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

Lula-Hula

The party was a success although DD was shattered & felt all 'jittery' when we got home. She's not used to all the sugar & fizzy drinks & it's always reacted badly with her system, she doesnt really enjoy the sensation .

Anyway, she didnt wake up until 11 today which meant I got to lounge around reading magazines & pretending I'm not on a healthy eating path .

Realised the cat was out of food so had to go shopping, trying him out on a new brand that seems much healthier & is also half the price - a £10.56 spend. Austerity measures for all in this home.

Swooped past a certain supermarket on the way home & stocked up on a few extra bits I'd forgotten on friday; soups for work, cereal for DD, bread & squash so another £12.48 spent from the grocery budget. If I'm to stay within budget then I have £17.61 left :rotfl:

Not looking forward to the week ahead; have various family dramas going on & who knows what mood the Goblin will be in ...

bye for now
xx

Karmacat

£17.6 will have to do it :rotfl: you can if you want :rotfl: though I really hope the Goblin doesn't send you off track :kisses3:

taxi73

hugs lula...sticking to shopping budget is hard though.

Lula-Hula

Hi guys -

thanks for hugs :A

I did actually log in & post on monday night but omitted to tick the 'remember me' box & my post vanished :mad:

I have been very good though; drinking lots of water & trying not to eat any naughty food. I'm doing half an hour of yoga every morning & monday night did the superfit workout. I have to say that I do actually feel quite good. I havent lost any inches or weight *sighs* but I feel somehow 'cleaner' & definitely have more energy. Last night I attempted the 'supersculpt' section :eek::eek::eek: it's more like super sadist. I dont even have any weights yet but was following all the moves & this morning my legs are very sore. I'm fighting the disappointment that there are no visible results yet by remembering that it took me nearly 3 years to gain the pounds & lose the fitness & it's therefore unlikely that the inches will disappear & the fitness return within a week or so. I'm still hoping for about 8-10lbs / a couple of inches all over loss by january .

This may not be helped by the fact that this morning I popped in to the co op to get some flowers for my grandmother & also picked up one of those large tins of chocs - it was half price but actually probably just half the weight.

I've hidden it & as longs as it stays sealed everything is safe.

Monday & Tuesday were NSDs but this morning I bought the flowers, chocs & a card & also had to pay £2 for DD to have the christmas dinner at school. I have also been given 4 books of raffle tickets to sell but havent done that yet. I know I'll end up buying them . I'm disappointed that the school arent doing anything towards Children in Need but there's a pyjama party at guides this week to raise funds so we can donate something for that.

I'm quite liking having wednesday off - I've done one load of laundry & hoovered & dealt with a couple of phone calls. I wont like friday much when I have to go in to work but all family duty visiting will have been completed in one fell swoop today so we can chill all weekend:cool:. I want to make a start on christmas cards as I got so many bargainous bits when the local craft shop closed down in the summer.

I've been sent a new programme of the shows coming up at the local theatre & am sorely tempted to buy the annual membership for £30 which will give discounts off each ticket price & also means no online booking fees. DD really wants to see Hairspray & I'm wondering about Footloose live as a birthday present for my sister - she only saw the film about a year ago & just loved it :rotfl:

Eeek - must dash to wrap pressie for Grandmother & brace myself for family [STRIKE]feud[/STRIKE] meal at restaurant.

bye for now
xx

PS - I'm responding to the grocery gauntlet that has been thrown down with determination to succeed

Souk08

Go Lula, you can do it! X

Shoe_Gal

Go Lula :j

And well done on all the 'healthy' stuff, I'm sure the weight will start to come off

Lula-Hula

Thanks girls :A

I may well have undone all that hard work by scoffing my chops off at lunchtime . Large bowl of pasta with chicken & mushrooms in delicious creamy sauce, washed down with a lot of water & a glass of tasty merlot. Closely followed by half a slice ( shared with sis) of chocolate cheesecake with cream.


Grandmother enjoyed herself, no feuding occurred & my father paid so a good result all round :j. I got home just a couple of minutes before DD (phew) & was half relieved & half moany about the amount of home-work to be done. I spoke to the delivery driver yesterday about how little work there has been as I wasnt sure if it was deliberately not coming my way or just quiet generally.

I will have earned more this week but as I didnt finish until nearly 9 I'm too tired to do a workout . Well, I say tired; but what I actually mean is too lazy & still full of lunch, & my thighs feel as though I've been attempting Cossack dancing whilst giving a piggyback to a sumo wrestler.

I still dont have the wirelss router :mad: & will give virgin one more day to get it here & then I'm cancelling the whole thing & will buy a dongle for when I want to use laptop away from modem. I was seriously considering getting DD a basic laptop for christmas, but have now almost decided against it.

I had originally promised her one for when she starts high school, along with a mobile phone. She has my old payg mobile & is quite happy with that for texting friends & taking pics at the moment. I cannot afford to buy her a laptop outright without using money saved up for something else & I really want her to appreciate it as a 'grown up' tool to help with her studies as well as for socializing & entertainment, rather than just a toy which I think is how she would view it at the moment.

I also want her internet use to be easily monitored from one fixed space rather than her being hidden away in her room. Juding by the places I find the DS, she still doesnt fully appreciate the monetary value of goods & I do not want to discover £400 worth of laptop smeared in glue or last weeks packed lunch :eek:.

If I save £10 a week from December then I will have enough to by her one for next christmas. If however, this current old pc does die ... then I dont know what to do - my new one is to be kept 'clean' for all my finance & work stuff so please everyone cross their fingers that this old beast lasts another year .

Having an early night now

night night
xx

Karmacat

That sounds right to hang on and not get DD the laptop, Lula - she doesn't **need** it yet, and you *do* need to be able to monitor her useage.

Well done you on the yoga - my sister just gave me a yoga DVD, yoga for dummies I might try something of that after I've finished work today.

Lula-Hula

First of all I MUST apologise to dear Taxi for completely forgetting about your last chemo session whilst rambling on about myself .

Secondly, I have to have a small rant about virgin :mad:.

Still no sign of wireless 'hub' when I got in from work, there was a letter dated 8th Nov though, with my new contract & price increase, giving me 7 days from the date of the letter to cancel :huh: . Not impressed, so I called up to question it's whereabouts ... got through to a human fairly quickly but was on hold for over 18 minutes while he investigated. By that time I was not a happy customer.

He assured me that a new hub was on it's way ... in the next 5-7 days :mad: & that I would pay the new price as agreed in the new contract from the next bill.

Er no, I think not.

Lula does not pay for a contract that she hasnt yet signed for a product that is s far non existent. Seized the opportunity to say I do not want the shiny new broadband for an extra £7 a month, I'll stick with what I already have & just pay for the router thank you .

He argued that I already had the new contract in place.

I reminded him that the, as yet unsigned contract was actually in my hot little hand.

He told me that I already had the shiny new 50mb broadband & couldnt now rever to back to the old 10mb as it no longer existed :undecided

I retorted that if I did indeed have the 50mb broadband already in place then I certainly hadnt noticed any increase in speed or performance so I'll definitely not be wanting to pay an extra £7.50 a month .

... another few minutes listening to Britney Spears & I was ready to , but ...

We came to a compromise :j:

I will pay for the new hub outright on my next bill & he will 'downgrade' the broadband to 20mb at no extra cost to me, ie the monthly charge for all 3 services will be £37 a month.

I still have to wait for a new hub though .


I've also come to the conclusion that I wouldnt bother with cable tv at all if it were just me here; my viewing rarely goes beyond the realms of BBC & Channel 4 / E4.

Rant over - will go eat & return when in better humour with financial news.

Lula-Hula

Hmmmm, I'm in a better mood now, largely helped by the fact that I received a tax rebate today :T. It's about £90 so very much appreciated just before christmas. I plan to use it to boost the present money fund & already have items in my amazon basket just waiting for the cheque to clear .

I'm also bidding on the most gorgeous coat on ebay :heartpuls, I've been searching for a long length one for weeks now & am totally smitten with this one. I've set my limit & pledge not to go over it in a bidding war

I've finally earned the last few points I needed to earn another £10 amazon voucher :jso as soon as that arrives I'll be buying the goodies in my virtual basket & having them delivered to work.

DD & I had a chat about a laptop for her & she agrees that her next birthday would be the ideal time to get one, as it will be just after she starts at high school. I need to get this new saving fund started immediately & keep it separate from any other account, so I must decide whether to use my lloyds quidco drip account which already has £20 in it & I can only access via the cashpoint, or my old co op current account which I can access via cashpoint, online & also has debit card facility but is currently empty :think:

I've topped up the cash funds as follows :

School Trip = £60
Presents = £90 (£10 spent on Grandmother)
Clubs = £ 45
Trips = £ 30
Clothes = £20

I also forgot to add a 50p grocery spend on a malt loaf from yesterday - so the grocery spends now total £132.89p & there are 11 days left in which to not spend all of the remaining £17.11p.

My strategy is to shoot to waitrose about an hour before closing on sunday to scoop up some bread, cheese, fruit & meat & make plenty of biccies & cakes this weekend to keep DD in snacks for packed lunches .

Ugh, cant believe I have work again tomorrow

night night
xx