Bereft and Broken

Hi Thistle

Hope you have recovered from your Friday night excursions!

That is funny about the George dress, wonder if they just hadn't seen the tag but why mark it up so expensive? It actually reminds me of something I did once. Came across something in a discount shop which I had seen previously on Am@zon for a lot more than this particular shop was selling it for. I bought two - thinking ooh I'll make a lovely profit on these. Could not understand at all why no one was bidding on them, until one kind person got in touch to say I'd left the price tag on the item in the picture and I was asking more for it! Doh - I said I was a fruit didn't I!:rotfl:

I will let you know how I get on with the 3Bay stuff. One pair of shoes that I bought were in my size but I didn't buy them for me to wear - they have something like 6" heels plus a platform sole. Now I'm quite tall but felt I could change the battery in the smoke alarm wearing these! I tried to walk and found that I couldn't! I hope to start listing these bits this week. I never pay more than £1 for something unless I think it really is a good deal. When I first started I would spend up to £10 on something if I thought I could make any kind of profit from it. Now I just walk away if something is more than £1. Car boots are brilliant - I picked up a brand new playsuit still with tags attached in the summer for 30p and sold it for about £6 I think. £6 isn't a lot, but compared to 30p it is!

Now...my mother, god love her. I was feeling really good about being assertive earlier on in the week, but it was a bit like Final Destination today. I didn't go Thursday to see Mum because there had been some big accident and one of the motorways I used was closed, and seriously backed up. Cue today - set off. Major accident on the same bit of motorway, and me and DS were sat on the slip lane of a motorway for about 90 minutes. I was quite calm considering. Mum however was in a right state when I got there. Crying and saying she was a burden and it was all her fault I had to sit in a traffic jam. I tried to reassure her it was fine. I then made the mistake of letting her know (not immediately though) that I couldn't see her Thursday as it was DS's birthday party. She then didn't speak to me for the next two/three hours. It was truly awful. I'd driven all that way to see her and she couldn't even communicate with me.

I can't blame her in a way - I really struggle to talk to anyone about my feelings and she was truly feeling down today and nothing I could do could shake her out of it.

I was also a little cross if I'm honest. I had been going to tell her I would see her Wednesday instead but just didn't want to commit to it in case something came up and I couldn't go. Plus the more she shut me out the more I didn't want to offer to come on a different day.

Why is it so hard? I felt like I had to look after two children today. But the thing is now I'm left feeling really guilty about Mum and am worried about her being on her own. She was so sad when I spoke to her on the phone. I think over the half term holiday I will try and get her to come and stay here for a couple of days, and see if she can get out of this episode she's in. I just don't know what else to do.

Anyway - money news. I don't have any! :rotfl: Things are really really tight but the OH has more or less committed himself to paying for my exhaust repairs tomorrow and today I have cashed out two survey sites for £23.70 and £20.95. I am going to have to use my EF for the rest of the bits this month but am hoping to make a bit from 3Bay if I can.

Anyway, am off to try and do some wheeling and dealing and see what I may have sold (or not sold) on 3Bay. Goodnight all! xx

Good Afternoon Thistle, EH and JustAbout - hope you are all well and having a good day. Thanks for popping by!

Now Mum is still being a pain today which is a bit sad considering it's DS's birthday. I could tell he was struggling on the phone to her earlier when he rang to thank her for his presents. What a difference a grandparent makes! He rang my MIL and was chatting away to her for ages, bless him.

I am going to speak to my brother about this. I have a feeling that it may be a number of things. For a start she's probably feeling left out because it's DS's birthday and she's not here with us, but yet we aren't exactly rushing off to party anywhere, and DS's party on Thursday is him, me and 3 of his friends plus me sneaking a cake into the play area where we're going. She hates those sort of places anyway as it's too noisy for her.

My brother on the other hand is currently trying to cut down his travelling to Mum. Instead of going up every other Saturday to see his daughter and Mum, and then driving back for 2 hours and then coming back again late Monday evenings to stay over until Tuesday - he is trying to arrange to see his daughter on a Sunday, spend the rest of the day with Mum, stay over and work there on a Monday - and he may end up doing that every week. It makes sense for him as his drive is so long.

So I'm guessing with my recent Motorway disasters, DS's birthday and my brother's decision to alter his days I guess that's why Mum may be feeling down. Not that there is any reason to feel down but obviously something is upsetting her. I will ask my brother to try and do some detective work this evening although he isn't the most subtle of people. He treats everything like a business meeting!

Unfortunately she can't travel too well EH as she had a really nasty accident last year and struggles now to get around. She could manage a train though, if she caught a taxi down and I met her at the other end, and then probably drove her home afterwards...... Doesn't help me much but it might give her something different to think about. She is of the generation sadly which doesn't acknowledge things like depression and she has been offered anti-depressants before but just scoffed at the idea. She can be really stubborn at times but she won't change now.

Anyway - enough of mother and onto my favourite subject - Charity Shops! I live about 15 minutes' walk from about 7 charity shops Thistle - and these are just local ones. Only one of these is a national chain type one. The others are either less well-known chains, more obscure ones which no one has ever heard of before, or local charities. I never go in the 'chain' one. I much prefer those charity shops which smell like they need a very good airing and which have stuff piled up in corners just begging to be rummaged through!

The ones in our town centre are the typical chain ones, but most of these are now adopting a sale or £1 rail. One of the chain charity shops was on the brink of closing so it decided to sell everything at a £1. This is one of my favourite shops. It does really well now it has decided to do this and is always buzzing with people. Another chain one has devoted half of its shop to the £1 'rail'! A bit more than a rail now so that's exciting.

And then around the edges of the town centre loads of more local ones (and cheaper ones) keep springing up. I have found that local community centres/drop in centres and refuges - the type which offer hot drinks and some time on a computer for example are brilliant places to pick up bargains. The ones in my area tend to have a corner dedicated to selling second hand stuff to try and make a bit of cash for the centre. They don't charge silly prices and as long as you don't mind a rummage (which I don't) you can often find some really good deals.

I still maintain though that a good car boot sale is the best!!! Sadly the weather is getting to that stage where a lot are called off now at this time of year.

The exhaust came in at £65 by the way - a new back box was needed so OH stepped in thank goodness.:o

I sold some stuff on 3Bay last night and made about £21.00 which I will need for the little party this week. I do have some survey money plus a little bit of mystery shopping money to come this week too so that will help. I've just checked my emergency fund. I had obviously deposited some more in there and forgot about it (not like me at all!) and made a little more money on the t'interweb as well, so instead of the £100 I thought I had there (even though my signature states £66) I actually have about £180!!! :T

I will obviously need to use some of this for petrol and food but I actually already have a lot of food in (thanks EH for reminding me to check this). I could easily feed myself and DS on what I have probably for the rest of the month but it's the OH who's the really fussy one. I am going to make it my mission later on today to make a list of absolutely everything (food wise) I have and make some sort of meal planner right up to and including 27 October.

i'm going to carry on with the 3Bay listing too, including the bits I got the other day. My mission really at the moment is to clear the '3Bay Room' as the OH calls it, and then we can use that room to put Mum in if she does come to stay. It's incredibly small but DS always has to give up his room and I don't want that now - he's getting a bit old and it's unfair for him to have to sleep on our floor if and when she does stay. If I can make it cosy and warm she should be ok. I like the ad on 3Bay that states every home has around £4000 worth of stuff to sell!!! I doubt my 3Bay room will hold that but we'll see how far I get.

And if things get really tight money wise then the OH always gets paid on the 15th....:o

Anyway, as usual I have rambled on for far too long, and probably bored you all to tears. I just can't do a short entry. If I do it means there's something wrong!

Take care all xx