Carry on Questing

Lula-Hula

Shoe_Gal wrote: »

Hi Lula

Just a quick 'hello', hope you are OK?

Hello lovely lady :hello:

yes, I'm fine thank you; I've just been so busy with work & am very determined to stick with the 'Looking after Lula' plan so I finish work, have a bath & then jump into bed with a book, rather than coming on here for hours & depriving myself of much needed sleep.

I've not managed to do the Davina workout but I am begin very good with making sure I do 20 minutes of yoga stretches every morning so I think that's helping me to stay calm at work.

I've one more week of manic home-job & then it shoud go back to normal again. To be honest, this week I've had absolutely no doubt that I want to quit it asap. working until 10.30 or 11 at night is just rubbish .

Work-job is getting very busy again as the new Project Stress launched this week. Gropey Boss did mention yesterday that it would be great if I could come in on fridays as they're the busiest day of the week.

They are also the most stressful & people are at their most bad tempered & grouchy & I reminded him that I had made it very clear that I wasnt able to commit to working on fridays on a regular basis until DD goes to secondary school in a year's time ... but that we cold renegotiate then .

I've topped up all the cash funds this week & also paid this months instalment of DDs PGL trip. Before meeting a friend for coffee I whizzed down to waitrose as the fridge had tumbleweeds rolling about in it & ended up spending £61.67 :eek:. I have restocked the cupboards with basics & fruit & veg & as there were some fab bogofs on shampoo & conditioners, I stocked up on those too & saved myself £13.84 . I'm still within my groceries & household budget & have now spent £164.03p.

I went to Windsor to meet my friend feeling rather virtuous so we had 2 cappuccinos & then had a wander round the shops where I found the lovely silver watch on a chain that I had wanted back in the summer. She loved it too so we each had one, vowed to wear them each time we meet up & then felt about 10 years old as they seem like friendship necklaces :rotfl:

The parking was a rather scary £5 but I still felt all virtuous & happy until I got home & discovered that I had finally got the rent adjustment I had almost forgotten about . I wasnt entirely surprised but still, it wasnt very nice to be discover that I owed £350 :eek: & that my rent has also gone up by £100 a month. This means that I no longer qualify for any help with my rent; but although I will now have to pay more, I do feel a great degree of satisfaction that I no longer need to claim any dependency for my housing needs & can pay my own way entirely from what I earn .

I had expected to be owing a bit but not quite that much, so had £150 stashed away & used the Barclaycard for the remaining £200 . I could have used my overdraft but think I would then have to pay interest & as my next Barclaycard bill not due until the 7th October, I can clear it with wages before then .

It turns out that I have 3 days holiday left from work job as Boss closes business down over christmas & new year & gives staff the time off without eating into our holiday allowance :T so I am now a bit bemused as to what to do with it as I've already booked the childminder for half term. On the other hand, I saw her today & it appears that I told her I dont need her on wednesday but do on friday ... which is the opposite to what I do need. Will think about that over the weekend.

We did all our family stuff last weekend so I'm hoping to do chores & chilling this one & will also be working on that new budget.

It feels chilly today but the heating hasnt come on yet & I'm refusing to turn the thermostat up until next friday so we'll have to make do with more layers of clothing for now.

Need to tackle the pile of washing up in the kitchen & work off all that caffeine I had earlier so bye for now ...

xx

Souk08

Hi lady, boo to rent going up but great that you are now managing on your own! You sound positive, me too. Been reading Memory Girls thread this aft and it's great. Going to update my diary later but need to tidy up and do toenails for now XXX

taxi73

All sounding good for you and glad that you are managing to find some chill out time in bed

[Deleted User]

Hi Lula,

Well done on the continued debt busting, it's going down great.

Boo to the increase in rent.

Glad that you are finding time to have such much needed 'me' time and getting some sleep too.

Tea
xx

Lula-Hula

Hello again,

I'm having a very satisfying weekend here. Our home is clean from top to bottom; everything is shiny & sparkly & tidy too .

The weather goddess has been very kind & I managed to get 3 loads of laundry done & line-dried yesterday & the final one this morning & had just finished ironing it all when the rain came down.

I didnt linger long in the garden - & not just because I had on a rather fetching 'jamas & wellies combo - that wind is rather fierce :eek:. I did however, notice that yet again we have a little toadstool colony that has sprung up. They're all in a higgledy, piggledy clump & with the white spots on the red caps & it really looks like a community of elves & fairies have settled in the garden

I was pleased to discover that the nasturtiums I lovingly planted last year seem to have resurfaced long after I thought they hadnt survived. It's a bit of a ragtag jungle out there at the moment & could do with some attention but for now nature can take care of it for me. I've put a couple of Alys Fowler's books on my Amazon wish list & have also pre ordered Kirstie Allsopp's homemade home book. They should keep me amused over the winter & set the thoughtseed for some plans for spring. I also have a £10 amazon voucher on its way thanks to surveys so that shoud help pay for them .

DD is in the kitchen baking some animal shaped cookies & Cat is asleep on the sofa, I've just finished reading another Joanne Harris book - Blue Eyed Boy - & although riveting it is definitely the weirdest I've read yet. I'm hoping to acquire on of her cookery books just to see whether I could attempt any of the recipes with a slight chance of success.

I've completely cleared out my room & put away all the summer clotheswhile the summery shoes & sandals have now all been stored in boxes under the bed. This means that my winter boots & shoes can now be stored in the proper place rather than in boxes & bags all over the floor . I have succumbed to the lure of ebay again & have placed a couple of bids on items ... which will take me over my clothes challenge budget even with the £6 paypal I have :whistle:.

I've not yet reached a definite decision on running a Clothes Challenge again next year but think it's unlikely & for me it now makes more sense to just allocate a set amount of my monthly budget for clothes & shoes for both DD & I & then stick to that.

She has grown so much taller over the last few months & yesterday while clearing out her room she came across the bag of clothes she was given over a year ago. She now has 4 new pairs of jeans & trousers to wear so all I need to get her is some warm tops & another coat or fleecy jacket for out of school.

I've been reading through this weeks pile of paper from the school & discovered the next inset day is the friday that half term starts. I also checked my sent messages & confirmed that the childminder made a mistake about the days I requested for her, not me which means I now feel ok about reiterating that I dont need her on the friday & that I'll take the wednesday off that she thought I wasnt working anyway, so will only have to pay her for 3 days .

I can smell the cookies now :drool: & DD is setting up what looks like a rather scary board games triathlon .. I can sense some nutritional blackmail approaching

The heating has decided that it's now cold enough to be needed & I'm not going to argue with it.

I will return later with tales of debt slashing, post debt budget forecasts, plans for the garden & clothing confessions ...

bye for now
xx

taxi73

sounds like you've had a wonderful weekend

Souk08

Hi Lula, Lots of tidying and cleaning here too. XXX

Karmacat

It does sound wonderful, Lula ... I'm waiting for your garden plans, you sound like you'd like to grow a few veg and fruit yourself. I do love Alys Fowler, only came across her via her own tv programme, I don't really watch Gardener's World, but I think she's great.

museumworker

Lula-Hula wrote: »

I've not yet reached a definite decision on running a Clothes Challenge again next year but think it's unlikely

:eek::eek::eek: We need you Lula-Hula!! :eek::eek::eek:

Lula-Hula

Hello again & thanks for all your lovely posts :A

I have no ebay wins to confess too /:).

Panic not dear museumworker I just feel that the current format isnt working for me; again this year, I have spent way over the actual £100 clothes budget on shoes, accessories etc - did I mention the utterly divine pink leather driving gloves with large button on the back that I found in TKMaxx last week ? :whistle: & as I aim to be debt-free in the first quarter of next year & clearly am unable to not buy lovely things when I see them, that I would be better off giving myself a reasonable budget for everything but on a monthly basis.

Karmacat, I'm fortunate to have quite a large garden & in the past I did have a very productive veg patch ... mostly maintained by my dear ex mother outlaw with me just doing the labouring. There are some large trees around the garden which could upset plans for one defined location so the plan is to not have a definite plan & just throw stuff in where it should be happy, make a wish, sprinkle some happy dust & watch it grow :rotfl:. Now if only I could train the produce to cook itself too I'd be quite happy just to weed, water & harvest.

DDs cookies were delicious & although I find Battleships really hard I do love Guess Who as we just ask really random questions in the accents that we think the characters should have.

I dont have any direct debits due out until after payday so have paid £100 off the Barclaycard rent - just another £100 to clear & then that's it. I've also paid another £100 off the Virgin CC which brings the total debt to £3,200.

If, by some bizarre twist of amazing good fortune, I actually get paid on time & also get the overtime missed off last months pay, then I might just treat myself to another payment off the Virgin CC which would mean having a lovely, lovely, neat, tidy & almost pleasing sum of £3,000 exactly owing.

It's past my bedtime now & with packed lunch all ready in the fridge & anothe hectic week ahead, I'd better get some sleep.

Wwishing you all a good week ahead,

bye for now
xx