Positive Steps Challenge 2013

Scarlet1982

Good Morning everyone

I'm so glad it's Friday hopefully get to finish early with it being bank holiday. Didn't get round to doing much from the list yesterday had a banging head when i got in last night. So had a nap and felt a lot better for it.

Fairy liked your post on your blog about food shopping. Some really useful tips.

I've been terrible buying for the sake of using money off vouchers. Think i'm saving money but end up throwing most of it out. My cupboards were bursting. I've started using what i've got and only bought milk and some veg. I've spent less than £40 so far this month compared to the usual £200.


Rollies List
Fit curtain pole
Iron curtains and put up
Clear room of unnecessary clutter
Hoover
List CD’s on eBay
List stuff to buy from Homebase @ weekend
Dishes:)
Test water in fish tank
Fix new toilet seat
Sort through spare bedding and put in boxes under bed

The Usual
Free Bingo:)
Postcode Lottery:)
Birthday Bingo:)
Surveys
Dinner
Bath

his_missus

his_missus wrote: »

Tonight's jobs:
- white wash (fingers crossed the weather's on my side tomorrow)
- sort out laptop. Tried to download something last night which seems to have corrupted it and first system restore hasn't worked!
- do my nails
- prep tomorrow's tea - chicken curry or stir fry?

Fairy, there's enough berries there to make a crumble if you have a few apples loitering around the house

White wash never happened as they forecasted rain but now it's sunny out:mad:
Laptop sorted after a scan and another system restore. However last night it did 137 updates when I switched off! This morning when I turned it on it was doing whatever it does after updating but seemed to get stuck at 30%. Had to switch off as I didn't want to leave it on all day so fingers crossed for tonight.

Nails still being ignored - I guess I'm not in a pamper myself frame of mind at the moment.

Chicken curry ingredients all ready to throw in a pan tonight.

I also cleaned out the freezer and there is a whole, empty drawer ready for my manic batch cooking session tomorrow

No plans for today apart from enjoying my curry :rotfl:

ScarlettMcCain

Morning all,

Well it was almost a disastrous start to the bank holiday weekend with a letter from Tesco Bank today - contact them immediately, they are stopping my credit card as I haven't made the payments, the card has defaulted and I need to arrange a payment plan - rang them in a blind panic only for the (to be fair very nice) lady on the phone to tell me that I already have a payment plan in place till April next year, so not to worry about it. Grrrrr. She said once someone defaults on the payments for whatever reason, the letters go out automatically and they can't change the wording, hence why they're strongly worded - they're aimed more at the people who are ignoring the problem and hoping it'll go away. Which sadly for me it never has, hence the DMP!

I'm off work today (main job anyway, not evening job!) so will be pottering into town shortly to get a few bits; I'm desperate for a new chest of drawers as mine is literally falling to bits, only the frame is intact, all the drawers have fallen through it was a cheapy one from Argos a few years back so can't complain, but thought I'd have a poke round the charity shops to see what I can find. Apart from that, today is cleaning day and then I won't be doing much over the bank holiday apart from seeing a few friends in as cheap a way as possible, studying, sorting out paperwork and generally catching up on everything. Does that count as a positive step?!

Hope everyone has had a less stressful start to the day than me!! xxx

fairyclicks

Morning everyone

I took painkillers for my back before bed last night and so have just woke up with a fuzzy head!! LOL!

MinnieMousesMummy - glad to hear you had a lazy day don't forget you need to rest up at least a bit after the birth of your lovely son! Thanks for the PM have checked it out already

Scarlet - thanks for the comment about my blog post - glad it was useful Its amazing how changing our shopping habits make so much sense and make us wonder what on earth we were doing isn't it??? lol! Well done on reducing your spend so much for the month!

His Missus - Well you can pamper yourself with your curry tonight and i hope the computer ok!!

Ruby - its rotten getting those letters, but well done on dealing with it immediately You have lots of positive steps going on today! Hope you enjoy your catchup with friends and get a chest of drawers

I'm not quite sure what i'm doing yet today......

usual free bingo - done
see if i can get tickets for lovely man's daughter - done
try and do some tidying - fed up of the house looking like a tip! little bit done
pack up ebay sales - done
check bank account for mystery millions.....nope! but checked lol

right away to try and shake off this fuzzy head feeling!!

Good Luck all xxxx

also

Washed dishes -

MinnieMousesMummy

Another lazy day for me.

Rollies list
Tidy the living room
Sort through box used for work and declutter
Check deals on iphones
Check for freebies
Free bingo
Do work on book that I'm writing
Read frugal living thread and get ideas
Fill in child benefit paperwork
Fill in school paperwork
Work out total debt that I owe

List for today
Deal with midwife visit:)
Take tablets:)
Get a relaxing bath:)
Get some rest:)
Bath ds2:)
Do some work that has come in:)
Do some course work:)

MinnieMousesMummy

Good evening everyone, I have been pottering around getting some bits and pieces done today.

Rollies list
Tidy the living room
Sort through box used for work and declutter
Check deals on iphones
Check for freebies
Free bingo
Do work on book that I'm writing
Read frugal living thread and get ideas
Fill in child benefit paperwork
Fill in school paperwork
Work out total debt that I owe

List for today
Take tablets:)
Get a relaxing bath
Bath ds2
Look online for games that ds1 wants to get with his birthday money
Do MSing work that is in for today:)
Do some course work
Lift the crop of potatoes
Sort shopping list and do weekly online shop:)
Do some work on blog
Phone DM about helping me next week:)

martinsgiftstogo

Well...look at me...late to the party again

This month my goals are;

2 sessions of resistance training at Curves every week
1 session of aerobics at curves every week.
Get my business paperwork up to date
[STRIKE]Get my hair cut by a hair stylist[/STRIKE] (first time in more than 15 years)
lose at least 2kg

It's very late in the month to start on major goals so will make up for lost time next month..lol

MinnieMousesMummy

Good evening, I have had a busy day today

Rollies list
Tidy the living room
Sort through box used for work and declutter
Check deals on iphones
Check for freebies
Free bingo
Do work on book that I'm writing
Read frugal living thread and get ideas
Fill in child benefit paperwork:)
Fill in school paperwork:)
Work out total debt that I owe
Look online for games that ds1 wants to get with his birthday money:)
Lift the crop of potatoes:)
Do some work on blog:)

List for today
Submit s&s information:)
Take tablets:)
Cut finger nails:)
Bath dd:)
Bath ds2:)
Get a relaxing bath:)
Do some course work:)
Sort Mr A order - scan & put away:)
Do work on blog:)
Do MSing work that is in for today:)

fairyclicks

Oh welcome to the positive steps thread martinsgiftstogo dont worry about being late to the party lol! I think most of us have identified long term goals - mine are for 2013 and we usually have our daily goals as well to help us get the longer term ones done longer term ones can be this week, this month, this year or really whatever time you want!

Great to see a new member join us and i hope you find it useful

I was thinking the other day its ages since i have reviewed my long term goals so i think i might focus on that for today to see where i am at I think the last review i did was in March :eek::eek::eek:

My Long Term goals are:

To become Debt Free

I feel like i have made little or no progress with this for ages - i went a bit off course after clearing most of my debts but i still have one debt to clear and some family debts to repay.


To start exercising 3 times a week

I have started being a bit more active again i think, but am certainly not doing any structured exercise

To get rid of the boxes and boxes of stuff I have gathered up

This goal is still going well and i am still ebaying a lot of stuff and car booting when i can. I have also pretty much stopped buying things to sell until i get through what i have already. I seem to be selling about 25 things a month on ebay, which is not a lot ;( but i was managing quite a few car boots over the summer with the good weather


To join a sewing group

I have decided to leave this one for now - i am not doing any crafting atm but might come back to it when i have cleared out a lot of stuff for previous goal


To lose at least 1 stone in weight

I think i have actually lost a bit of weight - last time i weighed myself i was down to 10st 6 ish as far as i remember. I still want to get down to 9stone anything lol. will weigh myself tomorrow as i'm at my mums right now.

- weight was 10st 11.8 on March 1st

To do a business plan for my crafts and website

Ok so this has progressed - i have changed the focus to general selling which fits a lot better with my current goals and activities. I have even made an appointment with local go for it program people as that all fell apart when i moved.

To get my car back on the road

done

To sort my daily finances

done

Keep House Clean and Tidy

I feel like this is going a bit off the tracks - i have been collecting more stuff from old house and its just all over the place at the minute. I'd like to get back on top of this.

Get up to £1000 in my Zopa account

This is just ticking along as usual - i haven't been adding much to it but think its now up to about £715 ish - will have to check!

Start the web design course -

I did start it but i got bored - i'm not good at learning from home i've decided


Pay off the Mortgage -

obviously this is a very long term plan and so i would like to set myself the short term goal of paying an extra £100 each month off it for now and see how i get on.

I was doing well with this until this month when i missed a payment altogether I'm working on getting this back on track in sept.

Build up an emergency fund pot of £5000.

This has gone from having £1000 in it to having £200 :eek::eek::eek: I've been off track with my finances for a while so had to use it for some bills. I want to start working on it again to rebuild it.

Clear out the remainder of my stuff from spare room in old house - i have been working on this but not really had it on my goal list, so adding it now

This is pretty much done i have just some books and pictures to collect now and hopefully i will get some of those today

Ok so........overall really hit and miss i think. I'm gutted my finances have gone off track so i really want to get on top of that again. Clearing out the house(s) of boxes is slow but steady, and i'm pleased to be going back to the go for it program for some support with business goals. Quite pleased to have lost some weight, that seems slow and steady too - don't mind that as long as i get there eventually Nothing else to add really for this month!

his_missus

Morning.

Today's mammoth challenge is to do the mountain of ironing that's piled up.

I also need to organise my tupperware cupboard.

After my crazy cooking session on Saturday, I only need to reheat or cook rice/pasta/veg and make butties for lunches, for the next 2 weeks