NST Penny Pinching GoSober Stoptober

sashanut · 18 October 2018 at 11:33PM

Hi all :j

Challenge: Oops forgot this one yesterday! Don't smoke & rarely drink either, so it has to be giving up unhealthy snacks. Snacks mainly healthy today. but could do better.. as always.

Organise. Start as you mean to go on. Know the contents of your fridge, freezer and cupboards. Plan your meals around them. Cook from scratch. Don't buy anything you can make unless cost /time taken dictates otherwise. If you are new to turtle challenges or still have full cupboards you could try living from the cupboards. Lunch was egg mayo sandwiches from the egg mountain, supper was going to be HM Chinese but ended up being sausage chips & beans (for DH). Chinese will be tomorrow, or Saturday..

Regular budget items should be set by 1st October. If you don't know how much you are spending on food or petrol, now is the time to find out. Question every purchase - need or want? No purchases today.

No Spend Days. Aim for 20 (high target) or 15 (low). Am aiming for 15 but hoping for more. Now 12/15.

Improvise. Make do and mend with a creative twist. think of a substitute ingredient, how to make an old/broken piece of furniture last a little longer. Got old small table out of lodge with a view to cleaning it up & using.

Exercise Four times a week at least (20 minutes minimum but can be done 10 minutes at a time). Get outside in daylight as often as possible. Outside this afternoon as a fine day again = painting outside. Did more painting of sunroom, about 2/3 of the way there now. DH also cut down some of the creeping hydrangea that covers the back (& front tbh) of the house. Now will be able to get to the rest of the painting, oh joy.

Christmas Another pair of socks finished to add to the pile. Next will be the 'novelty' presents & DF shawl.

Banned Will only be chippys normally with the odd takeaway planned for a celebration etc. No takeaways today.

Extra Income and Extra time Input for Nectar points

Report in, daily if possible I'm here..

Go turtles !!

Shrewbie · 19 October 2018 at 6:44AM

Reporting in

Challenge - haven't been doing too well on the spanish speaking. It is all too easy to let the students who speak well to speak English to me at lunchtime. But next week I must be better. Have been reading though.

Budget - Have transferred €240 to my RevolUt account which is all the money I have for food and fun this month until 17 Nov.

NSD - still on 12/15 will need to do food shopping today with my housemates. Going to try to make Sunday an NSD then perhaps i will think about revising my target.

Exercise - Did a 10-15 min high intensity workout yesterday. Will try to do something this weekend if it doesn't rain the whole time.

Banned - no alcohol yest but may have one drink tonight as we're going to a friend's place to play poker. Although this morning I woke up with a headache which I think is from tucking into a load of cheddar last night! Didn't plan on a cheese hangover this morning!

Have a good friday turtles

GlendaSugarbean · 19 October 2018 at 6:57AM

So I fell off the NSDs this week, still on 8/15

. Lesson learned: do not squirrel away all spare cash a week before payday, as my brain says '!£&! that' and spends! Nothing too terrible, a few quid here and there, but it adds up.

Still, payday today and all budgets are looking tidy and healthy. Xmas savings have been started, and I have a bit of extra in the spending pot for half term. Just need to stay focused!

Thrifty I know those money conversations when the other person nods and agrees, then does sod all! Very frustrating :mad:. Would he agree to a weekly or monthly budget check in? Could you use a joint app like YNAB? It isnt fair if he is spending and you are propping up his budget as well as paying off the debts.

Kerry Norwich is lovely, beautiful city and loads going on. Also a fantastic independent bookshop. We moved from London to East Anglia a decade ago and it was a very good decision, despite my lengthy commute!

Goals for this pay month: stay in budget. Any windfall to be split between CC and savings. If I can pay off an extra £65 on the CC it gets me down to a nice round £500 which would be fab!

laurenh1 · 19 October 2018 at 7:09AM

Hi all,

So just organising our little break this morning, need to go to Aldi & get the boys hair cuts. Waiting for DS to wake up & then we can get ready to leave the house.
will know much more about budgets on Monday when cars sorted & weve been away.

NSD- not today so still on 15. Which actually was my origional target but now Id like to get to 20. Will try & get to 16 this week.

Excersize-- will just be walking about

Xmas- its quite a quirky camp site we're off too so I might look for gifts/ stocking fillers while Im there.
Take aways- Im afraid I have two planned :eek:
Grateful for- my little one being dry through the night all week :j, for my MIL helping with the kids over half term & for having a good day at work yesterday

GlendaSugarbean · 19 October 2018 at 8:12AM

So my last post was a bit gloomy - here are the positives about last month:

- my overspend on the budget was >£10
- I saved into the home maintenance and EF pots
- I overpaid the CC by £70
- I took my lunch into work every day even when I didn't want to
- No spending on breakfasts - exception today for a coffee and cake for £1 (stand up to cancer fundraiser)
- No spending on alcohol
- No spending on yarn/fibre
- DS's birthday within budget

There's always room for improvement but I need to see how far I've come - I used to overspend on my salary every month!

Chandelier. · 19 October 2018 at 8:14AM

Morning,

Apart from aforementioned spends yesterday, everything else went well. I had the car repair man come round to give me a quote. I was expecting it to cost me around £600/£700 pound. He quoted me £300 which I was really shocked at. It's now booked in for next weekend. I think I will slide him an extra £20 to say thank you. I have the exact amount set aside in a car fund account so will use that money.

I'm hoping for today to be a NSD. I'm still on 7/15 NSDs and really need to up my game. I've no other plans apart from a trip out tomorrow with the boy. Half term is looming and I'm thinking of what we can do for the week. I'll be working one of the days so I will ask if his grannie can have him. I don't want the week to be too spendy. We have passes for our local theme park so can spend a day or two there and also get free swimming at our local leisure centre. So theres a couple of ideas.

I've not much planned for today. I'm just going to potter around the house for a bit and tie up a few loose ends. I have a list with stuff to do but I'm lacking motivation at the moment.

I think my mood is dipping a fair bit and I don't want it to. I'm trying my hardest to minimise the impact it could possibly have but it is hard. I'm already on a cocktail of medications for my bipolar disorder. I think it's a mix of being run down and now every big occasion this year has passed, I've not much thought on what else I can do. I need to start planning for something else, what I don't know.

Anyway, enough rambling on. I best get on with my day.

Have a good day everyone.

plumduff55 · 19 October 2018 at 8:19AM

Hi, travelled to ds1 yesterday and spent money on food and drink.

NO exercise, Xmas, improvisation or nsd

- the only thing I did achieve was a bit of organisation. While on the train I organised 2,440 photos into folders on my iPad. They are now in folders by year and also have folders for knitting, sewing, quilting, cruises etc etc.

I'm very happy with that xx

thriftylass · 19 October 2018 at 8:54AM

GlendaSugarbean wrote: »

Thrifty I know those money conversations when the other person nods and agrees, then does sod all! Very frustrating :mad:. Would he agree to a weekly or monthly budget check in? Could you use a joint app like YNAB? It isnt fair if he is spending and you are propping up his budget as well as paying off the debts.

I'm preparing various avenues to address the issue or bring it up. Today I found the right statements and going to look through them. Quick glimpse and there is a LOT of lunches I can see. He's still paying the 0% card but I think the OD is new (after getting the 0% card to pay the old one off :eek::mad:). Will report back once Ive been through the statements. I think he thinks he's earning good money and shouldn't have to be "scrimping" etc.

EDIT: Looked through the first month of his statements I got and sit here in work nearly crying. Adding his spending up over the last ten years we could've probably halved our mortgage by now, Argghhhhhhh. And nothing to show for it. Yes he pays more for going out etc but he could have had at least 300 each month or more for savings. And I pay for most of our holidays etc from savings to enable him to pay off his darn OD that he just increased again. Oh I am RAGING.......

chocolatelover93 · 19 October 2018 at 10:41AM

Dawn - thank you for all the gardening help

popped into B&Q yesterday to have a nose at the seeds and things so will just get one a week maybe and stock up so I'm ready for spring

Challenge - Cereal bar for breaskfast, pasta and sauce with yoghurt for lunch, crisps and 2 easy peelers for snacks with me at work today and then will probably have something not too healthy for dinner from freezer.
Organise - Bought lunch in with me today, got up 5 mins before I should be leaving so glad I prepped last night!! Paid off another £50 to CC yesterday making sure I do this every week so I can pay it all off by Xmas next year.
No Spend Days - Aiming for NSD today, not had one for a while.
Improvise. Make do and mend with a creative twist - None today.
Exercise Four times a week at least - Working so not had a chance.
Christmas - None today
Banned Takeaways, coffee shops, chippys, pie shops, vending machines, sandwich bars etc. - None today
Extra Income or Extra time for the time poor - Going to get a few surveys done
Report in - Hello!

C xx

dolly84 · 19 October 2018 at 4:54PM

Thrifty - you seem to have been coasting along like this for a long time with your DH now, it might be time for a very hard kick up the backside. Cut him off at source with handouts or do everything into one pot and he just gets a set amount to spend.

NST Penny Pinching GoSober Stoptober

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