Countdown to the big 4-0 - time to get my life in order!!!'

fatrab

Hi,

Good luck with your plan! I'm also hoping to lose a bit of weight along the way of my debt free journey.

As my username implies, I'm no spring chicken. At my heaviest I was 17st 8lbs. I'm currently 17st 2lbs (6lbs off since Xmas!) and I plan to lose a pound per week on average in 2018. Which should see me under 14st by next xmas!

I hope to be completely debt free by 50 so in a similar mindset to yourself. I shall follow your diary and wish you all the best with both your debt and health goals!

Robert

[Deleted User]

Hi Robert - thanks for stopping by and well done on the weight loss :T hopefully we can help keep each other motivated.

Payday still seems along way off - 14 days in fact :mad: We've already blown the food budget so really need to rein it in. Will sit down and draw up a meal plan later.

Checked my TCB this morning and £60 has become payable :T this will be a massive help with muddling through til payday.

DS has had a rare lie in this morning (by lie in I mean 6:00- he's usually up by 5:00!!!) This has given me an hour to get listing on eBay. Hoping for a few good sales - fingers crossed!

Yesterday was a busy one - weigh in first thing (1.5lb off 6.5 / 28lb), food shopping and then a trip to the feed shop for the ponies feed. Also need to get dog food this week, so more planned spends......

The bullet journal is up and running and will hopefully help me get my life in order. All the weekly / monthly chores are listed, all my finances, weight, running, Birthday and Christmas pressies to buy. I've also made a list of potential day trips and things to do with little man. I'm determined to start living more and hopefully getting a wee bit more organised will be a step in the right direction!

MatyMoo

Seabiscuit wrote: »

Had another look at last years progress (or lack of it) and just feel so frustrated. I seem to spend half my life trying to get us out of this mess (and probably the other half getting us into it!) and feel so disheartened that the effort has pretty much gone to waste.

This jumped out at me.

The year didn't go to waste, you didn't increase your debt (bet you did in previous years), you made a reduction of £1k :T

In my book that's a success!

If you can get a handle on the food budget by menu planning & shopping lists based around thar will help! But it's tough going to reduce spending in one go. If you spent £100/week before try to reduce by £10/week. Once you have cracked that reduce by another £10. Much easier to do it in smaller blocks

[Deleted User]

Thanks MatyMoo, your words of support mean a lot especially when it all seems like one huge never ending slog!

Had £30 in eBay sales over the last couple of days, so this has been transferred to the current account to help see us through.

Not a great deal to report elsewhere but checking in helps keep me on track.

Have a great day x

[Deleted User]

Good morning!
Eek I've been awol for nearly a week. So what have I been doing......Truthful answer - not a great deal! Fortunately spends have been reasonably low. Managed to get by this weekend without doing a big shop and instead just spent £17 on essentials, so pleased with that. Also had a mamouth listing session on eBay and fb so hoping for some sales there.

Payday is still 8 days away and there is a slight shortfall, but I'm hoping a few sales along the way will help with that. I still have my Christmas money so can use that if necessary.

The pressie stash is building up nicely for next Christmas. I've been using personal spending money to fund this so no impact on the main accounts. I like to get everyone except DS, OH, parents and my sister and bro in law sorted by September ish. Had a £25 off £50 spend at Very so have managed to get some nice bits there. I'm also taking part in the save 365 challenge out of my personal spends - all going well so far- I've got one of those tins from the £1 shop that you need a tin opener to open so I'm not tempted to dip into it!

Right best make soup for work and crack on with packaging up the weekends eBay sales. Have a good week x

enthusiasticsaver

Would it be worth posting an soa so you can get feedback on your budget as budgeting seems to be the problem here. The debt is going down though but I think some emergency savings would be useful particularly as your car seems to need a lot of work.

[Deleted User]

Good morning! Payday tomorrow (at last!!!) so thought I'd pull together the figures while I have 5 minutes to myself!

Cc1 was £931.40 now £876.40 = -£55.00
Cc2 was £1578.52 now £1528.52 = -£50.00
Cc3 was £4556.20 now £4406.20= -£150
OD was £498.20 now £497.07= -£1.13
Parents was £750 now £650= -£100

Total was £8314.32 now £7958.9= £355.42

Weight loss = 9.5/28

Running 1000k in 2018 = 13/1000 (whoops!)

Not a too bad start to 2018 (other than the running!) February is going to be a challenge though- Road tax due @ £99 ish, house insurance @ £128 ish, potential vet bill @ £70 ish (although 28 day payment terms means this could be paid in March).

I have upped the food shopping budget from £200 to £300. Whilst I'm hoping to come in well below this but have upped it to protect our debt repayment budget if that makes sense? It's always the food shopping I'm robbing peter to pay Paul for come the latter part of the month, which has a negative effect particularly on the OD (as I no longer use the cc at all). We'll see how it goes. I'm also going to really focus on meal planning as this in turn will help both my weight loss and food spend.

The BT period for cc3 finishes in Feb so need to look into alternatives. I'm hoping I can transfer it onto one of my other cards just to help with admin side of things. Will have a look into my options.

Right sounds like little one is deciding that the is starting so best jump to it!

Have a good day x

[Deleted User]

Good morning!
Thought I'd nip in for a quick update whilst little one is suitably distracted by Peppa pig and breakfast! I've submitted our meter readings and suprise suprise we're paying too much - monthly payments have been reduced by a very welcome £40 per month! I've also completed a BT on cc3 to combine it with cc1. The interest free rate expires in Feb so needed to get it sorted - new 0% rate expires in August 2019 - the race is on to pay it off by then!

A batch of soup for the week is bubbling away and will need to sit down and meal plan. SW was a 0.5lb gain (not a great surprise to be honest) so the meal plan will help with the £s and lbs.

Not much planned for today just jobs around the house - the weather is pants here anyway. Need to get some eBay listings done later too.

Have a good day x

[Deleted User]

Good morning my poor neglected diary!
So its that time of the month again....

Cc1 was £876.40 now £5209.86 = + £4333.46
Cc2 was £1528.52 now £1438.00 = -£90.52
Cc3 was £4406.20 now £0 = -£4406.20
OD was £497.07 now £479.74 = £17.33
Parents was £650 now £550 =-£100

Total was £7958.19 now £7576.70 = -£294.59

Would have been about £425 but I had a BT fee to pay for switching cc3. All in all not too bad...

In other news we have a contingency fund :T. Ok minimum effort went in to it as OH had a very welcome letter from slc saying he was due a refund, but we now have £1k put away. Some of it is planned for home maintenance but the rest we'll leave until it's REALLY needed!

Weight loss I'm 11lb down and beginning to feel a bit like my old self again - just another 17 to go! My running mojo still not returned fully tho - I suspect this freezing weather has something to do with that!

Save 365 is up to date and going well - can't wait to crack open the money tin in December! I'm still stashing bargains away for Christmas pressies so fingers crossed come December there won't be many left to buy and the tin can pay for food and fun Christmassy days out with DS.

Right I'm off to brave the beast from the east and sort the ponies. Have a good day x

[Deleted User]

Wow - can't believe how long it's been since I lasted loved in :eek: Time to change that!
So current state of affairs is as follows.....
Cc1 was £5209.86 now £4809.86 = - £400
Cc2 was £1438.00 now £1299.00 = - £139
OD was £478.74 now £361.35 = -£117.39
Parents was £550 now £350 = - £200

Total was £7576.70 now £6720.20 = -£856.50

Not too bad - almost the same as I paid off for the whole of last year gone in 2 months :j

Running mojo slowly creeping back and hopefully will kickstart the weight loss - still hovering at 11lb.

Save 365 up to date, can't wait to crack the tin open in December.

Was hoping for a nice long post but little man has other ideas - I WILL BE BACK!!!