Flo's Debt Free Diary

Had a fairly relaxed Saturday so far. Had a lie in, which I have mixed feelings about. The extra sleep was great, and we did go to bed at 2am yesterday (we were binge watching Netflix's 'Stranger Things' which I really recommend, we started last night and finished this morning), but I am the sort of 'weirdo' (others term for me) who likes to get up at 6am and have a good few hours in the morning to myself.

My OH and I went for a 5k jog. I am still at the run/walk stage, but I set myself the target of completing the 5k in under 42 minutes (last weeks time) and also I had to build up to 23 minutes of running.

So, scores on the doors.

Time completed in: 41:41
Time Spent Running: 27:11

Wooooooooooooooooooo!

I have run less this week as I think I over exerted myself because at Football on Thursday I had really bad pains in my lower leg, to the point that I just wasn't doing my best at all. I had been doing a crazy amount of abs workouts (like 15 planks a day) and cycling and running club, so I took yesterday off and did nothing. Tomorrow will also be a rest day.

I had a bath, and feel very relaxed and pain free. I may ice my legs later to really get them good again.

It was my new running shoes first outing. That's right, I bought new running shoes. And I didn't just buy 1 pair, I bought 2! But both were in the sale, and one is for 'road' running and one is for 'wet/trail' running. Which I would need for the 10k in November that is in a woodland that I want to do.

My boyfriend said he would pay for the road running shoes as a christmas present. If i pay him back the money before christmas then he will get me a different christmas present. If not, then the shoes were my present.

He also commended me for not coming back with the most outlandish/loud/tacky/over the top pair of shoes possible. Which is kind of my style. Well, if you look fabulous running you're more likely to do it :rotfl:

That money will go straight onto the credit card. No ifs no buts.

My OH is out today, he is having a boys night out with some old University friends of his. Which is great as I have the house to myself. I love my OH and have tremendous fun with him but I do love time to myself when I can eat what i want (usually involving pesto or pulses or mushrooms or garlic, all things he hates) and watch what I want. So right now I am watching on iplayer all the women's football show highlights they have available.

For someone who believes in women's football and who plays women's football, I shamefully have never seen a match in the flesh, so I want to see a women's football game asap. I support Bristol City FC so the natural progression would be to support the Bristol Ladies team as my 'main' team and maybe check out some local south wales teams as a 'second' team.

I plan on watching Netflix films later, and maybe some WWE Wrestling shows.

I will also be making the worlds biggest vegetarian quorn mince and five bean chilli later. It is because I have TOO MUCH STUFF in the cupboards and some rather sad looking tins of pulses, so will make a huge batch, have it with rice and sweet potato wedges and bliss out in front of the TV.

So guys, this is my 500th post.

Part of me didn't think I would achieve this milestone. I thought I would never keep to this diary as I had failed so many other times when trying to keep a diary or blog. I assumed although my intentions were good, I would fail again.

My OH wants me to acknowledge my achievements more, this is something I am not very good at, but since this is a milestone post I will do my best to remember all the things I have achieved since keeping this diary. They will be a mixture of financial and personal.

I have become the sort of person that is no longer afraid to fight for my rights. When I was miss-sold a phone contract through orange two years ago and lost my coverage and had to pay to get a new contract through no fault of my own, i wrote a letter to EE asking for a refund on this money, which they gave me. There is no way i would ever have done this before.

I have seen my credit rating improve. Not substantially, but not insignificantly either.

The old Flo would never have gone to a sporting group she had no talent for, at least not without moral support. Not only have I not missed a single football session since i started but I go even if my friend who introduced me to the group isn't going.

I have 3 credit cards that haven't been touched all year. I used to be the sort of person who would pay the minimum each month of my 5 MAXED OUT cards and then spend/withdraw that money immediately. I am no longer this bad or irresponsible with money.

Whilst I haven't been successful in my job interviews, I am now making the final five of shortlisted applicants for jobs with salaries i would used to have thought were way beyond me, and I believe this is because of the hard work I have put in and I now feel my options are unlimited.

I have finally found a (very, very cheap) weight loss management tool (my fitness pal app) that has seen me, with exercise, lose 9 pounds in 4 weeks.

My boyfriend trusts me with money now and knows I won't run out and buy something shiny/magic beans. His parents recently gave us some money for the food shop this month. My boyfriend gave it straight to me as I am in charge of the food shopping budget.

I have discovered what I want to do as a career and what I want to further study. I have found what i want to be-the next Martin Lewis! I have always wanted to help people and saving money has become my passion. I come alive when I get to talk about my coupons, or my refunds, or my vouchers, or the savings I have made.

Now, onto the ways MSE forum has helped me:

The monthly grocery threads have seen me in the first month of following one reduce my shopping budget from 40 quid over budget, to just over 5 quid.

The PAD thread has seen me see the value in prioritising my money on my debt.

The NST thread has seen me, again in the first month of following it, go from holding a record of 7 NSDs, to now holding a record of 12 NSDs.

The Sealed Pot tin has seen me enjoy contributing my change to my savings for christmas rather than spend it on rubbish.

The Make x a day threads have seen me make over 600 quid across 2 months.

The wombling thread has made me see that everything does add up and I have 'wombled' over 200 pounds this year.

The crazy clothes challenge thread has meant I am keenly aware of how much I have spent on clothes each month (another achievement-this whole year so far I have spent less than I did in my worst month last year)

The frugal living thread keeps me on track.

If i have missed out any threads i post on please forgive me!!

Now onto the diaries.

Through reading diaries I have learnt about shopprize, shopitize, checkoutsmart, click snap, lucky leftovers and receipt hog. Through the diaries I have learnt about survey sites, like opinion outpost (bonus achievement-i recently purchased several birthday presents using majoritably amazon vouchers gained through these sites and apps)

I have learnt about my supermarket

I have learnt about writing to companies telling them about how great they are and getting coupons sent to me. I have made nearly 30 quid in coupons through this way. Today I got a FIVE POUND voucher for Danone yoghurts just through telling them (truthfully) how much they have helped me.

I am devoted to MSE. i tell pretty much everyone I meet to use this site and especially the forum.

My achievements are your achievements. If you are at the start of your debt free journey I want to assure you the road is tough but you will get there.

Thank you all for reading my 500th post.

I have decided I am going to write either a book or a word press blog about my debt free journey, but don't worry, i will never leave here.

Had a mixed day today. As I'm sure many of you know it was pretty diabolical weather today. I went to the shops soon after I got up. I have £16.02 on average to spend each week remaining of my August food budget (which ends on the 26th as the new food budget starts on the 27th of each month) and I had to get quite a few things. I also 'treated' myself to Pearl Barley, Gram Flour and Dried Fruit, and today I had chille leftover from Saturday and i had it with gram flour and cumin pancakes. A new recipe for me, but even my OH seemed to like them.

So the day got a bit bad later. I went to the running group i have been going to for the last 2 weeks, and my OH came with me. The weather was atrocious, really, really bad rain. I was soaked everywhere before we even got there.

This put me in a really bad mood and I didn't perform as well as I had hoped i would in today's session. I was also sad that i was grumpy when my OH had willingly come to something he was unsure of in terrible weather. I did cheer up before the session was over but felt bad I was moody and didn't do too well before that.

I made a huge batch of pasta before we left so we could eat after our showers when we returned. I wanted to use up three nearly empty but open packets of miscellaneous pasta I had in the cupboard. Well it must have been more than I thought as we have 5 tupperwares with generous portions in now all in the fridge. The freezer is currently too full to take any of them yet so hopefully we will eat some of them tomorrow and defrost some rolls in the freezer and then maybe we can squeeze some in.

We have been very lax with bedtimes as my OH is on holiday from work, so my sleep pattern is a bit out of sorts. I wake up early enough, come downstairs feeling great that I am up early, then before the coffee hits me i think 'i'll just have a little lie down on the sofa' and three hours later i wake up. Aarrgh. And then I feel bad that I am behind on my ridiculous schedule that i set myself. Oh well.

Did achieve something I really wanted to today, so at least I have that to show for things.

I have started a trend of giving up something for a month, as a challenge, my boyfriend has come up with a suggestion that I have mixed feeling about. Bread. I am a carb-o-holic. And I know Bread isn't that great for you, but runners need carbs! And i can tentatively call myself a runner....

But I do like a challenge.

I'll think about it some more.

I think that's all I have to report today. Hoping for a NSD tomorrow. Aiming for 20 this month.

Thank you for the advice Evkizzy,

So today is my first NSD of the month :dance:

I used to go to a writing group but haven't been for a shameful 2 years despite it still going. So i decided to go today and I'm really glad.....because I know I will never go again.

The sort of people who go now have all changed, and I don't really feel like it's for me. The truth is I got so anxious that I was in a state of panic all the time I was there and left as soon as it was over.

I think this all says more about me than it does the people who attended. But I feel that I wouldn't enjoy going again.

So at least I know now.

Tomorrow is a planned spend day as we need some food items. Thinking of going to the cinema to watch a film. I'm thinking Ghostbusters as no one I know wants to see it (they all believe the reviews of it being bad)

May also do a jog.

This is all entirely dependent on if I get up early. Today i got up at 11:52 :eek:

And it is going to be another late night as the OH wants to watch Conan the Barbarian on film4.

Oh well. I do have a habit of waking up early. It's the remaining awake that's a problem.