Further financial faux pas and even more disasterous decisions

moo2moo

Eugh. 6am came round far too fast for my liking. Was rudely awakened by OH slamming the front door five minutes before the alarm went off but still managed to avoid crawling out from the pit for another ten minutes whilst trying desperately hard not to fall asleep.

Had a super productive day yesterday and can report that apart from an edging strip the laminate floor is now finished. Of course rather infuriatingly I then noticed the damage to the surface that had occurred when the glass lamp fell and smashed. OH cleared it up at the time but hadn't spotted it. Have repaired the surface with clear nail varnish to seal the boards. Its only visible in certain light levels and then only when you know where you're looking but even so its v. annoying. Still its far less annoying than the hideous carpet was. Next on the agenda is the flogging of the left over laminate on fleabay unles of course I can persuade OH to bung it down in the bedrrom. Doubt theres enough of it and he hates the idea of it upstairs but it would be so much easier to keep clean than the manky smelly cream carpet that we inherited with the house.

Meanwhile next doors pipes froze and ruptured yesterday in no fewer than three places. Not surprising because they don't have any heating at all but they popped round to let us know and to ask if OH could repair it when he gets a chance as they can't get a plumber out until February without paying a £150 emergency call out fee and even then its not likely to happen before the weekend. What a joke!

OH is now suffering stomach cramps and spasms as well as feeling slightly nauseous. That said its been the most pleasant four days I've had in a long time. Feels like a heck of a lot longer though.

Had a bit of an oops moment when I dragged my employment paperwork out of its home to figure out just how much holiday entitlement I get in a year. The answer appears to be about seven hours less than I've used so far this year. ooops. Will admit this balls up to the boss and work an extra 7 hours next half term to cover it. Trying to do that this week is most unlikely to happen although its not impossible.

The great emptying of the school bag revealed a party invite for next weekend that was being used as a bookmark. Considering how excited DD2 was when she remembered it I'm amazed she'd managed to forget about it in the first place, its not many children that get invited to spend two hours at a party in a sweetshop and then don't get round to writing it on the calender.

Have various things to do this week ranging from a trip to the tip to dispose of some rubbish since the bins are overflowing and we've still a week to go until its due to be collected. Also need to visit a bnk to get rid of Octobers cheques and will of course need to source a gift for Sundays party. Thats on top of a trip to the vets, puppy schools and the squeezing in of 24 hours at work on top of everything else. Not a clue how the heck I'm going to achieve this. Will assume I'll be completely kettled by Wednesday.

moo2moo

Did have a bit of an eek moment when OH pootled off to the shops to purchase baccy whilst dinner was cooking. This was formerly patented excuse no.3 to purchase a bottle of vino or three. Was most gobsmacked when he arrived home with just the baccy but remembered not to leap up and down praising him for being a good boy Barbara Woodhouse style. After all no one likes a patronising cow.

Its still all a bit too surreal though. Like I'm living in someone elses shoes. Arrived home from work for a late lunch just as he reappeared. Spent a happy hour reading a book whilst he snoozed and the DDs played something involving loud crashes and bangs upstairs. Left for my second stint of the day at school but only managed two hours before the boss decreed that we'd been there long enough and sent us all home. Bearing in mind that I'd only been gone two hours OH had finished adding extra shelves to the bookcase he insisted we bought over a year ago despite it being completely wrong in that a bookcase is never going to be a cd cabinet especially when it has five shelves less than you actually want. Just finishing the shelves would have been enough but he roped the DDs into filling them up with stuff even insisting that they sort the films by age category and the games by console type. OCD warning signs if ever I saw them. More scarily having shelved the obvious stuff he then went rummaging through drawers, cupboards and boxes so that I have two empty desk drawers *whoop whoop* as well as no fewer than three empty boxes. Progress is most definately being made on all fronts.

Will be spending what little free time I have today seeking out stuff that can be stashed in the desk drawers before someone else fills them up with carp. That and the last 50 pages of my current book should keep me occupied in and amongst everything else.

The DDs still have a few thank yous to write so will leave a list of those in the hopes they finish them off this evening.

Spent a £4 gift voucher on a book for DD2s party giver after consultation with his mum. Just hope it arrives by Saturday although since OH drove to work in a blizzard yesterday and we have more snow forecast this is a wee bit optomistic.

thrifty_fifty

Sounds like a good day to me Moo Lots of plans but relaxy bits too

Have a good one

x

Intergalactic_Floozie

Awww well done to the DH. He really seems to be trying. Long may it last.

My DH came home last night with a bottle of wine, and when I said: "Erm, haven't you given up drinking through the week?" he replied; "oh heck, yeah, I forgot". I said he could save it for Friday but nah, he drank the lot.

MrsMoo2U

Glad things are looking up there Moo. Snow doesnt appear to have materialised though.

Perhaps the OCD is replacing the other habit. Now what you need is a list on the fridge of all the things that need doing. I reckon they will be done in double quick time at this rate. It is nice to see that he is keeping himself occupied to see himself through the worst of it. I hope that things continue to improve for you. You deserve to have the man you love back.

moo2moo

Thank you all!

I have been suffering random brain farts. It will all make sense eventually. Have decided I need a simplistic cunning plan. This budgeting malarky is all well and good but is totally dependant upon me remebering to write things down and since its already the 5th of the month and the accounts book lacks any entries at all thats simply not going to happen, not without a huge amount of gaping anomalies so I have an alternative cunning plan. One based around my credit card. I use this for everything mostly because the nearest cash dispenser is located in an alternative universe but also becasue I can pay the coal man and wot not over the phone.

My cash spends are pretty much fixed in that there are certain people who get paid in cash and everything else goes on plastic so my thinking is thusly I should really think about the stuff I slap on plastic since this accounts for a big chunk of my spends including fuel and the supermarket. It also means I don't have to keep harassing OH for reciepts. So the aim for this month and all subsequent months is to keep my credit card bill below £600. Was tempted to go for £500 but assuming £250-300 at the supermarket, £50 of fuel and £80 of pet insurance and wot not each month in addition to £90 of coal that simply didn't add up. Guess what I'm saying is I'm going to try to spend as little as possible in the hopes that a lot of short term pain makes a huge difference long term. That and its a definate pass or fail since the bottom line of the bill never lies (unless you're a Santander customer). Incidentally I can't cheat by spending cash as I transfer the surplus over on payday having taken account of the essentials for the month.

moo2moo

cherisong wrote: »

Glad things are looking up there Moo. Snow doesnt appear to have materialised though.

Perhaps the OCD is replacing the other habit. Now what you need is a list on the fridge of all the things that need doing. I reckon they will be done in double quick time at this rate. It is nice to see that he is keeping himself occupied to see himself through the worst of it. I hope that things continue to improve for you. You deserve to have the man you love back.

Will have to clean the fridge first. Its covered in bits of paper relating to the gifts for which the DDs need to write thank y ou letters.

moo2moo

Why is it I shoot my mouth off before engaging my brain cell? Having done a little digging it seems the last time my monthly card spend was under £600 was August and before that May and before that some time in 2009. Most months it pretty much double that. Ye gads.

Still theres nowt quite like a challenge to kick things off and since my bill is generated on the 6th of the month theres no time like the present either.

Meanwhile todays spends include a whopping £25 bill from the vets for vaccinating the littlest hairball alongside a reminder that delousing and worming is also due. Pets are very expensive things.

Meanwhile a phone call from my landline provider indicates that they may just have noticed that they've completely screwed up billing us for quite some time. Aw well. Suppose it had to happen someday. However it could just have been a random telesales call but since I don't have bollox they didn't want to enlighten me, have to wait for them to harass OH to find out what they want.

moo2moo

Its progress, of a sort.

OH had many things to do yesterday including collection of an item purchased from fleabay. Obviously arranging this for the end of his working day meant he finished four hours earlier than he should have and had time to kill which was spent shopping. Rather amazingly his spends were thoughtful, practical and necessary. Am still in shock over this. However when he went to get his lunch he also bought alcohol. Yep, I groaned too. However it was "only" a bottle of cider in the way that a 100g bar of chocolate is "only" a small one. More interestingly though he told me he'd bought it and then spent an entire evening trying to stop DD1 opening it and pouring it for him. Interestingly its still there this morning. Did make a point of being home on time and asking if there was anywhere he wanted to go last night knowing full well that it was the secret societys meeting night but he declined and so we vegged on the sofa watching some odd 1980s drama series on undercover MI5 wireless operators. At least htats what I think they were. It was all a bit 'allo 'allo but without any of the funny bits. Would rather have watched Edwardian Farm but that wasn't on.

OH starts his weekend today. It doesn't appear that he's got any plans for it although I did suggest he takes the hound from hell to puppy school just to get out of the house. Shes been rather well behaved recentlyy providing you discount her new found love of pencil munching which has been extended to biros shamelessly stolen from the desk. Resorted to covering one in mustard and leaving it in a tempting position in the hopes that deters her.

Plans for today are manyfold yet dull and involve... wait for it.... ironing, more laundry, a bit of floor sweeping, a bit of vacuuming and a fair bit of bathroom cleaning. Oh joy! Still its a mere 9 days to payday which falls on a Sunday meaning I get my sweaty paws on it a whole 24 hours early.

Meanwhile went to bed at 9pm because I couldn't stop yawning only to find myself wide awake so ended up starting another book. Quite possibly a book I won't be finishing. It does make you wonder how some of this drivel actually makes it to print.

moo2moo

Puppy school was ace. In her determination to get to me the hound from hell unbalanced the instructor and then legged it in my direction. Obviously she was supposed to wait to be released before hurtling towards me at warp speed but I'm v. proud of her none the less. The rest of the class was in fits of giggles. Then came puppy swap when we exchanged leads and headed off in the opposite direction to our dog with someone elses. I ended up with two dogs at my heel and a v. out of breath dog owner hanging on the the four legged fiend in the hopes of remaining upright. If only she'd stay that close in the park.