Time to move forward……

Taking_back_control

I’ve just unearthed my much neglected previous diaries on here and it’s really depressing to see that nothing much has changed and I still have the same gripes and moans and have never really progressed with moving forward with my life. Whilst I’m still early 20’s in my head the reality is I’m early 40’s and time certainly speeds up the older you get 🤣

So it’s time to move forward and take control. Not sure whether it was really Einstein who said this, but it certainly resonates with me:

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again - but expecting different results”

So on that note, it’s time to shake things up and move onwards and upwards.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, my key areas of focus are:

1. Finances
Credit card debt across 2 cards (all on 0% but with various BT deadlines).
Very (all 0%)
Overdraft (0% with the exception of £100 on one account)

2. House
We are still living in chaos and I seem to be the only one of the 3 of us (OH and DS) who cares. I work 3 days a week so naturally most falls my way, but I feel resentful that on my working days I’m still expected to be the one who shoulders all the responsibility. All my free time seems to be taken up firefighting the mayhem! The house needs work doing but I seem to be the only one that has any motivation to get stuff done and right now I haven’t got the bandwidth to sort it. Some needs doing this year - non negotiable.

3. Health
I’m at the heaviest I have ever been and need to stop naively believing that it’s not affecting my health - it is. Just because it’s not physically stopping me doing anything I want to do, it would be a whole lot easier if I was 3.5 stone lighter! I’ve always been active and loved exercise, but a period of poor mental health due to work and then lockdown and the anxieties that went with that led to me piling on 4 stone. I’m half a stone down but would love to lose the rest by the end of the year.

On that note, I’m signing off for now to ponder my next moves. Time to sit with my notebook for a while and plot. Have a good day 

Taking_back_control

Morning,
Semi productive day yesterday as I took advantage of a dry and reasonably sunny morning to get out and sort the back garden. Feel so much better now it’s done as it’s been long overdue and it’s much nicer to look out over a tidy garden 😊.Within a couple of hours of finishing my the heavens opened! 

Moneywise, that time of the month has hit where most bills are paid and consequently most money has gone - this is an area I need to work on as it happens month in month out. Not that there’s a lot of spare money, but it always seems to have vanished 2 weeks post payday.

The first of my BT is due to expire in June and has £1396 outstanding. Ideally need to get this cleared ahead of then to avoid throwing money away in interest. I have a pile of things to start putting on fb / Vinted so will make a start on my day off tomorrow.

Right best crack on and get the animals sorted as I’m in work today. Have a great day x 

NeverendingDMP

Good luck with it all. Your 3 areas of focus in diary is how I feel most days too!

WinterWarrior

I prefer it when all the dd’s have gone out. I know the balance plummets, but it’s good to know what is left is what’s left to play with 😁
I’m always banging on about my weight on my diary, so you aren’t alone 🤭

Taking_back_control

Thanks @NeverendingDMP and WinterWarrior 😊

@WinterWarrior I remember a colleague of mine who is 10 years older than me telling me that loosing weight in your 40’s is sooo difficult. I was early 30’s at the time and had just shed 3 stone of post pregnancy weight without barely trying - I didn’t believe her!  8 years later I most certainly do! 

Made £30 from 2 fb sales yesterday which is great. The not so great is that rather than be putting the money towards debt, it’s going to be plugging the deficit for this month. To be fair, it’s not all bad. We had an amazing weekend away at the beginning of the Easter Holidays which I had planned to fund from savings. After giving my head a bit of a wobble and resetting my mindset I want to try and leave the savings intact.

Plan for today is a trip to a local theme park. I buy DS and myself annual passes for Christmas every year, purchased in the Black Friday sales. At that price they pay for themselves after 2 visits and we easily go 6+ times a year. Hopefully the weather will hold 🤞

I’ve just updated my pet food delivery as have enough to see me to payday, so rearranged so that it can come out of next months pay, so £36 saved (for now!).

Food shop is covered for the next 2 weeks - I buy giftcards via work which give me cashback. It’s only a few % but I’m aiming to leave it to build up and use it towards Christmas. At the end of Qtr 1 I’ve got £61 so hoping for £200ish by the beginning of December. It’ll be a massive help and also helps with budgeting on a monthly basis. 

Need to drag myself off the sofa now and start the day, Enjoy x 

Taking_back_control

Morning!
We had a fab day at the theme park with DS and his friend - minimal spends and a lovely way to round off the Easter holidays.

Lazy day yesterday around the house as the weather wasn’t great. Watched a film and played board games with DS and caught up on the washing.

A thought struck me whilst I was putting away my umpteenth load of washing - it’s little and often that makes the difference, not the big one offs. I realised this is applicable in so many areas of my life that I need to change. Debt - small, regular overpayments can have more of an impact than the big one offs I’d often skint myself to make, Fitness - if I haven’t got an hour spare to go to the gym, a 20 minute run or home work out done regularly is just as affective, House - the odd 10 minutes a day spent decluttering or putting washing away saves it becoming a massive chore and keeps on top of things. It’s not rocket science but this simple thought has opened my eyes a bit. 10-20 minutes a day is far more palatable and easy to accommodate than big 1+ hour chunks (or big overpayments!)

I’ve laced up my running shoes and finally got back out there. I haven’t run since last years Great North Run, where my confidence took a massive dent. I hadn’t trained properly as I wasn’t 100% committed to going due to my anxiety I was having at the time over covid but finally convinced myself to go. It was so hot and I felt so overweight and unfit ( I was / am!) - it was my slowest half to date. I was lucky enough to get a ballot place again this year, I’d been trying for 8-10 years with no joy so have taken this years success as I sign to give myself a kick up the bum and get back out there! I feel as though I’m starting from scratch again, but I have a plan and will stick to it. I’m hoping a stone or 2 may disappear along the way. First 2 training runs have been completed this week 😊.

Have a great weekend x 

outoftheviciouscircle

Good luck with all your goals.... funnily enough I was just writing about my weight in my diary. I really need to do something about it. I envy you being able to run, its something I've always wanted to be able to do but never stuck with it.
You're certainly not alone in feeling everything falls down to you. I have a cleaning day on a Saturday on my day off, DH sits down and watches TV all day on his.

Taking_back_control

@outoftheviciouscircle it’s so difficult isn’t it? I need to work on my boundaries I think and making sure my expectations of what I need everyone to do are clear. OH works from home 4 days a week and times I have asked him to peg the washing out or put the bins out when he gets two minutes and 99.9% of the time it’s still waiting for me to do when I get home from work 😡. I’m determined DS won’t follow in his footsteps that way and am beginning to try and install a sense of responsibility in him for to look after his things and tidy up after himself. 

The weekend seems to have flown by and DS is back to school today. Despite my moans above I’m looking forward to having the opportunity to get the house back to some sort of normality today before going back to work tomorrow.

Todays to do list:
1. Daily steps / meditation app for points towards Amazon vouchers
2. List at least 5 items on fb / vinted
3. Tidy house and vacuum throughout 
4. Clean bathroom
5. 30 minute run
6. Order meds for pony from vets

WinterWarrior

I can’t run at all! 2 minutes running has me in a beetroot faced heap, but I can walk fast for as much time as I have, so that’s what I do. 

Enjoy your day off, try to do some things for you as well as the jobs 🌟

CRANKY40

If I asked my late husband to do anything in the house while I was at work he "forgot". What did work was writing him a list on paper or a post it that he could see. The day that he said so proudly "I've put your bins out for you" he was swiftly disabused of the notion that the bins that he also used belonged to me!

Taking_back_control

I’m sure they don’t mean it the way it comes out but it really gets my back up when I get told “I’ve hoovered for you!” @WinterWarrior maybe a list is the way to go, although I do get resentful at the need to spoon feed him in order to get any help around the house! 

Didn’t manage to get everything done yesterday as I ended up helping a friend out in the afternoon. Did manage to have a quick tidy and hoover, sort the pony meds, the app and my run. The run (if you can call it that!) was tough. Managed to loose my timer that I’m using at the moment for run/walk intervals and ended up doubling back on myself to find it.

Back to work today. I really can’t wait to get this debt gone so that I can maybe take a pay cut and find a job I enjoy and get job satisfaction from. I suspect redundancy may be on the cards over the next 2 years, so we’ll see how that pans out. Hopefully by then most the debt will be gone.

I’ve applied for the NatWest switch to get £200. All checks have been completed so should hopefully be fairly straightforward. £100 will pay off the OD off the account I’m switching and the other will go towards the ending BT.