Emma's mainly debt-related witterings (with probable tangents!)

Auntyem

Evening diaryland.

I have just won £10 on V!rgin bingo :T. So that has helped the work related sulking a bit.

It has taken ALL my willpower not to break the diet today. So far I have had:
Porridge, banana
Ham sarnie on wholemeal (no butter)
Apple
WW Veggie Chilli

I think the only reason I have managed to stick to it today is that I know I am going out tomorrow. Me and dh have to go to scary tribunal with the Evil child maintenance people . We have been advised we will probably lose so we have planned to go out afterwards anyway. And there will be chocolate and alcohol.

So our SOA is likely to get a battering as we will probably have to pay more... but thats a whole nother thread :mad::mad:

Anyway..... My "how much profit am I making from V!rgin" spreadsheet is broken for some reason. I need to get all our tribunal paperwork sorted and ready, which I have been putting off for a few days, so I am going to do it now and then I can come back and reward myself with some spreadsheet fixing

Auntyem

Spreadsheet fixed:D

£22 profit so far this month from V!rgin, even taking into account having to deposit and play £5.

Auntyem

Woop another £3 from V!rgin tonight :j. I will be very sad if and when this little goldmine comes to an end.

I am not religious but not sure the name for the "god" of karma/fairness/avoidance of evil injustice But whatever their name I am so thankful to them for looking after me and my hubby as the tribunal went in our favour :T. This means our we do not have to pay extra plus it goes some way to healing some of the awful stress the issue has caused. My fella is a sensitive soul despite the aloof manly image

So the diet was suspended last night as dh took me out for a lovely meal, and we did indeed have wine and chocolate icecream :D

But I have gone straight back to the diet today and have had:
Porridge
Apple, banana
Veggie soup
Pear
WW Vegge chilli on toast.

I now need to tackle the task of eeeeking some healthy yet appealing meals out of the dregs of our cupboards / freezer. I have £8.93 left in the food budget this month and am determined to not go over! So tonight I need to inventory the kitchen to within an inch of its life and make a very conservative meal plan and shopping list to last til sunday.

I got my payslip today and my payrise has been credited, works out as £43 per month, which was roughly what I was expecting. I am planning on chucking that straight off a debt and not including it in my monthly budget.

I haven't done next months budget yet but will need to sort that tomorrow really as we will need to send money to the joint account on friday to pay the DDs that will be coming out monday. Need to chat to dh though as we have some bills to sort for the never ending attic conversion, so will need to decide where that is coming from.

Right off to meal-plan. Hope all are having a good day

Auntyem

Howdy all

Just had a mild panic attack with all the random bits of paper floating around my desk with notes scrawled on them, plus virtual bits floating round in my head with the writing getting fainter.

So time for a nice tidy list:

(in no particular order), things that must be Done...

• decide if I am doing mystery shop tomorrow or not
• remember to cook off mince tonight to get fat off before slo cooking
• remember to cut up onion etc to go with mince tonight and get slo cooker out ready
• iron school uniforms
• make sarnies for tomorrow
• remember to buy bread with which to make sarnies for tomorrow
• complete february budget
• check MB accounts and if money in right place, continue with bookie I was doing before Monster Bookie interrupted all other activity
• Post ebay item
• clean our oven
• purchase items on shopping list for meal plan for under £8.93.

And

• start impossible work-task so it stops playing on my mind.

Back later

Auntyem

Ugh well I've just dweebed around the supermarket with my calculator on my mobile in hand
Managed to stay under budget but it was challenging because I was also starving

I have also had to add a few items to my list :mad:

• decide if I am doing mystery shop tomorrow or not
• remember to cook off mince tonight to get fat off before slo cooking
• remember to cut up onion etc to go with mince tonight and get slo cooker out ready
• iron school uniforms
• make sarnies for tomorrow
• [STRIKE]remember to buy bread with which to make sarnies for tomorrow[/STRIKE] Done
• complete february budget
• check MB accounts and if money in right place, continue with bookie I was doing before Monster Bookie interrupted all other activity
• Post ebay item **Was going to do this but realised item is covered in fluff **
• clean our oven
• [STRIKE]purchase items on shopping list for meal plan for under £8.93. [/STRIKE] Done
• Clean ebay item
• [STRIKE]email buyer to apologise for delay[/STRIKE] Done
• obtain envelope for ebay item
• Remember to retrieve frozen stuff out of work freezer before leaving

And

• start impossible work-task so it stops playing on my mind. Going to do this RIGHT NOW, and not come back til its underway...

Auntyem

I did 30mins of wii fit when I got in, and now my legs feel like lead and I am seriously flagging :o

• decide if I am doing mystery shop tomorrow or not
• [STRIKE]remember to cook off mince tonight to get fat off before slo cooking[/STRIKE] Done
• remember to cut up onion etc to go with mince tonight and [STRIKE]get slo cooker out ready[/STRIKE] guna do onion now
• iron school uniforms need to check what's in wardrobes
• [STRIKE]make sarnies for tomorrow [/STRIKE] done
• [STRIKE]remember to buy bread with which to make sarnies for tomorrow[/STRIKE] Done
• complete february budget
• check MB accounts and if money in right place, continue with bookie I was doing before Monster Bookie interrupted all other activity
• Post ebay item
• clean our oven
• [STRIKE]purchase items on shopping list for meal plan for under £8.93[/STRIKE]. Done
• [STRIKE]Clean ebay item [/STRIKE] Done
• [STRIKE]email buyer to apologise for delay[/STRIKE] Done
• [STRIKE]obtain envelope for ebay item[/STRIKE] Done and ready to post
• [STRIKE]Remember to retrieve frozen stuff out of work freezer before leaving[/STRIKE] gotit

And

• [STRIKE]start impossible work-task so it stops playing on my mind[/STRIKE]. Done! But its going to be a world of pain :mad:

Forgot to mention earlier on I have stuck to meal plan today. W/meal toast for brekkie, tuna sarnie, and have just had turkey breast and veg.

Auntyem

All the jobs on above list have been done, apart from clean oven, which is really getting desperate now. Also I put the last 2 qualifiers and the freebie on for my bookie, they should all settle later. However I am a bit miffed at myself as I have not got another bookie lined up ready to start today so I feel like I am wasting the footie a bit today. I find the researching and finding the next bookie the most time consuming part of MB'ing, and generally I try to do this when I am in the office and its quiet. No chance of being able to sit and concentrate at home :rotfl:

In diet news, I weighed myself this morning and have lost a big fat nothing this week :mad::mad:. How can this be when I have been so good and really stuck to it (apart from tuesday)?
Bad things I consumed on tuesday:
penguin bar, mushroom tagliatelle at posh restaurant (made with cream), choc ice cream at posh restaurant (actually was much thicker and gloopier than normal icecream), real sugar in coffee at restaurant, glass of white wine.

And thats it, everything else this week has been saintly:mad:

So that has, quite frankly, put me in a bit of a strop today.

Either I am extra irritable, or everyone else is suddenly very irritating :rotfl:.

I was going to do lots of virtuous housework today and other bits and pieces but now I seem to have lost all motivation and feel like saying "s*d it" :rotfl:

But still determined to carry on with the diet so I had better go and eat an apple or I will get starving when we are out and resort to bad food

Auntyem

Ok first things first:

Food for yesterday:
Brek - Porridge. Snacks - apple, 3 wheat crackers with cottage cheese. Dinner - I made a roast but mine was diet friendly. I just had a little bit of lean meat, couple of little boiled potatoes, and a little bif of gravy. Then piled my plate with veg. I did not have any roasties or yorkshires :A

One thing I have not done is switch to skim milk, so when I do the grocery shopping I will get some of that.

Today's food:
Brek - chopped banana and 5 chopped brazils, mixed with some fat free sugar free yoghurt.
Lunch - will have some soup.
Dinner - off out tonight [but not paying so v MSE :j], so will have to choose something carefully. I will try to aim for something simple like fish or chicken with veg and try to avoid any naughty sauces.

Feel less stroppy today but still seem to have zero energy. So just trying to get revived with some real caffinated coffee (with sweetner) and about to try my luck on some free bingo.

Also need to finish my february budget to update all my totals etc, but that might take a few days to finalise.

Hope everyone is well

Auntyem

My meal plan runs out tonight, so I just nipped to Morrisons with a list of stuff we have run out of, and I was hoping to pick up some GI friendly bargains at the same time to kick start my meal plan for next week. Not overly impressed as I didn't manage to find anything particularly reduced . Last week my Tesco delivery cost less, before discounts, than what I spent today.
So I think I need to read up on tactics or possibly go back to online.

Auntyem

OMG just had a major :eek::eek::eek: moment.

I had a Northern Rock mortgage on 110% and when I sold the property I was left with the unsecured element. I have been merrily making payments every month on this. I was in the middle of updating all my figures today and noticed the balance on NR had not seemed to change much over the last few months. I gave them a call and I cannot believe what I have just found out:

I am paying £0.40 capital off the balance every month :eek::mad::eek:

The term is still the same as the original mortgage which is 33 odd years. She said the interest was spread equally over the term but I'm not sure about this, as she then said the balance would come down quicker towards the end *confused smiley!*. so maybe she meant front loaded?

Basically the only way to get the balance down more according to them is to overpay. Which I did realise but as the APR on this is [only] 12%, I thought I was doing the right thing overpaying my other higher interest debts first. :o

Really confused now and mortified

Off to do some investigation & research how to sort this...