Crazy Lent idea... I must be crazy for doing this!

[greeneyedlulu]

No wine
No chocolate
No spending....
For Lent I usually give something up.... this year I'm combining a few elements of my life that need a damn good shake up!!
I'm a drinker, not rolling around in gutter drunk every night, just I can easily drink most of a bottle each night without realising it, cheeky glass whilst cooking, top up to sit down for dinner... you know how it goes!

The chocolate tends to be a daily treat at the end of the day once my little boy is finally tucked up in bed asleep and I've done my daily chores and my bum finally hits the sofa, with a glass of wine in hand (the rest of the above bottle) and the other reaching for the remote control to watch some crappy tv show..... yes that includes eastenders but I love it!!

As for the spending..... well as you can imagine the above mentioned products set me back a bit! So that added to the cost of the mortgage, council tax, nursery fees and blah blah blah!!! Everyone has these costs! I know I'm not special but my God, it's just so overwhelming sometimes being a single mum and having so many outgoings! And I know I'm wasting money by buying lunches and coffee and wine and chocolate each day!

My fridge broke down in January (you know... the month we're all swimming in cash) so that cleared out my little bit of rainy day funds and this month, I'm struggling and I refuse to carry on like this and be so worried about money every day so I sat down and worked out my finances and I'm pretty ashamed by the difference on how much I should have left over and how much I actually do!! Eek!!

So Lent starts tomorrow and I've been paid today, all the bills go out tomorrow and I'll update as I go along on how I'm doing as I really want to give everything a shake up so the way I see it is that

1. If I give up wine and chocolate I will save money and lose weight
2. If I'm making lunches then that will help to towards the weight loss and I'm saving money
3. If I stop spending money on non essentials, I can save and get those few irksome jobs that need doing around the house that are beyond my DIY skills that 'I can't afford'!

I want to make this work and figure if I put it out there that I'm doing it then I will more likely stick to it!

Wish me luck!!

PS. Anyone else who is giving up something for Lent you are welcome to share your plight and pain along side me as I will probably need the support too x

For the positive feedback, I thank you ladies

For the not so positive..... well you're hiding behind a keyboard so how brave can you really be? So let's say our goodbyes now

I really want to do this and if this post encourages others to do something for the better then all good I say!!

Xxxxx

Im going to try and give up wine and my afternoon can of diet coke.
Also going to try and be less grumpy/impatient.

Ok, so you've spurred me on. I'll give up inactivity. So I'm aiming for at least 40 minutes of exercise per day as guaged by my fitbit.

I find if I walk, it clears my head, shapes me up and stops me from eating crap. I also feel more energised.

I'm so pleased by the ladies that have said I've inspired you!

I'm going all softie here lol

I was just coming on to ask when lent starts, eyeing up vodka when I saw in your post, OP, that it's tomorrow. I know, pathetic. 😳

PovertyPain lol!! Have a vodka tonight and then off it for 6 weeks!!

For those of you contemplating cutting out sugar I gave it up for February (Cancer Research thing) and cut it all out except fruit. It's actually been fine and I'm going to carry on with it to a certain extent. The only tricky thing is eating out so I won't worry so much there but at home I'll try and eat in the same way as I have been. When I started I soon realised that sugar is in almost EVERYTHING! Checking ingredients has been time-consuming but I've lost 10lbs which has been a great side-effect 😉

Morning all!!

OK so the debit/credit cards are out of my purse and safely tucked away. There's an emergency £20 in my purse, crisp and clean so I'd hate to use it unnecessarily, like for a 65p bar of chocolate?

Last nights left over wine has been poured away!!

The toughest thing I think will be giving up buying my morning coffee but at £2 a day, it has to go!!

Good luck ladies xxx

Giving up chocolate here - so far so good!

Missing the sugar in my morning tea today

dean that's a fantastic weight loss! Did you cut out things like bread and cereal too?

You've inspired me too. I'm going to fast between sunrise and sunset. My eating has gotten out of control since Christmas and I think it will help me actually recognise hunger again.

Ive done the blood sugar diet where you only have 800 calories a day and I lost half a stone on that before Xmas and I've kept it off so I'm trying that again and using my fitness app for calorie counting.

Ballymaroon I'm same bread and chocolate etc . Have started today and have put my £1 in a jar .

Good luck everyone

I got bread that had no added sugar but didn't eat so much of it. Certainly not bread every day. I still had pasta because I love it! No cereal except oats. And today I have officially finished but I don't feel like eating chocolate etc so may habits have definitely changed. I usually find it hard to stick to diet's etc but because I've done this publicly and people have sponsored me I have found it quite easy to stick to. Going for an all you can eat buffet tonight...😂

Thanks for sharing dean all you can eat sounds good I'm going to buy some oats tonight so I can try and have porridge for breakfast.

All you can eat buffet..... you're making me drool!

I am jumping on board with no crisps .

I love them and they send me off eating loads of other rubbish so I would love to be clear of them .

Good luck to everyone . Going to go back now and read.

OP are you doing this for yourself or Lent?

Late to the party but I'm in. Going to give up alcohol and caffeine. Forgot it was the first day of Lent today so have already failed on the coffee front but will start properly tomorrow.

Ah I was hoping for a thread like this. Well done OP, sounds like it will be a really positive thing to do.

I'm giving up chocolate and Amazon. Not sure if I can do it but I'm determined! I'm on mat leave and can't afford to keep buying crap online and I'm struggling to shift the baby weight so I hope I can keep at it.

Good luck to everyone.

All welcome!!

ElvishArchdruid -
I'm doing this for myself but using Lent as the excuse to kick-start it if that makes sense as my will power is very poor

is it cheating if I just give up wine and beer?

I can still have the odd gin or whisky (makes my hectic social stuff lined up easier) but don't want to slosh a bottle down me on a random night just out of habit?

Hoddastic I don't think that's cheating . I'm giving up bread and processed sweet rubbish ( cakes biscuits chic and sweets ) but might still have a yoghurt or little tub of custard .

Hoddastic I only ever drink white wine, may occasionally have beer at a concert where wine is ridiculously over priced! But I certainly won't be drinking something else alcoholic as that would go against what I'm trying to do....

However it might be worth asking if the bottle of brandy left over from Xmas is still untouched come easter sunday

So my dad rings and asks if I can pick up a couple bits from the co-op on the way home and I would feel like a complete arse if I said no so I've just spent £2.49 but I didn't by anything else so that is progress as I would normally have spent another £6.50 on wine and chocolate!