Lobster Shorts finances, weight loss

The Year Of Getting My Sh!t Together

The restart of my restart of my restart of my restart.

I’ve had so many attempts at weight loss over the years. I usually fall off the wagon after a month… sometimes earlier. August 4 2023 I started again. This time I’m adding better financial habits to my goal list along with weight loss/fitness.

I’ve been digging myself out of credit card consumer debt, but had a bad habit of spending everything I had paid off. In early August I started to tighten the purse strings. I am only buying things I need and have quit browsing physical and online stores. That includes thrift stores and antique shops and I do LOVE thrifting, but I always get things I don’t need – like more sewing supplies. I have an entire closet full of sewing supplies. It’s packed full. I’m not buying any more sewing stuff until I get through the piles of fabric I already have.

September I ended up at the thrift store looking for a new harness for Oliver – my big golden retriever X puppy. He’s a puller and ended up tearing right through his last one. I didn’t find a harness that would fit him there. I did however find a full set of winter dog boots which I actually would have needed for an awesome price. That was an okay purchase, but guess what wasn’t. The roll of elastic I bought – FOR SEWING! It WAS a fantastic price, and sure I’ll probably need it one day, but that wasn’t the point of this. I’m not supposed to be randomly buying stuff I don’t have an immediate need for. This was a warning for me – to stay out of thrift stores. I can’t be trusted! I discovered pressure casting posts, an item used in pen making. It’s quite expensive and I’m not buying it this year. I heard a quote but can’t remember who it was from – Ramsey? “If you can’t pay it off in a month, you can’t afford it”. That stings, but I agree. So no pressure pot. Not yet. Saving for one also gives me time to evaluate if I really want it. Making impulsive purchases and then never using the item is a bad habit I have had in the past. For example, I bought the things to make shoes with, maybe a year ago. Guess who has never made shoes – ME! I still hope to one day, but for now, it was something I shouldn’t have purchased.

The roll of elastic $10 from the thrifty thrift

As for weight and fitness, this time my spouse is also on board. He really wants to lose weight too. We’ve set a pact to be in the gym three times a week on set days. That started on the first of September and so far we are sticking to it. We don’t have a set thing we need to accomplish in the gym, right now we just have to be in there. Even stretching is acceptable, just be in there, getting a routine established and habit formed. Right now I’m doing about a 15-minute workout and nothing too strenuous, just getting used to working out again.

I’ve set a goal for myself to be able to do a push-up in a year. The real on your toes sort of push-up. I’ve never been able to do them, even at my most fit. That was probably because I always preferred jogging to weights. I’ve always wondered how does one work their way up to being able to do a push-up?

This might work. I’ve started with wall push-ups. I thought that sounded like weak sauce, but it turns out that doing 3 sets of 50 is actually pretty hard (for me). I’m not even there yet! I had to take a break after 40. I’m sticking with it. I got my 150 in and will be keeping track of how many I can do until I need to stop.

I’m calorie counting again. The goal is 1800 calories a day. I’ll stay with that and keep it up if it’s working well for me. My spouse is calorie counting too. We’ve started cooking for ourselves and that is going to work out really well for both of us. He’s never really liked veggie-heavy dishes and the carb-heavy dishes he likes I tend to overeat. This way we can both eat healthier for ourselves.

I’ve started a tracking journal and every month I update my weight and how much I’m in a financial debt hole. I realized when doing the September update that I only wrote down approximate numbers instead of the actual numbers in August. I was excited to see if I had made any progress. That will have to wait for October. I will post September’s stats as the starting point.

The Getting My Sh!t Together journal

Weight: 178lbs
Debt: -$21100
Wall pushups without stopping: 40

Cheers to improved numbers in October!

Lobster Shorts finances, stock market

Can A Clueless Person Play The Stock Market?

Probably not, but I’m still going to do it. I started reading “Rich Dad Poor Dad” (I’m still reading it). I’m a 40 something receptionist, in debt, with poor spending habits (please refer to previous blog posts of rampant shopping sprees on Aliexpress and Ebay), I have no savings, and I’m not practical. I always pay my bills on time, my credit is excellent, but I have nothing to show for this admirable credit rating, besides being a financial institutions wet dream of incessant spending, while barely topping the minimum payment.

Wealth Simple has a Trading & Crypto feature (I have no idea what Crypto is, but let’s be real, do I even have any informed idea what trading is – no). I signed up with Wealth Simple, but had difficulty linking my financial institution with the trading feature. I kept trying, doing the same thing over and over again, and it finally worked (what’s that old saying about doing the same thing over again?). I don’t know what the problem was, but I was able to add funds and now I’m waiting for them to clear.

So now I wait. I have a stock picked out (it’s a Canadian company and I’ll tell you what it is when I can actually purchase my first stock. I had initially wanted to purchase a stock for MINISO (that odds and ends store found in malls in Canada), but it wasn’t listed with Wealth Simple. No idea why some stocks aren’t there. I have no idea what any of the stock lingo means. I have a list of books I need to get my hands on this, being one of them.

It’s pretty obvious here I don’t know what I’m doing. It’s gambling. Right now I’m unable to make an informed decision, but being the overly impatient person I am, I’m proceeding. I’ve decided $30 a month is a safe enough amount to royally screw up. Some of you might be yelling at your screen… that I should apply it to my debt, and you’re probably quite right to do so, but this is an experience I want to have. Hopefully I learn a lot and get good at it!

Lobster Shorts finances, lifestyle, Uncategorized

Think It And It Will Be.

Manifest Your Dreams…

Many of us have heard of The Law Of Attraction. I watched the movie years ago, was motivated to give it a go, and then forgot all about it. I’m not convinced that this will magically turn all my dreams into a reality, but I’m also not convinced that it wont.

When I think of money, I think of horrible, old men, in old fashioned lawyers wigs (you know, the curly, long white wigs, and no, I have no idea why), and maybe that’s part of the problem. With negative associations with money, possibly I’m subconsciously repelling it from me. How can I attract something into my life that I have an aversion to?

I’m working on this. Associating money with panicked feelings of lack, are only going to perpetuate more bad feelings towards it. Now when I think of money, I consciously think of it with gratitude and positivity. I think of all the good things it can do for me, instead of focusing on what it’s like to not have enough of it.

I have fairly decent sized debt I’m focusing on paying off and there’s this tiny little thing I really want (a houseboat!). My goal is to tackle the debt first, then save for the boat. I’ve been reading a lot of financial books and it’s helping keep me motivated. They all say to stop buying crap you don’t need (guilty, guilty, guilty). I’m fully aware I do this, but after a few months I fall back on bad habits. Hobbies are a huge problem for me. If I get interested in something I’ll buy a ton of stuff for said hobby and then a few months later I’ll be bored of it. I’m going to need to read financial books until the day I pay my debt off completely. I’m OK with that.

Instead of using stuff, I’m focusing on experiences and being in the moment, to make me happy. Acquiring things has only ever made me temporarily happy (and cluttered up my home). I look forward to being free of debt and enjoying living my best life.