NST Sweet May 2023 - Pick 'N' Mix Challenge

Shrewbie

 Here it is turtles, be gentle with me!!

 Everyone is welcome to join, turtles new and old, lurkers and occasional posters.

Ninja Saving Turtles Challenge May 2023

The sweet month of May pick ‘n’ mix selection

When the British institution Woolies’ collapsed in 2008/9, the officially-certified-last-ever bag of pic ‘n’ mix was sold on the bay of e for £14,500! Money is a crazy thing - at times it feels as if it rules our lives - but turtles strive for as much control (over what we CAN control) as possible.

All the information and advice out there on money and life can be overwhelming. Just like pick ‘n’ mix, we should choose what we’d like to take on board according to what applies to us and our lives, (jazzies and snowies, flying saucers and magic carpets), and discard the rest (fried eggs, dracula teeth and anything liquorice)

THE CHALLENGE

So... in the spirit of pick ‘n’ mix, choose 1-3 of the below points to focus on for May (of course, you are free to choose more if you wish!).

Money - try for at least 10 NSDs - travel and health costs exempt.

Monitor savings and budgets - are you on track with where you want to be at this stage in the year? are you managing to pay to savings/debt or do things need readjusting?

Mini-lives - Bear with me on this one.... the very nature of life means we have to choose a profession or path (or we have it chosen for us) and whatever we end up doing, we naturally wonder about the other paths we could have taken had things been different. Obviously there’s no way to live all of these other lives in parallel but perhaps we can incorporate an element or aspect of one of them into our daily lives.

Write out 3 or 4 “alternative lives” and work out some way you could try to live part of them as a “mini life”  (some will be easier than others. If you have written, for example, “pilot”, “novelist” and “naked darts player”, perhaps you can create a daily writing practice ;-))

 

(nicked and paraphrased from the cottage fairy on utube) 

 

Resist the idea of  “natural talent”. David Bowie said “I had to learn to have talent”.

 

Magic and awe -  What does magic and fun look like to you? What brings out your inner child? Write a list of all the fun things you can do for free (careful!) put your favourite music on and dance, standing up or sitting down, sing loudly at the top of your voice, list places you haven’t explored in your area or further afield and plan to visit a new place once a week.

 

Meal plans and everything plans - set out the main events coming up in May. Do you have birthdays, outings, trips? Are you making progress towards your financial and life goals? How is your meal planning? take an inventory of the fridge and cupboard contents and list all the meals you can currently make from that. Is your meal plan getting stale? Try one new recipe a week.

 

Make/maintain connections - It is so difficult when everyone is busy but make steps each week to nurture connection within your community (which can be online!). Is there someone you haven’t spoken to in a while? call them or write them a letter. Bring back the snail mail! Try to do one Random Act of Kindness -RAK (or more) per week and report progress.

 

Mindfulness/Meditation - If you have never tried meditating but would like to, start with a guided 5-10 min body-scan relaxation exercise on utube daily. If meditation isn’t your thing, try to bring more mindfulness into your life - this can be done with any activity. The next time you are involved in a task, for example brushing your teeth, try to be completely focused on what you are doing with the brush and bring your attention back to the present when it wanders (which it of course inevitably does).

 

Munch those Frogs and Elephants - the uglier the frog, the earlier in the day it should be eaten! List any frogs and elephants and report progress on the munching.

Who's with me?? 

Shrewbie

May pick 'n' mixers:

1. Shrewbie 
2. thriftylass
3. Toni'sfriend
4. f0xh0les
5. apple_muncher
6. grandmanerd
7. beanielou
8. lcc86
9. ldee2111
10. facethemusic 
11. Starlight_at_Sea
12. DawnW
13. pollyanna_26
14. Esmeralda2662
15. craftingmad
16. ditty1234
17. KajiKita
18. Thrifty_Taylor

thriftylass

I like a Pick'n'mix please

Toni'sfriend

Love it, Shrewbie, Well done. Count me in. xx

f0xh0les

Hooray!! Not a blasted crown or coronet or scepter in sight!! 

Count me in Shrewbie, I will take advantage of all the Bank Holiday weekends (3 of them!!!!) to go explore my area.

apple_muncher

Count me in Shrewbie! Loving the challenge x

grandmanerd

Love this challenge. Please count me in

beanielou

Me pretty please Shrewbie.  
Thank you

lcc86

Me please 

Shrewbie

f0xh0les said:

Hooray!! Not a blasted crown or coronet or scepter in sight!!  

Hahaha I imagine you are all sick to the back teeth of it already 😂

All should be numbered up to here - shout if I miss you!

thriftylass

Just reading the rules again. We have Magic and Awe in our household in the form of silly face day (Sat) and silly noise day (Wed), or any other day really. Nothing is too embarrassing. Just be a child.