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

RubySewSew

Little mine update - have spoken to Halifax collections department who were really helpful and said if I go into the branch they will authorise a withdrawal of funds and set up a new arrangement. Am on my way now so will fill you in later. Wish me luck!

RubySewSew

Much more sorted and much calmer. Phew. Went into Halifax who allowed me to withdraw £700 in cash. Took that to co-op to credit my account and learnt that I can make payments through my local post office which is fantastic news! I've had a good luck through the budgets and with a bit of rejigging (owing to a slight overspend on shopping so far this month) I can stay in budget and bank the majority of the cash that needs to be put aside for savings. I'm a little short as I needed to pay out nearly 60 quid for printer ink, envelopes, paper etc which strictly speaking is a business cost but I don't currently have an account to keep my business stuff separate. So for now that has been subbed from my 'savings'. The inverted comma shows that until the end of the month they are entirely hypothetical! I can finally see a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. Or at least a few straight months where there is a budget in place and no forseeable reason why I should need to deviate from it. How on earth do you spell forseeable?!

So the kids have arrived back from their Dad's for the holidays. They are having leftover jambalaya for dinner (I've already munched some for a snack to try and stave off hunger pangs - no idea why but I am ravenous today!). The vegetarian is trying tuna pasta so I'm keeping everything crossed that he likes it as it is a cheap, quick, healthyish meal. I am going out! This exposes an obvious problem which is how on earth am I going to pay?! It's a work night out - dinner in a local Italian and then onto a karaoke club. The club is discounted but I'm still a bit stuck about what I should spend. I feel a bit like this for the whole holiday as I want/need a bit of cash to do stuff or I'm going to be completely housebound. I do have 2 invoices due in so maybe I could sub the money from there? Oh man, this is such hard work! Not that I'm complaining - I am so relieved to have recovered that £700!

So that is the good news. The less good is that the £150 I was expecting has already been paid into my account and absorbed into stuff Not to mention that I didn't win on either the Grand National or the Euromillions! Oh well! I did however remember that I have quite a bit of money £75+? paid to a meat delivery company that I have to spend on yummy free range meat

Positives include:
2 invoices outstanding
Some SE work to book in the diary
A clear idea of what work I'm going to book in
A clean living room and kitchen and a clear head to match not to mention a sunnier outlook!

I have some Easter projects to tuck into:
clearing out the cupboard under the stairs
clearing off my desk
finding a home for my craft stuff
getting some stuff on ebay
finishing and listing some of the furniture floating around
bit of writing and website stuff
Plenty to keep me busy!

So I'm going tot ake myself off, feed the children, supervise the clearing up of the aftermath and then put my gladrags on ready for a good night out!

Eager_Elephant

Hi Ruby

Glad you managed to get your money back - sometimes the worry can make you think the worst things when usually it can be sorted :j

Hope you had a great night out!! And not too much :beer:

If you have any old cartridges you can sell them to companies, I sell my Canon cratridges for about 3.50 ish each (for some reason my cartridges are worth quite a lot, most Canon's are not!!). The company I use is The Recycling Factory, their web address is something like www.trf.com

EE

RubySewSew

I'll look into that Eager - thank you. Need to scrape extra pennies wherever I can. Got the boys to make a sign for eggs as we have a bit of a surplus owing to school holidays. However, I went in this morning and one of the girls had got herself locked in and eaten 2 of the eggs. She's a very naughty chicken because she can't have been in there more than half an hour! I'm a bit worried that she might develop a taste for it and do it again. Also, one of them isn't laying - I suspect the Bantam which wouldn't worry me if she had gone broody which they are prone to do but no obvious signs of a broody hen. Hmmm....

We've got another sunny day here, possibly the last for a couple of days so feel like we should make the most of the day and get out. Might wander over to the beach later. Bit worried because DS1 has had a major allergic reaction to something and we don't know what. His face is puffed up, swollen and hot and he has a rash on his arms. He has historically been allergic to suncream but the reaction was different (welts as opposed to rashes and swellings). So I'm a little bit worried about taking him out and exposing him to more sun and more products.

I've meal planned for the week based on what we have in the freezer so think we can get away without any major shopping which will be whoop whoop! Will need the money for petrol to my sister's later in the week. And if there is leftover might have a bit of spending money for next week. Yippee!

And, fyi, I was very restrained last night. With the alcohol anyway - didn't feel comfortable to really let go. Had a good old sing song though. All the endorphins without any of the painful exercise!

RubySewSew

Woohoo!! Just logged on to paypal to pay bill for kids holiday club an found 40 squid in there I didn't know I had!

RubySewSew

I have been so sleepy today! Had a lie in this morning and then had an afternoon nap! I must be catching up from last term. I had a little bit of parental guilt combined with 2 days of cream scone craving so decided on a little treat for us all. We popped over to the supermarket to get cream cakes and found the new Harry Potter DVD on offer. I haven't seen it yet so we had a snuggly afternoon on the sofa watching it together. And I don't feel even a little bit bad. I do realise that I have a strong impulse to spend at the moment - I'm constantly scouring catalogues and shops (all home stuff) and it reflects the displacement I seem to feel at the moment towards my house and garden. However, a tenner for entertaining and treating 4 of us seems a small price to pay. Hopefully, with a bit of TLC my energy and motivation will get to the levels I need to move things forward to the next stage. I'm working at the university on Thursday afternoon and I have booked childcare for the whole day so that hopefully I can get some extra bits done. Also, going to bed later and sleeping later seems to suit my body clock better. I still need a lot of sleep but my energy tends to be more sustained.

Right, trying to get the boys to bed. Didn't realise how long the film was!

Eager_Elephant

Hi Ruby

I'm glad that you have managed some cheap entertainment today.

I really feel for you with the excess eggs, we are over run with eggs, have 1 full fridge full of eggs and another half - I reckon I have about 30 dozen eggs!!!

Hopefully I can sell some more eggs at work this week and hopefully some more from outside the house.

Hope the rest of the week goes well for you.

EE

RubySewSew

Oh my goodness! We're not that over run! You can open them and freeze them. But then you'll have 30 dozen frozen eggs! We rolled some down the hill for DS3's birthday party and it felt like pouring my own breastmilk down the sink! Could Fare Share help if you're desperate to get rid of them? http://www.fareshare.org.uk/ or a local women's refuge or an hospice?

I decided to put some of my unvented creativity and frustration into something positive and made some new notice boards for the kitchen. I had some big old canvases from yonks ago and some fab pin up girl paper (from my Mum for Christmas) and some Russian doll paper (that I found for £1.25). I don't know how well it has worked yet because I've used PVA glue which is quite wet and bumpy - I'll see how it dries. It works quite well for smaller decoupage pieces but not sure what kind of result I'm going to get. Will let you know!

RubySewSew

PVA isn't the best glue but I'm not sure what might work better. Spray mount I suppose although it is quite temporary for what I want. The boards look good from a slight distance but don't stand up to close scrutiny on the lumps and bumps front. Overall, I'm quite happy with them and they are done so that's something to tick off the list.

Quiet day again today - managed to get the boys to finally tidy their rooms. It's like magic once its done because they just disappear upstairs to play with each other! I wish they could see the benefit to them of having a nice clean tidy space to play.

I'm still struggling with frustration about all the things I want to get done vs all the things I need to get done vs the things I can actually afford to get done. I feel like a spoilt, tantrumy, sulky child stamping my feet and whingeing 'it's not fair!'. But I am SO bored of being broke! Spring is a marketing nightmare with all manner of change your life/home/ garden/style/identity consumer goodies being thrust in your direction at every turn. And I want them! I'm a sucker! I'm lapping up the belief that the right shade of lavender paint, some cosy lighting and a driftwood hanging heart will make my life better and easier. I'm an intelligent, educated, rational woman so why am I being dragged into this?! A colleague at work ventured that you only ever feel the desire to shop when your self esteem is low. Which is probably true but why is my self esteem low? I have happy, healthy kids who give me lots of love and cuddles, a lovely family, great friends, a fantastic boyfriend, an enjoyable job where I'm appreciated and valued; I'm getting to an age where i'm a bit more settled in my own skin. So what is wrong with me?!

This is a list of the thoughts and desires that I am crazed with at the moment:

Self - new tattoos, piercings, hair colour, 40's styling, new underwear, leggings for work, necklaces and bracelets everywhere I look, perfumes, shoes, boots, bags, accessories, fabrics, summer dresses....

Home - paint, fabric, curtains, lighting, rugs, accoutrements/knick knacks, catalogues, clocks, furniture, beds, wardrobes, shelves, posters, frames, wall stickers.....

Garden - chicken coop, washing line, hammock, HAMMOCK, HAMMOCK!, plants, veggies, flowers, turf, paint, slate, paths, sheds...

Ahhhhhh!! It might be a replacement for facebook which I am giving up. It might be in replacement for junk food which I am avoiding in order to lose some weight and get control of my appetite back. It might be me playing out my indecision about work and how to move forward. It definitely represents a disconnection with the here and now and a desire to project myself into the future. I don't want to sort stuff out - I want it to be sorted out *sigh*. I need to snap myself out of it!

It's actually quite useful writing all of that down because it shows me just how ridiculous I'm being! And it also highlights to me how much i have been using food to treat myself and distract myself. I also know that I have got so many lovely things hiding beneath all the clutter and mess that I just need to dig out. There is a home under all this stuff. Hmmmm. Any life coaching tips welcome!

NorthernLas

Ruby .... Please consider packing in weightwatchers immediately. It may work for you, but on the whole, statistically 98% of people who go on diets/join diet clubs end up heavier in 2 years than when they started their weight loss quest!!!

If you consider that Weightwatchers is owned by Heinz, one could get a little more cynical about their motives.
If you enjoy the support, I know an on-line forum which is sold on a 'try before you buy' basis, where the first month is free.

OK, I am licenced to run workshops for the company, but whether you go there or not is not my concern. I am passionate that you should know that there are other alternatives. Food is a cheap, legal support mechanism which helps people through difficult times. It is better that drink or drugs (legal or otherwise), but unfortunately, the short term hit of pleasure can lead to long term misery. If you want to know more just PM me any time.

When Mr NL is off on a business trip across the world, there is nothing better than letting a minstrel melt on my tongue and enjoying the chocolate pool in my mouth. For me it is a jolly good 'hug replacement'. If you eat when you are angry/sad/happy/afraid/tired etc. etc., it helps to realise that ultimately food will never hit the spot; but short term, that plate of beans, mash and brown sauce may be just what you need.

NL x