My 5 year plan

fatrab · 9 April 2018 at 9:58AM

I'm still hovering around 16st. The weight just isn't shifting so I'm going to have to go back to basics. Spoke with Mrs fatrab last night and we've agreed 2 weeks of serious dieting. The weekly shop still has some naughty items, mainly snacks, that seem to be the downfall. So as of today that all stops. We spent a few hours cooking yesterday and have some healthy meals made for the week so lets see how that goes.

So last week's round up:

42% - Removing reg number from car
32% - Fuel
26% - Shopping

£80 to remove my plate from the car on Saturday so that it's ready to sell asap. Another short term expense in necessity of a long term goal. I bought my personalised plate almost 20 years ago with money that my Gran left me when she passed away so I don't really want to let it go, but £80 every time it's transferred is becoming money ill-spent. I think I'll leave it on retention for a while, at least until all my debts are cleared.

Should be a nice quiet week this week, hopefully the weather stays ok and I can get out on the beach most evenings for a bit of exercise.

Averaged 78.4mpg on the run to work this morning. Buying the wee car was possibly the smartest move we've made in a few years.

Happy Monday!

fatrab · 9 April 2018 at 12:48PM

Just had a frustrating phone call with V!rg!n Media.

It came to light at the weekend that we're not on a very good package for the price we're paying. We're currently paying £34/month but MIL is only paying £29, has more channels, faster broadband speed and 2 boxes!

So decided to have a bash at negotiating a better deal. Apparently VM can't understand how MIL is getting such a good deal and they couldn't come anywhere close to matching it. Bearing in mind we are midway through a 12 month contract I wonder if MIL only got that deal as she was going to leave. Best they could offer me was staying at £34/month with faster broadband but it would mean taking out another 12 month contract.

I'm not taking out another 12 month deal, I'll renegotiate when I'm out of contract (October) and probably look at other suppliers. 5 year plan amended.

What is frustrating me the most is that MIL has only been with VM for 1 year and is getting such a good deal, we've been with them 4 years and don't seem to be getting any of the supposed "loyalty" benefits VM claim to offer.

The days of loyalty are long gone.

LegBeforeWicket · 9 April 2018 at 4:12PM

Hi Rab!

With regards to the losing weight, have you thought about using an app/site like MyFitnessPal ? Perhaps you don't want to overcomplicate things in that area, and I fully understand if so, but you seem to like analysis and weight loss is a numbers game after all.

fatrab · 10 April 2018 at 7:34AM

Thanks LBW, I've downloaded the app this morning. I had too much fat and too many calories yesterday apparently! But was way under the carbs and slightly under the protein so I think a few adjustments to my diet can be easily made.

Yes, I do like number crunching so the app looks like it's my kind of thing!

Cheers!

fatrab · 10 April 2018 at 10:36AM

It's so easy to mis-account for little spends. Especially on eBay and the likes. You think you have everything accounted for, all your monthly payments are out and you've budgeted for the rest of the month, then BANG - you get an email reminding you that £34 for something you bought last month (and had completely forgotten about) is due out in 3 days.

In the past this would have sent me into a blind panic. I still got that "oh no" feeling when I saw the email arrive but I know there's no need to worry. I have kept a buffer in my current account "just in case" and if it was a higher amount I could use the emergency fund.

But this has given me a little reminder that I need to be more careful. If I didn't have a buffer, or if I hadn't been keeping an eye on my emails, something like this could easily result in a bank charge or worse - a black mark on my credit file. Silly mistakes are not permitted on my journey.

The £34 was for a space saver spare wheel kit (includes a jack and a spanner) for the small car. The car came with one of those puncture repair kits in lieu of a spare wheel, which are completely useless.

Will be taking the van home this weekend so saving fuel and wear & tear on the wee car. That'll be another £40 saved in addition to the already reduced fuel bill.

That'll also offset my £34 blunder.

fatrab · 11 April 2018 at 12:37PM

Midweek slump as usual on a Wednesday, and not much to report on the moneysaving front.

I doubt much will change for a while until either the car sells, I can submit my tax rebate or payday comes around again (which is 2 weeks today - woohoo!). Can't do the tax rebate until I have P60's from both employments in the past 12 months so that'll likely be May.

I made most of this week's food on Sunday as mentioned in one of the posts above, so I only needed to buy bread and milk when I arrived up north. Unfortunately a few snacks for the week fell into the basket too. I just can't seem to stop myself. It's not as if I'm spending a fortune on them, my total weekly shopping was £4.22 including the bread and milk, it's just an extra expense - and calories - that I don't need!

It needs to stop.

JoJoC · 11 April 2018 at 1:03PM

Hey Rab, I don't think £4.22 is too bad for a weekly shop at all! I hear what you're saying about snacking though - maybe you can compromise by buying one treat snack and one healthy snack? You can't deny yourself everything, after all.

I'm with you on the mid-month slump, nothing much to report on anything! But it's good to keep up the posting so as not to loose momentum.

A good lesson learned on the car purchase front and a good way of reinforcing to yourself that the action that you're taking is already seeing positive results! You'd have been in the red this time last year if an unexpected purchase came out.

fatrab · 11 April 2018 at 1:44PM

JoJoC wrote: »

Hey Rab, I don't think £4.22 is too bad for a weekly shop at all! I hear what you're saying about snacking though - maybe you can compromise by buying one treat snack and one healthy snack? You can't deny yourself everything, after all.

We spent about £20 on Sunday for shopping to make meals for the week, so I should've only needed milk & bread, £2 max, but a few pain au chocolat and toffee yum yums and you're up into the £4's. I'm more worried about the weight implications than the cost tbh

JoJoC wrote: »

I'm with you on the mid-month slump, nothing much to report on anything! But it's good to keep up the posting so as not to loose momentum.

I'm finding that posting every day is quite therapeutic. Plus it's making me think about my plan every day. I don't want to loose momentum as you say, I also don't want to mess up.

JoJoC wrote: »

A good lesson learned on the car purchase front and a good way of reinforcing to yourself that the action that you're taking is already seeing positive results! You'd have been in the red this time last year if an unexpected purchase came out.

Absolutely. I'm going to reduce my buffer this month so that I am forced to budget more accurately and leave even less available for frittering.

My fuel is working out at £40/week in the wee car and my shopping (for up north) is under £25/week. £260 for the month. Every other penny after bills is going towards debt repayment on payday. Once it's paid I can't get it back!

fatrab · 12 April 2018 at 9:57AM

Looks like I'll be getting a bit of overtime tonight, which is a rare occurrence recently. But this may have scuppered my plan to take the van home this weekend. Dammit.

Official weigh in is tomorrow morning and I'm not looking forward to it. I know I've not been committed enough so drastic measures are required. I'm going carb-free for 2 weeks. I've done this in the past and it's worked but I never managed to keep the weight off. This time it'll be more about maintaining the weight loss afterwards. I can do this.

The big car is going up to have it's photos taken at 11am this morning then it's just a waiting game until it sells. Everything is heading in the right direction; I just need to be patient and let my timeline events happen in their own time now.

Coasting yet again....

fatrab · 13 April 2018 at 2:45PM

The big car is now live on the dealer's website!

I'm a bit gutted that I have to sell it to be honest. It's quite hard to accept that I've made a mess of things and need to make these kind of sacrifices to sort it out. But it was making these kind of irrational choices throughout my life that got me into the situation that I'm in, so it's for the best.

I'm also going to spend the weekend working on the house, eating healthily and getting out for a few long walks. My weight has crept up and I'm just over 16st again. I'm not going to let that happen. Will weigh in again on Monday and hopefully today was just a blip. On the 30th April I want to be 15st 7lbs. It can be done!

Have a great weekend

My 5 year plan

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free