Financial faux pas and other disasterous decisions

moo2moo

Peace at last! Finally got rid of the rest of them to some unsuspecting green lane out yonder for a bit of fresh ir. I volunteered to stay back to dog sit and stick a roast dinner in the oven. Puppy is starting to settle in at last but appears to wee at everything. if its ecited it wees, if its frightened it wees. If its just walked in the door from a five mile walk you guessed it, it wees. Still other than that its being incredibly well behaved.

Not expecting to get much done over the next few days, it'll be nice to have an excuse to do nowt, not that I'll exactly be doing nowt as I've got 12 E-bay auctions ending tomorrow to package up and post on Monday (assuming they all pay) and all the usual stuff that goes with having a house full of hungry people but still its nice not to have to feel like I have to do things. Having said that todays two Dooyoos are done, the MSE'ers of DooYoo have been rated and I got a whole shiny £1 from the scratchards too.

moo2moo

Small child with snotty nose stops play. DD2 has a cold. The end of the world is nigh. Still shes coping admirably with a non stop request for drinks, food, cuddles and the passing of the remote control. Still amazes me she wasn't a boy as shes displaying the classic symptoms of Man Flu.

Dispatched the rest of them off up yonder hilly field to todays target shoot prmoising them bacon butties on their return sometime this afternoon.

Meanwhile I've done a load of laudry and the dishwasher is mid cycle (very lazy!). DD1s birthday presents are wrapped ready for Friday and I've already started on Bag2school no. 7. Its amazing how much outgrown or worn out stuff lurks within the DDs drawers. Have also pruned the contents of the bedding cupboard so that the doors now shut. Still have more towels than we need but they're not shabby enough to turf out just yet even if they do take up a phenomenal amount of storage space.

Hoping DD2 will feel up to baking this afternoon as I need to concoct something with which to pad out the school lunchboxes. Off to DooYoo before she thinks up some other demands.

moo2moo

£50 DooYoo cheque now claimed and having written todays two reviews I've already got 4590 points towards the next one.

Off to do the washing up so it looks like I've done something productive whilst the OH has been out. Otherswise he'll leap to the concluasion that I've been sat on my bum sufing the net, watching mindless drivel on the telly box and reading books, which incidently is precisely what I have been doing.

moo2moo

Have come crashing back to earth after a truly insane E-bay respone during which manky old battered school books reached over £125 in bids. No not a typo. After fees and wot not that makes a very healthy wodge of cash to hand over to school.

My stuff was considerably more pathetic but should bring in £15 or so. Will do the maths properly once I've been to the Post Office. Have FedExed the biggest one via Parcel Monkey for £6.90 earning a whole £1 from Quidco which has already tracked. I'll be using them again.

Off to see if DD2 is well enough for school. Still have to get her up and dressed and take her in but I'll escape from work asap if shes not.

moo2moo

Emergency purchase of imitation Calpol completed. Poorly child now watching mindless drivel on telly. Parcels posted. E-bay profit £25.35. First load of washing done. 2 Dooyoos written. Off to do some cuddling before continuing with the long list of things that need doing today.

moo2moo

2 more DooYoos done. Today I rambled about the wonders of free bingo. That was after I'd won a combined 35p on the free scratchcards. At times I amaze even myself with my ability to waffle on regardless. Tomorrows plans will involve childrens daytime telly box reviews as I'm sick to death of watching them already, I'd almost rather watch an episode of Murder She Wrote. Yup DD2 will be off school again today. A third of her class was off yesterday so I'm bracing myself for the rest of us getting it too. Lovely. Just in time for the holidays.

Have narrowly avoided spraining my ankle. Combination of numb feet, pins and needles and a cat in the middle of the carpet. Must not be so impatient.

Plans for today involve more laundry. It really is never ending. Distribution of the present stash. Theres more in there than I thought. Shouldn't need to buy any Christmas gifts for the under 10s at this rate. Will be wrapping them and getting shut of them via my folks when they collect the kids at the beginning of November. After that its phase three of operation stuff the contents of the house into Bag2school bags and get shut. This appears more important than ever as the jumper I was wearing at school yesterday has parted company at both cuff seams and its hem seams. Its far beyond bag lady status and into the realms of wino.Its not as though I have any shortage of jumpers but that one always seems to be at the top of the pile. I must be very very ruthless and then I must pack for our jollys.

lucielle

Hope the sick DD is feeling better soon.
L

moo2moo

Man flu stops play. OH is now in bed feeling hot and headachy. DD2 is considerably bouncier and watching Disney classics on the sofa.

X-mas pressie stash sorted. Did a bit too well with the bargain hunting and things look overly generous. Haven't spent more than a fiver per child but some of the stuff is in enormous boxes and was reduced from £30. Still its only once a year and I never get their parents anything.

Slightly more concerningly my ankle is now rather stiff and swollen. Will be strapping it up before I go back to work to give it a bit of extra support.

Managed a couple of no spend days this week thanks to barely leaving the house. Need to fit in a trip to the feed merchant for chicken feed before the end of the week. Also need to do some number crunching. Today is mad 4K challenge day 50. The challenge is 122 days long so this isn't even the half way point. To date I've spent an average £57 per day meaning at the present rate of ridiculous spending by the end of the challenge I'll have spent £6989.06. A mere £2989.06 over budget. I need an enormous rethink. At least keeping a very accurate spending diary is making me super aware of this and it does go a long way to explaining why the overall debt increased last month. Overall its still going down but it doesn't take a lot to send the balance the other way either.

Still I'm looking on this as a positive thing. If I assume for ease of maths a daily spend of £60 per day (as a realistic worst case scenario) thats £21,900 a year. (Surely we don't spend that much each year do we???). Comes the question what is happening to the remainder of our salaries as between us we earn a heck of a lot more than that after tax and NI and pension schemes. I know OHs fuel isn't included nor are his fags but even allowing £400 a month for that (£5K a year) there should be more left over than there is. I do believe I will be documenting everything much to OHs disgust.

Thats far too sensible for a grotty Tuesday afternoon a mere 73 days, 7 hours and five minutes before Christmas.

moo2moo

Consumption of chocolate hasn't made my figures any better.

Off to do 45 minutes of productive something or other before coffee and school.

moo2moo

Don't know why I had a mental melt down over figures yesterday. They're stil greatly improved on my first ever SOA and all the revisions. Just can't help thinking I could do better. That and being slapped across the face with the actual figures is a gurt big wake up call. Hopefully it'll help me focus on the things that matter.

Have done two more DooYoos taking me to 58190 points and 85 reviews. Would be nice to top 60000 points and 90 reviews before we go on our jollidays but I'm not sure there are enough hours left in the week and I've yet to start packing or work out if theres a supermarket vaguely where we're staying. I'm tempted to take 24 hours worth of food with us just in case we get stuck in monstorous traffic jams and arrive after everythings closed but the lack of space in the car for such things makes this a bit of a pain.

Hoping DD2 is well enough to go to school today as shes desperate to go back. DD1 was coughing most of the night so I may well have one of them at home anyway. My ankle is looking rather balloon like so i'll be taking it easy. Well as easy as I can. I have 48 hours to eradicate my wardrobe of all knackered things so thats going to be my project of the day. if I can combine holiday packing at the same time it'll be an even more productive day. Also need to fit in a mammoth baking session as DD1 wants to take cakes to school on Friday because as she keeps reminding us (and everyone else) its her birthday.