Silaqui's Make £££'s, Lose lb's Diary 2009

Silaqui

Hello Everybody!!!

I started a thread on here a while back but I started to get a bit annoyed by the title so thought I'd start a new one for 2009 to give myself a fresh start more than anything.

As the title suggests, I want 2009 to be the year I get out of debt, and also lose some weight so that I can start the new decade in style!

Now that things are starting to get back to normality (back to work tomorrow - I know that won't get any sympathy from those of you who have worked all over Christmas, I'm sorry!) I'm going to use this thread to post all the things I am doing to get debt free and slim and hopefully get some advice and support from all the fantastic people on here (see the blatant flattery !)

I have already started a few things and made a few changes, signing up to quidco type things and lots and lots and lots of survey sites hehe. I will probably post on here later and start the diary off but for now I am off to have my very money saving dinner (home made soup and bread :money:) and probably watch some rubbish telly!

Thanks for reading, goodbye for now!!!

Fire_Fox

Just wanted to say hello and welcome!

mooomin

Hello!

I'll still be watching with interest

Good luck!

Silaqui

Hello both, and thanks for following me FF! Your smilies will be a welcome addition to what will probably amount to a very dull thread hehe!

Well, here we are the first day of my new regime and it's going OK, considering. Today I have spent NOTHING at all (because I left my purse at home by accident) which is kind of a good thing but also a bad thing because I was supposed to post my assignment off today. (Oh and another good thing, my b/f started his new permanent contract today woohoo regular money finally!:j!)

However, things happened which will cost me money - BOTH brake lights in my car went - one on the way to work, and the other coming home!! How much of a coincidence is that? Luckily I have one of the lights that goes across the middle of the back windscreen but it does mean that I will have to go to Halfords tomorrow night to buy bulbs. Really don't wanna have to fit them though as it's such a faff in my car, Halfords do it for a fiver but do I really wanna spend that fiver on something I am just too lazy to do myself...???:rolleyes: And I also had to book my car in for it's MOT next Saturday. Bloody thing. (Is it just me or does anyone else get really nervous for their car when it goes in for MOT? I feel really sorry for it, mind you I'm the same when my kids have exams at school).

----should probably clear up now that when I say 'my kids' I don't mean MY kids - I mean the ones I teach!----

On the losing lb's front, I have done OK today - I don't normally eat breakfast as I can't stomach it in the morning but I really really tried today because apparently it gets your metabolism going and I managed half a slice of dry brown toast lol. Two glasses of orange juice, I passed on the biscuits at breaktime, vegetable lasagne for lunch (no pudding!) and having veg soup again tonight (I made a HUGE vat yesterday!). The naughty bit - I was supposed to go to swim fit tonight but I'm not because I don't wanna drive there in the dark with only one brake light. So not a complete excuse :cool:! I'll get me fat bum down the gym tomorrow night I promise...

I might make a list in a bit of all the debt free stuff I have done since Christmas. Technically it was happening before my proper start date of today, but I should bear the fruits this month so I will put it down here to motivate myself. Firstly I must go and do the hoovering and hang the washing out so no doubt I will be back here banging on later!

Bye bye everybody, bye bye x (for now!)

Silaqui

Hello, yep here I am again :-)
B/f is watching darts so I though I'd come on and update this.

So....Stuff I Have Done To Get Debt Free

• Joined lots of survey sites - too many to list here! I'm hoping to earn as much as possible from them and claim vouchers or whatever it is they reward you with, I did this last year and used most of them for Christmas presents. I did use one of my boots vouchers to buy a posh mascara but I replaced it with money hehe.
• Joined Quidco and Topcashback. I haven't done much on quidco but am already up to over £100 tracked on TCB :T I just hope it all comes through ok!
• Opened a new bank account to start keeping an emergency fund in (through TCB which should pay £50 cashback!)
• Signed up to do tutoring with primary school children which should hopefully start in the next few weeks, and also my regular exam marking in the summer. Altogether this should net me about £1400 after tax which is going to go straight towards my debts.
• Given my credit and store cards to my mum to keep in their safe (she lives half an hour drive away so this should stop any urge to use them!)
• Made a wicked spreadsheet to keep track of everything!
• I am going to carry on meal planning and budget buying, I have managed to get my total grocery bill to below £80 for 2 people for the past 3 months so will be continuing with this.

Can't think of any more but I'm sure there are... OH and of course one thing will be to keep using MSE! xx

HallamLad

Hello!

Looks like a very positive start to me and good news about the bf getting a permanent contract, should helps things a lot. Gonna have a look around the cashback site soon myself!

Can't your bf fit the bulbs in your car? Failing that ask them while they're doing the MOT to do it then, dunno if they would fail the car for that but it could save you a fiver that way

Silaqui

Hello!

Well today I have fallen off the healthy eating wagon haha, it was a colleagues birthday and we have a tradition that we bring in cream cakes on our birthdays... oh well :rotfl:

I have sorted one of the bulbs - decided to do it myself in the end and save a fiver, it is annoying though because you have to take the entire light block out to be able to remove the bulb - 3 bolts have to be undone inside a tiny little space so you have to kind of do it blind. I managed one of them, but on the other side one of the bolts is kind of stuck behind something so you can't actually get the socket over to undo it, and theres not enought room to get a spanner in there. Plus I about got frostbite in the process lol. The MOT bloke can do the other one! Hopefully if I explain that I tried to change it and show him the problem he might just fit it for me and not make me pay for a retest.

So today I have spent £2.49 on bulbs and £1.29 posting my assignment off to uni, but nothing else - not too bad! I have nothing left in my purse now though, going to try and get through to friday without spending anything else. There's nothing I need so it should be possible!

Bloody hell it's so cold here at the minute - the temperature on the thermometer in the car is at minus 4 according to bf (the non DFW sod has just gone round to buy beer!) gonna have to stick an extra blanket on the bed I think! If it stays like this football is gonna be a nightmare on Saturday!

Right I'm off to mess about online, probably back later when I'm bored!

HallamLad

Oh dear hope there aren't too many birthdays ahead! Cream cakes are wonderful though

Haven't a clue how to replace a bulb in my car, it's a tiny little box so I can't see it being easy. Sounds pretty complicated and tough in your car, in this weather too!

Looks like our game is off on saturday, pitch is frozen solid with snow and it doesn't look like its gonna get much warmer at Ice Station Zebra, no doubt Leicester will climb further away from us :mad:

Silaqui

Hi again
No more cream cakes I'm pleased (but also slightly disappointed!) to say! I haven't been to the gym this week though and I really ought to, not going to lose much weight without doing that.

Yesarday and today were both NSD's and I checked my internet banking today - so chuffed to see that I am still £5.86 in the black with all of my essential spending done apart from £20 on contact lenses (annoying doesn't come out till the 22nd of the month - what kind of date is that for a direct debit:mad: ) and £9 mobile phone bill (yes £9 - love the loyalty discounts from orange hehe)!

Well, one other essential will come out at the weekend, the dreaded MOT - but I should be getting at least £200 from bf in the next week or so which should cover that. So not a bad month so far spend wise - not gonna go on about that too much though or I might jinx myself!

Talking of jinxes, don't mention that about Leicester! Any time it looks like we might pull clear we end up messing it up, just like we did at Leeds the other week! Don't think our game will be cancelled but hey if yours is you'll have a game in hand which is always nice because you can see what you need to do to catch up! Still quite a few points between 6th and 7th place it min, you just gotta keep the momentum going!

xx

HallamLad

Ha I wouldn't lose any sleep if you did slip up! We need all the help we can get!

Congrats on the NSD's how long have you got to go until payday? Can you not get the date for your contact lenses DD changed?

Hope the car passes it's MOT as well, sure it'll go fine!

Silaqui

lol well we'll see very soon :rolleyes: as long as the pitch doesn't freeze or anything irritating like that!

I get paid on the last day of the month so this month I think its Friday the 30th (could be wrong though I haven't looked). No, it's weird isn't it Dolland and Aitcheson won't let me move it. It's not a massive problem but you know what it's like, would be nice to just have everything taken out so I know the rest is my own.

Spend £3.99 today on a bottle of wine which I am working my way through now hehe. I have also been on a couple of bingo sites this evening - I signed up to a couple before Christmas when I was new to quidco/topcashback and deposited the amount required to get their free bonuses. I've been playing the past couple of nights and last night I ended up winning £45 from mecca and £21 from paddypower! So including the cashback (£50 altogether), I laid out £10 on each site so thats a profit of 50+45+21-20=£96 in total once it's all paid out lol not bad for a couple of hours idle work! I've been thinking about trying matched betting but it all seems a bit complicated for now. It seems like you need to have a fair amount to lay out at first so I'll probably hang fire on that for the time being.

Still nervous about tomorrow, thanks for the vote of confidence hehe I'm sure I'll be on here tomorrow night either happy or ranting and raving!

x