£15,000 to 0

Silver_Queen

See, I was planning to just stick to IKEA stuff really but it's actually way more expensive than I thought...I have a few bits and pieces that I could bring from here but they're definitely "student furniture" in that they're all odd bits and pieces that are slightly broken but mostly work for their function so I've not bothered to replace.

Also debating just buying piece by piece as and when I can afford it, but worried that'll result in not enough storage messiness.

I had been drawn in to the Eve/Leesa/Simba mattresses but I recently got a mattress topper and I'm actually pretty satisfied with it, so I don't know if I'll go down that route anymore. Being hunched over at a desk for most of the day has done terrible things for my posture and my shoulders especially, and I get a lot of back pain now so I was hoping a mattress would help that, but I feel like actual exercise would be cheaper and also just as helpful.

Had a largely productive day today but then realised there's a new episode of my favourite show on Netflix, and then got caught on a Netflix spiral. This means I only did 1 hour of work today rather than the anticipated 3, but I will try to do another half hour after I've written this so that I can actually count decent work done.

Achievements today (besides getting out of bed and getting dressed, of course)

• Hoovered the house
• Changed sheets and washed the previous ones
• Mountains of laundry x 3
• Bought AND made lunch for Monday-Thursday for £6.51, which included a cheeky box of Magnum ice creams since it was so hot today
• Did 1 hour of work.
• This counts as half an achievement - dug out some old textbooks for WeBuyBooks but unfortunately it only reaches £4.91 which is a whole 9p under the minimum threshold for an order, how annoying!
• Watered my houseplants and gave them a little bit of TLC. Until recently I had a black thumb and I'm now calling it a grey-ish thumb.
• Took out the bins.
• Listed some stuff for sale, although I'm not sure how well it will sell.
• Emptied, cleaned and re-stocked both my day to day handbag and my large weekend bag.
• Actually remembered to burn some candles I already had instead of thinking about how much I love candles and then trying to buy more candles rather than getting through my stash.
• Still managed to relax a bit! Had a long bath, used a posh body scrub that I got for free when I last bought sanitary items (weird, right?) and then actually used some of my giant stash of moisturisers. Feel like a new woman!

Things I didn't manage to do

• Update my bullet journal. Is it weird that making a cohesive to-do list and weekly plan is on my to-do list? I just really like making lists and it makes me happy to have a bright, buttery, sunshine yellow notebook to do it in.
• The other 2 hrs of work I was supposed to do. I'm a bit bitter about working so many hours for a basic rate with no overtime, but it comes with the territory and I don't mind too much. I have my health and youth, at this stage in my life I have the energy and time to put in the extra hours.
• Syllabus plan for my boyfriend. Must touch base with him about this. He hates it when I go all business mode on him but he knows that I know best
• Attempt #2 at dyeing my dress black. I have the dye, I just don't want to do it today because chances are, it will end up sitting in the tub for ages because I'll be too lazy to get it out and deal with it.
• STILL have not found out my avios details. Need to do this but it isn't urgent, since we are no longer planning to go on a[nother] holiday this year. We can't really afford it, we've only been back from Greece for a month and a half and we both need to save for our imminent moves.
• Exchanged a perfume that I got as a gift. I'm very grateful for the thought, but I don't like the perfume, so the plan is to exchange it for something I'll actually use. It was bought in Boots so my head says to be sensible and buy shampoo or deodorant or toothpaste, but I'll probably end up buying something frivolous like candles or make up...Saving this for when I go into the next town over which has a bigger Boots.
• Also need to check what needs posting back to the boyfriend after he apparently left half of his possessions and probably his left kidney here last week.

Debt Totals & Account Balances - 11/06/2017

• Amex: positive balance of £27.49 but waiting for two transactions of £22.50 and £45.00 respectively to clear. Actual Balance: -£40.01
• Parental Loan: £13,250
• Natwest Overdraft: £1,953.73 Available Balance: £16.27
• Nationwide FlexDirect: £1,200
• Help to Buy: £401
• Cash: About £27 with £10 owed to me from my younger sister.

That unexpected expense of buying things for my sister's prom has really thrown me off this month. I had been hoping that I could continue to save £200 a month as usual but it looks like it may be less this month. I currently have about £44 in total in my "spends" account with about £30 coming my way from my sister and WeBuyBooks so I should be fine if no other expenses come up, besides AA which is about £7 and budgeted for.

I've been trying to keep up with Prolific Academic because I actually enjoy the surveys and they pay quite well. However, I've noticed that a lot of my surveys aren't being approved and so the payment is just in limbo. Bit annoying but I've heard it auto approves after 21 days I'm not too worried. Also doing onepoll but don't get surveys that often from there anymore, and I feel like they're getting longer and longer for less and less money. Still at £12.70 for onepoll so a long way off payoff but it's worth keeping up with it for the little bit of extra spending money I get from it.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend.

Treadingonplaymobil

Sounds like a productive weekend! Don't be too put off by things going awry on budgeting (surprised by your sister's prom) - it's taken us a good four months of budgeting to begin to get to grips with our budget and uncover all those unexpected spends that we forgot to budget for. Many many categories have been added since our LBM in Feb.

I couldn't function without my bullet journal! I make 5 mins morning and 10 mins evening to do it, and use it throughout the day to schedule my time out as well as just writing lists. Every evening before bed I write my to do list for the next day.

Silver_Queen

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

Sounds like a productive weekend! Don't be too put off by things going awry on budgeting (surprised by your sister's prom) - it's taken us a good four months of budgeting to begin to get to grips with our budget and uncover all those unexpected spends that we forgot to budget for. Many many categories have been added since our LBM in Feb.

I couldn't function without my bullet journal! I make 5 mins morning and 10 mins evening to do it, and use it throughout the day to schedule my time out as well as just writing lists. Every evening before bed I write my to do list for the next day.

You have done so well with your debt repayments whilst still keeping a certain quality of life, this is definitely what I aspire to! I'm not a cold turkey sort and I'm what instagrammers would call "basic"...I love rose gold and pretty things too much :rotfl:

I only started BuJo about 3-4 months ago and I absolutely love it! I find it oddly relaxing to have somewhere to scribble whatever I want and not be constricted to lines. I used to be very artsy but it was sort of hammered out of me during my degree, I want to pick it up again but not brave enough for an actual canvas yet so this helps.

On the debt front...turns out I forgot that I overpaid my parents in a round about way by lending my sister £250 in March which she will pay directly back to them (which they have agreed to), so my current owing is £13,000. Good thing I wrote it all down because my memory is really something else :rotfl:

MrJester

Hello SQ!

Catching up with your diary. I was just recommended usertesting.com which avoids the monotonous data entry of surveys, which you might like to try for extra cash.

In terms of your low back pain; I'm quite experienced with this myself. Your mattress wont necessarily do all that much for you imo, humans were built to sleep on the ground after all. If at all possible at work, try being able to do your work stood up in any way you can.
Failing that, take very regular breaks by moving your legs to open your hips. There's a lot to it but your hips get locked up and your lower back ends up taking the brunt of the work. Again, humans weren't designed to sit in chairs (we forced ourselves and unlearned our primal ways). Finally, one thing that has helped me quite a bit with neck pain due to having a hunched posture from years of sitting was a pillow that has a slight curvature; it has larger thickness at one side which sits under your neck and allowing your head to sit flatter which straightens the spine rather than keeping it at a crooked angle which is again, unnatural. And yes, as you said, exercise will help with your pain specifically strengthening exercises. If you don't know what to do, just youtube search for low back pain strengthening routines

Best of luck with your debts ill be watching!

EssexHebridean

I'm also a fan of the bullet journal theory although I always refer to mine as a "bullet-ish Journal" as it doesn't quite meet the rules! It works for me though!

Good tips from Mr Jester there on the back pain thing - if I were you I'd definitely look towards trying the free options like exercise etc before looking to throw money at it!

MrJester

EssexHebridean wrote: »

I'm also a fan of the bullet journal theory although I always refer to mine as a "bullet-ish Journal" as it doesn't quite meet the rules! It works for me though!

Good tips from Mr Jester there on the back pain thing - if I were you I'd definitely look towards trying the free options like exercise etc before looking to throw money at it!

I've thrown a lot of money at it and it doesn't get you anywhere. Body pain, particularly back pain, is 90% of the time due to muscle imbalances and lack of strength in the body for proper body alignment/posture.

From someone who has herniated a disc, had severe sciatica (unable to walk with it) etc and years of trying to work out whats the issue.

Silver_Queen

Thank you both!

Realistically I know that it'll be a case of exercise, posture correction and general health that will make the difference, not a new mattress. But I also like the idea of sleeping deeply and I know I'm just hoping that throwing money at it will help :rotfl:

MrJester

Silver_Queen wrote: »

Thank you both!

Realistically I know that it'll be a case of exercise, posture correction and general health that will make the difference, not a new mattress. But I also like the idea of sleeping deeply and I know I'm just hoping that throwing money at it will help :rotfl:

That's something we all do. But with quality sleep, there's often different factors that are more important. These are the essentials:

• Routine - go to bed and wake up at the same time every day
• Pre-Routine - Develop a routine that you do every evening before bed; e.g. put clothes way, brush my teeth, read for 20 minutes..
• Avoid anything that heightens your energy like caffiene, sugar, alcohol
• Exercise every day; this regulates your body for rest
• Meditate; 10 mins with the Headspace app before bed is great! (Even better in the morning too!)
• Remove as much light as possible on the run up to bed time, and ensure your room is completely pitch black when going to sleep. We're talking removing all blue lights and replacing with low warm ones
• Slightly too cold room is a good environment for sleeping, so keep the window open a smidge, even in winter

I hope this helps you

EssexHebridean

For what it's worth, we went the new mattress route a few months back - much needed, the old one was 13 years old and was a cheapy when we bought it. New one is wonderful but hasn't improved the quality/depth of my sleep a jot! (Neither has avoiding use of tech before bed, cutting out caffeine after lunchtime, pre-sleep routines etc - I've come to the conclusion that for me it;s just a natural part of getting older, that I don't sleep as well as I used to).

MrJester

EssexHebridean wrote: »

For what it's worth, we went the new mattress route a few months back - much needed, the old one was 13 years old and was a cheapy when we bought it. New one is wonderful but hasn't improved the quality/depth of my sleep a jot! (Neither has avoiding use of tech before bed, cutting out caffeine after lunchtime, pre-sleep routines etc - I've come to the conclusion that for me it;s just a natural part of getting older, that I don't sleep as well as I used to).

Sure, everyone's a bit different. I know for me that some of the essentials for sleep do more for me than others; but the essential sleep tips are always true they just work differently for people and most importantly people need to be honest with themselves and commit to a new improved routine for a consistent, and long, amount of time to see the full effect.

But it's absolutely something that just needs testing for each individual. The same is true with diet, and exercise. :cool: