The Quest

[Deleted User]

Hi Lula,

Just been trawling through to find your diary, only to find that you'd moved it lol.

Hope that you are okay today? Good luck with the school, I hated the visit/meeting with DS school I had to go twice for an hour and a half each time.

Tea
x

embarrassed_about_my_debt

Rather than cancelling the virgin you could always ring them and tell them your going to sky, the start jumping through hoops then to try and keep you! My brother done it and it worked wonders, he ended up with free movies for six months, lower tariff but still on the same package! ALways worth a try

Lula-Hula

Hello embarassed, tea & everyone,

Thanks for the thought about threatening to leave virgin, weirdly I got locked out of the forums earlier ( probably too much whining ) so I didnt read that until just now. But anyway I had a good look at all the bundles & tariffs & sussed out that I'm actually paying an extra £7.95 to have the free calls & I rarely use the phone during the day other than to o8 numbers which apparently I get charged for anyway :rolleyes: .

So I spoke to a very helpful girl who suggested I move on to the 3 for £30 bundle which still gives free calls at week ends & if I have e-bills rather than paper ones I save another £1 & I was also paying for itemised calls so have now saved yet another £1. I'm not giving up my caller display though & am pretty happy to have sheared at least a tenner off the monthly bill & hopefully nearer £15 .

That snapped me out of being a Negative Nelly so I was very pleased to find that DDs teacher is great & the t/a is someone I know & like a lot & they're not going to make her do the test . Great news until she bought home the form for permission to go to the pantomime in December, that'll be £15.50 please, & the virgin savings wiped out in one hit :rolleyes: .

Never mind, I now realise that being a DFW means never ever giving up & that there is always a way to shave a few pounds off here & there. Next on my list of things to tackle is changing tv licence from quarterly direct debit to annual, then I need to go through my accident insurance & see whether I really do need that.

Good news is I've received forms for financial support for the OU spanish course I want to do I really will complete my degree one day

Scary news is the kitchen blokie rang me today to ask if they could bring the date forward to the 15th, sounded ok until I realised... that's monday :eek: so I now have to drive to Gatwick for 7 am on saturday & then try to find somewhere to put rest of kitchen stuff. I also need to dismantle the kitchen table because I built it in the kitchen & now realise that it wont go through the door :rotfl: Oh yes, & as soon as I told DD she whizzed over to the calendar & said ' so I can have a sleepover for my birthday now then :eek: :eek:


I'm off to drink baileys now ...;)

lula x

Lula-Hula

I feel like Homer J when he was in hospital & discovered the electronic bed :"bed goes up, bed goes down, bed goes up, bed goes down... "

In my case it's 'debt goes up, debt goes down, debt goes up ' :rolleyes:

Spending today : £15.50 for DDs trip to pantomime - no hardship as it came out of her 'fund' which now stands at £84.50.

Also had to buy buttery type stuff & got a 2 for £2.50 deal, also bought another small bar of choc - those fairtrade farmers couldnt survive without me :rolleyes:

I've taken DD to swimming, cooked dinner from scratch using allotment veg, had both credit card statements & updated the snowballs whcih is quite depressing.

Cant be bothered to break it down for sig, might as well just put in the total, what's the point eh ? I certainly owe more than 3 months salary which is meant to be the absolute total amount we should ever owe :rotfl:

lula x

Lula-Hula

Hmmm where have all my smilies gone ?

they seem to have been replaced with little boxes with red crosses in .

Anyway, down to business :

Today is definitely not an NSD :

Groceries, toiletries & cleaning : £ 34.78 Was aiming to only spend £38 this week, so I still have £3.22 left which will do milk & bread top up (by the way tesco own brand wholemeal 72p & co op own brand wholemal 65p so wont be buying it in tesco again ) but will probably need more fruit too so may have to go over by a couple of pounds.

I did however, spend another £27 on some household goodies like a new door mat, picture frame, utensils & storage jars, colander, pegs, stair basket & some cards.

Hang on... I returned an iron that I found in the kitchen clear out - £19 refund & I had £9 of clubcard vouchers so really all that stuff was free .

Then I went to fill up car with my 5p off each litre receipt clutched in my little hand - £ 26.58 .

Then I had to go & buy a new kitchen light fitting as apparently that's not being replaced in the refurbishment & frankly my old fluorescent strip broke about 5 years ago & we've been using a bedroom lamp ever since so think I'm overdue for a new one. It was £29.99 & although I could have got a cheaper one it is the only one I could find that takes energy saving lightbulbs so a short term spend for long term saving = ok !
Whilst I was there I thought I may as well replace the loo seat - £9.99 cheapest one in the shop & the clothes airer which is rusting & falls apart each time I try to move it - £16.99.

Total spend for today about £145.00 :eek:

That is a bit grim so I'm going to go do some tidying & cleaning before I have to collect DD & friend from school to make up for it.

lula x

moo2moo

Thats not that grim a day Lula, you've had a pretty good week all in and at least by having to get the kitchen cleared by monday you won't spend the next two weeks putting off clearing it until the night before.

I'm off to juggle my finances, think I may have to resort to borrowing a bit from the DDs savings account. Dire dire dire emergency. Faced with a predicted £2000 garage bill on a car that we've recently spent over £1000 on and which seems to have more and more bits wearing out we've bitten the bullet and bought a replacement. Haggled over the phone with a main dealer before we'd even seen the car so got the price down from £9200 to £7200. Saw it and agreed to purchase at £7000 cash. So far so good. It needs 2 front tyres hence the £200 reduction as I can get them done locally for less than that. But as a part ex (which I declined) they offered a poxy £300 on our car. Absolutely gutted. I paid almost that for the tyres 2 months ago. The tax disc has 6 months to go so is worth £90 as a trade in. I'm now debating wether to E-bay it as a whole or to break it into parts and sell it off in bits. Have delayed picking up the new one for 2 weeks to give me the time to get rid of the old one, they seem to be changing hands on E-bay for round about £1000 so fingers crossed. Could really have done without it though however no car means OH can't get to work and without his income we're royally stuffed.

Lula-Hula

Hiya moo2moo,

oh gosh that is harsh news about the car I really feel like it s a game of roulette, just never know what to do for the best. My old beauty is due a service & mot soon & she really isnt worth what I've already spent on her this year in monetary value terms, but I certainly cant afford anything else & in terms of the value she adds to our life - absolutely priceless.

Perhaps I should focus on that more as an incentive to be debt free, the fact that as soon as I have cleared my debts, I'll need to buy a new car :rolleyes: .

I did the Gatwick run first thing this morning - getting up at 6 on a saturday to drive someone else to the first leg of their holiday seems wrong !!
I have now completed the kitchen clear out & you are so right about getting it done now, I've been able to give all appliances a really thorough clean & also throw out all those tatty bits of equipment that really do need replacing.

I'm going to have a go at putting the new light up tomorrow, if I get the wires wrong it could well be :eek: but I will remember to switch the fuse off first.

I'm itching to buy some decorative bits/ pictures & the like but have pledged not to until all the work is complete. I did unearth a shelf that I bought a while back with the intention of putting it in my bedroom, so think I'll paint that tomorrow & then when the cupboards are in I can play with deciding where to put the new shelf .

I did spend £3.15 today, needed food on the way home so stopped by the bakers & bought DD a sausage roll & cake & myself a bacon roll .

I also topped up the gas (now £45 cr) & electricity (now £33 cr) meters. Hope th weather stays a this temperature for a bit then I wont need to put heating on, dont seem to be using much gas at the moment. Must check back to last week s post to see how much I've used.

Very tired now so going to update spending diary the retire to the sofa

lula x

moo2moo

Morning Lula!

Don't buy the decorative bits. Decide what you fancy and then ask for them as christmas gifts. Obviously I know you'd prefer a delightful hand knitted jumper (with your initial on the front) from Aunty Mavis in purple 2 sizes too small... oooh you are getting a bit porky aren't you love! Actually thats christmas with my lot. Last year they even managed to get chocolate wrong. How hard can that be? Carrot chocolate wasn't too bad but Rhubarb and Aloe Vera bleugh its like eating Vicks Vaporub.

Washed the OHs car yesterday ready for Ebaying. I was planning to vac it this morning but the Muppett has taken it to work. Guess theres no excuse not to do the ironing now. At least I won't have chance to spend anything today theres far too much housework to do and the DDs are happily cycling round the garden leaving me in peace for once which is why I'm surfing. Updated my SOA yesterday to take into acccount the new car purchase its a bit hairy. Especially as we all have birthdays in the next few months. Aw well. Things will get better, the OH is off on a trip soon so gets overtime and expenses which will come in very handy.

Good luck putting your new light up, hope you've painted the ceiling first!

[Deleted User]

Hi Lula,

Just a quick note to say that you are doing really well and to keep it up.

Am away next week so won't get chance to catch up until next weekend.

Tea
x

Lula-Hula

Hello,

just popping in to say that I am now a light fitter :rolleyes2 a very dodgy one, but still I managed it without too much cursing.

It's not very well fixed to the ceiling but the wiring is safe & no one got fried ! I may ask the electrician to double check it when he turns up & no doubt he'll make some sarcy comment & then do the job properly - yeh, I've used this technique before to get things done, men just love to laugh at my efforts & make a big deal of showing me how it should be done. Naturally I do the admiring,cooing 'arent you so clever bit' without a trace of smugness.

Moo - you'll be pleased to hear that I have painted the shelf this morning & I'm very pleased with it - will pretend to mess around with a spirit level & screw driver when the chippies are around !!!

I havent done any painting as the whole kitchen refurbishment is being paid for by the landlord - hurray - including all the rewiring, plumbing, new cupboards & decorating. The light fitting was the only thing not included.

I should really go & cut the grass but DD has been hankering after a bike ride & as it's sunny here & I need a break from doing diy & chores, I think I will.

Good plan to put decorative bits on christmas wish list - thanks.

bye for now

lula x