£34610 debt vs. $1.47 cheque

LardLad · 6 December 2017 at 6:51AM

The morning coffee sures tastes better having done another chunk of my daily exercises. Feels good to be getting back on track. Just need to find a way to up my step count during the working day.

In money news, I'd never realised quite how loud piggy banks were until just now when I managed to incur the wrath of my family (and possibly the whole street) by emptying out our silver pig. Was looking for some 20s but there's only 5s left - about £3 of them, so together with the £5 petty cash yesterday and the £10 reduction in the EE bill, I now only need to find £217 to avoid going down Overdraft Avenue.

Inspirational speaker day at work today. Hopefully they will inspire me to do 10000 steps.

FiscalPickle · 6 December 2017 at 8:16AM

Good luck on your debt-free journey LardLad. Glad your colleagues have listened re the smothering, it's great to work with caring people but I agree, it can get a bit much sometimes. Hopefully they'll stick to it!

GDB2222 · 6 December 2017 at 12:22PM

LardLad wrote: »

The morning coffee sures tastes better having done another chunk of my daily exercises. Feels good to be getting back on track. Just need to find a way to up my step count during the working day.

In money news, I'd never realised quite how loud piggy banks were until just now when I managed to incur the wrath of my family (and possibly the whole street) by emptying out our silver pig. Was looking for some 20s but there's only 5s left - about £3 of them, so together with the £5 petty cash yesterday and the £10 reduction in the EE bill, I now only need to find £217 to avoid going down Overdraft Avenue.

Inspirational speaker day at work today. Hopefully they will inspire me to do 10000 steps.

Can you get a 45 minute walk in at lunchtime? It's difficult to get the steps in at this time of year, because the days are so short, but I find that I need to set aside around 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes for walking. I can make up the rest of the 10,000 steps just walking around my home/office.

Could you try getting on the bus one stop away from home and getting off a stop early? Walking round to see colleagues, rather than picking up the 'phone?

LardLad · 7 December 2017 at 12:51AM

Today's served me to remind me how far away from normal I currently am. A staff training day with a keynote speaker and by 10.00am I was already nodding off. And it wasn't that I'd had a late night, or that the subject matter was boring, or that the presenter was dull. It was none of those things and yet I could not stay awake. It was a constant battle, I had to keep getting up to leave the hall and go to the bathroom to splash my face with water. Thankfully I was sitting amongst supportive colleagues who understood my behaviour wasn't intentionally disrespectful but it's really quite dispiriting. So I spent all day fighting a battle that I wouldn't really have expected to fight until I was of significantly more advanced years.

Money news is no more positive. The fiver from petty cash has been taken by DW and her and the kids demanded takeaway last night. So I sullenly trundled down to the chippy. And still didn't manage to get past 6000 steps all day. Hopefully tomorrow will bring brighter skies.

GDB2222 · 7 December 2017 at 9:23AM

Is the sleepiness just since the heart attack? Have you had a test for sleep problems?

Do you discuss the financial position with your DW, so she understands and supports your concerns?

Is there more your family could do to support you in your diet and exercise plan? Could DW and you go for walks together, for example?

LardLad · 9 December 2017 at 6:47AM

Been a rough couple of days health-wise but soldiered on. Managed 11 hours at work on Thursday which is the first time I've done that since before it all went pear-shaped. Not that I'm paid hourly or anything so it's hardly a cause for celebration, but it at least shows I'm getting some resilience back. The weight is going in the right direction and I'm agonizingly close to a big milestone. If I can get to it this month (especially this month!) it will be a massive psychological hurdle overcome. And all of this, the weight, the debt, the health, will be so much easier to deal with if I can get my head back into a positive mindset. And this diary really helps with this.

With regard to the family, there are onboard as much as I need them to be. Circumstances conspired to put my health scare into the background - the kids lost their grandmother recently and also one of DS's best friends lost his Dad suddenly a month ago. My kids are aware I need to lose weight but I don't think they really get why - and to be honest I don't want them carrying any burden of stress around them.

My plans for the weekend are to research e-book options and to get an exercise routine I can do every evening - as a morning person this is hard for me to take but I don't have the energy to function in the daytime if I've worked out, plus it should help my sleep doing things late at night.

redofromstart · 9 December 2017 at 11:05AM

Did you do any exercise before the heart attack? In the sense of do you know what you enjoy?

MeenaM · 9 December 2017 at 1:25PM

hi there and welcome, takeaway requests in my family are the bane of my life! so expensive and most of the time a disappointment in taste !
In reference to the bank over draft fees etc could you look to switch banks and get a cash incentive? I recently have switched to the B account with Yorkshire and will get £250 for doing so

anything you can sell on ebay?

good luck

LardLad · 11 December 2017 at 4:49AM

Yay! Massively positive weekend and I'm feeling good about the impending Monday. Broke the 10000 step mark on both Friday and Saturday and even managed 8000 yesterday. A lot of yesterday's steps were spent trudging in the snow with the kids and managing to find enough energy for two snowball fights. It just felt amazing to be doing something 'normal' with the kids and not be gasping for breath. Nice for the endorphins and adrenaline to get an airing. Weight-wise the trajectory remains downwards and I can't recall making any bad financial decisions this weekend which leads me to declare it a success!

Managed to put three of my books out onto Kindle as well, and will have to spend some more time on the writing projects after Christmas, getting the promotional aspects in place and then maybe doing some more writing which is the only bit I enjoy. Oh for a manager.

To briefly answer the two previous queries - 1) favourite exercise - I have a love/hate thing with running (5k/parkrun) and would love to go back to hating it again, plus rowing, cycling, boxing, weights. Not averse to the crosstrainer / treadmill either. 2) banking - won't rule out a switch but I would be lucky to get another account that gave me the facility of a 3k overdraft. I don't ever want to use it again but just knowing it is there does take away some of the day-to-day fear of the what-ifs... As indeed would a sensible amount of savings in an instant-access account. Another lightbulb moment, just there when I was least expecting it. The magic of MSE.

£34610 debt vs. $1.47 cheque

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