Continue the change and enjoy the journey!

fedupandskint

I have down shifted brands massively today on my Saturday twice a month coffee and teacake treat. I needed a new eyemake up remover as I think it will run out next week, a handcream is about to be used up over the next 2 weeks and a birthday card for mum.

So as part of my downshift in brands and see if I can tell much difference really in product performance compared to price I downshifted with a vengence. Instead of £14 on a Clinique one I have down shifted to £2.59 for a Sensitive Superdrug one to try out - hope its as good. Checked the ingrediemts and I can use it so lets see how I get on with it.

Then the same with a new handcream which will be used up over the next few weeks. Instead of buying a new Decleor one for a 400ml size on offer for £24 I bought a small superdrug intensive balm for £1.39 for 75ml

Equates to 5x75ml bottles to 1x400ml one and price wise comes to £7.41 saving £16.59
Eyemake up remover saves £11.91

Spent £3.98
Saved £28.50

Birthday card - downshifted again from Clintons to Card Factory and found a really nice card for 89p to go in the post next week.

So not too bad spends today. Very glad I downshifted brands as its worked really well so far and hoping this continues.

Spends were £5 on tea for 2 and 2 toasted teacakes, £4 for 2 medium filter coffees and 89p on a card and £3.98 on beauty products. It was my turn for coffees and tea this time so a bigger spend but was my turn to buy.

Total for today is £13.87 and the next 2 days should be NSD as I have everything in I need and no need to spend

P.S. its beauty day on the dreaded beauty channel and its a really nice feeling to be not bothered by it at all. In the past I would have had this on all day and succumb to all sorts of "offers" I couldn't live without. A very nice feeling to not be bothered at all by any feelings of temptation and nice to remind myself I have everything I need and don't need to buy anything new at all and I 'm happy using up all I have instead of constantly buying new. Think I have that old addiction to beauty shopping and over spending in hand and that's a good feeling

Right time to crack on with some writing for the assignment

sidneysmum

Hi Fedup,

Well done you!! You sound as though you are starting to embrace the finances. Downshifting a brand doesnt necessarily mean buying rubbish. With regards to birthday cards, I always buy mine at the card factory. In fact I got myself well and truly organised at the start of January. I compiled a list of all birthdays for the year and bought all the cards in one go. I also bought one or two spares just in case. This is money well spent as it saves me going to the town just for a birthday card and then buying loads of other stuff I just dont need.

Keep up the good work

fedupandskint

Thanks!

OMG -still not much progress made on the assignment - Aaaarrrggghhhh!

Proper feeling it now! So off I go to attempt to write some sense in a critical appraisal style and for quite a few hours too. Better log off and get on with it - 2700 words to go to make some sense!

fedupandskint

Well, 1000 words of something resembling work to submit done in a couple of hours. So with double that amount left I should just about make it if I am a just a little more productive tomorrow than I was today.

Hope so at the very least.

Sunday plan is
Get up early
Take dog for walk
Start work on assignment while watching tennis. Might have to listen to it as the TV will probably be too much of a distraction
Break for lunch
Quick break for ironing at some point if on track with writing
Start again after lunch
Break for dog walk
Do another hour or so
Break for tea
Do some more
Count up words and hope I'm nearly there

fedupandskint

Trying hard to write and make sense of what I wrote last night - up to 1100 words now and about to tackle the next section.

Went on a nice frosty walk this morning out and about before 8am, not many people about and Mr Dog has a nice gambol on the field. Tennis pretty gripping so have the radio on as a slight less distraction than watching it on the TV!

Ok off I go for another hour to add to the running total of words. I'll set myself a goal of not coming back on here before 12pm and see if I can get to 1800 words by then and finish the first section completely including references

fedupandskint

Well, against all odds I did it! First section is written and referenced so its a lunch break, a head clearing break and then back to it for the section section attack this afternoon - a less worrying 1200 words. Well less worrying at this point because I haven't started it yet!

Happily its a NSD today 15/18 - not going to make the target this month by 1 short - damm those fresh cream meringues for tempting me to spend £1.09. Seriously will have to rethink this one for Feb. Mind you, don't have any money so won't be a problem

Targets met for Jan - have stayed totally AF for Jan and feeling pretty good about it. I might even see if I can get another month is the same. Its pretty nice waking up not groggy on a Sunday

GC went well for Jan coming in at £91.46/£150 so I'm reducing my food budget to £100 for Feb and see if I can stick to it again - £25 per week or less required. I've got plenty of food in as usual so its the usual fruit veg and milk to be getting in and using up the freezer stocks

Anyway lunch time and a rest

fedupandskint

Not going to badly this afternoon - have written about 3 variables and have another 5 to write about in s shocking 400 words left so much chopping and changing required to fit into the word count.

Snack of christmas cake and cheese has taken me over the kcal allowance today and not much exercise either as I'm welded to the settee writing this assignment. Really hoping I can finish it early tomorrow to get a long dog walk and a run in before dark. Anyway, tea has been rejigged to get me just 250 kcals over the allowance with the snacking that's gone on today. Must be my brain nagging me for sugar and cheese and chocolate and food at plenty of points today. Another habit to try and overcome otherwise these final few pounds won't ever go and I won't get to maintainence stage of attempting to not put it all back on again.

Better get back to it with those typing fingers all warmed back up for the final hundreds of words to go today!

fedupandskint

Well that's 3351/3000 words written meaning quite a bit of rejigging tomorrow to get to the word limit. Referencing to finish off too then submit and then its time to tidy the house up, go for a run while its still light and take my dog on a nice long walk and also do the ironing, have a relaxing bath and facemask as a reward for all the above

Also aiming for a NSD too

What a day, hey got there and thank goodness I took tomorrow off to finish this assignment off because if I still had this to do now I'd be propping my eyes open with matchsticks! Which they feel like they need doing now! Early start tomorrow required to get it finished by dinner time and then have the afternoon to myself - here's hoping!

fedupandskint

It's finished, it's done and it's submitted - yeah!

I set myself the deadline of 12pm to complete it and made it. Don't think its that great but hope it should pass. Anyway, afternoon off to tidy up the assignment paperwork scattered all over then get some fresh air later on.

Reward is a nce long dog walk, a run and nice pamper bath and facemask, early tea and early night! Having the rest of the week off studying to recover, then its back to uni next week for a couple of days then it all starts again for the next one and also get a bit of the dissertation done in Feb too - phew!

Back to work tomorrow too, have meal and exercise planned for the week ahead and I will have a weekend to please myself next weekend without feeling guilty about not studying!

NSD 16/18 today too

fedupandskint

A very pleasant afternoon to recover from all that assignment work

Tidied up all the papers into their folder and stuck upstairs out of the way
All ironing done for the week ahead
Nice dog walk in the daylight for a change on a Monday
Then out for a stupendous 6mile run in 55mins
Back for a relaxing bath and facemask and pamper

Now a nice lounge around watching TV with a cuppa and a fudge.

Rejigged meal plan for this week a little to try and get back to the 5 a day as usual and also try and stick to the kcal allowance for a change

Also have set myself a strict shopping budget of £15 for this week to get everything I need and also £25 petrol top up - a maximum of £40 for everything, will see how much it costs and see if I can get under this amount.

While putting the ironing away I came across 2 pairs of jeans I haven't worn since I lost weight and my work trousers I used to wear day in day out this time last year and last summer. Well I suspected they would be way too big, tried them on and they were huge. At least 3 inches too big. So that's 2 pairs of near perfect jeans to ebay when I get chance to and a pair of lots of wear left in them work trousers. When I saw they were a size 14, it seemed a long time since I last wore these and must be getting used to maintaining this better, healthier weight for me