The Quest

Lula-Hula

Ugh, soggy cold tuesday here .

DD is at a club til 4.15 so I thought I'd jump on here & declare my end of month spending.

It's not brilliant - mainly due to DDs having birthdays within 2 weeks of eachother :doh: & also buying new stuff for kitchen but it's still £150 less than last month .

£160 on groceries, £ 175 on presents, £ 167 on appliances, £ 180 on 'other' household stuff ( that'll be lights, oven gloves, duvets, kitchen bits, cleaning stuff & some unnecessary but much desired 'fripperies' etc) £55 on trips & treats ( including DD's trip to pantomime in December), £75 on hobbies & clubs - all out of savings fund though ) then another £50 on me that was my boots repairs, couple of cheap cardigans, a cd & an inner tube for my bike. Then another £50 on fuel.

I went shopping to get presents for DD this morning & had to walk through Debenhams 70% off sale in the clothes department :eek: & now I know the best way to not spend money on clothes is to be overweight - I refuse to buy any new clothes in a larger size so am just going to have to stop eating & get back into my old clothes. That's it - diet or freeze .

The garage still have my car :mad: - it'll be 2 weeks tomorrow that they took it away to basically bang out a dent in the drivers door. They originally said it would take 3 days. What is their problem ? I can feel my good temper starting to slide again so will have to ring someone tomorrow to vent my feelings, not sure whether it should be garage or insurance company though. I actually rang the garage last thursday to get an estimate for repairing the scratch on the other side of the car...receptionist said someone would call me back later...a whole damn week later ?

Bye for now

lula x

[Deleted User]

Hi Lula,

I really feel for you with regard to your car, I know the frustration we felt when the garage had DH’s car for 6 weeks all those months ago.

Doesn’t sound like you have had too bad a month this month, so keep it up and you’ll get there in the end.

And it’s raining here too…walked from playgroup to school and didn’t get wet however on the way home from school we were drenched by the time we’d arrived. DD was saturated but she will be stubborn and refuse to have a rainshield on the buggy.

Catch you later.

Hugs,

Tea
x

moo2moo

Hiya Lula,

It sounds like you've had a great month and on the bright side whilst the garage have your car you do have a courtesy car, so its not as if you're stranded miles from anywhere with just your bike. Congratulations on surviving the Debenhams sale unscathed although if its anything like the one here you didn't miss out on anything.

I'm desperately trying not to think about the end of month figures. The dreaded statment is due any day now and I have a horrendous feeling (well OK I know) thats its going to be far far far to close to £40K. Other than placing OH on E-bay, which would stop him spending but would also get me banned for life, I've just about run out of things worth E-baying.... anyone want a 2nd hand toyboy? Its raining far too much for a carboot sale and the one my friend went to last week was almost deserted, after fees she made 61p in 4 hours.

Aaaaagh and I'm due at work in 30 minutes. Still in my PJs, DDs still asleep, lunches still to do and swimming stuff to find. On the up side tea towels went in the post yesterday qualifying for the early bird discount (should come with a certificate for stupidity too) so don't have to think about those for another 21 days at which point I'll have 505 to sell. But thats a whole different nightmare.

Toodle pip.

moo2moo

I'm going to scream. The selfish self centred part time jobsworth in the school office has just given me an ear bending because she isn't on the school tea towel. Not because she didn't know about it (instructions have been on her desk for 10 days), not because she was one of the 8 people who I couldn't wedge on (and to whom I have apologised in print on the staffroom noticeboard) but because wait for it ... drum roll... she didn't draw a picture. How exactly is that my fault?????? Its not like I've missed her off the staff christmas party list. Its only a tea towel but oh no, floods of tears and death inducing looks. I'm so glad I only have to put up with her for 30 minutes a day twice a week. And breathe.

Will spend the day transforming my house from its current interpretation of modern family host post burglary by morphing it into welcoming dwelling devoid of piles of carp and mountains of laundry. I may well even discover the arm chair which lurks under the ironing pile.

Lula-Hula

Hello everyone,

Moo2 - scream away my friend, this is the perfect place to indulge in that sort of behaviour. How typical that the one person who whinges about theirl lack of presence on the tea towel is the on who presumably does the least hours & has the least input :rolleyes: .

Anyway, thanks very much for the offer of a second hand toyboy but I'm still trying really hard to dislodge my own :rolleyes: - perhaps a swap is in order, mine doesnt spend much...but then he doesnt work much either :mad: .

thanks to both Moo2 & Purpletea I have had a very stern word with myself & you are both absolutely right, it is very frustrating not having my car ( 6 weeks without your OH's Tea ? :eek:) but I do however have a brand new shiny one to drive around in which is far far better than any car I could ever own myself so, I'm going to shut up whingeing, not bother to ring hire company or insurance peeps - in fact I may just turn phones off so I can keep using nice car & be very grateful.

Thanks guys for pointing out that I actually have nothing to complain about - sometimes I forget how lucky I really am .

Best get on with some work now...

lula x

[Deleted User]

Lula hun,

You can whinge as much as you like and you have every right to give the insurance people an ear bashing...that is what we did, we were on the phone to the insurer every day and to the garage.

Glad you like the courtesy car though

Tea
x

Lula-Hula

:hello:

All that humility earlier has worked a treat - the garage called to say my car is ready . I rang the car hire place & how fab are they - I can drive the hire car to collect mine & the Guildford branch will collect it .

Now all I have to do is find my way there & then pay the £100 :eek: excess that the brokers assure me will be recovered. I hope they dont take too long about it because I'm having to put it on my credit card .

I also had to use the credit card today to pay for stuff for the birthday sleepover. It's my own fault because I've been completely unprepared for it due to all the hassle with kitchen & car, so just whooshed round tesco & ended up spending £ 72 :eek: .

I actually feel like I'm losing control of the whole debt situation, stuff keeps happening & the only means I have of paying for unexpected repairs & replacements is by using the cards :mad: . I have to get this under control, somehow. Tomorrow I'm meant to be taking DDs out for birthday meal & she is so looking forward to it, but all I can think is " how much is this going to cost ?". What with that, presents & sleepover costs the total is going to be over £250 :eek: . I feel quite _pale_ & cross with myself for not being more organised. I just want the spending to stop. I keep reassuring myself that there are no further costs until Christmas :rolleyes: but that's only 12 weeks away & in between now & then I have to either mot & insure my current car or get a new one & insure that.

I have to collect DD from Brownies, try to get her into bed, wrap up presents & transform living room into birthday set & then I'm going to recalculate everything.

I'll be back ...

Bowski_1011

Evening Lula, I wish I has some words of encouragement for you but I don't i'm afraid. All I can say is, maybe try and look on the bright side, everyones idea of a brightside is different I guess but if I were you i'd be thinking.. if you weren't actually watching your debts like you have been the past few months then you'd prob be in ALOT more debt than you are now. The NSD challenge..all those days you did successfully you'd have probably spent on and who knows how much, even if only a little amount it still all adds up.

How about posting an SOA (sorry if you already have) for people to pick things from and maybe you could possibly make some changes somewhere?

Sorry if thats no use, I know what i;m thinking in my head but I really struggle to get it out, I've always been like that. But I didnt want to shoot off without saying anything.

Hope your DD has a fantastic b'day, I hope you enjoy it too

moo2moo

Hope mini-Lula has a fabulous birthday and likes all her surprises. I have 3 weeks in which to magic something out of a hat for DD1. Not a clue what shes got planned or what she'd like as a gift, so far the only thing shes asked for is a pale pink jumper.

Nice to hear you've finally got your car back, I bet you've missed all its quirks even though courtesy cars are nice theres something a bit special about the old rust buckets and their rattles. Well I say nice, nice until the garage says that particular rattle is the engine mounting bolt which has sheared or the exhaust bouncing up and down minus its bracket. Although the worst one ever was my missing rubber plug. Hope you have an hour or so to spare.

I drove my new to me car through a deepish puddle and noticed shortly afterwards that the carpet in the passenger footwell was a bit damp. Putting 2 and 2 together I went under the car armed with a torch in search of a hole. Hole located. Further investigation, involving a lot of finger poking and a trip to the local dealership I blagged my way to a free rubber plug (special one for cars not the sort you associate with a sink). Being a bit blonde it took me 4 goes to get the right size. But mission accomplished hole was successfully plugged. Proudly told the OH of my achievements. Monday morning, having left the car parked outside for a very wet weekend I leapt into it to take the kids to school. Not being very observant at that time of day and being easily distracted by the yells of mum mum I haven't got my tie / bag / coat / shoes (why is it as they locate one thing they lose something they had nano seconds earlier?) it took some time (in fact the length of time that it takes water to seep through a trainer) to notice that the interior of my car resembled a goldfish bowl. Lesson learnt. The rubber plug was not as I had previously mistakenly thought absent but had been removed to facilitate drainage from the vehicle. Note this is not a Land Rover (although we have one of those with permanently wet footwells too.)

12 hours more rain later the weather cheered up a little. Reported my findings to OH who fault found like only a man could. Hosepipe turned on full blast and directed to the drainage channels of the sunroof. At this point I'm laid under the car waiting to see where the water comes out. And waiting. And waiting some more. Eventually OH asks if I can see anything yet as by now hosepipe has beeen running for several minutes. Turn off tap and decide that either (a) hosepipe blocked or (b) water went elsewhere. The next part of the tale is so cartoonesque that its stupidly ridiculous, bearing in mind we are highly educated degree possessingly employable people. We opened the car door and discovered the location of the water, filling the interior of the car to about 6" deep, opening the door significantly lowered the water level resulting in another pair of very wet shoes. Further dismantling of the vehicle revealed the following (a) soundproofing acts like a sponge then goes lumpy and disintegrates when wet leaving a deafeningly loud car and (b) never ever assume that the manufacturer connected both ends of the piping or in this case fitted it at all!

Off to have a vaguely less carpy day than yesterday which ended with frantic e-mails to the tea towel printers asking them to return the artwork. Apparently to placate member of staff the tea towel art will be reduced on photocopier by the factor necessary to add an extra 4cm which is likely to render some of the childrens handwriting and pictures illegible but is felt to be necessary in order to keep harmony within the building. Cheesed off does not do my feelings justice. Nor does the fact that this amendment will cost in the region of £60. Will feel marginally better on the 31st of the month at the AGM when I will be tendering my resignation from the PTA so that some other idiot can have the stress leaving me with an additional 10 hours a week to do surveys or find a second job.

Lula-Hula

Hello all -

Welcome to AlxB & thanks for encouragement . I have to whinge about debts now as I can no longer whinge about kitchen or car :rolleyes: .

DD very happy with presents so far & I have my car back. I think they must have stuck pedals down with treacle & put the steering wheel in a vice & as for the brakes :eek: well, I wouldnt call them sharp . Anyway it now brilliantly shiny & red down one side & kinda dull & scratched & battered looking on the other side & both front & back.

Moo - your exploits are hilarious, I love that you endure all your trials & tribulations with such humour. I had a fab scirocco with dual ponds in the footwells & never found out what the problem was, now I think I know ... but anyway a previous x decided to forge my sig on the v5 & trade it in for a new car at 39 % finance :eek: then had the damn thing reposessed - but that's a whole other story :rolleyes: .

Anyway the good news is that all my whingeing to insurance companies paid off as the garage said the excess fee had been waived so no credit card payment necessary :j . Can now enjoy meal & will think of these last 3 weeks as the final storm to be weathered & lessons learnt as to the need to always have an emergency cash fund.

Must get on with some work now & try to deal with finances later - was too busy blowing up balloons at midnight to cope with maths :rolleyes: .

Have a good day everyone

lula x