The Quest

Lula-Hula

Hi Tea, Moo2 & anyone else lurking ,

Kitchen is now looking almost fab. It could be very hard work though as I've developed this compulsion to keep wiping the cupboards & work tops down each time I see a crumb .

No workmen today apart from Mastik-man who turned up 10 minutes before I had to take DD & her friend swimming :rolleyes: . Tomorrow they will be finishing off by fitting last window sill, re plumbing in washing machine - I must have saved money by not having it since the week end, I confess to being a bit of a washing addict - & hopefully cleaning the floor which is now filthy & covered with crumbs of plaster & black marks where they dragged the washing machine across the floor .

I just want them to go away so I can play with my new cupboards & put all the bits out on the counters again, how sad . A friend came round to have a look today & bought 'the kitchen' a lovely present; a gorgeous decorative candle tube thing with a scented tea light inside. Brilliant as the decorative bit never melts away. She also recommended a blind company that do bogofs I was really keen until she said she got hers for only £150 :eek: I nearly fainted.

I also forgot to mention yesterday that I had to pay Brownies subs of £25.00 then today I had to the mad rush to sign up for after school clubs & had to spend £24.00 on art & craft & another £24 on recorder. Although it was spending, I had saved up all of this over the last few months so am no worse off. DD's hobbies & clubs fund is now down to £0 though so will have to start saving again quick.

My lovely dad has decided to help out with buying a new ( as in new to me ) car although mine is being fixed so tomorrow morning I'm going to drive around a few local places to see what's available for the budget, how exciting I'm getting very attached to my courtesy car & secretly hoping they forget I have it, as if :rotfl:.

G'nite

Lula x

chevalier

Well done on keeping an eye on the spending. At least the debt hasn't got any worse.

I take it that xbf is still sitting at the airport, or else has been told to naff off?
chev

Bowski_1011

Hi Lula, glad everything's going good for ya at the mo.

I have been lurking, just not posting, don't know why really, sometimes can't think what to type, it doesnt look right so i end up deleting and posting nothing

Your kitchen is almost done hey...woohoo!! What you gonna do for eye candy now tho??

Good luck with the car hunting, I think its soooo hard to chose a car,r you don't wanna make the wrong choice do ya, its so god damn hard!!

That's a great idea about your DD's fund. I don't do that, should probably start tho!! Alot of the clubs she does are with school and are free so thats good, I did have to pay for her saxophone lessons but she was going to give it up because she didn't practice so I wasn't too keen on paying £72 a year for her to do it when she doesnt even practice it. But then when she told school they said she was too good to give it up and they're going to pay for it...result!! I've told her she's got to start practising it tho, I feel like if shes good without practice then how good could she be with it??!! I do pay for her guitar lessons tho, there's no getting out of that one, its a private tutor, but she does practice it most nights and for years now she's been adament she's gonna be in a band. They're called the Daggers, you heard about them here first lol Bless, she's so sweet!

Hows things with the ex?? You heard anything from him??

Ossireo

Just dropping by and giving some flower power

Lula-Hula

Hey everyone :hello: & thanks for all the visitors it's great to have company

Chev - xbf got collected by mummy... eventually & I think I've now got spending under control - ish

Ossireo - thanks for the flower power - I :heartpuls all your fab smilies, one day I will learn how to gather them from outside MSE & then import them...one day :rolleyes:

Bowski - I'm glad your're still about, I had noticed your absence & was going to PM you after week end to make sure you hadnt won the lottery/ nabbed Jonny Depp before me or just found something better to do with your time :eek:
How lovely to have a musically gifted DD, you must be so proud .

First lets get the business out of the way : today, well yesterday now :rolleyes: was a NSD apart from topping up the gas - now £54 in credit & electricity - now £40 in credit. But that's all in the rent & utilities budget so not counted as spending .

I picked up xbf from his mums today & we went to look at cars which was quite good fun. We played a game where you walk into the showroom/forecourt & count how many seconds it takes for a salesman to slime up to you. The winner was carcraft where the chappie skidded in by 21 seconds. I then had that tune going round my head whilst trying to take his patter seriously I knew most of their stuff was out of my budget but that they'd have the largest selection for me to look at. Having told him I didnt want a KA or Micra he then tried to sell me a KA by telling me it was up for £4,899 but that I could have it for £2,799 This tells me 2 things - their cars are all overpriced to start with & that he was desperate to get that KA off his lot :rotfl: No dice buddy, I was almost tempted to play just to see how low he would go but that would be mean as I had no intention of buying it . Seemed to me that the smaller dealers are usually more honest & one very hunky bodybuilder type seemed to take a shine to xbf which was most amusing to watch . It is so difficult to choose & I would almost be better off if Dad just presented me with one as to be honest if it goes & is cheap & reliable then I'm happy, but then I get all tempted by shiny black ones, silver gear knobs, sunroofs & stupid things that make me wonder whether if I've morphed into an 18 year old boy .

Still no word from the garage & I now have courtesy car til monday, like a foster parent ; the longer I have it the more attached I become & I think there will be real tears shed when that awful day does arrive.

My kitchen is now completed & I just love it to bits. I've finally got the washing machine plumbed in & organised all the cupboards & it's just sooo clean & new & fresh :heartpuls :heartpuls the only slight snag is that no one seems to have noticed that the radiator is upside down & attached to nothing but fresh air :rolleyes: so will need to get that corrected, fortunately had already decided not to turn heating on til next week as I'd now be too scared to in case water came gushing out of the pipes :eek: .

Xbf was very helpful with tidying & stayed for dinner being on best behaviour then he got all bossy & arrogant & just got on my nerves so I had to return him to where I found him this morning :rotfl: . He grumbled & snarled at me all the way back & all I could think was ' I love driving this car ' & ' I cant wait to get home to see my kitchen' .

In the past 2 weeks there have been 15 men through my house, the loo seat hasnt been down from 8am to 4pm :mad: & frankly I need some girl time. I've turned both the home phone & my mobile off so should get a peaceful nights sleep, have been so stressed & not sleeping til about 1 then waking up between 4.30 & 5 :eek: .

will need to get fuel again tomorrow ( sat) so will update then at some point.
thanks to everyone for input, whether posting or quietly lurking,

take care & G'nite
lula x

Bowski_1011

Aww your posts are brilliant. They well make me laugh:rotfl: :rotfl:


I'm just gonna chill out for a bit now, got work at the pub tonite and then got my 12.5 mile walk tomorrow, only just been and bought some trainers so really hope they're not gonna rub!! My own fault for leaving everything so late as per usual!!

Hope you have a lovely man-free (apart from Dad) weekend!

p.s.. Jonny's all yours , I don't want him

moo2moo

So why exactly are you chauffeuring the Xbf on your car hunt? Surely the choice of posh voiture has nowt to do with him.

Hope you're enjoying using your new kitchen. You are using it aren't you rather than standing around admiring it and poishing your taps to make them even shinier.

The old car has finally gone. Ebay bidder #1 called to say he wasn't coming 2 hours before he was due to collect. Sent a second chance offer to Ebayer ~2 who collected late Friday paying in cash so no paypal fees at all. Whoopeee. Its rather sad the thigs which make me excited. Collected OH new car yesterday hes like the cat thats got the cram its all clean and shiny and lacking in dents. Most odd. Feels like driving a posh hire car. I'm sure the next bank statement will bring me crashing back down to earth, especially as I can't pay in the cash from the other car sale until monday so we're temporarily £1K worse off than I'd calculated.

Meanwhile having gone way way way over budget on the car Wii Guitar Hero Rock Band thingy keeps being mentioned, one actually made it to the supermarket trolley yesterday but its £100+ of plastic carp that we really don't need. Although from the look on his face when I put it back you'd think OH was a 5 year old who'd just found out that Santa wasn't real. Then theres the conversation about the engine hoist for his Land Rover rebuild, yes he'll need one but ordered today? I could cheerfully thump him.

On a more positive note the supermarket shop came in under budget despite me buying 6 school skirts for DD1 in this years and next years sizes at £2 each and having a 250 point voucher. Couldn't quite wedge all the 4p bread in the freezer though. Must not get quite so carried away with whoopsies in future.

Spending today bargain hunting at the local car boot sale well actually its more a chance to laugh at the complete and utter tat that people take to thhose things. The DDs love it. They take their pocket money in coppers and 5ps and haggle like crazy. DD1 refuses to pay more than 5p for anything and really hates having to hand over multiple coins. DD2 meanwhile has perfected the art of asking daddy for a handout so usually gets what she wants too. Obviously they take this very seroiusly as they have to earn their pocket money. DD1 irons at 1p a t-shirt and 5p a shirt. DD2 washes the car and charges extra for using the step ladder to do the roof, she also offers a discount if we do it for her although she has been known to enlist the help of the postman to avoid this.

Stupidly volunteered (or was it got talked into?) to organise the school fundraising tea towel. Diligently chopped up 400 little squares of paper for all the little darlings to do their masterpeices, theory being that you can just stick the squares onto the backing sheet and away you go. Agreed to divide school in half and do 2 tea towels but having got the piccies back I took one look and thought oooh theres a lot of blank spaces. Stupid stupid stupid. Then the MSE (penny pinching) side of my brain kicked in. Rather than forking out for 2 batches of expensive tea towels I can get 1 lot of cheaper tea towls done if I trim them all down a bit. Mutter mutter. Several hours later I've done a third of them. Kids think I'm mad. Carefully slotting them together like a giant jigsaw puzzle to fill up all the space is driving me slowly mad. Off to do some more as it has to be in the post by tuesday to get a 10% discount.

Lula-Hula

:j It's all mine again :j

I have spent nearly all week end reclaiming my home from itself. I have put everything that should be, back in the kitchen, & chucked a load of stuff out too, including the dodgy old microwave that you had to thump to get the door to open :rolleyes: . Moo2 the cunning reason that I let xbf come car shopping with me was so that he would come back & see the pile of carp I was throwing out & offer to take it to the dump for me, which he did...only as I damn well knew he would, he took it back to mummy who then had the cheek to put it on freecycle. Apparently some very irate lady turned up to collect the hamster cage only to discover that it had no tubes or base. He rang me to say his mum wanted the base - quick. Well, as I explained to him, had there been a base & tubes I would have put it on freecycle myself or taken it to local charity shop. I bet they were trying to sell the stuff - who cares, it's no longer cluttering up my place :rotfl: & nor is he .

I was a bit naughty on saturday - DD wanted to go to tesco so off we went & I came back £60 poorer . I got 2 dvds for the sleepover for £9, I also bought myself a new duvet for £12 - heard on old style that if you put a duvet under the sheet as well as on top it makes bed much warmer & reduces need for heating - well, I tried it last night & wow was I snug, so snug I had to wrench myself out of bed this morning. As the duvets are reduced I'm going to get one for DD as well & see if she notices a difference.

I also spent a whopping £15 :eek: on batteries - 4 of those were rechargeable ones for the wii (£10 ) & unfortunately one for the smoke alarm & DDs pixel chix game dont fit in the charger. Of course as soon as we'd openede the rechargeable ones I finally found the ones I'd bought about 6 weeks ago :rolleyes: . Oh well, we should need any for a year or so. I also bought new salt & pepper mills at £8 the pair as old ones were really grim looking & a new toaster. I was just about to put the swanky £20 one in the trolley when DD spotted the value on at £3.47 & gave me the scary eyeball look . I also bought some new tall glasses for £ 2 & a pack of 3 scissors for a most bargainous £1 . I know thats not very good but I just had to buy something & at least what I got was useful rather than just 'fripperies'.

To make up for that splurge, I didnt spend a single penny all day yesterday or today . Will need to spend a bit this week for DDs birthday & sleepover but after that I'm going to be tighter than a ducks behind all the way to the beginning of december.

kindly workmen came round this afternoon to replace the comedy radiator & yes, Moo2 I have been using my kitchen alngside polishing the taps . I can no longer wash up & leave stuff to drain til the next morning though as our water is so hard that shiny new sink & draining board will become all streaky :mad: .

Right, I must update on the NSD thread & then I'm popping over to see what Tea's been up to

Moo2 - You have my sympathy on the tea towel pictures - I made the mistake of being a parent helper in class the day DDs infant school did them - oh yeh, of course a 5 year old can do a self portrait on a piece of paper the size of a stamp :rolleyes: your patience is admirable - crazy, but admirable

bye for now
Lula x

moo2moo

Why is it that once you've spent a little bit of money you go on a bit of a bender and start hemorhaging the stuff? The constant drip drip drip of the swimming club / craft club / riding lesson I can cope with but the "debt plan has gone up in a giant cloud of smoke a couple of hundred more won't make much difference will it" train of thought is driving me mad.

The translation of the above tirade is that I caved and bought the OH Wii Guitar Hero. Not the rock band that he was so desperate for but the HMV offer version with just a game and a guitar. Wish I'd discovered it years ago. He was that engrosed in keeping up with the moving coloured blobs (bit like the bouncing ball on a karaoke machine) that he completely forgot to smoke all evening. Bliss. Well other than the complaints from the occupants of the upper floor who couldn't sleep for daddy masacring Alice Cooper and came down several times to lend a hand. And on more than one occasion to stand in the doorway and laugh.

I lost the will to live around midnight and abandoned the tea towel (3" left to go and 3 classes still to wedge on) to go to bed. Panic is now starting to set in!

[Deleted User]

Hi Lula,

Nice to hear that the kitchen is lovely and I can’t say I blame you for treating yourself to some nice new stuff for it. DH & I did the same when we had a new kitchen four years or so ago.

Good plan with the xbf; they do come in useful sometimes.

Well done on the two NSD in a row, not something that I can do; I tend to have something that gets in the way the day after I’ve done my first one.

Moo2 – thankfully I haven’t agreed to help with DS’s class at school, heaven only knows what they’d get me doing….good luck with the tea towels.

Have a good day

Tea
x