Life is like a rainbow. You need both the sun and the rain to make its colours appear

rainbowneeks

Not been on for nearly a week! ekk! really must try and get on here more, because it keeps me motivated...
didn't do so well towards the end of last week and spent £60 on saturday (on alcohol mainly! :eek:) but it is a new week today and im determined to do better.

Goals for this week:

• Going to start NSD challenge for October...want to aim for 17 this month
• Also going to aim for 25 no alcohol days this month...the reason for this is 2 fold...1) for health reasons 2) it costs me far too much money!
• Have put on 2lbs over last couple of weeks as well so aiming to lose 2lbs this week.
• Want to do some overtime this week to for money towards xmas!

I put a tv, an ipod, a camera and dvd player on ebay yesterday (all spare that are sitting in my house doing nothing!) so hoping to get a decent amount from them to put towards overdraft after my over spending these last 2 weeks.

Feeling very focused today...lets hope it continues through the week!

rainbowneeks

Progress this week so far:

03/10/11 - 85p on a can of coke, AFD and exercise done
04/10/11 - £6 on getting a key cut, AFD
05/10/11 - £20 - ended up going out for tea with some friends
06/10/11 - NSD and AFD and exercise done

Got a refund for our entire grocery shop this week!! so at least that cancels out what I've spent so far this week plus gives me a bit extra which I will put towards xmas. Also, my auctions are doing well on ebay so fingers crossed for lots of money from them!

rainbowneeks

I am trying to talk some sense into myself this morning....I was wanting to do some overtime this weekend to try and start to get some savings for xmas. But truth be told, I'm really not in the mood. Funny thing is I've spent all last night and this morning (well the hour or so I've been awake! ha) feeling incredibly guilty and disappointed with myself and in the process have made myself feel miserable. Yes, it is important to save some money for xmas so that I don't get myself in more debt over the festive season, but is it actually worth making myself miserable over? I have 2 extra shifts booked in for next week which will mean at least £250 towards xmas, so I am making a start and an effort and I refuse to make myself miserable in the quest to being DF, otherwise I'm never going to succeed! There...I have told myself.

Not much else going on. My OH is at work this morning and then going over to a friends house this afternoon so I have a rare day to myself...some pampering is in order I think. Something I rarely seem to find the time to do (although I'm sure in reality I could!). I also want to go for a long walk this afternoon as I've only done 2 exercise sessions this week. And also hoping for a NSD today.

rainbowneeks

Overall had a good weekend really. Good MS things done this weekend:

• Just applied to switch my current account to santander as they are offering £100 for doing so. my current bank doesn't really offer me anything special that makes me want to stay with them so I thought why not!
• Also went through a cashback site for switching current account so that will be an extra £30 as well!
• Used cashback site, applied for a payday loan of £80, which I will have to pay back £100 on payday, but get £40 cashback so am £20 up
• My ebay items sold today and I made a grand total of £165
• found out my boyfriend gets 5% discount on grocery store spending. You order a giftcard type thing and then can top it up through the website at 5% less, so I can put £100 on it and only pay £95...should help a bit with the weekly shop so I ordered a card

= £315 up on money I had yesterday, + 5% discount on groceries from now on

Bad news is that most of it is already allocated. Using the ebay money towards overdraft as I've been overspending recently. £50 will need to go towards spends for the month because I'm already running out of spending money! That will leave me with £100 extra which I will probably put towards my overdraft....so effectively I am £100 better off on my debts (well I will be when I get it! ha). Every little helps

Added my debt free date to my signiture, so hopefully I will see that going down in time!

rainbowneeks

Well another week has gone past. I don't know where the week has gone. I had booked friday off for a friends birthday so took the opportunity to fit in 2 overtime shifts this week. As a result I'm so tired after working 60 hours this week and only finished this morning and I am back at work tomorrow for 5 days!!! Nightmare...but it will mean £250 for christmas so just got to look at the bigger picture
Not much else to say for this week, diet has gone out the window again, which is no big surprise when I've been working so much! Most of my sold ebay items are all posted....just 1 hasn't been paid for and it's been a week since they won the auction now so getting a bit worried but we'll see if they pay this week. Oh yeah, and the new tenant moved in to OH's flat today which means extra money coming in till January
Looking forward to chilling out with x factor tonight and then early night before another busy week ahead!

rainbowneeks

Another busy week gone by, had a busy week working and then some of our best friends got married yesterday so we were helping them all week getting last minute stuff sorted, then we've been busy all weekend with the wedding, so just got back an hour ago. Feel like I need a holiday! Seem to have been so busy recently and not stopped either with work, or social things, or doing overtime to get some extra cash. Still I have 5 weeks to go until I have a week booked of work, so just need to keep going until then.

I am disappointed because I applied to switch my current account to santander because they give you £100, but I got a letter through today to say I've been declined :eek:. Really don't understand why...I have used credit cards and have a mortgage and never missed any payments so as far as I'm aware my credit rating is good. The only thing I can think is that it's because I just got a new credit card before I applied but dont know if this is the reason or not. I have seen a similar offer for another bank, but Im too scared to apply now!

I need to get back on my diet now (seriously!!). My dress for the wedding yesterday was very tight to say the least. I have been looking and there are 9 weeks left till xmas so I want to loose the remaining 12lbs between now and then, which works out as 1.3 pounds a week, so should be doable! Must try harder to stick to this!!!!!

Not long to go till payday now so hoping to chip away at the debt with that and get the figures down

BEAT_THE_DEBT

hi i will join you on the christmas weight loss x

rainbowneeks

Not been on all week again....how does everything manage to take over my week...seem to be so busy all the time trying to get jobs done...maybe i'm still getting used to working mon-fri!

Hi beat the debt, yeah im excited about loosing some weight for xmas!! got off to a bad start this week as i've been off work most of the week poorly so i didn't even attempt to start the diet! but tomorrow is a new week and i am feeling better so hope to crack on with it this week!

Well, it was finally pay day this week! it seemed like it was taking ages to come round, and now i am finding myself already wanting to count down till the next one! Not really made any major dents in my debt this month as yet. My payments to CC's will come out next week so my debt number will go down a little. Will only be able to chuck minimum payments at CC's this month due to saving for OH's 30th in Feb. I have put £550 of my pay towards that this month so well chuffed to get that saving started. Also got paid for the overtime I did a couple of weeks ago so that has gone straight to my xmas fund and i'm nearly at my target with that :T was meant to be doing more overtime this weekend but with being poorly I decided I needed some rest instead. Will have to make up for it next weekend.

I realised I overspent a little last month and had to go out for a meal last night for someone's 30th which was £40 i hadn't budgeted so I need to work on making some extra money this month so that I can get back to even. I have listed 6 things on ebay this evening so fingers crossed for making some money form them. They wont even come close to covering the total amount though so need to think of some more things to ebay or some other money making ideas!

Went to a*di for the first time today to have a nosey and i was really impressed! Managed to get 75% of the things on my list from there and the prices seemed good so will definitely try and go to aldi every week before going to a*da and see how much this saves me.

Goals for this week:
1) Start diet and aim to lose 2lbs this week
2) Need to sort out my tax code because I'm on the wrong one and think I am due a rebate (*fingers crossed*)
3) 5 NSDs

rainbowneeks

well, slap my wrist...i have not been on here for nearly a whole month! I don't know where this month has gone, but I guess we are in the run up to christmas now so its busy busy busy.

I have been feeling pretty down about my money saving this week...thats probably whats made me come back on the forum. It always seems to pick up my motivation again and make me feel like I can do it! The reason I've been feeling down is because I am a bit behind with my saving for las vegas. we have had problems with one of OH's tenants and they have moved out suddenly which means my finances are now down £200 a month so this is not going to help! I'm really worried I wont save enough now to get us to las vegas in march. I am off work this week and have been so stressed out, I could really do with having the week to just relax, but if I want to get us to las vegas I am going to have to do some overtime this week. Plus I need to fit in seeing friends so it's going to be another busy one and no rest for me!! just counting down to xmas for a well earned rest!!! also had a stomach bug the last 24 hours which hasn't helped my mood! hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow I guess.

To make myself feel better, I was looking at what I have acheived in the last 3 months since I started on my money saving journey...

• I have updated my signature as I've just been paid. I paid off my halifax credit card this month YIPPEE!!! and in total I have paid off just under £1600 in the last 3 months :j
• I have also but £1797.86 back into my savings for bills that I know are coming in dec/jan and xmas :j
• I have started saving for OH's birthday trip to las vegas and have £300 for that
• This makes a total of £3700 in the last 3 months :j:j:beer::j:j

So there is definitely lots to celebrate!! I didn't actually realise how much I'd acheived so I'm glad I had a look back and toted everything up! If I can just work hard between now and xmas then I can get back on track with vegas saving too Only 4 weeks to go till I have a week off for christmas and I certainly will be resting and doing absolutely no work then!!

Choc-addict

Hi there!

Loved reading your diary, very motivating! Well done all the hard work and progress, big pat on the back for you

I hope you manage to de-stress a little, seems you are very hard on yourself. Focus more on the positives rather than the negatives, just keep re-reading your last post. Good luck!!!!!

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