woah... are those MY finances??

stewby

Hey fmess!! We must have cross-posted. I took ages to figure out what to write as I was scared I would offend people.
:undecided

I am glad you managed to avoid catching the flu. If you had stayed and caught the flu then no-one would have gotten to see your nicely done hair anyways. Would have been a waste. So maybe best that you left it. Not to mention bed-head hair!!
:shocked:

January is creeping up on us quite quickly... I have spent the day looking out for the new challenge so I can see what is heading our way. I feel like it needs to be strict as I don't have a lot of money to play with but at the same time, I need it to be achievable as I don't have a lot of money to play with.


I am so pleased to hear your skinny rules diet is going well. You must have so much willpower to be able to resist the chocolate tin.
:eek:

Can't wait to get my ipad. I have wanted one for years but could never justify the price. I used to think how much simpler it would be if I had an ipad to take up and down the road when visiting the OH (when he lived in England) rather than a laptop. So that has been for almost four years. Now why didn't any of my debt go on something sensible like that??


Hope everyone has had a great day.
Hugs.

Fmess

I keep checking back to see if the January Challenge is up! I am really looking forward to the challenge in January as, like you, I barely have any money for personal spends, so I can easily say no to all social events! Also between work, tutoring, marking, dog walking and the gym, I doubt I'm going to have time to spend money (not sure if that is a or a ).

Hope you have a lovely evening

stewby

The January Challenge is up!!
:j

* 20 spend-free days: this is do-able seeing as our budget is so tight and I now have to walk to tescimos. (laziness will soon stop me nipping out).


* We already have our food budget and will have to downgrade to some own brand items anyway in order to keep to our limits.


* Lunch is no problem and I won't spend outside the shops.


* I will have one outing this month... which is taking my mum and her sister and my cousin out. I have £20 of new look vouchers and the sales are calling my name. My mum enjoys spending the day with her sister too so that's always nice.


* food bank: £3 will be donated when we next go shopping.


* The exercise thing will help with my diet... although I was planning on doing 30 minutes three times a week and it will take longer than that to walk to tescimos.


* Got my debt free date and got all my paperwork in order.


* No issue with the beauty spends or the pub, although we might have a meal in a pub (however, I will be the designated driver so no drink for me).
:undecided

* Will attempt to do the envelope thing but there are no garuntees it will work.


Has anyone else give this a lot of thought??

Fmess

stewby wrote: »

The January Challenge is up!!
:j

* 20 spend-free days: this is do-able seeing as our budget is so tight and I now have to walk to tescimos. (laziness will soon stop me nipping out).

definitely do-able as most of my personal money from my Jan budget got spent between payday and Xmas :mad:

* We already have our food budget and will have to downgrade to some own brand items anyway in order to keep to our limits.

Already buy nearly all own brand items and shopping at Ald! Really helps with this! I am concerned about the food budget as fresh fruit and veg for my diet is way more expensive than the usual carb based foods I eat. I guess Jan will be a trial of this.

* Lunch is no problem and I won't spend outside the shops.

Lunches is definitely fine and diet will keep me away from take-aways (hopefully!)

* I will have one outing this month... which is taking my mum and her sister and my cousin out. I have £20 of new look vouchers and the sales are calling my name. My mum enjoys spending the day with her sister too so that's always nice.

You are very good taking your family out. Have you seen your aunt since Disneyland? It's my birthday this month so might go out for that, although I'm not really bothered so may try and forget about it and hope friends don't coerce me into it!

* food bank: £3 will be donated when we next go shopping.

Definitely do-able and gives you a really good feel good factor. Our local RSPCA has just rescued 21 cats from a house and I'm tempted to go donate the stock of cat food that I bought on offer in December.

* The exercise thing will help with my diet... although I was planning on doing 30 minutes three times a week and it will take longer than that to walk to tescimos.

Definitely need to do this. I usually walk the dogs for at least 30 minutes a day but need to go to the gym 3 times a week too.

* Got my debt free date and got all my paperwork in order.

My DFD is scheduled for May 2018!!!! I would really like it to be Jan 2016 but this would mean finding approximately £500 a month to pay off the debt for the next 2 years

* No issue with the beauty spends or the pub, although we might have a meal in a pub (however, I will be the designated driver so no drink for me).
:undecided
Beauty spends should be easy, she says! Might go to the pub once for my birthday. I might give up chocolate for 31 days instead of alcohol, chocolate is way harder and I would only drink on my birthday, if at all.

* Will attempt to do the envelope thing but there are no garuntees it will work.

Going to give this a try this month

Has anyone else give this a lot of thought?? Yes me

Sorry for the huge post

scubaangel

Looks like you both have good plans there ladies. Hope January is kind to you so you can stick to them.

stewby

hahahaha fmess... I am not brave enough to say no to chocolate just yet. Maybe if I ever get braver.


Are you thinking of biting the bullet and joining in scubaangel??


Can't do much worse than me in December. No budget left since about the 15th again (just like normal). Did buy a load of xmas pressies with my £400 though so it wasn't exactly like normal.


I have seen my auntie since disneyland. Twice I think. She is my mum's twin sister and they are very close so I couldn't really not stop seeing her (once I had calmed down from the holiday). I love my mum to bits and would never want her to get hurt. I am a bit of a softie sometimes.
:embarasse

You should pre-arrange your night out and then confirm if you decide to do it. I, personally, think you should. You don't want to become the anti-social person in the group. As I have been told before, you can't put money saving ahead of absolutely everything else in your life or you will slowly lose everything else until all you have left is money then who will you spend it on.
It made sense to me when someone told me... but it doesn't seem to make that much sense in writing.
:huh:

Rather than trying to find an extra £500 which sounds like an almost impossible target... why don't you just try to find whatever extra you can... surely reducing your debt free date by four months would be better than not reducing it at all or feeling awful with the sense of non-achieving if you never reach the target of £500 a month??
:undecided

Geez, I sound like an agony aunt.
:rotfl:

I am using my last night of "freedom" (OH comes back tomorrow) to watch a rom-com. That means I can have a wee blubber and wish I was as skinny as the girls in the movie. (I imagine all women do that do they?? unless they are skinny already of course). No, just me?? Why isn't there a crazy person smilie on here??


Hope you all have a great night and I will see you all tomorrow.
Hugs.

scubaangel

stewby wrote: »

I am using my last night of "freedom" (OH comes back tomorrow) to watch a rom-com. That means I can have a wee blubber and wish I was as skinny as the girls in the movie. (I imagine all women do that do they?? unless they are skinny already of course). No, just me?? Why isn't there a crazy person smilie on here??

.

No never. Because I bet they don't get to enjoy a pizza and beer without spending hours in the gym the next day. I bet they don't get to eat cheese on toast at 3am when they get home from events slightly tipsy (see comment above about the next day in the gym).

And more importantly I doubt any bloke really wants a woman with sticky out hips, shoulders and collar bones for fear of breaking them if they're over enthusiastic.

Or at least thats what I tell myself. Plus when I was diving regularly I lost count of the number of my skinnier female buddies who had to call dives early because of the cold, while those of us with excess bioprene (coz blubber sounds icky, and fat is, well, not a nice name for it) stayed relatively comfortable, and that was always enough for me.

I'm off to find the thread and will sign up this month.

Fmess

Morning,

I agree about the movies and skinny girls, although recently I have found myself thinking, they are too skinny. I'd like to be slimmer, more toned but keep my lady curves! I'm off to the gym in a minute to work on this!

Tbh I think I see my friends too regularly at the moment and this has been the downfall with my December budget. I have a couple of lovely old school friends who I saw over Christmas and we've scheduled a weekend together in feb. I'm also going to the gym with a friend so we'll see each other for free a couple of times a week. I'm also kind of trying to avoid realising I'm getting older as I still don't act my age!

I am concerned about paying off £500 a month for 2 years. If I have tutoring twice a week it makes it much easier but also tires me out more. I think I need to pay off as much as possible (at least £500 a month) until my ccard is paid off (needs to be by June as 0% is ending) and then reassess.

Thanks for the advice, agony aunt stewby

Have a lovely day

clippy_girl

morning all,

i have also decided to start myfitnesspal again as i think it did motivate me e.g. if i had no calories left sometimes i would not have a treat or it would make me go for a swim etc tried to add you scuba but think you can only do it by email or facebook? my username is also the same.

well done on going to the gym fmess :A i am skipping my class today as did bodycombat yest and feel like i have been hit by a bus as i ache soooo much will go for a nice swim instead!

deffo agree re skinny girls, you need to have some enjoyment :EasterBun i used to be really skinny when i was a teenager (but ate loads) and my knees were knobly etc.. was not a good look! echo what scuba said about breaking- when i was slim i had a bf slimmer than me and we both had pokey hips.... not good :rotfl:

i actually found it quite easy to give up choc and sweets totally :A i really think sugar is like a drug and once i get a little hit i really really crave it. i am incapable of just having one or two sweets and once i start i just go :EasterBun so i find it too hard to limit myself and cut down. i found it much easier to just say to myself 'no i dont eat it' and walk on by when it was around me than to think i'll just have one bit. everyone is different though and i think if you can eat it sensibly theres nothing wrong with having a small bit each day! i have put on weight purely because of sweets and choc. my meals and proper snacks are very healthy and nutritious but it is my sweet binges and the effect they have (eg lazy and dont go gym) that have resulted in weight gain so i am going cold turkey for jan also!

i think stewby's idea of pay as much as you can is a good idea. you know what you need to pay to get to the predicted debt free date so try and beat it. each month or two months you can re-input the figures to see if it has knocked a month off. then you will not be disappointed if you dont make your preferred date as you will still be way better than you were

heartbreak_star

Have a look on NerdFitness. There's a beautiful article on there about why we will never look like the people in Hollywood, and more importantly - why that's OK.

It's a great site - it helped me realise that yeah, I may not be seven stone and graceful...but I can squat 100kgs and run a few kms, and when the zombie apocalypse arrives, I'll be more likely to survive it than a Hollywood waif, haha!

I also try and go on my dress size and how I look rather than just numbers as I can find that really demotivating. I did Insanity and dropped from a 16 to a 14 and have maintained that, but I've tightened up, developed muscles, and actually put on weight.

Good luck to all of you, and I hope you all have a fantastic New Year - might go look on the January Challenge thread and set myself some too

HBS x