I have a dream...to be a MFW

ajmoney

I finally submitted my first invoice at cadets last night, I now know they pay me by cheque so I took that to the bank this morning it was good timing as I had to pay for my next PT block today, it was nice to pay from my account and not put it on the credit card. I think the sessions should last I go home for Christmas depending on how many I have a week but I have one more invoice to sublit before Christmas which should just about cover that. I still have about £115 from this pay cheque which I am going to keep to one side for as long as I can but I don't intend to save it, I would rather get to the end of December comfortably and reassess what I will do with the extra money in the new year. I will probably just use it to pay for the PT sessions and get back to saving more from my wages again.

I have a question from those of you who do the self assessment tax return thingy. This is the first time I have ever received pay in this way and don't know how you go about declaring it, can anyone give me any advice on what I need to do when the time comes and what documents I need to keep please?

I am a little bit sore at the moment I aggravated my hip on Sunday while working, the first time it has truly caused me issues in about 8-9 years. It is very annoying as I have managed a really good stretch with no injuries at all, especially with all the new exercise I have been doing and my body is a lot stronger for it. I have a physio appointment for next week to see the impact it has had on my body and to see if there is anything else I can do. Luckily running helps ease my symptoms but I have a feeling I may have to stop doing some of the exercises with the PT for a while until this recent flare up has died down...I have no idea how long that will take. I was unsure whether to go to the docs yesterday but I don't particularly like the idea of my job causing my pain (on occasions), hopefully we can sort something out.

ajmoney

I knew this day would eventually come but I now have a dilemma on my hands. My personal trainer is leaving my gym and moving to another that is a bit further away in the new year. The MSE in me can see the money I can save by just using my gym subscription again, however this relies on me being able to plan my own workouts and progressing when I should, incorporating new things etc, I have learned that prior to training with Rob I never ever pushed myself. I could use a different personal trainer at my gym but the title of "personal" trainer if right, I would have to get used to someone new and I'm not sure I would have the trust in them to do some of the things I have done recently, not anytime soon anyway. The PT sessions where he is moving to are a lot cheaper so he is going in today to ask if I could go along just for those until my current membership is up in my gym. TBH if I did that I wouldn't join the new gym but start using the free one at work as I would just be using the CV facilities which are ok and the pool too which I am not a fan of but would save money. The gym is in the opposite direction and a longer commute but I really love my sessions and would miss our chats too so I have a lot to decide. If I hadn't just begun to see amazing differences in my body and my fitness levels it would be a lot easier, I broke my parkrun pb by 1 min 30 seconds on Saturday and the PT sessions are definitely helping with that. I also now know how much the PTs are being paid of our money and it is quite disgusting so I am loathed to pay anymore at my current gym. Whatever happens I won't need to buy any more PT sessions before Christmas or probably at my current gym. I should know a little better what is happening with my career in a couple of weeks and therefore where I will be based with work from next year so that may help make my decision for me.

Money wise everything seems to be going well. I have next Thursday off work with no sessions booked at the gym either so I am planning to do/finish all my Christmas shopping by then. It will be a challenge but I know what I amgetting most people. I am at home this weekend so am going to do the online ordering for the gifts we need up there and then hopefully Mr AJM will wrap them for me so I can concentrate on the ones down here. I have already earned another £100 from the cadets, I am saving the invoice until my last session of the term though so I am up to date with payments (especially as I won't need them immediately for gym sessions).

I am hoping to use some time catching up with other peoples diaries again soon, I have been reading but haven't had any time to post.

Watty1

There is a personal trainer on the web I love who does Gym Workouts. I'm wondering if that might work for you? Have a look at "hasfit". American but I do love his routines and when I was using his site I did improve. Need to get back to exercise. Anyway is free which is an MSE plus

ajmoney

My plan for today was to start and finish my Christmas shopping :eek: how can the shops be so busy during the day? I have bought some stuff, have found some stuff online and it is sitting in the basket waiting for me to pay for it later. I know what I am getting for just about everyone, just need to find a couple of stocking fillers and will try and get those over the next couple of days. I don't seem to have spent much which makes me think I may have missed someone out, or maybe I am just being sensible this year.

I have made the decision to stick with my personal trainer and signed up at the new gym yesterday as they had a good offer. I get the rest of the year free and although I will not be able to make it until January anyway I have also got the admin fee waivered and the fob fee as it is a 24 hour gym. I was going to wait until January until I found out that they only allow a limited amount of members, I would be gutted if I had to give up my PT sessions and I am about £60 better off by signing up already. I am meeting my PT there for him to show me some of the different equipment so we can get started straight away in the new year.

I finished my swimming challenge on Tuesday. There was a lovely couple in the pool who shared my joy at completing it so we talked about the charity etc. While I was getting changed after she handed me a £5 donation which blew me away. Since then I have had 2 monre cash donations and my cleaner at work who normally donates to charity instead of writing Christmas cards is going to donate to my challenge too. I am now trying to think of ways to boost my sponsorship before the challenge finishes on December 7th.

Money wise everything is going really well. I am hoping to start doing some great saving in the new year

ajmoney

Money shuffle done I need to try and simplify it a bit for the new year as money seems to go backwards and forwards before it is in the right place. I might re-work my monthly payments to see if I can move money once each time for 2016. I think I have about £14 a day to spend for the rest of the month. I will be home from December 17th so will spend a lot less of my own money but will probably need to top up our spending account so I want to try and spend as little as possible over the next 2 weeks to plan for that.

I have been trying to work out what to do with my cadet pay but as I am planning on using this to pay for my gym sessions I will probably keep it one of my mini savings accounts. Undecided whether just to have £200 at a time in there ready for the PT sessions and save the rest, I am sure I will find out what works during January.

I had an assessment at work yesterday to see if I show enough promise to go onto the next promotional course at work. The feedback/de-brief has been good but I haven't been told whether I am being recommended yet or not so may try and be a bit pushy about this tomorrow to see what the outcome is. If I don't do the course I am not likely to get any further promotion which has never really been in my career plan so I may need to time to re-adjust my plans for that. The bonus is I would start working nearer to home sooner but I should get to do that after the course anyway.

I have 6 days left to raise money for my swimming challenge. I set myself a £100 target and am currently at £275 so it is going fairly well. I have managed to swim another mile since but I am finding it hard to motivate myself now I have made the distance. I have some plans in the pipeline for races/challenges for the first 4 months of the year, I just need to enter them all now. The are all single event challenges rather than over a period of time like the last few but I need to train for all of them so it will give me something to work towards and plan how I will do all the training.

ajmoney

We are so close to going below £12 a day in interest on our larger mortgage, although it will probably be next month that we achieve it. It was £15.45 when I first started taking a note of it 3 years ago and even though our OPs are smaller than they have been at least I know it is all helping.

It turns out I will be cancelling my membership for the new gym as my PT is no longer moving there due to personal circumstances so from the end of next week I need to do all the training by myself :eek: we talked about it today but I still know I will find it tough, I might get a few sessions every 6 months to try and shake things up a bit and make sure I don't get stale. Although I am thinking of entering a triathalon in April and might go along to the local club for some training so my training will take on a new dimension, I just need to keep up all the hard groundwork from the last 6 months.

It does mean I will save money as I won't be paying for PT sessions so I will be able to start thinking about doing something else with my cadet money. I will probably move it straight into savings each time I get paid which should be at least an extra £200 a month depending on my work commitments. However I am also thinking about seeing if I can live off that sort of amount each month as a challenge which would give me the surplus from my wages to go into savings which is a lot higher! For January I am going with the first option while resurrecting the spending diary to see what my monthly spends are and then see if I can move to the second idea for February. I am hoping to boost my ISA considerably from this!

I am also thinking of having some monthly mini money challenges for 2016 but I am unsure what these might be yet.

ajmoney

Starting from Saturday (I have my work night out tomorrow night) I am going to try and stick to spending a maximum of £10 a day for the next 2 weeks. I know this seems like a lot of money but I need to buy my meals/food where I live and I am not able to do it in the same way as I do when I am living at home. I still have some social events to go to but I am hoping to fund these from underspends on other days. It will show me if I can work with this sort of budget in the new year and then gradually try to reduce it as part of my challenges. I would like to be able to put some of the left over money into savings at the end of the year but I am happy just to use this as an experiment for now.

ajmoney

I am currently debating the point of an ISA. My n@tionwide ISA rate is 1.4%, the n@tionwide flexclusive regular saver is 5% (4% after tax) and my larger mortgage rate is 4%. While I am working on boosting my savings instead of OPing as much to the mortgage it makes far more sense to save into the regular saver even though I have to pay tax on it. I can pay into it for the fixed 12 months and then transfer it across to my ISA. If I am missing something then could someone please point it out. I think I will open one this weekend and use this for my new savings plan, especially as the rate is not based on how much you pay in, it doesn't seem like you need to have to sign up to a set amount a month either. I need to make a money plan!

Luckyinlife

Morning AJ
Isa are useless for the average jo these days at the rates they give

mine is under 1% and i only use it to put money where i need to access it quickly

but the 123 account gives you 3% upto 20k so no need for an isa anless you have loads of money around really

ajmoney

As one challenge ends another starts! My swimming challenge ends on Monday, just as the training starts for my next one...I actually need to train for the next one :eek: I have signed up for a swimathon as part of sport relief. This time I want to come up with some ways of fundraising so I can help in every way I can.

Had another PT session today and knew it was going to be bad when I saw him walking over in his own sports gear but although it was hard work I strangely enjoyed working out with someone, even if he is a lot quicker at everything than me. 2 sessions left and I am definitely going to miss them when they are finished and the company. Maybe I need to try and find a training buddy. A joke was made earlier but it makes sense and I think I may end up giving him a reference for joining the army.

Work Christmas night out tonight, I am looking forward to it but need to stay firm that I am not getting into rounds with anyone. Spending the weekend with my sister so really looking forward to some me time on Sunday night.

Only 2 weeks and I will be at home with Mr AJM for a whole 3 weeks :j