Eager Elephant's Effective Everyday Excursion ...

please-let-me-be-lucky

Sorry to hear about your cat EE. Glad the pigs gave you reason to smile at this sad time Xx

sashybo

Aww so sorry to hear about your cat, you did the best & most loving thing you could for her at the end by not letting her suffer. It's still a really hard thing to do though so hope you're taking care of yourself.

:rotfl: at the pigs they sound very cheeky.

beanielou

So sorry about the cat

Skinnylatte

Thank you for popping over to my page, I've subbed to your diary, it sounds an interesting read!!
Sorry to hear about your cat

Eager_Elephant

Another 2 months passes in a blur.....


Update since last post - we had our cat cremated and have her back in a lovely wooden box.


We still have the pigs who decided to make another break for freedom but this time must have walked through the ditch, across a playing field, over a foot bridge, along a footpath and up to someone's house!!! They contacted us when we were at work - luckily DS was home from college and he went to deal with it. By the time he got up there the family had walked them home.
So to stop any risk of accidents (we live near a main road) we put them in one of the chicken pens which is stock fenced - it is quite a large area so they have loads of room. Since they went in there they have not escaped!! They don't have their pig hut in there as too big to move but they have been sleeping under the chicken hut (on huge wheels so big enough for 2) which is fine as it has been so hot lately they may have cooked in their pig hut.
I am hoping they will go for slaughter in the next week or so - just need to ring abattoir and find out what day pigs are slaughtered and then book in.


Dog is doing well - she is now 13mths old. We took her out for the day and she came 2nd in 2 classes (puppy and prettiest female)!!
She did really well all day and had an ice cream at the end of the day.
We are off out to another dog show this weekend so she can have more socialising and enter the dog show.


In other news life has just got in the way again!!
As mentioned previously DH and I are involved in quite a large yearly event which takes place in the next town - there is loads of work in the lead up and then over the weekend we live on takeaways, fizzy drinks and about 4 hrs sleep per night. it costs us a fortune to be on the organising committee.
This year DH took time off work to help set down and now he is quite badly injured and can't do much except sit, stand and walk very slowly:eek:
Osteopath says he has likely ruptured a disk in his back:eek:. GP agrees and has referred to hospital for MRI - in the mean time he is paying privately for 1 osteo session per week and just taking things easy.
Obviously this is no good as he cannot help with the animals as cannot lift anything and cannot walk the dog as she is a bit of a puller so I am having to do everything :mad: and it's beginning to grate!!
Not sure what the long term prognosis is but if he is permanently injured then we will have to consider the field as I cannot work full time and do all the animals.

DH has now quit the committee and I nearly did as another member has been abusive to me but I will not quit because someone has forced me to - instead I will let them know at AGM that I will do one more year and then I am off!!
This may mean the end of this event but I cannot give my time to something that does not really do anything for the community except give them a good time and I am shattered for 2 weeks after (never mind the lead up when I am still doing paperwork at 11pm) and for that I get abuse from a fellow member.


I also nearly quit another committee that I am on as I don't agree with something the chair has done but this has all been resolved now. I just hope they don't stand for chair again.

I have decided that I will stop volunteering for jobs within each committee - I am such a mug then when a job needs doing and no one wants to do it I end up volunteering until I have too much to do and it can't continue.

I want a quiet life with my family, my animals and my allotment. I don't have time to keep volunteering!!


In debt news - I am getting no where - I was doing PAD in June but I have not done any for ages and all my wages got spent in July and I don't even know really on what.
This month is slightly better but we are buying some chicken huts for £400 so need to keep this back - this is a long term asset as we will need huts when we build up our smallholding again.


DH is doing my head in again and keeps spending on ebay - it got to the point last week that he went into overdraft (unarranged) within days of being paid. I usually check the account on 2nd of each month but did not get a chance and then a letter arrived.
I have had to act like a parent and I have changed his Paypal password to stop him spending - it's the only way to control him. Initially I gave him a bank account just for spends but he used to spend all his money (on ebay) and then when his debit card was refused he would pay by DD so then the payment would come out days later regardless of whether he had the money or not. Then I would have to buy all the petrol to work as his wages would be gone - in the end I had enough and started taking money from his savings to buy a new truck and now he only has £1000 when prev he had £1800.

God - he annoys me sometimes!!


Anyway, onwards and upwards!!


I need to get back to surveys - I have not done any for ages and they are a great source of Amazon vouchers which I am in desperate need of!!

please-let-me-be-lucky

Big hugs EE, things don't sound fun for you at the moment Xx

mary_hinge

nice to "see" you EE, I am sorry to hear you are having a rotten time of late.

As for the committees you are such a kind, helpful and generous person but please take some time for you also or you will burn out and crash!

Hope DH gets better soon and is able to give you a helping hand, It is hard when he is restricted on his abilities but this ebay spending seems to be a regular thing..... any reasons why he uses it as his crutch?

Much Love EE, be kind to yourself

Mrs H xx

judi24

Sounds like its hard going on many fronts for you! (although escaping pigs did make me giggle!) The spending with OH must be driving you mad - my ex OH was the same! Not got any words of wisdom - just know how you feel!

Eager_Elephant

Thanks ladies. As Mrs H says - DH's spending on ebay is a regular occurrence.
I think it is all linked to his depression - he buys to make himself feel better and because he then feels normal.

He also does not have any friends or hobbies (except our animals) so at night he watches TV and goes on ebay and then ends up buying stuff.

He has approx. £25k of debt which he pays back at £1pm to each creditor - some of this was ebay spending.

When he was much younger, before he met me, he would get paid, pay board to his mum and then blow the rest of his money on drink, drugs, clothes and fast food. Once he moved in with me we had bills to pay and he doesn't get to spend as much as he did years ago so every so often he has a blow out, we used to have our own spending money each month but DH would spend all his and I wouldn't spend mine and mine would get swallowed up.

The problem is he does not have much spare money after paying bills (he works 30hrs per week and we put an equal amount into the bill pot even though I am full time and earn more - this is what he wanted years ago when I worked part time and he was full time (and spent his spare money on frivolous things) so we have kept it like it).

I think also he is always looking for satisfaction, he is currently thinking of changing his job :mad:- he has been in his job just over a year - he has learnt the job inside out, knows everything and has improved the income to his estate and now he is bored!!
He does this all the time, he has a thirst for knowledge and learning but once he has learnt it he gets bored and wants to do something else.
I am not sure how he can learn to be satisfied with what he has???


Anyway, this is not marriage counselling:rotfl: and I just accept him for what he is and keep taking the Agnus Castus which helps so much with dealing with him.

Eager_Elephant

I appear to have caught the YNAB bug:T


I am signed up to the daily emails which are very motivational and I have watched the first seminar to learn how to use it.


I have to say I it - the idea of budgeting your money when you actually have it in your bank account and not in advance really appeals to me.


My set up is probably slightly different to others as DH and I have separate bank accounts and then we have a bill account. At the moment I don't think I can manage to have all my 'savings' sitting in my current account so I am going to keep my savings accounts still and I have set them up as off-budget on YNAB. Hopefully next year I will be able to have it all in the same bank account as I have a 123 account and can earn quite good interest on it.


The worst bit for me has been to realise how much comes into the household every month - I was :eek:
Before, as we had separate accounts I just never really thought how much money we had each month although I knew the separate figures. But this is staring me in the face all the time and I am always shocked each time I see it. I told DH today and he is also very shocked.
I am hoping that this will stop us being wasteful and we will actually be able to save to pay off debt, replace the cars when they need it and save money ready to buy our house.




Just re-read my previous post and I said

I also nearly quit another committee that I am on as I don't agree with something the chair has done but this has all been resolved now. I just hope they don't stand for chair again.

At the last meeting they announced that they would be standing down as chair and also from the whole committee - there must be a god as my prayers have been answered!!




DH and I have next week off work - Thurs is when the pigs will go for slaughter:(


Lots of spending next week as need to sort DD's school shoes and her stationery plus last minute school uniform bits. All budgeted for in YNAB:rotfl: