£10000 in debt and 3 stones in weight - to loose in 9 month

lubava

I am setting myself an impossible challenge. To lose £10000 debt we have(me and my hubby) and 3 stones in weight by the 31/12/2010.
I will post breakdown of my debts and goals on lossing weight later on in the day.
My budget is very limited as I'm currently out of work and hubby works only 30 a week. (he asked for more but as he is still on probation we will have to wait till that is over).
I calculated that i need to loose 2.2 kg a month (5 lbs). Any ideas on how to do it are welcome.

Little_Miss_Uni-Debt

Helloooo and welcome! :T
Congrats on starting towards 2 challenging but VERY worthwhile goals.
I'm sure others will say that a statement of affairs or detailed budget posted up here will be useful for us to help you. I will pop back later to have a look at the goals that you post later on in the day.

You will probably find that meal planning reduces costs and gives you healthier meals so the two will go hand-in-hand!!!

I had similar goals to yourself a while back. Now my debt is nearly done I'm concentrating more on the weight loss, 10kgs left to go. It's a lot easier now the snow has gone and the nights are lighter. I have a million tips for weight loss I could bore you with but I'll just stick to the important ones for now. Most of this information has been passed on to me by my sister who has lost 4 stone and my best friend who lost 6 stone in 6 months and through things I've picked up on the way.

Golden Rule Number 1) DON'T drink your calories. This is hard to get used to but drinking just water and/or milk is probably the single most beneficial thing for you. Cutting out stimulants and sugar in drinks will show dramatic weight loss in a short time when combined with light exercise.

Golden Rule Number 2) DO eat little and often. Eating 4 - 6 snacks/ mini-meals per day is better than 3 large meals. It keeps your blood sugar up, you never feel full and fatigued or light-headed and craving sugary foods. Trying to eat beans (any kind, even baked beans) pulses and veg instead of pasta and rice and bread. If you are going to have carbs ensure they are eaten within an hour and a half of a good workout.

I'm currently following a basic eating schedule and basic workout regime that I wrote based on all the info i've learned. It includes plenty of rest days and various free exercises (no gym required) and are quick to do. I'll post it up here if you're interested. It's showing great results already!!

Best of luck!! Oh and don't forget. Don't just rely on your weight to say how well you are doing. Take measurements of arms, legs, waist etc regularly! Remember muscle weighs more too!! :A

gonzo127

for the money side of things i cant really suggest anything unless i could see a SOA however if there is only one of your working on 30 hours a week i expect the biggest thing to do would be to find yourself a job but then again it sounds as if you already know this

as for the weight my wife is a big fan of weightwatchers and me being the cook in the house i can say i have learnt a lot myself. the 2 biggest things which help with weight loss are portion control and doing exercise. nothing more simple than that really.

with this in mind the easiest is portion control, buy yourself a set of digital scales (just because they are easy to read) and start by wieghing ALL of your food, then set yourself targets for what to drop it to (without knowing the person details of height, weight etc i can say exactly what sizes are recommended) for example my breakfast when my wife started i decided to find out how much my 'normal' bowl fulls weight was, to say i got a shock was a understatement as it was coming in at around 120 grams a day (normal information on the side of the box gives details for a normal 30 g serving), i have since dropped this to 60g whereas my wife started at about 80g and now has 40g

simular thing with rice when we started i was easily dishing up over 300g of rice per person, my wife has since found out she should only be having 150g and i have cut down my portion to around 225g

we have also given ourself a 'naughty night' for food (friday night) where we are allowed ANYTHING (basically a free night) so chocolate, cheesecake all the things that we dont have during the week because of the diet is allowed which generally stops us have the cravings for them because we know we can have them then

josephine82

The best advice I can give for losing weight and sticking with it is to have 3 healthy balanced meals a day, eat fruit for snacks and try and get some excercise in where you can.
Allow yourself to have treats whatever they may be every so often i.e on special occiasions, once a month, whatever so they don't become things that you want but never allow yourself to eat.
I think exersise is the most important thing to keeping weight off if you can find something that yu can incorporate into your life for now and for the future.

I committed to 3 healthy meals a day, fruit and cereal bars for snacks and a friday chocolate treat, with a hour of exersise per week (either in one go or spread out) and I've lost a stone and kept it off.

As for money- make up a realistic budget and stick to it. That helped me pay off my debts and helps me now with saving for a house.

Good luck!

lubava

Thanks for all your replies. I cannot afford to join weight wachers or any other similar clubs. I have got advice from the nutritionist and I was told to eat 1200 callories a day ( i have menus etc.). And it didn't cost me a penny.

As about the job I have second interview tomorrow and things are looking quite promicing. I'm not sure about the salary they offer but I said what my desired salary would be so hopefully it will work out.

My debt - i have had budget in place for last six month, but because my hubby was unfortunate enough to have 4 different jobs last year things not always worked out as i would like them too. But we are determent to have most of our debt paid of by the end of the year and I will do everything possible.

lubava

I lost another 2lbs last week. So my weight this morning was 81.5 kg (or just under 13 st.)

Here is my monthly SOA:
Income:
Hubby Salary - £700 min.
My JS - £258
Benefits £754 (tax credits and child benefit)
Other £ 50 (quidco)
Amazon £50.00
Total: £1612.00

Mortgage 443.75 (6.86 fixed until 31/01/11)
Rent 346.09 (bought the house part buy/part rent)
Council tax 0 (don't know the amount till april)
car Insurance 73.95
gas/electr 65.00
broadband 12.50
water 20.00
tv licence 12.12
hb repayment 20.00
health cash plan 21.75
Mobiles 60.00 (me and hubby)
Land line 25.00
food 280.00 (2 adults 3 children plus nappies)
petrol 55.00
other 50.00
Loan 247.49
car loan 49.00 (0% till July)
credit card 30.00 (0% till may.

Total: £1811.65

If there are any extra money the usualy go towards credit cards.

lubava

I will have some extra money this month as Quidco just paid £155 into my account.

lubava

I will be out for the interview in the morning so will not post till the evening.
Anu comments on my SOA would be very helpfull.

gonzo127

best bet with the SOA is to use the make sense of cards calc, one of the stickys at the top of this forum section make things very easy to read and also prompts some things a lot of people do not think about

anyways wishing you all the luck in the world for the job interview and let us know how you go with it i am currently awaiting a offer of a interview myself for a new better paid job so know how nerve racking it can be

josephine82

How did it go lubava? Well done on the 2lb weight loss. Slow and steady is a good recipe to keep it off.

lubava

Hello everyone.My interview was ok, but i don't think i'll get the job. gut feeling.
never mind, it will be another one.
No other changes otherwise. Just another boring day.