Moving On Up In 2014

poddle911

Have an amazing time, Cinny!

Cinny91

Cinny91 wrote: »

[STRIKE]
• Activate roaming on my phone and tablet
• Fetch the last few things my Sister wants
• Pick up some car treats from my Brother[/STRIKE]
• Make sure I eat something because I'm getting too excited
  [STRIKE]
• Last run down of the suitcase
• Give the whole house a super good clean involving skirting boards and moving the furniture I can, all that fun stuff
• Groom Ryder until he can take no more[/STRIKE]
• Pop and see my Gramps for a catch up

Tah-dah! All I ate yesterday was a sharer (I didn't) bag of minstrels, so I can't really cross the 4th one off. And my Grandad was busy gardening with his friend so that was cancelled too. Cancelled on by my own Grandad!

And thank you Poddle, we'll sure try! OH woke up at 5:10am from pure excitement :rotfl: So I was up with him to, and while he sat on the sofa and did a whole lot of nothing I managed to strip the bed and get that in the wash, peg out the last of the washing from yesterday, clear out the fridge and put it on holiday mode. All I need to do is pop around with the hoover before we set off. I can return to England safe in the knowledge that our house is clean and the only washing we'll have to do is holiday washing

Went and got £50 out of the bank this morning, for fuel and anything we'll need on the plane. It's really happening! And I'm kind of glad I'm not eating, not eating means I'm excited where as eating everything means I'm anxious. I'm now at a total of 17lb lost since we moved house, despite discovering dominos pizza on a regular basis :j

alioops78

I've probably missed you now but have a fantastic time with your Sister and BiL and enjoy Vegas.

Well done on the weight loss too, means you don't have to worry too much about holiday eating

I know that excitement all too well

Cinny91

Thanks, Ali! Hope all is well with you

Had a great holiday and came back the same as everyone on here seems to - relaxed and ready to tackle some debt!! My body clock is still messed up but at 2:45am when I couldn't sleep, I organised some bills and paid £50 off of my "other" debts and put £50 to one side for paying my Gramps at the end of the month.

But I had Ryder out for an hour too, before OH woke up and we made breakfast with stolen hotel grape jam Got back onto the Dave Ramsey podcasts which is my best motivator, I just need to go slow and steady and not burn myself out. So I'm going to aim to make a set payment to my debts every Friday, then a follow up one on a Thursday before I get paid depending on what I can afford. Strict budgets just send me loco.

We also made the decision to cancel our holiday in September, which will mean the £600 we had to one side to pay the balance during this month will be winging its way to OH's loan. Biggest factor in this is realising while he's a lovely dog, Ryder is a lot of work and he's a little too much for my parents to handle on top of their own pack. I don't feel awfully comfortable putting him in kennels at such short notice so we decided to save pennies and holiday days by cancelling it.

Trying not to let the holiday blues bite at my heels! We're planning on getting Ryder all up to date and ready for us to go away in March, once we're debt free and able to save up for a few months I do have to admit, I felt so sad leaving my Sister but we'll be seeing her at Christmas. And with how this year is already flying I'm sure it'll be with us in no time! (along with my DFD!)

Cinny91

So this morning I paid off almost 50% of my debt and I'm left with just £1100 to repay my Grandparents :j:j

It was paid off for me by my OH, so I'm extremely lucky and considering all the stress and sleepless nights over such a small debt compared to what most people contend with.. I really do feel like it's a lesson learnt. My goal is to start paying my Grandparents back £300 a month instead of £200 now, which works out at £75 a week. So my DFD will hopefully be brought forward to mid October :T

It feels so sad in a sense, but I'm just focusing on that one week when I get paid and can move money into a savings account. And have it live there for longer than a month before I draw it out to pay my Grandparents with.

After such an indulgent holiday, it's really helping to reign me in. I've even denied myself a £2 magazine, it's "only" £2 and wouldn't be the end of the world to get it but it's more the principle I suppose? Also did a little shopping yesterday using vouchers, and went to a local cash and carry knowing they were selling the 1.75ltr bottles of vanilla cola for 33p a bottle over the £1.85 they are in Mr A.

Probably not too in line with the above (nor getting up at 6am to finish Flashforward and have pizza for breakfast) is that I've decided I want to lose 20lb before my 24th Birthday. Will bring me to 137lb, and my happiest weight is around 142lb. I'm just hoping I'm mentally tricking myself so when it gets down to those last trickly 5lb, I'll already be happy with where I'm at

Also finally booked into the doctors on Friday, and my OH is taking the morning off work to come with me. My anxiety issues are becoming more crippling and I have such insane swings with my moods I know something needs to be done now. So here's hoping they've come a long way since they were trying to help me with the same problems from when I was a kid!

Cinny91

Walked by the bank this morning with Ryder to withdraw £80 to put away for repaying my Grandparents this month (that includes the £50 I put to one side in my bank last weekend) I've knocked it off my total, so by tomorrow morning I'll be under 1k!

Speaking to OH this morning and we're a little split on returning to America so soon. While it's something we'd both love to do, having to fly from Gatwick is adding a hotel either side of travel as well as parking there. It's still on the table but something we're going to look at again once I've paid my Grandad off, and OH will have had another 3 decent wages to see how he stands money wise.

Regardless, I've kicked back up onto MyVegas so I can squirrel away enough rewards (hopefully) to get us plenty of free meals.

Aim is to stay busy this afternoon. I need to give Little Car a super good clean, Ryder has entered the shedding days and my car is just a state. Also whenever I'm meant to drive someone else somewhere, I always panic and force myself to get it sorted! So that's at the very top of my list, we've also been skimming by on little cleans after the massive cleans I did before our holiday so I need to give the house a good once over. Which involves popping to the shop to get polish and other fun things, but I found £5.50 in my old purse earlier today so I won't need to use my debit card. Very bottom of the list is dying my hair, blonde was good for the holiday as I didn't need to worry about the sun fading my colour but it really isn't for me. Sadly I need a white conditioner for my plans which equals another spend, but the quality of it isn't massively important so I should be able to get away with a cheapie bottle.

Cinny91

£50 taken out of the bank this morning to put to one side, leaving £970 :j I'm now under £1000 owed and it feels pre-tay good!

OH is at the football today, so after I dropped him by the train station I popped by the shops to get a few bits for the week. Fun and tasty things like fruit and salad veggies, how exciting! They also had some really cute curver storage baskets for £1.50, was actually looking at them on Lakeland for OH's messy bedside table but they were £4 plus postage so I resisted. Got one for that price though, and it looks pretty cute! (plus I won't have to move a million bottles when I'm cleaning anymore, phew)

Have £15 left in my purse for the week now, just used my card to book cinema tickets for tomorrow morning but that's all I plan on using it this week. I also calculated and moved the bill money for the rest of the month out of my main bank into a side saver, so I can just move it back into my main bank as and when I need to. Oh, and I put £5 to one side for the window cleaners, which is overly prepared and worrying me.

With OH being out I've had a really relaxingly productive day (I know how bad that sounds, but when OH is home we're basically sewn together at the hip and nothing gets done!) so I've stripped the bed, done some washing, cleaned upstairs etc. Also found some amazing recipes I want to try out next week. I've also not napped, which is nothing short of amazing. I've been going to bed at around 8:30 these last 2 nights which is just insane. I can't blame jetlag anymore!

Cinny91

Happy Monday!

Had a great day yesterday, personal spending ban still in force. I did get some toiletries OH asked me to pick up, and a frame from £1land for a photo of us all in Vegas. So counting yesterday as a win. However, in true Cinnystyle.. it's July and I bought my first thing to put away for Christmas. It's this tray from Cath Kidston, a very regular haunt and it was so hard to not get anything for myself considering the sale.. and sales being kind of my thang. I was good! Just need to behave now :A

Decided to try one of the recipes I found yesterday for sweet pork burritos, using chicken instead of pork and put it on the bubble in the slow cooker. Was delish! We really need to start doing more slow cooker meals (we mostly use it for things like curry on a weekend and not much else) We're terrible for it getting to about 3pm, being hungry and fantasizing about any food but what we've got planned in the fridge for tea, then caving and going to buy new things instead So if we've already got it bubbling away, we obviously can't ignore it and get pizza instead. Tonights is a slightly less exciting hunters chicken with salad und garlic bread. We have some bacon left over from our Saturday morning feast so I'm planning on crisping that up for the salad. Because why keep something healthy, when you can add a portion of heart attack?

Don't know if I mentioned it but I got a letter for my car tax last week, £78.50 for another 6 months but with obviously being debt free by October, I'll be able to settle a full year when it rolls by again. Fresh insurance kicked in on Saturday too, and I also need to book him in for his MOT this week - next Monday at the latest.

Nothing amazingly thrilling for today, just some housework once I get home and walkies with the pup. Want to go through our freezer and figure out what we have for meals too, will find something to keep me busy!

Cinny91

NSD yesterday! Also decided to start a new Project 10 Pan, as well as a collective "empties" bag. Which is basically a place to dump all your empty lotions and potions during the month, then on the 1st the follow month you empty it all and feel exceptional and like you've done something worthwhile with your life.

The chap that lives next door has an amazing veggie garden, so this morning when I was putting the bin out he collared me with a bag full of runner beans. Can never take something for nothing so I did a swapsie with 3 eggs from my Mum's hens So guess who's having runner beans with tea tonight?! and probably a few nights to follow

Did some full on mathematics last night and I look pretty okay and set to comfortably cover paying my Grandparents £300 at the end of the month, as well as my road tax, and go into August with £100ish in the bank. Which is relatively unheard of recently! Hopefully this is just a lovely little sign that everything is on the up now.

Heard on the radio that it's meant to be the hottest week of Summer? Err, anyone like to let South Yorkshire in on that memo? Looks like it's about to absolutely tip it down! Our utility room and kitchen looks like a little old wash house at the moment, had some things ready to go on the line but decided not to chance it so they're all strung up on various edges and ledges. Forgot they were there when I was at the fridge and walked straight into a tangled web of OH's undercrackers :rotfl:

shrimpy_80

Congrats on being under £1k Cinny! I cannot wait to get there! Only just got back under £3k though so £2k is my next target, should be there by the end of next month. I really need to get my wedding dress on eBay as I think I could get £80 of so for it, which is nearly 3% of my total!

If it makes you feel any better, the Midlands didn't get the memo on the weather either, its really grey and gloomy here!