Further financial faux pas and even more disasterous decisions

Wordsmith

It's great that the weekend is going so well. I hope the rest of the holiday follows in similar fashion. Have to say, though, the onslaught of handbag obsession is a tad worrisome.

moo2moo

Spent yesterday slobbing round the garden reading books, playing football and watching the DDs ride their bikes. Had an early lunch and headed pout to a food festival where we tasted a vast array of oddities including vanila honey which was sublime but far too expensive to purchase. Fortunately some of the stuff was most reasonably priced and OH has an assortment of salamis for about a third of the Lidl price. Found a ridiculously cheap handbag stall and after much procrastination and posing in front of the mirror finally gave in and bought a barbie pink one with a gazillion zips and straps. DD1 is a v. happy [STRIKE]child[/STRIKE] young lady, its quite surprising how grown up she looks with a handbag. Despite trying lots myself DD1 decreed I looked really stupid and am not a handbag person at all. We've agreed that she'll be my mobile accessory and will carry anything I need in her bag should I buy something completely impractical without pockets in the future.

Came home, spent the evening in the garden having BBQ'd dinner. Came in and watched a film until far later than normal. woke up around 2am with a dubious rumbly tummy. Puked rather a lot and feel remarkably more human now. Just as well really as plans for today involve both parks and bike rides.

Going back to work tomorrow is going to be a bit of a shock especially since I've yet to purchase the bits I need to actually do any work. Have abandoned all attempts at housework and am merely heaping up the laundry and loading the dishwasher. Tis a holiday after all. Obviously I'll regret this at some point mid week but for now its rather nice to have a few days off. Am spending money rather faster than I'd like but that always seems to happen in the school holidays. At least the warm weather has killed what little urge I have to visit a supermarket. Hopefully the lack of supermarket spending will balance out the rather generous entertainment spends of late although theres a huge increase in surplus cash now that OHs drinking is v. muchly reduced. Obvously his random spending is increasing the more he feels like doing stuff but its still working out less than he was going through each week.

moo2moo

Back to earth with a bump. Being woken by the alarm came as a bit of a shock having got a bit too used to waking up as and when. Have a huge stack of stuff to get through today mostly in transforming the house now that OHs bro has departed. Was surprisinglly nice to have him around, the boy is house trained and has a strange urge involving regular dishwasher loading and unloading. Clearly he got OHs share of the domesticity gene. Had a few eek moments when he decided to help out by hanging laundry on the line but quickly rectified this by hiding my smalls at the bottom of the basket for laundry after his departure, fortunately I have lots and lots of smalls.

Spent yesterday momrning attempting to wear the DDs out at the park and then spent the afternoon wandering aimlessly round Chester. Had to go there anyway to drop him at the station. The alternative is to take one of the very infrequent local trains which take a couple of hours to reach anywhere major and stop at small bus shelters on bits of concrete in the middle of nowhere simply to kill time becuase its very rare that anyone ever gets on. Managed to spend £3 on parking and a further £5 on a new pair of Crocs for DD2 whose feet have grown vastly since last summer. Despite DD1 trying v. hard and visiting all manner of girly shops we managed without purchasing anything else although OH did point out a few handbags more suited to his mother circa 1970. Clearly the delusion is contagious. Now have to hope like heck that he doesn't buy me one as a surprise whilst away on business which will see me accessorised with something hideous for all of eternity. Still waiting to hear about his latest trip away, am guessing work have decided against sending him since he was rumoured to be departing tomorrow but hasn't been issued with any tickets. Vaguely considering aquiring Wii Zumba to fill the evenings if he does go simply because it looks like fun and I'm rather bored of Wii Fat and the Just Dances although I am enjoying the leaping about and getting sweaty stuff that goes with it. Most annoyingly I did have enough free cash in athe Amazon account to cover it until OH decided he needed a new bag for work which wiped out a large chunk of it.

Have 24 hours until the wheelie bin departs and a whole loada space in it that I'm determined to fill although I'm not too sure what with. Will be having a whoosh round with a bin bag in search of random unnecessary gubbins suitable for turfing out. That and a spot of ironing should see downstairs tidied up fairly quickly. Being outdoors most of the day stops the house getting too messy. Only another few days until the hounds next check up and then hopefully long walks can recommence.

moo2moo

Zumba won't be happening anytime soon. I have another week to go before I can claim my next shop and scan voucher which will still leave the account short. Thanks to some very creative accounting I have a whopping great £95 to see me to payday in the middle of next month. Assuming my outgoings remain constant the majority of that will be swallowed up by the DDs activities which set me back £28 a week. Will also need to cover DD2s school swiming lessons which leaves me roughly a tenner to cover the next two and a half weeks. Interesting times.

Guess thats the kick up the bum I need to stick the incubator on E-bay along with the other stuff that I'm avoiding listing. Love the cash, hate the hassle.

Am getting lots of wear out of the new clothes and feeling much less like a bag lady because of them. Perhaps I shouldn't have bought the jeans as well as the top. Not a lot I can do about it now. Hopefully the cash for the holiday job will appear in my account v. quickly. Besides its not the end of the world as food shopping and the like goes on my credit card which is cleared each month whilst racking up Mr T. points.... which makes me wonder if I can double-up the points I have in the cupboard for anything useful whilst the Easter promotion is on.

prudencekitten

Interesting that everyone mucked in at the last minute to do housework before OHB arrived. Maybe you should enrol their help more often. When my granddaughter visits, I get her to help. (It seems to be a novelty as they live in a state of disorder.) And it occurs to me that I should have done the same with my two daughters and got them involved rather than reluctantly cleaning up myself. It is quite time-consuming of course as I have to give detailed instructions to the little one, but she is happy brandishing the feather duster, and wiping mirrors and tables with a microfibre cloth. I wish Flylady had been around thirty years ago!

moo2moo

I think its a one off PrudenceKitten. The DDs already do quite a bit to help out and they don't spend much time at home as it is so to expect them to spend that time cleaning seems a little mean. If the house is empty and I get my act in gear I can clean it top to bottom in three hours providing I don't get distracted..... somehow I always seem to get distracted....

Meanwhile despite the council sticker informing me that the bin will be emptied tomorrow its already empty. Am rather glad I whooshed round like a woman possessed earlier this morning cramming it full of old smelly duvets, broken cat litter trays and a couple more bags of builders rubble.

Now scoffing lunch rather rapidly before returning to the grindstone. Haven't really done much this morning, the boss was in a chatty mood which meant lots of talking and v. little doing. That and I'm avoiding emptying the fat trap because I know its going to be truly disgusting.

moo2moo

DDs arrived home exhausted. DD2 disappeared upstairs to get changed and was gone quite some time. Went up to chcek on her only to find her flaked out on her bed with her jodphurs round her ankles. Ended up leaving her to it only to find her wide awake and very hungry at 9:30 just as I was going to bed. DD1 on the other hand was super duper excited having arrived home to post from the official Pony Club which included a "free" rosette. Her riding school have issued a list of the items required for attending pony days of which there are four different types requiring four different combinations of stuff. Since there are roughly 12 weeks of school holidays each year and the DDs go once a week thats three outings of each type. Of course the notice board says differently. They now have the opportunity to go three times each week at a bargaintastic £75 a head appart from camp which is a whopping £250. Meh. The list commences with the rather sensible A4 folder, paper and pen all of which were found lurking about the house. After that it whooshes downhill in a landslide of cash most of which isn't really necessary.

Manual of Horsemanship £13 each
Official badge £2 each
New gloves (the DDs are the wrong colour)
New jodphurs (wrong colour again)
New boots (clearly its essential that they have smooth soles)
New chaps (wrong colour again)
Tie (the official one at another £5)
Socks (the official ones that you can't see for the chaps at £6 a pair)
Show jacket (oh joy)
Pony Club Jumper (not to be mistaken for the Riding School jumpers they got for Christmas)
Riding Hat (clearly its essential this has a twee little bow at the back)

All of which comes to something around £150 per child. Is any of it really essential? I mean really? Nooooo. Will there be uproar and tears if I don't purchase them? Oh yes indeedy. Having done a wee bit of E-bay research it appears that its almost as expensive to buy secondhand as it is to buy new all apart from the text book which I can pick up for £2.50 although its the wrong edition. Does that matter? Its not like its scientific research which is changing minute by minute or a guide to the internet thats out of date before its even been printed. Won't be buying any of the stuff apart from the wrong edition of the book but may well have to face forking out or moving riding schools. Hopefully the vast majority of the parents will have taken the same view. Those with money to fling at things tend not to take their offspring to an entirely outdoor school when they can use covered arenas with posh coffee on site.

Whinge over.

Did very little at school yesterday or so it seems. Managed to fill my time although not as much as I would have liked. Gave in and came home early simply because I was wandering round wimlessly and yawning rather a lot. Only have to survive until lunchtime today but need to be on my best behaviour as the boss is showing new peoples round. Means finding something obviously constructive to do for the hour they'll be wandering about. May well go up in the loft and salvage the innards from the old loo to repair one of the broken ones. Think we're going to Screwfix this afternoon to get other bits so can buy the things I need for school then.

OH is getting a bit excited about being paid to woodwork (me not him) and has revamped my plans to something far more intricate and labour intensive. Am now hoping he'll get on and build then thing because his designs are way beyond anything I'm capable of and the margin allowed for error is teeny, whilst the potential to screw up royally is ginormous. Need to check a few of his amendments mostly to make sure that the finished item still fits in a car boot.... I'm rather skeptical about this. Still its better than drawings no.s 3,4 and 5 which whilst technically perfect weren't big enough to hold the items that the box is being built to store. My boss is in for a bit of a shock. Hes expecting a v. basic rectangular box with a lid whilst OHs masterpiece is liable to look rather more complex than that. Need to keep bringing OH back to earth with a bump and reminding him that this is to be done the cheapest way possible which does not entail spending £30 of a can of yacht varnish when theres ordinary outdoor varnish sitting on a shelf at work. Had forgotten how irritating he can be once he gets excited about things. Still whilst hes spending schools money on stuff its not depleting my rapidly diminishing bank account further.

pennywisepoundstupid

Morning moo, i've come to the conclusion with pony club that when it comes to prices they think of a number, double it have a chuckle and then add on a bit more, drives me mad that they think that if you go riding you must be loaded.

chevalier

i would think that list is taking the p big time. especially if there are things like the socks that can't be seen. I too hope that other parents kick up about it.
chev

moo2moo

Can only hope other parents see sense as it is I've wiped out my Paypal account by splurging on the book obviously not The Book but the book that came before the book. Yep I've commited the heinous crime of buying the 12th Edition rather than the 13th and saving a tenner in the process or rather not spending a tenner more than I didn't need to spend in the first place. Am not buying anything else on the list. There have been no changes to the riding school or the instructor so there really isn't any logical reason to do so, in fact all the benefits so far seem to be for the riding school who now get free advertising on the pony club website.

Managed to fill my morning at school by cleaning light fittings and gardening.... with a saw. It ain't pretty.

Washing is now on the line. Need to empty the dishwasher to refill it with the stuff on the worktop that I didn't get round to washing yesterday. After that I'm vaguely considering B&Q, but only vaguely.