Changing habits, wanting freedom

Honey_Bear

Glad to hear you've got the freezer stocked up so that you can knock the takeaway thing on the head again. There's no doubt it's a habit and once we get used to the idea it's an option it sort of hangs around as an option, a bit like the last guest to leave at the end of a party.

How is the smoking thing going?

jvr

So first of all.... that random payment I thought was some old life insurance turns out to be my building and contents insurance haha I knew this had come up before and I obviously realised at the time and then forgot again! its due for renewal and hoping for cheaper as I think we are over insured.


So smoking...... I swore I would try stop when the last of my duty free ran out as there really isn't spare money in the budget. Anyway I didn't and got angry and stressed at myself. But why do I go from 15-20 a day to nothing but Nicorette and expect it to be fine? So I am now having one in the morning and none at work and then I have been having about 4 in the evening... so I am allowing myself that this week.. the challenge will be the weekend but I think will say one in morning and none till 4pm.... my plan is next week to then cut the morning one out and do a week of 4 in the evening and then three and then two and then hopefully quit....... so I will be honest and accountable to this plan here!


Pancake day was awesome especially as my mum did all the work so other than cigs I spent nothing 1 week till pay day!

SpekySquarehead

Apologies JVR I've been absent.

On the smoking front. I'm not one myself, so feel free to disregard but my colleague quit. He's a se;f-confessed nerd, and before quitting he read like 8 different books to understand the mental of it all. He quit by slowly cutting down, and then switching to vaping (more cost effective too) and then going nicotine free liquids then to nothing!

Easier said than, done, I know.

Honey_Bear

jvr wrote: »

So smoking...... I swore I would try stop when the last of my duty free ran out as there really isn't spare money in the budget. Anyway I didn't and got angry and stressed at myself. But why do I go from 15-20 a day to nothing but Nicorette and expect it to be fine? So I am now having one in the morning and none at work and then I have been having about 4 in the evening... so I am allowing myself that this week.. the challenge will be the weekend but I think will say one in morning and none till 4pm.... my plan is next week to then cut the morning one out and do a week of 4 in the evening and then three and then two and then hopefully quit....... so I will be honest and accountable to this plan here!

It's a tough one, stopping smoking. It took me several attempts over 20 years before I cracked it and I smoked for 30 years. I tried everything available - acupuncture, hypnotism and patches more than once and always went back to to the dreaded weed. I always said I'd give up if I had a cancer scare, and that turned out not to be enough, either.

Very surprisingly, when I did stop I just went cold turkey. If you find yourself unwell, so unwell that you don't smoke for 24 or 36 hours that's enough to get the nicotine out of your system - after that, all you're doing is dealing with the addiction by not allowing yourself to smoke again, and the habit.

The habit is seriously underestimated as part of the reason we find it so difficult. We're not 20 a day creatures, or 5 a day on your current regime, the habit is every puff we take.

I used to smoke to reward myself or to help me relax so it was hardly surprising that I found stopping just a teensy bit stressful. I decided to have chocolate instead and that got me through the first two weeks after which all the bad temper and general anger, plus the rest of the withdrawal symptoms disappeared. I've never quite lost the extra 12 pounds I put on and it was 10 years ago but I'm not obese by any measure, it's just that I used to be slim. I can live with that.

A lot of people have said that reading books about stopping helped enormously. If I did it again I'd definitely read my way through it; books made all the difference when I stopped drinking.

Good luck with it.

jvr

Confession I had cigs today... important thing is to start again tomorrow so trying not to beat myself up... I do think your both right and I'm gonna look at books while trying to cut down.
I need a smoking LBM!!


Financials... we are skint and pay day is Wednesday but should scrape by. We went for a drink last night and then I got the M&S dine in for £20 which is actually not that great a value compared to the £10, however I was using vouchers I got for switching banks so cost me nothing
Today I just need petrol and we have stuff in for dinner

jvr

So £18 on petrol leaves the food and petrol budget nearly empty but have £16 on M&S card so if need bits can grab from there... might go late tonight and see what the yellow stickers are saying!
finally my £16 from work expenses came through so I have £25 in my budget, meeting a friend on Tuesday as she is in the country for a few days so that should allow me an dinner and drink with her, then Wednesday is pay day!! It will actually be the first ever month I stuck to budgets OH has about £5 left but is making my sister a gorgeous wine rack out of pallets and can keep the funds for himself.


Feeling positive my brekkie sandwich is £1.70 today and my dad is taking me to lunch, have stuff in for dinner so shouldn't be any other spends.

jvr

Forgot to add had my one morning cig and made sure I didn't bring any to work even though OH tried to push me to... back on the plan!

Honey_Bear

Well done, JVR. Do you find posting every day is helping keep you on the straight and narrow?

jvr

Yes, completely. I'm checking my spreadsheet every day too so I can see the dent we are making. I have savings pots for everything now on it and it means even though some bits are in same accounts I can see I have £1/£300 holiday fund for example. Can't wait till pay day so can confirm total paid off so far. I also just discovered a £20 refund on our travel card that was duplicated at the end of our trip. Luckily didn't have much money on there for them to take but it means won't have to totally scrimp last few days.
I forgot last night we changed broadband too, been meaning to do it for ages and then when the bt deal came up it seemed great. OH will likely be fairly immobile after his op so bt sport might be good! it works out at £29 a month, we were paying £34 but in two months can claim the £95 mastercard and £50 cash back
need to finish elecy transfer and do home insurance this weekend then next month is car insurance and will wait for my cashback in the summer!

jvr

Morning

Spends this weekend!!!8230; wow memory is bad! None more Friday night, then did park run on Saturday morning and was totally exhausted wanted a takeaway but had leftovers instead (win) Sunday I went up to the butcher as my friend was coming for breakfast. I got bacon, a huge tray of sausages and a big tray of salt and pepper chicken legs and some oven cakes for £7 which I don!!!8217;t think is bad at all! So had food to keep us going. Having easy food in means takaways have totally gone down. Need to update signature when get paid tomorrow, slightly in overdraft on food account but better than have ever done before so im taking it as a win and I know what let us down