My Six Week Wedding Challenge

danielle24

Please let me know if this is the wrong place to post this!

My sister is getting married in October. In exactly six weeks today I will be flying to Australia just in time for her hen's night. I can't fit into my dress properly and I don't have any money set aside!

So I am setting myself a challenge: to lose 4-5kg weight and have £600 in my travel bank account by 23rd of October. :j

Part One of Challenge:

Since I moved in with my OH a couple of months back the weight has crept on a bit. I am up to 74.5kg or 11.7 stone. I have bought a beautiful tight olive green satin shift dress with matching jacket in the sales which makes me look absolutely amazing if I say so myself.

The problem is - I bought this when I was 71kg and I really need to be 70kg to look spot on. I am around 10k overweight for my height anyway but I like my tummy so not stressing about getting to 65kg!

So I need to lost around 4kg in six weeks - very doable with some discipline!

Second Part of My Challenge:

I also need money for Australia. I am by no means in financial doggy do but I am really bad at not spending money. I buy a can of pop here, a little milky bar there and it all adds up. If I could just not spend this money I'd be fine for Australia. Last time I travelled home a few years ago I just stuck it all on my CC, inc the airfare, and it took me two years to pay off! So I know I need to go over there with money saved, not go into debt! :eek:

I've already paid for the airfare thanks to a very welcome refund of bank charges from HSBC! Hurrah for MSE!

I need £600 because I am home for nearly a month. I've got free accomodation at the parent's place and various friends. But I need to travel around the country as well as ship back the last of my stuff to the UK seeings as I've become a permanent pom!

SOA

Income:
£1370 after season ticket salary sacrifice of £240
£? MS - fluctuates but I earnt £150 after expenses and tax last month.

My outgoings:
£575 each to joint account to cover all utilities
All below for both of us:
Rent - £775
Gas - £30
Electricity - £30
Council Tax - £146
Water - £34
TV Licence - £12
Virgin - £37 (broadband and phone)
Total £1064
Leaves £86 for everything else such as food).
£100 each approx all other food, cleaning stuff etc
£40 every 6 weeks haircut - this is sometimes nothing if I can get student haircut).
£30 mobile phone bill, 18 month Orange contract, six months to go. When it's finished I am going PAYG. This was great when I didn't live with my boyf as the Magic Numbers deal covered all our phone calls).
£196.75 Natwest Loan - £10k over 5 years, 4 years and 10 months to go, consolidated debts I had in Australia and UK).

Debts:
£10k Natwest Loan
£1200 on HSBC CC (£2k limit) - I put all MS earnings straight onto this card

Balance:
£469

So as you can see I have quite a bit left over for clothes, going out etc. I haven't included clothes in my regular outgoings as I haven't bought any in six months thanks to this *** weather! I have plenty of stuff to wear already. My season ticket is taken from my salary before I am paid.

My big problem is that I keep spending little bits and bobs right through the month. I need to stop buying coffee and diet coke and biscuits and booze and all those other things. And it's these extra things that are causing my weight to shoot up!

My main challenge is to stay away from those sweets! :lipsrseal

I have thought about keeping my debit and credit card at home and giving myself an allowance of £30 for each week. If I didn't buy Diet Coke and milky bars this is more than enough! I eat leftovers for lunch anyway.

Sorry for dragging this on, but would anyone mind if I kept a little diary on here for the next six weeks? I'll be recording my weight every Tuesday. Every day I will be writing down everything I spend my money on and on Tuesdays I'll also record the balance of my savings account. If I do this publically I'll be more likely to stick to my challenge!

If anyone wants to join me on my challenge they'd be more than welcome!


So: Today's Weight: 74.5kg
Today's Savings balance: £0!

duchy

What a fab trip to target for-always nice to have a good incentive

Those coffees (with milk and sugar?), bottles of pop and the sweeties...you have a double incentive with those -money AND weight. If you have a sweet tooth that needs satisfying think about plain chocolate-higher cocoa and less sugar -for those absolutely MUST have a sweet something fix. Booze -well that's straight on the hips. Could you try a booze free week and "replace" it with fizzy water ? If you see a big result in both targets you'll have a good incentive to keep it going.
Got any stuff to ebay ? One of my most unexpected ebay sales was a tatty pub tin tray I found in my cellar when I moved in. Stuck it on at 99p and it make more than £20 and a nice email from the buyer who had it in his bar in his basement in his house in the US. He was thrilled with it LOL
I think taking out a cash spending money amount is better than cards-Seems to make me think more about what I'm spending when it's "real" money rather than plastic.
Good luck with your challenge-I'd offer to join you but I'm off to New York and Ohio on the 31st so every day is non spend until I go

(Land_of)_Maz

Good luck with the challenge!

I'll subscribe to your thread to see how you are doing! No pressure then, eh?!

danielle24

duchy wrote: »

What a fab trip to target for-always nice to have a good incentive

Those coffees (with milk and sugar?), bottles of pop and the sweeties...you have a double incentive with those -money AND weight. If you have a sweet tooth that needs satisfying think about plain chocolate-higher cocoa and less sugar -for those absolutely MUST have a sweet something fix. Booze -well that's straight on the hips. Could you try a booze free week and "replace" it with fizzy water ? If you see a big result in both targets you'll have a good incentive to keep it going.
Got any stuff to ebay ? One of my most unexpected ebay sales was a tatty pub tin tray I found in my cellar when I moved in. Stuck it on at 99p and it make more than £20 and a nice email from the buyer who had it in his bar in his basement in his house in the US. He was thrilled with it LOL
I think taking out a cash spending money amount is better than cards-Seems to make me think more about what I'm spending when it's "real" money rather than plastic.
Good luck with your challenge-I'd offer to join you but I'm off to New York and Ohio on the 31st so every day is non spend until I go

I think I've ebayed everything I had when I was really broke last year when I was studying! I even sold my ex's skateboard for £30 which was really handy (he was my ex from three years ago BTW, not after I sold his board!). I have summer clothes I want rid of but they won't sell in this weather.

I've got plenty of books but selling them on Amazon just hasn't been worth it - I usually barely make £1 per book after PP and fees. Not worth it unless I sell several a week! Anyone suggest any other places to flog books?

I drink Diet Coke but that doesn't help does it? It's still 60p a pop! I kid myself that a 15p milky bar is OK but if I do that three times a day it's NOT!
I've just got to get in the habit of not spending - I can easily spend £4 a day on coffee and sweets - I think the only way is to give my cards to my OH and give myself an allowance!

duchy

Coffee and sweets £30 per week so £30 multipied by 6 weeks =£180 !!!
That's one third of your target nearly !! (Does that help?)
How about carbooting your books ?

Verbatim

Other peeps on here sell books on Green metropolis. I haven't but think they sell at a fixed price per book, £3.50 I think, but check.

Little_Pickle

c'mon Danielle!!! You can do it... I've subscribed too... we'll pop in and give you some encouragement from time to time...

I'll start now...

DANI!!!! STEP AWAY FROM THE MILKY BAR!!!!

danielle24

I've just had my last Milky Bar. I stood in front of my office and said that if they saw me with chocolate or a soft drink in the next six weeks they were to confiscate it!

I've also registered with Green Metropolis - I'll give that a go!

spud30

Danielle,

There are quite a few of us already doing a diet challenge on here - why dont you join us.

I'll see if I can find the thread and give it a bump up the lists, but you'd be very welcome to join in :T

SPANIEL36

hey, good luck with everything, i too am looking to lose weigt, 2.5lb in a week is a start, took the dog out for a walk first time in ages today (poor dog!!) each time you want a can of pop or milky bar then stop yourself and put the money in a separate purse to go towards your fund. instead of pop what about squash??( sugar free of course) make up a few bottles before you go to bed ready for the next morning then they should curb your pop cravings.

all the very best with this

LookingAhead

Good luck! A lovely target to aim for.

Get as much free exercise as you can - walking in your lunch break, jogging up & down in the advert breaks (I kid you not), dancing around the house when you have it to yourself - it all adds up.

DRINK LOTS OF WATER - it helps with weight loss and your skin will thank you for it too.

Keep posting your progress - this will be a good one to keep an eye on!