Fallen off the DFW wagon aghhhhhh

saxysarah

I was doing so well i posted my SOA had tons of really good advice - even found out i'm exempt from council tax - joined a couple of challenges paid off a credit card managed to meal plan and feed me and the 5 kids 2dogs nd 2cats for just £50 ;-) happy days - then......i don't know what happened was knackered getting home from work and got chippy instead of battering my own fish fillets from the freezer - then was driving home from a volunteering counselling shift and remembered i'd forgotten to eat so had sneaky macdonalds at half 10 at night. Then i got a bloody letter from ann summers saying i owe then £350 cos i not done any parties for months - started doing party plan with them last year to make some extra cash and it was ok for a while but once you've done all ur friends/family etc a couple of times its hard to get parties and i now dont have the time to do them so now i've got all the hassle of trying to flog all the stuff on ebay etc to cover the cost plus i'm really trying to sort out my building site of a garden so its half tidy for the kids this year and i'm spending money instead of overpaying my cards and i just feel

saxysarah

oh well had a rubbish few days.......gotta try harder i guess!

nicnacnoo

at least you are aware that its getting out of hand and that you need to pull back again and look at what youre doing, you have already mentioned ebay so i reckon you know what to do and that you will be back on track in no time, good luck
Nic

tallyhoh

I have got Asda's 4 for £3 large Pizza's in the freezer for those "cant be a**ed" times"
Cant help with the Ann Summers (how does it work?) but what money are you spending on the garden?

saxysarah

the pizzas are def a good idea! I have stuck really well to the meal plan but sometimes there just isnt enough hours in the day!
With ann summers they 'give' u £500 quids worth of kit to get u started which u 'rent' for £3 a week or until you have so much of sales. then thats it - but the kit technically remains theres. obviously i can't send it back as its not all the original kit stuff as new lines are brought in and we sell stuff off and replace it. was fine for about year but then it wore off and i really dont have the time (or the inclination) and its really ahrd to get new parties. so now they've billed me at cost for the original kit grrrrrrrrrrrr.
As for the garden i've been waiting for 2 years for promised help to materialise and it hasn't so i have bought a few garden tools (cheapy from wilkis) some compost and a few shrubs and a small tree. i have moved half a ton of earth the length of the garden via bucket! (am investing in a smallish wheelbarrow also) and my garden is pretty much a blank slate so i'm starting from scratch. also need paths concreting and quite a bit of fencing at some point so that will be quite costly!

gonzo127

things do not have to be overly costly, do you have close friends or family living close by? do you talk to your neighbours? if not now is the time to be friendly to them

start talking to them, do they have a wheelbarrow you could borrow? do they have any shurbs you could take a cutting from? do you have a composing heap?

have you thought about getting fruit trees and bushs instead of just getting pretty plants, then you can get the kids growing the fruit and eating it saving you money each year and getting them interested in fruit and gardening? what about grow your own veg and once again get the kids help! basically get a working garden that the kids help in (free activity to do together) where you get free or much cheaper and fresher fruit and veg than buying them from the supermarket etc you can also donate any left overs to your neighbours once it is up and running repaying them for any help they have given with tools etc

saxysarah

I have earmarked out a potential veg plot and am quite excited about the thought of growing something useful and so are the kids. none of my neighbours/friends are very garden friendly and not had the promised 'family' help i been waiting for for over 2 years so i am determined to go it alone as i'm fed up of begging for help etc. however there's a lot of groundwork to be done first before i can see any progress so i did splash out on a couple of shrubs for a bit of incentive after all the hard work of creating 1 raised bed but i also bought some seeds which are 'plant straight outside' before DFW i would have just hit the garden centre and spend hundreds so i suppose technically its progress!

gonzo127

they might not be garden friendly but do they have a wheelbarrow?

do they maybe have some spare concreate which will go off soon? as it can only be kept for so long before you cant use it any longer.

i only say this because although my own garden is a mess and if people looked at it would think i am not gardening friendly i personally have a lot of equipment and spare things i have kept 'just in case' (i also have an 80 foot long back garden with hedges all round which is why it never feels like i am getting anywhere with it)

saxysarah

not sure! have to have a quick nose when they are not looking! although i have struck a deal with my XOH to get a wheelbarrow (purple ;-)) for just £26 as he works in a farm stores place nd gets discount. am going to put the thoughts of concreting to one side for the moment as i really think that may be beyond me - but who knows....Gosh 80ft! mine is nowhere near that big which on the one hand is a shame but on the other hand i am thinking thank goodness! I just want to be able to sit out there in the summer and enjoy with the kids - have a couple of BBQs etc (have lots of bricks really want to build one but no idea how!)
After renovating the house tho the garden is in a pretty bad state but i am determined and then i'm gonna stick 2 fingers up at those who promised to help lol and probably magmoniously invite them to the BBQ lol

saxysarah

may go and raid my mums garden tho - she's in australia and has been out there for 6 months she's not due back till april and is an avid gardener so i'm sure she has little tools which i could 'borrow' trowels and w/cans and stuff hmm may make a little visit donw there later - just to check her house is ok of course ;-)

gonzo127

i know what you mean with the garden it is great when i have done all the work on it but oh my life is it hard work, takes at least 2 hours to mow the back garden - and thats not even thinking about the front garden, and then the hedge cutting, etc, but i am cheeky because my parents live a long drive away when they come to visit we put them up in our house (if we can all depends on where the kids are that week/weekend if they are at their dads our or their friends) and if so i 'charge them' a bit of help in the garden depending on the weather

as to building a brick BBQ it isn't that difficult, not easy to explain on a forum however i believe B&Q still do 'help sheets' in most of their stores which also include pictures with instructions on how to do certain jobs, brick laying might be one of them (you might even find BBQ) so could be worth checking out if they have one