The Adventures of a Debt Defying Diva

in_need_of_direction

You need the treats to keep motivated. This week I spent £22 on two courses for two at a restaurant I've been wanting to try where the equivalent cost would be around £40. Am heading off now. Fingers crossed for this place.

RainbowBridgeReturns

Thanks INOD, I totally agree. The hotel that I've booked has got overwhelmingly excellent reviews on Trip Advisor and I confess to paying a slight premium for a superior room with river view. I don't want to take any chances!

So I am going to conclude April here as I have been paid and May will now fit nicely into a 5 week schedule. I am going to recap on my stepping stones for the year and and then finalise my plans for May.

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 monthly treat pot (May) – £180.00
• A clothing pot – £228.00
• A holiday contribution/anniversary pot - £50.00
• A charity pot - £10.00
• A mortgage overpayment pot - £28.00 (10% of monthly payment)

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 out of regular earnings.

flanno_2

Hi Rainbow
I typed a message earlier, previewed it and then forgot to send it.
Just wanted to say you are an inspirational lady and have inspired me to start my own diary. Thank you.

Marie.

RainbowBridgeReturns

Hi Flanno,

Thank you so much for your very kind and encouraging message, just the boost I needed to keep going into May x.

I can't find your diary, could you post a link? I would love to encourage you on your own journey too. It is so nice to check in on people, and see them plodding on through whatever life hurls at them and make PROGRESS!!

I woke up to an e-mail from a colleague reminding me that I had committed to a peculiar diet this month, and saying she wasn't going to let me chicken out.

I wish I could say that I had not tried this particular program, but I am a diet veteran, and you would be truly hard pressed to run one past me that I had not succumbed to at some point in the last 20 years, including various short term trips to all the different weigh in clubs:(. 11 stone is my nemesis and it is much harder to crack than an overdraft and a NEXT addiction.

This one is three days on a weird diet, four days off, but eating really healthily and avoiding alcohol and junk food during those four days, then repeat for the next four weeks. Lots of water is consumed too. Five weeks in total. It is guaranteed to take me through the 11 stone barrier at warp speed (Dear colleague, really believes this, but she is younger than me and not so cynical, :rotfl:) even though that is now 7lb away .

1st Day of the 3-Day Diet:

BREAKFAST:
Black coffee or tea
½ grapefruit
1 slice of toast
2 tablespoons of peanut butter

LUNCH:
½ cup of tuna
1 slice of toast

DINNER:
2 slices of any meat (about 3 oz.)
1 cup of string beans
1 cup of beets
1 small apple
1 cup of vanilla ice cream

I am going to stick with it, though, just because I promised her I would, even though I was convinced she wasn't serious and would have forgotton after a boozy weekend. Dear colleague admits to enjoying rather too much alcohol, at least a bottle of wine a night, and much more at the weekend, so if she can do this so can I partner:T:T.

Today the headmaster at DS school wants to see DH and I first thing. DH has chickened out, so it will just be me sitting forlornly outside his office waiting to be called in at 9.00 am. I don't think I am in trouble, but I still feel very nervous.

TTFN I am off to eat my toast x.

sassychick2014

Morning hon

That diet doesn't sound too bad but then that sounds more than I eat usually anyway! I'm terrible but years of working in the the pub industry has left me with no appetite until the evening and an insatiable thirst for coffee! I tend to drink 3 or 4 cups in the morning (I've cut down!) a cuppa tea in the afternoon and about 2 or 3 pints of squash. Reading that back no wonder I'm not hungry, there's no room with all that liquid!! I then have dinner in the evening which is either meat and veg or some pasta dish. Then another glass of squash. Maybe if I cut down on the amount of liquid I drink I could cut down on loo roll costs too! haha

Good luck today at DS school. I'm sure it will go well and be another positive step in your recent challenges there.

Have a fab day! xx

flanno_2

Hi Rainbow
I havnt actually done one up yet............ just finished 3 years doing a degree and have 3 exams next month so when all that is out of the way I'll start it up. I'll be needing as much advice as I can get. i've no job and no income. OH is self employed and things are very quiet in his area which is building/maintenance/that type of thing

Anyway in the meantime I'll be keeping motivated by reading your entries and all the other lovely MSE'rs on here.

Best of luck with the 3 day diet.

Marie.

flanno_2

sorry just re read the mail and its more than just a 3 day diet good luck with it anyway.

Marie.

RainbowBridgeReturns

Oh Marie,

You are going to keep us all in suspense. I am already interested and looking forward to your next entry. Good luck in your exams, and keep in touch.


Sassy, no wonder you are so slim, my starvation diet is your daily fare x.

sassychick2014

RainbowBridgeReturns wrote: »

Oh Marie,

Sassy, no wonder you are so slim, my starvation diet is your daily fare x.

Lol maybe but I think it's just what you're used to isn't it? I wish I could be normal and have brekkie, lunch & dinner but it's just not worked out that way! xx

RainbowBridgeReturns

My meeting with the HM went well yesterday, and everything is finalised for DS now. He will not be able to get enough Physics teaching hours, next year, so I have engaged a Physics tutor to spend 1 hour with DS every two weeks from now until he takes his exams next year.

It will cost me £60.00 a month, but the tutor has an excellent reputation and although he taught at Cambridge University, he can relate at DS's level too. I think I may have found somebody DS can't out think!! The pictures on the tutor's website shows him outside IRCEP - International Research Centre for Experimental Physics and scribbling equations on a huge white board. The Tutor also teaches maths, which will be helpful too. It will be like the 'Big Bang Theory' here.

DS is off on a Duke of Edinburgh expedition on Thursday and I need to get a him a new waterproof jacket and trousers, due to another growth spurt, plus a few other bits for him.

Today I am grateful for my clothing pot, and treat pot which can accommodate the expenditure above whilst still leaving enough for me be clothed and treated, without incurring any debt.

I am on day 2 of my diet:-

BREAKFAST:
1 egg
½ of a banana
1 slice of toast
Black coffee or tea

LUNCH:
1 cup of tuna or cottage cheese
5 TUC crackers

DINNER:
2 slices of meat
2 cups of broccoli
½ cup of carrots
½ of a banana
½ cup of vanilla ice cream

Dear colleague is taking this very seriously and checking up on me regularly to ensure compliance. I am going to stick to the rules and knuckle down and get to the magic 146 pounds. It will be worth it.

Today I am squeezing in a couple of mystery shops which will kick off the £6.00 a day challenge with £24.00 for the pot.