Carry on Questing

museumworker

Lula-Hula wrote: »

Then into a charity shop just for a mooch about really. I found a pair of purple Next trousers ideal for work in the perfect size & length for a mere £4, they look brand new. Then I found a Top Shop top; really cute little rounded collar & 2 buttons for a paltry £2, again ideal for work & looks unworn . A further rummage unearthed a Top Shop tunic dress - perfect for going over leggings or skinny (ha - as if ) jeans for an eeny weeny £3.50, again looks hardly worn .

Cant wait to tell all over on the CCC - museumworker will be so proud of me

Now I'm not just proud - I'm a bit jealous - clothes sound fabulous!

Lula-Hula

museumworker wrote: »

Now I'm not just proud - I'm a bit jealous - clothes sound fabulous!

Oh no, please dont be I'm sure it's a one off & if I went every week I'd probably find nothing.

Today has been quite hard work. There's been a mountain of laudnry to deal with this week end & I'm very much looking forward to not having to cram it all in next week end.

We headed off the allotment to plant out the garlic & also shifted 3 barrows full of manure into our bins. The trees area ll looking very healthy & have buds on :j. We're not expecting any fruit this year but it's just relief to see that they are settling in.

By the time we got home I was too tired to go visiting relatives so DD spent time on the pc & I lay on my bed & read / snoozed . The ironing was finally done by 8.30 so I had a wallow in the bath & did my regular sunday night goddessing routine.

Still no word from Richard B about my shiny new 0% CC so I decided to pay another £50 off Barclaycard myself. The balance is now £3700 According to the snowball I need to pay another £190 this month to keep up with my target.

I've not been very frugal this month so need to really scrimp in april .

This is the month that will set the standard for the rest of the year, just need to know how much the council tax will be, fed up with waiting & suspect there's trickery going on, which will result in my not getting a rebate :mad:.

Must head to bed now,

Courage for monday
xx

Lula-Hula

Hello,

hope everyone survived monday without too much agony. I really struggled, think that lost hour over the weeknd upset my routine .

I really really hated, loathed & despised home job yesterday & felt like stamping my foot . I didnt sleep very well either, tossing & turning all night - I blame the full moon. On the other hand I did achieve NSD 18 :j. Finally managed to get DD booked on the holiday club & have to pay £52 this week. Grumble, grumble - annoyingly they dont take cards so I have to go there & pay cash.

Had to deliver DD to different location this morning for 8.30 so decided to carry on & go in to work early. Completely forgot to take any lunch other than an apple & the weather was too vile for venturing out for chocolate supplies, I was very hungry when I got home, then we had to collect DDs bike from Halfords after it's service which was only £9.99.

Still no shiny new CC or Council Tax bill, but I did manage to speak to someone in the rent office about paying monthly rather than weekly. She said I had a huge credit on my account & "you dont want that now do you dear, so just pay £97 this month " . What a lovely lady :AI much prefer her to the previous one who said it " didnt matter " if I had credit on my account .

I've spent some quality time with a pencil, paper & calculator & refined my budget. I've worked out that with CC minimum payments of £140 a month, I would still be able to pay an extra £130 a month without home-job ... however, it would then take me until October 2011 to clear the debt. I am now having delicious dreams of giving it up by the start of the school summer hols

Admittedly my budget is fairly generous; including groceries at £150 a month, and another £220 for emergency slush fund, entertainment, clothes, film, presents & DDs clubs & pocket money. Both of these could be pared down if absolutely necessary but I am trying to keep them bountiful enough so that I/we dont feel deprived. NB - there is no holiday fund this year - that is where the sacrifice is, but we will manage fine & always have the dreaded tent if necessary _pale_.

On that note I suddenly feel an overwhelming urge to go & wallow in my own bath :rotfl:

bye for now

xx

Lula-Hula

Not as exciting as it sounds though as I've been paying rent, bills, doing transfers etc etc & now there's hardly anything left

I've paid another £200 into the funds/saving account - which now has £680 in it which sounds great but it's all accounted for :

Gas & Electricity £ 300
Car Tax £ 110
Spares & Repairs £ 60
Presents £ 120
Slush/emergency £ 90

It's such a nice feeling to actually have money set aside to pay for future bills, and it is much safer in an account rather than in my old envelope folder which was rather accessible :whistle:.

I've also paid another £100 to CC1 so that balance is now £3600, the total debt now outstanding is : £4,350.

I've earned enough from home-job to pay for DDs holiday camp so I dont need to withdraw any cash from the bank for that .

My car is off to tatco tomorrow to be filled up & I may well do a bit of shopping there too, we need more washing powder & a few other household bits & DD could do with some new school socks as they are an unpleasant shade of 'puddle' .

Will report back tomorrow

Lula-Hula

Couldnt wait for tomorrow -

Just had email from Quidco to say that £65.49 is on its way to my account :j.

I also remembered that I now have 11 days off Work-job & 5 days off Home-job so am celebrating with a Gordon tonight. It wont be all lazing about & drinking though as I have at least 2 days of family commitments & any time that the weather is dry will be spent at the allotment. There are only 2 of us available to labour at the moment & there is so much planting to do. If it stays wet then the plan is to get on with decorating the bathroom ... there's always something to do.

Must remember to return books to the library & pay for holiday club tomorrow.

Off to investigate half price bikes at Halfords now ... via quidco of course

Lula-Hula

* staggers in after doing battle at Tatco*

What a gruesome start to the month, first stop was the shoe menders to have 2 pairs of boots re-soled & re-heeled, I left them there while we braved the hordes.

Next stop was M&S where I had to buy DD some new undies & we had a disagreement about socks. I didnt want to pay £6 for five pairs of school ones or £6 for five pairs of trainer ones either, so escaped with just £8 on the undies.

Then we took a deep breath & launched ourselves at Tatco _pale_. I was determined not to fall under the spell of 'bargains' & DD helped. I did have to buy her some stationery items for school but otherwise we held strong. Only sign of that bargainous '500 points for 2 chart CDs' offer was on a small stand with just 5 different CDs all priced at £12.99 :mad:. I'm no longer dumb enough to spend £24 on stuff I dont really want in order to gain £5 .

We did find school & trainer socks for a mere £3 per bundle of 5 socks, so persuaded DD that they would be fine & saved myself £6 .

I did get a few bargains & items on offer & decided to try a new washing powder because it was £2 cheaper. Also got some great bargains on the Seeds of Change organic pasta sauces so bought 6 jars

The total bill came to a very scary £80.20 but of that £64.75 was on household, toiletry & grocery items leaving me with £ 85.25 for the rest of the month. Again, we have all the houshold & toiletry stuff we need, so it should just be for buying fresh fruit & veg, milk, bread & meats. I really a hoping that by stocking up on items when they are on offer, that one day I will easily be able to manage to just live on the £150. If I can persuade myself to stick to that then I could clear more debt more quickly...

Enough day dreaming & back to reality where it cost me £29.90 :eek: to have my boots re heeled & resoled. Never mind, it's still cheaper than 2 new pairs & they are ready for next winter so I wont have any excuses for buying new ones .

Final stop before heading home was the petrol station where I was distraught at having to pay £44.35 to fill my car up

I still have to pay the £52 for camp today so by then will feel completely & utterly financially ravaged. Will make sure to buy the few things I forgot earlier so that I can start my NSD campaign tomorrow.

Library shoud be open now so we're heading off there. Hope to try some pear cider later as recommended by gwen80 :T & discovered for a mere £1 in Tatco .

bye for now
xx

Lula-Hula

Back again

I need to learn how to spell the word haemhorrage as that's what's happening to my money .

We stocked up on books at the library, loving that free entertainment :j then came home again so DD could ride her bike for a bit. I felt very unsettled knowing that there was more shopping to be done & didnt manage to get any chores done .

So, we eventually headedoff to Waitrose & for the first time in months I had real pang about our situation. There I was working out which of the boxes of 'essentials' tea bag was the cheapest & then I saw the Twinings Assam Tea that I used to just throw in the trolley without a second thought - that's the tea I liked, so I bought it. DD also pointed out the Rocks Squash we used to buy & asked when we could next buy it. We had a moment of reminiscing about when we used to buy whatever we wanted
& I said that we could probably start to buy nice stuff again next year when we wouldnt need to be such strict moneysavers .

I felt quite wistful for a while then reminded myself how lucky we are. I have a job, we have a warm home, a car, plenty of food & clothes & are healthy.

Headed to the till with everything we needed & paid another £23.21 from my budget.

We now have £62.35 left for the month, or £15.58 per week. I am going to try to work with the £15 a week, it might help me to stay on track & not spend any extra :whistle:.

We stopped off at the sports centre on the way home & paid for DDs week there.

I've also accepted some home-job work to do tomorrow, it's no hassle as I'm not at work-job & more money towards debt repayment.

I've now received the brochure for the summer hols camp so will aim to pay that before the end of the month. There's just one problem; the camp is on for 3 weeks & DD is off school for 6 weeks :undecided, I have only booked 2 weeks off as I need the rest of my holiday entitlement to cover the winter hols as there are no camps at all then.

Summer camp doesnt start until the second week of the hols, I may have to take that first week off unpaid week to cover :eek: so will end up needing the home job to make up for lost income

Dammit I am never going to be rid of this home-job :mad:.

Wonder how much debt I can clear by the end of summer term ... 16 weeks away :think:.

I feel a mission approaching

niccatw

Well done Lula . I'm about to check online banking to check all my direct debits have come out as they should have done. There's a couple still swimming in the ether since I switched banks.

You were very close with haemorrhage. It's one I can only spell when I'm writing, and only if I don't have to think about it when I'm writing it! I'm the same with my pin numbers - know which buttons to press but couldn't tell you the number if you put me on the spot (I guess that's a good thing!).

moo2moo

Would BessFriends mum have DD for a day or two in the first week if you reciprocate? I manage to farm my two out that way to reduce the amount I pay out for holiday clubs and they love having a friend here to play plus the other mums are usually grateful for a day off. Is work job something you could do at home if they know how hellish childcareis or could you take her and her DS into work for a few hours each day so that you have some income? My boss is Ok withthis as long as they don't get in peoples way and generallly they're very helpful or they become so engrossed in something that you forget they are thre. It can't hurt to ask. Perhaps you could work your fridays in the run up tot he hols to make up the hours.... I'm sure theres a sensible alternative to a week unpaid.

Lula-Hula

Hey peeps,

thanks for the spelling lesson niccatw , will never remember that so will have to make anote of your post number & the page so I can come back to it whenever I need to spell it in the future :rotfl:

Thanks for the childcare possiblities Moo - Bessfriend is no longer, & anyway, even if she was still bessfriend, I wouldnt be up for swapping childcare as come friday I want to spend time with my child, not have to pander to the fussy food fads & lack of basic manners of other peoples,

Meeeeeeooooooow.

As to working from home; I have suggested many times to Bosses that if only they were to supply me with a shiny new macbook :heartpuls then I could basically be their b!tch & work so many more hours . The response was something along the lines of hysterical laughter. Watch this space ... .

I'm sure DD could come in with me, but would leave with the sort of vocabulary only a ho should know .

I too have come to the conclusion that sacrificing 4 fridays is the best option but will worry about it later as right now there are far more exciting things afoot ...

I have had my first NSD of April

I have hoovered up enough cat fur to warrant learning to spin & knit :undecided

I have realised I dont have to keep manically stuffing the washing machine with clothes today & tomorrow

I have got a free bike

& most exciting of all :


I have received an email from Uncle Richard, saying that my application to become a Virgin cc holder has been accepted :j:dance::j

I had given up all hope & was resigned to having to just keep slogging on with slumming it on waitrose essentials .

I have had no indication as to what the credit limit will be but guess that as I requested a £3750 balance transfer, then it might be about £3,800 :rotfl:.

Dammit I am so excited it's embarassing . Will now focus on getting rid of the Co Op balance asap.

*Runs off to crack open something alcoholic to celebrate*

back later ....