The hilariously over-optimistic goals I am setting myself in 2010....

Keeping_Motivated

Hi Hannah

I've been following your diary, very witty and interesting.

Just adding my opinion (for what its worth) is the tattoo really worth skinting yourself and restricting your life so much for? A tattoo can wait? I know he you say the waiting list is long but you CAN go back on it and your time will come round again.

Anyway good luck

dalleDF

Hello KM! Yes, you are quite right. It is not worth it, and I am being irresponsible. This project will ruin my snowball. But there must be a way that I can come to some compromise. Rather than stretch my budget to breaking point, I need to come up with more ingenious ways of making extra money. Yesterday I listed a few bits on ebay, got a couple more to do tonight. Daily clicks and cashback sites are not going to raise enough. I will have to do something more drastic. I wonder how much I could get for my kidney? Oh wait, you can't put those on ebay anymore can you?
Sold a couple of books on Amazon and one on Green Met so should have about £12 coming my way. I reckon if I am lucky the ebay stuff will raise about £70, so that and the £50 I have put aside will cover my flights for my summer hols. February and March are going to be tight months. All bills will be covered but I will only have £80-£100 for food and fun. Doable though.
In April if I cut my tattoo session from 4 hrs to 3hrs I will be still able to snowball my Egg loan with an extra £100.
Then in May my artist is on holiday so I will have an easy month budget wise and will be able to snowball an extra £150 onto my Egg loan. The aim is to get rid of it before I go on hols in June.
So actually, if I am prepared to go through 2 difficult months I can have (most of) my cake and eat it. If I keep ebaying and freelancing where possible to raise extra cash then it will be easier of course. This might scupper the weight loss plan though, as I will no longer be able to afford Boot Camp. Hmmm.
Sorry for the stream of consciousness today. Normal service will be resumed shortly.

jacey98

hi hannah

just had to pop in been having a rubbish day amd your diary has made me smile, good work so far i am 14 days off the ciggies now so i think i must be near to going through the pain barrier soon!!!!

jc x

dalleDF

Hi Jacey! Well done on kicking the fags! I read somewhere that from the 3rd week all the nasties are out of your system and your physical addiction goes, it's just the psychological habit you have to crack. So you're almost through the worst bit now. Are you feeling better for not smoking? I have had a horrid cough that has just started to go in the last 2 days. I am taking this as a sign my body is clearing out all the junk. Good luck!

jacey98

to be honest have felt really rubbish since i stopped really bad stomach and head aches but i think they are starting to clear now so hopefully all up hill from here now............just need to start on the weight loss next! booooo.

jc x

dalleDF

Today was a No Spend Day. And yesterday all I bought was Basics muesli (58p) and a pint of milk (50p). So that's good. Turned down a lunch invitation as well and ate my ratatouille at my desk instead. Am still sticking to my meal plan, although today I ate 2 cereal bars instead of the 1 I am allowed because I was starving.

Have crept back up to 10st 10lb somehow. Arg! I feel really bloated as well. Wondering if it's to do with the amount of fruit I'm eating. I eat a lot of fruit usually anyway though so not sure what's going on. Maybe I am sleepwalking to the kitchen and drinking wine in the night. Anyway, because I was p*ssed off about that I broke the no evening carbs rule and had a bowl of (wholewheat) tuna pasta for my tea. Now I feel even more bloated. *Sigh*

Am going to do an hour of yoga before bed. Didn't sleep so well last night because I was worrying about things, so hopefully some nice stretching will soothe my chattering mind. Will have to tidy the living room first though. It's like a Chinese laundry in here today.

Sent my job application in today as well, after redrafting it about a million times. I once read that 'the art of good writing is the art of rewriting' and it has always stayed with me. You've got to produce something that will stand out though, haven't you? It's stiff competition out there these days.

I think I need to start putting more effort into finding a new job actually. The thought of moving on fills me with joy, and I have come to the conclusion that my boss is in fact a psychic vampire who is slowly sucking my soul out through my ears.

I was speaking to my Dad about the whole work situation. He's a bit like Yoda, really calm and wise. As I was explaining to him how I feel demoralised at work, I realised I am close to losing my mojo. Plan for the weekend: do a proper scour of the jobs pages. Emailed a contact about some possible freelance today as well. No, I am not too proud to beg.

Some items listed on ebay tonight so they will end on Sunday night (supposed to be the time when most people are browsing). My target is £70. Fingers crossed!

dalleDF

Today was a Low Spend Day. I bought a pint of milk, two mushrooms and some green lentils. Total: £1.61. Bloody Sainsburys rip-off merchants. I had meal planned to eat my 2 remaining eggs at the weekend but I didn't, so am having mushroom omelette for dinner. I have an onion to use up, so will use it with the lentils to make a load of dahl that should do me some lunches for next week. Have never made dahl before so hopefully it will turn out ok. Seems easy enough. Have now got £30 to last me for the rest of the month. I can feed myself on £15 a week though so it's ok.

In Skinny news: I keep fluctuating between 10st 10lb and 10st 7lb. It's annoying. I am ashamed to say I skived Boot Camp this morning because I couldn't get to sleep for ages last night and as a result couldn't drag my sorry carcass out of bed at 6.30am. But I am back on it tomorrow and I pledge to work harder to make up for my failure today. My friend skived today and Monday, claiming a cold, so that makes me feel a bit better!

I have signed up for a trial session with British Military Fitness as the weekly MSE email has an offer of 2 weeks free. It sounds absolutely terrifying - essentially an hour of being shouted at by a big army man and made to do press ups and roll around in dog sh*t. But I need to do something drastic if I am going to shift this big fat a*s!. It might actually save me money though because it's cheaper than Boot Camp and the gym, and if I miss a session, like I did today, I can roll it over into the next month, so I never waste money. I'm not sure how often I would realistically go though, if I had the option to weasel out of it. Well, we shall see if I die at the weekend and go from there.

Also, yesterday I did an hour of yoga before bed. Will aim to do this a few times a week as I do feel better for it.

In other news, three out of the four items I put on ebay will sell. Am not that hopeful about meeting my target to be honest, but if I try and save some of my remaining £30 for the month (by living on dahl) I should be able to make up the shortfall and balance the books.

Am going to have to start doing daily clicks I think. Every little helps I suppose.

In summary:

Day 13

Number of cigarettes smoked - 0
Bottles of wine drunk - 0
Chocolate bars eaten - 0
Cereal bars eaten - 2
Weight gained - 2 lb
Weight lost - 0 lb
Gym visits - 0
Running around in the snow - 0 mins
Time spent in bed instead - 2.5 hrs
Cash spent - £1.61 on lentils, mushrooms and milk.
Job sites scoured on work time - 4

BankFree

Hi Hannah,
Your diary has made me laugh so much and forget all about the teacher training essays Im meant to be writing!! Have you sold the uggs on ebay? Ive always found the Office sale really good as you tend to get different types of boots/shoes for cheap and you get 10% cashback if you go through quidco.
Also I love dahl!! only ever made it with yellow split lentils but fry some garlic and cumin seeds and it tastes lush (although probably not good if you are worried about smelling of garlic!!)
Good luck and well done for not smoking/drinking, I am struggling through my resolution of no midweek drinking!!

Also how do you get your balances to come up when you post things?

dalleDF

Hi again BF! The Uggs haven't arrived yet. Have been compulsively monitoring their progress as I ordered them from the States. They are now in the UK at least so should have them soon. I am praying they don't fit so I can ebay them! But guaranteed I will love them and want to keep them. I always forget to use Quidco when I'm shopping online. Need to start using it more, think I would make loads.

Yeah, I wanted the yellow lentils but there weren't any in the supermarket. Hopefully it will work with green. And no, I am single and not looking so I couldn'y give a hoot if I stink of garlic. In fact, I love garlic. At the very least it might keep my vampire boss away!

Re balances, do you mean my signature? Go to User CP in the top menu and select Edit Signature from the left hand menu to create one.

dalleDF

Ooh, quick MSE update: I forgot to mention that I cancelled the Hypnob*llocks CD that I had ordered. Found a free podcast that does a similar thing and listened to that instead. Saving = £9.54. The woman is Renee Stephens and she does a Madame Zelda voice as well, but is marginally less hilarious than the Hypno lady. However, I must be doing it wrong as Madame Zelda is making me a heiffer!