Flush by 30?

Hi bobarella I am a little worried about that myself... very selfishly I'm looking forward to her moving out, not because I don't enjoy her company or love her but because I lived on my own for 8 years before now, and I miss it very much.

BUT I don't want her living beyond her means and being unhappy again. I'd like her to stay close to me (if a house came up on my street in her budget I'd be delighted) but she really wants to be out in the country, not in a terraced house.

She's recently had a knee replacement, I'm hoping that renewed mobility might cheer her up and make her feel more optimistic about the world in general. Then maybe she wouldn't feel the need to buy so much? We'll see.

That's a really good idea, I'll bear that in mind and see what we can do...

Sun_Addict wrote: »

Hi JWP, does your mum work, if not would she be up for being in charge of a menu plan with a budget to stick to? Get her in the habit before she moves out. You're a fab daughter to be so caring about your mum I hope she appreciates it.

She does work, but only part time at the moment - I think part of her unhappiness is because she was made redundant from a job she had been in many years and then went a whole year without work, so she took that hard emotionally. She's really good at what she does, but also she was in pain from her arthritis so I feel like she might be at the bottom of a cliff and maybe now can start climbing it.

She hates budgets. She honestly doesn't understand why I give all my money a job at the start of every month... the thing is she used to be on really good money and now she isn't, so that's a learning curve for her.

Thanks for your kind words, I'm not sure she always sees it that way, but we do try to help each other out so she must have done something right with me! (Although she didn't really raise me, my dad did).

Anyway, Merry Christmas everyone! I read 3 books yesterday which was bliss, and today I've watched 3 films, been spoiled rotten by family and friends and eaten FAR too much dinner. But it was lovely. Definitely need to get back on my eating well after today...

Hope everyone else has had a lovely day too xx :beer:

Ah it was lovely. I can't complain - Christmas Eve was super relaxing, and Christmas Day as full of food and peach bellinis.

I am very lucky to have lots of generous family and friends. I am now awash with scented candles and bath products (and there's a sign of getting older, I'm no longer disappointed by bath gift sets and instead I'm always thinking about how much money that saves me...) and I got the curtains I wanted for my living room from my adorable gran, and my expensive face creams from my mum. We basically exchanged expensive face creams, since I got hers for her...

Last night my auntie had a family party, which is a tradition and a lovely one at that. All my favourite cousins were there, including the one who lives at the nether edge of the country now. She's my oldest friend as well as a cousin, so we always do a late present opening. I got her some Writers Tears whiskey and a little plant pot shaped like an animal that suck up water through its 'tongue'. She got me a beautiful set of short story collections called Life, Love and Loss. She knows me very well :heartsmil

I go to my boyfriend's in 2 days, and will stay with him for a week as we usually have a '2nd Christmas' (like hobbits and breakfasts...) on New Years' Day, and then he will be 31 early in January so I like to be there for that.

In terms of spending, I have not needed to spend a single penny since Friday 23rd December. Admittedly, this was only possible because of my mum's mammoth food shop, but I'm looking for silver linings here. She does seem to realise it was extravagant, and is now talking about ways to make what we have stretch (which shouldn't be a problem because the freezer is still full).

Also, my home insurance payment went out today, and what was absolutely lovely was that I noticed in my account that £17.05 had gone out - which means my 'giving every penny a job' method is working, and I still have enough to pay the rest of my bills without going into my overdraft. As long as Mum behaves herself with the grocery shop, anyway.

Today I am going to try for a better internet deal, because Sky have put my bill up to £24.90 a month, and as I'm already with EE for my phone I might be able to get a good deal with them... :j