The hilariously over-optimistic goals I am setting myself in 2010....

A question about : The hilariously over-optimistic goals I am setting myself in 2010....

....One of which is to find the time to maintain this diary, which will hopefully keep me on track. The 2 main areas for change this year are pretty unoriginal. Like most people, I want to sort out my finances and lose weight. Tied into this are plans to stop smoking (so I can exercise without keeling over, hence losing weight), and cut down my drinking drastically, starting with a Dry January (saving me calories, hence losing weight, and saving money).

But before I get into the boring details of that, here is a bit of boring backstory about me. I am a young single woman who began struggling with money during university days as I tried to support myself. I admit I was irresponsible with money in my first year because I really wanted to go out partying with my new friends as much as possible, but it soon became clear that I was up sht creek with no paddle and needed to get a job. I defaulted and was late with various payments, and my credit rating is still shot from it. But who wants credit anyway right?

Despite working as much as possible and getting help from my uni's hardship fund, I still graduated with huge (consumer) debt (don't even get me started on the student loan). However, I am very proud to say that I came out with a really good degree despite all the trials and tribulations, and general stress of having no money. My debt has gone up and down since then but now that I am in a reasonable job I am starting to make definite inroads and my debt free target is November 2010, but hopefully sooner, as I have been making overpayments as much as possible. I added to my debt with a couple of big purchases, one of which was laser eye surgery (on 0% finance), but at least I have something to show for that extra debt. The rest of it was just living beyond my means. This has been around my neck for years and I will be so pleased when I can finally say I don't owe anybody anything.

Anyway, back to the health stuff.
After a hectic and messy New Year's Eve, following which I felt horrendous, I have not smoked or drunk any booze. However I have eaten lots of leftover Xmas chocolate and a whole bag of crisps. But the healthy eating plan starts tomorrow and the remaining Xmas choc is going in the bin. I have drawn up a meal plan for the coming week (a la Old Style) which will see me using up stuff from my cupboards, everything else I needed I went and bought yesterday. My budget for food this month is ridiculously small as I went a bit overboard on the festivities at Christmas. After doing a big shop yesterday, which should be most of what I need for the next 2 weeks, I have Ј45 to live on until the end of Jan. Ugh. But I will be taking breakfast and lunch to work every day so there should be plenty of No Spend Days in Jan.

I am also starting a hideous exercise regime tomorrow which will see me dragging my sorry carcass around a park in the freezing cold morning air with a friend of mine, and going to the gym in the evening. I hate the gym. All those people running on treadmills in time to bad house music, staring at themselves in the mirror. It's like Night of the Living Dead. However, it is costing me Ј42 a month so I am damn well going to start going again. If anyone reads this and wants to give me a kick up the btt when I fail to go to the gym, please remind me that when I sat down on Boxing Day my skinny jeans split. Yes, that's right, they split. Stop laughing. This is why I have to go to the gym.

So, targets for 2010:

- Get Debt Free by November! (or before). Total debt today stands at Ј8468
- Lose 2 stone...
by....meal planning, regular gym going and running, low carb consumption, no eating late at night (if it's good enough for Halle Berry, it's good enough for me).
- No smoking
- Dry January, followed by no drinking in the week for the rest of the year
- Paint the bathroom

Targets for today:

- Go to the dreaded gym to ease myself gently back into an exercise regime.
- Cook a big veggie stew for lunches next week.

So that's it for now. Wish me luck. Also, can someone tell me how to disable these damn bouncing smiley faces? They are driving me mad. Thanks for your attention.

Best answers:

• Good Luck with everything Hannah
• Good luck!
• Thanks for the encouragement folks! Ok, so I didn't make it to the gym BUT I did go for a run. I felt as if I was going to vomit up my spleen afterwards, but that feeling went away after 5 or 10 hideous minutes! And I have made a huge pan of veggie bolognese which I reckon will stretch to 6 meals. So I have achieved 1.5 out of the 2 goals I set myself today. Oh well, baby steps.
  I have tried to breath some new life into a big bag of Sainsburys Basics muesli which I have hardly eaten any of yet because it is so unpleasant. A bit like sawdust. I have chopped some dried apricots and cranberries and mixed those in so that will be breakfasts at work this week, maybe with some chopped banana. Yum. Have also got instant miso soup, low fat cup a soup, and munchy seeds for those 4pm sleeping-at-desk-due-to-low-blood-sugar moments. This is the time when I would normally go to the shop in search of chocolate.
  And, have just realised there is a bottle of fizz in the fridge left over from new year's eve. Hmmm. It can be my reward in February for not drinking in January!
• hi, my story sounds similar to yours in terms of how I got into debt!
  just wanted to say, I am doing a dry January too and am finding it a lot easier than I thought it would. so far anyway....
  I even managed a Saturday night in with no wine, normally one of my weak points.
  how I will feel when i am back at work and it gets to Thursday evening and I feel like treating myself because it's "almost the weekend", I don't know.
  Sounds like you are really going after the weight loss/ fitness thing, good for you!
  GOOD LUCK and happy new year!
• Thanks Little H, yes weekends are the hardest! This is why after January I will allow myself a little tipple at weekends but not in the week. I am going to hide all the booze in the house (if I can't see it hopefully I won't think about it) and buy in lots of lovely fruit and herbal teas to drink instead. Let me know how you get on, we can support each other in our dry month! Am looking forward to being thinner and feeling better over the next few weeks!
• Oh yes, have also washed and put away the ashtrays. Out of sight, out of mind!
• I went to a friend's house for dinner tonight. She very kindly modified the food for me to be lower in fat and carbs, and I managed to resist wine yay! However, I did eat a small bag of chocolate buttons for dessert. Oh well. I haven't smoked either, and every muscle in my body aches from the rigours of Boot Camp on Monday, so if it hurts it must be working. I even walked up the escalator today more than once, despite the pain. Tomorrow it is going to be snowing but I will still be out there running (or sliding) about and doing press ups.
  I was supposed to make a tuna and bean salad today for tomorrow's lunch, according to the meal plan, but am shattered and have to be up so early tomorrow, so I think it's going to be veggie bolognese for the third day running. Boring but necessary.
  God, what an exciting life. If anyone is actually reading this dull account of the minutiae of my life, I must apologise. I will try and inject some humour, mild peril, and possibly a love interest over the coming weeks.
• Well, I hate to say it, but exercising in the snow was actually quite invigorating. Am feeling less achey today, think my body is starting to adjust to the new regime. Will weigh myself when I get home and see if there has been any change at all. Probably not. I'm still feeling the post-Christmas bloat, if I'm honest.
  On the MSE front things are not going too well. You may remember I worked out that I had Ј45 to live on for the whole of January, which was pushing it I think, although I know some resourceful people are able to do it. Well an unexpected work-related expense (that I can't claim back) popped up that took half my budget, so I had to resort to *whispers* a payday loan. This is hugely embarrassing as I know how awful these things can be, although I have used them before during months where I've been short and I never roll them over or anything like that. So have borrowed Ј100 which will tide me over til the end of the month. Have tweaked the budget for next month to accommodate it and as I have to repay Ј130 (eek!) this means I have to forego a couple of things, namely a hair cut and some money I was going to save towards my summer holiday.
  So not great, but at least I can eat for the rest of the month. All the monthly direct debits and standing orders went out of my account this week and I am now up to my overdraft limit of Ј500. This is on my list of debts to clear as I always use it all by the end of each month, but it is not a priority for me at the moment.
  Anyway, away from Rich and back to Skinny. I am not normally one for new age bunkum, but I saw a free podcast on the Times website for this Hypnodiet hynotherapy weight loss thing, so I gave it a listen before bed last night. Could not stop smirking for the first five minutes as the woman put on this ridiculous Madame Zelda voice, but I had calmed down and was starting to feel relaxed by the end. Sadly the podcast ended before she moved on from relaxation to the bit where she makes me less of a greedy pig. I looked for some more free podcasts from her but there were none, so I confess I bought the CD. From Amazon, as cheap as I could get it, with free delivery. I am still v ashamed though. But I will sell it back on Amazon as soon as I have listened to it. God I am such a sucker.
• hey Hannah,
  Loving your diary so far! You have a lovely entertaining way of writing and I look forward to hearing more from you over the coming months.
  Goodluck with your goals and welldone so far!
• Thanks Pink Hayley!
  Weighed myself today - have put on 1lb! Arg. This is starting to feel like Bridget Jones' Diary. Hopefully the weight gain is muscle because I am bulking up. But I would rather be lithe and bendy like the Special K lady in the red one-piece.
  Am also fretting about the number of things I need to pay for over the next few months - summer festival-going for example. And I am in desperate need of some new boots. Mine are about five years old, broken, letting in water and have no grip anymore. The number of times I have nearly gone a*rse over t*t in the snow today. But if I have to shell out for boots I want really good ones that will last me another five years. Have seen a pair of gorgeous Uggs but they are Ј140. Can I really justify this expense? Discuss.
  Summary for today (Day 6), in the style of Ms Jones:
  Number of cigarettes smoked - 0
  Bottles of wine drunk - 0
  Chocolate eaten - 4 squares
  Weight gained - 1 lb
  Gym visits - 0
  Running around in the snow - 45 mins
  Cash spent - Ј9 on Hypnob*llocks CD, Ј8 on salad stuff and fruit in Sainsburys
  Hmmm. Well, in the words of New Labour, things can only get better.
• Thank you, Hannah, for the best laugh I've had all year.
  Sincerely wishing you all the best with your goals.
  LCx
• Hmmm. Not a good day for being MSE. In fact, several decisions I made today have totally cocked up my budget for the next few months.
  1) I gave in and bought those boots, after getting so sick of having cold, wet feet in the snow and nearly falling on my a*se every five minutes. No, I did not need to buy such an expensive pair, but in my defence, they should last me for years like the last ones did, and after shopping around I got them from the US, delivered, for Ј120 less than they cost in John Lewis. No doubt by the time they arrive all the snow will have gone. Oh well.
  2) I was given first refusal on some overtime at work and I passed it on to a junior colleague instead (gritting my teeth while doing so). It seemed only fair though - I did the last lot when it came up, and it really helped me in lieu of a pay rise, which I eventually got. She is not getting one for a while I don't think, is less senior than me so is getting less, and works really hard. So she deserves it more than I do. And giving it to her makes me look like less of a selfish c*nt in front of my boss. It's a pain because I really could have done with that money, having c*cked up my budget so badly with my wanton disregard for money saving.
  3) I have been waiting nearly 2 years for an appointment with the best tattoo artist in London (in my opinion anyway!) and finally I am booked in! Which is brilliant, but it means committing to a large project that is going to eat up most of my spare cash for at least the next 7 or 8 months. But it will be worth it in the end. And it's now or never because he will end up with a huge waiting list again very soon.
  Day 7:
  Number of cigarettes smoked - 0
  Bottles of wine drunk - 0
  Chocolate eaten - a whole bar! Eek!
  Weight gained - 0 lb
  Weight lost - 0 lb
  Gym visits - 0
  Running around in the snow - 45 mins
  Cash spent - Ј1.20 on a sushi wrap, Ј140 on boots. Eek! Plus however much a lime and soda costs. I'm off to the pub.
• Quick update: I have been feeling so guilty about overspending and being so frivolous that I have slashed the food budget in half for the remainder of the month (will live on pulses from the store cupboard) and veggies from the freezer), put Ј50 into my savings account towards my holiday (I have to book the flights soon or they will go up in price), and paid Ј9 towards my Egg loan. Every time I have spare cash I have been chucking it at the Egg loan, because I pay Ј150 towards it minimum every month and I can't wait to get rid of the damn thing and have that Ј150 to start doing some serious snowballing. So with that small payment the loan is down to Ј1055. The next payment will take it into three figures! Yay!
  In Skinny news, I went to the pub and had half a pint of diet coke and half a pint of orange and lemonade. Low cal, low spend. Wanted a treat when I got home so I had an Options hot choc (the lowest cal make I could find) made with a bit of skimmed milk and water. Bloody lovely. Am watching Half Ton Son on More4 and it is making me feel better about my diet. That poor sod. Imagine eating that amount of junk food every day. Horrendous.
• I thought I had ebayed everything possible, but I think I am going to look again. There must be some clothes malingering at the back of my wardbrobe that I can get rid of. All my surplus books, DVDs and CDs have either been sold or are still listed on ebay, Music Magpie, Green Met or Amazon. Just have to get on with reading the unread books so they can go as well!
  Am also looking on Gumtree etc for some cheeky part time or freelance work that I can do from home. There are a couple of things that look legitimate but am always a bit dubious about these things. Will just have to be on guard for the moment they ask me for my bank details. Not that they'd get anything out of my bank account anyway. Ha!
  Have been feeling quite demoralised in my first week back at work (don't get me wrong, I am grateful to have a job in the current climate. I know many others are not so lucky). So I had a look to see what's around. Answer: not much, except I did see one thing which looks pretty good, good money as well. But it's a one year contract, and no guarantee that it will turn into a permanent job. That makes me slightly nervous. Might apply anyway though, you never know.
  In other money news, I paid Ј1 towards my Egg loan today. I like the idea of the Payment a Day thread, it's nice to be able to see your total debt go down a little bit every day. But when I tried to do it for a whole month I found I got carried away and paid too much, always wanting to take it down to the next nice round number, and before I knew it I had left myself short. So am settling for a Payment Some Days.
  I've been reading the Use It Or Lose It thread as well, and am aiming to try to use all my toiletries before I buy any more. God knows I've got enough half empty bottles of shampoo and shower gel knocking around!
  In Skinny news, I am still gaining weight, but eating less than usual so I don't know what's going on there. Have been sticking to my meal plan pretty well. Maybe I'm eating more than I think because I'm not smoking. My stomach feels a bit flatter though. No Boot Camp today, next one is on Monday, so will try and go to the gym over the weekend. Still no fags or booze.
  Have a good weekend y'all!
• Hey Hannah, have been having a chuckle reading your diary. Can't say the whole quitting drinking in January think is my cup of tea (only because I know I'd fail miserably) but you seem to have the right frame of mind to do it.
  Best of luck with it all. I'm sure if you keep focusing on it and keep posting on here to get some moral support you'll succeed in style.
• Thankyou for the encouragement! It's nice to know someone's reading. And if I can give them a giggle that's even better!
• Woo hoo! Weighed myself this morning and I have lost 3lbs overnight! Are my scales broken perhaps? Belly feels flatter as well even though I have just had brekkie. Yay! Goals for the weekend:
  - Do some yoga in the living room (there must be some instructional vids on YouTube right?)
  - List as much stuff as possible on ebay
  - Do the washing up
  - Go to the market for cheap fruit and veg
  - Make a vat of stew with pulses and pearl barley in it for lunches next week
  - Go to the gym
  - Apply for 2 jobs
  Last night I had my first Friday night in without booze in god knows how long! And I hardly thought about it actually.
  Right, have to stop watching Gok Wan and start doing productive things so I can feel smug later on. Yay!
• Hiya Hannah
  Your diary has given me a good giggle It sounds like you got into debt in pretty much the same way as I did. It makes me shake my head in amazement at all the money I wasted at uni , I'm paying for it now though :rolleyes: I'm another one who is having a dry month in January; me and my fiance are trying for a baby so I have decided to give up alcohol. It's good to know that I'm not the only one making a sober start to the new year
  Anywat, just wanted to wish you luck on your debt free journey.
  Mancbird
• Hey Mancbird, thanks for the encouragement. Hope your dry Jan is going well. And good luck with the baby plans!