13 Moons ... ( *** Off, I'm Fabulous )

RosaBernicia

:T hurrah for money back and what lovely :A post office people you have, hurrah for them too.

Rosa xx

Shoe_Gal

Sorry you're having a tough week - take care of you :A

Lula-Hula

Hey guys,

thanks for all the lovely posts :A

I've been hibernating a bit this last week - worked 3 evenings for home-job until quite late & then just jumped in the bath with a book & then headed to bed.

I was meant to be meeting lovely friend for coffee today but she asked if we could postpone for a week & as she's self employed I happily agreed as I know it's hard to turn down work when it's available.

I decide to be really active with sorting stuff out instead.

I've been swamped with paperwork this week what with council tax, water, rent etc & school admission forms & my home has been neglected for too long & I'm feeing the urge to declutter again.

Washing was on the line at 9 & by half past I was out the door on the way to waitrose where I spent another freakingly frightening £49.18, of which £46.30 was on groceries which brings my total grocery spend this month ( just this month ) to £205.44 :eek:

Not good & playing havoc with my budget & debt repayments. I'm starting to wonder just how exactly I am going to clear it.

Turns out that eating healthily costs loads of dosh. No booze, no faddy diet foods, just meat, chicken, fish, veg & low fat dairy & extras for DDs lunches.

It probably doesnt help that the only fish I can bear is either smoked mackerel or smoked salmon & I cant take that to work as too stinky ( I'll smell like a cat :rotfl:) so I'm having to buy chicken as well. Amazing to think that pre diet - my lunch cost me about 65p for cup a soups for the week & an apple & either rock cake or hobnob each day.

I've done a months budget in just 2 weeks so am going to have to have a rethink.

Anyway, next stop was argos to get a couple of cheap bamboo blinds for the kitchen as it's looking a bit bleak in there. For some stupid reason I ended up buying 2 extra ones with thoughts of putting them elsewhere but when I got them home I realised that wasa bad ides so they'll be going back to shop tomorrow.

I took down the curtains in the living room & washed them & hung them out on the line & then washed the windows & frames too. It must look tons better as DD commented on how fresh & clean it looks.

I've started to clear out my wardrobe as I know there are items that I just dont feel that good in so I am embracing spring cleaning & charitizing stuff without thinking too deeply about it. DD will be doing the same with her stuff.

The increase in various bills are going to be costing me an extra £30-40 a month & of course there's council tax to be paid as from 1st April - just under £100 a month.

It's all a bit scary & then I receive a spring edition of the Joe Browns catalogue ...

Must not buy anything until after May 1st. Must not buy anything until after May 1st. Must not buy anything ...

Hope to have some debt clearing news soon.

taxi73

All sounding good..I can empathise with you on the grocery bills as we buy the same stuff diet wise.
Nice to see your DD notice and appreciate you're cleaning efforts.

makeup

Hey Lula, so glad your money hassles are resolved, what a nightmare!!

I feel your pain on the healthy food thing (although I'm not eating healthily...) my friend came over last night for dinner and he is eating fish on friday's for lent. So I thought I'll buy some of that cheap white fish and make a pie. I ended up spending nearly £5 on some river cobbler (whatever that is..tasted ok though) and some smoked haddock. The pie was good but it is so pricey...maybe I should investigate a fishmonger. However there is some left over and another friend is coming tonight so I feel fish pie is back on the menu....and I may be able to squeeze a little portion out for a lunch or something so if I can stretch to five portions isn't too bad I guess!

I like Joe Browns but feel overpriced...what do you think??

moo2moo

Oooh I got the Joe Browns catalogue too. took one look at it, fell in love with a dozen items including a fabulous coat and then set fire to it. Could quite happily have spent £500 without any effort its all so lovely!

Lula-Hula

Oooh Moo - setting fire to it ? Now that's a statement of dis-intent :rotfl:

I got up to £160 before putting it down, although I cant guarantee that I wont become the proud owner of the rather nice crumpled look black mac.

Yesterday was one of those days that was just perfect (in terms of getting things done in a rather sad & possibly middle aged housewife way) :rotfl:

I woke up early & it was sunny & windy - in this house that's laundry weather. So, by 9.30 I had 2 loads out on the line all billowing & looking fab.

DD is suffering with a random cold but agreed to accompany me to return the blinds & library books. We headed to nearby Chavstown (_pale_) to get her a red nose from oxfam & we pretended to be shopping at tatco just for the free parking . Then headed over to argos to return the blinds for a tasty £13.98 refund including 2 x £2 coins .

Came home to feed poor DD who then retired to bed she was feeling so rough. I continued with the laundry, bunging anything not nailed down in the machine. Decided to make a start on the ironing too & then went mad on the cleaning - washed down everything in my room from the window sill to the floor & then cleaned the bathroom.

DD woke up & felt a bit of fresh air would do her good so we wandered to the co op & I was tempted by a bogof on dark choccie digestives - even though I cant eat them .

Following on from a comment I made on shoe Gals thread about how cross I was with this months Marie Claire magazine where I had to scuff past 11 pages of ads to get to the editors bit, then another 3 before getting to the contents page, followed by another 8 to get to 'cast list' , then another 7 before hitting the letters page. It annoys me & to add insult to injury I realised that I dont seem to get the freebies with my subscription - no nice cow shed freebie for me this month. I am not amused :mad:

On another note, what the hell is Cavalli on ? What horrible, horrible, nasty, bad, bad, bad 80s nightmare fashion is going on there :huh:

I'm digressing again

I received another 2 x £2 coins in my change & when we got home I managed to persuade DD to part with hers too - although it did cost me 10p . So, after a week or so of drought I managed to feed £12 into my sealed pot. It is in the back of my mind that I could potentially open this up to ensure debt clearance by 1st May ( it's only sealed by a little rubber stopper & my willpower)... BUT I'm really saving it all towards christmas expenditure so am loathe to do that.

I'm also not keen to use my hard won savings pots & have now realised that by switching the rent to weekly pay, I've effectively just enabled the huge grocery bill rather than achieved any more debt repayment :doh:.

Along with my council tax bill was a letter with details of an online calculator to see if I was entitled to any further discounts other than the 25%. I tried it & apparently not :rotfl:.


So, as it's all gone a bit pete tong this month & I feel like I'm losing my grip & porpoise so from April, I'm going back to monthly rent. That way, I can only spend on groceries what I have left.

I'm really hoping the gas & electricity bills are low so I can use up all the spare dosh in those funds, have over £700 in total at the moment but gas, electricity & car tax imminent so need to wait until those are paid before dipping in.

Anyway, I got all my cleaning, washing & ironing done yesterday. I did wonder at my neighbour who waited until 4.30 before putting her washing out & left it there all night & it's still there now in the rain - strange woman.

Our little home is all clean & sparkly, I'm finding plenty of clothes & books to charitize & DD is decluttering her toys & books too. It might well be a pyjama pottering day today, a bit of rugby, some reading, sorting through the paperwork & getting April s budget in place.

The diet is back on & although I threw away a week what with cake, chocolate & pancakes ( only had 2 though ) I have now re lost what I gained so a total loss of 8lbs. I'm away to get me some oatbran porridge for breakfast




It goes without saying that all my minor trials & tribulations are very insignificant when compared to the awful events in Japan. I just cant imagine the suffering & devastation all those people are going through & feel so ineffective & helpless as all I can do is watch the news & donate any money or goods that are requested.

Souk08

Morning hon, know what you mean re Japan and yes healthy eating IS expensive (remember my horrid Jan budget!). Once the weight is off you can adopt a half and half approach again.

Ace news on all your cleaning and washing lady. Tis always so nice when it's done X

Shoe_Gal

:j well done on the weightloss - I am really struggling

Dan29

Lula-Hula wrote: »

then I receive a spring edition of the Joe Browns catalogue ...

I got one too (do they send one to everyone in the country, like the census?) but binned it.

I think a crumpled look black mac might have got me some funny looks around the neighbourhood anyway, so it's probably for the best.