Amatheya's £4,000 in 2011 Diary

Amatheya81

I got the news today that I should be getting a small pay rise (wil only be aboue £10 per month) soon and I should know if I'm getting a bonus by the end of Feb... I really hope so as I calculate that if I only pay minimum payments on my credit card it will take me all year just to reduce the ballance by £400 How rubbish! I'm also a little worried that interest rates will go up soon as I'm on a tracker mortgage which has been great while rates have been low but I'll be a bit stuffed if they go up again. Oh well, at least it's only two weeks today until payday. I will deffinately NOT be spending so much next December as this month is absolute torcher!!

The diet's still going well. I usually go out for dinner with my mom on Thursdays so I'm going to have to be very carefull what I choose to eat... I can't decide whether to have something low fat or whether to have something I'll enjoy but only eat half of it... I'm thinking the latter one will be more fun as for some reason low fat food in cheap restaurants always tasts yucky! I have to be on best behaviour whatever I do as it's weigh in tomorrow and my fingers and toes are firmly crossed for another 2lb loss.

loumac

Well even a small rise is a rise hun! It's all in the right direction.

Hope you enjoyed your meal tonight, we're eating healthy but don't think the weight loss has kicked in yet. Definitely need to exercise more I feel. If only there was more time...

Totally agree on the not spending so much next December thing, this feels like a long month!

Amatheya81

-4lbs this morning :eek::D

Amatheya81

So I'm well impressed with my weight loss today. I just need to keep it up as I know I won't continue to lose at this rate... At the moment I'm just losing my Christmas fat lol

I'm not so happy with money today. I've only got £4 to get me through the next 2 weeks until payday (make that 12 days) and I've just found out that Lloyds have started charging a £5 fee for using your OD :eek: I'm really miffed about this. I'm guessing that's how their funding their bosses £2mil bonus! *Insert several very ruid expletives*
I've had to pop the £15.07 I had in my VSP back into my bank account to make sure I don't go over my OD and I'm thinking about opening another account with a different bank to pop my monthly spending money in while I deal with all the debt I have with Lloyds (my loan is with them too) then once that's all gone I'll close my Lloyds account as I've had nothing but trouble with them and tend to think of them as a bit shifty. Any suggestions for relible slightly less shifty banks? I know they're mostly the same but I've just had enough... The other week they tried to charge be £30 for going 20p over my OD limit... Now I know I shouldn't do that but on the other hand they'd only just sent me a letter which stated that you wouldn't be charged for going over as long as it was under £10. The woman at the call centre told me that this was true but they only waver the fees if you call and complain not automatically. I wonder how many people didn't read that letter and are merrily paying expensive fees for a slight misscalculation :mad:

Anyway, I'll stop moaning about Lloyds now because despite being broke I'm a very happy bunny because it's the weekend and I get to spend the next two days drawing and painting instead of working. It's nearly TAX return time and I want to try and make a few quid before the next TAX year... I don't think I'll manage to break even because I've had to buy a lot of new paints etc and I haven't sold much at all but you never know. I won't manage anything though unless I get my bum in gear and do the work. This weekend I want to finish my Harpist painting which you can look at on my blog (Amatheya's Studio) That's not a plug I just like showing off my art work... I also want to paint a lovely little mutt that belonged to one of my work friends so hopefully by the end of the weekend I'll have that nearly complete as well.

Right, enough rambling from me. I'm off to spend my Friday night relaxing

Have a good weekend everyone :beer:

Amatheya81

Today's been a lovely relaxing day. I've done some painting, sewing, played a video game and watched some DVD's. I feel completely chilled and I'm about to go and read a book before bed.

I've managed to keep up with my diet dispite it being the weekend although I have noticed that I'm starting to get slightly obsessed with my bathroom scales... When I'm on a diet I tend to weigh myself every morning, you're not supposed to but it makes me happy and today when I got on the scales they told me that I've reached the first half stone mark of my diet As long as they say that or better next Friday I'll be a happy bunny. It's funny really, I spent years doing weight watchers and argueing it's beinfits. Never once did it occure to me that I could diet just as effectivelt by just counting calories which is free and so much easier it's unreal. I guess where WW does have the upper hand is the support system but I always used WW online anyway, the only difference is that I've had to build my own speadsheet to keep track. I can't wait to get down to my goal weight... maybe I'll even be able to tollerate the idea of wearng one of my swim suits in the summer.

I spent some time making my own snowball calculator today. I like the one on what's the cost but it doesn't allow me to factor in things like predicted overpayments etc. and keep a record of my overpayments. Speaking of which I also checked out my bank ballance and it looks like as long as my prediction of bills for the rest of this month is accurate I should have nearly £50 left in my bank. I've made arrangements to pay my mother back £10 per month with no interest for the money she lent me so that extra £50 will allow me to eat normally next week and with any luck still put £40 onto my credit card. Shockingly while I was snowballing I realised that if I don't make over payments on my credit card it will take me all year just to pay off the £367 to get me under the £4k mark!!! It really is very scary when you look at figures like that so I'm setting myself the target of getting the ballance of my highest apr cc down to less than my second cc as quickly as possible. Unless I make overpayments that will be impossible. I'm very competition orientated and tend to work better when I'm pushed, even if I'm doing the pushing so this little one person race should help me to focus.

Hope everyone's enjoying their weekend and not getting blown away by the gale outside!

loumac

Morning Amatheya,

Well done on your continued weight loss. It sounds like you're being very committed. :j I've never done weight watchers before, have always been a fan of slimming world. But can't justify spending the weekly fee so I now treat myself to the magazine every couple of months and just follow the recipes.

Sounds like you're having a lovely weekend anyway, enjoy a relaxing Sunday. Hope the artwork is coming along nicely. What are you sewing? xx

clippy_girl

hi amatheya, thought i'd pop in and say hi as we seem to have goals in common!

i am also trying to lose weight and tone up but i am going to the gym as still in contract. dont have any problem makling myself go as i love swimming but really have to force myself to go in the gym rather than a leisurely swim and sauna session! every day is a battle at work as it always someones bday or they are bringing in left over xmas chocs and 'thoughtfully' putting them in the kitchen! i cant actually ready my scales even with my contacts in as they are mechanical so have to weight in at gym! well done on your weight loss, you are off to a very good start!

how are you getting on on plently of fish? i joined match.com last week! so far i have sent one email and lots of winks and had one wink back. dont like anyone who has winked at me and most are 30 years older than me!

Amatheya81

lumac - I'm sewing a unicorn cross stitch my mother bought and then informed me I was going to sew for her *roll eyes* at least it gives me something to do while I watch all the Bones DVD's I was given for Christmas.

Clippy - I really miss my gym membership. I used to love going too. I did lots of classess and loved the running machines. I took trapeze lessons too but they were an hours drive away so there's no way I could afford them now
I've given up on Plenty of Fish again for a while as like you I was getting lots of mails from people who did nothing for me and a fair few from people who obviously hadn't even read my profile and were just looking for a "good time" :eek: The last person I did like the look of was great for the first few mails and then I started to sence his desperation so I told him I didn't want to go any further... he went a bit stalkerish after that so that was the last straw. I already have one pathetic stalker (also know as the ex) I just don't need another one.

Hope you have better luck than me

loumac

Amatheya81 wrote: »

lumac - I'm sewing a unicorn cross stitch my mother bought and then informed me I was going to sew for her *roll eyes* at least it gives me something to do while I watch all the Bones DVD's I was given for Christmas.

Ah sounds good! I bought a new cross stitch on ebay on Friday and am waiting for that to arrive. I want to have something to do in the evenings other than school work or reading through everyone's diaries. I haven't done any in years though and haven't actually finished one in an even longer time so might be an interesting little challenge for myself. At least as you have someone to do it for, you have to finish!

Amatheya81

Loumac - I have dozens of cross stitch patterns at home that need completing plus one really expensive one that I need to buy beads and charms for. Up until my mom bought this pattern though I hadn't done anything for years.
It has to be said the pattern I'm working on is rubbish! They provided the wrong size fabric and the pattern was obviously created by a back room business who didn't bother checking the chart or adjusting the colour to account for the scanning process *shakes head* the whole thing is a bit of a mess but my mother wanted it so I'll do what I can to make it look presentable. People who provide shoddy work like that make the rest of us sole traders look bad :mad: ...and breath

Is it pay day yet??? I've got 10 days to go and it feels like forever! In fact this whole month seems to be dragging on for a age. I'm really fet up of turning on the TV and hearing all the doom and gloom about the economy. After all we all know that this will be a tight year, we don't need someone reminding us every 5 minutes
I already spend a lot of my time worrying about my debts I really don't need the TV reminding me that all it would take is one little change to push me over into a possition where I just can't afford to survive.

So todays post has been a bit of a grumble. I'll try to be happier tomorrow.