Financial faux pas and other disasterous decisions

moo2moo

Happy day before Christmas Eve peeps. Today is the very last day I intend visiting work this year, no doubt I will pop in as I'm passing at some point next week to make sure the place hasn't burnt to the ground but I'm thinking minimalistic visits where I do nothing more exciting than sitting leafing through magazines in the staff room deciding which to keep and which to go. Filled a wheelie bin in 45 minutes yesterday and still have six enormous cupboards to go. The good news is I have until January 18th to declutter the place and rehome its contents. Not that the recipients of the remaining contents will b overly entusiastic about recieving their goodies but who cares?

Have decided to make 8 of the remaining 9 days of this year non spending ones. I don't need anything at all from the sales and the only planned spend is fuel for OHs car and dinner out on his birthday both of which can be done on the same day. Am hoping this will stop me going OOOOOh exciting discounted sale e-mail and trawling through various sites that I wouldn't normally visit in the hopes theres something really cheap that might come in handy eventually. Thats precisely why I have enough presents stashed to see me through x-mas 2010 already. I won't be running out of wrapping paper or cards much before 2015 either.

Came up with a cunning plan to add together our total income deduct from it our total expenditure, subtract 5-10% and then divide by 12 as an overall budget for the year as this was the laziest approach I could possibly come up with. Unfortunately there are so many bingo and matched betting transactions on my statements not to mention cash transfers between accounts that my overall income and expenditure appear to be about 10K greater than they actually are. Will have to do it the slow and laborious way instead. Vageuley thinking a spread shett on the PC is the way to go as the DDs cannot draw on it or colour in squares to make it prettier although the thought of colouring in squares and awarding myself gold stars is surprisingly appealing.

OH has helpfully left his car at home today in the hopes that I'll clean the interior and wash the exterior prior to cramming it full of goodies for transport across the forozen wastelands of the North. Didn't have the heart to tell him I haven't packed yet. Suppose that needs doing at some point beofore he arrives home in a vague attempt to show willing and enthusiasm for 48 hours at my parents.

moo2moo

Plans for today:

• Wrap and hide OHs b/d prezzie
• Clean OHs car and top up windscreen wash bottle once I work out which one it is and more inmportantly how you open the bonnet. I had to ask someone driving the same car at the fuel station how I opened the fuel cap the first time I drove it as its a stealth cap with a hidden knob.I am that bimbo.
• Pack my clothes and DDs clothes and leave a suitable selection on the bed for OH in the hopes hes too lazy to go hunting for T-shirts featuring farts and other humerous things or worse still a hawian shirt
• Remember to pack toothbrushes although I've forgotten so many times that Granny now has a set there for the DDS, can always use those if I forget again.
• Finish off the last of the laundry and threaten anyone who dares to consider refilling the basket by announcing they've tidied their bedrooms aka heaping all the clothes on the floor into the laundry basket including those that are still folded. I will not be a happy person.
• Stick the chick peas I put out to soak into a pan and boil before chucking in the slo-cooker for the rest of the day. Chick pea curry for dinner. Yum yum yummy.
• Visit work before it goes dark to stick the bins away.
• Tidy, tidy and tidy some more. Its amazing how much mess the DDs make whilst slobbed on the sofa watching tv.

moo2moo

X-mas is officially over already. First Easter Eggs of 2010 spotted in Somerfield last night.

Yesterdays plans went totally to pot but all pressies are wwrapped, Game from Game arrived in time, bags are packed, animal sitters are armed with food and x-mas gifts and we have had a ridiculous amount of snow overnight which will make travelling a bit interesting. Not planning to leave until after lunch in the hopes that the roads have improved a bit by then so will be spending the morning sledging.

Happy Christmas All!

Intergalactic_Floozie

Have a good Christmas oop 'ere in Yorkshire, I look forward to reading all about it!

Lula-Hula

:xmassign: to all in the house of Moo

lucielle

Merry Crimbo to you, Moo
L

Double_Trouble

MERRY CHRISTMAS!
from a lurker

DTxx

beanielou

Hope you have a good day & roads were ok.

moo2moo

Hello All! Many thanks for the x-mas wishes.

Made it home early yesterday evening after a fab few days making snowmen and playing in the snow. The frozen wastelands of the north were indeed frozen to the point that gritters couldn't get anywhere near my parents so access to their house was like driving on a skating rink. Not that I drove anywhere OH did that. I fear the boy believes my driving is so attrocious that I would have pranged his pride and joy which incidently is probably true.

Had a fab time but have reached the limit for enduring far flung relatives in a confined space and am rather glad to be home or at least I was right up until the bickering started again. It does not bode well.

Got some fab pressents and some others which made me wonder if the giver actually knows me at all which is never ever a good sign. Perhaps I'm being too cynical. Still I now have several biographies of people I've heard of in passing to read my way through, tons of Toblerone to chomp and enough smellies to keep me going for at least another year without the stuff thats already filling the cupboards. DDs were ecstatic with all their gifts. Not entirely convinced OH enjoyed himself. He wasn't feeling too great and there are only so many conversations with my father that I can take about the latest batch of funerals hes been to of people you've never heard of before so I suspect for OH the boredom factor is magnified several fold.

moo2moo

Plans for today involve wedging x-mas gifts into already full cupboards and an assualt on the laundry generated whilst we were away. It might only have been for three days but its probably going to take me just as long to get through it. OH is thoruoghly cheesed off about the state of the house and my lack of involvement in any of the many structual things that need doing. Can't seem to get through to him that its because I spend most of my time clearing up and doing the day to day things that theres no time to do anything else. Am tempted to ramp up my domestic skills to all out war on house level in the hopes that I can super blitz the place and get round to doing some of the many things which need doing but have never been done thanks to life getting in the way. Turns out of the many many things I do each day the five minutes spent on the free scratchcardswhilst consuming my early morning mug of coffee annoys him the most.

Mega plans for this week:

• Reseal bath. Would also like to sand off peeling paint in bathroom and repaint wall although as the colour will have faded in the seven years since it was done last and the paint will have gone off although its unlikely theres enough in the tin to start with.
• Fill in holes in wall left by kitchen fitters, rub out pencil lines and repaint. Scenario as above only its been 6 years not 7.
• Repair holes in landing walls caused by plasterboard nails moving (replace these with drywall screws). Spot the common theme?

All these tasks would be made infinately easier if I wasn't utterly convinced that it would take several hours of debris moving to clear enough space to do the things in question and then you can guarantee someone will want feeding or a bath or something else will ahppen and it'll be abandoned before its started. I never used to be this defeatist. I still firmly believe that a serious amount of tidying is required before anything is attempted so am going to start today in the kitchen. Purely because its the room that annoys me the most. In an ideal world I'd like to start at the ceiling by washing that as its rather greasy looking with considerably more spiders than I'd like (the perils of an old house). The tops of the cupboards need doing too and the fronts and the insides. Oven needs cleaning too as thats sending out smoke signals each and every time its turned on. Guess theres no time like the present to make a start and get yesterdays washing up out of the way in a vague attempt at making enough space to do anything. Its going to be none stop fun here today.