Tete en l’Air’s Feet On The Ground Diary

Flower08

Evening everyone,

Been another busy few days here for me. Car ended up costing nearly £300 :(had to take it out of the moving house fund, was really hoping to get it over £1000 mark soon but not sure that will be happening now.

Tete - sorry to hear that your feeling down in the dumps, i have been feeling a bit like that recently, looking forward to OH and i having our own space. Tink is right though, it could be alot worse!! When i first moved to uni (before OH moved down to be with me) it was a 10 hour round trip just to see OH.
Tete - i am sure you will get moved out in no time

Need to update my sig now to reflect the money taken from savings

wendz86

Hope you find somewhere soon Tete and move in with the bf. It must be so annoying for you.

I feel a bit like Oh and I don't get much quality time at the moment because of his shifts. Can't afford to do anything really at the moment.

Flower- cars are so expensive arent they! At least you had the money even though it has come out your savings.

Dinah93

tinkerbel wrote: »

at least you girls all live in the same county as your OHs!! The boy and I live over 100 miles from each other and can barely afford the fuel to go and see each other!

I did 10 months of not living in the same COUNTRY as NIM, took us 12 hours and about £200 every other weekend to see one another, I did my long distance penance too!

Tete did I miss something, have you been in an accident? NIM said there was a big dent in the side of bluey.

poddle911

Dinah93 wrote: »

I did 10 months of not living in the same COUNTRY as NIM, took us 12 hours and about £200 every other weekend to see one another, I did my long distance penance too!

Yep, I think everyone does their share at some point - that's pretty extreme though! I got totally fed up when OH was just working in Brum last year; at least he came home for weekends, but it was still weird not having him there all the time!

EDIT: Sorry you're feeling down at the moment Tete, but you'll save up in no time and I can't tell you how good it will feel to move in together when you can afford it rather than starting out in debt. Chin up x

Flower, that's a lot of sad faces Cars are so bl00dy expensive aren't they! But Wendz is totally right - at least you had some cash, rather than whacking it on the credit card

Flower08

poddle911 wrote: »

Flower, that's a lot of sad faces

Sorry - this any better :D Will be fine was we start getting some more money put into savings. Feels like OH and i havent spent any time together recently, hes still working 70 hour weeks, but we both have the day off together on Saturday so will hopefully do something nice. And then sort out some budgets for the rest of the month.

Hope your feeling a bit more positive about the whole MOF today tete?

Tete_en_l'Air

Hi all, I don't really come on here except when I'm at work, can you tell? Thanks for all the kind words, I'm feeling much better and more positive after my long weekend, spent lots of quality time together, visited a little Yorkshire market town, walked along Hadrian's Wall, baked a bit, was lovely and I feel very refreshed

Dinah, that dent's been there since before I had him, the scratches along the other side are my fault though Sorry about the car and the MOF Flower But as we always say at least it's coming from savings rather than an overdraft or whatever. You'll soon see them build up again.

Re. long distances, when I went on my year abroad to France my ex-OH was still over here and it was so horrible I blotted it out with 80c wine Hopefully once you're settled into your new place Wendz you'll feel a lot better about OH's shifts

Tete_en_l'Air

Okey dokey, a few days absence is a long time in MSE world, especially when it includes a pay day! So been spending a few moments taking stock...

MOF currently standing at a pitiful £129.36, so I'm going to go to the bank at lunchtime and transfer £140 to bring it to £269.36 - about £3 more than it was at its highest ten days ago Then I'll leave it at that as I don't want to leave myself short at the end of the month. Most of my outgoings have out-gone now, and I calculate that I should be left with £600ish for the rest of the month, that includes petrol etc though. I've got about £5 in my purse and I want that to last me til Thursday when I'm off again - I've got my dinners planned out and don't need anything so should be fine.

Speaking of dinner - I'm back on FoodFocus with a vengeance this week - going to weigh myself on Boots scales at lunchtime, was 11st on the dot last Sunday so fingers crossed...

Got my skirt from Ebay and really disappointed and quite annoyed - although the tag does say size 12 it's quite obviously more like a 16, I could tell that when I opened the package and I think the woman who sold it must have had an inkling as when I looked back on her feedback everything else she's been selling has been a 16 There was no indication of this on the listing, just 'size 12' so going to email and ask for a refund, if not she's getting negative feedback - I'm sick of being on the other end of it as a seller! - and OH's Mam has said she'll try and help me alter it. I knew she was handy with a sewing machine but found out recently that she used to be a proper sematress for M&S which I was quite impressed with!

Can now redeem a £20 Dooyoo Amazon voucher so will do that in a bit and will have to remember that my tally will be whatever's redeemable plus 2605 which is the proportion of what I'm redeeming that I've earned since the start of the challenge.

Speaking of Amazon, remember about one year and one month ago they did a free trial of Amazon Prime? Then those of us who didn't cancel in time were stung for £50? Yes I was one of them. Well I'm convinced I cancelled ages ago but have just been hit for a £50 recurring payment so am going to ring up and see if I can get my money back on it - particularly as some things I've ordered have taken a week or so to arrive! Argh, I'm so annoyed at myself over this!

I've also been looking on Autotrader at 2002 Micras (the newest ones of the old shape that I love!), there are some lovely ones on there ranging from an immaculate Blackie for £2k to an equally immaculate slightly older, one-lady-owner New-Bluey for £1k so I'm seriously seriously thinking of getting some money out of my ISA for a new car once my interest for this year has been paid. Bluey, much as I love him, is starting to go wrong in lots of ways - he's making some funny noises sometimes and doesn't seem to have the same power he used to. The horn has gone, things fall out of the glovebox if I go over a bump, he doesn't like going anywhere in the rain, the windscreen washers leak, he can't seem to hang on to wheel trims.... and so on. So much as I love him and he's been a faithful servant I think it's time for something a bit smarter and more reliable. And having thought about it, I don't want to spend money on something TOO new if we'll be moving away in a couple of years anyway, so about a 8-year-old Micra it is. (Dad thinks I should spend a bit of money getting him serviced so he runs better but to be honest I think it's throwing good money after bad and come the winter I'll still have problems with him not starting...)

We're also looking at a few days in Tuscany in May which I think I've mentioned on here before, as long as Ryanair aren't holding too mcuh back, flights should be around £60 so we're hoping to be able to book a night in Pisa and two in Florence for £200 in total ... this may have to come out of the MOF but I'm not going to worry too much. OH says he's happy to pay fees and things for the house, I just wanted to have a bit put by myself to show I'm not taking the pee, but I think he'd rather have a trip to Italy than me contribute to the house! We'll see, we'll see....

Sorry for the monster post guys, guess I had a lot to get off my chest!

Tete_en_l'Air

So, things to do today!

- Bank - transfer £140
- Boots - get weighed
- [STRIKE]Redeem Amazon voucher from Dooyoo[/STRIKE]
- [STRIKE]Email woman about ebay skirt[/STRIKE]
- Phone Amazon about Prime thing
- Look for receipts to get expenses claim in for London
- Look at flights in May, cheapest prices
- Look for hotels - price/availability
- Sewing - finish mood board, paperwork, cut out lining
- 1 Dooyoo
- Transfer 2 to Ciao
- Order Sew magazine - 3 for £3 offer
- Restart FoodFocus

Hmm. I think that's all (for now!) off to catch up on what everyone else has been up to...

Tete_en_l'Air

Tete_en_l'Air wrote: »

- [STRIKE]Bank - transfer £140[/STRIKE]
- [STRIKE]Boots - get weighed[/STRIKE]
- [STRIKE]Redeem Amazon voucher from Dooyoo[/STRIKE]
- [STRIKE]Email woman about ebay skirt[/STRIKE]
- Phone Amazon about Prime thing
- Look for receipts to get expenses claim in for London
- Look at flights in May, cheapest prices
- Look for hotels - price/availability
- Sewing - finish mood board, paperwork, cut out lining
- 1 Dooyoo
- Transfer 2 to Ciao
- [STRIKE]Order Sew magazine - 3 for £3 offer[/STRIKE]
- [STRIKE]Restart FoodFocus[/STRIKE]

OK not doing too badly so far.

Benn to bank and updated sig, not sure whether anything else will go into the MOF this month but hey ho.

Weighed myself and as I said on Poddle's thread, although I seem to have lost 3lbs since last week, I also seem to have lost 2" in height! Think I might just go back to nudey-weigh-ins at home, need to find some batteries for the scales.

Had a reply straight away from skirt lady who is very apologetic and says to return it and she'll give me a refund. So i'm pleased about that but no worried! Should I have opened a dispute? How do I know she'll refund the money once she's got the skirt back? Eek!

Birdie85

How annoying about the skirt! Surely if you send it back (with proof of postage) but keep the dispute open you should be OK for getting your money back.

And God bless Boots scales, the only place you can lose weight and height!

The car plan sounds like a good one, old Bluey might be looking forward to being out out to pasture and it's no good being stuck with a poorly car in winter. How lovely is your OH for offering to take you away? It's nice that he's happy to foot the costs of moving so you can have a holiday together!

OH got stung with Amazon Prime too but he's not too mad as he's had quite a lot of use out of it. I remembered to cancel mine, I've been stung so many times I'm paranoid now! I was annoyed the other week though, I'd used OH's account to order the fancy Winnie the Pooh set on Thursday for a Christening on Sunday (cutting it fine I know!) and selected Prime next day delivery but they used bloomin' City Link to deliver and OH wasn't in when they came so missed it and they took it back to the depot in Leeds and don't deliver on Saturdays! I was so cross, if they'd sent it normally we could have picked it up from the Post Office.... we had to give our friends a card and explain that the present was being held hostage!