Becka's Quest for Health and Financial Freedom

[shutsumon]

I hope people don't mind that I'm using this battle blog to talk finances as well as health. The two are entwined for me.

 

When I get fat I feel lousy. Everything aches, my sleep gets shot, I have no energy and I generally get down. All in all it's a vicious cycle I need to break.

 

I've been back on the wagon for a week and in that week I've lost 8lbs. Now I just need to stick with it for more than 3 months.

 

I'm eating healthy and exercising. I just need to stop this thing where as soon as I'm jobless I fall into a blind panic and gain weight. I'm a temp and every time my current job goes away I fall off the wagon.

 

To do this there is only one thing to do. I have to deal with the finances. I'm carrying over £5000 of card debt. It's stressful. Someone pointed me to Dave Ramsey's stuff and it looks helpful. Now I'm a Brit, have no children and live in a rented flat so some of the baby steps don't apply (no need for worrying about college fees for kids and no mortgage to clear) while (once I reach it) the retirement one will take a different form so I'm adapting them.

 

Step 1: I'm currently trying to build up a small emergency surplus but it's going to be a couple more weeks before I'm even permanently out of the overdraft. Towards this all small change and £2 coins are being put in a jar at the end of each day. (I'm also avoiding all use on the credit card). Ramsey suggests $1000 and Google says that's about £771 but that, of course, is after Sterling went off a cliff post-ref, before that it would have been more like £625. So I'm splitting the difference and aiming for £700. That's going to be a slog even if this job stays around so I have an initial target of £250 (about $324 presently). Yes I'm baby stepping the baby steps X-D.

 

Healthwise - 10 minutes of kickboxing DVD and lots of walking plus taking my own lunch to work and not getting takeaways is really helping. I already have much more energy and if I don't feel well I d feel much less ill. (And lets be honest this also helps my finances). I just need to remember how bad I feel when I don't eat right.

 

Anyway this is my first battle log. I hope to update it daily.

 

 

[shutsumon]

The day isn't quite over yet but it's already another good day. :-)

 

Mealwise I've kept to my healthy eating plan. I still have to cook dinner but it's all planned and there's really nothing untoward to eat in the house. I'd have to go out in the wet and dark to fall off the wagon tonight. (Yeah, not happening even if I wanted to. (I don't want to)). Well I say that but I did once comfort eat a kilo of raw carrots because it was available when I needed something so maybe I could manage it.

 

Exercise: 10 minutes kickboxing dvd and a 20 minutes walk before work. Bus gets me to work so early that I figure I might as well make use of the time.

 

Finances: Still no credit card use. I am slightly in overdraft as predicted but unless my calculations are out it should be the last week. Well the last week for as long as this job lasts. (Please let this job last). Part of the reason I want to build up a small buffer fund is t give me beathing space if the job vanishes. I've done a quick count of my small change and £2 collection and so far there's £17.53 in it. None of the coins are in bankable numbers yet but it's growing slowly.

[shutsumon]

Once again not a bad day.

 

On the downside I slept badly last night and then got attacked by the world's worst afternoon slump. It's really hard to work when your brain is fighting you. And of course the caffeine and sugar monsters came sniffing around sensing vulnerability but I fought them off. I dread to think at what cost to my willpower. I really need to sleep tonight,

 

On the upside I still did my ten minute workout before breakfast and then went for a 25 minute walk before work. I also stuck to my eating plan again. :-)

 

Financially there isn't much to report. Some more loose change has gone in the pot.and I now I have £10.08 in there.

[shutsumon]

Yesterday was good - except I couldn't update as my internet was being slow.

 

Today is another good day for exercise. I did my normal 10 minutes first thing plus a 30 minute walk before work and a five minute walk at lunchtime (maybe not worth much exercise wise but it seemed to help fend off the afternoon slump).

 

Food too is going okay though I think I may need to up my calories a touch. When you go to ask your manager for more work and ask for more food instead there's a problem.

 

Finances: Tomorrow is payday. I ended up using £40 of overdraft this week. Next week I should use none. The week after that the bill heavy part of the month starts. If I can get through that couple of weeks without slipping into overdraft I'll be able to start building some reserves (seperate from the emergency savings pot) so I'm not living week to week any more.

 

I've still managed to avoid using the credit cards at all - that's one and a half weeks now.:-)

 

According to my Calculations the emergency pot stands at £23.88 this evening.