Debt Clearing and Deposit Saving.......

Emzilla

beanielou said:

All sounding good   
Do you have a current target? xx

Thanks Lou. I'd love to be making £1,000 a month. With that, my M&S wages and my PIP payment, I'll be bringing in a decent amount, which will help me clear my debts and enable us to move next year, whilst still saving some in my LISA.

The first 2 weeks of my second month are now complete and I have earned £651.77 already, so way above my £500 target. I'm still going to aim for £250 over the next week, even though I only really need £100 to keep up.

Emz xx

Fidelia

Are you OK, Emz?  Long time since we heard from you.

I expect it's just because you've been really busy with your business and (hopefully) taking some time out for some R & R.  Your 'get up and go' puts me to shame!

Take care xx

Fidelia

Still no posts from you, Emz, since 5th April!   Unless, that is, you've started another diary and I can't find you.  I hope all is well in your world.  We miss hearing about your progress and  when I read about how well you do it  gives me a much-needed kick up the rear.  You always take the bull by the horns and get on with things whilst I can procrastinate for Britain!  Please drop in again soon if just to put our minds to rest xxx

Buffythedebtslayer

Hello Emz, I know you have taken breaks before, hopefully this is just another break. I hope the business is going well and you are doing well too XX

Emzilla

Hi everyone

Really sorry for not posting for ages. I have been quite busy with this and that. My little side business is still going well and I'm making around £1.5-£2k a month, which is amazing. Need to channel where the money is going a bit better though as I never seem to be able to do much with it!! I think we've been living it up a bit too much recently.

My health is fine, and I'm still back at work. I'm sticking to my 9 hours a week for the time being as I like having more time to work on my business, so I'm happy with doing those hours for now. I do pick up the odd extra shift from time to time if they need me.

I have a few things that I want to work on in July. Some areas I need to improve on, both health and money wise (you know I like a good list of targets!!).

1. Get below 70kg. My doctor at the hospital has asked me to be a "bit less cuddly", and has said if I can get down to around 23 BMI, which would be around 67kg, then it would help my body function better and that includes my lungs. I'm currently 73.3kg (I weighed myself yesterday), so not masses to lose, but I am finding it tricky. I have managed to kick my sugary drinks habit (no sugar fizzy drinks for just over 2 weeks now), which I hope will make a huge difference, and I'm trying to pick healthier meals and snacks too.
2. Do at least 10,000 steps a day. This will help with my first goal obviously, but I also want to get my lungs working a bit more, which will hopefully eventually get me off oxygen in some form. My doctor has said that my lung function probably won't go up anymore, as my lungs are too damaged, but exercise can help with my oxygen sats, so that's what I'll have to do. On a 3 hour shift at work, I do around 5,000 steps, so it'll be easy on the days I work, but will have to be disciplined on the days I'm off.
3. No sugar fizzy drinks  I'm doing well with this, but need to stick to it and not go on a Pepsi binge (which has happened in the past!!)
   
4. Eat 5 portions of fruit and veg a day. I'm terrible for eating veg, so need to make more of an effort. I'm getting better and we're having Hello Fresh meals again to help with this. They always state how much veg is on the top of the recipes.
   
5. Drink 2 bottles of water/squash a day. I've got my big bottle that drinking 2 of will give me my recommended daily amount of water a day. I'm not good at this either and have often just stuck to fizzy drinks.
   
6. Clean a room a day.  I want to get our house looking cleaner and tidier, plus the regular housework will help with my steps/exercise.
   
7. Earn £1,500 profit  I have been doing more than this recently, but I'm going to aim for £1,500 because some months are better than others, and it's more of a realistic target.
   
8. Pay back my friend £1,500.  So my friend lent me £2k to help start my business off, and I want to pay him back ASAP. I've already paid him back £500, so I would love to get the rest to him by the end of July. I don't know how realistic that is, but I'll give it a good go. I'm currently putting aside any money I make from sales into a savings account, and will keep building that up until the end of the month. That way, if I need to use any of it, it's there, but I will try not to and will hopefully be able to pay him back by the end of July. I've already got just under £200.
   
9. Enter 2,000 competitions. I've been thinking that I would like to start entering competitions again as a hobby. I'm not expecting to win much, but you never know, and I've got a bit more time now, compared to when I was writing articles and doing surveys all day!!
   

I'll aim to come back on here each morning and update my progress, as it helps to keep me on the straight and narrow!!

Emz xx

jwil

Lovely to hear from you Emz

Good luck with the goals, and glad the business is going well.

beanielou

Good to hear from you.

Emzilla

Hi everyone - thanks Jwil and Lou xxx

Day one update from me:

1. Get below 70kg - Daily weigh-in of 72.8kg.
2. Do at least 10,000 steps a day - I'm currently on 4,163, but I'm at work tonight so that should easily be over 10k by the end of the day.
3. No sugar fizzy drinks - Nothing but a bit of Coke Zero and sugar free squash.
4. Eat 5 portions of fruit and veg a day - I've had 2 satsumas (which only counts as one apparently), and I've got a plan to bolster the Hello Fresh meal I'm making today to make it 3 portions. I'll go and buy some grapes later for my last portion. It's not as easy as it looks to do this one!!
5. Drink 2 bottles of water/squash a day - I'm nearly done with my first and will get my second done before I go to work.
6. Clean a room a day - I'm nearly finished with the en-suite, but my OH is having a Zoom meeting in the bedroom/office, so I'll have to finish it off later.
7. Earn £1,500 profit - No sales yet today
8. Pay back my friend £1,500 - I'm up to £367.18 in my savings account.
9. Enter 2,000 competitions - None done yet, but I'll try and spend an hour or two after work doing some.

Emz xx

beanielou

Fruit juice counts as one of your five a day.

Fidelia

beanielou said:

Fruit juice counts as one of your five a day.

I didn't know that, beanielou, so thanks for it xx.    I certainly get 5 portions of veg every day, often more and I'm not even vegetarian, but fruit is pretty much lacking in my diet!

Great list, Emz.  Lovely to hear you're doing so well in your business.  Congratulations.  I can appreciate how much 'spare' time you have now you aren't writing Textbroker articles.  When I did them I found they took over my life!  A lot of effort for relatively little reward IMO.  Don't you do any at all now?

Is the 2000 comp target for the whole month?  Seems like a massive target (to someone like me) but, knowing you, it should be doable.  I've recently started comping with a vengeance again after a couple of years of just doing the occasion one.  Since 1st of July I'm aiming for 50 a day and managed 36 yesterday (sadly only 17 on day one) but seemed to spend far too much time doing it and couldn't fit any more in.  I don't tend to do anything on social media  and they're possibly quicker to do.  I seemed to do a lot of registering for newsletters etc on websites which took up the time but once I've done it finding and entering future comps they may run should be quicker and easier.  I did win a case of 6 bottles of award-winning English wine from one of the pathetically few comps I entered in June. It gave me the kick up the rear that I needed.  There's nothing like a prize win to lift the spirits is there?  The wine arrived Tuesday and is absolutely gorgeous.  Retails at around £15 a bottle so not my usual cheap plonk!  DH isn't mad keen on wine, prefers beer although neither of us are big drinkers.  He really liked 'my' wine though so it isn't going to last me as long as I'd hoped!

I thought of you yesterday when Andy Murray was beaten.  He shouldn't be downhearted though as he's done wonders to get back to the stage he's at after so much injury/surgery/time-out.  He should be much more match-ready for the Olympics and US Open shouldn't he?  Then, next year, the world's his oyster.

Take care xx