Paid off the £31,000! BUT - still scrimping!

Munchin

Thanks SSG - my danger time is the same, always when I get in from work and before dinner. Have drunk a pint of water but my nephews mini choc eggs are calling to me ..... must resist

Seasidegal58

Don't succumb Muchin!:rotfl: This 5:2 malarky is paying off though – I lost another 3lb when I got on the scales yesterday morning!:j

Yesterday I had to stock up on stamps - £8.04 for 12 first-class! I think I'm going to have to start using second class for birthday cards, etc – the price of stamps is getting ridiculous. I buy first-class because sometimes I tend to post cards the day before they should get to the recipient. If I organised myself better I could send them a few days before and use second-class stamps! Anyway, the cost came out of the Gifts pot.

Re: Ad Hoc Spends- a 99p download from Itunes yesterday – I heard an old Francoise Hardy song played on the TV the other night that I really liked so I downloaded the track.

And - today it was my turn to buy the coffees in Pret - £5.10.

No other spends envisaged for today.

Tonight for dinner I'm trying out a butternut squash risotto made in the microwave which I saw on 'Eat Well for Less' last week. Only takes 15 minutes so ideal for when I get home from work.

PPI news: I received a letter from RBS to say that that the company I indicated in my PPI claim had no affiliation with them! Was a bit confused as I didn't have an RBS credit card and did not claim through them on Resolver! After checking, the only company that would have been connected with them where I held a credit card was NatWest. So I hunted down NatWest's own PPI claim website and have put through my claim again.

The loan claim forms have also been posted so hope to hear something back in the next few weeks.

Still waiting to hear from the other CC companies.

Cleaning Project: Amongst the latest categories were Stairs and Dining Room – don’t have these! Also tonight is cleaning the Hallway. My Hallway is tiny so it won't take long to get through this tonight! Organising task is "Paperwork" though – this will be left till the weekend so I have time to go through it, although hopefully it won't take too long. Daily Maintenance is going over the Laundry Room – you know the one I don't have.:D

System

I agree postage is so expensive, I need to post 2 cards this week and they are both going 2nd class.

The PPI can be a little hit and miss by the sound of it , just keep plugging away .

The cleaning makes me laugh I don't have a dining room or a laundry but do have stairs as I have upstairs flat but with my own front door from the pavement . You are doing really well with your dieting , you will need smaller clothes soon, an excuse to go shopping , or maybe you have clothes in a smaller size already.
Have a good afternoon .

arsenalbarnie

Wow SSG am lurking and am seriously impressed with your weightloss (and your money saving and cleaning!). What sort of things do you eat on a fast day? I read the fast800 book but can't even seem to stick to 800 cals on a fast day. Am doing the 16:8 though which I can seem to stick to as long as I don't open the wine bottle!

Seasidegal58

Hi Cumbria – It's the last day of the Cleaning project tomorrow and both today's and tomorrow's tasks relate to the Home Office – which again I don't possess! So apart from the paperwork organising, which I'm leaving till the weekend, it's all finished! It's not been too bad this time because I'd sorted out the kitchen after the refit at the end of last year so there wasn't a lot to do in there. I might do it again in the summer just to keep things up to date. However, one thing that wasn't covered in the book was the cupboard that I have in the hall that houses my boiler, ironing board, home tools and quite a bit of junk! This really does need a good sort-out/organisation so I think I will do this on Sunday.

Re. fitting into smaller clothes – I do have quite a few bits in the next-down size so don't envisage buying too much – plus I don't really want to as I hope to get even smaller as the weeks/months progress! I was hoping to see a result by trying on my tight jeans after I weighed myself on Monday but they still feel a bit tight! Obviously this is going to take longer than I thought!

Hi arsenalbarnie :hello: Thank you for de-lurking! I'm pretty spartan on my 500 calorie days – I miss breakfast and have two hard-boiled eggs and an apple for lunch. In the evening I have a soup (200 calories or under) and a ryvita with a scraping of low-fat spread (and I mean a scraping!). This gives me an allowance for some semi-skimmed milk in my coffees at work (I usually have two per day). And lots of water! Not very exciting I'm afraid, but it's been working for me. As I've mentioned before the main thing is that I carry out the low calorie days on working days because then I'm busy and don't think about food too much! Plus I don't have to worry about dinner too much as the soup goes straight into the microwave to heat up!

Today was a big spend day! My main Christmas gift to DSis was a ticket to the new Gloria Estefan musical that's due to open this summer. I've been waiting for her to give me some dates, which she has finally done now that she's worked out dates for their holiday. So I've booked two tickets as I want to see it too. Again the same old story - they're good West End seats so the usual ridiculous price! I did put away roughly what I thought the cost of her ticket would be from the 2018 Christmas budget, but I do have to buy my own too so the Entertainment budget for next month has completely gone down the drain and will have to be subsidised from next month's salary.

I also raided it for this week's Odeon trip – off to see "If Beale Street Could Talk' on Sunday

Also the Toiletries/Make-Up pot got a caning today as there was a 20% discount on Bobbie Brown products via a code on the weekly MSE email, but it had to be used by tonight. I use her lip liner in 'Rose' for my go-to product as I find it stays on well but is soft to draw on. As I've only half a pencil left I thought I might as well buy it now at the reduced price.

Apart from the above, no Ad Hoc Spends today, which is just as well!:(

I think I will get back under the bedclothes now so I can't spend any more this week!:eek:

Seasidegal58

Last night I had my nail appointment but apart from that no other spends at all yesterday.

A friend of mine was in the vicinity this lunchtime so I've just met her for coffees - £5.10 in Pret from the Ad Hoc spends. I've also had to pay an extra £3.10 on top of my usual O2 monthly mobile bill as I accidentally rang back two 08 numbers (they were offering to sort your PPI out! I thought they were from BUPA!) - so this came from Ad Hoc as well.

Work has been steady this week – but no big flaps fortunately.

PPI Update: To add to the RBS/NatWest credit card confusion, I received a letter from NatWest the other day dated 7 February informing me that they were looking into my query and would get back with an answer before 2 April! So this was sent before I applied again on their website! So still not sure why I got a letter from RBS!

Apart from that haven't heard anything else.

So not much to report. Won't be spending anything else today. Thankful that it's the weekend coming up!

Sun_Addict

You're doing really well with the 5:2. It's all about finding what works for you.

Have a fab weekend

Seasidegal58

Thanks SA.

Today I bought food for the food bank and dropped it into the cafe. I also bought yoghurt, fruit and tomatoes for me. And a birthday card for DSis and OH's great-niece. All budgeted for from various pots.

I met a friend for a quick coffee and scone - £4.20 and had to buy six LED lights, which came to £17! These both had to come out of the Ad Hoc pot.

Got back home this afternoon and fell asleep! So I've not sorted out the paperwork yet! I've set the recorder for the second series of 'Trapped' tonight and will be watching that.

I heard today that my friend in hospital is feeling very down. . She has asked for no visitors except for her husband at the moment. It's going to be a long hard road for her.

PPI Update: I received letters from Tesco and Barclaycard yesterday confirming that I've never had PPI with them. Which is what I suspected.

in_need_of_direction

When my friend was dealing with her cancer, there was one stage where she would only allow her husband to visit. I wrote her a letter, probably filled with inane ramblings, but she really appreciated it and put it in her memory box. It’s just a thought

Seasidegal58

That's a really thoughtful idea inod. Thank you so much:T. I'll have to have a good think of what I can write but I'll definitely do it. When I read some of the well-written articulate posts on this board I feel I'll never reach that standard, but I'll give it a go. . Like your friend I hope my pal will take some comfort from it.

A beautiful sunny spring-like day today in Seasideville. I walked through the park earlier to Aldi. Lots of people over there - out walking, playing sport and with their families and dogs. All the crocuses were out and the estuary glittering away in the background. All looked lovely.

I bought coffee pods, washing tablets, some soups and eggs. Also I thought I'd try some of their sirloin steak for next weekend. I've not tried their steak before. So I bought a small portion. I've cut down quite a bit on meat since starting the 5:2 but thought I would have some red meat once a week to keep up with the B12!

Just putting me feet up before I start the dreaded paperwork! The glory hole cupboard will have to wait till next weekend as I'm off to the cinema later.