Living My Life But(t) N.A.K.E.D.

laura2481

Well done on your win I backed Cerium- obviously didn't even place but at least it finished! C'est la vie

Swinstie73

Thanks Laura, was chuffed cos don't usually bother with the race, it was quite exciting though!

Well received my annual statement in for my loan, just phoned to check and they still won't accept overpayments as it is fixed term, however, currently I owe £3,493.44 which is 24 payments of £145.56,

My statement has me at £3,279.13 (guessing this is the way the interest works cos this is a difference of £214.31) but if I were to have paid it off on 1/4/10, I would've paid £3,296.53 which is £196.91 less that I would save. Last months interest was £17.40 which seems to be coming down each month by 65p, wow!

It looks like I'm paying less interest each month and more to the loan IYSWIM, so I need to TRY and work out if it is worth my while paying off the loan or letting it run it's course til March 2012 as it doesn't look like I will really save very much anyway. I know this means my DFD will be extended but at the risk of only have £145.56 to pay every month but to have £2K in the bank is quite appealing. It would be Sept at the earliest before I could pay it or even December at the latest. Decisions, decisions, what would you do??

Swinstie73

Ok, the moment of truth, (I think I have worked it out correctly):

If I pay off my loan in Sept (which is possible), I will have £2,500 in savings and to clear the loan it will be £2,483, leaving me with £17 in savings but I would save £136.56 in loan interest!

I will still have £1000 on my Halifax CC which will start gaining interest (think it's at least 15%), it will take me 4 months to pay this off with approx (cos not sure how to work this out) £30 of interest, so I have only saved £106.56 in interest.

If I pay the loan off in Dec, I will have £3,100 in savings, be able to pay off my Halifax CC, leaving £2,100, clear the loan at £2085.69, leaving £15 in savings. I will have saved £97.71 of loan interest.

If I leave the loan to run til Mar 2011 (a year still to pay), clear the CC, I could have £1600 in savings and save £64.71 in interest. Saving £500 a month for the next year means I could have £8,200 in savings - sounds good!

However, if I leave the loan to run, pay off the CC and still save at least £500 per month from Jan 11, I could still have £8,100 in savings! At the end of the day it means I won't be debt free by the end of the year but I'm not gaining enough to make it worth losing all my savings just now IYSWIM!

Enough rambling, better get on with some work

Swinstie73

Evening all, well I managed to make the gym tonight but sitting here just now feeling really bloated and horrible! Have went up to 145lbs so have put on about 3lbs and it's not flipping shifting, don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Told OH that I will not be having anymore take-aways til after the holiday as I need to try and eat healthy, he's ok, being diabetic means he always watches what he eats anyway and being a man means he can eat more than I can anyway, but what do I do, serve up the same portion for myself, idiot!

Going to try eating of my smaller dinner plate again, looks full but cos it's smaller it deceives you into thinking you are eating more, or in my case I am cos I still pile the food on. Only one bit of good news is I have not had any chocolate today, if I can have a cuppa before bed without anything yummy I will be happy!

Nite all x

P.S. Have decided to continue loan til it's paid and keep my savings, they will come in handy for perhaps a future house move!

Shoe_Gal

It's good to have a plan, and well done for getting to the gym! I haven't managed to go

Swinstie73

Morning all, for some reason don't feel so bloated this morning, not lost any weight but feeling alot better.

Having managed the gym last night, it's giving me the push to keep going, holiday is in 8 weeks on Saturday and I really need to make a big effort. Bought loads of veggies on the way home last night so going to make a semi-healthy veggie lasagna at the weekend, anyone an idea how to make a low fat cheese sauce?

Got my home-made carrot and coriander soup for lunch today along with yoghurt and grapes, just had some muesli and strawberries, Aldi ones, they were delish. Smoked haddock, baked potato (or sweet potato - not decided yet) and veg tonight for dinner. Decided to stop buying coleslaw cos it's too fattening, funny never used to like it but now when I buy it a tub lasts two days, cos I pile it on.

Anyway, better get on, been slacking off all week, better get some work done.

Swinstie73

I'm getting really annoyed with this money malarky, it makes me try to count every penny instead of as I wanted to - have a life at the same time!

We've got a 40th on Saturday night, a week before pay-day, go figure! Anyway it's a woman from works husband so we don't even know him but still as it stands it's going to cost:

£15 for hotel (it's in Glasgow and would be too much to get home in a taxi) - this is my half
£20 for present i.e. money in a card, OH won't pay his half as we were invited to a 50th next Saturday (we can't go) and he will put money in next week, incidentally I actually have met the guy whose 50th it is!
£1 for a b'day card (or cheaper if I can manage it)
£20 for Dinner/Breakfast, hoping it's cheaper but don't want to under-estimate
£6 for taxi - will be £12 for there and back, I'm paying half
£28 for drinks (approx) taking it to a grand total of £90 :eek: fricking heck!

All for one fricking night out! Normally I wouldn't think twice but a) I don't even know the guy and b) wouldn't even be staying overnight except it's so out of the way!

Considering I currently have £20 in my purse and £45 in the bank it is not looking good, also need petrol tomorrow so that's the £20 wiped out. I do have the necklace money of £200 in the house but really did not want to use that, that was for to pay towards my holiday. I really hate social events :mad:

P.S. I even took back a £15 pair of sandals and will be wearing something from my wardrobe!

ETA: We need to have dinner at hotel as have to be there early and also breakfast the next day so OH can take his insulin!

Raini

Could you not go? I know it can be difficult but if you don't even know him?

We've been invited to a wedding in July that I would love to go to but it's a 4 hour drive away & would require a hotel etc etc so we aren't going to go. Hopefully they will understand!

Swinstie73

I've considered that Raini, but would lose the £30 for the hotel, Premier Inn and it's non-refundable, so that would be a big waste, I'd end up paying for it as wouldn't expect OH to pay his share just cos I can't afford to go. What a disaster! Thought we could maybe just go and spend the night in the hotel anyway but there is still dinner/breakfast to pay for. Why do I agree to these things???

She's already trying to get me to go to her department' Xmas night out but tbh I will NOT be going to that as we usually have a Xmas lunch which only costs about £25 and if it's anything like last year I only spent £10 cos my lunch was paid and all drinks (it's all guys I work with). I don't mind (and can afford) paying for the Xmas lunch but a night out is at least £40 plus drinks money, plus taxi money, plus something to wear - they all get dolled up whereas I wear jeans/dressy top to my lunch.

When I got this job it saved me a fortune in not having to attend nights out, unless I really wanted to, oh well guess will just have to suck it up and go!

Sun_Addict

Just catching up with your 'doings' Swinstie. Make a low fat cheese sauce by using sauce flour, skimmed milk, wholegrain mustard and then just a tiny bit of low fat cheese. The mustard gives it a lovely flavour and you could even miss out the cheese. To make enough for one portion of lasagne (2 lasagne sheets): 12.5g sauce flour, 150ml skimmed milk, tsp or 2 of wholegrain mustard (or dijon) and about 10g of low fat cheese. Just bung everything in a pan and whisk it now and again until it thickens. The great thing about sauce flour is it doesn't go lumpy. Should do the trick.