The Quest

Lula-Hula

Hello everybody peeps,

please excuse if I sound a little slurry ( slow speech kind, not cow pat kind :eek: ) I've just done a sureveyon spirits & by the time I'd finished I was just gasping for a drink so have just emptied the Baileys .

Engineer came to inspect the stone cupboard & declared that it could be removed with no hassle - yay - I also asked about chanigng some of the plans ie moving cupboards & he said that was fine too & then I hit on a brilliant idea : if I get one of those under counter fridge thingy's I can have even more worktop space so I've told them to go ahead with that idea ... now I have to buy a new fridge which is ok because I think that ice shelf that's broken off is actually in my fridge. I have a huge fridge/freezer, left over from the days when there were 4 of us living here & I know that I'm constantly either wasting money by running it half empty or spending money by trying to fill it up so I'm not wasting money by running it half empty

Anwyay I've been checking out little fridge things & have come up with a very cheap £99 one from argos & can go through quidco, not much freezer space at all but after a chat withh DD we decided that as we have a co op 5 mins walk away, a waitrose 1 mile away & 2 tescos within 3 miles ... we dont really need a freezer other than for (her words, not mine) ice cream & chips :rolleyes: .

She's right, I've been buying milk & bread by the car load just to fill freezer up & I dont reckon it's helped with grocery spending at all; I buy special offers because I know we have the space rather than because we need them :rolleyes: . Also, less freezer space means we'll have to eat more fresh veg . If I suddenly get an urge to do old style mega cooking/baking session I can always get one of those sweet little table top freezers.

The main thing is, my kitchen will look much better now .

Gosh, sorry for rambling anyway DD enjoyed her first day back at school &
I'm looking forward to my day off tomorrow, think I'll try cleaning the cooker :eek: was going to hire one of those fab companies that do it for you but now I have to buy a fridge so... best get mr. muscle out

Need an early night then,

G'nite
lula x

Lula-Hula

Morning everyone,

Yukky weather day & although I really want to be going clothes shopping to spend my wages :rolleyes: I am going to do a bit of food shopping instead. I'm taking £50 with me & I dont expect to use it all as have decided that I dont actually 'need' to have huge supplies of everything & however much I want it to be, rioja is not an essential food item , chocolate however, IS

I've topped up my weekly saving funds so now have :

Car £ 35
Dentist/Optician £ 50
Home stuff £ 10
Clothes £ 10
Presents £ 50
DDs clubs/hobbies etc £100

So off I go, will update on my actual expenditure later ...

Lula-Hula

Hello, back again :rolleyes: ,

I had a very succesful time at Waitrose today although I fear I shall never be able to show my face on old style again .

I've added my personal groceries & household (includes cleaning & washing stuff, bin bags, batteries, candles etc) challenge to my sig & have allowed myself a budget of £50 a week for this.

Ok, today I spent £38.56 on food stuff & for that I got : 2 tubs ice cream ( 2 for £3.50), 2 punnets strawbs ( £3),1 punnet grapes, 6 apples, 8 bananas, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, broccoli, parsley, 2 packs frubes (bogof) 1 brick cheddar,fries, 2 pack lemon sole ( £1.50 off),1 loaf bread, 1 thing of milk, 1 pack frankfurters, pack spaghetti, jar pasta sauce, pack 6 naan bread, jar coffee, 2 packs biscuits & 1 gingerbread man.

I spent another £ 7.75 on household stuff ; Mr. Muscle ( & if he does the jobs I hate, then why the hell is he not hoovering while I type this :rolleyes: )bin liners, sandwich bags, loo wipes & loo cleaning wipes.

I confess to also spending another £7.99 on a CD but it was The Essential Clash & there are over 40 tracks on it & I neeeeeded it so .

So, you'd be right in thinking that I have another £ 4.00 to spend this week on top ups of bread & milk ?

Wrong :eek: nice man on the checkout gave me 2 beautiful shiny £2 coins, so they've gone in my pot .

I now have 80p left in my purse so there'll be no trip to the farmers market or the bike shop to buy a new front tyre but judging by the weather there'll be no need for bike to come out of the garage :rolleyes: .

Must now go & remove Mr. Muscle from my oven ( whilst jumping around to the Clash )

lula x

Lula-Hula

:hello: just a quickie,

my oven is so clean & shiny I love it ( & never want to use it again ) & I love my new cd too, I know it was naughtyof me but I just needed a small reward for my first week back at work & weather is vile.

Popped into the co op searching for eggs, they sell them in boxes of 4 which is perfect as we only use them for occasional cooking like my fab cheap & tasty cheese & potato cornbake, but they didnt have any & I refuse to buy 6 knowing they wont get used before they expire.

Topped up the electricity meter while I was there & now have £30 credit & still have £40 credit on the gas one . It's gettting a bit 'fresh' in the evenings but I refuse to put the heating on until October so we're wrapping up in fleecy blankets to watch tv.

Done another survey so now have 1620 points with lightspeed.

I'm going to see if we I can get through a whole week end without spending any money so going to the library tomorrow to stock up on books & will have to sort out the damn wii :mad: .

Hmmm, not very good at 'short' am I :rolleyes:

lula x

moo2moo

You might not be good at short but you do make me giggle. Stick the old TV cabinet on Freecycle that way the lucky recipient will remove it from its location and dispose of it on your behalf. The alternative is a very therapeutic 1/2 hour with a hammer at which point you can wedge itinto your wheelie bin.

Persevere with the Wii or ask DD to invite one of her geeky friends round to connect it for you. Alternatively if you can post piccies of the rear of your telly and video/ DVD player on the techi thread on here they should be able to point you in the right direction.

Off to paddle my way down the garden to release the chickens. Hasn't stopped raining for nearly 3 days and its still dark and gloomy. Fortunately the DDs riding lessons have been cancelled because of this so I don't have to fork out £20 to stand in the rain watching them.

Bowski_1011

Good Luck on your quest Lula-Hula. Your thread has well made me laugh. Is it just you and 1 DD at home? if so thats the same as me. My DD is also 9.

As for the eggs, I don't always use them by the date, infact I didn't even know they had a date on them till a couple of years ago so I thought if I've gone for years using them out of date I'm sure I can carry on. Then again, this is a person that has eaten cereal that's 5 months out of date and I've even been known to take a onion out of the bin (it was in a bag!) In my defence there was actually nothing wrong with the onion, it was before my DFW days and I emptied my fridge before shopping and when I got back realised I'd forgotten onions and needed one haha! I've no shame!

Ossireo

Fantastic entertaining quest Lula, thank you so much for sharing :beer:

I always use things that are out of date, give it a poke and a sniff is usually a good way to tell if its OK :rotfl:

sarahb123_3

Hi Lula, what an entertaining thread, has really made me laugh! I know what you mean about the cc debt, despite meeting all my loan and card payments for this year, my total debt has increased by about £100 since this time last year due to car almost dying, needing new laptop etc. It's a never ending circle!

Re shopping, I notice that you shop at the co-op, I have one across the road from me as well and end up spending a fair bit there, do you have one of their points cards? I have just received £5.xx, not much I know, but better than nothing, and they send money off coupons etc. Apologies if you already knew this, just thought it may help a little x

Lula-Hula

Oooooh I've got visitors :j ,

Welcome all, come in, come in, sit down & have a cup of baileys/wine/tea
I'd best get out of my trackie pants now... oh yeh that's right nothing else fits me anymore .

I love my jeans & as of this morning I am officially oversized for every single pair apart from 1 :mad: so now I have to either diet to get back into winter clothes or go buy new ones ... that's actually quite a tough choice cos I love to shop & sometimes I have so much fun on this site I completely forget why I'm here :rotfl:.

Hi Moo2
- brilliant tip about the wii & techie guys but actually I'm smarter/dumber than I realised... I had actually got it wired up right (smarter) but hadnt pressed the button to change channel on the tv ( definitely dumber) . Oh well, got there in the end . Yes to putting giant silver tv stand thing on freecycle, yes to spending happy half hour with hammer too many choices but think freecycle will win as have other stuff to get rid of , Barbie roller boots anyone ? Riding lessons :eek: my DD would love those, but so far have managed to avoid such costly fun by saying swimming & recorder would have to go :rolleyes: . Love the idea of having chickens but we have fields & fox backing onto the garden & anyway if you're paddling to get to them... maybe ducks would be more appropriate

Hi Bowski,
- yep just me & the DD here & we get on really well, although I know that will change within the next few years. It's nice to have a calm & peaceful homelife, I've had it otherways & definitely prefer the current atmosphere

Hi Ossireo,
- thanks for dropping by & I'm not usually so fussy about use by dates, the general rule is if it smell/looks/tastes ok then it is. I just like the sweet little boxes for the 4 eggs, although when I mentioned this to the girl at the till she told me that they sold them like that specifically for pensioners who didnt use that many. I'm a good 25 + years from collecting a pension, but may well have to work til death do us part :rolleyes: .

Anyway back to business, I've had a NSD today . We whizzed down to the library, then into the pet shop but DD decided she's not ready yet for another one...phew. She tried it on for a very pretty black rabbit but I pointed out the cost of hutches, runs etc so we left empty handed.

I've been continuing the kitchen clear out & I am stunned at the carp in the drawers. Loads of allen keys as we have a whole load of flat pack furniture here, so much that DD & I worked out that the only stuff we havent built is the kitchen appliances & the bathroom suite :rolleyes: . I dream of prebuilt wardrobes & chests delivered in foam wrapping rather than cardboard boxes.

I'm itching to get to the allotment as I know there'll be loads of raspberries to collect & am determined to go tomorrow even if it rains, have been saving pretty shaped jars all year just so I can make jam & havent managed to get there once since we came back from hol :mad: .

Right, I'm off to have a mooch around other treads so thank you all for coming & please feel free to pop in again any time

Bye for now
lula x

Lula-Hula

Hi Sarah - never had so many visitors :shocked: &

Good tip for the co op, am already & member thanks & had about £8 of vouchers a while back I've also recently opened a basic bank account with them so hoping I may get more.

Good to hear I'm not the only one struggling with the cc. I have wondered whether I'd be better paying a bit less each month & saving the cash for emergencies but to be honest my weekly saving funds als double up as my emergency fund & when the car got sick I just couldnt bear to use my funds & know I'd have to start all over again :rolleyes: .

Right, I'm really going now...

lula x