AimeeMum's Debt-free challenge

aimeemum

Happy Easter everyone. 

Early start here as hubby is out fishing a match and needed to be away for 7. I sorted the eggs, did my workout and then set too with some cleaning jobs before a friend pops over so we can take the dogs out. Not seen her in months so will be great to catch up. She and her OH (who is also fishing with hubby) will stay on for their tea so I'm hoping the weather stays nice and we can make full use of the garden. Kids are happy.....got a few eggs each and some relatives sent sweets and money (I never for £15 for Easter!! Very jealous!!) so we will be swimming in chocolate for a while. I also baked some Easter brownies and I actually made myself a bit sick nibbling on the batter/toppings yesterday so I don't think I'll be eating many. 

Otherwise not a lot else to report. Money wise with it being a bank holiday not a lot is going on. We're treating everyone to chippy tea tonight so that's going to take up most of April's spare cash.....worth it as to be honest I would pay anything to not have to cook!!  

missymoo81

Hey Aimeemum, I’ve finally just finished reading your diary! You’ve done so well! I’ve loved keeping up with everything! I love your writing style too. Well done on getting the debt down so much. Don’t be disheartened that it seems to be taking so long, you’re doing such a great job at just chipping away! I’ll keep reading and cheer you on from the sidelines! 

aimeemum

missymoo81 said:

Hey Aimeemum, I’ve finally just finished reading your diary! You’ve done so well! I’ve loved keeping up with everything! I love your writing style too. Well done on getting the debt down so much. Don’t be disheartened that it seems to be taking so long, you’re doing such a great job at just chipping away! I’ll keep reading and cheer you on from the sidelines! 

Aw thank you! I use this diary as a general outlet and to give me some 'writing every day' space too. I always think I'm being a bit boring or it's a bit of random thoughts put down on paper that don't make any sense I'm glad it's not total drivel  

aimeemum

Big day - I received my first ever Etsy pay packet into my bank today - a whole £5.23 after fees etc!! I'd already spent £2.70 on a book so the remaining £2.53 has been put into my business bank account.........It's not a lot, but it's something. I need to schedule in some time to work on my products.....must look at that today. Also just gone through and done my 'accounts' - I thought it would be a good idea to start as I mean to go on and keep up to date with records from day 1. Until I make £1000 profit in a 12m period I don't need to declare anything, but if I keep a good record I'll be able to see what I'm doing more clearly. ETA: I'm £2.19 in profit for the Month of March Woooohoooooo!!!!! 

In other news we've made it to Wednesday. Got lots of little bits to do today but I've already done my workout, done a few little chores and I planned out the boys learning for the next 6/7 weeks yesterday so we're making a start on that. Hoping that the plan to be 'done' in 6 weeks will come together....I'm slightly worried about my youngest's commitment though  

aimeemum

Frustrating morning - Thursday so payday and I've been looking forward to it but yesterday hubby ordered a batch of fitness stuff on the CC and now I'm all over the place. I think we've made a little bit of progress, but he's said he'll pay me back but I don't know how/when. We can never seem to shift this last £1500-£2k and it's driving me insane. He's off tomorrow so I need to make sure I pin it all down then. 

Anyway, according to my spreadsheet I've made £16 of progress this week so I suppose that's something. Once I know what he's spent, I've spent etc I can maybe top it up a tiny bit. Once again my tesco order was well over my £85 budget......this week it was £98! I plan on raising the budget to £95 a week once we're debt free but I'm finding it impossible to meal plan/shop to the lower figure at the moment.  

Sorry I'm a bit of a Debbie Downer this morning....I was all hyped up after my workout too but now I've seen this week's figures I'm a little bit upset with it all. Plus sides - I've put my normal £25 into savings/SFs so that's more covered for the future Out net figure is now  only -£475 and that includes everything......would love to see a £0 figure at the end of this month. That's the idea anyway, one way or the other. 

ETA: I've done some maths and I am on track to get that £0 by the end of the month....just have to keep hubby on board now!

Oh and I'm down 1lb this week and have done a workout every single day for the last 21 days! Feeling really good! 

aimeemum

Feeling so much better today - not sure what was up with my on Thursday to be honest but it seems to have passed. 

Workout done, dog walked, washing on, finances all checked. Hubby filled the car up on his way to work this morning so that's been sorted - we have a £50 a week budget but we don't always put all £50 into the car so whatever isn't used goes into the vehicle sinking fund. We are going to have to put new tyres on all round before we go away but we already have £100 in the SF  

I've got my to-do list ready for today but honestly I just want to go out in the (albeit cold!) sunshine. I may just rush through what needs to be done and then put myself in the garden and read  

Have a good weekend everyone x

aimeemum

Just needed somewhere to put this as literally no-one apart from my hubby knows I'm trying to get fit/healthy/lose weight etc and I just need to put this somewhere. 

Today marks 28 days of doing a workout every single day!! I started early March but then my teeth flared up so I took a couple of days off to recover/get treatment. I started back on Sunday 14th March, and haven't missed a day!!! 

In that time I've gone from 7 minutes to 15 minutes daily videos and increased my stamina massively. Yesterday I did a muscle toning workout (15 mins) and then walked the dog, took my kids to the park and while at the park walked the whole time and hit 6k steps of outdoor activity for the first time. I had hit 5k before, but not on top of a workout. 

Anyway, I'm feeling like I need to make a loose 'plan' for where I want to be and what I want to do. 

Plan is that next week I will increase to 20 minutes of video workout each day....and on top of that I will try to hit that same 6k steps of outdoor activity again. After another 2 weeks I will up to 25 minutes and then 2 weeks after that 30 minutes. 

I plan on mixing up the walking workouts with more intense 'proper' workouts. That way I should be able to bring out the intensity slowly while not increasing my time or risking damaging myself. I need to start building in running, jumping and other higher intensity moves now that my base fitness is a little bit more off the deck Once I've reached 20 minutes I can drop down to 6 days a week, 25 mins 5 days a week, and 30 minutes 4 days a week.....and then on 'off days' I will bring back in yoga, keep up with outdoor activity with walking the dog etc, and hopefully go back to swimming, learn to ride a bike (*yes, I can't ride a bike!!) and generally just be more active. As I gradually raise the intensity too, I should be able to see my results maintain, if not grow. 

As for weight loss, alongside moving more I'm trying to keep to 1200cal per day. I am slowly losing weight (like 1/2 a lb a week average) but I would like to be below 11st by the time we go away....currently I'm 11st9.5lb. That means I need to lose 10lb in 6 weeks. Hubby is also trying to lose weight (he has about a stone to go) so hopefully now he's not bringing home curries and cakes, I'll be able to make some progress. Plan is to get to 10st7ish and then I will be able to raise my calories to a maintenance level of 1400-1600 (given my slow metabolism due to my thyroid) but I may be able to do slightly more if I'm staying active. 

I know to some folks this seems painfully slow and needlessly cautious.....but this is to try to counteract the effects of my thyroid and general ill health. If I go too fast, I get injured, feel pain and I go into adrenal shock and can't function, or I have a thyroid flare and can't function and gain weight just by looking at a biscuit. By slowly changing my diet and my lifestyle I'm hoping that this can become the new me....the new way my body works and stop the slippery slope of weight gain and bad condition I was at the top of now menopause is starting to kick in. 

This has turned into a bit of an essay so I apologise (and it's nothing to do with money either!) but I desperately need to put this out there. I'm proud of my progress, of the fact I've already lost half an inch off my waist, and the fact that the other day I ran across a field with my children and didn't die!!! I am determined to continue and especially now the weather is getting better and I've found some great workout videos on YT, I'm raring to go. In fact, I'm finidng it hard to hold back (I know I have to though....the other day I go carried away and tried a 15 minute HIIT and was stiff as a board for 3 days after.....I still did my 15 minutes those 3 days but they were a lot slower than normal lol) 

aimeemum

Much shorter entry today - 

It's our wedding anniversary - 13 years today! We don't normally celebrate or do anything special, especially as the kids are at home and hubby's at work. We'll have a date night at the weekend when he's not at work  

I have spent this morning trying to battle a few demons - not feeling right still and attempting to figure out why. It's been a productive exercise as I've gotten all my daily chores done, home-school and also done all the admissions paperwork for eldest ready to send back to school next week. He's working through his tasks too but he'll need a bit more time. 

Money wise nothing to report - we're in that middle of month bit where we've paid all of the bills but haven't been paid much yet so it's very much a simple 'beans and rice' mentality lol. 

My horse came 4th in the national at the weekend and hubby insisted I buy myself something with the winnings so I've bought a pair of bright pink trainers for my workouts. I'm struggling to anything more than a fast walk with no trainers. They should be here on Thursday  

Whatlifeis

Gosh, well done you! 

You should definitely be proud of yourself. 

I started online hiit workouts around a year ago at the start of lockdown, largely because I needed to lose a lot of weight and I wanted to do something to counteract the menopause symptoms. It’s become part of my life now - I love it, not just for the health benefits but it really helps with my anxiety. 

aimeemum

Whatlifeis said:

Gosh, well done you! 

You should definitely be proud of yourself. 

I started online hiit workouts around a year ago at the start of lockdown, largely because I needed to lose a lot of weight and I wanted to do something to counteract the menopause symptoms. It’s become part of my life now - I love it, not just for the health benefits but it really helps with my anxiety. 

Thanks - which workouts do you do? I'm currently following Lucy Wyndham Read and Leslie Sansone as they're the best suited for me at the moment, but obviously I want to move up, but not too quickly. I've been broken by PE with Joe in the past so I'm a bit scared of Joe Wicks but I know he's an option.....and the Chloe Ting videos look doable if a bit scary at the moment. 

Hubby does 'Insanity' max interval training - 40-80 minutes of pure hell on wheels!!! I'm building up and hope I'll be able to join in some of the shorter ones after all this (and still be able to function afterwards too! )