This debt must go

OrangeFairy

Hi Starnac -

Lovely to 'see' you!

The buses are so expensive! I hope you have a lovely Christmas and new year x

starnac

Hi OF buses are expensive. I was so shocked. I was stood there with a £5 note in my hand scrabbling around for 30p in all my pockets. I was so embarrassed. Thankfully I had some change in my coat pockets from roadkill.

How are things with you? did you have a good christmas?

starnac

Well I had quite a good MSE afternoon yesterday. The lovely EH was talking about using her nectar points to pay for her shopping and it reminded me I had a nectar card in my purse. I opened it years ago when we were living in manchester and had a sainsbobs nearby. I used it quite a bit then stopped when we moved as our nearest one was in cardiff. Since then I have collected points through Briti$h Ga$ but we have moved from them now so I went on the website to see how many points I had.

The website and online help told me that my card had been cancelled as I hadn't used it in over a year and was told to ring the helpline. I did and apparently my account was closed in 2010!!!! But after 5 minutes on the phone the lovely chap opened me a new account, transferred the points (over 2000 ) and has sent me a new card (to my current address thankfully). A new store has opened a bit closer to me now about 10 miles away so I would be more likely to use that store than the cardiff one. Especially now I've got quite a few points to spend. :j

So a big thank you to EH for mentioning it

EssexHebridean

Glad to have been of some use!

I know exactly what you mean about wanting to really tighten things up this year too - we've decided the same. Tat's the reason I decided that a new diary was needed on here - if I'm going to succeed with the targets I've set myself then I need that focus.

OrangeFairy

Hi Starnac,

I had a wonderful christmas and new year thank you. Hectic but fun. I have new sofas arriving soon which is a little exciting!

I hope you had a wonderful time too

Well done on the nectar points. We used £45 we had saved over the year towards our xmas shopping which helped!

Have a lovely weekend x

starnac

Well done on the nectar points OF. Yes thank you we did have a lovely christmas.

Back to school for DD tomorrow. We have hardly anything in for her lunches. Feel pretty bad about that to be honest. I had a good [STRIKE]cry[/STRIKE] chat to my mum yesterday about how I'm letting my kids down by not having much money and she reminded me about my childhood and the things she did when she didn't have much money. So tonight I made some scotch pancakes out of the leftover batter from my mums (my stepdad treated us to some for tea) and they will go in her lunch box along with her sandwiches and some HM chocolates that are currently in the fridge setting.

It's not the healthiest of lunches but she will get two pieces of fruit in with that too. Tomorrow I will go and see how far £10 can stretch to fill the fridge and cupboards slightly.

Right I'm off to bed as I have to be on the ball tomorrow for first day back at school

EssexHebridean

Hey, stop beating yourself up - there's plenty other folk in the world to do that for you! :grouphug: (oh lordy I'd forgotten how dodgy that smiley was!) - how many other kids at her school do you think will have a lunchbox with all the component parts made from scratch? You know exactly what's gone in there, nothing much unhealthy about that eh?

Lots of love to DD for first day back!

starnac

Thanks EH. Talking to my mum really helped. We did a "compare the memory" game, where one of us would tell the other a memory from my childhood and the other would tell the same memory but from the other point of view. For instance my mum would feel really guilty on the weeks she couldn't afford meat for Sunday dinner and would have to give us sausages instead. I loved sausage dinners and used to see it as a treat!

I told my mum that my favourite time of the school year was the end of term when she would make little chocolates for my sister and I to take in for our classmates and teachers. We loved them. She told me that the reason she used to make them was because she couldn't afford to buy presents/cakes for the teachers like everyone else's parents did!

This really opened my eyes and I think I'm glad I'm sorting myself out now because the kids won't have memories of how hard it was like they would if they were older. But also I hope I can give them the same happy memories my mum gave me

40somethingmum

starnac wrote: »

Thanks EH. Talking to my mum really helped. We did a "compare the memory" game, where one of us would tell the other a memory from my childhood and the other would tell the same memory but from the other point of view. For instance my mum would feel really guilty on the weeks she couldn't afford meat for Sunday dinner and would have to give us sausages instead. I loved sausage dinners and used to see it as a treat!

I told my mum that my favourite time of the school year was the end of term when she would make little chocolates for my sister and I to take in for our classmates and teachers. We loved them. She told me that the reason she used to make them was because she couldn't afford to buy presents/cakes for the teachers like everyone's parents did!

This really opened my eyes and I think I'm glad I'm sorting myself out now because the kids won't have memories of how hard it was like they would if they were older. But also I hope I can give them the same happy memories my mum gave me

Just had to pop out from Lurkyland to say how lovelythis post was. It brought a tear to my eye. You are doing a wonderful job

40SMxx

EssexHebridean

Kids see as an adventure what adults see as hardship, don't they.

You have two gorgeous, happy, clearly well balanced and brought up children. You truly have NOTHING to worry about!