The Quest

[Deleted User]

Hi Lula,

Happy Birthday to lil Miss Lula I hope she has a good time.

Enjoy your birthday meal and as for things cropping up, that's life and if there was a way to stop things getting in the way I'd be one of the first in line

Tea
xx

Lula-Hula

I have survived to tell the tale, just.

the home now free of hobbits & almost back to normal state:D . Well, as I knew I would I did a tesco dash, spending way too much money on way too much food that I now have to eat :rolleyes:. Little darlings all here for half 3 on friday, we headed off to the park as planned & after 20 minutes it started to rain, too cold & windy to brave it out so jumped back in the car & drove home when of course the sun came out. I prepared food, they ate, we played games, they watched a dvd & I cleared away & washed up. By 8.30 they were in their pyjamas & drinking milk - their idea ! I thought I had it sussed. At 11 I turned the light off & said goodnight. At 12.30 I nicely said to be quiet & go to sleep & turned light off again. At 1.30 I wasnt quite so nice & a lot firmer. At 2.30 :eek: there was no pretence of niceness left & I heard DD whisper that they'd better go to sleep now as mummy was really grumpy in the mornings if she didnt have enough sleep

They all apologised in the morning & had all been very polite & well behaved other than the insomnia, but as I already knew, our place is too small for sleepovers of more than 1 extra person & this was a one off birthday event :rolleyes:. Next year we're going llama trekking I wanted to go this year but kids have to be 9 & DD the oldest of her friends so we couldnt.

My sister came over for lunch & we had a fun afternoon playing on the wii, I put DD to bed at 8 & in the time it took me to cross the hall to get her a drink of water, she'd gone to sleep .

Business news : I've paid £125 off cc2 - not the £270 I was meant to as I overspent on DDs birthday so currently owe £3,770 on that but there is another £50 to be credited back from the car hire company so must remember to chase that up. Cc1 is currently standing at £2,890 & I need to make a payment by the 29th so I'm going to scrimp & save to try to pay £250 off that. I'm very cross with myself as I was hoping to get that one down to under £2,000 by the end of the year but I'm never going to manage that now :mad:.

The holiday fund is back down to the crispy £50, I havent topped up the gas or electricity meters this week, or any of the other saving funds so apart from £60 in the dentist/optician one & £50 in the car one there's nothing .

Oh well, still got a month before mot runs out, 3/4 tank of fuel & 12 weeks til christmas :eek: I need to get my ship together - quick :rolleyes: .

Going to mooch on the sofa now & think about my first sunday in weeks when I can lie in, then go to the kitchen & find everything I need in that one room :j

G'nite
Lula x

moo2moo

It sounds like you and your house survived the sleepover unscathed if a little lighter in the wallet than you'd hoped and at least they did go to sleep in the end.

I've been rudely turfed off the Wii so that OH can watch Star Wars. Nothing to do with me bizarely having the knack for playing Guitar Hero and becoming a little obsessive about it.

Anyhow OH was in a helpful mood yesterday and took the DDs to buy milk. They returned with a few other things, mostly things we'll eat although knowing that neither of the DDs will eat food covered in sauce they bought pasta bakes. Not a clue why. Oh very proudly informed me he'd bought envelopes as we didn't have any (translation he doesn't know where they live). Value packs of C5 were 78p for 20 but as it was cheaper per envelope to buy in bulk he bought in bulk. So far so good. He uses roughly 1 a month that size for his expenses claim. Bad news is he forked out £7 for 200. So we won't be needing any envelopes of that particular size for the next 18 years. Men. Just as you think you're getting through to them they go and throw a spanner in the works.

Overslept this morning and was rudely awoken by the postman at 9am. Very pleasant to have a lie in, unforunately meant we had to run round like headless chickens to get the DDs to their riding leson on time. Got back to the dreaded bank statement. Not quite as bad as I'd expected but still dire enough that the coal mans next visit will be pushed back a week or so. Will be going into mass production of newspaper bricks again this year.

[Deleted User]

Hi Lula,

Glad that you had a house that survived the hobbits lol and I am glad that DD had a fun time with her friends and her birthday.

Hope you managed to have a sucessful lie-in and are enjoying your Sunday.

Catch you later,

Tea
x

Lula-Hula

Good evening ,

I was so relaxed yesterday I didnt even manage to update . Neither DD or I woke up until after 9 which was so nice. As it was raining we decided to stay in all day which was how I managed to achieve my first :eek: NSD. I have no idea how I'm going to manage another 14; was meant to have one today then DD reminded me that she need an apron for art & craft club tomorrow, so we ended up in tesco after school & as well as a few grocery bits I also bought her some new school shirts ... £18 later I'm not having a very NSD day :rolleyes: . Should have one tomorrow but have just remembered she needs a new recorder book for wednesday :mad: . I might be mean & just make her wait until next week. Will come up with some story about them not having any in stock as otherwise I have to go to certain town just for that or I could wait til friday when I do food shopping & will have to spend anyway. Ssssh dont tell her .

Then I can also remove the money from my bank account - relatives sent her a cheque made payable to me - & pay into hers, all on the same day. If I managed to only do shopping & errands twice a week, as well as fitting in more NSDs I would also have more time for walking / bike riding which I just dont get at the moment, hence my everexpanding backside .

Going to bounce around on my ball now...

G'nite
Lula x

moo2moo

I've discovered the ultimate way to have NSDs.... I never take any money anywhere unless a spend is planned. That way I can't just nip into the village and pick up bits and pieces. DDs don't bother asking for sweets or crisps because they permanently get told I've left my money at home. Sunday nights I tend to place money in the variuos envelopes for school in anticipation of the weeks activities that way I don't forget or worse still run out of money for the things that matter to the DDs. Obviously the downside to this is that my VSDs (very spendy days) tend to be quite horriffic.

Although I have been severely ruthless this month. No alcohol whatsoever. OH is horrified. Usually Mr T. turns up with a cupboard full of Double Clubcard point vino which lasts a couple of months but thanks to a screwup in the cost of ferries for our holiday I don't have any left. Well strictly speaking thats not quite tru. I wasn't sure if the ferry would be £80 or £120 so I ordered £120 of ferry deals and the idiots at Tesco sent me 2x£60 vouchers. Obviously ferry was £81 so had to order another £20 of Deals and return one of the £60 vouchers which will be credited in December. In theory it will mean I will have more cash than normal to spend on DD1s birthday but in reality taking OH with me to choose was a major mistake. Shes quite arty but in a world of her own at school with a special needs teacher so we thought a confidence boost was in order and decided to get her some very grown up art materials. Female logic says that this entails small packs of proper drawing pencils, pastel chalks, oil pastels and water colour pencils and some mini pads of fancy paper to try them out on. Total £15 as they were all on offer at Hobbycraft. Huge row blossoms when OH selects an eraser and eraser guide at £8. Why????? I'm sure the rubbers she already has will do an acceptable job but apparently not good enough for OH. Either way birthday presents are now purchased 2 weeks in advance. Will wait until the last possible moment to get DD2 to assist in the wrapping of them otherwise every conversation will start "guess what you're getting for your birthday..." rapidly followed by "Fern shut up!"

Lula-Hula

Hello,

thanks to Moo2 & Purpletea for your regular chat & updates :A , well done Moo for not going completely over the top on bday pressies. I spent way too much & it really wasnt necessary. I get totally sucked into that ' I know a ds game costs £35 but it doesnt look like it's much so I must spend another £70' thing...year after year :rolleyes: . I am soooo dumb, I didnt even think of going to hobbycraft & we have one about 3 miles away - idiot . My DD struggles with scissors & fiddly things which is why I decided to pay out for the art & craft club so stuff from hobbycraft would have been ideal. Please remind me next year M00 - assuming we're all still here that is & not living the dream somewhere hot & sunny havng won the lottery :rotfl: .

Business news - I am very silly & when in tesco yesterday I completely forgot to buy chicken to feed to my dear father tonight, so I had to pop into the co op & spent £5.25 thereby completely blowing another NSD :mad: . Like moo, my VSDs are usually horrendous so taking that into account i got off lightly.
Anyway, Dad enjoyed his chicken with veggies & rice & I enjoyed the wine he brought .

I've spoken to the car hire people & my CC should be refunded tomorrow which is a relief.

My 'private' customer cancelled again this week & I'm now quite concerned about my job; a chat with a co worker revealed that the boss is talking of 'cutbacks' :eek: . I really dont know what I would do if I got made redundant. I've been out of conventional workplace industry for so many years now my
'skills' are very out of date & my cv completely laughable. I know this goes against all DFW advice but i've decided to start providing myself with a 'cushion' should the worst happen & from this week will no longer include child benefit in any of my budgets. It's only £75.00 a month but that will make a difference if things get really tight.

I'm planning to not leave the house tomorrow other than doing the school run so hopefully there will be NSD2 .

Must get to bed now, very tired again

G'nite
Lula x

moo2moo

We've already had the first wave of cutbacks. Schools maintenance budget for the year is a farcical £0.00p. So we blew that 3 days into the financial year on mastic for a leaking window. I've had my hours reduced from 30 to 33 but with the agreement that I'd be paid overtime if I did anything above and beyond normal, where previously it was flexi-time so now I'm working flexi-time with overtime and slightly better off because of it.

Theres an enormous almost in-town shopping centre opening on the 30th with a ridiculous 900 job vacancies so I'm considering a second job until christmas. OH isn't convinced as he works weekends so I'd have to do evenings to make sure someone was with the DDs at all times, the downside is I'd only get 6 hours sleep a night which would very quickly leave me exhausted. Based upon me doing 7:45am - 9:45am, then 2:30pm - 6:30pm followed by job #2 7pm - midnight. Can't help thinking its still a possibility especially as his job is looking a little shakey at the moment, but then it has been for the past 6 months.

Hope your NSD goes well. I'm off to buy chicken feed and 2 front car tyres so won't have much left out of £100. Have been offered a surplus cockerel from a farm on the way home so thats tonights dinner sorted.

Lula-Hula

What a beautiful morning

I was at the allotment by 9.00 having despatched DD nice & early after a quick row about teeth brushing :rolleyes: .

allotment is looking very overgrown so I set to work with a fork & amanged todig over a large patch. I had a quick munch on a few straggling raspberries & brought home some more potatoes . Have decided that should the worst happen job-wise then I'll just try to find something cash like ie a bit of cleaning or such like & then spend the rest of my time at the allotment creating free food.

Moo - be very careful about overdoing things hon, I know you're a wonderwoman but you do need to have some time just to be. I get very frustrated about seeing jobs I could do if only there was an OH to care for DD. At one point I almost considered letting xbf come live here just so I could do more work but then realised just how damn lazy he is :rolleyes: so, we'll manage on our own for now & soonere or later a new job opportunity will arise.

Enterprise have now refunded my £50 :j but this was slightly tempered by Barclaycard whacking on this months interest on the same day . Ho hum, that's what happens when silly people use their credit cards . Just realised that I'm still paying for some accident insurance on the other cc so must read up on whether its worth throwing myself out of the window & breaking an arm/leg & having the cc payments made for me - bet I'm just being conned again :mad: .

I think I worked out that as long as I dont remove any money from my current account at all - ever, then I can pay £50 a week off cc1 rather than just waiting for the statement, surely that means I can dodge some interest ?

Current total debt is £6,701.58 it seems to have stopped going down at all so I'm off to make the first of many £50 payments. Must keep reminding myself that if I didnt have these debts then I would be £300 a month better off, just think what I could do with that ...:cool:

Bye for now
Lula x

Lula-Hula

Hi,

just whizzing in for a very quick update : I've had my 2nd NSD :j & paid £50 off cc1 .

Also just had co worker on the phone saying she's being made redundant or having hours & wages reduced.to minimum .Now I'm really scared :eek: & feeling slightly sick at the thought of being unemployed _pale_ with current debts. I believe the current rate of income support for 1 adult & 1 child is £70 a week. That wont even cover my rent / council tax / utilities let alone food, clothes, school clubs & trips & credit card payments.

Off to update my sig now.

Lula x