Bonfires and fireworks - NST November challenge

thriftylass · 31 October 2017 at 10:42AM

Good morning,

pay day today. Paid the CC and the savings. Put a bit more away than budgeted and try to make do with what's left. Increased my spend budget by 200 so I can start shopping for Christmas without feeling like I touch the savings for it. Will record those spend separately though to keep and eye on them. Will need mainly ingredients and containers for the HM gifts this months and blank cards. Will start keeping an eye out for deals for things the kids like

fruitloop04 · 31 October 2017 at 7:56PM

November rules

NSDs - I went all out last month and failed miserably, so I am going for a conservative 15. Must be more organised..leading nicely on...

Organise - My food budget is £280, a lot I know but we eat meat/fish with every meal! I also need to organise the house a little...I have piles of paperwork everywhere!

Value for money - I think this is one area I am pretty good at but will turn it up to the max!!

Exercise - Not so good here. I am going to aim for 20 exercise days throughout the month. I must get my weight down!

Mental health - The darker months are a bit of a trigger for me to be a bit low so this is an area I need to focus on. I need to factor in 'me' time which I am not very good at doing, I need to go for walks in the local hills that I love but never go to!

Be Christmas ready - I have started buying pressies already (in the sale and with vouchers), I am hoping to finish my xmas shopping this month.

Eat well - I have been SO BAD recently..McDo breakfasts, Costa drive by....Need to get back on this but maintain pudding Friday!!

Report - EVERY DAY!! I wasn't so good at this last month and completely lost track of everything.

Clear out - I am a self confessed hoarder...my OH is a minimalist...he will like this challenge! I am going to set a challenge to list 10 items on ebay this month. I hate listing items on ebay so will start will a low number.

Kerry_Woman · 31 October 2017 at 8:17PM

My plan for November.

NSDs- Will aim to do 20 NSDs for November.

Organise – Have set my food/household budget £150. Only have one play to attend in November, already for. Plan my week with what needs doing.

Value for money – Will have to keep an eye on spending. Not to buy things for just in case things run out.

Exercise – Will be doing my usual walk each day when temping.

Mental health – Try to do what is manageable each day. If having trouble sleeping to use natural/alternative remedies. Have some me time and to rest as much as I can.

Be Christmas ready – Going to see what food I can get. Already have a few food items already in. Christmas cards already in – got them last year. Already have Christmas money for gifts in savings account, put money aside each month throughout the year. Just give money gifts to immediate family.

Eat well – Will try my best. I can usually buy comfort food if feeling not too great when doing the food/household shopping.

Report – Will try and do this.

Clear out - Already have got rid loads of clutter to either charity shops or recycling centre/recycling bin in communal bin area or had to bin over the past 3 years. Will see what I can declutter in November. Will need to be careful what I actually bring into the flat.

DawnW · 31 October 2017 at 8:42PM

My aims for November:

NSDs- It is getting near Christmas, so extra shopping will be happening. I will settle for 12, and be pleased if I can exceed this :)For me, all spending except for the direct debit bills counts as a 'spend', as the money leaves my purse or bank account, whatever it is!

Organise - I no longer have any debt, and savings are direct debited monthly along with the bills. Can't think of any expensive social things that are likely to arise - we don't socialise much, and what we do tends to be low (or no) cost activities around family and friends.

I have decided to allow £50 per week for food /household/supermarket spends, starting from Sunday (29th) when I did the week's shopping for the current week (if that makes sense). So, over the month that will equal £250. Of that, I have so far spent £73.84 on the weekend's big shop.

Value for money - I do this anyway as a matter of course.

Exercise - My main form of exercise is walking, which I normally do quite a bit of. However, I have been ill this month and it has tailed off, so must get back on it!

Mental health - Make sure I get exercise and fresh air, eat well, get enough sleep and avoid alcohol most of the time.

Be Christmas ready - I have already made the Christmas mincemeat (which we like, so make a big batch once a year, enough to have some in stock throughout the year). This coming month I will make Christmas puddings, which I am not bothered about, but are a bit of a family tradition. Our family do a secret santa for all adults, whereby we each buy a decent present for one person. My adult children came up with this idea some years ago, and although I was unsure at first, as it seemed odd not to buy my kids Christmas presents, it works well and is pretty stress free

. Children are exempt from this arrangement of course, and get lots of presents!

Eat well - We eat pretty well, as I always cook from scratch. Less cake is probably in order though

Report - I will try to post daily with a list of three things that I am grateful for.

thriftylass · 31 October 2017 at 10:08PM

Kids went guising today and that's the sweetie cupboard replenished. Also made a nice katsu curry fake away for dinner.

Found another money saving trick in the kitchen that i for some reason not thought of before. My spare spring onions and fresh ginger always end up going limp in the fridge as i rarely use them. So chopped them today and froze them. Need to do something similar with my chilies that i harvested this year. Apparently they freeze well whole and are then easy to grate straight from frozen.

Hopefully now SFDs till Friday at least

laurenh1 · 31 October 2017 at 11:43PM

Hi all

Finally got round to doing my budgets, saved slightly more than planned which Im pleased about. I haven't left a lot to live off but think its doable , definately.

Looked at next years budgets feeling really happy with them. Paid for 2 weekends away with thr kids out of this years budgets which is awesome and our family holiday / xmas will be budgeted for monthly as per usual as well as emergency fund and house saving.

Lovely night trick or treating - enough sweets to last a good while at least.

Away this wkend visiting family but hoping for a NSD tomorrow & thurs.

See you all in November xx

Pauper1 · 1 November 2017 at 8:07AM

So, it's the 1st of November and we can smash this! (Although it's my birthday today and I'm going to my favourite shop, so I'll be leaving the smashing for today...)

NSDs- I will set this at 12. I'm not very good at including days when I go on the bus, because it's quite expensive and I wouldn't want to do it every day. Plus, with it being my main present buying month I like to grab the bargains when I see them.

Organise - my budgets for most things are set. I'm going to stick with £200 for groceries and £150 for petrol. My entertainment budget for our pay month has already been blown due to DS's party, so I'm going to ignore that one this month as there's still things to sort. I will do it as cheap as I can though! We have standing orders and direct debits set up for our debts and savings, and the exact amount to cover all our bills goes into a different account, so we're sorted for that. It's my birthday today so most of my eating will be covered by my mum! DH and I are going away in a couple of weeks and I will find somewhere to eat that we can use up some Tesco vouchers for.

Value for money - I do usually do this, but sometimes get carried away.

Exercise - I'm not very good at this, so will definitely aim for three or four days a week.

Mental health - I'm really struggling with my mental health at the moment and I'm not very good at working out tactics to help, so I will be gleaning ideas from what everyone else posts. The only thing I have noticed so far is that keeping my house in order helps to keep my mind in order, so I will focus on that.

Be Christmas ready - we're getting there. About half the gift list is purchased, and I know a couple of other things I want to get. I need to move my sewing machine back from my mum's as a few things will be HM. We won't be at home too much for Christmas, but I'll start to get a few treats in.

Eat well - I think we mostly do this but there's always room for improvement. Might add a smoothie in more regularly just to make sure I'm getting some fruit down me.

Report - I don't think I'll be back on today, so as early as it is, I'll have a go. I'm grateful for my beautiful necklace that I got "from my son" for my birthday (he's only one so he didn't have much involvement), it was from our holiday to Disneyland which made me feel a little sad when I opened it, for lots of reasons, but I'm glad to have it. I'm grateful for our NHS, even though they decided my birthday was a good day for me to have an appointment! And finally I'm grateful that even though November massively blows my budgets, I'm lucky to still have enough.

misstara · 1 November 2017 at 8:18AM

Morning turtles. Welcome to the start of the November NST challenge

greent · 1 November 2017 at 8:51AM

Happy Birthday, Pauper

:bdaycake:_party_

mummylewis · 1 November 2017 at 9:18AM

Happy birthday Pauper! :beer:

And happy November 1st everyone

Bonfires and fireworks - NST November challenge

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