The Quest

Lula-Hula

Good morning,

Sun is shining & the world seems less glum today. I've rung the garage who are holding my car & an engineer from insurance company is coming to assess it on monday, so will try not to stress about it til then :rolleyes: & just be prepared to do battle then .

I've been to the bank & paid in £50 worth of £2 coins, so need to start saving them all over again. Also spotted a part time job in the local bakers & was all keen to apply then realised that although 7 - 10am 3 days a week is great for me...I do have DD to consider & cant just leave her on her own :rolleyes: . It's so frustrating sometimes, having the will & ability to do more work but just not the child care facilities for 'odd' hours, curse of the single parent :mad:

DD is a happy bunny today as she's now a sixer at Brownies - I think her beaming face made the sun feel ashamed & decide to come out. Swimming tonight so will have to drive scary, shiny new rental car. It's only scary as it's so shiny & not mine

Right, going to clean the floors as there are no workmen here today, then do
some work or I'll be losing that job, which is precarious enough in the current financial climate . Cant go into details but my job revolves around affluent types being prepared to pay for 'luxury services' & if things get tight then I'll start losing customers & the boss has already suggested cutting another worker's hours to save money :eek: & I negotiated a pay rise not long after my lbm so think I'm on slightly higher rate than others, need to be very careful .

Will update later x

Bowski_1011

I know exactly what you mean about the car not being yours. My car isn't actually mine, a bloke that goes in my Mam's pub lent me his car when mine died earlier in the year. It was just an old Citreon AX and he prefers to drink than drive so said I could use it , he just uses it once in a blue moon to go visit family in Scotland. Anyways the Citreon broke when I was using it, the drive shaft went on it, I felt soooo awful. It had to be scrapped. A few weeks later he rang me and said he had a new car and it was mine to use again... but this one is a W reg clio. It's an absolute dream car for me, to me it feels like a brand new car. But every single time I start that car up I just dread doing anything to it, it's not a nice feeling atall. I know I should prob just give it him back if I'm so bothered but I am in no position to buy my own car and I really do need it to get to work.

That's great news about DD :j a little sixer hey, thats an important role!! I never got that far, I think I made it to seconder or whatever it's called lol

Great about the £2 coins too!! I've got £4 worth in a magnetic piggy bank on my fridge...can't see me getting much more in it, and I'm sure it will get spent well before it gets banked by me!! To be honest, I find it quite hard to save coins because I rarely spend money :rolleyes: haha...I wish!! No, but what I mean is I only take money out of the bank of its for something. Everything else I just use my card for. I've got that save the change set up on my account now tho but thats only pence that gets saved. I get 88p in my wages which usually goes in my copper pot but i end up taking that back out soon enough!! I was thinking of joining the 20p savers club, I got £1 worth of them the other day so feel like I'm well on my way to being successful with that challenge lol

I'm meant to finding out grocery offers but always end up reading threads instead... I think me and DD will starve to death before I get round to writing out this damn shopping list!! Been meaning to go shopping since about 3 weeks ago but I don't want to go till I've found out all the offers first, I hate to pay full price for something and then find it on offer elsewhere :mad:

~Right I'm starving. Going on the hunt for food...yum yum!!

Have a lovely day

Lula-Hula

Good evening,

Better still now havent spent anything today so now up to NSD day 9 :j. Went to give some blood earlier so had free tea & biccies & the nurse assures me that I have also lost a pound - that's how much the blood weighs - Spent a while in the car park trying to work out how to turn the headlights on in the shiny new car, it is so smooth to drive, I could get to like it - very much.

Nice lady at the insurance brokers talked me through all my options & reassured me that I do still have choices as to what happens & that I should talk to her when the assessment is made, so no more stressing til monday :rolleyes:

Bowski - how jammy are you & why do I not get men allowing me to drive their cars . Hey Mr. Lewis Hamilton, are you listening ?

Although this week has been so stressful it has taught me a very valuable lesson :

Stop spending money on stuff I dont need & start paying off those credit cards NOW

The bad news is that when I went to collect courtesy car I took the wrong (stupid interest rate) card :eek: & then as it was in my purse I also used it to order fridge :eek: :mad: :eek:. The minimum payment due was £110 but to avoid the stupid interest rate I'm now going to have to pay off £277 by the 2nd October :eek: . Aaaaaaggggghhhh that's 2 weeks, I may even have to use the crispy fifty pound note _pale_ .

Oh yeh, there is good news : Just checked out my virgin e-bill & it's only.....
£28.97 :j :j so nearly £20 less than last months.

Need to go do some calculations now ...

Lula x

moo2moo

Hiya Lula,

Carpy news about your choice of cards, hope you manage to pay it off in full without an interest penalty. Grab a pair of scissors and chop it up so that it can never happen again.

I'm supposed to be tarting myself up as the school photographer is coming in at 8am to do staff mug shots for the wall of shame, really not feeling ilke a glam sort of day, not helped by knowig that my first job of the day is to drill lots of holes in masonary cue me being immortalised for eterninty with a sweaty face covered in plaster dust. Mind you thats got to be better than those who have spent the last decade framed in orange with 1980s big hair.

Lula-Hula

Hello & happy sunny friday to everyone

Moo2 you do make me laugh, I know just what you mean about the photos - I always have a giggle at the ones at DDs school . Hope you managed to avoid drilling before photographer arrived. Had any luck selling your car by the way ?

Good news all round today :

I have a very shiny clean kitchen floor - I want to roll all over it - it's that good

I've been to waitrose to do my big shop & only spent £29.31 :j . Have plenty of fruit & meals with that so should only ( famous last words :rolleyes: ) have to top up with bread & milk during the week.

I've rejigged the finances again as I'm determined to clear what I spent on the CC & have made a solemn vow to only spend £35 a week on groceries.

Have also slashed the clothes budget as I really dont need anything & DD will probably just need a tracksuit for PE & maybe a fleece & pair of jeans or 2 but will get all that with October child benefit.

Boot mender rang me yesterday so I had to go & collect them today - that was £20 :eek: but still loads cheaper than new boots (well, the kind of ones I buy anyway )

All I need to do now is lose those 14 lbs that are just sticking to my donkey & assets like superglue, then I can fit into all my old clothes from last year

Workmen here to reconnect sink & cooker so gotta go feed them biccies, will update later...

lula x

Lula-Hula

Quick update :

Lovely kitchen builder brought me some clever gadgets which go on the temporary sink so that I can use my washing machine :j & not have to go to launderette *shudders*, I'd rather live without cooker and/or fridge than washing machine - the most labour saving device ever .

Had to promise not to tell anyone or leave it unattended in case of flooding but this has also saved me about £12 in launderette fees so very dfw too.

I'm so pleased with my shopping bill & have added a few pounds to the various funds :

Car - spares & service :rolleyes: £ 55
DD s clubs etc £ 50 - had to pay £25 Brownies
Dentist/Optician £ 55
Presents £ 50
Clothes £ 0
Holiday £ 70 (£20 not counting crispy £50)

Oh, look at that... the total amount in my various funds is the same as the payment I need to make on the CC Will not touch those unless absolutely desperate though. I have £150 available in the bank to pay cc so just need to locate another £ 130 from somewhere...if I keep food budget to minimum possible I might just be able to manage it as long as nothing else crops up ...

Cant quite bring myself to slash it to death yet, it is my only source of emergency funds .

Just hope we dont lose anymore customers - 2 gone this week :eek:

lula

moo2moo

Good morning Lula.

You sound bright and bouncy today. Its lovely when people do little unexpected things to help you out. Your builder sounds like a very nice chap. Hope you're feeding him chocolate biccies as a reward.

I'm sure you can manage a months food shopping on £35 for 2 of you. I can feed four of us on that as long as I go on my own and don't buy alcohol. Unfortunately today we're all popping in after the DDs riding lessons to pick up pasta. Just pasta. Thats it. Nothing else. Absolutely nada. Diddly squat. So that'll be about fifty quid then. OH hasn't got a clue. I spend more time locating them and putting things back than I do shopping.

I did work out years back that it was chepaer to deposit them in front of bacon butties in the Tesco cafe and shop alone than to let them loose in the store. Unfortunately they've got wise to this and accompany me so that I can't claim to have lost the shopping list that they spend hours writing (keeps them busy for ages). Even the diddiest DD joins in and draws pictures of all the things she'd like. Obviously 95% of the time that doesn't really help. Mummy isn't always on form and a giant round orange thing could easily have been the pumpkin that mummy purchased whereas actually it was a very clear picture of a carrot cake. Equally a picture of a pink fish in a square isn't nescessarily the best way of drawing prawn cocktail crisps likewise brown rabbit droppings. Clearly they are chcolate chips for baking and not raisins. Honestly I can be so thick sometimes.

OH did go through a phase of drawing on the back of the shopping list but I only fell for that once. Wandering round Mr Ts with a piece of paper with a giant penis on the back does get you quite a few odd looks.

Car is still on E-bay. I've had a few offers on it but they come loaded with hassle. I'll collect it tomorrow (and pay peanuts) doesn't help when OH needs it to get to work until tuesday. Still have to wait a couple of days for the auction to end but its had lots of bids.

Lula-Hula

Hello everyone,

good humour fully resumed after a cheeky day at Chessington. Woke up & the sun was shining so did a wash load - at 30 of course - hung that out on the line & decided to escape the chaos that is our home at the moment.

Ticket to get in was £32 - had a freebie for DD ( thank you tesco ) lunch was £7.55 & DD treated me to an ice cream & bought her own toy with pocket money . I'm a tight old cow when we go there as I refuse point blank to pay for extras like bungee jumping, trampolining or stupid motorized boats at £1 per nano second. I pay for us to get in & I buy lunch - end of . Also told DD that if she wanted to get ripped off by £5 a balloon seller by the main entrance/exit then she could pay away... she didnt :cool: .

We went on all the rides we wanted to & didnt have to queue for more than 15 minutes, had a really good day & finished off by wandering round the sealife centre & zoo ' yes darling of course you can have a tiger cub for your birthday :rolleyes: '.

I did have to put £15 fuel in the hire car as I fear we may have to do the Gatwick run tomorrow morning to collect DD1 & friend. I had a phone call from one of her friends during the week ; apparently her mobile doesnt work in Mexico but she managed to get on facebook & pass a message on to a friend to get in touch with me & say they'd be 'needing' a lift from the airport.
Amazing isnt it, the power & reach of t'internet. Gone are the days when the darlings went off backpacking for a year & that was the last you heard of them for a good 6 months :rolleyes:

So, all in all not a cheap day but I already decided that was to be the last big day out for a few months & it was worth it just to boost my spirit after such a miserable & stressful week.

I have to register & pay for DDs after school clubs next week & what luck - they come to £48 & I have £50 in the funds. Other than that I dont think I need to buy anything else next week ( maybe a new car :eek: ) so should manage a few NSDs.

Moo2 - your post made me laugh out loud - I love the idea of picture shopping list, how much fun I could have with the misinterpretation, mind you I always struggled with DDs nursery school pictures, the teacher used to make me feel so dumb/guilty when she explained that I'd got it all wrong .
Your OH sounds very naughty did make me chuckle though .

It's so nice having the kitchen to ourselves again & I actually like there not being anything in it, so spacious & tidy looking. It's made me determined to have a very strict & thorough clear out before I put anything back in it.

I've a plentiful supply of biccies for builder, that kindness just made my week end a lot less stressful.

So tired, have walked miles today & should sleep very well.

G'nite
Lula x

moo2moo

Sounds like Chessington was loads of fun. I haven't been to a theme park in years. We're off to Camelot in a couple of weeks time as DD1 won a family ticket a while back. I'm too stingy to fork out for food though, it'll be sarnies all round. That and DD2 is an incredibly picky eater. She doesn't like burgers, fish fingers, pizza, hot dogs or 90% of sausages which makes most fast food places a nightmare. On the other hand she loves fish, any sort of fish .... pickled squid (uuugh) being her favourite.

I'm slowly persuading the OH that a trip to the Blackpool Illuminations is a fab idea. Hes not convinced. DD2 has them saved under favourites on the PC and keeps telling him how great they are. Especially the light up rocket tram. I may feel the urge to abandon him one weekend when hes got a nightshift and take them on the train as a treat. I can always use the excuse that he'll sleep better if we're not around to disturb him.

I escaped from the supermarket £48 lighter so marginally better than expected with enough food to last us for the next two weeks and some whoopsied cream cakes as treats. Obviously cheating a bit as OH is away all week on business so gets to eat 3 course 4* hotel food on expenses which means I don't need to budget for him.

Hoping to get all the ironing done before the DDs wake up as I've promised to help DD1 ride her bike. Shes finding it very frustrating that she can't manage without stabilisers. Her school starts cycling proficiency lessons in January and she really wants to join in. I'm not looking forward to another morning of tears and tantrums because she can't balance and telling her that she'll get there eventually isn't what she wants to hear. Meanwhile DD2 will whoosh up and down the road at breakneck speed pulling wheelies and adding to the frustration.

moo2moo

I'm having a fab start to the day. I started a non-paying bidder dispute with E-bay. Minutes later I got a reply for the bidder asking what the P&P was. Since I'd previously sent an e-mail offering lots of shipping options including surface mail as hes in Germany I slapped in a link to DHL and told him shipping was £50 expecting him to say up yours so we could mutually end the auction, I'd get a refund on the fees and could re-list removing the worldwide option. Apparently not. Hes paid the £50. So I've booked a DHL collection via quidco and some other parcel lot for £15. Normally I'd feel a bit mean for this but whooo hooo. Worth the 10 day wait!

Meanwhile I've had another offer on the OHs car. Offering £48 more than its currently bid up to with 10 hours to go. Pretty sure I can't alter or pull the auction at this stage and since I still have 40 watchers I'm inclined to keep everything I have crossed anyway.

Still avoiding the pile of paperwork I'd planned to do today. Haven't touched the ironing or let the chickens out yet. But I have earnt a whopping 46p on quidco with Pampers and sorted out the years house insurance via Quidco for less than half the renewal cost that Tesco wanted and earning a whopping £120 cash back (which has already tracked) so £88 for the year. Really should get dressed its a beautiful day!