Financial faux pas and other disasterous decisions

DedicatedDFW

Hi again, I love books so did a quick search for you - I could not find any listed on Greenmet but Amazon seem to have over 40 copies of 'Manifold Destiny'. The price seems to depend on the cover and condition but starting at £2.86 it seems a bargainous gift! They have both new and used ones listed. Hope this helps

moo2moo

Thanks for that. I ended up on the US Amazon site and assumed there weren't any copies in the UK. Turns out I can also order a copy via Waterstones. Looks like that one will be easier than expected. Only another 39 to come up with then.

Today is a fantastic day, perfect for sitting in a tin can pootling along the M62 in a traffic jam at mid-day. Its lookling vaguely like I'll be making a detour via Rotherham which will turn a 4 hour round trip into a 6 hour one. May need to add fuel to the car after all. I was rather hoping to get away with not filling up and cycling to work on the days I didn't have the DDs, not that I actually have but the thought was there, fleetingly.

Managed to avoid working for most of yesterday. Had a 9 year old cling-on for most of the morning. One of the autistic kids decided he wanted to be firmly attached to me which made achieving anything rather difficult much to the bosses ammusement. Someone else dropped in with a bag of Welsh National Dress for the DDs - umm thanks but no thanks, they're not Welsh and they're not wearing it! Blimey that sounds harsh. The polite translation is that on wear your national dress to school day they'll go in school uniform as normal since the English don't appear to have a recognised national dress unless you count local team football / rugby strips. OOOh I stand corrected - Google is my friend- turns out the English do have a national dress and it comes with a 12" machete shame it also comes from the Anglo Saxon era. Every other country does it with bling and frills and the Brits go for knife wielding yet dowdy. Education lesson over for the day folks. Normality is now resumed.

As I was saying, before I rudely interupted myself by digressing at a totally irrelevant tangent, I didn't really do much yesterday. Scrubbed 2 floors, went shopping and bought yet more paint and a few plumbing bits then spent the afternoon prooving just how hard basic plumbing can be in the hands of an inept moron. OH demonstrated the art of making the joint in question in a little under 2 minutes. I needed three. All identical. All made up on the floor and then held in place by screw joint type thingies and pipe olives to stop them leaking. No opportunity to set fire to the paint on the walls or do any other damage (apart from melt the very expensive rubber flooring) and I even bought enough bits to do each joint three times. Sadly I needed to too. I incinerated one to the point it looked like it had been flambe'd for several days, another I managed to connect at an angle and with the aid of a large hammer I then turned it into an oval pipe enuring it would leak for eternity. Finally managed to do what was needed, much to OHs amusement, in a little under 2 hours. Fortunately I'd taken him to work with me just in case I arsed up royally and flooded the place. Only another six to do, but I'm saving them for another day.

moo2moo

Dropped the DDs at their grandparents on Wednesday. Didn't get home until 10pm. Whilst we were in Yorkshire OH managed to find a gunsmith who wasn't open for business and won't be until the beginning of September but this didn't stop him putting a £50 deposit on another air rifle. This place will soon have more weaponary than your average arsenal. DD1 threw a wobbly as we were leaving and took ages to calm down, helpfully this blew over almost as soon as we'd left.

Yesterday was spent enjoying some quality child free time. managed a face pack, a DIY pedicure complete with nail varnish, did all the filing and managed 2 hours at the range getting in some much needed practice. OH disappeared around 3am for a wander round the fields but come back empty handed as the grass was too long to spot the bunnies. Still thats a couple of hours more exercise than normal. He was on his way back to bed as I got up.

Did a bit of mental maths yesterday. It looks like we've cleared a little over 10K since I started the diary despite OH impending mid-life crisis. Kicking myself I didn't realise this years ago. At this rate we'll be debt free in a little over a year, although I'm not convinced I can keep going at this pace for that long. Still its a heck of an incentive. Will double check all my figures over the weekend whilst OH is at work.

Forgot to go to job #2 last night, I'm supposed to be cleaing after schools holiday club but had had a glass of vino before I remembered what day it was so I need to go in early this morning to do it before they start. Also promised I'd let them into the kitchen to make pizza. No prizes for guessing what I'm having for lunch.

Intergalactic_Floozie

moo2moo wrote: »

Did a bit of mental maths yesterday. It looks like we've cleared a little over 10K since I started the diary despite OH impending mid-life crisis. Kicking myself I didn't realise this years ago. At this rate we'll be debt free in a little over a year, although I'm not convinced I can keep going at this pace for that long. Still its a heck of an incentive. Will double check all my figures over the weekend whilst OH is at work.

That is bloody amazing!!!! Surely it should inspire you to keep going at this rate A YEAR!!

moo2moo

and then I opened this months statements and discovered that we'd only overpayed by £200 this month. Still at least its £200 down rather than up. A year is wildly optomistic unless we live in the dark on a diet of field rabbit. Next month we need to pay off over 1K of assorted toys that OH has racked up this month that are all on plastic. Fortunately I've been given tons of school uniform for the DDs so shouldn't need to buy any for at least another 2 years apart from skirts which are usually cheap in the sales. Debt free by 35 sounds rather nice though although that only gives me until October 2010 but it is a target. Allowing for OHs many projects sub 5k by age 35 is a bit more realistic whilst sub 10K is realistically achievable but isn't challenging enough to keep me focussed. Guess I'll keep going in little chunks. I did tell myself I'd be happy just to break even over the summer hols which is what we're doing. The next sensible goal is sub 20k by Christmas and be thoughtful yet miserly where presents are concerned.

Got in from work at 7pm last night and spent a fun filled two hours with a wallpaper scraper and a large tub of filler attempting to prep DD2s bedroom for painting today. The craters in the wall were deeper than anticipated so I'll need to give them a top up of filler and do an awful lot of sanding before I can paint. Rather pathetically its around 4 years since I last felt the urge to decorate in there. The room has been treated as a bit of a dumping ground so I'm going to have a very ruthless few days and clear a lot of carp too. Poor kid won't know whats hit her when she gets back. Would be nice to reduce the furniture by half. No child needs 2 armchairs, a filing cabinet, 3 chest of drawers, a wardrobe, a desk, an enormous bookcase or 4 toy boxes.

Off to release the hens and start making lots of mess.

moo2moo

I really am carp at maths. Tis no wonder I managed a U grade A-level in it. Unsurprisingly I was rather good at statistics - the branch of mathematics which allows you to make the figures say whatever you want and prove that his is actually an acceptable answer.

A quick delve into the depths of the filing cabinet gave me a swift dose of reality. Way way back in January when I started on the diary after the debt had gone up for the umpteenth month in a row we topped 38K, not the 33K I was convinced we'd been at.

Off to have a celebratory chocolate bar for breakfast en-route to seeing if the second lot of filler has dried. Final patches of very stubborn 1940s, 50s and 60s wallpaper removed revealing yet more craters. I'm cheating a bit and using PVA glue to hold the horse-hair plaster onto the walls before i attmpt to fill the holes. Its a good excuse for an extra couple of coffee breaks. Found two cans of paint left over from someone elses house move lurking in the shed so hopefully I won't need to buy any paint. If I run out I'll use up some of the other cans on a "feature" wall but hopefully there will be enough without resorting to that, plus it means I don't have to be quite as neat in the corners.

moo2moo

Another day. Another disaster. Way back at the end of June I booked a day out. The only "me" thing on the calendar for months. No prizes for guessing when OH is away on business. Have contacted the organisers to see if I can transfer to another date as theres no way I'll be able to persuade anyone to have the DDs the first weekend back after school starts for 18 hours and whilst the option to transport them to my parents and back does exist it means I'd be too knackered to enjoy it and I'd pay out more in fuel than I'd lose if I don't go and can't transfer the place. Sods law in action.

Decorating is going rather well in that all walls are now the same colour with the exception of the alcove behind the drunken bookcase which was shoe horned into position thatnks to the wonkiness of both the floor and the pre-historic walls. Incidently I did measure up to ensure the thing fitted before we bought it and indeed it does. In places theres a 4 inch gap but we still had to remove the skirting board to get i tin and even then it was a eally really tight squeeze. Need to give the chimney breast a second coat and then I can get on with decarping. Threw out a bin bag of stuff yesterday without even attempting the toy boxes.

First load of laundry is on the line, hopefully I can get at least 2 more loads done today. Next project is resealing the dining room floor with very smelly industrial liquid floor polish. Theres just the small matter of getting the table out of the room first. Will wave my magic wand and keep my fingers crossed.

So todays list:

• transform DD2s bedroom and eradicate 1/3rd of her toys (not as harsh as it sounds)
• empty dining room, clean and reseal floor
• list more tat on flea-bay
• tidy, tidy and then tidy some more
• fit in more laundry and some ironing
• do more surveys. £5 done so far today but there are still loads in my in-box.

moo2moo

Bored, bored, bored. 4 loads of laundry done, another million still to do. Sofa has disappeared under the seige that is the clean laundry pile. DD2s room almost ready for inhabitatiojn. Off to put the curtains back and make the bed. 2 coats of polish on the floor only another 3 or so to go. House looks like the aftermath of a whirlwind. Will be doing lots and lots and lots of cleaning before my parents appear tomorrow night.

makeup

moo2moo wrote: »

Dropped the DDs at their grandparents on Wednesday. Didn't get home until 10pm. Whilst we were in Yorkshire OH managed to find a gunsmith who wasn't open for business and won't be until the beginning of September but this didn't stop him putting a £50 deposit on another air rifle. This place will soon have more weaponary than your average arsenal. .

I'm a complete townie, and completely mystified as to what an air rifle is actually for??

In my part of London they are normally used by ASBO youths for shooting pet cats or each other???

Yay for your mega-debt-busting and am most impressed at your goals!

I hope you can swap over your day out - I remember when you posted aobut it and it sounded like a lot of fun! (and I recall a goody bag was mentioned???!!!!)

moo2moo

Air rifles are predominantly for vermin control. We get lots of rats from the field and hundreds of rabbits all of which do a lot of damage undermining buildings to the extent that a nearby farmhouse is due to be demolished after a year of being unoccupied because of the damage done by rodents. There are lots and lots and lots of clubs near here where you can shoot targets both to improve your accuracy and have a bit of fun at the same time. The legislation requires us to have written permission anywhere we do shoot and public liability insurance and of course we can't be seen to have air rifles in public.

I seriously doubt I can swap the day out, it doesn't harm to ask but its a bit pointless. I'm fairly sure the original booking form said non-transferable and non-refundable. Still apt punishment for forward planning and having something to look forward to. Will remember not to bother in the future.

Having a super grumpy start to the day thanks to yet another argument with the OH and a very sleepless night followed by a ridiculously early start. Questioning everything I do at the moment in case I make things worse than they already are although that seems to be impossible to do. To quote the lyrics of a well known song "things can only get better". Well they need to and in a hurry as the DDs are due home tonight and they last thing they need is a mum in tears whos really not sure which way is up. Really need to get things together so I can think straight and work out whats going on in my head. After that perhaps I can do something to improve things. Downside is I've no appetite at all. I make food take a couple of bites and really can't be bothered to eat it, ok thats only been going on since Fridays huge argument but still the weight loss is already noticable which suggests I've been under eating for quite some time. Its all adding up to what the docs would refer to as clinical depression but thats just not me (insert stompy foot smiley). Or at least it shouldn't be. I have two children I love and an OH I adore but who I seem to make angry just by breathing. Theres no reason for me not to be happy but I'm not. My get up and go got up and went.

So plans for today:

• Find my get up and go
• Give myself a metaphorical kick up the derriere - I have no reason to be so down in the dumps
• Do something that makes me smile

Actually there is a positive side to all this. I'm avoiding arguments with the OH by doing housework, lots and lots of housework and the house is noticably cleaner and tidier for this (although I doubt the OH has noticed). This in itself is making me feel much more positive about things, well apart from the obvious downside that the OH is rather cheesed off that I'd rather vacuum than perform aerobics for adults but ho hum. You can't please all of the people all of the time and in this case you can't please anyone at all.

So its time for a cunning plan Baldric. One that involves me having a marriage left to salvage at the end of the week as opposed to one that involves house hunting not that this would involve house hunting as around here the finances would only stretch to a shoebox but I'd rather not venture down that particular cul-de-sac until its absolutely necesary and then I'll be kicking and screaming all the way quite probably in a straight jacket with a couple of burly men in white coats to assist me on my journey. Genius is perilously close to madness and its fair to say I'm teetering on the threshold.