Yet more financial faux pas and many other disasterous decisions

I'm not sure which is worse : driving in fog or waking up to find its -9 and the coal scuttle is empty. This has to be the crappiest winter ever.

On a v. cheery note we've fixed our gas price for 7 months at a rather ghastly 60p per litre. The alternative was an immediate 5p per litre price hike. Much as I resent forking out £120 a month in coal I'd far rather do that than heat the house with gas.

Also discovered Netflicks are offing a months free trial with £15 cashback via Quidco so will be taking them up on that whilst OH is away. Doubt it will be any good because broadband and dial up run at much the same speed here but its worth giving it a go. Which brings me swiftly on to the challenges of 2012.

Its taken 6 months to shift 5K which means its likely to take another 6 months to shift the final 5K which is quite frankly far too long. I've had enough of thinking thrice about everything based not upon affordability but on the boringly simple fact that the money could be better used to shift the debt. Life would be so much more fun if the £800 a month disappearing down the debt drainhole was used to finance the fun things in life. Heck even if half of it headed to fun and the other half when into savings for the inevitable disasters that routinely crop up life would improve.

So with that in mind I'm going to make sure I E-bay my way to £50 a month. Its not a huge amount, its not unattainable, its not going to take up too much of my time and it will clear some more unnescessary tat out of my world.

My boss has v. helpfully taken on another two private evening bookings at work. Hes staying late for one, I get to do the other but because its someone he trusts I merely have to pop in and set the alarm on the way to collect DD2 from cubs. Declined the offer of an increased wage and tax bill in exchange for another weeks holiday each year which will reduce the amount of childcare I have to fork out for which suits me far better.

Decided whilst OH is elsewhere I'm going to carpet clean upstairs and gut and decorate the kitchen. Obviously thats not as straightforward as it sounds. THe kitchen has been in place for almost a decade and the OH still hasn't got round to attaching the sockets to the walls or filling in holes round things he changed so much filling is required first. Hoping this will be the incentive I need to kickstart my tidy gene. It will also give me chance to empty all the cupboards and dispose of all the stuff we don't need whilst figuring out what we have. Between that, taking the hound for hikes, fitting in 30 hours at work and knitting two sleeves and a tea cosy I figure time will fly by.

peaceandfreedom wrote: »

Your kitchen is a mere child compared to mine, which is fine example of 70s thrift and is hideous beyond words. I too am about to do some very cheap alterarations and then decorate it - how I'd love to rip the entire thing out!

Anyway, just wanted to thank you for yet again cheering up my day - your posts are always so entertaining.

And thanks also for the motivation - when I read about your life, I feel terribly lazy and want to do stuff!:)

I am incredibly lazy. I could do tons. I just can't be arsed. Putting things down on virtual paper is a bit of an incentive to get on with stuff although this kitchen decorating malarky is going to take some doing in five days. I need a trip to B&Q to purchase some thin boarding to cover the pipes that we never quite got round to boxing in. Hoping I can do it with flimsy MDF because otherwise I'll need to do a lot of sanding and filling or worse plastering which will take ages and look like an inept DIYer had a go and failed miserably.

After that there are a heck of a lot of pencil lines left by the kitchen fitter to rub out and paint over and several holes to fill and a couple of bits of tile trim that never got fitted and the small matter of an overflowing freezer that needs moving nd the walls and ceiling to degrease. And thats all before I get as far as the paint.... assuming that by that stage I've cleared the worksurfaces and cupboard tops.

Still I've made a start by creating storage space in the cupboard which meant scoffing the very last tin of x-mas choccies. Tis amazing quite how much tat we have.

Escaped from work after an hour this morning convinced I'd forgotton to shut the air flow door on the stove. Couldn't get hold of DD1 to see if she'd shut it so legged it early keeping everything crossed that I hadn't forgotten and in doing so set fire to the chimney. All was as it should be with the added bonus of a super long day at home although that means a looong morning tomorrow.

Finally finished knitting the bodice of my coat and seamed it before school. Even got carried away sewing ends in before realising how late it was.