Memorygirls - Make Do and Mend

Ellidee

Wow !!! Thanks Firewalker !

savingholmes

Well it has taken me a few days but I have finally read the whole of this diary! Thanks MemoryGirl and other posters - very uplifting and inspiring.

On the MSE front - yesterday I found out I owed £1K less than I thought I did which I found out as you were putting down about writing big cheques to yourselves future dated....

On the make do and mend front - we suffer from CHAOS a lot of the time but today I have 2 kids over, and later some adults are coming - so have tidied the kitchen, packed the dishwasher, putting the shopping away from last night and cleaned 2 freezer drawers out! That is pretty good for me....

Loads more to do.... Need to get the lounge looking respectable by 5pm!

As a parent I would be willing to pay for a study skills course with the recommendation from the 5 kids with great results... so definitely a market there!

Ellidee

MG saw this and wanted to share ! http://www.beautybible.com/health_notes/2010/SHN_220810.html

ETA - The Mindful Manifesto bit.

parsniphead

Good Morning Memory Girls and Everyone Else.

I hope you have all had a positive weekend.

I'm planning a M G style day today by doing as much as I can starting with painting a wall which I will begin when I have finished my toast in a moment. Then to follow for starters:

A little shopping:mad: (I don't like shopping)
Recovering lampshades
Decluttering
Mopping floors
Allotment
Lining curtains with fleece.

BUT I need to keep off this site to get anything done.

Have a good day all.

P

Helen105

So a mixed weekend, Ex came round on Saturday with his enormous pipe wrench (I was forced to slip into the world of saucy postcards on opening the door "Gosh that's a big one!") and fixed the leak. Then I asked his opinion on the wiring & he said he'd come back & help me with it on Sunday. He did and wired everything neatly & got rid of all exposed wiring, we put the power back on and the light worked, all was well & he went home. I stood in the hall admiring the light, like a simpleton, and thought I'd try turning it off and on again. Bang went the fuse! Ex came back and we tried again for an hour. As the fusebox is the old type as well, each time the fuse went it had to be rewired. Aaargh!
The book was little help, it assumed that the person who had wired your house previously had done it properly and logically.
Now neither the hall nor landing lights can be used. Ex has promised to come back tonight.

On a more domestic front I washed a tiger, a dog & a unicorn on Saturday. They are full size furry suits for an 8 year old and have been in the airing cupboard for last 8 years, now washed they can get put in vacuum bags & go back for another 8 years waiting for GS to grow into them. I've also stewed blackberries & apple ready to boil up into jam tonight. They smelt very autumnal & I felt like the Good Housewife, a bit like MG thinking she was Doris Day. Loved the packed lunch plan by the way, very organised & will save much trouble.

whatatwit

Well done on sorting the leak Helen, but Bah to the wiring...why do these 'small' jobs always morph into something huge.
I can feel a freezer blitz coming on so I can do some baking and freeze it.

Memory_Girl

aaaaaarrrggghhhhhh!!!!!

Everything was gonig so well - the kids are at school and all excited about new teacher.

washing done, shiny sink, clean bathroom and ironing ready to go - when the Postie comes.

:eek::eek:THEY ARE STOPPING OUR CHILD TAX CREDITS!!!!!!!!!!!!! :eek:Because I didn't return their form - I didn't???? - well I will tell you now i b****y well did!!!!!! Do they think i am flush enough for money that i can survive without these credits????

Packed a book and a snack for ds2 and we are off to camp out in the job centre to use their phnoes for the 0845 number - cos i really can't afford £50 on my mobile again trying to sort this out and "our lines are very busy".

Breathe memorygirl - maybe this is the day the big cheque is arriving instead.

mg

museumworker

Oh no - they are such g!ts - hate to post and run but try http://www.saynoto0870.com/ to see if there is a cheaper way of calling them. Hope you sort it out!

katie2407

Memory_Girl wrote: »

time to chill out for a while............... oven on to warm, time to bake the packed lunch goodies.

Got manky bananas - so a banana loaf
Weetabix cake
apple, oat and raisin muffins
lemon drizzle cake

they should all cook at roughly the same temperature, so its worth putting on th ebig oven i think.

Memorygirl

thank you for the muffin recipe

Can I please have the recipe for the banana loaf and weetabix cake. I have also some manky bananas lying around my kitchen and hate throwing them out.

On holiday all week so going to try and get some decluttering done

Memory_Girl

Back - soaked to the skin, but credits will be reinstated in a week or two!!!!!

and as ususal they don't catch up the "Lost payments" but instead recalculate the award and divide what you are owed by however many weeks left in the year.

So Memorygirl mansion could be down between £180 and £270 this month. So no new shoes for ds1, no swimming till the end of the month, DS2 back on washable nappies for through the night and guess what - yup "The Ulimate Grocery challenge" here we come again.

basically i dare not spend a penny becasue all the bills are due out at the beginning of the month and although it could be squeaky, i should just make it. Better be supercareful on the petrol though.

I hung on the line (after ringing 8 times and being thrown off the queue) for 62 minutes to resolve this. 62 x 40p = £24.80 !!!!!!! so just as well i was able to walk to the job centre and use their phone - cos that could be our grocery budget until the tax credits are sorted again.

The ladies there has the most amazing expression on their faces as i walked in with the buggy, unhooked ds2, spread a rug on the floor for him, unpacked his toys and a snack box and then sat myself down at the phone with my finance file, novel and flask of coffee. You see!!! I knew I was going to be there ages, so I came prepared.

bless him though DS2 was no problem, just puddled around, shared his muffin with one of the ladies and showed another his trucks - as i was still waiting to talk to a human being - LOL

Mind you once i did get to speak to very nice lady - Claire - she couldn't have been more helpful. she even admitted she couldn't see why my credits had been stopped because they did have my most current information (which they could only have got from my returned form)

Ah well!!! all well that ends well i suppose? Thanks to this site though i have my weeny cash buffer and some useful frugalising skills.

Here to a more productive afternoon

MG