Doing what I should have done ages ago

Well my tiredness caused me to crash the work van today

Nothing major, just the old "I assumed the guy in front of me at the rounabout was going to go when he started to move, and I went for the gap".

Everyones ripping the **** out of me at work :lol:

I'm just pleased it wasnt my own car!

Gary we are talking about rougly £1500 overdraft, not including the car payment.

 

Piece of pee mate - I've got aroound £13k debt at the mo (and no chance for a mortgage)...

Car accidents - eek - are you OK?

As for the original thread topic, I managed a night round my mate's in Topsham with nothing whatsoever naughty - and it felt good. The real test - tonight - the pub. I'm determined not to smoke any cigarettes

 

Hard luck about the crash mate!

£1500 is easy though...I bet you'll save £100 a month at least by not pssing it up the wall so you'll soon be in business.

Do one of those regular saver accounts, HSBC give you 8% (gross) interest, stick 100 in a month and you'll get a little bit back on top of it after a year. Think most banks do a version of it now.

 

Yeah, but better to know it happened because you are tired, whereas 2 weeks ago you could have been slightly bent instead. Bad luck though.

As for paying-off the OD, that's easy: stick the money you're not spending on grass and booze in a jam jar; it'll add up quickly.

 

Good luck for the weekend Paul...always hard times when trying to kick a habit.

 

The one thing I am doing is making sure I refuse credit cards, I am in the process of sorting out my personal and business accounts and I have been offered three credit cards. Even though I would love a nice new DAC or head phone preamp (I have not upgraded my HIFI for well over a year now) I cannot afford it.

I have also learned how to spend much less on nights out, we tend to drink a lot at my house now so when go to the pubs we don't spend much. £20 is all I spend a week on social stuff now . It means I actually have credit in my bank.

If my business is a sucess I should be pretty much sorted, I just need to get that student loan paid off.

I have also stopped going out in the week because there is no night buses and it was costing me £10 just to get back home.

Paul you're still young and if you can kick the habbit now in a couple of years time you will be sorted .

 

Just remember that ACCESS means ..A Card Causing Excess Silly Spending if you apply this maxim to all credit cards with the realisation that THEY want you use it, and builld up that overdraft. You should soon be clear of it, and then only spend what you can afford.

 

That is exactly what I am doing at the moment, I have never had a credit card in my life, although I do have a student loan I need to pay back.

My cousins have got them selves into stupid amount of debt with their cards but no doubt mummy and daddy will pay them off.

 

I remember reading that it is far easier to get to sleep in a room that is colder / cooler than the rest of the house (a throw back to the stone age and the body automatically switching to hibernate mode when the sun goes down and the night gets colder). Anyway don't keep your sleeping place too warm unless you are stark bollock naked pleasuring a friend as pale goose pimpled flesh does not look too good even when viewed through beer goggles.

 

Just read the start of this thread re the wacky stuff.

An alternative and radical approach. Hate it, absolutely fu**ing hate it, the smell, the taste, the effect it has, learn to totally revile it so that it disgusts you so much that you can't contemplate being around it at all.

May not work for you of course I think it's a bit like smoking, whatever works for you. The old phrase about ex-smokers being the worst, 'no whore like a reformed whore' etc. Maybe to give you the willpower you will need something as strong as this so that you automatically develop new habits of spending time in healthier (or non-dope in your case) environments and soon don't think about it.

Good luck and top marks for facing up to it. Once you own up to yourself it's a huge relief, your self-esteem lifts for your treating yourself with that respect and you know you're going to overcoming it.

 

Paul,

Hope the weekend goes well for you.

Dont worry about the van - sounds like no-one was hurt and cars are only tin at the end of the day.

Got to echo a comment fom above - whatever you spent pursuing your previous passtime should be put in a jar on a daily / weekly basis, and banked at least monthly - open a separate acct to your current account and dont get the cashcard to go with it - makes it that bit harder to get to. Save it and use it to pay off the debt or perhaps treat yourself in a few months time - a pat on the back for keeping off the weed - maybe an upgrade could be in order..... :devil:

 

Well, the weekend has nearly past us, and tomorrow will officially be 2 weeks since I stopped, and things are changing, definitely changing.

My motivation is better. I am actually beginning to start working again at work. My memory is still not great, but getting better. My sleeping patterns have begun to return to normal. I am saving a lot of money (not buying weed, not wanting to be out the house all the time, not buying expensive junk food). As a result, I am *slowly* beginning to lose weight. The bags under my eyes are starting to disappear. I think I am more sociable and have started going out with people arent druggies.

On Friday, for the first time in I dont know how many years, some bird came over and snogged my face off. I dont know how, or why this happenned, I can only imagine its the change to my appearance/personality, but I have no idea, it seems like too much of a coincidence.

It still has down points, I get periods of boredom for sure, but I just keep reminding myself why I am doing this. Overall, the changes are positive, but I'm not quite there yet, but in the next fortnight, I suspect it'll go to being something that is pretty much a closed chapter of my life.

As for the upgrade, well I've got something in the pipeline

 

Will you be publishing before and after photos

 

Well played Paul, who knows the ways of women eh?

Still a snogs a snog.

 

Well not today, cos I is a mess, I've just lazed about the house all day, I didnt actually take any at the point of giving up either, but I do have other photos of me, and invariably, they were probably took a lot of the time when i was stoned lol.

 

That's good advice. I have a program called Silkquit permanently running on my PC. It's for smoking: feed in your date of quitting and how much a day you spent, and it keeps a running total (plus how many minutes of life you are better off). If you feed the appropriate costs in for your habits, the number should clock up quite nicely to motivate you

http://www.silkquit.org/sqmmiv/Default.aspx