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The other month I mentioned, that having moved house late last year, the wife and I have ran up a bit of debt.
And how’s repaying debt is a bit like losing weight.
You not only have to stop being in a surplus to stop the damage, but also go into a deficit to undo it.
We’ve recently started tracking our spending in a thread in our private Facebook group ‘Team Hall bad ass planning stuff”.
New post each Monday on which we commented with our spends.
And then added it up at the end of the week.
And, unsurprisingly, we found that every week we were spending too much.
We didn’t feel we were spending a great deal.
But day to day stuff (fuel, food, bills, etc), all the costs of having four kids and the odd extra thing were adding up to more than we had coming in.
The other week, we tried the opposite approach.
Start that week’s thread with a target expenditure for the week.
And then each time we spent something, post it.
And the amount of the ‘budget’ left.
For the first time we came under.
We haven’t come under every week (new tyre sent us over the other week).
But we are now in a spending deficit overall.
That surplus will be chipped away at over time.
There’s been several times where we’ve had nothing left as we approach the end of the week.
And have had to adjust plans to hit the target.
But we’ve learnt from that and, each week, spent a little less in all areas so that average deficit has become much easier to achieve.
This approach might work for you.
Set Weight Loss Targets
Give yourself a ‘budget’ for the week.
However you interpret that.
A total number of calories.
A number of ‘good’ or ‘less good’ meals.
Total number of alcoholic drinks.
Or nights where you drink.
Total amount of exercise.
Whatever you want.
When it’s gone it’s gone.
First few weeks might be hard.
We might go nuts one weekend and have to practically starve ourselves till the next one.
But that might make us question how nuts we go next weekend.
Half as nuts for 97% of the enjoyment.
Is 7 double G&Ts with friends much less enjoyable than 10 pints, a kebab and a pack of biscuits when we get in?
###### Edit the above sentence where appropriate #######
Miss out workouts when we could’ve have done them (even if at home) and have to go for a two hour run on Sunday night?
Have a few glasses after a stressful Tuesday and not be able to have anything at your friend’s birthday?
And we might do a bit differently next week.
You get the idea.
Give it a go.
Set a budget for the week that will lead to your goal.
Stick to it.
And use the experience of doing that to make doing it each subsequent week a little easier 🙂
Much love,
Jon ‘Norman Lamont’ Hall and Matt ‘Nigella’s Dad’ Nicholson
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