NST: February 2023 Freedom

facethemusic

Still on 2NSDs, but some of today's spend is to prepay a sport for DD that saves 10% on paying at the time, so worth doing. 
More paint on the walls- almost finished the current project, will have hit 15000 steps by bedtime and pony has been exercised as well. Nothing decluttered yet but I had to move a table to paint so all the paperwork on it will be filed/recycled/shredded by bedtime. 
Grateful today for getting time with the pony before the rain came on, DD occupying herself (including making her own lunch) while I painted and the rugby result. 

BadBookkeeper

F - Freedom - Keep forgetting to take bag of charity items to the drop off!  Once that’s done, it will free up room in the conservatory to get stuck in will make an effort tomorrow to do this.  Emails unsubscribed from but it feels like another 20 appear! Will continue with this.

E - Exercise - 5000 steps, cleaned the house but didn’t do skips will go double tomorrow.

B - Budget-  Nothing here today. 

R - Rules - Washing machine & dryer used today for bedding, towels etc.  heating kept low. 

U - Unburden tat, use up things, nothing here today.

A - Advanced planning - DS has a school trip in June for £235 will need to work this into my budget.

R - Refuel - Stuck to slimquick plan, drank lots of water did have 1 alcoholic drink. 

Y - You - self care - had my haircut this morning. 

2 - 2 trips out - Sorted ✅ 

0 - 100 days - on track 

2 - Read 2 books - started 1 today.

3 - Gratitudes - Clean house, diet going well, Wrexham winning their footy match.

2/15 NSDs - went to bargains for the home for bits and bobs, mostly cleaning.

Has anyone bought oven rack cleaning trays anywhere?  Currently £14.99 on big river shop wondered if a bit cheaper elsewhere but haven’t come across it. 

ldee2111

Grateful for eating normally today (after Norovirus putting me off my food), for uninterrupted chat with Mum, for getting washing line dried, and for my comfortable bed… where I’ll be very soon 

Dfw38

Evening! Good luck with the rat catching....my biggest fear that creature!

A nsd yesterday (only hospital parking which i think is exempt?) Dd had a head injury from school so had to get her checked over. Got a mild concussion. Nsd 2 today as dh paid for all the stuff from the Swedish shop for the dcs bedroom 👍.

Gratitudes for yesterday and today:
1. Dd is on the mend.
2. Nurses- so reassuring and thorough yesterday checking dd over.
3. Nhs -  ❤ 
4. Got everything I needed for dcs room for effectively free for me 😆
5. Kids wanting a quick tea.
6. Dh has been decluttering our room of doom with me this evening and letting things go 🥳

thriftylass

Reading the last few posts reminded me that I forgot to do my gratitude regularly.

Just increased my DD for energy back to £200 as £157 obviously is too low for what we use just now. Guess what, the warning came back that I better reduce it. Weird 

firsview

f0xh0les DS1 kept pet rats for many years and honestly they ate absolutely anything, so the Xmas pud will be fine. I have visions of you sat in the bath surrounded by pots and chickpeas a la Dave with the turkey in the Royle family!

f0xh0les

Me and Dave are in separate bathrooms 🤣🤣!!  We are not sharing, I promise. 

Thrifty_Taylor

Good luck with the rat catching @f0xh0les. We caught quite a few in our garden before sproutmas, but need to reset them again. The downfalls of living in the country with a field behind the house & another across the road...

Glad your DD is ok @Dfw38, & all the poorly people are on the mend.

Now on NSD2.
Thursday was a good day, the pupil I was to have in the afternoon was off sick, so I got to play librarian again 😃 A member of staff fell just outside the playground, during a trip to the local library, so I was asked to stand in. Quite pleased, as it was raining heavily when I got home, so didn't go for a walk. Did do my 100 skips though. Had a very late tea, then had a big sewing job to tackle, which took me to 10.30! My turn to go in the bath, so I was determined to do something for me, after the mammoth sewing job, so I read the last 60 pages of my book. Was 11.45pm then, so too tired to post on here.

Friday went well. Took my friend back to town, picked mum up & took her shopping, then after a quick tea, I headed to my friend's for Wool Club. She's got a very demanding job, so we don't see each other as often as we like. We've decided to pick a date in the school holidays & mid-term, to meet, have a catch up & craft. I knit, she crochets. We had a lovely time, then I stayed the night at my mum's. 

Today I dropped mum off at work, then did my big monthly shop. When I came out if L1dl, DS1 & his GF were standing by my car (they'd come into town on the bus, unbeknownst to me), so helped me bag up all the groceries. Had a look in a couple of CS's, chatted with mum at her work (she made me a hot choc). DS & GF called in, so we all had a good chat. A customer came in asking about a zip for her coat, so I gave her some advice & mentioned that I replace lots of zips for people, so she asked if I'd do hers. Her friend said she has a couple of coats needed attention too! Popped over to the library to pin a man into a tweed blazer (he & his wife live on one of the outer isles), nipped to get frozen foods off my list & came home. Took ages to put it all away. Did the ironing, & buffed my nails, then after tea I had a nap, unpicked a zip then started on the first sleeve of my jumper.

Grateful for playing librarian, fun at Wool Club, an ex colleague saying how good I am with my main pupil (unlike their current relief teacher who totally ignores them), time with mum, DS & GF helping me today

Shrewbie

apple_muncher said:

Shrewbie- have you read frugaldom's thread on how they bought without a mortgage?

Yes apple!! How could I forget? they've impacted so many people. I think I'll go and re-read. 

Thank you @lcc86, I have made a doctor's appointment but it's not for another week so I will stick to a bland diet until then, only drink water, and try to get an urgent appointment if it worsens.

Yesterday was a good day, went for a long walk and then to a vietnamese restaurant which was lovely. Picked up some things I've needed for ages from D3c@thl0n including one of those long elastics for the splits challenge that I'm doing. No NSD. 

Lovely slow morning here. I got up just before 9am and went to the Rastro flea market which I live right beside but never manage to get up early enough to go to (it gets really busy after 10 or so) just popped on jeans and a jumper over my PJ top and went out. Didn't buy anything but it was nice to have a mooch around, then I went and did the weekly shop. It ended up being slightly over budget but it was all on the meal plan, included some cleaning products and we should absolutely not need any top up shops next week.

Grateful for a crisp, sunny morning, for a warm flat, for bf starting already on the batch cooking (dhal in the inst@nt pot) 

grandmanerd

Yesterday was a slow plodding day but very happy with what got done. 12 bags of rubbish and recycling went out to the bins (some were already part filled, some were left by elves, some were just picking/ scraping/ gathering one thing after another and binning them - and hunting them down in all the little nooks  and crannies. Plus a few trips up and down the yard with extra bits (a sinkful of cans and jars which I'd left to soak).

5 appliances either loaded or unloaded. 1 goal achieved - for the first time in months I was able to load the clean pots from the DW onto my little trolley and push it across to the cupboards (it's not away yet, Rome wasn't built in a day). I can actually see most of my kitchen floor. I was just starting to sweep the remaining items together when my food was ready and thought it was time to stop. Will do it before lunch whilst there's still lots of light (it's so long since I managed to do anything that it's light a lot longer now). Several buckets of mortar and brick bits were added to next door's pile of bricks (I was going to bag it all and filled a lot of buckets with shovelled up scrapings, yesterday I just tipped the filled buckets onto the heap - within their boundary).

Use ups going nicely - 5 toiletries, 6 cupboard items (plus fresh veg, salad scraps and lots of little recipe box/ their takeaway sachets). Found substitutes for shower gel (using Beloved's - they buy things and don't know what they already have, I'm gently directing them to use things up) and moisturiser (E45 and vaseline - yuck, but it's very good on cracked heels and anything in need of special attention). Have also found a body lotion of mine (was concentrating on using up mum's) which I shall use on days I can't face E45 and vaseline.

Have just been rather extravagant. I'd drawn a blank on the rose and argan oil previously (the only one of mum's use ups that was so lovely I wrote down what it was called). The small pack I bought myself has just been used up. I'd resolved that next year I'll buy multiples but decided to check online if there were any in the sale. Similar but not the same so did a general search and found some 3 packs on the bay of e - someone was selling one for £2 but they only had one and postage was £3.20. So have stocked up and there was a dress in my basket that I'd earmarked months ago  reduced to sub £15). This meant that I got free postage. As I've already spent I'll  set up the overdue DD for the local food bank (plus a one off donation for the months I've missed) and will probably do a small food order. There are a few bits I need to go with what I have and a couple of things I've been craving but finding the whole 'shopping thing' a major chore and I'm spending too much buying one offs.

I've added or done lots of little extra grooming jobs (I think hair and threading need to be done this month) and I'm jotting things down as I think of them (to dos, reminders, people. Going to get dressed and tackle more of the kitchen now and plan the week ahead when I need to rest again. Afternoon cinema is still at the library, it's only the evening one that's moved to the new venue. Wasn't interested in either of this month's films so will be selective about which months I attend - I need to 'socialise' more but so many things happening that it's more of a chore than a pleasure atm. There are a few free films I can watch online and a couple that I missed when they were on at film club (missed Peterloo because I was coming back from my aunt's funeral in Abingdon and told them to let someone else have my ticket). 

Grateful for a clearer kitchen (not clean yet but getting there), good books (4 so far this month), films and series, food from scraps.