Further financial faux pas and even more disasterous decisions

moo2moo

Yes oh wise one. I have to dig a hole 6 feet long, 3 feet wide and at least 6 feet deep and then once filled I have to finish laying the patio and hope it doesn't sink too much as decomposition sets in. Knew the wheelie engine hoist would come in handy eventually.

As predicted OH was apologetic in the morning and sober when he went to bed last night which makes all the difference in the world. Wish hed realise that after a couple of drinks he transforms into the anti-hero Tosspotman. Life would be so much simpler. Still I'll settle for him being normal and as it happens I did spend the day changing lightbulbs and removing cobwebs and the boy did actually notice.

Spent a whopping £110 at Mr As. Took one look at the queue to get into Mr Ts and changed my mind about going there. Am v. glad I did though. of the very many offers I ended up with two packs of extra mature vintage cheese for £3 instead of £3.98 each. As a v. well trained bargain hunter I now have 8 packs in the fridge. Also purchased a bargaintastic new slowcooker for the ludicrously cheap price of £7 and a new vileda super mop for £3 which is less than a replacement head for my current mop would be. Boy, do I know how to splash the cash. Scarily I managed to puit it all away so there aren't any boxes lurking on top of the microwave waiting to be crammed into the cupboard. Also means by doing a big shop every two weeks instead of every week I'm spending less on food each month which is always good. Fortunatley the purchase of a £1 pack of 10 crisps means the DDs have changed their minds about having school dinners - lured by the temptation of hotdogs and desert each day - which means not forking out £80 a monnth for that. Can't say I'm at all impressed with the new "healthy homemade" menu, especially since I wander in and out of the kitchen on a daily basis sampling it.

DD1 has a birthday party disco tonight which goes on until 9:30pm. Completely forgot about this when I was shopping so have to hope I can magic up a pressie from the stuff in the pressie stash. If not I have a bag of uneaten birthday chocolates that I haven't got round to opening which will do. Also got an e-mail to say DD1s game has been dispatched for an entire pound less than I was expecting and Quidco have paid out £26 which includes the pet insurance company that went into administration. Am feeling the lurve.

Plans for today involve much tidying and bedroom shuffling and parcel wrapping in the hopes of being organised when friend arrives. Need to text her to let her know where I've stashed a key as OH is working later than anticipated. Am amazed hes working at all such is the severity of his manflu.

moo2moo

Had a bit of an eek moment when OH pointed out that so far DD1 only has one parcel to open on her birthday. I know its the thought that counts but when you're 11 volume is incredibly important too. So with that in mind the puppy, hairball no.1 and the one eyed cat all leapt at the keyboard and ordered up a Magic Puppy book each. Not feeling quite so bad now.

Postie brought the dreaded credit card bill. Its not as bad as I had feared. Its still far too close to 2k for my liking but at least its the right side of 2k. Made it to lunchtime before remembering that today is payday so need to pootle about shuffleing wonga to the right places. E-bay sales have reached the heady heights of £13 fortunately they still have five days to go so theres hope of making so serious moolah if only I didn't have to deal with the planks of t'internet in the process. Ridiculous questions to date include the cost of next day shipping to Hong Kong for an item that came free with a magazine five years ago.... a buy it now price for csomeone who can't bid because they're on holiday when the auction ends.... and a blind person who wants my opinion on how simple something is to see if you can't see in the first place.

Meanwhile I have a smidgen over an hour to transform DD1s room so that it sleeps two and make the beds, I need to clean two bathrooms, wash up again and vac. Simples. Also need to be at the vets before they close at 2:30.... perhaps the current Time Lord will lend me his time machine.

moo2moo

Had a fabulous evening assisting DD2 researching badgers for her homework assignmet. THe typos from her teacher are legendary. Given that there are six lines on the sheet in which to write the answers question three read: In which counties do you find badgers? Poor teacher now has a list of all the counties in Wales and a few in England before DD2 ran out of space. Spent a happy hour playing Uno with DD2 who was allowed to stay up until 9pm. Chauffeured DD1 to and from her disco where it appears the birdie song is still going strong. genius parents had hired a room without furniture so all the kids had to dance the entire time. She was asleep five minutes after walking through the door.

Tis v. nice to have friend here for the weekend. Watched a ghastly kung fu movie with OH but I fear we annoyed him by laughing at the sheer absurdity of it all. The plot had more holes than a swiss cheese and it appears all you need to be a female kung-fu meister is a huge cleavage and the ability to perform a striptease.

Plans for today involve horses and not a lot else. May well go to the park if it stays dry long enough. Also need to shuffle cash about as I didn't get around to it yesterday.

moo2moo

Yesterday was a stereotypically girlie day. Spent the afternoon shopping buying 2 pairs of OHs favourite trousers for 2/3rds of what one pair usually costs. Spent £10 of vouchers on 9 books, six of which will be great for DD1 for birthdays and Christmas and three of which shes already got but will be good for other peoples x-mas gifts. Curse the book sets which always seem to overlap titles. Managed not to spend anything whatsoever in L'Occitane despite being plied with champagne on entry. Friend succumbed to some amarzipan scented body cream that was reduced from £120 to £18. Still scraping my jaw off the floor.

Postie brought the books the animals ordered on Friday and the game from Amazon. Recieved another e-mail from Amazon saying the price had gone down again so got another refund too.

OH cooked dinner and v. good it was too. Played Uno round the table until the beached whale feeling had passed and then spent an hour in hysterics playing Just Dance on the Wii. OH even dismantled his beloved guitars to obtain extra controllers. DD2 managed to outdance everybody. Fairly sure this was due to her leaping aound like a mad thing, but she went to bed a v. happy tot. Finally settled down to watch the attrociously dire Sex and the City 2. Its cringeworthy beyond belief. V.v.v. disappointed.

moo2moo

Finally shuffled money around. Need to shuffle a wee bit more later in the month to gain the Hfxs free fiver.

OH has wangled today off so will be taking DD1 shooting. Friend departs at lunchtime which gives me a few hours with DD2. I would brave wrapping DD1s birthday presents but the kid is incapable of keeping anything secret. Hedges are heaving with damsons and rosehips so may well make more jam. Have a dozen or so empty jars. Am finding jam making v. therapeutic and calming. Its a v. relaxing way to spend an afternoon.

Plans should really involve laundry so that the DDs have clean uniform for the week, need to fill in DD1s high school forms although OH is still not convinced where he prefers and I need to bake cakes for lunchboxes, DD2 has picked the last courgette in anticipation of chocolate courgette cake.

Will also need to dig out packaging in which to send all the e-bay goodies that end this week. Still only got bids on an eighth of them but have ridiculous numbers of watchers on several 99p items but no bids. I really don't get these people.

moo2moo

Friend has departed taking with her a heap of cookery books that I haven't used in years as well as a box of jams and chutneys. In exchange shes left tons of the sort of medical supplies that cost several arms and legs to purchase in Boots. Means I'm prepared for all eventualities although I did decline staple removers and catheters - some things are best left for the pros.

An afternoon doing all the things that I should have spent all weekend doing, but haven't, beckons

moo2moo

and so begins the start of another working week. On the bright side the holidays start on Friday!

Plans for today are v. minimalistic as I have to get the car to the garage asap in order to have speakers fitted in the rear. Tis most annoying driving along being deafened or putting up with the whinges from the back about it being too quiet over something so simples. OH is ratehr miffed that I am paying someone lese to do it when hes perfectly capable aside from the minor thing of not having the tooling which costs almost as much to buy as paying someone to do the entire job in the first place. May well just take some butties and a book and wait while its done rather than mess about pootling back and forth.

Major sulk ensued last night when he discovered I've deactivated my Facebook account after an arguement about the amount of time I was spending playing Frontierville. I really can't please him no matter what I do. Wouldn't mind but its almost a week since I ditched it and he hadn't noticed its absence which makes me wonder if I really did play it that much in the first place. Still keen to make his point he reminded me how many dinners I burnt whilst playing it.... which incidentally wasn't any more than normal.

chevalier

Hi m2m
What a lot of ups and downs, and I don't just mean up the hills with the dog. I feel for you w ith you OH. I guess one could be charitable and say he was wingey because he was ill...

Hope you can get on top of your clothes mountain. I know what you mean about clothes decluttering. I have got to do that as well. I have had a look at https://www.mycapsulewardrobe.com, which seems quite interesting and will investigate it further

Hope you enjoy your half term
chev

moo2moo

Oh dear. Took the Style Quiz and answered mainly E purely because "whatever is on the top of the pile" was not an option. Perhaps I am truly a hopeless case. Doubt I'll ever manage a wardrobe that consists of 15 items because its simply not right. Three pairs of trousers? I can go through that in a day by the time I've walked the hounds through muddy fields, had a random child puke on my feet in school and chucked something on just to make it through the remainder of the day.

Car is now at the stero place being transformed into a mobile disco. Bet the kids whinge even more when they have to listen to E1 or BBC Cymru in order to improve their pronunciation. Strangely they like playing Dysgu Cymraeg.

moo2moo

I have mobile surround sound!

V. glad I paid to have it fitted because the fitter had a nightmare and had to try three different types of slimline speakers before finding one that allowed the window to open. Apparently it sounds a bit base-y. You're not kidding. Even the newsreaders pseak with a growl. Am thinking death metal may be even scarier than normal and most definately not good for road rage. Have already managed to cover 500 miles which is far more than I'd usually do in a month and still have a week to go before my first month of deluxe mobility is up. Rather more fabulously I still have 1/4 of a tank of gogo juice so figure pootling about is costing a little under 10p a mile. The *actual* cost of motoring is obviously considerably higher than that but it does make you think twice before nipping to the shop for a pint of milk when the trip to get to the shop costs more than the milk in the first place.

Plans for the day involve a trip to see the GP which will nescessitate an ear-bending as I've not been near the place in quite some time. Several years in fact... apart from an impromptu post cat bite tetanus jab with the nurse. No doubt they'll insist on proding and poking where the sun doesn't shine and I'll insist equally firmly that that ain't gonna happen. Hoping I can persuade them to get rid of a couple of v. annoying raised moles which seem to like developing under my bra straps (the reason for my last visit there was mole removal from the same shoulder) also need to convince them to remove one from my face but am pretty sure this will necessitate a trip to el surgeon plastique although I'm quite happy to live with whatever scarring there is. Another one won't make any difference at all. Bet the GP doesn't see it that way though.

No longer scratching and bonking in the morning. Finding this has left me with sufficient time to wash up after breakfast so the days tasks don't seem as abysmal when I set foot through the door. Even managed to get all the ironing done yesterday and vac amidst all the running around.