301k in debt and morbidly obese - things aren't great!

cocalls

good luck mr bloater-did you manage to loose any more weight?

Igamogam

MrBloater wrote: »

Collecting the mother-in-law from the airport this morning. If only those tanker drivers had gone on strike...

Fix that smile Mr B

MrBloater

OK, it's time to get back on the saddle. Mother-in-law's visit is going better than expected (ie, no trips to A&E, solicitors or local police station - yet) but in this rare moment where I have the house to myself I have to call upon my old trusty diary to remind myself that whilst not 301k in debt anymore, I am still morbidly obese and more pressingly, the money runs out this month. And runs out before all the bills are paid. And we've never been in that state before. Mrs B has long since deserted the forum and I can't imagine she'll think I'll be back on posting here. She doesn't know - she thinks things are ticking along nicely and I haven't the heart to tell her especially while her mother is here. Thankfully the bills that are going to not get paid are not lifechangers - Sky, Vodafone and the nursery - but will obviously have a consequence and by paying them late I'm going to have a detrimental effect on next month.
But here's what I am not going to do.
- I am not going to panic
- I am not going to get a payday loan
- I am not going to bury my head in the sand
- I am not going to let it ruin my family's Easter holiday
Here's what I am going to do.
- I will warn all those whose payments will be late about this fact so as to hopefully minimise any default notes that the big boys might put on my already fairly shabby credit file
- I will get back into reading these forums for ideas I haven't already thought of
- I will be listing some more things on ebay this evening - anything extra is better than nothing
- I will be looking at how to cut the outgoings next month
- I will see if I can get some momentum behind my Kindle books to up the sales of them and release a couple of 'new' ones

On the fitness side, which was always as big an issue as the debt, I've come to the conclusion that running isn't the most efficient use of my limited spare time, and so am going to use other exercises in the home (yoga, weights, push ups, press ups) to see if that can tone me up, and I have also stopped eating bread (and indeed anything containing wheat). As sandwiches are one of the major joys in my life it's not been an easy couple of days (but then it never was going to be with the mother-in-law around) but it will also lend support to Mrs B - who was recently diagnosed as a coeliac - so now I shall be just as fussy an eater as she has to be.

Lara44

Hi Mr B

I was in a similar position and found out that we had overpaid our gas and electric by £260 which saved us from the overdraft this month. Any chance you have overpaid cash on energy bills which you could get refunded back into your bank account?

Get on ebay and sell everything not nailed down! Can you do a car boot next weekend with shed rummagings? Every little helps.

After the MIL leaves can you really cut down on food expenditure?

Any vouchers etc. down the back of the sofa you could use to reduce this months expenditure - for example club card for shopping?

If your credit file is worth preserving - any hope of increasing your overdraft with the bank, or putting the debt on a cc for this month only rather than defaulting?

Firewalker

I am sorry to hear that there seems to be trouble again - you seemed to be doing well. I am going to ask you the obvious questions:

1) Have you looked at your budgetting lately and have you made sure that it is as tight as Julia Roberts' red evening dress in Pretty Woman?
2) People make the mistake of looking at their expenditure as numbers; don't! Think about your life and when you have to choose what to spend on don't compare life with numbers but life with life. In other words would the money spend on wine be better spend on something else?
3) If your budget is as tight as it could be and you are still going down instead of getting out of debt you have to look at the big stuff - what proportion of you income goes on mortgage (should't be over 40% as absolute maximum); what proportion on debt repayment (enthusiasm is good but it can lead to overpaying debt, and steps back - this is demoralising). Stabilise your expenditure so that it doesn't exceed your income!
4) Only after that look at your income - but look carefully. How can you sustainably increase this? Selling stuff on e-bay helps temporarily but is unpredictable and unsustainable.
5) Be careful with pinning your hopes on the Kindle books - you are a decent writer but there are many more like you out there; there are many more who are much better than you and in more senses than one. The competition is severe which means that you shouldn't expect to make any money that will make difference to you any time soon from Kindle books. Except if you write really kinky/niche pornography and have a very good links and agent (I am not joking, have researched the matter).
6) Think about using your competence as a writer to make money in other ways. How good are you in copy writing? Growing market and there are staff writer jobs going (there are websites to explore for jobs). If you can't write copy learn; and spacialise in a niche, something that really interests you.
7) Remember that solid, sustainable income streams are build organically - they take time to develop but after that only grow stronger. This means that you should take a longer term look and give it all you have; even if you have to make sacrifices now.

BTW, you have to tell your wife - this is a load too heavy to carry on your own and she can contribute.

You are right about the running; it is not only time; you are too heavy and not sufficiently strong to run. Simple circuit of press ups, squats and pull ups done regularly and often for six weeks will change that. Start with 20 reps of each three times, every other day. Also use every opportunity to walk - research shows that walking is better than running for weight loss.

Not sure how this comes across but I am just trying to be helpful. One thing that I have noticed on the MSE boards is that people come here believing that they are pioniers full of go and enthusiasm; but we all start from a very similar point - we have had a debt crisis. The rules of dealing with it are similar as well - they vary only in the detail (I make money in ways different from yours but we both have to do that).

Good luck
Firewalker

custardy

MrBloater wrote: »

On the fitness side, which was always as big an issue as the debt, I've come to the conclusion that running isn't the most efficient use of my limited spare time, and so am going to use other exercises in the home (yoga, weights, push ups, press ups) to see if that can tone me up, and I have also stopped eating bread (and indeed anything containing wheat). As sandwiches are one of the major joys in my life it's not been an easy couple of days (but then it never was going to be with the mother-in-law around) but it will also lend support to Mrs B - who was recently diagnosed as a coeliac - so now I shall be just as fussy an eater as she has to be.

obviously not at this point Mr B
however kettlebells make a great fast workout
you could do a routine in 10 minutes than can leave you puking in the corner
something to keep in mind once the funds are a bit more stable.
however at this point bodyweight exercises are good.
also remember dips,burpees(horrible but good),plank,squats etc
I have my KBs,a medicine ball(2nd hand from Gumtree) and swiss ball at home for such workouts
the swiss ball is good for adding balance into moves and working on the core

MrBloater

@Lara: Car Boot Sale a supremely excellent idea especially considering its a long long weekend and the shed has been fully sorted. Absolute star, cheers for that.

@custardy: What are burpees? Heard of them before but not sure what they are.

Polly_Wolly_Doodle

Bloater, someone suggested to me that you can call Sky etc and ask to change your DD date. If you change the date to after payday that may help FOR THIS MONTH.

custardy

Polly_Wolly_Doodle wrote: »

Bloater, someone suggested to me that you can call Sky etc and ask to change your DD date. If you change the date to after payday that may help FOR THIS MONTH.

IIRC you can do that online in My Sky

custardy

MrBloater wrote: »

@Lara: Car Boot Sale a supremely excellent idea especially considering its a long long weekend and the shed has been fully sorted. Absolute star, cheers for that.

@custardy: What are burpees? Heard of them before but not sure what they are.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_Dq_NCzj8M

really hard work
especially for those of a fuller figure
if you struggle,break it down
so do the drop,or sprawl as I would call it. then do the jumps or star jumps
then bring them together as you progress