*sigh* this is still taking a while, but moving forward (slowly!)

ohdearhowdidthathappen

lucielle said:

That all sounds doable. 

L

Thanks L, hopefully... although often our willpower is a bit rubbish

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Humdinger1 said:

@ohdearhowdidthathappen we went down to 1 car a year ago.  However, my DH is over 60 so has a very useful free bus pass. We do also both work from home and like walking.  Is your DH really on board with clearing debt as 25k is one h*ll of a sum! Could you even get a much smaller runaround or is it the running costs you're thinking of? Loving your diary Humdinger xx

Thanks Humdinger
On paper, we could just have 1 car... DH works from home and we can walk school runs and we both like walking generally.  DH loves his car, LOVES it.  He'd be really sad to let it go and he reckons we can afford to keep it, which we can monthly. 
I don't like having 1 car on PCP and 1 on lease (our 7 seater), they cost us the best part of £700 a month including all running costs and it seems unnecessary to me.
Our lease ends in November, I've suggested getting rid of the little car and using the £6k plus a personal loan to buy a decent second hand 7 seater.  We could then overpay the loan and own the car outright within 1-2 years.  So much cheaper.
DH likes having 2 newish cars and isn't keen on the plan really.
When our gas/electricity fixes end in November, he may change his tune!

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Unbudgeted spends since 4th, when I posted the last ones:

• £4 lunch at work, not really my fault as was a training day and usually catered, but they were let down
• £14 ice skating, DD2... should really have been her expense, was feeling generous
• £10 blanket, cheap one off Am@zon, I often put heating on for me, this should reduce that, so kind of a saving
• £25 Nespress0... forgot about this sub for DH.  Now cancelled as he has £100 credit which will last a while.  Have bought him reusuable pods and he has 50/50 with the other pods.
• £3 hot chocolate while watching ice skating... because I have a big car, I got stitched up with taking them to the ice skating!  Then I found out where they were eating afterwards was an unpleasant walk in the dark.  So I waited for them and dropped them there afterwards.  Another parent then dropped them all home (another stitched up mum with a 7 seater )
• £10 pizza... same trip as above, she looked a bit cold and sad as fell over a couple of times.  Cheered her up by paying for her pizza 
• £14 updating driving licence 
• £11 Gregg$, doughnuts and sausage rolls.... went into local town to return some parcels.  I don't eat this stuff but DH and kids do, so treated them.

£91 over 5 days.... these are the kind of things that add up.  Handy to see it written out
Will take £27 for ice skating/pizza out of entertainment actually and Nespre$$0 now cancelled, so that looks a bit better  

ohdearhowdidthathappen

So, weigh in after week 1 of sticking to 1700kcal and aiming for 10000 steps a day

• Start weight 01/01: 11 stone 12, BMI 24.5 (I'm quite tall).... aiming for 10 stone 5, BMI 21.4

• Week 1 08/01:  11 stone 6, BMI 23.7

Not too bad at all... a lot of that will be water weight as I was bloated after all the sugar/salt/!!!!!! I'd been eating and drinking.
Keeping to my calories has been much easier because of doing dry January.  I'm not drinking the calories or having post booze snacks.  I'm also eating more protein which is filling me up

Steps, I did 10-12k on my days off, but the other days was averaging more like 6k.  I'm also still not doing the strength training, which I really must start.  Zero motivation!

Drawingaline

Well done!!! 

savingholmes

Wow - fantastic weight loss! Well done on the steps too. 

Best of luck with the budget.

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Thanks DAL and SH

Day 12 of dry January and no fizzy brown caffeinated drink and feeling good   No trouble sticking to it, in spite of a tricky few days at work.

Only unbudgeted spend since the update on the 9th was £7 for some L plates so DD1 can start practising on our car... she's had 10 lessons now that we've paid for and she's taking that over now.  She's also paying for the learner driver insurance.  DS1 turns 17 soon and I've booked his first lesson, so there'll be learning at the same time... eek!

DD seems to have settled down a bit (touch wood), she's enjoying her apprenticeship and loving earning.  She's still a bit lazy and thoughtless around the house, but seems more chilled and nicer to be around  

enthusiasticsaver

Good that DD1 is nicer to be around.  Two lots of driving lessons at the same time will be expensive.  

ladyholly

 Glad to hear DD1 is improving. Working for a living does tend to make teenagers grow up a bit especially if they are responsible for paying for some of their stuff like driving lessons.

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Thanks ES and LH

Luckily they won't be overlapping as DD starts paying after this week.  The lessons round here are £45 each, so it's expensive

A lot of the arguments with DD were based either on things she wanted that we said no to, or things we wanted her to do that she didn't want to.  Basic things like putting her stuff in the dishwasher after eating, not ringing the doorbell at midnight because she hadn't bothered taking a key (not just once, many times), not getting in the shower when she knew the littlest was about to get in the bath etc.
I think working has shown her how tired you are after work.  She has a very easy role at the moment, but when she's done she just wants to chill.  Yesterday, she was in the kitchen when I got home from work.... she saw me empty the washing machine, empty and reload the dishwasher, make lunchboxes for the next day, start dinner etc.  She didn't offer to help (heaven forbid), but she did say 'it must be tiring doing all that after a 10 hour day'.  So she noticed , slow progress....