Divorcing the debt and the fella.

NotNormal

Bobarella wrote: »

Well done on being at 2% repaid already! You do sound good with figures I have to say which can only be a huge plus for the keeping on top of it front.

Thank you. I love spreadsheets and stuff, I don't know why I didn't do the spreadsheets years ago! Never would have got in this mess.

Hmm I've not done my proud of thing recently. So what am I proud of? Well yesterday I ran out of smoking papers and cat food! I had to nip to the corner shop. I worked out what money I had in the bank £7 + £50 emergency fund. I went to the shop planning all the lovely things I would get, but the second I walked in the door I thought why? I don't need the energy drink at that time of night. I don't need snacks, Dad was cooking dinner. So instead I bought 2 packets of smoking papers and 2 tins of cat food coming in under £2.50 which I paid for using change in my purse. That is the ultimate first for me.

Then today I drew £40 out as I had to run some errands and I knew I would want to swing in the shops. I dropped off the forms that needed handing in. My friend treated me to lunch. Then we headed into a pound shop and I purchased... a 3 pack of PVA glue (I never have any when I need some!) and 2 packs of false nails. A grand total of £3. Then got a 4 pack of bubbles for £2. They are chunkier/more child friendly. I want to put one in the sunny day kids box I'm building for a christmas gift and we have grabbed one each because we are big kids! So £5 spent.

Then nipped in the pub for a cheeky drink as we were both a bit stressed, so I paid for that which came to £5.60. So of the £40 I drew out and prepared to blow I managed to control it and pull it back in and spent £10.60! 60p came out of change in my purse so actually only spent the £10 note. Leaving £30 in my purse. I'm so incredibly proud of myself for that.

And another proud moment. Walking home from the pub I get halfway up the hill and then I can barely shuffle. But today I got over 3/4 of the way up before the pain really kicked in, but I pushed through and made it to the door step before having to sit down and catch my breath. That is a huge accomplishment for me! And my friend even noticed and pointed out I was actually ahead of her at some points. Normally she literally links arms to pull me up the hill!!

So fitness levels must be slowly improving. I have also found a picture of me 6 years ago when I thought I was fat. But I had a lovely body! A little curvy, but gorgeous legs and amazing proportions. I know I weighed approx 10stone then so that is my long term target. I have about 7-8 stone to go to reach that.

So exercise for next week - walking to and from the doctors which is about a 10 minute walk downhill to get there and 10 minutes walk uphill to come home and job centre which is 15-20 minutes uphill there and the same downhill to come back. Which should just about hit my target 60 minute exercise for the week. Perfect!

According to my calculations if I lose a steady 2lb a week I should hit my long term goal in 4.5 years. That's not to bad. It took 6 years to do this damage (although most was in the last year lol).

Next months budget is already filled out ready to go. I've got a £100 budget for groceries so I'm going to give myself £25 a week for groceries. For now I'll do an online shop, but I will see about investing in a backpack so when I do job centre I can go over to asda (I walk past its car park on my way home) and do the weeks shop in there, load up and walk home.

themarsbargirl

Weight, as debt, did not happen overnight and neither will it go away overnight.

Good on you hun!

Bobarella

That is a great result. Impulse control is a learnt behaviour these days when every bit of advertising implies that splurging is better. You only have to listen to campaigns running for this weekend. It's not just a weekend with 1 extra day but 'Your big chance to decorate, do the garden, have a family banquet' the list goes on. Other than here and with certain financial experts the % of messages we hear daily are tilted towards the 'buy now regret later' mentality.
So you should be proud.

NotNormal

themarsbargirl wrote: »

Weight, as debt, did not happen overnight and neither will it go away overnight.

Good on you hun!

Thank you. No that's very true! I'm going to try to slowly up my work outs. So this weekend I got a wii with the wii fitness board. I just need the nunchucks and wii fit game, looks like that should come in at about £12-£15. Which I have sat spare in my account at the moment! So I'm just going to check if there is a better deal around before I order, but if not I'll get them ordered.

Bobarella wrote: »

That is a great result. Impulse control is a learnt behaviour these days when every bit of advertising implies that splurging is better. You only have to listen to campaigns running for this weekend. It's not just a weekend with 1 extra day but 'Your big chance to decorate, do the garden, have a family banquet' the list goes on. Other than here and with certain financial experts the % of messages we hear daily are tilted towards the 'buy now regret later' mentality.
So you should be proud.

Thank you. I am incredibly proud. I am trying to focus on these sort of battles because while paying off debt is the aim of the game, if I can't whip my bad habits into shape I will either end up back in debt or in a dangerous situation of not being able to eat or something.

I'm also trying to make smarter decisions. For example my iPhone is a little sad these days. The home button doesn't work properly, you can barely hear people on the phone and it keeps trying to tell me it has no memory when I do. It's also now started to randomly disconnect me from wifi/3G for no reason. I'm planning to upgrade to the 5S which I could get on contract but instead I've looked at purchasing it myself and I need to save £450-£500. So hopefully I can get that done eventually. It's not a mad rush though because my phone does work it just gets a little frustrating. For now I use headphones/speakers to do the phone calls, hit the home button multiple times until it listens to me, patiently wait for it to reconnect to wifi/3G.

Although I'm now not sure the £200 target for christmas savings will be enough. When I planned the budget I had planned to do a family gift for a family we are close to. But with all the kids now having kids it seems a bit cheeky, there are a couple of new people to buy for and then there are groceries which normally I do out of the grocery budget but really you can't because you could spend a months grocery budget on stuff for christmas!! So I'm going to have to take another look at the figures

NotNormal

Yesterday I accomplished - doctors, supermarket, early night (well midnight-1am, but that's an improvement on 6-7am) and writing a shopping list.

Todays to do -
Sign on
Doctors
Chemist
Tidy Room
Rearrange Room?
Meal Plan for next month
Pre-book my online shop for next month
Floor plan
Redecoration List (I want to get an idea of what I need so I can slowly start buying)
Weight Loss Chart (I'm going to make a chart - in one colour will be the line for my goal weight loss, in one colour will be actual weight loss)
Debt Chart (again one colour for goal and the other for actual)
Pamper (Soak in the bath, deep condition hair, file and paint my nails, face mask etc).

themarsbargirl

I love my 1% chart for my debt

I'm also one that meal plans a month at a time (like, when I'm at home and cooking for myself), it's too boring to do it every week.

NotNormal

NotNormal wrote: »

Yesterday I accomplished - doctors, supermarket, early night (well midnight-1am, but that's an improvement on 6-7am) and writing a shopping list.

Todays to do -
Sign on done
Doctors done
Chemist done
I've also phoned PIP to update address
Tidy Room
Rearrange Room?
Meal Plan for next month
Pre-book my online shop for next month
Floor plan
Redecoration List (I want to get an idea of what I need so I can slowly start buying)
Weight Loss Chart (I'm going to make a chart - in one colour will be the line for my goal weight loss, in one colour will be actual weight loss)
Debt Chart (again one colour for goal and the other for actual)
Pamper (Soak in the bath, deep condition hair, file and paint my nails, face mask etc).

Not sure what to do about the meal plan, I've been referred to a dietician and they don't know when I'll get an appointment. Don't want to get a big shop in only to be given another shopping list lol. So I think I will take that off for the moment. Focus on using up stuff in the cupboards and freezer, then get the house full of nice healthy stuff.

Not sure I'll have the energy to do the tidying/rearranging right now, I will see how I feel later but I'm not too worried if I don't as I did a lot of walking today!

Going to go read and relax, de -stress a little then I'll think about doing some more stuff. Anxiety is it an all time high which means once it fades my other issues are all going to compete for attention which just completely fries my brain and makes me shut down. Ever read the same sentence 30 + times and still not taken in what it says? I feel a little like that right now.

NotNormal

themarsbargirl wrote: »

I love my 1% chart for my debt

I'm also one that meal plans a month at a time (like, when I'm at home and cooking for myself), it's too boring to do it every week.

It really is kind of boring doing a weekly one from scratch. I don't mind so much adapting my monthly one - like changing enchiladas to tacos or spag bol to lasagna but sitting there and doing it every week from nothing? No thanks!

I knew I had seen a percentage chart mentioned somewhere! Mine is basically going to be a graph and a chart so I colour in when I hit each percentage/stick a smiley face sticker (I have these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/960-Children-Smiley-Face-Reward-Stickers-Teacher-Aid-Potty-Training-Chart-School-/171383509161?hash=item27e740d0a9 - 960 for £2!) but as my income is low I can't really pay off 1% at a time, so the idea is with the graph I will sit and plot where I would ideally like to be (based on the snowball calculator) each month, then each month I will plot where I actually am in a different colour and I can see how close I am getting - this should help me work out if cutting back will work e.g. if I'm £10 away from hitting the months goal.

Actually I may see if there is an app on my smartphone, then whenever I see something and think well its only £X I can look at my chart and remind myself that £X will bring my closer to my goal for the month.

I've had a hectic week so I haven't really been on, I will nip across and catch up on your diary now (: xx

themarsbargirl

http://www.highfield-inf.bromley.sch.uk/Content/docs/1-100%20squarecmr.pdf

here is one you can print for free

I'm in the same place with the overall debt, so I choose one debt at a time that I am focusing on (paying more than the minimum too, selling stuff, surveys etc to make extra payments) and just do the 1% challenge on that particular debt while paying just the minimums off the others.

I know what you mean with anxiety and other symptoms competeting, I get that a lot too.

Maybe have a look through the cupboards and freezer and meal plan from that to see how many meals you have and can inventively make? (I'm great at that sort of thing if you wanted to send me a list...)

NotNormal

themarsbargirl wrote: »

http://www.highfield-inf.bromley.sch.uk/Content/docs/1-100%20squarecmr.pdf

here is one you can print for free

I'm in the same place with the overall debt, so I choose one debt at a time that I am focusing on (paying more than the minimum too, selling stuff, surveys etc to make extra payments) and just do the 1% challenge on that particular debt while paying just the minimums off the others.

I know what you mean with anxiety and other symptoms competeting, I get that a lot too.

Maybe have a look through the cupboards and freezer and meal plan from that to see how many meals you have and can inventively make? (I'm great at that sort of thing if you wanted to send me a list...)

Ooo I didn't think of that. I could have an overall percentage paid off chart thing and then mini ones in each debt section? I'm going to start a ring binder that holds all my debt information in it's own sections. Then any time I'm sorting out a debt it will all be together, then I can add the "you've paid it all!" letters/emails to that section and when all are paid I can file it away. Then should anyone call me up for owing money (like this bleeding TMobile debt!) I have the information that shows what's paid, when it's paid etc and I can tell them to sod off :P

That and I really like organising things lol.

I haven't accomplished anything else since I posted on here. My ex has reared his head again which promptly caused everything to hit a stand still. Luckily a friend of mine was immediately on the phone to me making me laugh again and he reminded me that chances are my ex is either fishing for information or trying to cause me to meltdown. Well no thank you! I spent an hour on the phone laughing until my jaw hurt. Then had my best mate over and ate spaghetti bolognese until I was stuffed. Now I'm updating this and trying to decide whether to go for a lovely soak in the bath after all. I could still accomplish that pamper section of the to do list after all :P

Oh and when I was searching through my eBay purchase history for the sticker link I discovered it when it was I purchased my filters (I got a pack of 20 boxes) so now I can work out how long the remaining should last me so I can work that into my budget! Check me out, being all organised! I also think I've just about figured out what to get most of the family for christmas, just a few more to chose for.

And I have a deadline for getting this flat organised how I want! I have an old friend (known them since school!!) coming to visit in August! So I really must have things moved around etc before then!

And yes I really really must create a proper pantry list, I know some of the stuff in the cupboards and freezer and I have a meal plan to do me until pay day. But I'm thinking I may see how far I can push that, get them empty and then restock with healthy stuff.

Speaking of healthy, have you heard of musclefood? They sell meat etc. All high protein, low fat stuff. It's lovely!! They have an offer on for new customers giving you £150 worth of meat for £75. All great quality and they have sent me a text, their mince is on offer 99p a pack for up to 7 packs per customer! I stocked up when they had that offer on the other month, I still have loads because I keep buying reduced mince etc while shopping!! I'm terrible!