The Adventures of a Debt Defying Diva

RainbowBridgeReturns

2014 is the year for mastering myself. At 47 I think it's about time that I got a handle on things and started achieving the goals that I set for myself. My mantra is:-

"Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power". Lao

I had four key goals to begin the year:-

1. Pay off my O/D and NEXT card to become debt free - £668.67 - 1st Feb
Done!! – Still debt/OD free in February/March/April
2. Save £500.00 for an emergency fund - by 1st May 2014.
I have now got £550.00 in that pot.
3. Open up regular savings pots for future needs/wants
I have started overpaying the mortgage and I have set up five pots which have the following amounts in them:-

• A treat pot – £180.00
• A clothing pot – £228.00
• A holiday contribution/anniversary pot - £50.00
• A charity pot - £10.00
• A mortgage overpayment pot – 10% - £27.00

4. On July 1st I reach my goal weight of 146 pounds !!!! – FAILING HOPELESSLY HERE!

The plan for May is to keep the above balls in the air, keep the landry cupboard clear and then start on goal number four in earnest, my ultimate Achilles heal.

I am going to continue with my £6.00 a day challenge to fund pots 2-5 and I plan to put another £200.00 in the emergency fund by June 1.

I know that I can achieve the above by staying focused. I also believe that life is for living, and I like to have fun, so I am going to keep smiling and treating myself and others at regular intervals, as frugally as possible.

RainbowBridgeReturns

Yesterday's Debt Defying Activities were as follows:-

1. Got my £5.00 a day challenge off to a start, at last, by entering back into the murky world of mystery shopping, earning a total of £37.00.

2. Managed to avoid parking charges, by sneaking into a little known hiding hole for car owners seeking to save £1.50.

3. Preserved a no spend day by using road kill change in the form of dozens of 1p and 2p coins to pay for 2 pints of milk in P****land. I handed the heavy bundle of loose change to the poor cashier who promptly dropped half of it, and spent the next five minutes crawling around the floor, much to the annoyance of other customers in the queue!!

Diva activities:-

Picked up some deep hydrating conditioner from my pharmacy mystery shop, which smells divine, as part of a purchase paid for by GR.

Thing I was grateful for:-

I had to find a belt because my trousers are getting loose and exposing my builder's bottom.

Off to do:-

12 kilometres on the exercise bike, my stretches and meditation and then off to care for my uncle for the day, as aunt is attending a funeral.

Onwards and upwards xx.

RainbowBridgeReturns

This month seems to be going on forever, and I have had to drag myself through this week, but I am going to do a three week update and gear myself up for finishing the month really strong.

Update Week 3.

I have £10.00 to last me until the end of the month. I have plenty of food in and a menu planned out for all meals, so theoretically I should achieve my AFD and SFD's by hanging on to that £10.00 for as long as possible.

I am 50% of the way towards my £5.00 a day challenge, so I will focus on that for the last 9 days of the month. I have a pile of things to ebay and three mystery shops lined up, so plans are in place here.

I have completed 115 km on my exercise bike against a target of 100 km, but I have completed 400 exercise minutes against a target of 1000 (which I don't think I thought through !!). However, it is possible, as there are 9 days left and it would require an hour's exercise session a day, and I have a free gym pass for this whole week.

Yep, I am up for it!! On the days that I don't get to the gym I will do a brisk walk or cycle ride for an hour. It is only for 9 days, and it will remind me to be better organised next month.

I am going to briefly track on here, for the next 9, days how much of my £10.00 is still in tact and my exercise hour's activities .

I am determined to keep this year on track!

RainbowBridgeReturns

I got my £10.00 out last night to see me through to the end of the month, it is all bright and crisp and even!.

I started off my nine day fitness streak to month end, with a Legs, Bums and Tums class. Absolute torture. One particularly gruesome exercise was squatting, with our backs against a wall, and our knees at right angles while the instructor timed us for one minute, but kept playing games to extend the minute. We did this regime three times. Don't try that at home!

I was very impressed with a couple of ladies, in their seventies, who made it through the whole class without breaking a sweat.

I have some smoked ribs (£1 from the butchers), on the boil and dusted down the breadmaker, and I hope to produce lentil soup, wholemeal bread and home made hummus for tea tonight. Very cheap and hopefully cheerful.

Yesterday was a no spend day. I have spent £0/£10. Exercise streak 1/9.

RainbowBridgeReturns

Day three of my sprint to the end of the month:-

My £10.00 is still intact and I have a frugal tea planned for tonight: macaroni cheese with a crispy topping, made with the blitzed leftovers of my wholemeal loaf. The garden is still supplying us with loads of broccoli leaves, which taste like kale, so I'll serve up the tea with some leafy veg.

My ebaying has started to yield some results with the sale of a DVD yesterday.

I cycled pretty vigorously for 25 minutes on my exercise bike yesterday and went for a fast walk during my lunch, at work.

It's Friday night, so some Diva activity tonight ..... I will use my free gym pass for a sauna and a Jacuzzi, and continue with my fitness streak by swimming thirty lengths of the pool. I'll go early and lounge by the pool with my page turner novel!

RainbowBridgeReturns

Day 4:-

Still continuing with the fitness sprint with a £10.00 note intact. Saturday is officially 'Diva' day though, a day to reward myself for sticking to plan, in ways that don't completely ruin all the hard work.

Diva activities:-

I'm going for a brisk hour's walk before the family are up, the reward being a Cappuccino and tea cake at a lovely cafe overlooking the sea. There are comfy leather armchairs, papers and a roaring fire. I would normally cafe or lunch out at least 3 times a week, but this is the first time this month, and the last, so I am going to make every mouthful count.

Saturday night is date night. That has been going really well, and has enabled us to resist eating out or takeaways, all this month. Originally we were taking it in turns to do a special meal with candles and wine, but DH likes cooking fancy meals, whereas I am a more functional cook, so we have decided he does the meal each Saturday and I do the washing up ....... on Sunday morning!

I am going to have a sleep in the afternoon, have a hot soak with bath salts and give myself a hot red manicure and pedicure.

I will keep up my ebaying by putting on two more items and posting out a DVD I sold yesterday.

I need some onions, cereal, bread and cheese, so I will only have a couple of pounds left of my £10.00, but I don't intend on spending anything more, this month, after today.

I am quite horrified about how much of the above items we eat in a month though. I thought that I had tons to last until month end but my DS is nearly 16, 6 feet tall and hoovers up food. He has no problem eating a box of cereal a day (expensive Weetabix Chocolate Minis), I need a cereal plan for February !!!!!!

RainbowBridgeReturns

Morning world,

Day 5:-

Yesterday went even better than planned. I did my walk, parked my bahookie down in a leather chair, next to the fire, and ordered a skinny latte, which comes with a "free" thin almond biscuit. This was half the price of my normal, Cappuccino accompanied by scone, jam and cream, a third of the calories, and I felt virtuous after eating it, instead of a scarlet sinner!

I went to pay with my £10.00, sorry to see my new friend go, and the waitress said, "have it on the house, we haven't got any change!" Even better, as I walked out of the shop, I found that I had two pounds in my coat pocket, which I could have sworn was not there before, and I suddenly remembered that I had a price match voucher on my computer for £2.50 from a Tesco shop from a few weeks previously! I used the £4.50 for the bibs and bobs I needed and my £10.00 is still with me!!!

I even worked out a cereal solution with the help of my son. We had a huge box of Weetabix in the cupboard, which he ignores, in favour of the minis, but he agreed that if I cut them up and added a couple of packets of milk chocolate chips and some ground flax seed, that he would demolish them before I bought anything else. I had the flax, so I just purchased a couple of packets of value chips!

I am going to do a free power hoop class today and I am squeezing in three cinema audits in the evening, which should earn me a total of £36.00, which gets me pretty close to my £5.00 a day target.

I am typing this with my hot red nails and feeling pretty darn Diva-ish.

Onwards and upwards, to finishing January strong x.

clippy_girl

Lovely positive diary

Thats great news about the £10- wonder how long it will last!

Is power hoop like hoola-hoop? i would love to do a class like that but sadly my gym doesnt have one. maybe i will suggest it!

I am also doing a cinema audit tonight but I only have one now

in_need_of_direction

What's a cinema audit?

RainbowBridgeReturns

Hi there,

Day 6

The power hoop is a hoola-hoop that weighs 4 lb. You would never believe all the things that are possible with a big hoop! One of the funniest exercises was when we all stood around in a big circle, merrily swinging our hoops around our waists, like performing seals, while throwing fooballs at each other to catch. It was complete chaos, and ended up as a rugby scrum!

I completed my 3 audits, which entailed sitting through the trailers of different films, checking that they were compliant with Cinema Advertising contracts.

My £10.00 is still intact. I had run out of bread AGAIN, so made a big batch of pancakes, using a recipe for perfect pancakes from the BBC Good Food website. They came out like proper French crepes and got the thumbs up from the family. I have made another loaf in the breadmaker for today's lunches.

With the £36.00 from the audits, I am getting close to my £150.00 target, so I will keep up the momentum today by taking some heavy coats into the 'Cash for Clothes' shop that has appeared in a local high street. I have never entered the premises before, but I believe that they pay £0.50 a kilo. I wonder if they check pockets for heavy stones ..... only kidding.

Off to work, then a SALSA class in the evening ...

RainbowBridgeReturns

Day 7

Still hanging in here and the end of the month is in sight, at last.

I heaved my pile of Donkey jackets, which weighed a ton, an old coat of DS and a pair of boots to the 'Cash for Clothes' shop, a distance of about half a mile from the car. Much to the amusement/annoyance of fellow shoppers, depending on who got bumped in to (I couldn't see over the top). I was dreaming of riches and was very disappointed when the assistant announced that the Donkey jackets were classified as work wear and unacceptable .... The boots and coat, that remained, earned me the princely sum of ......... £1.10 !! I have never worked so hard for a £1.00.

I had to carry my coats back and I later deposited them in the local clothes recycling bin.

So I now have £11.10 that I will guard, like family jewels, until the end of the month.

I have a body pump class today, which I am attending with my gym buddy. She is fully supporting me in my spend free endeavours as she is skint too. Whereas we would normally have a coffee and cake at each trip out together, we have been taking a flask and sandwiches with us wherever we have ventured.

Onwards and upwards xx.