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

gallygirl

Igamogam wrote: »

That jacket worth anything on Eb8y? :rotfl:

Maybe double it up with the Adam Ant visor .

patman99

MrB. I have been asked to help a friend with a load of stuff to sell on ebay and have come across a free program called 'Auctonic'. I have had a good look at it and it handles all the listing stuff.

Might be worth a go as it is free.

MrBloater

Back here with the mug of tea, but not yet the exercise to report. The horse is proving more difficult to get back on than I anticipated. But at least I'm back here so that's part of the routine re-established. Done the budget for the next month and everything is just about stacking up. Could do with a couple of hundred in the next few weeks so I'll have to look into this Auctonic program. If I can co-ordinate listings to finish over the halfterm week then I can't moan about the hassle of postage. Am yet to go through the receipts for January to see how much unnecessary grocery shopping was done. It kind of fell apart at the end of the month but I will say for about 18 days we were totally on top of things. February is going to be a wine and whine-free month. Going to curl up on the sofa under a duvet and watch some football - but have a good feeling that I will wake up bright n breezy in the morning ready for a run.

MrBloater

6.6km run done and day 1 of the Ab and Squat challenge completed. Managed to get through to day 13 last time so have a do-able target to beat. Certainly won't beat December's 102.3km run total unless I manage to sneak in a cheeky 14km tomorrow.

Hmm. That has got me thinking. If I could do 7km at stupid o'clock in the morning and then do the same after coming home from work. Maybe. Just maybe.

Anyways, back on planet earth things are trundling along nicely. I think I'm holding my own at the end of my first month at a higher rung - having got through the dreaded inspection those monkeys should be off our back for another 4 years or so.

Just got to find a way of upping things a bit more. Sky is still with us, and the feller who said it was £2 a day has actually done Murdoch a favour as I can't begrudge my wife and kids their favourite channels for such a paltry amount. Ringing them up is still on my to-do list to see if I can wrangle a discount out of them.

We were pretty smart with vouchers at the start of January and were getting plenty of £5 off £20 Co-op vouchers and using them accordingly. Just used a £15 off £60 Tesco delivery voucher, have a similar one for Sainsburys, a £20 off £60 Ocado and a £5 off £50 from Co-Op - hopefully this little lot will keep us going for the month of groceries.

Other financial stuff looming is taking a punt to see if anyone'll offer us a 0% CC balance transfer deal although I wouldn't hold out much hope, and by doing that I might jeopardise any chance of getting a fixed rate mortgage - we've been bumbling along on the SVR for a long time now and I've managed not to blink but I know it isn't going to last forever. With the recent hike in prices round here our LTV is looking healthier so I think bite-the-bullet time is coming soon. Gulp.

patman99

£2 a day = £730 a year. You could take the family Bloater on a short break for that.

MrBloater

£730 a year - a short break or 358 days where the kids aren't asking for the same channels that they had on holiday. Sky stays - but will see what wriggle room there is.

It's been a very odd few days here, the 14k run never happened, slipped on a wet chippy doorstep on Friday evening and twisted the knee a bit so have played it safe.

Woke up Saturday morning in a state of panic. Had had the nagging doubt for a couple of weeks that our plans of saving for the big summer journey were shot to pieces and doomed to fail. Checked and doublechecked the figures and had to face the facts. It was not going to happen. Went and applied for a loan without consulting Mrs B - thought I could just get another £7.5k and then worry about paying it off later - at least we would have the summer covered. Unsurprisingly I was declined. Sent me down into a spiral again of how should not have lost the old job - how I had got us into this mess and how was I going to get us out of it etc etc - the planned positive start to February was anything but. Eventually come clean to Mrs B after she has noticed my hangdog demeanour but she cannot understand why I am so gloomy. I show her the warts and all spreadsheet and the projections and how I simply can't give any more. She then does some calculating and shows me the amount of money she has left this month. I cannot fathom out how it is so high. She then points out I have the figure for her income on the spreadsheet somewhat wrong. Wrong by about £450 a month. I was shaking, out of stress, relief, stupidity or a combination of all three. Turns out I had copied over an old income of hers when I combined all the spreadsheets together. Once I got myself together I bought some Gin and the weekend improved immeasurably (not all entirely due to the Gin).

Today we amended our booking for the hire car and saved ourselves another 30quid (or 15 days of Sky).

Things are sunny side up but I need more to be vigilant. Think I need the discpline of early morning running again in my life. I did not get myself into trouble or pollute my brain with worry when I was up before the lark. Yes I was shattered and falling asleep at work, but I was not stressed.

One day I will find the balance.

beanielou

Finding a balance is the most difficult thing for any of us to do in some many areas of our life.

gallygirl

MrBloater wrote: »

It's been a very odd few days here, the 14k run never happened, slipped on a wet chippy doorstep on Friday evening and twisted the knee a bit so have played it safe.

beanielou wrote: »

Finding a balance is the most difficult thing for any of us to do in some many areas of our life.

Especially on chippy doorsteps it appears . Tut tut Mr B, that will teach you to go to 'devil shops' .

Hope it's on the mend.

Oh dear to spreadsheet error. And even bigger oh dear to you applying for a loan (did you tell Mrs B about that as well?:(). Just shows you could easily slip back into bad habits so be careful

patman99

Tut tut MrB. whatever made you look at a loan ?. Get down and give me 20 (press-ups that is).

MrBloater

Up at stupid time of morning - tick. Mug of tea - tick. Bills covered for February - tick.

And, er.... (peeks out of window) the fence is still up.

Aside from that, nothing much to report that would please the purists. Exercise mojo appears to have run off with the Ebay one. Actually that's a load of tosh, the Ebay mojo was always more of an uh-oh. Wine has been flowing. Recieved a FPN for going 40 in a 30 zone which I'm hoping due to my quick response will allow me to go on a Speed Awareness course rather than take the hit of the 3 points and the resultant horrors that will have on my premiums next year.

A big sortout of Bloater Towers is planned for today - we're already fairly minimal but there is a lot of misplaced stuff that has lived in drawer x in room y because it always has, not because it should. Hoping that by rationalizing everything we can claw back a bit more space in the hallway and make room for a desk so that little Bloaters and Mrs B have somewhere to do their homework. Might find some stuff we can 'sell'. Regular readers will know that when I say 'sell' I mean throw in the shed and get around to selling at some indeterminate point in the future.

Just too soggy and miserable to contemplate running. Whilst we are hardly on the Somerset scale I am very mistrustful of puddles of any size. If I fall over I'll end up creating a sinkhole.

Hope to be back soon with more inspiring tales of self-sacrifice and financial diligence.