Carry on Questing

Lula-Hula

Well, in spite of paying another £80 off the CCs the total has only gone down by about £6. This is because I got a bit short of cash due to rubbish wages & had to use the CC :mad:.

Today has been spent having a bit of a tidying & decluttering session. Yet again I find that I am really keen to just throw out everything I dont use. I just want things to be simple & not to have som many possessions.

Today was the day that, for some reason that still baffles me, I decided to finally get around to painting that chest of of drawers that I bought months ago. Half the clutter in this home is actually decorating, creative or renovating projects that have yet to be even started. There are 6 tins of paint in the kitchen cupboard using up valuable space. One mintue I'm cutting out recipes from magazines that I know I'll never attempt & the next minute I've made a hideous mistake by using a tin of gloss to paint the chest of drawers :eek:. I sometimes wonder if I have blackouts because for the life of me I cannot recall any sort of thought process as to whether starting a project at half 3 on a sunday afternoon was a good idea before I found myself waving a paint brush around :rolleyes:. It hasnt worked out very well ; the paint hasnt taken to the wood properly, I hate gloss anway & my room now smells of headache-inducing paint. I'm going to have to rub it all down again & repaint but the paint will not come off the brush in spite of being immersed in various types of paint stripper so I now need to buy a new brush too :mad:. Oh, and my clothes are now all over the bedroom in various bags & baskets & I spilled a big glob of paint on the carpet , which doesnt matter in the long term as the carpet is being replaced anyway, but it will take ages to dry & I just know that someone or something will tread in it & walk it all round the rest of the home :rolleyes:.

I did manage my first NSD of the month & have paid another £30 off CC1 so, even if the total hasnt gone down much I know the debt is still being reduced .

Fire_Fox

Not such a good day then, any wine left so you can wash away the sorrows?

Lula-Hula

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Not such a good day then, any wine left so you can wash away the sorrows?

Well now that you come to mention it ...

Much better day today in spite of the relentless rain.

It's been a NSD so only another 10 _pale_ to complete.

I also got back on the healthy eating bandwagon today. There was just no point in trying when DDs birthday meant there was lots of cake & crisps to be eaten :rolleyes:. I'm still managing to only have 2 cups of coffee & 1 of tea a day & having at least 5 glasses of water in between. I also managed to snack on a couple of pieces of fruit rather than biscuits Bowski, I promise that we have not bought a single biscuit since I made my pledge. ( homemade Hobnobs dont count right :D)

I had plenty of home-job work today & have discovered some news about that too but am too tired to go into details tonight. I need to post some cards & letters tomorrow so it will be a spend day but hopefully not by much.

Apologies to all who's diaries I havent caught up with yet yeh I know it's all me, me, me :D

night night

xx

Lula-Hula

I've just completed NSD number 3 & as it was the third in a row I'm quite impressed with myself.

I still havent got to the post office to pay in DDs cheque or post cards , I got home from Job job & had to start home job immmediately & when DD got in she was ravenous & had to have food immediately :rolleyes:. By the time that was all dealt with the post office was closed.

I am enjoying Job job, but still feeling really dumb as I dont yet fully understand what's going on & who does what & why etc etc. I hate that feeling & am now a bit frustrated as I want to be there everyday so I can get to grips with it. Boss seems very keen to involve me more & give my my own projects to work on :eek: & I think that once I get to grips with 'Mac' & 'Safari' - whoever they may be I'll be capable of working out what needs to be done & how to do it :rolleyes:.

I havent yet mentioned this new venture to my Home job colleague as there are things stirring on that front too.... apparently Home job Boss is fed up with the business & not earing any money from it ( NB - she doesnt actually do any work herself & seems a bit mystified as to this recession & thinks the best way to handle it is to squeeze employees wages & increase prices :rolleyes:. I think this is business suicide seeing as her business is really a luxury domestic service & there's a lot of competition out there) This all flared up last year which is why our hours were reduced & customers were 'redistributed' but colleague & I decided to remain loyal & were grateful to still have a job. I no longer feel that same level of loyalty & gratitude & am considering whether colleague & I could take over the business ourselves. We already have the customer base & over 8 years of dealing with them personally. We're not greedy, just want to earn a living & our only major cost would be a vehicle & the accompanying costs involved in that. I need to suss out whether long term lease would be a more viable option than buying one outright. Needs a bit more thought & some figures worked on :think:.

I have been comparing all the various car insurance options & have come up with some amazing results. The best deal so far is actually the co operative as not only are they one of the cheapest with a low excess but their Quidco cashback offer is very good. The second best option is my current insurers who have a zero excess but of course there wont be any cashback to renew. so they'll need to cut £60 off the renewal to make it competitive. I also believe that as an existing co op customer there are n other benefits to be had.

My absolute favourite quote was from the notorious Tatco Value range. Not only was it not the cheapest but they also wanted to charge an unbelievable £575, yes that's right £575 excess :eek::mad: you just gotta :rotfl:at that.

Cat is now fully integrated into the household & seems quite happy with our routines, comings & goings etc. He is so cuddly & affectionate that I forgive him for being so fluffy to the extent that I have to hoover every other day :rolleyes:. Of all his toys he loves the squeaky catnip mouse the best & skids all over the floor playing with it .

As for the painting project in my bedrom, the paint on the chest still isnt dry so must be defective in some way :mad: I forsee a weekend with sandpaper in one hand & a bottle of wine in the other.

Need to indulge in some bedtime reading now

xx

sarahb123_3

Lula-Hula wrote: »

I have been comparing all the various car insurance options & have come up with some amazing results. The best deal so far is actually the co operative as not only are they one of the cheapest with a low excess but their Quidco cashback offer is very good. The second best option is my current insurers who have a zero excess but of course there wont be any cashback to renew. so they'll need to cut £60 off the renewal to make it competitive. I also believe that as an existing co op customer there are n other benefits to be had.

I have been lurking on the quidco thread for a while as my RAC £70 did not track- should be here next month- and I am fairly certain that the co-op insurance was causing lots of problems, not tracking, being declined etc. It put me off renewing with them, so be careful, it would be horrible to miss out on free money.

Fire_Fox

I can't get on with Quidco, they aren't helpful when I can't click through and things don't always track. I am very into Topcashback which tracks like a dream!

moo2moo

Phone your current insurers and ask them if they'll price match the co-op offer including the cashback deal. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Lula-Hula

Morning all,

have felt like zombie for the last 2 days but hit the ground running this morning. Cat cleaned & fed & me washed & dressed by 7.30 & already planning dinner & days errands.

DD was reading late last night so decided to let her lie in .... bad idea as at 8 o clock I remembered that she has choir at 8.20 :eek:Throw food in lunch box & glass of juice & a frube at her & then frog march her up the road while having converstaion with colleague about taking over Home job business.

I have reservations about taking over the business as frankly, it's not the kind of business I want to be in. I just hate to see it being run so badly & feel that my efforts are not being adequately rewarded. There is not much scope for growth & the client base is mainly the idle rich surrey housewife who to be quite honest is the sort of person I usually try to avoid :rolleyes:. I want to get a meeting with colleague set up & start laying down figures ie which of the clients we can retain & can we earn enough to pay 2 wages & the running costs. She gets to see the clients bills, I dont so if I dont get the answer to that pretty soon with definite figures then I'm losing interest.

Thanks sarah re your co op insurance info. I did read that it takes 90 days to track & then you have another 30 to make a claim if it doesnt, which did make me hesitate as I might well forget ... will bear your info in mind.

Thanks Fire Fox for your info about top cashback, I havent tried them yet & to be honest I've only had one query with Quidco which has now been paid & my most recent transaction have all tracked within 24 hours & I now get an email to confirm this.

If you've finished making the buns Moo, I'd like one please & thanks again for your inpout, I have to say that I am happy with current insurer so will ring to see what they can do for me

As I was so buzzy this morning I had tonight's dinner made by 9.00 ( DD1 is visiting with her washing - must hide loo rolls) then whizzed to the post office to buy stamps :eek: to postage costs, I'm going to be more organized from now on & save myself 9p on each letter by sending them 2nd class. A nasty £2.36 on stamps & then a quick trip inot the co op on the way home to buy some bread, milk & squash. I'm all out of Pink Elephants but didnt have enough cash & these days my current account card sits next to the card reader, rather than in my purse so I had moneysavingly outsmarted myself :rotfl:I did console myself with a £1 bag of treacle toffees instead :shhh:.

Total spend £ 6.76 & £2.70 left in my purse. Have to say that putting all the coppers in my pot is quite rewarding. I need to replenish the funds tomorrow as it's all looking a bit bleak in that file. Only the Gas/Electric & the Car Tax funds have anything in them. DD also needs some new school trousers so I forsee a trip to Tatco this friday & I'll get the rest of the household stuff we nedd while I'm there, then head off to charity shops in nearby Poshtown to find some work & warm clothes.

Right, now off to beg for a bit of extra cash on the clothes challenge to fund these new work clothes ... wish me luck

Fire_Fox

Soooo .... did you get an allowance for office attire? If you have Surrey housewives then presumably you have smart Surrey charity and second hand shops locally? I know Cambridge was brilliant whereas Bradford charity shops are full of tat.

Lula-Hula

Hello again,

first of all yes Fire Fox, we do have surrey charity shops full of surrey-priced stuff :rolleyes: I am off to nearby Poshtown tomorrow to riffle through the rails & hopefully snaffle some fab cashmere at charity prices. I have to confess to being a bit squeamish about buying stuff that sits next to the skin eg tops, shirts, trousers etc. but am happy to get knitties & skirts, coats etc.

I couldnt wait to get to work this morning & now have my own laptop all set up & the techie guy came & gave me some lessons on how to do various things. I now have his number so might well use him when I am in a position to upgrade my own pc / get a laptop as well as pc. It's a funny company, I was expecting to be very behind the times with their orders & invoice processing system, but it turns out the reason I was struggling is because it isnt fully computerised, so when there was a query about something, I couldnt find it on the pc ... because it wasnt :rolleyes:. Have plans to rectify that . Apparently they have been talking about me & when DD goes to secondary school they are wondering wheter I might like to go in full time :j. That's great, but I'd like to start now actually :rotfl:

I dont want to bore everyone's pants off with all this but I just cant get over how much I am enjoying myself & what it has done for my confidence & more so, just how bored I have been without admitting it to myself.

Cant believe that just a few months ago I was trawling the bottom of the Fish Barrel :eek: just shows what desperate measures a mentally bored woman will go to, in order to amuse herself :rotfl:

I am inadvertently having a NSD as well, meant to get some Pink Elephant but forgot & now cant be bothered to go out & have to shop for various bits tomorrow so will just get some then.

I think that means I'm on day number 5