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

Souk08

Good news lady. Sometimes we all need a new plan. You do so well with all your funds and I am totally a lady who does, not has X

Shoe_Gal

Sounds like the best plan Lula, and you sound happier already :A

Lula-Hula

G'morning girls & boys

Bright & sunny here, although it was frosty first thing. I've a couple of loads of laundry to hang out but so far have just lounged about in 'jamas doing my 'saturday thing'.

This involves getting a coffee & breakfast, turning washing machine on & then going back to bed with magazines, books, tv & laptop. I've weighed myself & have somehow managed to lose another lb . I'm not being so strict on the diet at the moment - still not eating any bread or potatoes, or fatty food stuffs such as cheese, but did have a small amount of wholewheat pasta with sauce for supper on thursday & I'm making dark chocolate digestives a daily staple :rotfl:.

Will be getting back on to the exercise as of tomorrow. Going to make a very strict shopping list to take to co op as the grocery spends need to be put on a short leash.


Gotta go, James awaits me

Lula-Hula

I do I do it's really true :j & no one else is going to boss me about & tell me what I can or cant grow.

Well, that's probably not true as DD will try her best but I'll just fling a worm at her & that will shut her up

Gorgeous sunny weather, washing out on the line & we dug & dug & dug. It took hours & was quite an effort but it's done & looks fab, if somewhat weeny. Felt huge while I was lifting all the turf out but when we stood back it seemed kind of lost in the rest of the garden. Never mind, we can expand & extend & it's a start. I'm quite excited as you can probably tell :rotfl:. I already have some netting for peas to grow up & a roll of chicken wire to attach to some sticks to cover it.

I could see the local kitties were thinking how kind I was to create a giant 'communal' for them :eek: ... hah, not so my furrry friends. All the bits of wood & trellis & old shelf frames that have been lurking in the shed for years have finally been put to the use they were stored for . I managed to cover the entire area so there'll be no pooping. I have some chicken wire & just need to come up with a cunning way to attach it to some sticks so it can sit over the beds & protect all veg from feathery & furry creatures.

DD was whining a bit by the time we'd done but when I reminded her of her promise to help & that the alternative was going back to the allotment, she soon buttoned up. Well, that & the promise of an ice cream.

Once all the laundry was gathered in & we'd had a restorative cup of tea, we headed off to the co op for provisions. I was very pleased to see that they had mackerel fillets & smoked salmon at a reasonable price & have renewed my determination to shop locally to keep the grocery spends down. I was seduced by some gold magnums & more of the essential dark choco digestives ( still on bogof so might stock up) & I simply cannot go another day without apples so the strict diet has kind of evaporated but I am still trying to eat sensibly.

The total spend in there was £24.80 so not brilliant, but would definitely have been more if I'd taken the car to Waitrose. Knowing I have to carry everything home certainly makes a difference to the quantities I buy. My neighbours all seem to drive to the shops but it seem silly & pointless to me.

I'll be throwing all the veg in the slow cooker tomorrow & seeing what comes out for our meal. I need to make some hobnobs for my grandmother tomorrow too ... will make half quantity & make sure ther are only enough left for DDs packed lunches or I'll be regaining every single pound lost.

taxi73

Sounds like a very hard but fulfilling day...hope you're having a nice long soak in the bath

Lula-Hula

taxi73 wrote: »

Sounds like a very hard but fulfilling day...hope you're having a nice long soak in the bath

That's exactly where I've been Taxi :rotfl: me, some bubbles & a book = bliss.

RosaBernicia

YAY to veg patch :j - and you'll be glad to hear that the first digging is the worst bit, mine has been much easier to dig over this year despite having abandoned it for about 4 months.

It's a very smug feeling to be able to go to the farmer's market and know you have all that stuff in your own garden. Well it is for me anyway. Made it to a local one for the first time today and was able to think to myself 'don't need that I can grow it' and even 'don't need that I have a breadmaker - if I ever get round to using it'. Even met someone who does apple juice pressing locally so am thinking might invite him to help with the two trees in my garden...

Sounds like you had a fab day

Rosa xx

Lula-Hula

Gosh it's been a long time since I was here .

I've been meaning to post since Sunday but various things have either prevented or distracted me. I dont want you thinking I've gone all arrogant & snooty as the DFD approaches

Far from it my lovelies; I was really grumpy on sunday & monday & dont like to post when being a whiny old bat. I did the rellies thing on sunday & as DD pointed out - they clearly annoy me & I'm really irritable & cranky after I've been with some of them. It's true - I clearly need to either deal with my issues or lengthen the time between visits; to about e 3 months would probably be best :rotfl:

Monday I was cranky as I had to do home job & I got moaned at by the driver. Basically the boss has become very suspicious that she's moonlighting. She is :mad: & my friendship with her cooled when it became clear that she was stealing customers that I used to have ( through the business) for her own personal gain.

This started before I was at work -job & I did then point out that she was effectively taking work away from me :mad: but when you need to pay £400 to get your lips injected with filler then I suppose every penny counts & you'll step on whoever to keep the signs of ageing at bay - miaooow .

Obviously, it hasnt been such a financial issue for me since I've been at work job, but it has been festering away under my skin & is one of the reasons I've been keen to reduce the days I work at home-job. I dont want to see her.

I'm really keen to quit it altogether but even when DF, I either need to accept living on a tight budget for the forseeable future or increase my hours at work job significantly. I'm already making little noises about my keenness to start working fridays once DD is at high school. I

Ideally I'd like a bit of payrise in recognition of being willing to take on more responsibility, but between you & me I'll accept just getting another 7 hours work in which will compensate for loss of home-job.

With Grumpy away for the next 3 weeks & Goblin showing signs of becoming rather forgetful & flustered as well as reluctant to be at work when she could be working on the allotment, it is an ideal time for Gropey to discover just how very marvellous I really am . Goblin has already asked if I could swap a friday next month, & I might just suggest that I do it in addition to normal hours to be extra helpful & supportive

I've lost another £25 off the debt as the direct debit to Uncle Richard went out today so there is now just £250 outstanding.

The fridge is bare so I will have to do a bit of shopping tomorrow - last loo roll in use, 2 slices of bread & no cheese, one spotty banana & not a fresh vegetable in sight.

The window cleaner has been ( he left me a note ) so will probably be round tomorrow to collect his dues & various sponsoring events means I'm a bit short of cash this week.

I have however, paid the final instalment for the PGL school trip & topped up all the funds :

Presents = £120
Fun = £ 30
Clubs = £ 35
Clothes = £ 40

The laptop fund has (for now) fallen by the wayside somewhat but will be resumed when completely DF. That is scheduled in for payday next week but does rather depend on what else crops up.

I havent had the invoice for the piano lessons yet but no doubt it will be here soon. I've decided to just go ahead with paying council tax over the usual 10 months & have already set up the standing order for that & new rent payment.

I'm due an upgrade on my mobile & am contemplating upgrading my price plan by £5 a month which will provide an extra 200 minutes call time & limitless texts - although I never use the 500 freebies I get now. The drawback is another 24 months contract, but it does mean I probably wont need to use home phone at all unless for free weekend calls to landlines - rare now & potentially even rarer when I put my rellies on a quarterly contact plan :rotfl:

I'm not sure how or even if the new budget will impact on my finances, but thanks to having spent a considerable amount of time lurking here over the last 3 years, then I'm sure I can come up with some ways to counteract any increased costs. I have plans to spend some time buying seeds & getting the garden productive this weekend.

I've been eating well & am due another weigh-in tomorrow. Pretty sure I've lost a wee bit more as I managed to wear my linen trousers to work today & they werent tight :j.

I've put another £2 coin in my sealed pot this week & am becoming overwhelmed with curiosity so might have to have a sneaky counting session next week just to see how I'm doing. I reckon I'm still well under £100 & as my target is £350, then I'll need to do a lot more clunking.

Will report grocery spends tomorrow & hope to never ever have as an expensive month as this one has been.

G'night
xx

Lula-Hula

Another little update from me :

3 loads of laundry done & hanging outside in the sunshine.

Trip to the post office & the £40 clothes allowance paid in to my cashminder account - it's far safer in there & yes, I did check my receipt before I left .

Next stop the co op with my list. I got a few items but it really isn't cost effective to buy items such as loo rolls or washing powder in there. I got enough stuff to feed DD tonight & packed lunch stuff that was on offer - cereal bars for £1 & end up spending a total of £11.80 in there.

Then on to the fantastic little hardware store where they stock everything you could ever want & if they dont - they'll order it in for you . Last week, having been to large diy store & found nothing, I bought some curtain wire by the metre & the hooks & eyes in our local store & all for about £2 :T

Anyway - I got my pegs in there for £1.20 .

Home again & found a letter from Glamour to say my subscription is about to run out :eek: & would I like to renew for a year at £18 .... or for 2 years at £24.50. Of course I went for the 2 year option so must remember not to move home now .

I have naughtily peeked inside my sealed pot but lucky I did really, as I discovered that I had £108 in there so was able to add in a golden coin to make it a nice tidy £110.

I've asked for opinions on a certain matter over on the Sealed Pot Challenge but usually take account of what you lovely guys here say too so here goes :

I have £110 in my clearly unSealed Pot & my original plan was to save it all for Chrimbo. Bearing in mind that I'm exiling myself from large family do this year & staying firmly put at home, I think I've come up with a better use for my coins.

DD is promised a laptop in October & to date I only have £154.79p saved towards it - safely tucked away in my lloyds cashcard-only account. I could use my sealed pot to save towards the lappie instead. That would already boost the balance to just over £260 & I could then pay that in to the bank & then refill the pot & then count up & pay in again in say, June & September.

What do you think, is it a good plan ?

I still have the presents fund for other usual birthdays etc & am still collecting Amazon vouchers via surveys too which will all go towards getting pressies.

I shall await your feedback ...

I've also been filing & persusing the pages of the Big Pink Book. It's quite gratifying to see that this time 2 years ago I owed £5,771.90p. It's rather more embarassing to see that this time 1 year ago I owed £4,500 :think: that'll be the ill-fated balance transfer CC & subsequent extra spending then :rotfl:.

Obviously, £1600 of the debt was cleared by using savings & actually, since my vist to rellies at the weekend I no longer feel any guilt or shame whatsoever at using them . I learned that my sibling has been offered a generous amount towards clearing the mortgage following the decision to split from OH. It would be rather less irksome if said sibling hadnt also been gifted generous deposit towards house in the first place ... some 3 years after my request for help had been turned down. I also feel the need to point out that my entire home could have been bought outright for £15,000 less than sibling was given as a deposit.

Ah well, c'est la vie & at least I wont feel obliged to sell my home to pay for ageing rellies care in the future .

I really must make a will when DF to ensure that whatever I have is split equally between my girls with no hint of favouritsm or meritocracy.

Off out to the garden now to do some weeding & burn off nervous energy, I feel like a coiled spring at the moment, ready to burst.

Souk08

Hi lovely, Mummy is better so I'm back! Do whatever you want with the lappie fund but just remember that even if it's just you and the girls at Xmas, extra cash would really help for you to be able to have a nice one with lots of delicious food and booze, and extra treats for all. Just a thought X