Financial faux pas and other disasterous decisions

moo2moo

Doom and gloom time.

Its only the 23rd of the month but I'm over budget. Can't say I'm at all surprised. Starting the month with the purchase of a TV was never going to be good for the bank balance. Still haven't a clue what OH has spent this month or how much hes paid out for dental treatment so far either so the expenditure is far from over.

Despite this its been a very good month. Apart from a wedding present I haven't spent anything at all in the January sales which is a major first. I'm still using up the stuff I bought last year and the year before and the year before that.

Having played about with a calculator to lift the black cloud of failure which is hanging over my head I'm quite happy to report that despite all this we should be very close to the £17K mark at the end of the month (assuming there are no other v. expensive and unpredicted disasters looming over the horizon).

Have abandoned my initial idea of trying to live on 50% of our combined income as thats even less than I allowed for this month. Whilst I really do want to shift the debts asap I also want to have some fun too. Its a very fine balanceing act and one in which it would be easy to get a bit too carried away with. I have already made an awful lot of radical cut backs, most of which OH and the DDs are tolerating remarkably well.

The official figures look like this:

Days to payday: 23 only 3 and a bit weeks to go!
Money in purse : £1.00
Money in emergency jam jar: Home to a few moths
Money in bank: £165.64
Money spent in January: £1679.70
Money remaining of this months portion of the live on £20K challenge : -£12.70
Part used smellies used up and disposed of: 6

moo2moo

Granny is due in 2.5 hours. Waiting for the DDs to wake before I bung the washing machine on as one of them is guaranteed to have wet the bed.

Last minute things still to do (after breakfast):

• Make Grannys bed and tidy DD2s room *again*
• Slap veg in slow cooker and turn on
• Superficial clean of bathroom. I did it last night and then the DDs cleaned their teeth.
• Wash up (Grannys pet hate is stuff waiting to be washed). She washes up after each and every mug of coffee.
• Put ironing board away
• Fold laundry on airer and stash airer in tardis under stairs
• Quick vac

And then panic. Granny is going to horse ridin gin my car. Affectionately named The Skip its a mobile disaster zone. Haven't time to vac it but I do need to move car seats about so that Granny can sit in the front. Will nip out with a bin bag and collect the random socks and neglected school projects and the left over debris from my trip to the tip earlier in the week.

Still haven't worked out what I'm wearing to the wedding but thats 6 hours away. No need for panic just yet. Turns out OH doesn't want to go. Men. Why couldn't he just have said thanks but no thanks. Turns out no one in his office really wants to go but no ones said no. not even the guy whose wife went into hospital for chemo yesterday. I'm beginning to like his boss less and less and I didn't really like him much to start with. Slimy smary creep that he is.

moo2moo

Its now 7:05 am which means I have an hour less to do everything I need to do than I did before I sat down. its amazing how fast itme flies when you're avaoiding something. Half of mes thinking ah sod it she can take us as she finds us but then the other half is thinking thats not really fair as I know if I dodn't do it she'll wash up, do the ironing etc etc just to help out. Having the DDs leaves her shattered as it is because DD2 is so lively and even worse when shes excited about something. Granny has suggested taking them to the cinema this afternoon so have to work out which one is easiest for her to find and park near. Suppose I should do that first really and then turn off the PC and tackle the house.

Have a fab day all!

Intergalactic_Floozie

moo2moo wrote: »

Doom and gloom time.

Its only the 23rd of the month but I'm over budget. Can't say I'm at all surprised.

Don't look upon it as a failure, I've read on the frugal board that you should look at the bigger picture (ie the full year) as there are people who pay certain bills annually rather than monthly so they will be overbudget in certain months x

I hope you enjoy the wedding, you'll have to let me know what you decide to wear because I'm a nosy moo.

And don't take it personally if your step mum tidies up for you - RELAX AND ENJOY IT! I know I do when it happens here. God, reading everything you do on here, I'm very surprised you even have time to go for a wee never mind flylady type cleaning routines!!

DedicatedDFW

Hi Moo - thanks for the heads up on Pinecone - I've applied *fingers crossed* I get accepted. I know what you mean about trying to live and have fun as well as clear things off. I'm sorry if I'm telling you something you already know but I've looked at trying to do things we enjoy for less or for nothing - I'm subscribed to the free cinema tickets thread though I've not been able to take advantage of anything yet, (only due to my shifts). For the first time ever I booked a little holiday when travelodge had their sale on - saved over £100 on what we'd normally spend. I know this could be difficult if not nigh on impossible for you if all of your OH's holidays are constantly changed at the drop of a hat which they seem to be.

Hope you do enjoy the wedding, at least it should be a chance to have a nice meal and drink with your OH.

Take Care

moo2moo

Helloooooo!

Wedding was .... interesting. Despite OH blurting out at the last minute that the guest list included the head honcho for European Ops and his no. 2. Eeek. OH was showered and partially dressed when I was still dumping the contents of my wardrobe onto the bed and going can't wear that or that, hmmm no shoes to go with that, too dressy, too casual. Process of elimination resulted in a choice of two outfits so went for understated and sophisticated (hopefully) floor length skirt and v. clingy cleavage revealing long sleeved top and crippling 4" heeled boots which saw me tottering about like a newborn gazelle for most of the evening. Behaved myself relatively well although couldn't help giggling at the brides mother who was breathtakingly bizarre looking in a neon pink net curtain. Other fashion faux pas were observed from a 20+ stone purple mini skirt toteing woman who disappeared to later reappear in an even shorter zebra striped mini. Wouldn't have been quite so bad had the skirt been longer than the kevlar body suit under it but as it was the extra skin was popping out the legs of the suit in rolls. It really wasn't pretty. Felt sorry for the woman who was doing her best to hide behind her husband. Couldn't help wondering why she hadn't gone for something she felt comfortable in in the first place.

Had an interesting chat with the boss of the Paris office who guffawed out loud when I told him he wasn't quite as James Bond as I'd imagined from my numerous phone conversations with him. He countered by telling me my reputation as a human rottweiler wasn't deserved. OH helpfully pointed out that that was because he'd not been on the recieving end of it yet. Scarily the rest of the office agreed with him. perhaps I need to be a tad nicer on the phone.

Don't think I drank too much although its hard to tell at a 10 hour long drinking marathon. Drank lots and lots of tap water so it cant have been all bad. Definately had less than the other wives.

Granny had a fab time and is already long gone having done a remarkably good job of cleaning the kitchen. Shes volunteered to have the DDs for half of Feb half term too.

moo2moo

Allocated £30 in spends for the evening but handed that over to OH before departing so that I didn't need a handbag not that I would have taken one as I don't own one. I know shocking! Only spotted OH buying one round so doubt we spent that much but I'm unlikely to see any change so I'll assume that was my total wedding spend.

Days to payday: 22
Money in purse : £1.00
Money in emergency jam jar: Home to a few moths
Money in bank: £105.64
Money spent in January: £1709.70
Money remaining of this months portion of the live on £20K challenge : -£42.70
Part used smellies used up and disposed of: 6

moo2moo

DedicatedDFW wrote: »

Hi Moo - thanks for the heads up on Pinecone - I've applied *fingers crossed* I get accepted. I know what you mean about trying to live and have fun as well as clear things off. I'm sorry if I'm telling you something you already know but I've looked at trying to do things we enjoy for less or for nothing - I'm subscribed to the free cinema tickets thread though I've not been able to take advantage of anything yet, (only due to my shifts). For the first time ever I booked a little holiday when travelodge had their sale on - saved over £100 on what we'd normally spend. I know this could be difficult if not nigh on impossible for you if all of your OH's holidays are constantly changed at the drop of a hat which they seem to be.

Hope you do enjoy the wedding, at least it should be a chance to have a nice meal and drink with your OH.

Take Care

Problem with going away is we either have to take the dog or find a dog sitter which restricts us to camping or slef catering in places that allow dogs. Also means we need to time it so that the nearest neighbours are about to chicken sit and then it has to be either a weekend or a school holiday thanks to my work contract. Camping is by far the simplest option and we did invest in a trailer tent about 8 years back which we take away whenever possible.

I can take the DDs to the cinema for £1.50 on weekend mornings but these tend to clash with their other activities and we've usually already seen the films that are on offer. Perk of OH working in the travel industry is someone from the office has usually been sent overseas to somewhere that the films are available before they arrive in UK cinemas and they arrive home with many new films to watch which are considerably cheaper than UK prices. Coupled with the Wii and an enormous country park on the doorstep we're never short of things to do, just the time to do them. Plus the Yorkshire based Grandparents have a big enough house for us all to stay there and Granny no. 2 owns a hotel on the Isle of Wight so we're not exactly deprived of holidaying opportunities. All we have to do is pay for fuel to get to them and contribute to the food bill. I'd far rather be at home though. There are tons of things on our doorstep that we've never done. Its nice to play tourist from home. We can be at a beach in half an hour, Blackpool and the Pleasure Beachare only 2 hours away as is the NEC at Birmingham. What I lack is botht he cash and the inclination to go.

My plans for the holidays extend as far as doing something witht he overgrown garden to transform it into the sort of place I'd like to spend evenings BBQing and sipping G&T whilst watching my veggies grow whilst at the mo its 3" deep in chicken shoite which is most excellent for the veggies but not so great for the patios.

moo2moo

Sitting here telling myself I don't have a hangover. Feeling like a brainwashed zombie. Could do with a decade more sleep but fat chance of that. Have reviewd the venue on DooYoo making it my 200th review. Need to jump back on that bandwagon. Now £7 off payout but I really can't be bothered. Not the mindset I need for debt busting. At least I'm surveying instead, its not like I'm avoiding everything money making.

Have two identical items on E-bay one ending tonight (0 watchers) the other in 3 days time (4 watchers). Most odd. Did stick them in different categories to see where generated the most interest. Not hat anyones bid on either yet.

Going to hide under a blanket and read a book consuming lots of coffee in the hopes that helps. At the very worst it will give me something else to DooYoo later.

moo2moo

Its Monday morning already. The weekend seems to have flown by (admitedly in an alcohol induced haze). Spent yesterday vegging around in PJs much to OHs ammusement. Managed to feed the children, write 2 DooYoos and a letter chasing up a bank account thats been dormant since 1982. Finished my book and then watched lots and lots and lots of abysmally awful TV. Batteries now fully recharged.

Plans for this week extend as far as surviving it. In theory I'll be graced by the arrival of several dozen burly buildres this morning. Having met them already I can report back thatt hese are the sort of buildres that you pray to god wil keep there shirts on for the duration of their time at school. Not one potential bit of eye candy in sight. Lifes sooo unfair. Is it even possible that out of a selection of 12 builders theres not one that I'd want as my office pin up? Note I use "office" in the loosest sense of the word as I have a room with a door with my name on but no windows or desks or even a chair just an upturned milk crate and a kiddie kitchen thats awaiting repair. Most prison cells are bigger.

In theory the boss should have been in yesterday to finish emptying his office but he was feeling the lure of the golf course on Friday so this may not have occurred. Still have shed loads of timber to transform into kindling but my saw has yet to be returned and the jigsaw blade (the only one school owns) is blunt. Fortunately its staff appraisal time so I'm writing myself a shopping list of demands in anticipation. Can't wait to see what goals the boss will come up with this year. He did suggest last year that I dressed appropriately but after three days of me wandering around in a brown overcoat (left by my predecessor) and a flat cap he decided that jeans and a t-shirt were actually perfectly acceptable.