Must destroy debt

Jamiekc

This is my first post on here, I have found that blogging on another site has helped me keep focus on my health and weight, and hoping that this does the same for my debts!!!

Anyways, I have a long history of carrying debts and dealing with it tommorow. Got close once before to being too far in debt and not able to get out of it, and although I manageed to sell my house at the time and stave off the baliffs, I have managed to end up with a pile of debt again!!!

Was just about in control until I got engaged and a friends wedding in Thailand which has put me back to my signature below....

My sis works for this site so I should have been on here a while ago I suppose!!!

Still I have budgetted my month in advance, and will continue to do so. Have run through the budget trackers and have set aside pots for each cost this month, so will see how I go in getting my DFD quicker than I reckon at the moment!!!

Also I have to save for a wedding in two years so there is even more incentive to get this debt down..... HSBC loan - (one of those old loans where I spent the first three years paying interest, so paying off early isn't really worth it according to Martin's calculator!) has been paid so far for 5 years ish and was £29K when it started.

For my benefit I'll keep a list of my costs here to see how I do against each target.
All Months:

£350pm - HSBC loan
£67 - joint gym membership (this stays as my health is so much better with it!)
£367 rent and bills
£33 car insurance
£15 Mobile (kept my old phone and get it from £35 to £15 for the year)
£15 Broadband (not the cheapest, but the service is excellent.... and I'm online all the time)
£140 C Card min payment
£80 food
£25 Diet supplements - Protein shakes, Fish oil etc (again can't compromise my health!)
£50 petrol to and from work
£125 Sharesave - debated to pay the debt with this, but the share price was so low at the time that it was a steal, also I need to make sure there is something that is not further debt to pay for my half of the wedding!

Extras this month
£50 hotel - visiting 4 mth old Neice in Newcastle
£35 petrol - to get to Newcastle and back (split two ways.... if I could change the car to something more economical for the money I would!)
£40 Football game - taking my bro in law to be for afternoon at the game (his 1st day out since little Evie was born)
£45 BT - 1/4ly line rental
£20 - drinks & petrol to get to the game
£40 for other sundrie extras whilst in Newcastle
£100 entertainment money for month (inc work do night out)

This leaves me with about £150 to pay off extra on the C Card if I keep to it, I have no other plans this month for big weekends and for health and wealth reasons I have not had a drop of the good stuff for 7 weeks.... this will carry on for a few more weeks at least yet!

I am saving all my £2 coins in a lemonade bottle, will be raiding the loft for some items to put on ebay, and am going to have a look at the gambling risk free cash available as I like my £1 weekly accumulators so am familiar with the way the systems work.....

Fingers crossed I can get this down ASAP, any hints or tips feel free to let me know!

:beer:

Jamiekc

Fire_Fox

Welcome to MSE and the DFW board!!

That's an awful lot to be spending on diet supplements, most shouldn't be necessary if you have a balanced diet. I would agree a basic whey protein is a very handy way to 'eat' quickly after working out (what are you mixing with?), but fish oils should not be necessary - you can get omega 3 from Columbus or Goldenlay eggs and LesKol cheese as well as oily fish.

Well done for cutting back the alcohol - it really does mess up your sleep and training! :T I am qualified to degree level in fitness and nutrition BTW.

Jamiekc

Cheers Firefox,

I have been following Neil McTeggarts Diet plan... he is the Men's Health online Fitness chief (or whatever title given to him!) and former finalist to the cover model competition. It's an excellent training plan and diet as far as I can see as I have started getting great results from it.

The fish oils help to supplement the calorie count at 9cals per gram as well as add the essential fats at the time of my shake which is whey without fats in it (As I understand it the protein needs the fat to be ultimatly useful at the time I take it). I tend to take it with the fish oil on non gym days and with a banana after a workout. My work is tough to eat at so I supplement a mid afternoon snack with the shake and oil. (eating 6 times a day with protein every time....)

Anything from 6-30 caps per day is what most of the regulars on there are taking (and they are what I would consider normal guys)
Plus I eat three eggs in the morning every day, and don't think I could take anymore. The cheese I think is a no go on my diet(but I will check it so thanks for the tip!) and I eat fish regularly but not every day....

I am quite hopeful that I can reduce this cost down for most months, but then those savings will get spent in some months when I need more shake mix etc... (esp as the Profusion Reloaded being suggested is a bit more pricey than Holland & Barratts!!)

Hence the budget being as is, I'm a bit of a newbie to the training thing, so hopefully it'll come under, and if you have any more titbits on this side of things then please let me know!

Ta v muchly

Jamiekc

Tried to get access to my B&B online savings (there is about £400 in there I think from some time ago).... Couldn't remember the password...

Anyways, the branch I changed my address with only updates the branch savings and not the online ones...

So I have to write to online B&B to get address changed, then rephone to get the password reset, which they will then write to me instead of mail me....

And then I can get my money..... anyone wonder if I'm going to shut this account and the branch one??? Ah, the wonder of Shabbey (soon to be Shamtader!)

Fire_Fox

Jamiekc wrote: »

Cheers Firefox,

I have been following Neil McTeggarts Diet plan... he is the Men's Health online Fitness chief (or whatever title given to him!) and former finalist to the cover model competition. It's an excellent training plan and diet as far as I can see as I have started getting great results from it.

The fish oils help to supplement the calorie count at 9cals per gram as well as add the essential fats at the time of my shake which is whey without fats in it (As I understand it the protein needs the fat to be ultimatly useful at the time I take it). I tend to take it with the fish oil on non gym days and with a banana after a workout. My work is tough to eat at so I supplement a mid afternoon snack with the shake and oil. (eating 6 times a day with protein every time....)

Anything from 6-30 caps per day is what most of the regulars on there are taking (and they are what I would consider normal guys)
Plus I eat three eggs in the morning every day, and don't think I could take anymore. The cheese I think is a no go on my diet(but I will check it so thanks for the tip!) and I eat fish regularly but not every day....

I am quite hopeful that I can reduce this cost down for most months, but then those savings will get spent in some months when I need more shake mix etc... (esp as the Profusion Reloaded being suggested is a bit more pricey than Holland & Barratts!!)

Hence the budget being as is, I'm a bit of a newbie to the training thing, so hopefully it'll come under, and if you have any more titbits on this side of things then please let me know!

Ta v muchly

Protein needs carbohydrates to be absorbed, as carbs stimulate insulin whereas fat does not (hence why Atkins diet works, albeit unhealthily!). So the banana is perfect, but I'd have milk powder or fruit juice with your whey shake on your non-banana days.

Eating six times a day is great - to build you need to feed the muscles every three to four hours. :T However don't go overboard on the protein: your body can only absorb/ use about 2g per kg of bodyweight per day, or about 30g at any one time. That's pure protein not the weight of the food BTW.

A lot of bodybuilders take a lot of unnecessary supplements that have no basis in science and just end up out the other end! If you don't get the right combinations you don't absorb the nutrition. The body needs more omega 3 than the average person takes in, and there is evidence it helps cut bodyfat, but it needs that balanced with some omega 6. The only two 'chemical' supplements that are proven to work are creatine and HMB.

You will need seven to nine portions of fruit and veg to supply all your vitamins and some minerals. Carbs should be wholegrain to supply extra essential fats and more minerals. Two to three portions of low fat dairy to strengthen your bones and cut ab fat. LesKol cheese should be fine as it does not contain saturated animal fats, just essential fats from oils. Maybe swap your breakfast eggs for omega eggs? Excessive intake of fish oils certainly won't do you any harm, but it won't necessarily do you any good either.

From a quick look your 'Profusion Reload' looks expensive for what it is as it's gainer not pure whey. Any basic gainer shake with a similar mix of whey protein and carbs will have the same effect and you can cycle on and off creatine as required. There is no convincing evidence that BCAA, glutamine or taurine have any effect. The addition of fibre is interesting as this will slow digestion and hence absorption.

A really good sports nutrition textbook backed up by research and used with athletes of many disciplines is 'Power Eating' by Susan Kleiner (Human Kinetics). Bear in mind elite bodybuilders and fitness models get sponsored to say a product is better than the competition ... if you are a newbie starting out then really any decent training plan plus a healthy diet, sufficient calories eaten regularly will give you results.

Jamiekc

Cheers Firefox, will have to look into the Carbs vs fat on non-gym days.... interesting to have conflicting opinions, I'll go do some research!

30g per time is about what I aim for! Unless I'm having a steak, it tends to go a little higher then....special occaasions only!

Veg is about right, not so much fruit though due to the sugars/carbs etc, plus I'm not a big fan!

Wholegrain/wholemeal pretty much every time, only not just before gym when a bit of glycogen is useful, some white bread tends to be added then, even though I'm not the biggest fan.

Leskol looks the business, cheers for that, I love a bit of cheese and will be adding this to my diet ASAP!

Not going to change my whey yet after your comments, will look into it more. The rec comes from guys on the board of the diet plan in a similar situation as myself, so no affliations just recommendations....

Will have a look at the book mentioned, always good to get new ideas... fingers crossed for the results!

On the financials side, the loan is down £350 and the CC by £100. the loft is to be raided for ebay salable stuff, and I'll be trying my hand at the risk free gambling this weekend hopefully....

Jamiekc

So that ends an extremely bad week or two! Went into the back of a BMW stopping for an owl at 11pm down a country lane.... minor damage, but the sensors in his bumper were knackered.... £1200 repair cost, so gotta pay the excess on the insurance £120 not budgetted this month. Then went to the opticians for a free consultation and got told I needed glasses permanently due to muscle deteriation!!! I have not got any type of eye prescription before....£220 not budgetted for...

So that puts a dent in the CC till the end of the month.

On the plus side I have been putting any spare change away every time I finish a day with coins, have started surveying in spare time, and counted up my spare 2-20p coins savings so far (£45). Going to ebay some of the stuff in the attic and hopefully make some coin from that.

Also I have found my ISA is maturing in a month so I'll be using that to pay the CC down as well. Hoping in a month to have broken the back of it.

Going to add £125 to the new sharesave, as I find that this is the best savings I make (can't spend what I can't see) and the share price is crazy low, with the business looking in much better shape than its peer group. So the money I am paying for the CC £130odd a month must be finish by Novemebers paycheck! That's my personal challenge.

Fingers crossed for this month, my head might fall off by xmas at this rate!