The Quest

Lula-Hula

Morning guys & thanks for all posts in my absence - still fighting cold & now cough too :rolleyes: .

I know what you mean about interest etc Moo2 , but I love my little cash stashes . The sealed pot is specifically for Christmas 2009 & will be cracked open on !st December, the £2 coins is just for anything I fancy - but will probably go with Sarahs' plan of adding it to the clothes fund

Gotta work so bye for now
lula

Lula-Hula

Hello,

I started off wanting to rant this morning, in fact in my last post I was just about to moan about the boss being late again when she arrived. She was so apologetic & it turns out she'd skidded into a ditch on the way :eek: . I felt awful & am so relieved that fortunately neither her nor her van was damaged. I didnt post last night as I was feeling so negative about going back to work but I felt fine this morning & have had a good day & already have plenty of work for tomorrow too . Lucky really as I just remembered that I 'borrowed' £30 from the council tax fund to top up the gas & the council tax is now overdue :eek: .

I really need to cut the grocery spending & am aiming to just use the local co op & butcher this week to see whether I spend less. This also means that I will only be buying what I can carry home & will save me from taking the car out unnecessarily too.

I got given a bag full of clothes for DD today, some she didnt like & most were too big for now but she now has 4 pairs of jeans, 2 pairs of trackie pants & 5 tops for when she grows a bit :j .

I've also decided not to renew my bedroom furniture this year. DD reminded me that 2 years ago when DD1 left home I said that I would remove all traces of pink from the room & replace it with blue. She's right I promised, & she really hates the pink walls, curtains & covers that DD1 insisted on :rolleyes: . So, I'm going to concentrate on her room rather than mine. Mine can wait & frankly I dont think I deserve to have my room done until I'm debt free. It's just another excuse to spend more money on pretty & frivolous stuff for me .

Another 2 NSDs in a row & I made a payment of £ 60 to CC1 today . The minimum due for this month is £78, so I will be able to make a substantial overpayment :j . I really do feel differently now about throwing every spare £ at CC1 until it's gone & I think it's because I feel more secure knowing that I have an emergency/saving fund although I will be very :mad: if I have to use it for anything other than the holiday.

Isnt it funny how the household chores change when kids on holiday :rolleyes: . I've not had to do much washing in the last 2 weeks but the washing up has been horrendous; from now it will swing back the other way what with school uniform, brownies & swimming outfits. Ugh, I hate the treadmill of term time routines

Enough rambling for now

G'nite
lula xx

moo2moo

Whooo on the free clothes. Mine love things like that. Unfortunately they have elfin like relatives, the teenage one of which is the same height and proportions as DD2 so whilst handme down bra tops, hipsters and high heeled shoes are fine for dressing up they rather quickly disappear to prevent DD2 insisting she wears them to the next school disco.

I had a fab day yesterday. Got loads and loads done and the boss sent me home an hour early as I'd done far more in a day than he expected - on the other hand it could have been a cunning plan to prevent me munching anymore Ferrero Rochers in the staffroom.

Went to Pizza Hut with the DDs and OH as a back to school treat and really really really wish we hadn't bothered. Icecream machine was faulty and beeped incessantly throughout. Place had an arctic galeforce wind howling throuh it, food was dire (made worse by the smell of OHs anchovies) and they'd run out of garlic bread. Bah humbug.

Finished the evening booking 2 mystery shops for Friday and 1 for Monday at a total of £36. OH is now seriously cheesed off. Hes taken holiday from work until Saturday and surprise surprise no ones going to be here. Hes been off almost 2 weeks already and has done nothing. Hes permanently complaining hes bored or alternatively hes asleep on the sofa. Its driving me mad. I keep being told to sit down and spend some quality time with him but then all he wants to talk about is his work. I could find him an enormous list of things to do but even washing up is apparently beyond him. Rant over. I'm off to kick the DDs out of bed.

Lula-Hula

Morning all

I had planned to walk to the next village to pay cheques into the bank this morning... it's much warmer & snugglier here though so I shant .

I did a grocery shop at the local co op yesterday & got lots of goodies on offer ie box of washing powder for £1 & spent a total of £26. I've been through the fridge & realise how much food has been wasted due to my reduced appetite. The birds round here seem to eat pretty much anything though so at least most has been recycled. Grocery shopping has been the hardest 'variable' thing to reduce in my budget, mainly due to my weird compulsion to get in the car & head to a big supermarket once a week I really hope the plan of staying local works & I will be happy if I can keep the weekly amount between £20 & £30.

DD is going to bessfriends after school & her mum will then take them to Brownies which means I have until 7.30 to get all my work done today & I have a valid reason not to pay subs until next week .

I've cancelled the annual direct debit for the AA but am still waiting for RAC to take payment from my account.

Today should be a NSD as all I need to do - other than work :rolleyes: is post a card.

bye for now
lula

[Deleted User]

Hi Lula,

Can't say I blame you for not wanting to go out.

Well done on the food shopping, I'm trying to reduce ours but need to stock up a bit first.

Also well done on the NSD, one for me too.

Catch you later,

Tea
x

moo2moo

Hello All.

I've had a bit of a roller coaster of a week. OH has finally admitted that his drinking has got way out of control and that 4 bottles of wine a night is not normal consumption. It hasn't been an easy thing to get into his head. It took me telling him I was leaving him to do it. Not something I particularly want to do but I've had enough sleep deprivation to last me a lifetime. Anyway he poured the remainder of the booze down the sink and went to bed clap cold sober for the first time in something approaching a year. Fingers crossed life gets better from here on up. I'll wait and see what happens (and how long it lasts) before I do anything further. Will also be interesting to see how much cash is left at the end of the month as in theory he'll be drinking £12 a day less than he was. Did hammer this home with our SOA.

Newsflash over. Have a good day all.

[Deleted User]

Hi moo2,

((((hugs)))) to you. Sometimes you have to do the hardest things to get through to someone and hopefully it may have struck him how bad things are with how much he is drinking in order for him to change. It will be a bit of a bumpy ride for a while but things will get better.

Tea
x

moo2moo

Hello All!

Thanks for the hugs Tea. OH has finally gone back to work today and seems a little happier. Hes been much nicer to live with at any rate. Hes not sleeping properly but hes managing 14 hours a day so its not as bad as it sounds.

I've had a productive morning. 60p on the scratchcards. An application for an Alliance and Licester current account which should net me £150 after 3 months and I've submitted 2 earnings enquiries to Quidco for £95. On top of that I've booked 5 mystery shops over the next 3 weeks at £60. I'm feeling extremely positive. I'm also going to sign up for the Quidco DVD trials and Audiofile for another wodge of cashback and some free entertainment. I'm still trying to get my head around matched betting. I keep thinking I'm their but actually parting with the cash to give it a go is much harder to do. Either way the overall debt is a little over £1200 less than it was this time last month so everything seems to be coming along very nicely. I won't be able to keep dropping it by that amount but it is a huge chunk less to be paying interest on.

The freepost labels arrived from Music Magpie so I'll get them packaged up ready to be posted monday.

Off to stick a rocket under the DDs to get them out he door in 20 minutes for riding lessons. Catch you all later.

moo2moo

CDs packaged ready to go. Another cupboard clearout turned up a further £4.15 of archaic computer games. Postie brought with him a cheque for £3.31 and a letter saying the OHs dormant bank account is finally closed. Hes put that off for over a year! OH arrived home early and went straight to bed, they're short of people so hes doing extra hours tonight and tomorrow unfortunately means he won't get home until midnight and he should start again at 6am.

I've also sold my first book through Green Metropolis for £2.50 and I've used a few of the hundreds of postage stamps I've accumulated through a well known survey company so I haven't had to pay to send it.

I can't believe how excited I'm getting about a few pounds here and there. I'll be joning the payment a day challenge before you know it. Not that I actually have any cash, everything seems to be bought on plastic or by cheque. Then again I'm a bit less tempted that way, most of the local shops don't take plastic or have minimum amounts and still charge 50p a transaction.

moo2moo

Its been a very long day. I've barely seen the OH all weekend but still don't seem to have got much done. Too much reading and not enough doing however its not all bad. I've signed up for a free DVD trial with Love Film and £18 from Quidco. I've successfully placed my first matched bets with resulting £20 free bets for future use, £15 Quidco and £9.23 profit. Flushed with enthusiasm I've placed another for a match on Wednesday with a further £9.36 profit. Have to say its much simpler than I thought. ALmost too simple really and it would be far far too easy to go with much bigger bets for much bigger rewards. Equally its a much bigger risk if I screw up.

Off to bed with a good book. Toodle pip all.