Pay off mortgage and start having fun!

newgirly

Ha ha our grounds are only 42 ft long

Thanks for the link.

ajmoney

newgirly wrote: »

I've started dieting twice in the last month or so, just got on the scales tonight and have put on some days i'm good and others not. My 100 days to lose three stones may be a little optimistic. So I shall reduce the target into easier smaller chunks.

Half a stone a month, and there are three months to xmas. Its half the previous target and hopefully more achievable.

Diet things i need to do:

Setting monthly targets (3 to start with!)

So first month:

Lose 7 pounds
No alcohol
Cals: 250 breakfast
350 lunch
450 dinner
200 snacks
Try and get min. 8 hours sleep a night.

Weight loss challenge take three

I went to see someone a while ago as I wasn't eating enough for the exercise I was doing and he said something very interesting. When you reduce the amount of calories you eat/aren't eating enough calories per day, your body starts to burn lean muscle rather than fat. It goes into survival mode and so stores the fat. I'm not sure if this applies in all cases but 1250 calories per day seems awfully low. I burn roughly 1500 calories a day before bringing in normal day-to-day movement or exercise. Please make sure you are not starving yourself and your body as a means to lose weight. Eating the right amount and right things is good for your body as well as your mental state so make sure you take care of yourself during this stressful time x

newgirly

Hi aj , i had a few personal training sessions a couple of years ago and she said much the same thing. I have set it at that as i will probably go a liitle over everyday ( or a lot over if i fail as i have lately ) I don't included tea and coffee so its just a bit of leeway. Thanks for popping in and i hope all is well with you, I must catch up on your diary, i've been terrible keeping up to date lately

newgirly

I took a days holiday today and have been tinkering with the budget as its coming on three months since i started fully paying the mortage at the stupidly high rate in needs paying, due to chelsea building society not letting us extend the term as its unaffordable.

Anyway, xmas and birthday budget raised by £15 each to £50pm - more realistic

car budget reduced by £15 as eric is going.

Emergency fund cut to £30 from £40

Holiday fund cut from £30 to £0.

The fund already built up since july will pay the car and home ins. In full as trying to keep the savings and pay it from the food budget is too much pressure. I will still stick to the challenge of £300 food budget this month though.

I've not exactly kept perfect records of spending the last 3 months but somehow i have each month:

Made the mortgage interest payments £305
Overpaid to the amount it takes to clear in term £1534
Overpaid on top by £60
Paid the minimums of £35 and £44 off the 0% cc's
Overpaid the cc's by £20
We have all eaten :rotfl:

CathT

That's a lot of outgoings, well done Newgirly. You are 3 months closer to being debt/mortgage free.

smallholdingsister

I'd say you were doing well in difficult times.

ajmoney

newgirly wrote: »

Thanks for popping in and i hope all is well with you, I must catch up on your diary, i've been terrible keeping up to date lately

I know what you mean about keeping up with other people diaries, it is a struggle to remember to update my own :rotfl: I read a lot of them I just don't always have time to post.

You seem a lot more positive now you have got a grip of things. I hope the work side of things sorts itself in time so you can have a bit more calm in your lives. I'm sure when you come through it you will see more positive ways to work on your own budget too. Hey, if this journey was easy everyone would be doing it, it will make it all the more enjoyable when you meet your goals

newgirly

Cheers guys Its only the first few months though, we've 6 years 8 months of this left :eek:

I think i'm making my parents feel a little uncomfortable to be honest, told mum that I'm selling eric and she said I'm making her feel guilty as she is ordering brand new mini this week . They have said they may be able to help us out next year , but i don't really know what that means and we have never relied on them for help.

I do feel like now my parents know the financial situation they feel awkward, my Dad has helped out with the accounts since dh took over the firm and has given us advice. But since its become more dire he has not even asked us about it, which is not like him.

Its mums birthday next week and they want to go for a curry , which for 5 of us is about £100 I said we would probably pass and she has offered to pay. We didn't end up going out for my brothers birthday meal which was the same situation, he was fine about it. Its quite irritating though as these conversations are often in front of other people, yesterday it was my aunt. Then i get - do you need to borrow some money? No, very kind but i don't, (I just don't have much to spend on luxuries as family do.)

It does'nt help saying no to stuff when getting back from an expensive weekend away, although it was paid for with birthday money.

Argh, why do I have to worry about making other people feel uncomfortable because we don't have lots of money? Why don't people understand that We don't have lots of money? For example last week, i drove mum to hospital visiting, she doesn't like driving there, therefore i have to use eric for work as I have now run out of petrol. I don't want to keep reiterating i have no money, but it really does apply to everything that costs money.



Phew I feel a bit better now !

wantabetterlife

OH new girly I know what you mean it's like they start getting p**sed off with you because you can't do the things they want you to do. That is one of the toughest things and it's even harder when you go through the embarrassment. Of telling them how bad things are and they still have certain expectations. My Inlaws are a bit like this and I tend to say things like we are saving up to get x,y or z doneso we will have to pass...you have my sympathies

newgirly

Hi wabl, I do feel like an ungrateful c*w sometimes as they do offer to pay.

I tried to talk to them one evening on holiday this year, it was a heated discussion about a family my Dad knew who lived in essex but never took their children to London as they couldn't afford it, he couldn't understand how they couldn't afford it. It was annoying because this was often me when the kids where little, at home with three kids and unable to afford childcare for them all, dh on a very low wage working seven days a week,getting steadily more into debt as we bought a house we really couldn't afford.

I said a day trip to London is a big expense if your have very little money, car park money at the station, adult train fare might be all the spare money gone for the week, the same thing applies fo everything, yet another party invite from school - money for presents etc. The list goes on! A few years dhs boss cut all over time and stopped paying share dividends , that meant we couldn't pay the mortgage for 6 months and had to borrow it.

I have asked for help over the years, not since joining mse mind! Not money ever but advice on what to do if you can't pay the mortgage type help. We didn't have the internet back then so advice was not so easy to come by. Unfortunatly they were unable to advise us and we clearly did not have enough oomph to go out and solve our own problems back then.

Our age doesn't help, I'm 40 dh 43 and we have been married 19 years, when you are young and have a young family its perfectly normal to be careful as you don't have much money, most people start out like that. But owning your own house and a business with three almost adult kids, why would you have no money now? Most people we know have a far better standard of living than they did 20 years ago. So its obvious for them to assume that we do too.

I don't always want to announce our circumstances to everyone we know, but it does feel like an endless stream of requests sometimes.

Gosh, another long ramble again. I think I'm just having one of those miserable feel sorry for myself days