My Debt Free, Lose Weight & Be Super Frugal Diary 2009

Bambywamby

I just had to mention what an absolute bargain I have bought this week...and yes it was a "needs" purchase rather than a "wants".

I bought a suit from Asda for my son, a beautifully smart grey charcoal suit, fully lined, nicely tailored too...for £19. :eek: Normally £25...but the trousers currently come free with the jacket. As well as using this suit for job interviews...it will be doubling up for his wedding suit...so really an absolute bargain.
They also had quite alot of sizes in too, trousers from 30 to 40 inch waist and in all leg lengths...and jackets from 36 to 44 inches.
If anybody needs a nice suit...Asda is the place to go at the mo!

Bambywamby

I am quite excited, my auntie has offered to pay for me to complete my O/U degree which I started two years ago and then couldn't afford to finish. I have 120 points already (only need another 240 ho hum).
The degree I am going to complete is a Ba in Languages starting in 2010...gulp, I hope I can fit it in with all my money saving, cash earning and baby making...of course I can, I'm Wonder Woman.

And some not so exciting news...I have chipped a tooth so a trip to the dentist will follow next week. :mad:

Lemon_Tree

that's sounds like such an interesting degree Bam, something i would have like to study, but i think i've studied too long already so need to study my debt for the moment
we got married last September and where i could i managed to save money, i made my stationery etc and everyone complimente me on all the finer details i had added, at no real cost to me (just time). We had such a wonderful day i hope you get your day soon.

ragstoricheswannabe

congrats on the wedding lemon tree, and i agree about the course, sounds very interesting but complicated!!!!
yay on getting it paid for though bamby.

Bambywamby

Morning peoples :wave:

Congrats on your marriage Lemon Tree. :beer: And thank you, I hope 2010 is the year we can tie the knot and then I can really start playing the O/H up.

The course is complicated Rags but really enjoyable. I have started this second lot of studying with the easiest course that was left to do in the hope I will still get plenty of time to work extra towards the debts. If I do any overtime at work, I shall probably go for night shifts as I get three (1 hour) breaks when there is nothing to do. So I would get more time to study and work would be paying for it lol.:rotfl:

I am very cross at my teenage son today. He went to a party last night, stayed on after all his friends had left and the couldn't get a taxi home at 2am in the morning. He then left the party and decided to walk home, it was - 4 degrees and 4 miles away and he didn't know which direction home was in either.
At 2.30am I got a phone call requiring a lift home, so I had to get the O/H up, when we picked my son up at 3am...did we get a "sorry to get you out of bed" or a "thanks?"
Did we chuff, he skulked into the back of the car and sat there quietly.
What made it worse was my O/H had got up two hours early that morning so he could take my son to a job interview. When the interview had finished at 9.30 am, my son came in and went back to bed for a few hours...my O/H stayed up to work around the house. Did my O/H get a thank you for the lift? Only after I had reminded my son. :mad:

And at the moment this is the story of our life with him. He continually takes things, takes everything for granted and gives very little back.
Well I have had enough, it has been murder for the last three years...the teen years are awful! As well as being super frugal now, I am going to become a super mean mum. Until he realises he can't carry on like he is doing, I am going to do sod all for him. It's time for him to grow up, he is 18 in three months.


Sorry about that rant, but I really had to get it off my chest. O/H isn't really talking to me this morning so I can't vent to him, he is still very cross with my son...and I really can't blame him!

Well back to nicer things... DFW and my days agenda:

I am working 6.5 hours over time today and I will be collecting my wages to bank on Monday and pay off a CC or two.
I have £52 worth of bids on Ebay with 5 days still to go :T, I have also done my clicks & checks etc

For brekky I just had 1/4 tin of beans on toast...not sure how long the beans had been in the fridge but they wasn't furry of watery so...I ate them.:p
If I get the trots later...it can only help towards my weight loss lol.
I normally buy a magazine to take in to work for my breaks but today I am taking a book in. I have about twenty books I have bought and never read so I have decided to start reading them and then they can go to the charity shop.
I had promised myself that I would read the Harry Potter books, there must be something fantastic about them as so many kids and adults love them. So a few weeks ago I bought the first Harry Potter book (second hand of course) and three times I have tried to read it...and I just can't enjoy it.
My normal choice is thrillers, crime fiction, true crime and forensic reference books...maybe it is too light hearted for me.

I shall also be tidying up, sorting out a spare file for my first course - I refuse to buy any new stationary, I have such a lot of stuff lying around the house, ironing my uniform (pah!) and photographing a few things for Ebay for my mummy...only if I have time though, I have another big Ebay photographing & listing day planned for Monday.

I am also planning to walk to work today, it will save petrol and burn calories. If I get a bus it would cost £2 and takes an hour...it only takes an hour to walk and as long as it isn't raining that will be my exercise for the day.

Well I am off to turf my son out of his bed and lay down the new law according the the Bambywamby household. No more easy times, it's the real world for everyone now...including him!

Have a great weekend all,

Love Bambers x x

ragstoricheswannabe

I too cant read the harry potter books but dont mind the films.

think i was a little like your son when i was that age, must apoligise to my parents!!!! good on you for laying down the law and taking no messing.

i have got 7 items listed on ebay with 5 days left but have no bids as of yet...... must be doing something wrong. any tips seen as you seem to be doing very well bamby.

Well weighed myself this morning and have put the lb back on so back up to 11st 3oz. Have been sky+ing things on the exercise channel to save my buying a dvd i will never use, so need to get bottom in gear and start doing them.

how come your oh is a little mad at you??? wasnt you who needed a lift at that time in the morning..........

Different_Corner

Bamby
Just want to say all the best with the continuing OU course, I'd love to do something in that field think I'm too much of a James Patterson fan though !

As for teenage sons, they are so unpredictable and seem to change moods a lot more often than their socks. I offered to pick mine up from his weekend job last week, sat outside waiting on Sunday night, get a phone call after half an hour telling me he'd walked home. I have nothing better to do after all.....

Good for you laying down the law, I try but I lack consistency.

mancbird

Your degree sounds really interesting, good luck with it

I think I'd have throttled your son if he had rung me up in the middle of the night wanting to be picked up! I suppose I will have this all to come....

I would love to be a SAHM but realistically I think that I will have to go back to work, at least part time. Maybe by baby number 2 I will be able to be a SAHM but probably not for number 1. We're lucky that both our parents live close by and will be able to help us out with childminding

ragstoricheswannabe

i have two boys so will def have all this to come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i wish i could afford to be a SAHM but no chance, need the pennies.

Bambywamby

Alright ladies

Well Rags, I don't have many tips for Ebay except...make sure the items aimed at ladies do not go off between 7.30 & 9.00pm. You lose a lot of potential bidders to the soap operas that are on at this time. I do have £52 worth of bids but only on 4 out of 20 items, so that's not that good...but I am pleased...every penneth counts.
My O/H got cross with me as he thinks I baby my son too much, even though he is nearly 18...I guess I do...but O/H doesn't fully understand...wait until he is a dad...hmm bet things are a bit different then.
Like you I was a bit of a sod as a teenager, so I do try and realise what my son is going through...but I was never as cranky as he is I am sure.
As for having two boys...are you going for a hat trick of tiddlers and trying for a girl. or are you happy with the two?
Re - your weight gain, it's only a pound Rags, so don't be too disheartened that could easily be just water weight that will disappear by tomorrow...keep up the good work, you can do it!

Thank you DifferentCorner...I think the course will be interesting if not bordering on complex at times, I am hoping my fascination with the subject will keep me going even through the tough times. You have a teenage son too, I totally sympathise...can your son sleep on his bed with no bottom sheet like mine? It perplexes me how after only one night in bed the fitted sheet hangs sadly onto the floor like he has spent the night wrestling with lions...and it stays there until the next bed change a week later.
Lacking consistency has been my problem for far too long...I lay the law down and then relent because I feel sorry for him...he really[strike] runs[/strike] ran rings around me.

Yes Manc you lucky duck, you have it all to come.
Still I am reassured by mothers who managed to survive the teen era...it does get better...but you may have to wait until they are in their early twenties.
You're lucky to have lots of baby sitters to hand, my mum works full time and she is really the only person I would trust with a young one (O/H parents live 100 miles away) other than my partner, so if we do have a baby working will be difficult for me, particulary as my O/H works shifts. Ah well, it will sort itself out...things usually do.

Well I am off to watch Biggest Loser on Sky Real Lives and then I am going to bed...after last night I need a good nights sleep. I am at work tomorrow...11 hour shift:rolleyes: ...still the money is nice to have.

Sleep well y'all. x x