Here We Go...Debt, Diet, DIY & Wedding!!

Sammy_Girl

Hi Guys,

Wow, thank you so much for your advice :beer:

Jacobs Bunny - Ditto the church service. We have also decided on the whole bells, organ and choir!! This does bump the cost up slightly but we felt that it was worth it After all, we're only going to do it once! I've been sat here trying to think what friends and family can help with what parts, and I'm not coming up with much. No one seems to have a particular trade! My mum has agreed to source a cheaper cake, so that helps.

NYCB - Sooo jealous you got married in New York. When we went in Jan we weren't engaged and I was hoping for a proposal on top of the Empire State, but it never happened!! Oh well, better late than never We do have a budget in mind, but I'm too scared to write it down. I am an MSE DFW, but my OH isn't

CR - You must be so pleased you're parents are paying for the big day. That's great of them. Admitedly, when my OH bought our first house last year, my parents offered to help towards a deposit or a future wedding. Obviously we went for the deposit (and I'm so glad we did). I would love to wear my mother's dress, but she had a winter wedding, so the dress might be a bit too warm, if not alittle too small for me :rotfl:

Roo - I like the John Lewis idea. Especially the vouchers for b/day and christmas. Thank you I hadn't thought aboit getting a wedding cake from a supermarket so will look into that. Presumeably they're slightly classier than a birthday cake

Lemon Tree - I totally understand the whole wedding fayre thing. I've been to about 4 now in the last 2 or 3 months and they just confuse me. For example, I don't know where to start with the photographer. I know we need to get one booked soonish so keep telling OH that we need to go and see some and make a decision. There are loads of great ideas at wedding fayres, and you do sometimes think you want everything, but of course realistically you can't! I am getting some good ideas though and MSE'ing them

I really appreciate your advice. Does/did everyone's OH get involved. Mine helped decide on the venue and that's about it. He seems quite happy to leave everything else to me. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing??

On the DFW front, I feel I've been quite productive this weekend. Me and OH went through all clothes and have a huge pile, where hopefully, two thirds can go on Ebay, and then the rest to charity. That should bring in an extra bit of cash to pay off CC. I also had quite a spring clean and came across loads of odd bits of change. So have put them in a box and will try and get some of those little plastic money bags from the bank so I can bag them up and pay them in Oh, and I switched gas and elec as well, so that should save a few £.

Have my second weigh in tomorrow. Even though I've been dieting so good this past week, I'm not feeling positive. I don't feel like I've lost weight, and my clothes certainly aren't any loser :rotfl:. Every time I start a diet I always seem to put on a couple of pounds at the start. I swear my scales aren't working properly

Sammy x

Lemon_Tree

hi, OH has been a bit limited on the help front, as he lives away from me at the moment, can't wait until he's here full time. He did have the deciding vote on the venue, but i knew he would love it, i made him chose which suits he wanted to wear - he was very happy for me to make the decision but i stood my ground. I was going to make a selection of 5 stationery designs which i really liked and let him decide but on the second design i just KNEW it was the one and luckily he agreed. He is doing most of the saving, as i've got the home to pay for etc, once again can't wait till he moves in to share the responsibiliites.

As for photographers, guess i dropped lucky as i scrapbook and one of the ladies who goes to the crop (day of scrapbooking - sorry if you already knew that) is a professional photographer. She's even going to let us have 100 edited photo's which was can print as much as we like which will save a fortune in the long run.

I don't have any luck with diets, it seems that all i do when i join a club is gain weight, i'm sure theres something wrong with that. But good luck to you.

I am loving planning our wedding, i've had my worries and silly dreams but can't wait to become a Mrs, only 4 1/2 months left.

jak

Just so you know, most venues willl not make you have a certain number of guests even in the high season if you don't get married on a Saturday. Also ask for discounts on everything! It's amazing what you can get!
We iced our own home made 3 tier cake and it was beautiful! I got a load of lovely sparkley wire decorations and stuck then oin the middle and put pink cut our ribbon on the outside. It was so lovely.
Good luck
X

Sammy_Girl

Thanks guys for all the great advice. I have so much going on at the moment, I honestly don't know where to start with the wedding! Been really hectic at work recently but am on a few days holiday in June so will try to catch up with all things wedding then!

On a diet front, had my weigh in and lost 2 pounds :j Am so happy. I don't belong to a club, but we keep a set of scales in our office at work, and there are two of us on a diet. The other person gained a pound

The most exciting news of all on a DFW front, today I found out.........I'm getting a pay rise!!!!!!!! :j That extra bit will definitely be thrown to the debts. Downside is I have to do more work, but hey why not?????? If it means I can get my debts paid off, all the better.

Bets get back to work, have a pile to do and it's already 11:35 :eek:

Have a good day,

Sammy x

Kentish_Maid_2

Sammy_Girl wrote: »

On a diet front, had my weigh in and lost 2 pounds :j Am so happy. I don't belong to a club, but we keep a set of scales in our office at work, and there are two of us on a diet. The other person gained a pound

Sammy x

Hi Sammy
Just a quickie to say jump over to the Old Style Board and join the Weight Loss OS Way thread. They are a great bunch of laydeez (and the odd gent) and since I have been with them I have lost weight. You have to be completely mad to join of course.:D
KM

Sammy_Girl

Kentish_Maid wrote: »

Hi Sammy
Just a quickie to say jump over to the Old Style Board and join the Weight Loss OS Way thread. They are a great bunch of laydeez (and the odd gent) and since I have been with them I have lost weight. You have to be completely mad to join of course.:D
KM

Definitely qualify for that. I am completely mad :eek: :j

I will try and get over there tonight. Thank you

Sammy x

Sammy_Girl

OH is at work so am celebrating good news by myself (and my dog) with my £2.99 wine. I'm so excited at being able to pay more at my debts than originally thought. I've been sat here with my notebook working out how quickly I can pay my debts and I think with some careful planning and budgeting I could probably shave 2 months off my debt free date :j

The will power for my diet is working, so I just need to apply that will power to my MSE'ing. 2 x willpower = none at all to stop smoking, so that can wait

Sammy x

Sammy_Girl

Forgot to add re wedding - Have somehow managed to acquire another bridesmaid to add to my entourage :eek: Will def need to source some DFW friendly dresses!

Sammy_Girl

Just had a little shindig at work to celebrate a birthday, and I ate two slices of cake :eek: Hopefully the jogging I did this morning at 6am (:eek: ) will cover me those 2 slices. On a DFW front I haven't spent any money today :money:

Sammy x

Sammy_Girl

Last night I spent about 2 hours on the internet trying to fathom out the daily clicks, slicethepie and cashback sites. My head is still fuddled so think I will wait until the weekend when I can concentrate on these in more detail. I have tried to do a number of surveys on Ciao over the last couple of weeks, but I keep getting rejected for the surveys! Obviously I'm not the type of person who they want to survey! Maybe I'm just being too honest with my answers??

Have just checked online banking, and on a plus side I am £0.13 in credit, and all bills and debt payments have gone out this month, and I haven't needed to use my overdraft So hopefully that will stay the same until I get paid at the end of the month.

On an even plusser side, I finally got an expenses cheque from work that I have been waiting 2 months for, and went straight to the Halifax to put that on my credit card. Along with £50 cash, that was £250.15 that I have managed to pay off that card this month. Yay!! Now, all I need to do is hide that card so I don't spend that £250.15!!

I'm doing good food spending wise as I am bringing in packed lunches every day to work, so I don't have a reason to go on the High Street and spend even more money. Although I do need to go to Lidl and buy some dishwasher salt and rinse aid. They are much cheaper there and don't cost me much more than £2.00 so that's not too bad.

Best get back to work, loads to do today. Must prove I am worthy of my new pay rise!!!!

Sammy x