Meersy's debt free, healthier & happier life diary

meersy22

Hi All

As a long time lurker I thought it was time to start my own diary. I had my LBM in Jan 09 when I opened my credit card statement and it was over £5000 :eek: I had been transferring balances at 0% and had stuck my head in the sand at the actual balance figure .

A bit about me.
I'm 36 years old, with a lovely BF who unfortunately suffers from depression, which can at times be a bit wearing but I love him to bits. We've been together 3 years and still no sign of sparkly ring (if I had a pound for every time someone asks if we're getting married I'd be rich). I come from big Irish family and I think it's just the party they are after:D

I also take on the woes of my family (I'm the oldest girl) and find myself being the go between in any family stresses. I'm quite easy going but sometimes it would be nice for someone else to be the organiser and go girl.

I started plugging away at my debts and as you can see from my signature the evil Barclaycard is down below £1000. The problem I'm having now is that because I've given myself a pat on the back I've started taking my eye of the ball and spending money which could pay off more of my debt. The main objective of this diary is to stop my spending.

I have a spending diary in my handbag but I've been deliberately omitting spends, as if that is going to hide the money going out of my account:D

Main objectives
- Clear evil B card by end Nov 10
- Clear windows loan end June 2011
- lose 7 lb. (I know this isn't much but years ago I was 3 stone overweight and I managed to lose most of it apart from the last stone)

Reduce spending on tat. Exercise more.

This is just a diary for me but all advice gratefully received.

Going on hols in 3 weeks so will have to start my saving plan in earnest on my return.

Thanks for reading.

M

meersy22

Morning

Actually managed to go out for a run this morning. I kept this diary in my head so that I couldn't chicken out and the run is done.. woo hoo.

I've just made my lunch, smelly egg sarnies. I car share so I have to make sure they are wrapped up well so that my car share buddies don't leap from the car in disgust.

I'm going to have to read up on scratchies as I see other peeps doing their morning scratch ritual and I'm not quite sure how it works.

Of to the shower then a fun packed day at work... not

meersy22

Managed an NSD today and I lost 1.5 lbs at Weight watchers. 5 more to go

Had a really busy day in work which is always good. Unfortunately like a lot of other jobs, the word redundancy is rearing it's ugly head every so often. Which is one of the reasons I want my debt gone.

WW- Special K (2) + egg sarnies (5) + banana (1) + chicken/ ham/ potato (7) + WW bar (1.5) = 16.5 points .

boredofbeingathome

Good luck with your goals meersy22. Welcome to diary land Bob x

vasseur

Good luck from me too *subscribes*

Like you I enjoy going for a run but there's no way I could go before work :eek: I'd like to but I have a 6 year old DD so I'd get in a lot of trouble if I left her at home asleep while I went out.....must be a great feeling getting to work and knowing you've already done your exercise for the day. I run most lunchtimes.

Re losing weight have you tried cutting out bread on weekdays only? I lost 1 1/2 stone this way and I've kept it off for 18 months now. It's easy once you've worked out what to have for lunch in it's place.

Best of luck!

meersy22

Hi Bob & Polesalot

Thanks for the welcome to diaryland. Hopefully this will keep me on the straight and narrow. I'm addicted to other people's diaries and there are so many inspirational stories out there. Hopefully I won't bore anyone to tears.

Polesalot - I love running in the morning as it's so peaceful and puts my head in the right place for the rest of the day. However there is no hope of dragging me out in the evening. I'm very lucky that my work backs onto a large park with plenty of running trails, so I sometimes do that at lunchtime when I can't get out of bed. Don't think the social would see running early in the morning as a good excuse to abandon your DD.

Well done on the weight loss. I know it's not easy especially keeping it off. About the bread thing. A colleague ages ago stopped eating bread and lost lots of weight. Did you just start eating pasta, salad or rice? Is there a reason why bread is a diet demon? I was thinking about not eating it ages ago but didn't know if I could cope with cutting it totally out of my life but if this is a weekday only thing I would give it a go.

I saw on one of the threads that there was a bread maker on sale for about £13. My first thought was how money saving that would be but then I wised up and realised that I would make the gorgeous fresh bread, sit with delicious fresh bread add a pat of butter and the loaf would be gone in one go.

At least I know my downfall.

meersy22

Morning all

The dreaded Shred (fitness dvd) is done. If I don't run I try and do the scary shred. I find it much easier to go for a run now that my options are shred or run. I bought Shred before I started reading the fun on Hypno's thread and wasn't sure what I'd let my self in for:eek:

Ok the aim for next weigh in is 1 lb (2 if I'm really lucky).

I have swimming tonight with my 2 nephews. I basically spend the evening on my knees in the kids pool but the boys love it:D

Shower/coffee/work in that order

vasseur

meersy22 wrote: »

Well done on the weight loss. I know it's not easy especially keeping it off. About the bread thing. A colleague ages ago stopped eating bread and lost lots of weight. Did you just start eating pasta, salad or rice? Is there a reason why bread is a diet demon? I was thinking about not eating it ages ago but didn't know if I could cope with cutting it totally out of my life but if this is a weekday only thing I would give it a go.

I saw on one of the threads that there was a bread maker on sale for about £13. My first thought was how money saving that would be but then I wised up and realised that I would make the gorgeous fresh bread, sit with delicious fresh bread add a pat of butter and the loaf would be gone in one go.

At least I know my downfall.

Thanks.

Yes I just cut out bread. Breakfast is just weetabix and a cuppa. For lunch I normally have salad and houmous (with Houmous as the dressing IYSWIM). I still eat either rice, pasta or potatoes with my evening meal.

I think it's a double whammy because if you're not having bread you're not having butter either :T

meersy22

Thanks Polesalot I will give it a go:)

Just settled for the night. Had both nephews at swimming and even though I didn't move very far as neither can really swim, I feel shattered.

I made the mistake of popping into Asda to pick up some chicken and had to buy them sweets (this involved much arguing that 1 was getting more than the other etc). I don't know how parents do it.

Ok not an NSD day I'm afraid, confession time-
WW bars = £2
Tesco (stamps, milk (work) & paper (I only buy it on thurs now) = £3.41
Swimming - £6.20
Asda - chicken and sweets = £5.01

Total = £16.62. I'm following the weekly spend challenge and its getting very close to the wire.

WW points today - 16.5

Lunch all ready for tomorrow so hopefully an NSD ahead. It's almost the weekend :j

vasseur

meersy22 wrote: »

Total = £16.62. I'm following the weekly spend challenge and its getting very close to the wire.

:j

I tried the monthly grocery challenge and failed miserably

savingholmes

welcome to diaryland- hope you find good support here to motivate you