Further financial faux pas and even more disasterous decisions

moo2moo

Eugh vomiting lurgi would have put me off too had not the idea of sharing my foot spa with god knows how many others not also had the same effect.

Didn't go to Errdig in the end, the National Trusts hugely expensive prices killed that idea off. Lovely as the place is it was far too muddy to gain £50 of enjoyment from it so we went for a long walk instead. Did the circuit that the four legged fiend and I usually do in an hour in a little over two and a half. Really enjoyed it, even if the boys did feel they were being ganged up upon as OHs child hating friend was reminded just how much he liked reading fairy stories at bedtime. Arrived home to find that the extra dog had a bleeding pad, turns out that although shes used to long walks these are almost always on grass and so her pads are very soft. Patched her up with a salt bath, doggy germolene and a protective sock before giving her a meat bone in front of the fire. She didn't seem to be in the slightest bit bothered by this.

Life returned to normal late last night when everyone had left and we finally got the place back to ourselves. Watched Peter Pan before heading for bed much to the DDs amusement.

Have rather a lot of washing up to do or more precisely to bung in the dishwasher and then theres a huge pile of laundry in need of attention. Seem to have used every towel in the place, mostly to dry off wet dogs.

OH is planning to start levelling the last bit of floor today which hopefully means laying the last bit by the weekend and returning all the furniture to wherever its destined to end up. Hoping to persuade the DDs to have a toy cull in the hopes some of their new things will fit in the space generated. Also need to brave DD2s wardrobe into which she crammed everything that was making her room untidy successfully jamming the sliding doors in the process. Figure that should take most of the day. Already have a big pile for charity and cheques to bank as well as an imminent animal feed shortage and huge amounts of stuff for the tip. Hoping to get all that done today or at least make a start on it.

My parents v. generously gave me three giant tobelerones and four novels which will keep me occupied for quite some time. Also recieved a v. dissapointing box of Tobelle which is essentially a third of a giant Tobelerone compressed into wafer tin pieces and bunged in a huge box with lots of packaging. What a swizz!

The DDs seem to have aquire a combination of cash and clothes. Am not entirely sure why people insist on buying an 8 year old age 5-6 clothing but fortunately DD2 is polite enough to say thank you to the giver and then waiting for later to announce that Charlie and Lola are for babies and stating her intent to give it to her friends younger sister who likes that sort of thing. In fact shes got quite a pile of stuff in her school bag to give to other people. I did suggest taking some of it back to the shop and exchanging it for things that she liked in the right size but its impossible to work out where some of them originated from. Besides which she seems quite happy to be passing them on to friends.

Double_Trouble

MatyMoo

:jHappy New Year one and all.:j

:TMay 2011 bring you everything you wish for and more:T

moo2moo

Happy New Year All!

We've been on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster for the past few days. Things came to a bit of a head when my inability to give tactful replies to ridiculous questions wore off. OHs enquiring whether he'd be getting his leg over in the near future was met with a Baldric-esque speech along the lines of hell freezing over and pigs joining the RAF. This appeared to be his cue to serve dinner early, at 4:15pm to be precise, he never drinks until dinner time. The mere fact of making dinner time earlier allows for so much more drinking time in ones evening. Anyhow the DDs and I played games and generally did the sort of things that most normal families do whilst he sat in a corner getting steadily more slaughtered. Dispatched the DDs to bed at 7:30. By 8pm OH could barely stand, had I not been concerned about alcoholic poisoning it would have been quite funny. The only stationary part of him was his feet. The rest of him wavered from side to side and front to back to the point i was convinced he'd end up in a heap on the floor. Rather amazingly he appears to have an innate ability to defy the laws of gravity. Was even more surprised when he made me a hot cup of coffee and made the journey from kitchen to table without spilling any. Even kept a straight face when he informed me that I was welcome to drink my coffee in peace as he was taking himself off to bed on account of me rejecting his amorous advances. Had a most enjoyable evening watching drivel on the telly box and troughing Tobelerone before tucking myself up under a mountain of blankets on the sofa in front of the fire and having a completely uninterrupted nights sleep until 4am when OH decided to wake me for a chat. Clearly I was half asleep and didn't make too much sense as he left me to it and went back to bed until 9. Can only assume he had the mother of all hangovers so allowed the DDs to play Just Dance on the Wii with the volume turned up for considerably longer than I'd normally tolerate even persuading them to sing along.

There is no longer any alcohol in the house aside from a bottle of port which I was given for Christmas but have gift wrapped for the DDs riding instructor on the basis that someone might as well enjoy it because theres no chance of me getting a look in. OH has finally (yes again) realised just how much hes drinking and how much of a !!!!!! he turns into because of it. It might make him feel better but it has the opposite effect on everyone else. He managed not to drink anything last night but barely slept and woke up halfway through the night sweating and shivering. The bottle of Night Nurse on the work top indicates his misguided belief that this is a cold rather than withdrawl symptoms. Wonder just when it will all sink in. Have spent a happy half hour rummaging through cupboards and chucking out his empties donating the dregs to the great plughole in the sky. Perhaps this New Year, new start thing will rub off on him too.

moo2moo

In more mundane news I eventually made it to school yesterday only to discover that the nursery playhouse had been transformed into a pot heads dream shortly before the little darlings kicked the doors and the windows breaking both. Reported it to the police as minor vandalism not really expecting much by way of a response so was rather surprised when a forensics expert turned up 20 minutes later and fingerprinted things before removing lots of discarded items for DNA testing. T'was all a bit exciting. Would have been even more exciting had the officer in question been worthy of the title of eye candy of the week and doubly so had his lunch not been splattered down the front of his jumper. However as the Heads very cynical wife pointed out this is because all the good looking ones have booked the day off to sleep in order to go clubbing on New Years Eve. Darn it. Meant I was at school for considerably longer than expected but it does mean I don't feel overly bad about not going in earlier in the week.

Spent the rest of the day doing houseworky things in between watching Mr Magoriums Wonder Emporium and a James Bond film. Even got carried away and did the ironing.

Made no further progress on the laminate floor as the self leveller refuses to dry. The bathroom on the other hand is drying out nicely as demonstrated by the appearance of several large cracks in the plaster. Hopefully we'll be able to do something about that in another couple of weeks.

Plans for today involve riding lessons, the delivery of recycled Christmas gifts to the riding instructor and yet more laundry. Have one more bed to change and three assorted loads to do before the DDs tidy their rooms and find yet more washing. Have no idea how they get through so many towels. DD1 must average three a day. Roll on summer when the towels actually dry between uses rather than festering away damp and pongy over every available surface.

Have commenced liberating the dregs of the freezer in the hopes of defrosting one or at least finding food that isn't bags of value swede. OH insists on buying the stuff although no one else likes it and he never gets round to cooking it. Am going to try mixing it in with mashed potato to see if the DDs notice. Will have happy hairballs tonight as I've defrosted a dozen bags of offal. We aquire a few more everytime we buy a half pig but I never get round to making anything with it, can't stand the smell of it when its cooking.

Am going to attempt to remove some more things from the DDs drawers in the hopes of finally eradicating all their outgrown or holey stuff. A clothes recyclers has opened up locally that pays for bags of rag, its not much but at least I can get rid of the stuff that the charity shops won't want and get something for it in return. Will hopefully go someway to paying for the dog lead that I've had to replace with a metal chain after the four legged fiend ate through it.

As if thats not enough I also need to visit B&Q to return some surplus laminate underlay, think OH has taken the receipt to work with him which gets me out of doing that this morning.

Am working on a cunning plan for 2011 but to be perfectly frank I'd be happy if the only thing achieved in the near future is a permanently sober OH.

MrsMoo2U

Happy New Year Moo, I truly wish for you everything you wish for yourself. X

moo2moo

Still sitting on my bum thinking wildly optimistic thoughts about revamping the annual budget. Have a horrible feeling thats going to come as a bit of a shock though since OHs car insurance has shot up by a ridiculous 25%, thats after we haggled them down quite considerably and still considerably cheaper than anything I could find on a comparison site after cashback. Assuming all other policies are going to do the same thing thats an extra £300 to find on top of the ridiculous 9% rise in electricity and the 2.5% VAT increase. I fear I may need to take last years figure and increase it by a quarter to be in with a fighting chance. Sounds absurd but thats the way things are looking. Bit of a shocker though that life is going to work out several hundred pounds more expensive yet have no noticable benefit on our quality of life...... however when you consider that OH is currently getting through in excess of £200 a month in alcohol and quite probably considerably more than that which I hadn't allowed for in last years budget its quite posible that I won't notice much difference anyway. On the other hand if he continues drinking then things are going to be very different anyway. Its make or break time (yes again).

Actually its quite funny how its the little things that clarify things in your mind. In my case it was opening the back door and sliding on a large patch of yellow ice which subsequently defrosted and then honked unbelievably. Hosed it down and disinfected it but have since caught the culprit in action. It was not, as I had been led to believe, the geriatric old dear. Too revolting for words. I am not putting up with that.

MrsMoo2U

Oh dear Moo, at least it wasnt in your shoes in the wardrobe! Yes, believe me, my long distant past could reveal a few of those kind of stories!

pennywisepoundstupid

HAPPY NEW YEAR MOO.

Regarding the swede, mash it with carrots, lots of butter, black pepper and a drop of double cream, does make it quite nice and my DD will eat it like that.

mooomin

Happy Moo Year

Sorry to hear that things with Mr Moo have been pants again. Hopefully this will all get sorted, but if he's this bad (again) how are the DDs taking it? Are they ok with his drinking/belittling of their (awesome) mum? I worry about the three of you

I'm taking the (insane) plunge into the Frugal Living Challenge again if you want to come and fail with me?