Carry on Questing

SarahNeedle1872

Lula-Hula wrote: »

Bonsoir & welcome to the next instalment in my epic & largely unsuccesful attempts to be come debt free .

Those who have travelled alongside on my previous Quests will know just how very seriously :whistle: I take all this debt busting & never get distracted by such things as clothes, shoes, wine, holidays, interior decor, men or fish :rotfl:.

It seems to me that I've always wanted to become debt free by 31 August 2010 ... but somehow between having a dim lbm in April of last year & now, I havent really progressed that far so, I now intend to put in far more effort than I ever did for exams at school, learning to cook, maintaining relationships that were very secure but soooooo dull or becoming a loyal fan of Tatco.

Lets get this straight right from the start;

I HATE TATCO. I really really hate it. If I go there it makes me :mad: & want to behave like a brat (kick people, stamp my feet & scream). I'm not going there more than once a month to stock up on household items & fuel for my car & that's it. Dont bother telling me how cheap it is, I dont care .

I also hate 40 mph drivers :mad:. You know, the ones who pootle along at 20 mph under the speed limit on A roads & then continue to go at 40 when they hit a 30 zone. Hmmmm, perhaps they have no real relevance here :think:, I'll move on.

I am a happy, optimistic, slightly bonkers ENTP type single woman in her late 30s (ok, I'm thirty ten but :shhh:) with 2 daughters, a rented maison, a share of an allotment, a job I tolerate because it suits me for now & I know it's not forever, a car that I love, a penchant for wine, gin & tonic, nuts, chocolate, unsuitable men ( Johnny Depp :heartpuls), sunshine holidays , banging 'choons' & being Fabulous . I'm also quite partial to waitrose :rotfl:.

I have been very rubbish at dieting too this year & have managed to lose & gain 8lbs at an alarming rate ( the gaining that is :rolleyes:) so I have now declared to lose a whole stone by December 1st. I need to, it will be cold in December & I have 6 pairs of jeans that dont fit me & only £15 left to spend on clothes until the end of the year . I'm not eating biscuits until October 1st :eek:.

My basic plan is to continue to pay rent, council tax, utilities etc as I have been but to cut down on areas that I've been wasting money on such as food. I've decided that I can feed DD & myself for £35 a week & plan to do this by using allotment stuff as much as possible & buying only 2 or 3 days worth of stuff in one go. Cant cope with more than that in meal planning terms.

At present out petite maison is full of shabby & just waiting for the chic to emerge. Over the next 2 years I plan to overhaul the whole place on a very petite budget & continue to declutter at the same time. I long for simplicity & aim for DD & I to be people who do stuff rather than people who have stuff. Yep, I still want the camper van & that comes under doing rather than having as it will open up such huge opportuntities for travel within the UK.

The debts are currently hovering around £5,980 & in order of both balance & interest rate : CC1 = £2,769, CC2 = £2,127 & CC3 = £1,080.
Not brilliant but it could be worse.

Inspite of having these debts I am actually quite good at saving money & have now learned how to budget for future bills & expenses. I am saving Child Benefit payments towards a holiday next year (this doubles up as emergency funds if needs be). I save towards car tax, DDs clubs & hobbies, gas & electricity bills, dentist bills, presents & have now started to save £2 coins towards any future home improvement projects. I need to save towards car repairs, mots etc but have only just had one so not too panicky yet.

After much deliberation & input from the other fabulous single people over on sarahb s thread I've come up with a Treats Budget of £100 a month. My 'treats' covers, alcohol, cosmetics, entertainment ( lovefilm etc ) magazines, shoes, lingerie, accessories, home trinkets ( as in stuff I want but dont really need) & fuel :eek:. Yes, I am putting my petrol costs into my treats budget as I dont need my car for work or taking DD to school therefore it is a luxury/treat.


To kick start this new way of living I've rejoined the NSD challenge & today can declare my first one of 12 achieved :j.

bye for now

lula

Ah ha! One of my pet peeves too! That and people that don't look when going onto a roundabout, taxi drivers and cyclists that think the rules of the road don't apply to them and bus drivers that just pull out because they're bigger than you are!:mad:

Love the first post of your new diary, and look forward to all the installments

Sx

SarahNeedle1872

Lula-Hula wrote: »

Wow :T now I'm going to have to try to work out who might be on the album .... rough guess : Adman & The Ants, Duran Duran, The Jam, Howard Jones, Hairct 100, Nik Kershaw, Tears for Fears, Spandau Ballet, Kajagoogoo, Thompson Twins, Depeche Mode ....


curses, you've distracted me already :rotfl:

I LOVE Spandau Ballet (I was born in 1980, so I was more a infant of the '80's )... I saw Tony Hadley live a few years ago at a private function..... If I'd have been the age I am now when they were properly around, I'd have had his babies :kisses2:He's still pretty hot now, even though he a bit older/wider :rotfl:

Sx

Horace

Oh the 80's - the days of my yoof - I remember buying some braces from Boy George when he had a stall within Oasis in Birmingham (like a huge trendy market for youngsters and wierdos - I don't venture in there now:rolleyes:). I used to lurve Boy George, Haircut 100 and the Human League but then I also liked the Stranglers, White Snake etc.:D

Lula - did you have to mention biscuits? I now want one - alright I admit that I could eat a whole packet and i have been very good as I haven't eaten a biscuit now for over a week:eek:

Carry on Questings sounds like Carry on Up the Khyber:rotfl:

As for present for bosses party - how about a box of veg from the allotment?

Well I had best crack on my contents insurance runs out tomorrow and I need to find someone cheaper and better than More Than - the stinkers have put the price up to £156.46 - I am still waiting for my policy to come through as it has never been received from when I first took out the insurance:mad:

Lula-Hula

Horace - try AIG for contents, mine is only £7.20 a month and having to wait until January to renew is most annoying, I want to play on Quidco, car insurance due in November though :j.

Now ladies, I think you may have misinterpreted my 80's knowledge for enthusiasm . At the risk of being shouted off the thread I confess to having been a bit more into The Cure, The Clash, Southern Death Cult - who sensibly shortened it to The Cult - & the like. I was never a fan of Spandau so rest assured sarah that Tony's babies are all yours & even at the age of about 13 knew that George was gay & that Andrew couldnt sing :rolleyes:.

Day 2 of being back at work & already the 'politics' are annoying me. My co worker/driver friend is always moaning about the boss & how hard up she is ... then tells me that she's just booked a Carribean holiday for her & her 2 teenagers for 2 weeks next summer at a cost of £2,500 :eek:. I did ask whether she was going to pay off her CC quick then, but apparently she's doing that the following year instead :rolleyes:.Apparently it's a great deal because its all inclusive & you dont have to leave the resort . I sure wouldnt travel all the way to the Carribean just to spend 2 weeks trapped within the confines of a completely artifcial environment & completely sanitized from anything remotely indigenous or cultural but then we're all different.

Horace

Its not my idea of a holiday - staying in a compound and not mixing with the locals, its my idea of hell and very much what a prison is like:eek:

Too late Lula - I have renewed with More Than but I did get a discount too, I needed to move quick because once again I had left it to the last minute:rolleyes: I got a quote from the co-op but that was £661 - they even wanted to know what sort of roof was on the flats and what my internal walls are made of - how the f*ck should I know:rolleyes: I must remember next time I move in anywhere to get a full structural plan even down to the mortar used so that poxy insurers can find out - I wonder what the co-op would have said if I can told them that I live in a house made of straw:rotfl:

I have a bone to pick with you missus - why did you have to mention biscuits?:mad: I succumbed and bought a couple of packets (2 for £1) - but they are plain rich tea jobs, no choccie ones for me:D I have hidden then in the pantry behind the washing powder.:eek:

Hairy Mary has managed to get an appointment at a local beauty parlour for Friday so the hairy bits will be waxed and she is having a facial too - I can't be bothered to sort my car and then drive to the spa (the spa is likely to be dearer):rolleyes:

Lula-Hula

Hmmmmm I am wondering as to the relevance of internal walls when getting insurance quotes Perhaps your area is a hotbed of biccie thieves. Sorry to mention them again, it's all Bowski's fault .

I have news of moneysaving type events happening right here :eek:

1 - I paid £40 of £2 coins into the bank & also another £6 in pennies .

2 - I bought a lottery ticket because I've deduced that I dont actually like this area of the country very much so would like to move somewhere a bit more real & 'earthy'. This comes out of the Treat Budget.

3 - I got some fab bargains in the co op eg pack of 9 frubes for 75p as they 'run out' today. Not in my freezer they wont . Also some little gem lettuce at 50p for the same reason. DD's fave frankfurters on a 2 for £3 deal. A few other bits so the total came to £6.03. I still have £11.47cr to play with until monday.

4 - There has been an incident with a bottle of wine & some nuts & some chocolate bars too ( 8 for £1 so that's quite acceptable :whistle:). My total Treat Spend has been £ 7.24 so I have £92.76 cr for the rest of the month.

I am actually enjoying this new food challenge & the fact that we just walk to the local shops makes it more 'real' too.

It got dark here about 7.30 due to the rain which just reminded me how much I miss the warmth & sunshine of Portugal. On the other hand I quite like being snuggled up in our maison. I just wish it wasnt so suburban, inspite of having farmland to the back of us. I'm yearning to either live right in a city or somewhere more rural or by the coast or in a horsebox even; just somewhere with a bit of character/history/soul.

I loathe the return to school with all the rules, regulations & time structures. I dread the inevitable 'coming/going for tea'. I do not enjoy false conversations, pandering to other peoples childrens food fads or bad manners & I am not a nice person.

Horace

I too am trying to understand co-operative insurance - mind your their business banking is a pain in the posterior too, they ask if you are a member of the pro-hunting lobby (I lied:rotfl:), not that I have an account with them just yet. Being a country girl (well it you used to be able to walk for miles across farmland behind my parents' house when I was a child - it is now a massive housing estate instead:rolleyes: and I was very much into country sports). They wanted to know if I had a burglar alarm and were asking how many floors my flat had - erm excuse me I live in a flat and the last time I looked flats don't have stairs in them to enable you to get to your bedroom:rolleyes: Silly people.

I was very good tonight and had jacket spud with utterly butterly nonsense (bought at a time when I had run out of clover) and salt n pepper (same tea as last night).

It was dark here quite early tonight - it was very gloomy by about 6pm and got progressively worse after that. I hope its dry tomorrow as I have to walk to the post office to post a package to Mabel (an MSE friend who has her own bridal jewellery business).

Occasional treats are good Lula, free treats are even better:D You're not a bad mother either - and why should you pander to children, they should be polite and eat what they're given or they go without:D

Bowski_1011

Lula-Hula wrote: »

I am not a nice person.

That's not true!

Good idea about the lottery! Although I don't think I'd win the jackpot I don't like to put it on incase I did. That would just be horrifying :eek: Maybe I should buy a scratchcard every week instead and hope for the chance of an odd £30 here n there

Excellent bargains at the co-op :j I've got to admit as much as I hate shopping there as the prices are so ridiculous, they do have some very good offers on!! Did you HAVE to mention the chocolate offer...:mad:

Shoe_Gal

Hi Lula

Happy new diary

Just a quick post to say 'hi', my eyes are drooping

Numpty_Monkey

Stop paying off so much :mad:
you are catcing me up:eek::eek::eek::eek::D:D:D:D:D:D:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T