Smart Mart - Health, wealth and happiness

Smart_Mart

Feeling a bit down now. Read someone else's diary (she knows who I mean) and she's found her mojo today... I somehow have got to find mine and fast.

Tomorrow sees the anniversary of my diary (I've been going eight months now) and the anniversary of my diet (three months). The diet's not going too bad although I have put on a couple of pounds this week.It's the rest I've been having trouble with.

I've got so much work to do that I've let it build up a bit. I've had three months of peace with few games and even less news but now there is six days till the end of the season and I have so much to do. In addition, my personal and business paperwork is in a shambolic state and I'm constantly broke.

Maybe I tried to take on too much all at once.

Anyhow I have to, simply have to, get myself organised starting tomorrow. I'm going to give myself a month until September 1st to sort mky life out. I have found myself some copywriting work this week but haven't felt motivated enough or mentally fit enough to tackle it - it will be worth £30 to me when I finish it.:p

I also need to start my DRO off soon, even if it takes me six months to pay for it. The letters are slowing down a bit but over the last three months (I've been paying the car off at £250 a month), my debts have taken a back seat and it's showing. I need to get that back on track too.

So tonight I'm going to work out a day by day plan of action. The football club work, I'm going to tackle first with a schedule of work over the next five days that will see me organised by the day of the first game next Saturday. The DRO will be next with me sorting out one creditor a day until its all done. Then the rest of the paperwork after that and start paying the debts off again.

That's the plan anyway!!

benbenandme

I'm guessing the bit about the mojo refers to me ?? Sorry if I'm wrong Well, its been a long time coming, I have been totally off track for the last 6 weeks or so, I haven't saved a penny or made any progress weightwise, but at the same time it hasn't got any waorse either. Finally I'm feeling a bit happier in mypersonallife and tht has a knock on effect I don't know if it will last but wihile its here I need to go with it.

You have made progress too, read back through your diaries and you'll see that you have; your weightloss is going really well and you have lots of plans, now its just a case of implementing your plans for this week, so grab a pen and paper or start typing here and write yourself a list for the week then break it down into daily chunks and get ticking them off, good luck

Smart_Mart

Haha, you know me too well BB....:D. always keep an eye on your diary - it's pretty much the only one that I subscribe to.

One of my football team's old managers adapted a well known Gary Player saying - "the harder I work, the luckier I get" and it proved that way as he won four trophies in six years. I need to strip everything back to basics and start the plan again.

• For instance, I have to write twelve profiles on the new players. I'll do two every day between Sunday and Friday and that is one job done.
• I need to sort out fifteen creditors ready for the DRO - that will be three a day for five days.
• The copywriting might end up being a good earner, maybe even good enough to give up the newspaper deliveries and become a full time writer. I have six articles to write... two a day and I can send them back on Tuesday. They guy has promised me payment in three days by BACS credit so I might get my money by next weekend.
• Also could do with getting the house sorted as it's a bit of a state in some rooms (not overly so, little niggly things). Bathroom, kitchen, front room, three bedrooms, hall, landing and two gardens equals ten areas - one a day means the house will be done in ten days.

There, that wasn't so difficult, was it. Just need to follow it through now!

Eager_Elephant

Hi

I'm sorry life has gone a bit higgeldy piggeldy.

Is there anything you need help with? I might be able to help with the DRO - which organisation are you hoping to go through? Some will add you to the DRO system so you can get the barcode which enables you to make the payments in instalments, others will do everything in one go and expect you to pay the fee within 10 days.

What do you need to sort out about your creditors?

The plan of action you have done sounds good, do you think you can fit it all in?

Why do you think this has happened? Have you spent too much time on MSE? :-) I know that once I log on I can be on for hours!!

EE

Smart_Mart

Hi EE, thanks for posting and your comments...:T

I hadn't realised that different DRO intermediaries had differing methods of payments. I really think it might be best to do it in instalments via Pay Point outlets. I originally thought I'd use CCCS but they're quoting 8-10 weeks now so I thought I'd switch to the CAB.

Re my creditors, I need to go through them one by one and see whether I have an up-to-date statement from each of them ready to send off to whichever intermediary I end up using.

Today got stuck in and managed to write three of the six copywriting articles meaning I could do the other three tomorrow and send it off for payment. I also arranged for the profiles to be set up on the FC website so that it will be ready in time for me to enter the information later this week.

No spend today - took the boys around the park for an hour but one of them hurt his ankle so we decamped early on. Took them home at 5pm... as per usual on a Sunday night, missing them terribly.:(

Tomorrow I have to deliver three lots of papers, interview a present player and a past player plus write those final three articles for the copywriter.

Smart_Mart

Well today went a little better than I thought, fuelled mainly by me going out early to do the papers and getting a move on with them. I was at the first road by 9am and had delivered all 340 of them by 10.45am....:T

Back home for a coffee then I spent the next three hours finishing off the copywriting articles and sent them off for payment with the invoice too. I'd originally planned to finish them tomorrow but a day early makes the chances of me getting paid this week.:p

Since then, I've proof-read several pages of the programme, written three articles for the website, interviewed the past player and written that article too...:j:beer:

I haven't got as much to do tomorrow but a productive day like today will mean I'm nearly there!

Eager_Elephant

Smart_Mart wrote: »

Hi EE, thanks for posting and your comments...:T

I hadn't realised that different DRO intermediaries had differing methods of payments. I really think it might be best to do it in instalments via Pay Point outlets. I originally thought I'd use CCCS but they're quoting 8-10 weeks now so I thought I'd switch to the CAB.

Re my creditors, I need to go through them one by one and see whether I have an up-to-date statement from each of them ready to send off to whichever intermediary I end up using.

Hi Mart

I think I may have confused matters, the instalment thing has always been available but a lot of organisations want it dealt with there and then which is why they want you to have all the money straight away.

I think this is so they are not carrying a huge case load and can deal with more people.

I'm not sure how you would find the organisations which would be happy regarding instalments although wherever you go it is your right for these so ask for them.

Good luck with getting your up to date balances.

EE

Smart_Mart

Hi EE, thanks for clarifying that, I'm much clearer about things now. Deep down, I'd rather pay it off in one hit so that it's done but finding £90 will mean a real struggle in one month unless I time it for when I get a good month of work.

Today I managed to get a lot of work done on the website and have pretty much done all I can now until tomorrow. The car has gone in for its MOT, fingers crossed that I don't have to pay for much to be done. I worked a courier job last week for £30 and paid £20 cash so the MOT itself is paid for, just the rest...:eek:. I also managed to archive the boys football team's website so that's another job out of the way as well...:D

Tomorrow is football training night plus the car should be back (hopefully) so I should be able to take them myself rather than rely on their mum. I have more profile work to do on the website in the morning plus a walk to the supermarket to do my shopping as well.

Smart_Mart

Absolutely shattered tonight but a little happier about things...:o

Woke up and WTC had gone into the account so walked to Asda (1.5 miles) to do two bags of shopping (£11.20) and walked back home again, all in the rain.

Worked on the website all day until 3pm when the boys came round. One of them is still not well so when football training time came round, his mum picked up him and took him home while I went with the other one.

Car not back from the MOT yet so walked home from training at 7.45pm (another 1.5 miles). No other spend today other than giving their mum £3 towards their comics this week.

Got on the scales when I got home and found I'd lost enough to get me to the two-and-a-half stone mark now....:beer::j

Tomorrow I'm hopefully getting the car back before I go on a corporate golf round on my friend's membership. Yet more work on the website tomorrow morning too.

Smart_Mart

Couldn't update yesterday as I didn't have the energy to type...:eek:

Website work in the morning and golf in the afternoon,my sort of day. The golf, as mentioned before, was a corporate round ( a friend has membership at the course and he's allowed pretty much unlimited golf under the terms of it) so we go whenever we can (normally £25 to £30 a round). Therefore I tell myself that I'm really doing my friend a favour when we go...

No spends yesterday at all which was good. Bad news is that my car isn't back yet from its MOT and it will cost £100 to fix which is bad news and means that this month can be written off as a debt reduction month along with the last three. I've paid for the car the last three months and this month's FC money will go towards the repairs and the tax.:(

Today the twins mum did my shopping for me (makes me sound like an old lady) which was £12 something. Boys are coming back around at 2pm for the weekend and fingers crossed, we should be able to go to the first football match of the season.