The road to freedom

lizbristol

Happy Monday everyone! I'm personally very glad that it is a new week, because last week was all a bit rubbish really for one reason or another, so it's a fresh start today.

The plan to have all no-spend-days until the end of the week was thwarted by both my car's inability to run on no petrol and my own inability to run on no wine. I didn't spend too much so it could have been worse - but DAMN my weakness in the face of a Friday night bottle of plonk.

The good news is that somehow I managed to drag myself on three early morning runs (yes, THREE) last week, which means I've completed Week 1 of my 9-week couch-to-5K plan. Joyously, I now get to work even harder on Week 2's runs, isn't that fabulous? *weeps quietly*

Anyway, that's it for today - just a brief update. I need to go to bed in order to get up at stupid o'clock and go running AGAIN and then get into work early... ugh. I REALLY am not a morning person...

L

lizbristol

Oh what an eventful week! Payday FINALLY came around after what has felt like an absolute age, and much of that nice fat paycheck was quickly snaffled up by paying for my car to get serviced and *drumroll...* paying off the first chunk of my overdraft! Hoorays! Felt very good to be able to make a dent in it, despite not being able to also pay the CC off in one go because of the car service. Grumble grumble.

However, I shouldn't really be worrying about that as I received some rather more important news from my boss just as I was walking out the office today - I'm apparently out of a job on the 2nd December. Just in time for Christmas! Lucky me!

This should make the DFW process a bit trickier, and actually if I don't get another job before too long it's also going to make the 'being able to afford to live' process somewhat trickier too. Sigh.

So as you can imagine I'm not in the best of spirits at the moment. Hope all your weeks are going rather better than mine...

L

wannapayoff

Hope you find another job ASAP good luck

lizbristol

Hi all, I thought it was about time I dropped in for a quick update. Been plodding along with the scrimping and the saving, and starting to get used to it now. They say it takes 21 days to make or break a habit - I guess I've finally got into the habit of being a DFW! In fact, I've turned into a bit of a miser now, and refuse to part with my cash if I can help it

Still no closer to knowing whether I'll have a job in December - there is now a small chance that I will be kept on, but nothing's certain yet. The powers that be at work will be letting me know by the end of next week so at the moment everything is crossed, as I REALLY can't be arsed with the hassle of looking for another job this close to Christmas. And on a slightly less flippant note, I'm just starting to get into the swing of things money-wise and have been really looking forward to paying off another big chunk of my overdraft, which I won't really be able to do if I'm out of work.

Anyway, putting my Good News hat on, I have unbelievably actually stuck to the running plan and am now about to start Week 5 of the 9-week plan to get me running 5k. I have resigned myself to the fact that I'm never going to enjoy going for a run as much as I enjoy going to the pub, however I am just trying to bask in the warm glow of smugness that comes with getting up early to go for a run three times a week. AND I've packed in the fags (no point making running harder than it is already by filling my lungs with crap) so am feeling extra-smug at the moment.

Also, I've lost a bit of weight. And finally, I had a no-spend-day today. *signs off before enormous sense of self-satisfaction escapes and runs wild and eats the internet*

Lemon_Tree

hello just thought i'd pop in and say hi as i've just found your diary.
sorry to hear you may be out of a job, especially as it's so early in your debt free travels but at least you've cleared a little bit before this came at you. but well done for being off the fags.
as to your overdraft, have you looked at how you run your account? by this i mean....
i had an overdraft of almost 2k when i first started out and it never went into the black even on payday, at one stage i was paying £12 a month for interest which was money i could use to pay off something else. eventually i had an epiphany that if i moved all the payments back towards the end of the month wherever possible it would reduce the time i spent at my max. overdraft level and save me interest. In my case this was pretty 'simple' as my biggest payment was to another account of mine that i paid the bills from, so i split up the transfer and staged it over 3 or 4 dates. In the end i save £5 a month in interest, which doesn't sound like much but it's £60 a year and was better in my pocket than in theirs.

i look forward to travelling along this road with you though i won't be running, more like a waddle

lvm

Hey Liz from Bristol!

Your diary has certainly kept me entertained for the last 20 mins so thought I'd just say "Hi"!

Sorry to hear of the uncertainty of your job - hope you manage to keep it!

Well done on the fitness and weight loss too - I'm getting back into losing weight (AGAIN) too. What's the plan you're talking about as it sounds really interesting?

Good luck on the DFW front - might be worth drawing up a monthly budget and a 12 month forecast. That's what's kept me dead focussed on my own DFW and savings goals.

lizbristol

Lemon Tree, you're a genius! I'd not thought of doing that, but yes it makes perfect sense and will save me a packet. Given that next payday could be my last in this job :eek: I'll wait til I know what's happening then move all my payments. Do you know if companies are generally ok with moving payment dates? Like, would my mobile phone company or my car finance company agree to move my payment date?

Lvm - thanks for the words of encouragement The running plan is this one: http://www.nhs.uk/Tools/Pages/couch-5K-running-plan.aspx - it's good if, like me, you can't run up the stairs without collapsing like an asthmatic donkey.

lizbristol

HOUSTON, WE HAVE A JOB!!! To my enormous relief (and my bank account's relief, actually) I have been told that despite the initial warning of imminent joblessness, my contract has been extended until March. *collapses in heap of pathetic gratitude*

Even if I don't get renewed after that, March is a MUCH better time to be looking for work in my industry so I can cross that bridge when I come to it.

On another note, I had another DFW fangirl moment last night, and as it made me chuckle I thought I'd share it. I was watching Don't Tell the Bride (go ahead, judge me) and the groom hadn't budgeted for anything and had massively overspent. I mean, he hadn't drawn up even a basic budget, and just started flashing the cash (all 12 grand of it) before finally totting it up and finding himself twenty quid over and with loads of stuff still to get. Anyway, I normally wouldn't have batted an eyelid at it, but last night I subconsciously ACTUALLY TUTTED AT THE TV and shook my head in disbelief. Quite apart from the fact that this suggests I'm turning into one of those batty old women that talks to the TV for company, I think it also means that I'm finally starting to think about money differently. I mean, I wouldn't even think about spending anything now without budgeting for it - and that change in attitude has kind of crept up on me without me really realising it.

So anyway, that was my Lightbulb Moment of the Week - how about you lot? Anyone else had an epiphany about money recently?

Fudgefund

Hi Liz

Really enjoyed reading your diary - good news about the job! Being made redundant in December would have been horrendous.

Thanks for the link to couch potato to 5K plan, I usually fall off the wagon after about 4 weeks.

Good luck with the debt-ridding.

patman99

I downloaded the 5k thing late last year, just got to give myself the motivation to do it.
Good news about the job. I'm 7 months in to a temp to perm role that has been extended until the end of the year. I guess that I could be out of a job myself, but hey-ho, such is life.