Keeping up appearances.......

Honey_Bear

Thank you, Dolphin. I think he is rather cute, and he's started doing it without any kind of encouragement today, so I think we can take it he's feeling pretty relaxed in his adopted home which is what I was aiming for.

I loved hearing about your neighbour's dogs getting excited when they hear the text arriving, Happy!

joeyjimbles

Thank you. I shall give some thought to a few tiny goals. I am already Kondo-ing the house and that is going well, slowly but surely. The bits that are done stay done and I am not above going against the little leader's advice and swooping on a small area out of turn if I feel the inclination. DS1 was having a wobble about revision last night and whilst he and OH ploughed through it, I tackled the cupboard under the stairs which was intended to be done at a later date with coats - when anxious about someone else I cannot eat or sleep and have to be doing something. I shall think about constructive additional tiny things that I can build up and maintain however. Thanks.

Dolphin1

Ok, yesterday (day 10)...

1) No chocolate, sweets or biscuits
2) No cake.
3) Light off at 11.30pm, a bit late but got lost in reading and didn't realise the time.
4) No meal planning necessary as already done for the week but really need to start the meal plan for next week.
5) No spends on other people.

HappyNow

Dolphin1 wrote: »

I just want to lose what I can and hopefully improve my fitness in the process as it becomes easier to do more walking which is the only exercise that I actually enjoy.
Ooh, walking, brilliant exercise. You've doubtless noticed, but Honey is doing loads now with her new dog and she's feeling fitter, sleeping better and losing weight too. Maybe it's something you could include in your June targets? Walking I mean, not getting a dog (although they are great walking companions!).
Honey Bear, I agree, Happy's idea does help you to decide what few small things you want to focus on changing rather than trying to do too much at once. Also, as the targets are only set for a month at a time, they seem more achievable.

Honey_Bear wrote: »

The joy of Happy's idea is that rather than thinking one should give oneself a complete MOT each month, and the house another complete MOT at the same time, all I'm doing is tackling the most obvious problem areas. I'm not doing anything too drastic, but introducing a slight element of self-discipline on various tiny aspects of my life to see if small changes make big improvements and it turns out - they do!

I love the way you both make me sound like some sort of lifestyle guru! In reality, at the end of January I finally acknowledge that in addition to being broke, I was also unfit, ate crap and lived in a messy house and I needed to change that! We have all developed our little system as we've gone along and it has morphed into something that's hopefully working for all of us. Small changes for (as Dolphin said) just a month at a time and it turns out that a month is long enough to form habits. For instance I can't imagine not drinking water with every meal now, and even if I still eat too much cr*p, I am aware of it and definitely eat less. And five fruit and veg is so much easier - even if some days I don't manage five, I never eat less than three or four.

HappyNow

Honey_Bear wrote: »

Linky for new dog. (First time I've ever uploaded anything to You Tube, and I actually did it because it's easier than trying to email Bath Cats and Dogs Home to show them how he's getting on. I am working my way into the late 20th century, very, very slowly.)

Well done on conquering You Tube AND for posting a link to it! 37 views too, although 4 of them are mine! He is sooo cute and he looks very content and 'smily'. He looks a little bit spanielly (yes that's a word) but looking at google images of spitz, I can see that in him. I like him very much .

HappyNow

Update time

• Money. The biggie as ever. Payday yesterday so the overdraft is clear and I am going to try my best not to use it again this month. It's completely free so if I need to borrow that's the way to do it, but I think I can manage to stay in the black if we are all very frugal.
• Healthy eating going well. Not perfect, but good. We have fish and chips at work every payday, but yesterday I resisted and ate home made veggie chilli. I deserve an award for that, they smelled soooooo good!
• Water drunk, this is easy now
• Sleeping. Hmm. I woke up a few times for no reason last night, but I did manage to stay in bed
• House tidy. With Mr H doing his overtime I am trying to keep the housework up to date so he doesn't feel he has to do anything when he gets home apart from rest. I still haven't finished the kitchen cupboards but I will do at least one more today.
• Sit-ups. This is the one I have to force myself to do. Probably a 50% success rate, but that's better than my usual zero!

Honey_Bear

HappyNow wrote: »

I love the way you both make me sound like some sort of lifestyle guru! In reality, at the end of January I finally acknowledge that in addition to being broke, I was also unfit, ate crap and lived in a messy house and I needed to change that!

It's the gentlest kick up the backside I've ever had, this monthly thing, and it works - so guru or not I'd like to stick with it for as long as you're happy doing it.

HappyNow wrote: »

Well done on conquering You Tube AND for posting a link to it! 37 views too, although 4 of them are mine! He is sooo cute and he looks very content and 'smily'. He looks a little bit spanielly (yes that's a word) but looking at google images of spitz, I can see that in him. I like him very much .

You're the second person who's said he's quite spanielly, the vet did as well the first time she met him.

He's in disgrace this morning because he rolled in a patch of 'dog download' that someone hadn't picked up, and as said elsethread, yuk yuk yuk.

He had a great deal more than 16 minutes of 'grooming' this morning involving my VO5 shampoo, two buckets of warm water (for my benefit, not his - I'd have chucked cold stuff over him if I thought it would do the trick!), a handful of red microfibre cloths, rubber gloves and several dog towels. I wasn't about to sully my lovely new A'sorb. All of that mucky stuff and his harness is now twirling in the WM and that'll have an empty bleach and 90 degree hot wash run later. I can cope with my own dog's output, but not anyone else's. Vomitting smiley required.

And as you can probably guess, Happy Kelpie rolling on his back and a double coat meant that a little went a long, long way. Sense of humour failure.

Honey_Bear

1. See above.
   
2. *rustles freezer bags, yawns, and puts off doing anything again* Goodness I ate some carp yesterday, so much so that I actually felt a little sick. It was lovely while I was eating and I don't do that very often - just as well really.
3. Wow! There's some trash on TV, isn't there. Late night TV habit while OH is away needs to be knocked on the head. Lights out at 0030 meant I didn't wake up until 7.30.
4. The floors still need doing and I still can't be arrised.

theuphillstruggle

hello happy and friends! :hello: i've spent the past week or so reading your diary from start to finish and it has inspired me to finally get my head out the sand and do something about my own finances! :eek: i came on here a few weeks ago to get tips on budgeting etc, i didn't realise there were forums with peoples own personal journeys - very addictive!! you have achieved so much since you started, even with all those obstacles that you've came across! i am still trying to get to grips with posting/following/making my own profile but thought i should finally sign up rather than being a back seat driver, as it really is time to curb the disasters my champagne lifestyle on my lemonade wages have caused! xx

Honey_Bear

Good luck with it, Uphill!