Cutting it Fine - the challenge is on!

SandyShores

Very dull and grey here too last night savingholmes.  

Thanks debtfreeoneday, I can feel the change in my mood since taking up exercising regularly.  Its a good distraction too if I ever have a stressful day.  

SandyShores

I'm keeping up with the exercise but the weight is stuck.  Its at this point I normally say blow it and over eat, but I gave myself a talking to earlier and managed to avoid that pitfall!

Its really dawning on me what a tough time this is going to be for everyone, but I read my earlier post again about how we coped before, and we'll cope again if we need to.  Scary times though!

We're still waiting for our lives to get back to normal post-pandemic, and so the planned large overpayments might not be on the cards now.  We'll have to wait and see.  I have to remember that we are debt-free apart from the large mortgage so we are in a good position.  Just got to keep on plodding

savingholmes

I think if we all adopt heat the human not the house that will help. And ask for payrises and sell stuff.

SandyShores

Hi savingholmes, that's a good strategy for heating - although tonight I am adopting cool down the human   I've usually got a wheat bag wrapped around my shoulder but I'm about to go and get a cool pack out of the freezer.

I had a small promotion a month or so ago, that finally came through.  Its not huge but it all helps.  I've also just made a small sale on the bay of flea - off to the PO tomorrow.  

I've started to think about lining up another career, just in case.  Something that I have an interest in but probably wouldn't pay as much initially.  I'm going to start off reading a few articles and books, and then try and get some voluntary work.  If its still interesting after that I would need to do some serious study, so I would need to look into funding that.  It feels good to have a bit of a plan - it could be a new career, a second income stream or even a part-time retirement job - but if I take it slowly step by step I can cautiously investigate.

Sandy

savingholmes

A lot of the stuff I listen to - says "follow your curiosity". Don't make it have to be "the thing" or earn you a certain amount of money - just be "life curious" and great things will happen

LadyWithAPlan

@SandyShores a new hobby/passion  is always I find good for my life and I often end up using it in work.
Having said that if you really want a new career  then coding seems to be the way to go to add to what you already do, I am eyeing up some courses myself where it can add value

SandyShores

I'm not quite sure what I've been doing for the past month or so, I've popped in occasionally but had slightly lost my money saving mojo.  Feels like we have been living in limbo for so long, but good news that things are starting to move along this month.

Thanks savingholmes and ladywithaplan.  I am definitely going to go forward with the new learning and hopefully it will become an earning potential.  I'm not sure about coding - I do like messing around with spreadsheets, formulas and sometimes macros, but prefer it when they are linked to creating presentations and the like - I really am a people person.  I will think about it though - who knows it might be a sideline alongside a people focussed job - its always good to have an alternative to full on people focussed work and it can be quite soothing.

We were talking about energy fixing today, so I logged in to see what MSE has to say and found Martin's advice that there isn't anything cheaper than the current price cap.  He's done calculations to include the next two possible price caps - and you need to find a 12 month fix that is no more than an extra 95% of your current bill or 100% if you value the stability of being in a fix rate.  Our current direct debits are £200 per month, so we can expect to be paying £400 soon I guess.  Car fuel hasn't really affected me as I don't really drive anywhere, but DH is feeling the pinch a little.  It means that just as we are finally about to be in a position to start overpaying the mortgage we'll be seeing less cash available to do it.  I'm pretty glad we didn't buy out the help to buy on the mortgage, we've got a few more years to sort that - and DH will be able to take cash out of his pension if we need it (but that will be a last resort).  For now, savings seem to be the best plan.

I've been spending a bit on clothes recently - new shoes (have been living in slippers for a while), and I bought some clothes from fleabay.  I bought a top from a charity shop a couple of years ago which I really love so thought I would see if I could find some other items in the same brand (I found it online and its a London fashion designer / boutique line).  I've found quite a few things online, so ordered a blouse and 4 dresses which all fit beautifully.  I've already worn two of the dresses and the blouse, but its sadly too hot to wear anything but very light stuff at the moment.  Its good to have my new shoes and sandals - feels a bit of an extravagance, but I can throw away/donate some of my old ones now, and I'm all sorted if I need to have an interview.

I've lost about 5lbs in the last 3 months and my clothes are fitting so much better, but I'm looking forward to having a wardrobe declutter.   I'm at the point where I can't see everything and forget what I've got.  When its slightly cooler I thought I would put my outfits together and take a photo of each of them, then store them in a folder.  It will help me to have a visual to remind me.  I've been watching 10 years younger in 10 days recently, and the way their stylist puts things together has given me some inspiration. The only thing I really need to buy soon is some trainers, but my old ones are holding up for now so there's no rush at the moment.  I feel much more in control of my diet recently, I still have the odd day where I might eat a little  more but generally I'm pretty good at sticking to under my calories - I'm starting to wonder how I ever ate so much sugary stuff before.  My 'target' was to lose another 20lbs, but now I can get into my clothes (even if a little snug) I'm content just to eat healthily, and get fitter and if I lose weight on the way that's just a bonus.  

Right, that's my word count for the month, better get to bed and try and get some sleep.

debtfreeoneday

Nice to see you Sandy. Sure getting older (and maybe a bit wiser) helps with the content state of mind. 

We haven’t found anything better energy fix wise so will ride the gauntlet come October I guess. 

LadyWithAPlan

I love it when I find a clothes brand that cuts clothes in a way  or has a colour/style palette that suits me - makes shopping easier and indeed good to keep an eye on for sales.

Python  (code) is used for dashboards which can bring spreadsheets and mgt info all together so you can use all the info for people facing meetings etc  - I am thinking of doing a course myself  on some such combo

Yes the energy nightmare ...

SandyShores

Hi Debtfree, thanks for popping in.  Yup definitely older and wiser (most of the time ) and practising being contented definitely helps. 

Riding the waves together energy-wise by the sounds of it 🏄🏽‍♀️
 
Hi LadywithaPlan, yes, its not a really expensive brand but seems to fit me well.  

Okay, I'll have a look at Python, I didn't realise that.  They use Tableau at work, do you think that would be easy to learn?  I love how diagrams tell a story and I love a good dashboard.