My Debt Free, Lose Weight & Be Super Frugal Diary 2009

Bambywamby

Won't be able to post much over the weekend, I have two 12 hour long day shifts to contend with (one is overtime yay!) I am normally too pooped after those to switch my laptop never mind about updating my diary.

I shall be good and spend nowt and keep focusing on that goal of clearing my CCs - C u Monday lol. X x

sharronloves2spend

Ouch £1019!! Thats hurt. Ours used to be £890 when we came out of our discount period. Some carp happened wth me n hubs around that time it needed switching so i never got round to it, then Northern Rock was nationalised and wasn't offering new deals to exisiting customers:mad: (in other words pay us back and go away) so while i was looking the rates dropped. We are now paying £723 a month and thats less than we were paying before but i know it won't last.... As soon as the rates start to go up i will switch.

So much has changed financially tho, i am now a sahm:j (used to earn a decent wage) and we now have that huge loan plus with lenders being more cautious i'm not convinced we'd get a good deal.

Well done on stretching your chicken so far:T Not able to do that here, one chicken only lasts one meal, the boys devour it, then the dogs and cats get the sloppystuff from the bottom, at least theres no waste. I can stretch a minced beef quite far tho by adding veg, one 500g will get 4 meals for the six of us(thanks oser's!!)

We are going to cheshire oaks today to get dd some new school shoes, first time of going there without my plastic....boo hoo. I will only take cash and edavour to get the best bargain i can. I will stay out of the Radley bag shop and ted baker and karen millen, there i've said it now!!!

Hope you have a nice (well as nice as work can be..) couple of days at work

Love Sharron

Bambywamby

Things will change for us too Sharron, hopefully I will become a SAHM so budgets will need to be worked out...cash will be tighter but I know how rewarding motherhood is...even when they become teenagers , so it's all worth it.

How did you manage at Chesire Oaks? Very pleased you never took your plastic I bet. :cool:

My weekend has passed in a blur, working...working and working.
I have lost another pound :T on the weight front so I am very chuffed and I have managed to do 10'000 steps on Saturday & Sunday...and that was just at work. Hopefully come my next offical weigh in I will be able to lose another pound so I lose two pounds minimum this week.

Four of my credit cards want paying this week so I will be sorting out the finances and over paying them, one card will only get an extra fiver, but all those fivers do add up...eventually.

I made another £59 over the weekend selling clothes on Ebay, so my running total of
selling pre-lightbulb clothes and shoes is £96.89.
I am pleased it's totting up but I really could kick myself, I worked out how much the items that I have sold originally cost me and it was £367(and that's not including and CC interest charges). Thank gawd I have had my lightbulb moment.

For the first time in a while I couldn't sleep last night. I lay awake worrying about money and the lack of it and our impending mortgage change. Silly I know as I am actually doing something about it...but it was certainly easier been ignorant and not fully aware of how much debt we had and how we were adding to it every month. I am glad we reigned it in before we got any further down the road...it would have been so easy to add another holiday, a big Christmas or a new lap top to the cards.


My friend has given me a carrier bag of Slim Fast shakes...I am torn as to whether I use them or not. I am currently doing fine with healthy eating but the new DFW in me doesn't want to waste the shakes. They are all in individual bottles so they would be handy to take out for snacks when I am on the move but they are full of sugar. Oh decisions, decisions.:rolleyes:

Oooerrrr Jeremy Kyle is coming on...c u soon lol. :T

ragstoricheswannabe

Good morning bamby!!! well done on your ebay sales, i never think about how much things cost me when im selling them as its too depressing. i just think about how much it is bringing my debt down!

well done on another pound lost!! I would be weary of the slim fast shakes as they are supposed to count as one meal not a snack and as you say they are full of sugar. They also have the same amount of calories in as the protien shakes that the gym bunnies use to help build muscles!!!! what about sticking them up on ebay???? Jan is always a good time to sell diet and exercise stuff!!!!:rotfl:

love rags
xxxxxxxx

sharronloves2spend

Well had a really busy weekend, cheshire oaks was a complete success, feeling rather virtous(sp). DD shoes were £15 from the clarks shop should have been £30. And the only other amount i spent was on two bras from m&s at £2.49 each, bargain. I even resisted the thorntons shop, saving money and calories!!! No credit card was used, infact i didn't even take it.

Sometimes i get like that and have a really restless night, things just churn in my head and i can't get to sleep. Espically pre-sort-out-our finances. Now i just worry that there isn't anthing to worry about!! Bamby you are doing a great job of sorting out your finances prior to extending your family, wish i had done this before i became a sahm. Yes it is very rewarding being at home and i feel lucky that i can do it but things are tight.

Well done on the weight loss, i don't like slimfast i feel hungary after a nano second of drinking one, although they are full of vitamins. Maybe as Rags said try and sell them???? I've just put up a card in my local post office for this torture contraption, i mean exercise bike, thinking that this is the right time of year to sell it.

I'm way to chicken to add up what my e-bay stuff did cost me, my Radley bag sold for £40 and i paid £115!! and all the designer clothes..... best not go there!!

Ah well off to do pick up from school and to see how dd's shoes have stood up to all that skipping!!!

Love Sharron

Bambywamby

Well done Sharron...two bras from M&S @ only £2.49 each is a bargain. :T
Oooohhhh the Thorntons shop, did they have a chocolate fountain in there when you passed? We have one in our local Thorntons, every now and again I wistfully press my nose up against the window and drool. I may treat myself to some Thorntons choccie when I have lost my three stone excess weight...yummy.

Yes, I decided to flog the Slimfast to another friend as I didn't want to start on the blood sugar rollercoaster again...however I split the money with my original friend as they were her Slim Fast drinks in the beginning.

I have had a busy morning cleaning up, scrubbing muddy floor prints off the back floors and finally opening my degree books and had a flick through. My course doesn't start until next year but if I can get ahead by reading up that will be great.
I have posted eleven more things on Ebay including the wedding decoration we were planning to have on top of our cake...


...very fitting. :rotfl:

On a not so jolly note, I have just filled in a tax credit declaration form for last year and after looking at it, I think we may have been overpaid around £520 for 2007 to 2008. :mad:
I am hoping they are slow at getting their request for return of overpayment...2010 would be nice.


Hope you all have a fabulous Tuesday evening, I am off to bed early...I am desperately needing some beauty sleep.

Bam x

ragstoricheswannabe

I am loving the cake toppper!!!!!!!! shame you couldnt keep it till you decide to set another date.

Bambywamby

Thanks Rags, it is a cute cake topper...but at the moment I am wanting to put everything on Ebay we don't use or can't nail down. It cost £25 originally...next time (unless we win the lottery :rolleyes: ) I shall be going for something more conservative...if we go for a wedding cake at all.

Yesterday I have did a few frugal things that should make money in the long run. I went through my toilertries and found a sun lotion spf30 that has an expiry date of April this year. As it loses its protective factor before we are likely to go on holiday anywhere I thought I may as well use it up as a body lotion. It actually smells lush, like coconuts...and reminds me of being on holiday.
We were having pasta for tea and before cooking it I soaked it in cold water for an hour. The pasta softened as it rehydrated and then only needed two minutes cooking time rather than the usual 12 minutes.
My O/H had a pair of jeans that were ripped beyond repair, I cut the leg off, secured one end together, filled it with old rags and then again secured the top end by sewing. We now have a fat denim snake to lay against the kitchen door so the cold doesn't come through in to the lounge on a night.


Well today I am walking to work again in this gorgeous winter sunshine, I have changed my MP3 player tunes so I don't get bored and I am going to wear my pedometer to see how many steps an one hour walk actually is. Little things amuse little minds and all that.

Well I am off to prepare lunch...it's an odds and sods day as we are really running out off stuff. However I haven't done a big shop since Jan 3rd so I am quite pleased, must have saved some dosh there.
I think an online Asda order is very due.

Well have a great day...I will, it's my last day at work until Sunday...yay! :T

Love Bam x

Bambywamby

I have just been offered two hours work on Saturday...so I had to work out whether it is worth the hours walk there and then back again for two hours overtime...and the way things are at the moment and the debt crunching challenges we have set ourselves...of course it is!

If anybody uses OnePoll...I have been on there three times things morning and have seen three lots of different surveys appear. I always thought they added them once a day but obviously they add them more often...some dissapearing the same day. So it's worth checking the site more than once a day...if you have the time that is. I have made 65pence on there today. :rotfl: :T

Bambywamby

I have just paid another £115 off two credit cards, taking one of the cards down from a 4 thousand figure...to a 3 thousand figure. yay! Slowly slowy catchy monkey...or whatever the saying is.