaries, plus things like old phone boxes (WHY?), sorted a pile of books for z*ffit

E - Exercise - Dog walk first thing

B - Budget- Closed out my spreadsheet for January, some truly scary spending - new glasses, a new front door, deposit for new skylight

R - Rules - Heating off till it got cold in here. Off again now as the stove is alight.

U - Unburden - Decluttered some rhubarb from the freezer into a crumble for pudding, as DS and his fiancee were over for dinner

A - Advanced planning, nothing here today

R - Refuel - Nice dinner with family, had my first glass of wine of 2023, don't think I will be rushing to repeat it. Totally out of the habit now, and I only opened the bottle for visitors. The rest can go in a risotto or something!

Y - You - Nothing today really

2 - 2 trips out - nothing planned tbh

0 - 100 days - I will have to think about this

2 - Read 2 books - Finished one already, not a problem for me.

3 - Gratitudes x 3 - Got some froggy jobs done, good company over dinner, not really wanting to drink any more.

apple_muncher

Today I am grateful for getting through the day, for a couple of lovely conversations at the end of the day, for easy tea, for my toe nail coming off (there's another one that's grown underneath, the Dr thought it might be a fungal infection!!) and the toe feeling much happier, for utube free-ness, for my jamas.

grandmanerd

A very quiet day - just letting things settle. Found a light hearted series to watch, couldn't face anything complicated or noisy. Read some of my book, lots of resting and gentle tidying. Going to start filling in some detail on my plans - this month, next 3 months (or 100 days) and longer term. No reply from the energy people about mum's final bill but a letter came this afternoon with a cheque for £227 and pence which gave me a lift. DS3 was ensconced downstairs so I left the kitchen for another day. Put together a large salad for lunch and had extra fruit and veg for other meals.

Grateful for much needed rest (sleep pattern is a bit hit and miss, random falling asleep and then a few hours awake in the middle of the night), good books,  good films and a few decluttering videos watched.  

facethemusic

Today was a spend day so still on 2NSDs, I suspect the weekend will fail to add to that total. 
Nothing decluttered, apart from some food! 
Grateful for DD being old enough to watch more grown up TV so we can enjoy a program together, for a dry almost sunny day and a weekend off to look forward to. 

Shrewbie

I’m here finally setting out my stall for Feb and the 100 days!

FREE FUN - I have planned a free day out today (open air sculpture place) and dinner will be from my bonus payment. I have decided that I will take myself on one outing once a week at lunchtime to a free place, to see something interesting. I get a 2-hour lunch break so that gives me lots of options.

EXERCISE - Yep will be doing 5 sessions per week including a long walk.

BUDGETS - Budgets are all set. We have been much better with planning recently and I want to continue and get even better at this in Feb. Bf and I are trying the cash envelope technique for our personal spends instead of using our cards as we’ve been spending indiscriminately especially on our shared card. We’ll see if that helps. 

RULES - Apart from footwear I am only going to shop in charity shops for clothes in Feb. I did this once before for a whole year and loved it.

UNBURDEN - Have been running down the store cupboards here and did a pretty good job in Jan. Will continue with the creativity of how to use things up.

ADVANCE PLANNING - I have two long-weekend holidays booked so far. Tenerife in March and Seville in May. I’ll be going home at summer and at Christmas and that will be it for this year. Determined to spend less on travel this year (although I love it so much) as trying to save for a house deposit. 

I am slowly coming to the realisation that I will probably not be able to afford a flat near the centre of Madrid, and by the time I’ve saved up enough for that I’ll probably be wanting to move out of the city anyway. I have rejigged the budgets and if I pare everything down the minimum I could possibly do it in 5 years, but much sooner if I’m willing to move out of the city. I was inspired by someone’s blog on here a few years ago who saved to buy a house mortgage-free even though they had a low salary. My dream is to own a patch of land and re-wild it. If I could make that happen I’d be very happy. 

Plan meals and batch cook - definitely room for improvement although as mentioned we have been doing better lately. I also want to plan my outfits for the morning in advance. Getting better at this also but need to continue.

REJECT -  I am on Day 28/90 of no booze and day 31/90 of no social media (apart from this forum). I am starting to feel the benefits - less distracted, more focused etc. I have got much better at saying no to things that I don’t want to do, but this will become harder as the weather gets better I suspect!! 

YOU - I will prioritise self care. I have switched around some things in my schedule so that my Mondays are less hectic, which will hopefully mean I’m less stressed and tired by Friday.  I will aim to get outside and have a break mid-morning at work (I say this all the time and it never happens!!) 

I also need to be careful of what i’m eating and drinking as something is irritating my bladder (sorry if TMI but I have had mild cystitis-like symptoms for a few weeks now and think something I’m drinking or eating is exacerbating it but can’t figure out what- have cut down on coffee which hasn’t really helped but may have cut it out completely just to see. I really don’t want to lose my only vice right now!!)

100 days - I will aim to write and read and do deliberate Spanish practice for 100 days.  IF I haven’t seen any further improvement in my Spanish at that point, I will consider taking advantage of a work grant for lessons (I did this last year but tbh don’t think I gained anything from it and it was still expensive with the grant) I will start from Monday (so that means I end on 17 May!)

Will aim for 15 NSDs. On 2 currently. 

Grateful this morning for the smell of freshly ground coffee, for feeling motivated, for finally having a plan!! 

That was much longer than intended!!! Have an awesome weekend turtles!!

ditty1234

f0xh0les said:

Today was a good day.  We have located the rat, so I trapped it in one room, bought a humane rat trap with survey vouchers (£0), it arrived I have baited it with Xmas pudding, and now we wait.....

Cashed out p/a, cashed out cashback on something bought in November 2021 - it finally cleared this morning, it is not called QuikCo for a good reason.    Switched a bank account for £200 bribe, got £50 for scrap gold.  I end the day £'s up on what I started with, and I keep my NSD #1

Did you get the rat? I remember having one once and it was a very noisy creature? Not sure about humane traps for rats though!

Toni'sfriend

Hello Everyone

Just caught up on all your news. My, you have been busy! Whilst I've have been doing absolutely nothing at all. Read a whole John Le Carre book from start to finish yesterday.

I loved your posts about snowdrops and crocuses. It reminded me of my Grandmother's garden where, at this time of year, her lawns were just covered in them. I think I'll plant some in our communal area. I was always put off doing something like that because the council come and cut the grass and aren't too careful about it. But, of course, they don't do that till about May so the bulbs should have bloomed long before then.

And, Firsview, if it's within your budget and you can afford it buy whatever makes you feel better about yourself. Self care (as I've discovered) is every bit as important as more practical things. Enjoy your skin care products.

So Himself is going to make my lunch and then I'm going to do a little bit of planning to make sure we're well ahead of the game.

Have a lovely weekend. xxx