22 months to work, dig, tidy and declutter my way to debt freedom

peaceandfreedom

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

Meanie. My OH finally listed three or four things on ebay. I deliberately don't have an account. If he can do it, anyone can. Our things are on for 10 days. Go on, see who can get most back.

It might happen, you never know. I thoroughly resent their fees these days, as well as all the shyster buyers who are poised to rip off every poor soul trying to raise a few quid.

By the way, I like that bit in your sig:
determined to stop defining myself by my mistakes.
I need to follow a bit of that advice myself .

tattycath

peaceandfreedom wrote: »

Yang - that's another way of putting it (darned autocorrect, eh? ).

I am in complete agreement on the cash thing. It is also makes spending much more 'real' - parting with those lovely notes makes you think a bit harder about it.

My money is in lots of virtual pots in YNAB and I keep tabs on it all to make sure that it all adds up and that the money stashed away in the savings account does actually add up to all those budget categories. I love it .

Yes, there is a lot to be said for proofreading before posting too! :rotfl::rotfl:

peaceandfreedom

So how did I do - (by the way, I counted today (Monday) in the weekend as I had today off. We'll overlook the time taken out of today to have coffee and a chat with a friend, and we will also overlook the time spent making a truly scrummy-looking Christmas cake (just a small one, mind) .

• Housework - all needs a clean and tidy, especially bathrooms. Nope, I always leave housework until last and while I did some housework, I didn't do the bathrooms 'cos I bloody hate doing them .
• Three things up for sale - that's all, just three things - I can do that, can't I ? I dare say I can, but not this weekend
• Declutter the dining-room and tidy up all the bits and bobs scattered about in various storage boxes. BIG FAT YESSSS!! Took almost two whole days but boy was it worth it. Took a car-load of stuff to charity shop and tip too :dance:
• Study some of my online courses. Errr, that always was over ambitious.
• Do the clothes mending. Yup .
• Dye the couple of things that need to be a proper black colour. Well, I was about to do that but I couldn't find the dye and salt. They are in the garage somewhere.
• Start on decluttering the garage. Yes, did really well but loads more to do.
• Try to get in one decent walk, in between the downpours. Nah, it wasn't so much the rain as the gale-force winds. My walks are always through forests before I get to the open hills and I am not walking through a forest in a gale. BUT I did clock up a lot of steps on my Fitbit, well over 12K per day, so not too bad.

Overall, I am reasonably pleased. Today absolutely didn't work out as planned and I had another mega-low mood this evening which I've now snapped out of again.

I think the low moods are menopausal / hormonal things, if I keep getting them I think I'll check it out with the GP.

Have a nice Tuesday everyone .

blubella

peaceandfreedom wrote: »

Overall, I am reasonably pleased. Today absolutely didn't work out as planned and I had another mega-low mood this evening which I've now snapped out of again.

I think the low moods are menopausal / hormonal things, if I keep getting them I think I'll check it out with the GP.

Have a nice Tuesday everyone .

I am in the same boat, gone through an early menopause...and my mood in the last 2 years has been low, my anxiety high and don't start me on the sleepness nights, itching skin and hot flashes! :mad:

I haven't resorted to HRT as I like to keep things natural but a work colleague was raving about it..calls it her miracle pill! I was certainly tempted..! Have you tried it?

peaceandfreedom

blubella wrote: »

I am in the same boat, gone through an early menopause...and my mood in the last 2 years has been low, my anxiety high and don't start me on the sleepness nights, itching skin and hot flashes! :mad:

I haven't resorted to HRT as I like to keep things natural but a work colleague was raving about it..calls it her miracle pill! I was certainly tempted..! Have you tried it?

No I haven't yet but I am also becoming tempted now. What put me off was two things:

1. The fact that HRT merely delays the onset of symptoms - you've got to stop HRT at some stage and then the symptoms come back with a vengeance.
2. My GP said that it is believed that a lot of the good effects of HRT are placebo-effects.

But I am having the same symptoms as you. The hot flushes I can deal with (cardigan on, cardigan off, cardigan on, cardigan off - now we know why ladies of a certain age love their cardies ). I also enjoyed that brief spell of cold weather recently - you could find me outside the back door wafting my top up and down .

The poor sleep I can probably cope with as long as I get myself to bed in good time (I often don't).

But the low moods are something else again, they are so frequent and unpredictable now. But I will leave it for another while I think, ensure I eat well, sleep well and exercise a lot. I will re-assess in the Spring. I always find this time of year pretty depressing anyway and once the snowdrops and crocuses start appearing, I cheer up.

Thing is, I'm not miserable all the time, I just have these patches of despair, distress, guilt, regret, woe-is-me - all completely futile but I can't seem to stop it happening.

I am unhappy in a lot of ways, to be honest, which probably contributes to the low mood, and HRT is not going to solve those problems for me .

supersaver1000

I've been having the same 'should I or shouldn't I' debate about HRT. I'm just not happy about messing with my hormones. I got a little USB fan for my desk at work and that really helped in the summer. Now it's lack of sleep that I'm trying to cope with.

I really want to exercise more, eat healthily, drink loads of water and lose a few pounds before I give in to the drugs. I always find I get hot if I need a wee - what's that all about?! I read somewhere it's about your body trying to remove products because we no longer have periods to do that. Kind of makes sense, so keeping your insides and outsides healthy must be good. I'll try anything.

Mood changes are awful, I feel like I'm coming out of mine a little and I just keep reminding myself it's a mood swing which will pass. Trouble is I turn to chocolate (which helps in one way, but not with the healthy bit) 😮

kirtsypoos

Hope you start to feel better soon, I was put into a temporary menopause a few years ago and you have my complete sympathy - I don't think I slept properly for a year and when I did I soaked the sheets from hot flushes. Hanging out of car windows was a favourite past time!

I'd have killed someone for HRT at the time but because of my age they were reluctant to give it, and now I'm glad I didn't go for it so I know where you are coming from - hopefully you feel better once the longer days start coming back and won't need it

jwil

Hey P&F, I haven't been any good at posting recently, but do read as well. Definitely not talking to yourself!

You have done really well with the decluttering, I agree that sometimes it's just better to get rid, especially if you don't overly need the cash.

I'll try and post more often again

brizzledfw

Popping by....sorry re the moods. Maybe try the HRT?

Sleep is good though (I def need more) and agree re decluttering. In fact thinking on it, I will try and shed 100 items before 2016..that should get me working through the rooms (unless I simply grab the lot from the kids rooms..am not sure they would ever notice :rotfl:) but think the kitchen could do with some weeding out of items..CS v happy when I went round last time !

peaceandfreedom

Hi all - thanks for the replies. I've not been on MSE much in the past week or so, gadding about again and generally knackered. I plan to come back properly over the Christmas holidays when I have two whole weeks off :j.

I am going to have to find a cardigan to eat though because ain't way I will be honestly able to call the place decluttered by the end of the year. It's probably going to be a shortbread cardigan though .

I have been free of low moods for a little while now, which is a relief, but sleep is still terrible, I am permanently exhausted. Sometimes it's my own fault for going to be bed too late (or perhaps, VERY occasionally knocking back too much Prosecco ) so I need to work harder to get to bed on time.

In fact, should be going to bed right now - so night all, will pop back soon .