108 spiders are a girl's best friends

lubava

Have a great Christmas and lovely New Year Whitefeather8 ☺

supersaver1000

Have a wonderful break and we'll have a fab 2015!

Whitefeather8

Happy New Year everyone.

I had a lovely couple of weeks away, in which the only thing that did any exercise was my mouth!! I have spent today surveying the damage and it is not nearly as bad as normal so that is positive.

My weight has stayed the same, as I was fairly careful about what I was eating preferring to sacrifice food in favour of wine. I overspent on presents for DS and family members and on a couple of unplanned meals out to restaurants. Apart from these slip-ups everything else was around budget.

Another small PPI cheque, which arrived on the 31st December, for £187.00, along with a £400.00 cheque for the Yellow Pages saved the day and DH was able to pay £150.00 off the Halifax and I paid £100.00 off the training loan!!

I have decided to focus on these three areas in January:-

1. I am giving myself a target of 100 training hours, which should conclude all the courses and put me in a position to visit all the agencies at the beginning of February, confident in my refreshed abilities.

2. I have been enjoying the jogging with my friend and we have decided to do the Couch to 5k program, starting Sunday, and register for a 5k run in May. I will re-focus on healthy eating and drinking lots of water, from tomorrow.

I will stop Slimming World at the end of next week, when I receive my copy of the new book, and before I need to start paying again and I have joined the OS weight loss thread instead for their new 13 week challenge, which starts tomorrow, with the aim of knocking this final 16 lb on the head in that time period.

3. Finally, I am going to stick to my tight budget and earn £200.00 of extra income, in as few hours as possible, so that we can pay another £250.00 off our debts.

TTFN xx.

supersaver1000

Happy new year! Welcome back. Did MrWF8 have a great birthday and is he going down to 4 days yet (apols if I missed the post).

Whitefeather8

Hi Supersaver,

We are not too big on birthdays, preferring to live in denial about the aging process , so his 49th passed quietly (and cheaply) on the 8th December. The plan is for him to go down to 4 days by his 50th, next year, or sooner if I gain a permanent job that pays more than £1300.00 a month after tax.

He does work really hard, doing a lot of work for a charity on top of his full time job and he is very involved with DS, so I would love him to be able to cut his hours at work, and it is another incentive for me to get my act together this year x.

sassychick2014

Hi hon

Happy New Year!! Glad to hear you had a lovely Christmas & break and happy to have you back again.

Look forward to seeing how 2015 goes for you. xx

Whitefeather8

Spider Step - 63

My YNAB free trial is ending today, and I have been debating paying for the product, but have decided it is a bit too sophisticated for my needs, as DH controls the majority of the budget, and has his own system which works pretty well.

I need to keep very close track on my budget which is looking like this for January:-

Expenditure January

Food/Groceries/Household £300.00
DS Tutor £140.00
DS Shoes £13.00
Orange £7.70
Insurance £9.75
Miscellaneous £30.00
Total £500.00

This month I am trying a new free app, which was recommended to me, called goodbudget, which is a very simple to use, virtual envelope system. I have loaded my envelopes up and I am ready to go.

I have wages of £437.00 plus a few mystery shopping jobs to cover the £500.00 and the aim is to earn another £200.00 to put towards the training debt at the end of the month.

TTFN x

Whitefeather8

Spider Step 64

DF and I started our 0-5k program this morning and felt completely knackered by the end of it. We have both been guilty of being complete slobs for two weeks and paid the price.

I have all my plans in place for January, but I can't move my mind out of holiday mentality and I am feeling grumpy and irritable and the sofa and a glass of wine are calling to me, but the show must go on, so I shall resist for a few more hours .....

I have had a lovely holiday and I will lose self respect if I don't buck my ideas up and move into a fully productive mentality from tomorrow.

Wish me luck.

TTFN xx.

sassychick2014

Hey lovely

I'm totally with you on the holiday mentality but you must get your backside shifting and your mind moving or you'll kick yourself at the end of January.

Your January plans look good and I'm sure you'll hit, and pass, your targets whilst staying under your budgets.

Agree that you shouldn't buy YNAB if you've already got a system in place. Plus taking advantage of free trials on other apps is always a good way to keep costs low.

Have a great evening Xx

supersaver1000

I kind of agree, but I must say I always think 2 weeks off and I'm firing on full cylinders again but any less and I'm wanting more time off.

Also, pressure from elsewhere always bucks my idea up. I'm going to try and get things done early this year, then I may get them done on time!