Week 2 - There's so much we can do.

RubySewSew

Rushing off to Essex to see my sister and family but just wanted to wish you all a very merry Christmas. You have helped me so much this year - much love RSS

PS Will fill you in next week x

Mags30

:xmassign:

RubySewSew

I have had a lovely time. The spa on Wednesday was fantastic. I went with a friend and it was the first time we'd managed to have an adult conversation without children interrupting! Started with afternoon tea which was lovely - sandwiches and cakes and scones. Followed this with steam room and sauna. That was relaxing enough itself - a luxurious spa all to ourselves with nobody knowing where we were, no clocks, no phones: bliss! Then we were taken for our treatments - a head, back and shoulder massage followed by a facial. Have to confess, might have dozed off a bit here! The treatments were all Espa which smelt divine. Everything about it was warm, comfortable, relaxing and peaceful. Finished off with a cup of tea in the relaxation room. Heavenly, the whole day was wonderful. It made me acknowledge how important it is to look after myself. Obviously I know this but it made me acknowledge it if you can see the difference? I don't remember the last time I spent money on myself. As it happened, i ran out of money the morning of the spa so had to put it on the Virgin credit card that I had just paid off. Along with a £50 fillet of beef for my sister's house on boxing day! Oh well, sometimes you have to loosen the purse strings and Wednesday was one of those days.

Thursday night I was taken out for dinner. We went to Jamie's Italian which is always lovely and for once really quiet! Had crispy risotto, mushroom and mozzarella balls to start followed by pork belly. Yum yum yum!

Thursday I got to take the boys out to lunch. Ran errands in the morning and then picked them up. A friend dropped off £24 for some cards she had bought so had £48 to spend. Gave them the choice of where to go and they chose a local American Diner. Burgers, thickshakes, fun and excitement. And got to spend some really quality time with them. Invented a new game that involved depicting movie scenes or historical events with stick men which they loved! Had a really lovely time - they were on form and it was a pleasure to enjoy their company.

Ran into town to FINALLY finish my Christmas shopping. It was surprisingly ok and got it done in a couple of hours only for my car to then break down in the shopping mall. Had to call the RAC who initially told me it was a 4 hour wait but actually came in 4 minutes! And started the car straight away. Got home, wrapped and tidied until 1am before giving in and collapsing into bed. Intended to get up and leave for Essex at 10am but finally left at 1.30! Straight forward journey though and got there to meet my sister's new puppy! She's gorgeous! Everything from there on in was lovely. Had a fab Christmas, really lovely. The boys come home tomorrow and then we get to do it all over again!

Meanwhile I'm in this odd, pre-New Year contemplative stage where I'm wondering how to sort my whole life out in the next 5 days in order to start the new year afresh! I can't seem to stop myself!

Oh, and by the way, my friend went on to have a beautiful little baby girl on Christmas Eve morning! At home! And I found my copy of The Red Tent! Hoorah!

RubySewSew

I'm itching to get budgeting for the new year! And the budget must include some room for buying new clothes - I have nothing! After my sort out I realise I have relatively little in my autumn winter wardrobe. Will be thinking about buying/making/altering some beautiful dresses so that I can feel fantastic in my clothes again. Feel a bit drab!

Mags30

Know what you mean about needing to spend money on clothes, that's how I feel about my hair. I plan on going back to Toni and Guy for a haircut soon- for mental health reasons I figure if I look better I'll feel better- will just have to cut back on food or something!

RubySewSew

I got crucified on the forums because I budget for my haircut. I have a mobile hairdresser who has been doing my hair since DS3 was born but he does such a lovely job every time. And since he's been doing my hair I've realised that you can make a rubbish outfit feel good with good hair but a good outfit will never make you feel beautiful with rubbish hair. So, hair has to be budgeted for, for mental health reasons! I quite agree with you there Mags!

Have had a fab day, been spoilt rotten. Poor DS1 has an awful cough and spent the first half hour of this morning puking from all the rubbish on his chest. I think we might have to find an emergancy doctor tomorrow. Have tried burning oils, rubbing him with olbas oil and putting water on teh radiators to humidify the room but nothing has worked. He got really sick with a silent chest infection a few years ago and i've been paranoid ever since. Of all of them he has the worst immune system - he has several weeks off school every autumn with chest or tonsils and he is housebound every Christmas by some virus or other.

I told the boys they could wake me up at 8am this morning so we could go down together to open presents. I kept waking up all through the night I was so excited. I woke up at 9.15 and got up to discover they were all still fast asleep! I think their Dad has over-tired them! They loved their presents. I loved them loving their presents. And the boyfriend organised presents with the boys so they could give me something to. It was all lovely. And 2nd Christmas dinner!

I got a lovely crafting book from a friend and some beautiful fabric from the boyfriend and a stash of marvel comics for decoupage - very, very exciting! All of this ties in nicely with my new year goal to bring more colour and fragrance into my home, garden and wardrobe! Ooh, and I got the Nigel Slater Tender cookbooks - all about homegrown veggies and fruit! And the boys got me seeds. And, this is really weird, On Christmas Eve I got some veggie grow bags in the post. Assuming they were from my Dad I phoned him to say thanks but he said he didn't know anything about it. Which means either I have a mystery benefactor or I put them in my Amazon basket months ago, forgot about them and checked them out with the Christmas shopping! Either way, happy Christmas me!

So, now, am going to put the boys to bed, sit back, watch something slushy on TV and relax!!!

RubySewSew

Have just updated year book with statement of affairs, debt repayment plan and budgets. Have updated my signature to show outstanding debts as they were and as they are. I need to earn £750 from school and self employment to keep my head above water. I can't accurately work out how much of this needs to come from self employment because I don't know how my pay will work out. I've got roughly the same hours but I will be term time only instead of on a permanent contract. Taking my current monthly salary (£415) multiplying it by 12 dividing it by 52 and multiplying that by 39 (no of term weeks a year) I make it roughly £311. Which means I need to make £439 net profit. Slightly hyperventilating at the responsibility now! I can at least ease my way in this month as I have some reunions to subsidise me whilst I get my first classes set up.

The biggest thing I need to do is stick to my budgets and saving plans!!

Mags30

Really impressive how you have the budgets worked out.

Hope your little boy is better tomorrow and love the goal about adding more colour to your home, garden and wardrobe.

RubySewSew

I'm a bit claustrophobic/stir crazy today. Weather has been wet and misty so no chance of getting out. The drabness has been getting to me despite Christmas bath and Christmas underwear. I got some dry shampoo which works like a charm so that took the edge of slightly for about 5 minutes! Think it's just a case of being in that itchy antsy space between Christmas and New Year where it's all expectation and anticipation and wanting to move on and start afresh. Found myself wishing the Christmas decorations down and looking at my garden wistfully. Need to put that energy to good use (rather than munching through pork pies)! I did pick up a pencil and start drawing. Just rough designs and ideas for future makes. And I did stumble across this...

http://clothkits.co.uk/

Does anyone else remember clothkits? The stuff is amazing! Not cheap but amazing and bright and colourful. I wonder if you can trace the patterns to use on other fabrics to? I am seriously coveting a couple of the skirts. Bought myself a sewing magazine today which at £5.99 wasn't cheap but did come with patterns and ideas for dresses and makes. Might buy myself some fabulous fabric and have a bash at making a dress.

I'm trying to pretend this is not the case but am feeling a little plump and frumpy as a result of all of the festivities. I'm trying not to get hung up on it as I am sure this will right itself with a return to normality but I don't think it's helping my mood.

Managed a clear down this afternoon, stacked presents in relevant piles and hoovered around them. Helped the boys with some of their new toys and then had a big old film fest.

Today with my nervous energy I have:
researched rescue dogs
decided not to get a dog until debts are repaid
flicked through a sewing magazine
sketched out some ideas and practised some lettering (needs more practise!)
read in the bath
tidied and hoovered
produced 2 meals
kept 3 children, 2 cats, 2 guinea pigs and 5 chickens alive
kept my spend down to £9.50 despite spending about £3000 in my head
managed to resist all the sales including a 24hr sale offering 20% off a bag I really, really want!
resisted urge to start sorting out cupboard under stairs knowing full well I'd get bored half way through
checked bank accounts and transferred money
checked back to school dates and inset days

I need a mini project. A small achievable one that doesn't involve unearthing anything major. I also arranged to meet other self employed friend in New Year to double up on marketing, networking etc. Need to stop fidgeting!

Cheery_Daff

No need to stop fidgeting Ruby, you're right, you just need a mini project! :T Have you got a list of goals for each month of the new year?! I always find that a good project to have over Christmas

Don't be scared by your budget! You've done the right thing, and you now know exactly how much you need to earn :T just over £100 a week - have you got a plan for exactly how you'll do that (could that be a mini project too?? )

(failing that, is there a cupboard or something that needs clearing out?? :rotfl: That kind of thing usually cures me of fidgetyness pretty quickly!)