Further financial faux pas and even more disasterous decisions

lucielle

Good luck, Moo
L

Double_Trouble

Hope you are OK Moo

DTxx

moo2moo

Gah. Starting the first day of term by going to bed without setting an alarm clock was never going to be a good move. Almost made it on time only to discover everyone else was running late too so no ones any the wiser.

Collected another half dozen chickens on the way home. Five hybrid girls and a buff Orpington boy with a rattley chest. Planning to eat him eventually but for now obvious signs of ill health gained him a brief stay of execution. They're now settled into their new home taking the current chicken population to 18, hopefully we'll average 10 eggs a day from them which is roughly £40 a month in egg sales. The feed bill is likely to be half that.

Changed all the beds last night. Of course now that I have an enormous pile of wet washing its heaving down with rain.

The state of the house is annoying me once again so have recommenced decluttering. Of course yesterday would have ben a better day to do it what with it being free to list on E-bay. Still at least I'll have a healthy stash for another time. In the meantime at least I can list the 99p stuff for nowt... at least I think I can. Put the chinchilla cage in the free ads paper. Two enquiries. Neither of them turned up despite the "we'll be with you in half an hour" conversation. OH is happy to donate it to an animal sanctuary which would get rid of it with minimal hassle. Would prefer to get some cash for it, even if its only a tenner.

Off to transform the kitchen into something less like a bachelor pad on the Sunday morning after a party.

moo2moo

Spent half an hour kneeling in chicken shoite in total darkness whilst being rained on attempting to persuade the new hens to go to bed. Eventually managed but it was almost 10:30 by the time everyone was shut up for the night. Cockerel is in a worse state than I thought. Hes very bony. Have penned him away from everyone else whilst I figure out whether hes neglected or ill. Think its most likely a combination of the two.

Had a very therapeutic half hour chucking out knackered stuff from the dumping ground under the stairs. More specifically chucking out OHs knackered stuff. 3 pairs of slippers, two pairs of trainers and four pairs of black work shoes in the wheelie bin later we're finally making some headway. Next job is to persuade him he really doesn't need four pairs of hiking boots or three pairs of sandals. At least now I can get most of the kids shoes out of the way. Hopefully I can be as ruthless with the other tat in the house and then perhaps I'll finally feel like I'm getting somewhere.

Having a minimalistically spendy month has paid off and we've dropped 10% off the total debt since the end of April. Its unlikely we'll do that every month but it is a huge leap in the right direction. Feels like the noose around my neck is starting to slacken but then Oh starts talking about buying me a new car not that theres anything much left to go wrong with the old one. He'd like to get one thats big enough to put a dog cage in the boot so that I can transport the hairbrained hound from A to B without risking her ending up on my lap or in the footwell eating the pedals whilst driving. For the mo. I'm just avoiding taking her anywhere by car. Lifes somewhat safer that way.

This weeks sports day has been postponed as has the summer fayre which makes my life considerably easier this week at any rate. Also gives me two more weeks to dump unwanted and non-e-bayable tat at school.

moo2moo

Oooh Halifax are giving £50 to customers signing up to their £5 a month account for going via Moneysupermerket... need to dig out my Nationwide details to see if I can transfer the DDs to the Halifax without forfeiting the £50 that they hadn't paid out last time I'd checked.

mooomin

Just remember you will need to pay in £1000 per month to get the £5...

moo2moo

Thank FF. Getting quite adept at shuffling cash around to make it look ilke I have far more than I really do.

Nationwide statement arrived today and they've forked out £75 depite me only having two DDs set up each month and a v. minimal £40 a month entering the account to cover them. Have opened an account with the Halifax and applied for the autoswitching team to balls up my DDs, fortunately they're only for the kids savings accounts so it doesn't matter if they don't get it right. Reading the Ts and Cs it implies that I have to pay in 1K asap to qualify for the £50, have to pay in £100 before they'll release the debit card and pin... will do that closer to pay day so that I don't drop myself in a hole with an inaccessable £100 locked in an account. Failry sure I'm running out of accounts with generous opening offers to take advantage of.

Domestic drudgery successfully avoided for a morning. Have written three DooYoos, banked, scratched and generally faffed about. Washing up beckons.

moo2moo

Today has the makings of a gloriously sunny day which is precisely why Sports Day has been postponed until next Thursday when its guaranteed to rain in bucketloads. Work yesterday was hell on earth. The back stabbing b!tches were in full blown whinge mode and complained about everything. Boss has finally decided to address the problem of a bigger building needing more work doing on a daily basis but no one having enough hours in their life to do it. Hopefully he'll start to realise what we've known for months and will hire another cleaner to take some of the pressure off the rest of us. Fat chance of that happening before September though.

Now a mere 10 reviews (hopefully less) from my next £50 with DooYoo. CLueless as to what I'm going to waffle about though. Still I'm sure I'll come up with something.

Despite my best intentions yesterday I didn't do much in the way of productive things so the house is still as big a tip as ever. Chicken houses are v. clean though and the girls laid an astronomical dozen eggs yesterday. Will need to find some more regular customers if they keep that up.

OHs boss is attempting to make him feel guilty for spending his weekends off with his children. Not having that. OH is really cheesed off about it as is everyone else he works with. Just because his boss wants every single weekend at home with his children doesn't mean the rest of them should give up the two weekends they get off every two months to accomodate him. Hes threatened to cancel booked holiday leave in order to resolve his self-created staffing problems. The bloke is an imbicile.

moo2moo

Gah. Things with the Halifax are not going well. Had a very long conversation with the switching team who aren't prepared to release my cheque book nor anything else until I can prove who I am which requires me to pootle into the civilised world to visit a branch in order to prove that I am not a figment of my own overactive imagination. Meh.

The four legged fiend has doubled in size overnight. Had to extend her harness by 3" before I could take her for a walk. Now need to source the next size up asap.

moo2moo

Ended up nipping to the bank on the way to work. Left the house in glorious sunshine. Arrived at work looking like a drowned rat thanks to the flash flooding that assailed itself upon my head the moment I left the bank. Spent a happy evening at work bumbling around in my decorating overalls which are several gazillion sizes too big. Didn't get many odd looks from staff, mostly because this is the third time in a year that I've ended up so wet that I've resorted to getting changed into the only dry clothing avaialbe. You would have thought after the second drenching I'd get round to keeping a change of clothes in school but sadly I'm not that organised. Perhaps this time....

Spent £4 on a book called "How to Train a Superdog" although I'd gladly have settled for one entitled "how to stop your dog eating you and everything you own". Came down this morning to find her curled up with my rapidly disintegrating imitation crocs. Shes nibbled them rather than chewed but it means shes scaled 4' of furniture to help herself to them. Will be moving more things higher up later today. At this rate I'll end up dangling things from the ceiling to avoid her jaws. At least shes getting easier to walk, so long as there aren't any cars in the immediate vicinity.

Cleared out the cupboard under the stairs again yesterday. Managed to get most of the stuff occupying floor space onto shelving. Will need to purchase dog food in the very near future which will neatly fill the oasis that tidying created. Feel like I'm moving the tat from A to B rather than actually getting anywhere. Must try harder or be more ruthless, preferably both.

ID delivered to bank although bank employees looked at me like I was mad. Apparently theres no request on the system for ID nor any reason why the account isn't fully operational, in fact as far as my local branch were concerned its up and running just as it should be. Aaaaaaaaaaaagh. Talk about a waste of time. Still tis done now.

Hoping for a nice dry laid back uneventful whinge free morning at work. Fat chance of that if the earlier part of the week is anything to go by. Still its almost the weekend even if that does herald the arrial of three days worth of someone elses much larger, slightly older and even more nutty puppy. What have I let myself in for?