The Quest - 2

Lula-Hula

Hello my lovelies,

Horace, so sorry to hear about your Dad & it's now year since I quit, not taking any more chances.

I've missed you all but this man fishing thing has just taken over .... it would appear that there is a dire shortage of women with no prospects & large 'assets' :rotfl: anyway, since the original flurry of activity when 'new woman with large chest' arrived on site I have to say the quality of what's on offer is now veering towards the whoopsie shelf :rolleyes:

I am enjoying some light hearted banter with a man claiming to be The Stig bur sadly he's over 50 miles away & that wouldnt be very money saving now would it. I'm also keeping friendly with a couple of chatty types in Brighton - we like to go there every so often & I'm always up for a homemade cup of tea I did start to look at the occupations as this place really does need some serious attention but have a feeling that a bag of potatoes & an onion will probably not be sufficient payment for complete redecoration :rolleyes:. There's also the Eastend publican who is very proud of his 'british by birth' tattoo & keeps calling me babe :mad: I think he missed the bit in my profile that said I despise any form of prejudice :rolleyes: so i'm just ignoring him. There have been no offers to whisk me off somewhere hot & sunny or unlimited use of yachts or campervans but i shall not give up hope & have chatted with a seemingly quite normal type who lives in the nearby poshy town & there's a rumour we might meet up for a drink this friday... hmmmmm we'll see :rolleyes:

Thanks for the offers of all the free seeds you lovely ladies :T:Aalthough I'm sure you could/ should be using them yourselves ... I shall be pming you my address & requirements & Moo, I know you love Polly Pocket & Hama beads as much as I do so be sure to include your address so I can send you some more in return .... or perhaps we should introduce Tea to their delights & both send her all of ours :D

It would be great if the Post Office would come up with refrigerated jiffy bags & then I could send you all some produce. We've just been to the allotment to do some much needed watering & there really is nothing like home grown salad leaves. Funny that Moo mentions burpless cucumbers as the dear chap on the next plot just gave me one - plant that is.

You want to hear my moneys asving news really .... er... um ... :whistle: I did get a £2 coin today so my collection begins all over again.

I've just realised that I can get my car mot'd as of friday - oooh yeh :rolleyes: so I need to book that in quick in case the 0 % card is required.

DD1 is now all excited about her new home again ( that makes 2 of us then ) & has all sorts of plans to completely refurbish it. I dont care as long as all her stuff goes with her again. I am ashamed to admit that I havent changed the sheets on their beds since she moved so the weekend will be spent ferrying washing to the line & back. The other good thing is that not once has DD asked me to retrieve any toys from the precarious mountain in the corner so by my reckoning they are no longer required & can be sent first class recorded with no return address to Moo :rotfl:or alternatively ebayed now that I have an inkling of what to do.

There's apile of washing up calling my name so must dash off via the clothes challenge to check up on my fellow crazies.

Back again soon ...

Lula
xx

Moo - I hadnt read your thread when I first posted this so please forgive the light hearted tone & banter

moo2moo

Don't apologise Lula. Life goes on at whirlwind pace regardless.

Think I'll pass on the offer of more hama beads though. I failed to completely melt this evenings masterpiece DD2 was totally and utterly distraught when I unpeeled the plastic template and several hundred beads shot in all directions. I'm sure Tea would appreciate them far more than I could ever do. Perhaps she'd like some Magnetix too.

Wonder if the fishing site has a swap shop. Available for exchange: one almost house trained specimen, has all own teeth.

Lula-Hula

Happy friday to all

Lulas home is now only 2 thirds full. DD1 moved on her merry little way today, taking almost all her possessions with her.

Yesterday we packed up our cars with everything we could carry & I spent a couple of hours cleaning her new home. I know, she could have done it herself, but it was preferable to doing all the unpacking & putting away only to be told it was in the wrong place :rolleyes:

She stayed here last night so that I could go the pub with my allotment friends ... & i didnt have to drive :j so was the proud owner of a rather large headache this morning - it's the heat you know I got 3 x £2 coins in my change so my savings are back on track again.

I did manage to get my tatco shopping done today & spent £38.76 , but that should last us a while now it's just the two of us again. I havent managed to top up any funds apart from the Gas & Electricity & Council Tax fund but have no presents to buy until the end of the month, no clubs to pay for DD until next term ... :eek: no, I just remembered that she wants to do the playscheme so have to pay for that :rolleyes: forgot to book MOT, so need to do that as well.

I decided to donate my £20 argos vouchers to DD1 for her new home, she was delighted & it's cheaper than a present . I'm doing ok with all the vouchers etc at the moment, I have £9.50 of tatco ones, £10.73 of co op ones & £6 of LVs from the confidential survey site :shhh:

I had call from a nice lady at the co op bank this week to say it was about time I applied for a normal current account. As far as I can work out the only extra benefits are a cheque book - never have a need for one & nowhere takes them anymore do they ?- & an overdraft, which I certainly dont need or want... but she seemed to think it was a good idea to help rebuild credit ratings. I dont think I have a problem with mine & have far more credit available than I would want to ever use so not sure if I should apply or not

I'm having to water the allotment every other night at the moment but we're getting loads of produce so it's worth it. sadly, we seem to have 'lost' all the blackcurrants :mad: Last sunday the bushes were laden with fruit but they were a bit sour still, & now they've all disappeared

Going to spend the weekend doing some cleaning, more washing & decluttering & chucking out ... after I've had a lovely lie in

bye for now

lula
xx

Lula-Hula

Yet another week gone by with not a lot of debt bustin going on

The weekend produced a bag full of goodies from the allotment & a fairly tidy DDs room.

I'm keen to get on with the carpet ripping up & floorboard stripping but there is problem. After the robins fledged I removed their nest feeling that I had done my bit for them. I went to the shed yesterday to take stock of the decoratng equipment only to discover that they are back again & have built a bigger & better nest, on top of all the painting equipment.

I've been keeping within my £50 weekly allowance but have been rather too obsessed with 'fishing' of late rather than debt busting. I'm now on a go slow until after the holidays but will resume with hopefully renewed vengeance & enthusiasm as from September 1st.

DD is off school today & we hit Tatco & she did her absolute best to deter me from any unnecessary purchases, with some success. The total bill was for £30.11 & that included new pens & pencils for her, a pretty flask 7 magazine for me & a tin opener, months supply of loo rolls & other household bits. total spend on food was a paltry £13.99

It seems that since DD1 left home & I finally started to lose weight that I'm not spending so much money on food.

Just over 5 weeks to the holnow & I would love to lose another half stone but am already happy with the achievement so far.

I think that all this obsessing over men has helped somewhat & the rather worrying crush I've developed on a certain variety of fish has certainly curbed my appetite. I dont want to say any more than that as it's by no means even sure that we'll ever even meet but I can say that he ticks a lot of my boxes ...

My car is now booked in for it's mot - tuesday, & I spent the best part of 2 hours washing & cleaning it earlier. I was very tempted by the tanned muscular washers at Tatco but am not about to part with a fiver when I can do it myself for nothing & get a bit of exercise at the same time.


See, even if I'm not actively debt busting then at least the money saving habits seem to be ingrained

bye for now

lula
xx

[Deleted User]

Hi all,

For some strange and unknown reason MSE did not notify me that you had updated your diary Lula...either that or I'm going blind (I'll settle for the second option)

Polly Pocket...my DD will probably love as for the Hama Beads...what on earth are they? Magnetix....my DS would probably been lost to me for hours if he had some of those. I contemplated buying him some for his birthday but decided on Christmas instead.

Well done on the produce you grew and yup I still have the seeds here for you, honestly they are just collecting dust here.

Well done on the money saving too and the weight loss...if anything I've put it on more than anything.

Tea
xx

Bowski_1011

Lula I have only just found this thread I'm totally shattered and need an early night so I've not read any of it yet but will be back tomorrow to catch up. Hope you're ok, goodnight

Lula-Hula

Bowski_1011 wrote: »

Lula I have only just found this thread I'm totally shattered and need an early night so I've not read any of it yet but will be back tomorrow to catch up. Hope you're ok, goodnight

Well, that's just not good enough just kidding

Hope you're ok hon, will catch up soon & sweet dreams ( did you see Brandon on BBc3 on saturday night ? :heartpuls )

xx

There will be financial updating in the not too distant future ...

makeup

I'm glad you're posting on here again :j :j I love reading your Quest.

Purpletea - I didn't get an alert either - must be MSE craziness! (and definitely not our eyesight!)

Yay for the weightloss and super miniscule food shop - that is amazing for two people!

Assume you are getting plenty of veg from allotment now which must help with shop???

My Mum grows veg in her garden and has been eating lettuce for ages and her spuds are fab. She has also just had beetroot and I think courgettes aren't far behind.

Lula-Hula

Like it says ^

Well, I think my sense is finally returning & thanks to some gentle remindering from dear sarah :A as to why I started, I have decided to stop fishing for a while & get back to my main purpose ... paying off the debts :rolleyes:

Yawn ......


Tis a scary thing how easily I can completely ignore my finances & concentrate on matters which are more fun. I think however, now that I know that I am not completely hideous & repugnant to the opposite sex that my flatterometer is now topped up & I can continue on Le Quest .

There have been some rather large blips on the financial front :

1) the complete & utter madness which overcame me when I paid £200 to the men who halved the conifers in my garden - yes I am pleased that it's done but I also feel rather queasy each time I think of the money ( particularly that it was all saved up for the fuel bill _pale_)

2) the sheer speed at which I wedged out £165 for a new rug for the living room. I blame the internet & credit cards My thinking at the time was that I will never ever do the floors unless there is a rug sitting there waiting to be put down. This may indeed be true but perhaps the timing was a tad unwise ( about 20 minutes after saying good bye to the £200 :rolleyes:)

Sunday was not a NSD.

I am now trying to make amends & yesterday paid the minimum + a whole £3 :rotfl:off CC2 & £30 off CC1. The total outstanding is now £5,040 - so I still havent gone below the target but should get there by the end of this month as I still have to pay another £60 off CC1 just to hit the minimum.

I have also paid £60 for DD to go to the playscheme for 2 weeks so dont need to worry about amusing her for the first two weeks.

I cant wait for the hols although I do still have to get up, make packed lunch etc & drive her there. One of her best friends is going too so she cant wait either.:D

I paid £20 in £2 coins into my savings account this morning so now have £400 towards the holiday fund. I expect to make it to £500 by the time we go ( 5 weeks :eek::j) & will have enough in the bank to cover rent & direct debits while we're away. I am really hoping to only spend £300 so will only exchange that amount into Euros & then hopefully have the £200 left to replenish the fuel savings.

About that ... it is my belief that the whole tree thing came about in much the same way that the sewing machine did. I had spare cash just sitting there & it was burning a hole in my temptation resister .

I need to open up a savings account for all money that I save towards bills.

Repeat :

I NEED TO OPEN A SAVINGS ACCOUNT INTO WHICH I WILL PAY ALL MONEY THAT I SAVE TOWARDS BILLS.

& again :

I NEED TO OPEN A SAVINGS ACCOUNT INTO WHICH I WILL PAY ALL MONEY THAT I SAVE TOWARDS BILLS.



Yes, makeup you are right, I do save a fair amount on my shopping bill by growing food. I have onions, potatoes & garlic to last weeks, also salad stuff & hopefully more fruit. I need to do more of this & also need to do more cooking to make full use. We eat less in the summer as it's easier to get away with stuffing pitta bread or a baguette with salad.

I had lost 8lbs , but this morning I noticed that I'd gained 2 back so really really need to be careful. I simply cannot afford to go over my clothes challenge budget & still need to get a few t shirts for hol & a new pair of jeans & jumper for winter. I have so many clothes still unworn

I chased up quidco re the lovefilm cash & notice that it has now tracked so that's another £17 :cool:. Sadly I am getting so excited about car insurance renewal time.

Tonight I'm taking my dad out for dinner & have no idea about the cost of the mot as yet, I'm fairly sure it will need a few bits doing to it. I must also start saving for the cam belt & service due in november. The 0% card runs out then so it needs to be hard cash.

My financial year definitely runs from September to August & I know that I just havent worked hard enough this year & have wasted a lot of money so plan to really get my !!!!!! together or I can see another year being added on to my DFD :eek::mad:

bye for now & a huge thanks for all the support & encouragement from you all :A

lula
xx

[Deleted User]

Hi Lula,

Don't worry about what has happened and focus on what you have decided to do about it. Remember I fell off the wagon recently and have only just got back on again, so it happens to us all.

Well done on the weight loss and the £2 coins.

Keep going hun, you are getting there.

xx