Breaking an old habbit!

Cup_Cake

Happy new year and best of luck with the debt busting!

I'll be following you diary for advice, you're doing fab so far,

Cup_Cake xx

weeclick

Thanks all and happy new year to you all too.

This morning hasn't got off to a great start lol. Lost my phone (in the house) so wasn't able to hear my alarm this morning and slept the whole morning away! We were meant to be going to my grandparents house for dinner but due to everyone being ill its been cancelled - so now planning a make do dinner - I think there's enough food in the cupboards to last us the next 3 weeks - and if I can go 3 weeks without food shopping then great (apart from essentials like milk and bread).

Planning another declutter this afternoon with the aim to put a few things on gumtree this time. Been looking online for new homes to rent and have 3 that I would like to view next week when the estate agents are back open, fingers crossed my credit score won't effect a new landlords decision. Given myself the goal of having the house decluttered within the next 4-5 weeks so that if the right house does become available to us we are all ready to go!

Got more paperwork to get sorted tomorrow for HMRC, can't seem to get much help from anywhere so starting with a letter to help finalising the business closure.

Also had planned my weight loss programme to officially start today - I have exactly 7 months from today to drop 3 dress sizes. So far have threw out all fizzy drinks (my main weakness) and not snacked on biscuits - which is usually what I do when I wake up! Planning a walk to the shops later to buy a gas top up instead of taking the car.

Its only been 2011 for 14 hours and already I feel so much better!

weeclick

Hit a slight brick wall this afternoon. Went to top up the gas, electric and £10 of petrol for the car - I've now left myself with £8.30 between me and HM until next Monday! Not sure I will be able to especially when HM starts a new job this week and will need more diesel in the car to get there and back so might have to dip into savings Going to have as many NSD as possible though and hopefully will be able to pull it off!

Make matters slightly worse came back from shops hoping to jump into a nice hot shower but our gas isnt working and so now waiting for an engineer to come out and fix it - this is the 3rd time its broke in 3 weeks - Im kind of hoping though that the problem means our money has been going faster than it should and maybe get some money back. We are always really careful with our heating and only stick it on for an hour in the evening and then just quick showers in the morning, no way should we be spending £50 in 3 weeks!

woohoo Just had a phone call from gas man, calling out now thank you lord!!

weeclick

Hello all! Hope you all had a great first day of 2011.

Well my day has ended I guess exactly as I wanted. Wasn't the best of starts but I've learnt to turn things to my advantage.

Firstly my gas was a major issue - this was the 3rd time my gas meter had broke in 3 weeks. I had to phone the company and wait for an engineer to call out - the last time this took 6 hours, sitting in a house that cold for that cold was uncomfortable to say the least so wasn't looking forward to this again! Thankfully though someone must of been looking out for me as the engineer called within 13 minutes and was here within 20mins! Thats the good news - the bad news is that we needed a whole new meter box - so thankfully he was able to fix it striaght away and I now have a shiny new box, and a new card! I have to wait for a week to get my £10 credit to be sent in the post from my old card but in the meantime we have £6 emergency credit so need to be really careful we don't spend it all!

Then suddenly my phone rings and family dinner was back on as everyone was feeling better so spent the rest of my evening there. The diesel in the car only lasted 7.9 miles (£6 used to last forever at one point!) so decided not to use tescos anymore as Im convinced their diesel seems to take less and less miles to burn! Had to face facts and dip into the business account money to allow us to get £20 of diesel - we need the car, its an essential! Have now had to face the hard truth that I will have to call on my credit union savings for a loan to pay off the remaining stock needed to close the business - thats my goal for this week is to work out exactly how much money is needed and to obtain it someway or another!

Apart from that on a plus point I managed to cash in £40 from an old online gambling account - have to wait 10 days for it to transfer but at least its money coming from somewhere!

Tomorrow is very much a cleaning day and more decluttering! Determined to get this house sorted soon so I can start working on myself, dealing with alot of personal issues too at the minute, not easy to function when you want someone who doesnt want you back!

chevalier

Sounds like you are having an 'interesting time' of things, in the chinese curse type of way. Hope things get less complicated for you soon
chev

weeclick

Thanks Chev - things definately have been difficult lately but slowly making things turn my way again.

I've sorted out a meal plan for the next 3 or 4 days to stop me from impulse buying at tescos - its quite nice to be organised and will help with my weight loss too. Attempting to make my own bread this afternoon so this will be interesting!

weeclick

Well that's another day over

Was almost a NSD until I went to put dinner on and realised there was no rice in the house, so HM went to local shop - took money from savings though - can't afford to hit the bank account anymore!

Another day of cleaning the house out - got the christmas tree down, lots of washing done and even found time to make bread! Worked out making my own bread costs 21p a loaf compared to almost 80p in tesco! Have decided to start making bread regularly and put the extra 60p I have saved into my sealed pot so hopefully that will add up nicely to the savings!

Today was also the first day of working from planned meals and worked really really well (apart from forgetting to buy rice yesterday!) I actually found that I had plenty of time to cook and enjoy it as well as eating earlier therefore good on the hips! My weight goal is to lose 3 dress sizes by the end of June as I go on holiday on 1st July. Have so far managed to cut portion sizes down by 1/3 - cut out fizzy drinks and alcohol completely - chocolate only once a week and no eating after 7pm. So far kept to everything on this list 100%!

Tomorrow I'm starting my new swimming routine and for now plan on walking to and from the pool until HM returns to work on Wednesday and can therefore get a lift to the pool early in the morning. This also then means saving on diesel which is great! Have both agreed to only use the car for long journeys or big food shops.

Lots of stuff planned for this week apart from swimming. I have a cheque (which I stupidly lost over christmas) to put into the business bank tomorrow so I can start meeting late orders and the plan is to have the business shut and finalised by the time I go on holiday in July. Also have a small list of houses to view - figured time to start viewing now as we need to give 4 weeks notice on here and hoping by the time we move both me and HM will be in full time work and able to afford our rent! The house we both like will save us £5 a month - which doesn't seem like alot but considering we would also be gaining a much needed garage and frees up £60 to put into savings over the year with no extra effort sounds ideal! Fingers crossed the house lives up to the advert and we are able to move!

Need to chase up new employers as they have still yet to send me my contract so thats top priority tomorrow providing I can get through to their call centre!

Did a lottery ticket for the new year and was one number off £10 - its only the 2nd time where I have played lottery and not won anything - Im usually quite lucky in that sense!

Have also started savings receipts from all purchases and putting writing down totals in a diary so that I can hopefully find a spending pattern by the end of the month and see if there's room for improvement anywhere!

Only thing I'm not looking forward to is the first early morning of the year gah!!

weeclick

well there's another day gone already! Didn't do half of the stuff I promised to yesterday but with good reason!! Ended up staying awake until 3.30am decluttering the rubbish in the kitchen/dining room then went to bed and caught up on some programmes until 5.10am! That in itself was fine, I don't always need long amounts of sleep anyway - so set an alarm for 10am giving a decent 5 hours. Problem being, 4th day in a row my alarm didn't go off! Don't know if anyone else is experiencing the same problem with their iphone alarm not going off? I read online that theres a bug with the alarm at the moment but should be fixed today - not taking another risk though so going to try and find a normal alarm clock for tomorrow (Have used my phone alarm for years so havent a clue where to even start looking for a proper clock in thi house!)

Anyway ended up waking at 2pm - absolutely disguisted with myself - but obviously needed the sleep after 3 full days of decluttering house, looking after ill HM and the general run around of christmas! Had to skip the swimming pool as it was far too late but definately want to go tomorrow and have a few messages to do in town anyway so perfect excuse! Really need to get back to finishing clients orders but the joy has gone for me well jut have to wise up and get it done anyway!

Today has been a NSD sooooooo pleased, first one of 2011! (sleeping in does have its advantages after all!) Also changed kitchen cupboards around so dry and tinned food are in a smaller cupboard. Hope this stops me spending so much money every week on pointless shopping as I have only half the space to work with now! Should also help with meal plans and eventually weight loss!

There hasn't been much added to the list of things to sell as Im still waiting for my ebay account to be verified so the item restriction can be lifted! Decided lastnight though to sell my wii console and wii fit - only ever used it max 5 times, cant believe peoples perceived value of it though!

Joined about 3 or 4 survey sites today and hope to try and do as much surveys as sent to me - some sites are telling me theres no surveys for me so its just a waiting game, others I have already earnt a few pound. Anyone know the best site to go to? I may as well do as many as possible this month as I don't start my new job until the end of January. Speaking of which I did manage to contact my new employer and they have told me my contract will be sent out on Thursday or Friday will feel much better when its here, otherwise I don't feel like the job is actually mine - probably sounds silly but Ive learnt from the past that you should never count on anything unless you know for certain its yours!

Personal life is a bit hit and miss at the minute - feel a bit weird now being single, and having killed my social life since starting my business 2 years ago I feel a bit stuck. The heart plays funny tricks sometimes and keep thinking about someone I shouldnt so hoping more time at the swimming pool and gym will give me something else to focus on instead - Id feel much more confident being a better size anyway!

Off to make tonights dinner - my grans recipe of risotto made from lastnights left over rice! Theres a nice money saving already

Snowdonlily

You sound really organised. Good luck with the decluttering :T

I joined the Toluna site just before Christmas, but haven't accumulated enough points for a voucher yet, at the moment it says there's no surveys for me!

weeclick

Thanks Snowdonlily!

I joined Toluna lastnight but nothing for me yet either - have filled in a few polls this afternoon but 30 points wont get me far lol.

Just a keep update - put my wii console on gumtree free ad and had it sold within 5 mins of the advert going live! Had asked for £120 but settled on £100 if they collected tonight so they called within 10 mins!! So impressed to have sold it so quickly and for a decent price considering they go for less on ebay which was where I was originally going to put it!

Still owe landlord near £480 so have made the decision to take it out of our holiday fund (had £500 sitting there) and to use this money from the wii and remaining christmas money to refill the holiday fund - would hate to think money from presents etc going to landlord - I know it will all get spent the same way but its a mental thing! Have recalculated savings based on money in the house and theres now £228.00 so not too bad anyway! Will be pleased to pay off landlord instead of having another debt added to the list!