First Steps to Solvency

alt80

Made it through day 81. No spends other than the planned. Good day on the job. Decent walk - all in all pretty good day.

Wife made a pizza and been messing about cooking with son and a lad from school so had a load of sides. I've eaten like a complete pig again - no !!!!!! excuses of being on a comedown now I'm just a gluttonous !!!!!!. Can't keep doing this to myself need some !!!!!! encouragement to stop it. Wife said I don't rein it in soon I'll def be on the slippy slope to fat middle aged !!!!!! dad bod. Set my steps target at 10k/d that's easy enough but I reckon I'm going to need to be back on the mfp get calorie counting fml. Mrs got me on the !!!!!! gym plan starting September aligned with renewal of personal financial budget why idk but she's def trying to challenge me usually half follow, half ignore but think I need to !!!!!! do as I'm told. Greece in October that'll be a gluttony fest then my birthday and Christmas not too long after fml she needs to get me down that gym everyday ha. 

@getmore4less yeah I suppose they've not been able to run for about 18 months so not surprised that they are being careful tbh. 

Definitely try that mate thanks. Even had chicken topping on the pizza ha. 

My life wouldn't be worth living if I said that mate lol. Fml re the eco !!!!!! - made me laugh one of her siblings is a massive !!!!!! environmentalist but no money to do the whole wind/ solar/ whatever power just !!!!!! lusts after the full yoghurt knitting, grow your own power life lol. 

@stymied I've already told my MIL she can spend time with family I'll do salad, few other bits inside, drinks, get the crocks etc ready and tidy up. She's happy she gets a day off to spend with her kids and I'm away from them for a decent amount of time. Still !!!!!! dreading the meal etc itself. 

RelievedSheff

The family meal will be fine. 

Day 82 today.

alt80

Day 82. 

No spends planned and quiet evening planned so going to try to get ahead with the sheet for September. Know I’ll be ending month under £30k if I have a look and send the money this evening lol. Will be nice to get the cards into the £20k bracket ha. 

Had to laugh this morning when I saw the article about the extinction rebellion leader driving a diesel fml hypocrisy at its finest.

@RelievedSheff It is what it is whether I like it or not. I’m not getting away that easily lol. 😆 

alt80

Day 82 - another one crossed off the cal.

Fairly busy with work but last night finished 6.45pm and tonight finished at 5.50pm. Could've carried on but I stopped with work planned out for the rest of my week. I can't let the obsessive side take over. Decent walk with my family this evening and another nice dinner h/m lasagne son had helped my Mrs again. He loves cooking. Going to spend a few weekends leading up to Greece cooking some Greek food with him and my parents on FaceTime cooking the same thing. 

Still struggling sometimes with the sleep but I know it passes and not using it as an excuse to touch the stimulants. 

Managed to have a look at the card balances and my wife has promised to make tomorrow a no spends day so I sent another £80 to the debt. Ending the month under £30k at £29,935 carrying over to September. Wife also has some small sales to list total of about £150 but almost certain to sell over September so hoping that's an additional amount to come off over September which should be a cheap month. 

Total reduction this month of £4760 buzzing about that tbh.

warby68

Excellent work on all fronts @alt80

I remember you saying your wife wouldn't let son help with the cooking because of the mess. Now she does. You have passed some good parenting to her. Another win.

Can I ask whether your wife knows about this diary and if not where does she think you get your ideas, especially the bargains? You've taken quite a lot of ideas from here that would not normally have cropped up in your previous life. 

foxgloves

Day 82 in the bag? It's obvious you spend a lot of time mentally beating yourself up, @alt80, but you should be well proud of this. Only a week to go to hit 90 days. You sound so much more 'together' & less hyper. I can really identify with the exhausting insomnia/overthinking mix as I've also had a GAD diagnosis in the past. I recognise in you that escalation of overthinking about a forthcoming situation into catastrophising because I spent 2 or 3 years doing it before finding strategies which worked. In recent years, I've had some very stressful difficult situations to deal with (3 bereavements) & I was worried that the panic attacks might return. However, they didn't. I do find a useful mantra when I'm starting to worry about something is "I'll deal with this when & IF it happens". Usually it doesn't, as with your seaside road trip. I am a planner, so I used to find my anxiety levels were helped by planning for the worst (on a practical level) but hoping for the best.
Here's to Day 83! 
F

RelievedSheff

alt80 said:

Day 82 - another one crossed off the cal.

Fairly busy with work but last night finished 6.45pm and tonight finished at 5.50pm. Could've carried on but I stopped with work planned out for the rest of my week. I can't let the obsessive side take over. Decent walk with my family this evening and another nice dinner h/m lasagne son had helped my Mrs again. He loves cooking. Going to spend a few weekends leading up to Greece cooking some Greek food with him and my parents on FaceTime cooking the same thing. 

Still struggling sometimes with the sleep but I know it passes and not using it as an excuse to touch the stimulants. 

Managed to have a look at the card balances and my wife has promised to make tomorrow a no spends day so I sent another £80 to the debt. Ending the month under £30k at £29,935 carrying over to September. Wife also has some small sales to list total of about £150 but almost certain to sell over September so hoping that's an additional amount to come off over September which should be a cheap month. 

Total reduction this month of £4760 buzzing about that tbh.

A number of wins there

So glad that your wife finally seems to be getting onboard as well. It will make all the difference the pair of you working as a team.

Day 83 today.

SanguineGina

alt80 said:

Still struggling sometimes with the sleep but I know it passes and not using it as an excuse to touch the stimulants. 

Total reduction this month of £4760 buzzing about that tbh.

The ASMR Psychologist on youtube is my go-to when chasing sleep - her Ultimate Sleep Hypnosis works for me and is so effective that I've never yet not fallen asleep before the end.  Worth a look;  as are her various other help  videos.

If the link works its https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY2RNpCG9Uo

That reduction looks brilliant, alt, better than adding to Balmain profits 

And well done for being on the day before 12 weeks!

Andyjflet

Just dropped in to say hello and following your journey. I have had the Audi GT RS for 2 weeks and loving it, performance is mental. Sadly its got to go back today but my Q4 has now arrived, 316 miles of Edition 1 Q4 Is exciting, given up my fuel card too now saving me on the BIK. 
Great news on the AF days, awesome work. Hope you managed to get the budget ticked off with the OH and she understands a month in isolation. 

alt80

Day 84 - 12 weeks. Start of September budget. Have planned it out and told my Mrs she needs to come back with a list of things she wants to buy - running over budget for her spends and she knows but hol coming up and I don’t reckon she’s going to resist spending something realistically. 

Busy day on the work front yesterday and a unexpected meal out. Wife had kept some cash from three sets of nails I wasn’t aware about until yesterday to surprise me with a meal lol. All reconciled now but it was actually quite nice. Today is a busy one - wrapping up for long bank hol weekend. 

@warby68 son can be a bit of a nightmare with her. I’ve warned him he can forget cooking with his mum if he’s going to be angry about tidying up seems to have worked. Re diary she knows I read and contribute to the debt board ha knows it’s a lifestyle change I want to make and am. Tbh thing she dislikes the most about the lifestyle change is lack of impulse and lack of gifts coming her way. She did make me laugh last night told her I don’t mind the low budget lifestyle she said the planned later purchases say otherwise haha. She’s started putting together her own list now lol. 

@foxgloves day 84 today so got through 82 thank you. I’m pleased I’ve got this far. The sleep hasn’t been too bad this week. Was in a bit of a bad way last night about 2am idk why wake up when things have been good. Keep speaking to the pros but of an odd mindset maybe but I’ve decided I’m getting through this sorting it out employ right pros, put the work in and deal with the ups and downs. No other alternative. With you re concern about it getting worse. I’ve had the panic attacks etc but just need to keep on track and I know what it is / the triggers etc. Not going to let it ruin my life or turn to worse stuff anymore. Could have another 40 years, need to let them be good ones for the most part.

@RelievedSheff she’s keeping me accountable which I need haha.