9 credit cards, 2 overdrafts, 3 payday loans....oh, and I'm fat as well...

hex2

Good luck with it.

There are some good youtubes under 'spark people', I also suggest googling the couch to 5k podcasts - as a fromer fatty I can genuinely say they really do work

MrBloater

Wishing you all the best of luck in your journey which sounds very similar to mine. Be grateful you had the lightbulb moment at such a young age (that sounds way more patronising than it's meant to) but once you get these hurdles jumped over you will have a lot of time to enjoy yourself again, and get a decent pair of designer shoes again. If there's one thing I've learned over the last few weeks from the MSE experience it's that one of the most important things to do is to keep going with the diary, keep the postings coming, even if its just to say that you've had a useless day, because it keeps the momentum going, and this momentum will help you rid yourself of the fat and the debt.

Lara44

Hi Miss_Blonde

Welcome to MSE You have got off to a great start, it's fantastic!

It would be so helpful if you could both up your income and decrease your expenses. I understand how you might feel about looking for extra work, it's a real soul-destorying thing to submit job application forms. But think how good it will be to pay all your expenses, no payday loans and enough left to go in the savings pot for new shoes. It's going to be great :cool:

I see you live on your own. I wonder if sharing might boost your confidence and also lower your overheads? Don't forgot to add food to your SOA so you know how much you're aiming for each month.

Good luck

beanielou

Hello!
Welcome to MSE & well done on starting a thread.
Great start by selling your shoes and just think ta ta to 2 payday loans :j
Keep plodding and keep posting.

The_Golden_Goose

Those are mega trendy shoes or what??? Congratulations on the sale of two pairs and I can imagine the smile on your face when you pay back those payday loans and think about all the interest you will have saved by paying them off asap!!

Walking is exercising. One of new favourite past times is window shopping which clearly involves walking and costs nothing. Even better!

thevinternet

Hiya! Good luck on your journey. I used to have one of those horrid Payday loan things too, I was so glad when I cleared it a few months ago. Big relief.

As regards the shoes, well, at the end of the day, it's just stuff. And stuff, no matter how glitzy or glam it is, can't make you happy. It can be a wonderful distraction from your problems for a few minutes, as the rush of sticking them on the plastic and getting them home hits you, but in the long-run, it's just more stuff. Only you can make yourself happy, and I guess the first step is figuring out what activities (other than buying stuff!) makes you happy. For me, for instance, it's singing, running, cooking and reading. Whenever I'm doing any of these things, I feel a greater sense of peace and contentment than I ever used to get from shopping.

A lot of my debts were racked up on what I would call 'self-improvement'....i.e. "If I have better shoes, if I lose weight by being a member of a posh gym, if I do these expensive language courses etc, I will like myself more!".

But the truth is that I now never buy expensive clothes (in fact I'm still in lots of debt and hardly have a bean to rub together), but because I'm slowly working my way out of it, I respect myself a lot more. I try to take joy in simple things now, and it's made me a better person. I also judge others less on their outward appearance, clothes etc. And because I like myself more, I want a better future for myself (ie one with less debt!), which in turn keeps me off the spending merry-go-round.

Sorry to hijack your thread with such a long message! I think the point I'm trying to make is that yes, your materialism will probably diminish with time.:)

Miss_Blonde

Hi again everyone!

Thanks again for all your comments. I'm on my phone, so it's hard to reply to some of your posts, but I'll give you a summary of what I've done today.

I'll point out that it was a "NSD"........hope that's the correct lingo! I hunted out the takeway book that has a massive thread on here (bought it about a year ago after reading the thread) and I can pretty much make all of the kebab recipes with chicken and still keep my diet healthy. I was planning on making a whole batch, but because I'm trying to use up frozen chicken, I'll just have to make up the marinade each time I want it. As I said yesterday, I made up a meal plan for the week, so if it's successful I'll post what I've been eating if anyone is maybe interested?

Debt: Kind of annoying today. I put a price of £450 on the remaining pair of shoes I have, because people kept emailing me asking what I was looking for. Someone emailed me and said could they have them for £440. I said "ok". They emailed me half an hour later, "I only have £420 in my account, will this do and I'll transfer now". I said ok, just to get it done with.......they then email me "If I do not like these, I expect you to cover returns postage....".
I've just ignored them now. I can't be bothered with the hassle, which I have a gut feeling will be inevitable in this case.

I also looked up the music magpie site. I was fully expecting to get 30p for each dvd, but some are coming in at almost 50p!!!! I was even quoted £1.91 for a special edition disc!!!! I can't get the scanner thing to work, so will have to enter each number manually, which will take me about 2 hours.........on the bright side, when going through all my discs, I've just discovered what an impressive Phillip Glenister and John Simm collection I have here! Plan now is to watch "The Lakes" while entering my numbers! Quite a pleasant evening ahead.


Life in General: I applied for an ILA Scotland account. It gives you £200 to go towards a learning fund, so I'm planning to book a weekly language course in the evening to give myself something to work on and hopefully meet some new people. Only thing I'll need to budget for this is a coursebook (2nd hand off amazon) and my bus fare each week.

Living situation: As much as it is a comfort living in a nice flat myself (I can just go home and ignore everything, without any hassle), I need to get out of here. My options are moving into a not so nice cheaper flat myself, moving into a nice shared flat or moving home and travelling an hour and a half each way, whenever I have a work shift. If I'm being honest, I would love to move home and stay with my parents, it's just the guilt of knowing what a disappointment I've been, when they're always being nice and encouraging about things. I suppose there is no reason I would need to tell them about the debt, I'd just have to totally commit to tackling this aggressively and then once it's done, I'd never need to think about it again.

I only need to give 30 days notice on my flat, so I've got until next week to make a decision. I plan on finishing the magpie thing tonight, so will make sure I let you all know what I get for it all, in case you are thinking of doing the same!

thevinternet

Miss_Blonde wrote: »

Life in General: I applied for an ILA Scotland account. It gives you £200 to go towards a learning fund, so I'm planning to book a weekly language course in the evening to give myself something to work on and hopefully meet some new people. Only thing I'll need to budget for this is a coursebook (2nd hand off amazon) and my bus fare each week.

Living situation: As much as it is a comfort living in a nice flat myself (I can just go home and ignore everything, without any hassle), I need to get out of here. My options are moving into a not so nice cheaper flat myself, moving into a nice shared flat or moving home and travelling an hour and a half each way, whenever I have a work shift. If I'm being honest, I would love to move home and stay with my parents, it's just the guilt of knowing what a disappointment I've been, when they're always being nice and encouraging about things. I suppose there is no reason I would need to tell them about the debt, I'd just have to totally commit to tackling this aggressively and then once it's done, I'd never need to think about it again.

Hiya and well done on your productive day. Well done on booking the language course, you'll probably need to practice during the week as well as attending the lessons, so as well as giving yourself something to do in the evening, you will also be doing something you can stick on your cv. What language are you going to learn? Sounds exciting!

As regards your parents, could you perhaps fib and say that you are planning to start saving for a house deposit? The average age for buying a first home is now 37 apparently (!) so I guess you could say that you want to save for the property ladder and that you can't do that whilst paying rent? Or maybe you could just tell them that you're struggling to make ends meet on your part-time hours?

Lara44

Great work Miss_B, hope you got a great price for all the DVDs and the shoe buyer came round! It's a bit naughty to expect you to pay return postage if she doesn't like them.

I think you're right to move flat, every decrease in expenditure is going to take the pressure off. I am one of those people who could never live with my parents, so I always advise people to find a flatshare :rotfl: But also I think it's fun to live with people your own age and maybe it starts off a new social scene for you too.

Keep updating

Frodobaggins

Well done you on taking your first steps in takling your debt and weight loss. :T Those first steps are often the hardest, now its onwards and upwards in making things better for you.

I don't usually subscribe to peoples diary's but I will follow your progress. Seeing people making progress with weight loss and overcoming debts is truly motivating to those of us who are battling those same demons. Many of us are in the same boat and using this site helps us to support each other and gain strength to keep going.

Wishing you all the very best for your journey.

Frodo x.