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

Day 3 and a small slip up😔

Ate 1/3 of DHs Oat square (covered in chocolate) this morning.

Did good on the wine front last night. Usually have 3 large glasses of wine most weekend nights while watching box sets. Just 1/2 pint of beer instead. I'm happy with that.

And I've lost 1/2 kg since Wed, very happy with that!

Poverty I'm so sorry for you loss. Good thing about giving up drinking though.
Good luck!!

Well done mom!!

As a couple of people have posted already, Lent doesn't include Sundays: it's not just a "technicality" - they shouldn't be included in your Lenten fast or whatever. Sundays are Feast Days: you are not allowed to fast on Feast Days - and Sunday celebrates the day of resurrection so is a Feast Day - so that is the day you are allowed your wine or chocolate or biscuits etc. Your 40 Days of Lent plus 7 Feast Sundays get you from Ash Wednesday to Easter Day exactly.

If people want to fast the Sundays as well, of course that's free choice, but actually you're not meant to.

We're off alcohol this Lent so are looking forward to tomorrow's glass of wine with dinner.

Well I certainly won't be sticking this come mothering Sunday that's for sure but the other Sundays I do want to to stay off the wine and chocolate as I know what I'm like, 1 will lead to 2 then 10 then Monday morning I'll feel awful as in full and sluggish so I be staying off my vices even though I know I don't have to

i've had 3 single spirits plus mixer since the start of lent. I'd normally have had about 4-5 bottles of wine in that time period.
I have been out for dinner etc. too. Am feeling good. How's everyone else doing?

I was soooo tempted to have a drink, last night, but did some painting, instead. I did drink a litre of coke, unfortunately, but it's still better than alcohol. My liver will be much better at the end of this, however I may have no teeth left! 😳

yep, have you tried the 'posh' cordials / fizzy drinks?

I find anything elderflowery and fizzy a really refreshing replacement for a booze :)

So it turns out I have a cleaning obsession when there is no wine in the house to drink whilst laying on the sofa...... who knew

Ooo elderflower sounds nice may pick a bottle of that up in next week's shop as debit card is back in the safe place for the week!
Besides the shopping which came to £80 (hadn't done a big shop in ages and all house hold stuff needed replacing too) I've withdrawn an extra tenner for my Xmas pot! Been putting £10 a week away in one of those tin money tins that needs a tin opener to open so I can't dip in to it! I might have missed one week since the beginning of Jan but I'm quite good at putting it in each week. Worked out that up until 30th November I should have £470 for Xmas shopping, presents etc and that bit extra to make sure I survive the time in between December's and January's pay as that's normally a 6 week period and painful lol!!

I'm so hungry today and knowing that I can have today 'off' isn't helping. On one hand I can have some ice cream guilt free but on the other hand will it make it harder for me to be in control tomorrow?

Have just eaten two slices of toast and a square of cheese and my stomach is still rumbling!

No bread since last Tuesday . Went for dinner out today and did have a scoop of ice cream . It was lovely

Bollocks. I've broken it already.
I only started on the 3rd

Still off the caffeine but caved on the booze front . However I've worked out that there is only one other opportunity to have a drink between now and Easter so I'm not going to feel too bad about it.
A good saving tip I got from MN was that every Friday check your current account balance and round it down to the nearest tenner, putting it into a savings account. I've been doing this for a few months and you don't really notice a few pounds going but I've saved a couple of hundred like this.

That's a good tip missfitton

What happened little pigs? If you broke Lent today then it doesn't count as it's Sunday and you're not really meant to sacrifice today as it's Sunday

OK so i broke my emergency £20 this morning and got a coffee.... I've had a crappy nights sleep so I over slept, missed my train and to top it off, I have a cold so I'm treating this coffee as medicinal!!

Can't believe after nearly a week of no booze and healthier eating I'm blessed with a cold!!!! Grrrr

But I shall be back on the Lent wagon after this coffee but I'm not going to beat myself up as 1 coffee in 4 working days is hardly the stuff sins are made of!

Hope all you ladies are doing well!!

Well, I put the bottle of coke back into the fridge and pored myself a pint of water. Feeling very chuffed, though still have urge, every night, to have An alcoholic drink. 😳 It's actually got me a bit concerned as alcoholism runs in the family. Though of course I'm not comparing myself to a serous alcoholic, it concerns me that I think about it so much. 😕 Shows how easy it is to get addicted to something.

Just wondering how many posters have 'replaced' the thing they have given up, with something else. If you have replaced the item/habit, what do you eat/drink/do instead?

I've had a lot of early nights this past week as I would normally have a drink after little one is in bed but I find that as I'm not drinking there's no reason to stay up and it also keeps me out of the fridge and the kitchen cupboards!! So I've replaced wine with sleep which is why I doubly pissed off about this cold!!

I've had to buy cold and flu stuff and top up my oyster card so I've spent another 25 quid!!

Need to be better behaved tomorrow however my daily spending on lunches, coffee and frivolous things is way down compared to this time last month so I'm pleased with my progress overall

Keep strong girls!!

Nearly 1 week in and still going good. No sweet snacks (other than Sat when I shared Oat slice with DH), no wine (2 bottles beer instead). Improved but not quite there in the spending front. No further weight loss, still just .5kg lost, but it has stayed off.

Poverty good point re replacing the thing you give up with something else (similar?). I've not eaten any chocolate, biscuits or cake. However I have managed to get through the week by treating myself to a daily slice (or two) of homemade banana bread.

I weighed myself this week and I've gone down to 55.5 kg from 56.5 so it must be working!!!

Love this thread!!!
I'm almost a week into giving up sugar (and largely by default alcohol) and going OK. I'm allowing baked beans, because they are such a fundamental part of our veggie diet with young children. Fruit OK too. But have kept off cakes, puddings etc. I did have pudding at a black tie do I went to on Friday night, because I am veggie, allergic to coffee and I was driving- I needed some enjoyment from that meal ! (The veggie main was awful).

Sounds like you're all doing well ladies so a big well done all round!!

Still feeling crappy with this cold but stepped on the scales this morning and I've lost 3lbs so I'm happy and that's spurred me on this morning!! Although 3lbs is not a huge amount I have noticed that my body has changed, my oh so sexy double chin (lovely family heirloom from daddy, even my size 10 aunt has one) is a smaller and my belly is a bit flatter!! And I've not had indigestion all week either and considering I normally have to walk around with a lifetime supply of rennie, that's amazing!!

Once this cold has gone I'm thinking of opening that exercise dvd I bought.... some time ago!!

Keep up the good work ladies!! Xx

Sounds like everyone is doing really well. Well done all!

DP came to bed last night with a bar of chocolate and ate it in front of me Still, I've managed to stay off the sugar so yay! I've lost 1 lb since last Tuesday so that's good and it's obviously having a positive impact.

Oh sad I feel for you!! That would defo deserves a no sex tonight ban