Clippy's shiny new diary :)

clippy_girl

Hello all :wave: So I have started a new diary as my old one was a bit neglected! I want to use my diary to cover the following areas-

Finances

In Aug I would have been debt free but I booked two holidays I paid off all the old debts incurred from uni (not student loan though), buying my house (obv not the mortgage!!!) and past hols. So all my current debt is 'new debt' and I want to get it cleared. I went on holiday in August to Peru and Bolivia and I am going to New Zealand in March for 5 weeks :j.

So the current debt- I don't have the exact figure as I have just applied for a new 0% card and am waiting for the card to come to BT onto. I will BT £5200 onto it and its a 1% fee so i assume balance will be £5252. This is all my debt exc mortgage and student loan.

As I am off to NZ in March I will need spends. I have paid for my tour which inc accom & transport and I have also paid in advance for the main activities I want to do. I have about 6/7 nights pre and post tour accom but we are only staying in hostels/motels on these nights. I am budgeting £1500 for spending money which is £300 per week. I believe this should be enough as I will not want to eat out 3 times a day for 5 weeks. On the tour the hostels have full kitchens and the trip notes say that groups often cook together for dinner. I will make breakfast in the kitchen and sandwhiches etc for lunch most days to keep costs down. I therefore think this should be enough.

I live off my salary which pays all my bills, food, weekly spends etc... I also put money away to use for weekends away as most of my close friends are from uni so live all over the country. It just covers my expenses but none is left in the budget however if i have weekly spends left i will built up a small pot, say £50, then anything above this can be transfered to the debt account. i can use that if i need to buy make up/clothes etc... that would blow the weekly budget! anything left in food budget will be saved for months when i need to stock up on lots (i buy chicken and bacon in bulk at £30 a time).

I therefore use extra money to pay off debts. This is £340 rent I get from my lodger and around £200 per month from mystery shopping.

In jan I need to pay my tax bill of around £550 so that will use all of jans extra income.

Feb/mar/apr i will save the £550 each month to use for spends. Whilst I wont be doing ms whilst i am away i also wont be paying for food, petrol, weekly spends, gym etc... from my salary so i will transfer that amount over to use as spends.

so until i get back from holiday i will not be paying off my debt except min payment and will be saving everything for my spends. however i will treat it as if the spends are a debt to motivate me to save as much as poss

when i get back i will then start to repay the debt. as i am always thinking ahead to the next hol i will try and save up for this as well (want to go to india in march 2014). if there is anything left from nz i will put it in the india savings to start me off. i will then divide the total debt left by 9 months as this is the period til the 0% runs out. each month i will pay that amount off the debt and if i earn/save any extra it can go in the india pot. if i am short at the end of a month i can take it out of the india pot.

I aim by the end of jan to have cleared my debt and paid for my india holiday. i will then have feb and march to save my spending money :T:beer:

so proposed dfd is 31 Jan 2014 :A

Weight/fitness

i wanted to loose about 1 stone before xmas. unfortunately i put on 4lbs over xmas so now want to loose about 18lbs :rotfl:I would love to loose this before my holiday which is just under 11 weeks away. realistically i think i can loose 1lb a week so this is what i will aim for. anything more will be a bonus. given that i am currently within a normal bmi i dont think it would be feasable to loose more than this as i am not currently overweight (just have quite a few rolls i would like to loose!). i would also like to tone up and get fitter.

to achieve the above i will eat healthily. i am not going on a diet as there is no way i am being hungry! i will just ensure i eat healthily. i currently cook all my meals from scratch (batch cook and freeze) and snack on fruit/veg. unfortunately i also snack/binge on choc/sweets/cake etc.... so i need to cut this out. will allow myself a weekly treat though at weekend.

i will also go to the gym. when i am into it i really like the gym but just doing classes. last year when i got fit i went nearly everyday. i will aim for this again. i do different classes each day which work on different areas so dont feel i really need a rest day as such (although more on this later!).

so goal for this is to weigh 10st 7lbs by time of holiday but would love to smash this :A

wow this is a very long post but now my plan is set down so i know what i am doing

clippy_girl

so plans for today-

despite saying above i dont need rest days, i think i need a few weeks to break me in gently! i threw myself back into it on thursday and did a step class. calves were a bit sore but did pump on friday as it works your thighs. unfortunately i worked my thighs a bit too hard! i then stupidly forced myself to go combat yest even though my legs hurt. i have now woken up with sore arms, back and legs o dear! so rest day for me today and tomorrow. on new years day gym only open for 4 hours so will either do a small workout or just have a nice swim from wed i will restart classes but if i hurt the next day i will just go swimming instead of pushing myself with another class! lesson learned

i have some batch cooking to do today and will be making cauliflower, brocolli and pasta soup and a pork and rice pot.

will give downstairs a hoover but think thats i can manage in my injured state (no way can i squat down to clean the bathroom!)

few items to ebay as well so will get them on as its free listing

most of today will be spent completing my online purchase mystery shops as i have about 8 to do (mostly short app ones thank god )

clippy_girl

Happy new year everyone

Had a nice night at friends last night and not hungover waaaay to many calories consumed yest though despite me going for an 8am swim!

Off for a swim shortly to start as I mean to go on :Muscles mainly stopped hurting now so going to start classes again tomorrow.

Plans for today are call up natwest if they are open to do my BTs as I have my card now. Will then know the total debt figure
Hoover and polish whole house
Cook beef hotpot
Finish online surveys

eBay going well as bids on 3 of my 4 items. This week has been a low spend week as I have spent £12. £2 on books from someone at work and £10 on now 83. Have already stuck it on eBay as I just want to put it on iTunes! So £30 left of weekly budget :T (£2 was in my purse from last week and knew I would need change for books). Will try and keep this weeks spends to a minimum as well. Off to London for weekend at end of month so need spends while I am there which will probably be a bit more than my weekly budget (hotel and coach paid for already)

Have a nice day everyone!

mandz1

Happy new year Clippy.
You sound very focused in both financial and body targets. And your holiday sounds like it will be brilliant fun.

Good luck on clearing the debt

clippy_girl

So had a 1.8lbs loss this week fitness and diet going pretty well, off to gym soon.

So on the money front I had to buy a new laptop as old one is on its way out and can't be without it as need it for some of my mystery shops (can't do a few on the iPad as need to scan some receipts as if I take a picture on my phone the file is too large for some sites). Not too concerned as got a good deal for £329. Really wanted a MacBook but cannot justify £999 :eek: my dell has a better spec and is 1/3 of the price! Thus shoudnt set me back too much as there are various things I have not accounted for in my budget such as going sim only on mobile for 6 months when it runs out so that will hopefully save around £150.

I spent last weeks budget in the end getting some cd's I wanted. I was getting a bit obsessed with saving it but the whole point is that it's there for me to spend if I want it. I will get quite a lot of it back though as once I have put the cd's on iTunes I will sell them on eBay. I couldn't get any second hand on eBay for less than the cost of a new one so hopefully that means they will sell well. One is currently on there as I ordered that the previous week. The money made reselling them will go in the holiday spends pot.

Haven't got anything in the spends pot yet as was still paying it off cc till last week. This month most will go on the tax bill but may have some left as got a big cheque to come for ms in dec, some overtime and got some ms paid which will be paid in jan. as the tax bill is the amount I generally manage to pay off debt in a month wasn't expecting anything left over so that will be nice however sky bill is going up by nearly £20 this month as my free line rental has ended ad I cancelled my movie offer too late so had to pay about £5 for that (but do have movies for a bit longer). Need to ring up and threaten to leave and see what I can get. I have the cheapest tv package so not much scope there but even if they gave me free movies or something that would save me money on love film/similar. As I cancelled my love film when I got movies I have an offer from them I can use should sky not give me anything.

Also need to pay £20 extra for gas and elec final bill. Have switched and monthly dd is the same but that's what I owed old supplier. I was hoping for a refund as was in credit last time I looked but I have been putting the heating on a lot which was obviously used that have started wearing a jumper and only putting it back on if I'm still cold!

Need to chase up my pay rise. It will be around £30 month I think but that will come in really handy as gym gone up £3, sky will go up £14 (line rental) and I need a more expensive contact lens for one eye so that's going up about £3. Everything is going up

So plans for weekend are gym class today, cook curry and make hm veg crisps for tonight as friend coming very, take down tree, call up and transfer my balances and do some cleaning. Tomorrow it's gym, cook soup and do some ms. May do my tax return as well or at least check I can find the log in details as cant pay it till 20th.

Have a nice weekend

clippy_girl

So been having a think and might cancel sky. I do watch stuff on sky channels but then I also watch stuff on normal channels. I'm not obsessed by any tv show so if I don't watch the sky ones I can just find new things to watch. Been having a look on here and I can get tesco landline and unlimited broadband for average £14 per month which is cheaper than just the sky phone line. Then was thinking of getting a freeview plus box for around £50 to record on and lovefilm instant at £5 per month. I will miss the on demand on sky but love film looks like it has good tv box sets. That will be less than £20 month with a one off £50 cost. Sky will cost me about £43.5 a month and I don't think the extra sky channels are worth £20 month. Plus the sky price doesn't include any movies so I would still want lovefilm anyway. Will see if they offer a deal and if they don't I will cancel it.

Will have a think over next few days...

So yesterday was good food wise and exercise wise off to gym shortly for another class and hoping to continue good eating. I have three mini supermarket mystery shops to do and one tomorrow. Have to spend £3 in each so I have written a list of everything I need this week and will buy it on the jobs. Then it can come out of the food budget so technically the fee for the job is £3 higher

Did all my BT online yesterday so just waiting for them to show. Set up a direct debit but not sure how much it will be or when it will come out as I have not had a bill yet.

clippy_girl

Another 1.8lb loss this week! :j:beer: yippee

So in the end I decided to cancel sky. They don't even try and tempt me to stay! It ends 6 feb so plan is to wait until I get back from hol end of April before I buy a freeview+ box. That will also give sky enough time to try and entice me back I have remembered about sky go so will buy a cable for my laptop to connect to TV and get mum or dads sky details so I can still watch sky

Signed up to tesco for £16.25 month for phone and broadband. Worked out at just under £11 month after cashback and voucher but will use the cashback and the £30 from vouch (will 'sell' voucher to food budget) towards hol spends or the debt depending on when I get them. About £26 month saved

Working from home today as new laptop being delivered so plan for lunch time is to try and change my mpi insurance. Been meaning to do this for about two months that should be about £15 month saving :T

Was v tempted to upgrade my iPhone in April when it runs out but convinced myself out of it! I have a 16gb at the moment which is not big enough as I like to store all my music on it. Going to get a sim only deal and save the difference each month until around oct when new one is out. Can them use the money saved up as a down payment towards handset to significantly reduce the cost of the monthly price (know 02 knock £5pm off for every £50 you put towards it do if they still do that it will be good ) fingers crossed my current one lasts that long!

Did my tax return and it said tax owed was £100 more than my spreadsheet :( need to look into it before I submit as spreadsheet has been correct to the £ last two years

scubaangel

Hope you get the tax sorted Clippy, mine was a little bit more than I expected but only about £30 so I didn't bother to double check it.

clippy_girl

Hmmm so not changed mpi. Rang up and cancelled it from tomorrow. Looked at the others and tbh I don't think they will cover me as work is having a major reshuffle at the moment which could result in job losses (but no idea if will affect my dept). Started to fill one in and i had to write a statement for the underwriters. Is vvvvv annoying as work for local government so they are always making cuts, redundancies and reshuffling decided to stick where I am at the moment and will reconsider in autumn when my fixed rate ends on mortgage and should know outcome of reshuffle. Would have saved £14 which would be helpful but for the sake of £14 I don't want to risk not getting paid out.

gallygirl

Happy food shopping day

clippy_girl

so not updated for a wee while!

weight-no loss not quite sure why as pretty much always within my target on myfitnesspal. think i might not be eating enough which is what they told me in the gym. will eat a bit more (but of good stuff!)

so its payday today and i have £29 of last months spends left :T:) quite pleased with that as spent around £35 on cds and £21 on foundation and £15 on meal with friends. so have only frittered away £20 £18 of the money left will be used to pay for a ticket to a show i am going to in feb but need to pay for it when i see my friend this week. rest will be saved for anything i need.

food budget- £13.75 left over last month :j working from home today so went out early and did big monthly food shop at aldi (£16) and tesco (£54) :eek: i needed to buy meat in tesco and the pork i wanted wasnt in the 3 for £10 offer. so ended up getting 2 packs of pork as £4 for 1 or £6 for 2. means i dont need to buy it next month. needed sausages and the ones i like were on offer for £2 so bought 2 packs. again wont need to buy next month. also bought a big box of fish fingers as again were on offer. they are all things i buy so good savings but this months budget taken a hit! tbh though it should last me as i dont need any dinner stuff, cleaning etc..., have nearly enough ingreds for 1 months worth of soup so only need to buy milk, yogs and fruit. can always dip into the £13.75 if i get desperate!:D

sorted tax bill, extra was for student loan. thats all paid off and credit card used for spends also paid off. hoping by end of month i should have around £80 left to start my new zealand spends

plans for the weekend are mainly just gym, cooking and cleaning. getting hair cut tomorrow in city but will just walk in for that as nothing else needed