Improving my life during Summer 2010

Mags30

Glad you're feeling a bit better for now @butafli. I'm up for MG's 50 day challenge too, although I'm still working on sorting out my evenings with the 5-9 thing but all the talk about 50 day plans will help keep the motivation going so that we don't get too distracted by pretty Christmas things in the shops.

The book about 37 days sounds very interesting, just my sort of thing but where do they get 37 from? It's not a calendar month or a nice even number like 40 or 50. Must be a good reason for 37 though. Have added it to my Amazon wishlist. I read the Going Home book again last night, was in tears again but it's starting to get a bit repeditive, numerous people saying pretty much the same thing. I'm thinking I could easily summarise it on a mind map:D

Only thing for a chest infection is antibiotics and I'm trying to avoid them unless absolutely necessary. I'm keeping warm, avoiding walking around too much and I have Solpadeine and Nurofen in my bag. It seems to have improved a bit. The marquee was heated with kerosine heaters which blow air around a lot so that must be lethal for blowing bacteria and other nasties around. That plus the constant movement from heated marquee to outdoors couldn't have helped.

Law is definitely what I want to do long term but it will be a few years before (if ever) I manage to get qualified so I could do the PR/Events thing until then.

Busy again today, so back later:)

butafli

Oooh pretties at Christmas - is this where I admit to buying a Christmas decoration about 3 weeks ago :rotfl: In my defence I allow myself a new one every year, cost only £1.49 and it is very pretty.

37 days is reference to her step dad. He was diagnosed with lung cancer and died 37 days later. She then talks about someone she had known for years who died about a year after diagnosis and was told go do everything you always wanted. He carried on doing what he already was doing and it made her think. Bits I have dipped into are positive and a bit of the "Oh that's so blindingly obvious but brilliant". Each bit is a few pages, often a story, along with loads of quotes and a couple of questions to ask yourself and do. One of the stories was about how a pottery teacher split his class into two. One was told their grade was determinate on quantity (50 to get A grade), other group that one pot would determine their grade. At the end the ones that produced the best quality pot was the ones going for quantity. They kept producing better and better pots.

And none of that (if ever) talk!!

Bx

Mags30

OK the chest infection has pretty much cleared up by itself but I'm more stressed than ever. Much of today's stress was caused by heavy traffic--I sat in the car for 2 hours to get somewhere that's 10 miles away :wall: That was followed by a very long walk from the overflow car park and an even longer queue for food. So unpleasant. It's half-term from school in Ireland this week and it's causing absolute mayhem in the city. There are certainly no signs of the recession Ireland is meant to be suffering from.

Then I forgot the hair dye my mother asked me to get so I had to park again and go back into the shopping centre for it. She wouldn't mind too much but I don't want to disappoint her by arriving without it later. So there's another example of my self sabotaging life management skills--I should have had a list.

I think I'll have to abandon the "Going Home" book. It had me in floods of tears again last night. It's not good reading sad, lonely stories about people dying late at night when you live alone:(

Crazy busy again for the next few days, have a car service and MOT booked as well as another trip back to the marquee. I'm finding it really hard to keep up with the Memorygirl Matrix thread too. If I miss a few days it takes me ages to catch up and I haven't posted in the private Matrix forum at all....but I will....next week.

Mags30

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butafli

Glad to hear your chest infection is gone. Ouch for the traffic yesterday and having to go back. OH was trying to get home from Glasgow and was stuck on M6 so seems it was all over It has been half term here as well but live in an ordinary town so wasn't too bad for me yesterday - daughter had to have eye test.

Your comment about reading "Going Home" did make me smile as when I am on my own I will do anything to not read/watch anything sad/scary/ooh that looks good - I stick to home makeovers .

I have only just posted on the Matrix. I put up my 50 day challenge - haven't put up my CV yet as I need to think about it a bit more. But MGs does move so quick and I used to think Hypnos was bad enough

Good luck with the car and all other bits you are cramming into your weekend.

Bx

Mags30

I haven't posted in almost a week so it's time for some posts to catch up. I started my diary when the clocks went forward for summer and now they've gone back again for winter so my "summer 2010 diary is out of date but I'm going to keep it going anyway until the end of the year and start a new one for 2011. So I think it's time for a quick review of my categories from the first page and a few targets for the MG Matrix 50 day challenge.

1)Finances: Still organized and debt is going down very slowly. The biggest difference here is that I feel more positive about generating extra income than I did earlier in the year. Instead of thinking "I can't afford it" I think "what can I do to earn the money for X..?" Mystery shopping, surveys and review writing are helping me along but I haven't been able to do daily clicks because the main sites are UK only and wouldn't let me register with an Irish IP addreess. I started on payment a day but haven't been doing it enough.

For the 50 day challenge I need to visit the "up your income" board on here a lot and see if I can find any other additional sources of income that would suit me. I need to work out the budget so that I can add some categories to my envelope system for 2011 because the trial run has shown that it won't work as I designed it originally.

2)Home:

Cleaning and de-cluttering is an ongoing project. I don't think it'll ever be finished. New clutter seems to arrive all the time--christmas catalogues anyone?:rotfl:I had planned on limiting time spent on the internet but time on here is quite productive because it motivates me.

3)Work: No change there really but I'm thinking more about working at PR/Event management or other things that might suit me. Again I feel inspired by lots of the ladies in the MG Matrix.



4)Health: Not great unfortunately:(

• Still taking Efexor for anxiety
• Still having quite a few sleepless nights
• Getting exhausted very easily
• Back pain rather bad sometimes
• Back on pill (yasmin) because of really awful period pain
• Eyes are sore from overuse of contact lenses

5)Education: Still working slowly on the law study, would be great if I could concentrate on this for the MG 50 day challenge.

6)Shopping: I've improved a lot at this challenge. I don't shop as much as I used to. I seem to be more aware of what I'm spending money on. So for the 50 day challenge I need to be really careful not to overspend on :xmassmile:xmastree:

7)Social life/Friendships/Relationships:

This category is bothering me because I've come to a few realisations recently.

I tend to do a lot of nice things for other people, just little things like sending cards, reprinting photos, leaving tips (I gave the mechanic who serviced my car last week €10:rotfl:) but nobody does anything for me in return.

I don't know how many cards I've sent this year (and it's never just a card--I always include lottery tickets, chocolate, perfume samples) but I received none. It's not that I wanted anything in return but I'm starting to feel like a bit of a fool for doing so much and getting nothing back. :think:

I've also realised just how much I tend to mislead people when I'm out socially or working at events. People always think I'm fun, carefree and out all the time but this couldn't be further form the truth. The real me is sensible and weighed down by the financial responsibility of being a single homeowner. I take anti-depressants for anxiety and tend to feel unwell a lot of the time (see health issues above).

Might just avoid this category for now:undecided


8)Fashion and appearance: Hard as I try I seem to constantly need new things. Clothes are so complicated these days. Remember when you needed a track suit for exercise? Now there's yoga pants for yoga and tight lycra gear for gym or running, there are different types of trainers for walking and running. It's impossible to have the correct outfit for each situation hence the constant needs.

My latest need is some proper rain/bad weather clothes because I don't have any. I want a North Face jacket as a basic investment piece. They are really expensive but I tried some on recently and they are fabulous in a fit-for-purpose sense rather than a glamour sense. The shop where I tried them on takes deposits so hopefully I'll get one before the end of the 50 days. Obviously to afford this I won't be able to buy any party clothes but I don't need them, I have loads of nice clothes but a black dress won't work on a cold wet day.

9)Driving: I've become much more confident about this over the summer. Probably won't need to have it as a category when I start my 2011 diary, although I will need a category for car expenses:Dand I might never be good at parking.

10)Me time: I have a weekend in Dublin in planned for later in November and I'll go to a few more classes on the Law of Attraction and the Alexander technique as part of my 5-9 challenge before Christmas.

:coffee:

vasseur

Just popping on to let you know I am still reading just seem to have very little time for posting these days

You seem to be getting yourself sorted anyway (except for health) but I think that as other problems are sorted out your health will improve

butafli

Morning

Hope you are having a good week and your Tuesday is productive. Reading all your categories you have achieved so much!. Sorry to hear your health is still not where you would like it to be (((hugs))).

Bx

Mags30

Thanks guys, I haven't been the best at updating lately but I'm still around:). Having serious trouble keeping up with MG's thread too.

Debt total @ 1st November €5556.47. This is so much lower than many people on here yet I'm struggling with it because the mortgage and living expenses eat up all my money but at least it is going down slowly.

There was a report on Bloomberg today that Ireland is going bankrupt and has only 60 days cash left. No idea how acccurate that is but the financial situation in Ireland definitely isn't good.

Thankfully my car passed it's MOT and didn't cost too much. €135 for the service and €50 for the MOT but now the speedometer is broken so I have to get that fixed too. It's the first repair I've ever had to do the car, apart from re-painting the scratch.

46 days to :xmassmile

Treated myself to the new Susan Boyle cd today. I:heart2:her.

vasseur

I'm having trouble keeping up with MG's thread. In fact I think I might have to let it go for a bit.

I too struggle with being a homeowner and having a debt. My problem is I tied myself into a 5 year fixed rate (3 years ago just before the credit crunch kicked in :mad:) and that is what cripples me every month along with the all the other bills. It's also quite stressful worrying about things going wrong. You're not alone

Good news about the car anyway.

Great to treat yourself to something even though you are DFW - you'd go mad otherwise and it prevents a major blowout.

You're doing fine, really you are