'Be Happy'...Milly's mission for 2011

vasseur

pixiechick99 wrote: »

Morning:D
Had a lovely day yesterday - spent most of it at a teacher's house with a few other colleagues, drinking (non alcoholic) mulled wine - more warm fruity drink, yum - sitting in front of her open fire. I could have stayed there all day;) Sounds perfect

I had my B12 jab in the afternoon - only 2 months late:o I really noticed it though, been feeling completely exhausted, even after a 9hr sleep I was feeling like I needed to lie down. My silly body doesnt absorb it (cos of the Crohn's), so I have a jab every 3 months (if I remember:o). So hopefully I'll be full of beans soon:j

Today we have my sis and her family coming - they should be here around 1. I have a load of nibbles, part bake rolls to pop in the oven, sausage rolls etc. So better get a move on as I'm still sat here in my dressing gown:)

Money wise - my bills account is looking very healthy - the £300 cheque from ex has gone in (it's not cleared but the balance looks good), wages went in too. I think HB will go in any day as it's due on Monday. Unfortunately it's all acounted for, but at the moment I look like I'm quite flush:D Mine looks good too.

I'm going to keep an eye on the grabbit board and the sales - I bought lots of goodies online at the Boots sale last year, I'm sure it was on Xmas eve - lovely gift sets that were great pressies during the year. Bro in law is getting a lovely one for Xmas this year:) I didn't get a Next vip slot - but really that's good, as I'd only have ordered a couple of hundred pounds worth of stuff that I really could live without:o I do want new boots, but I'll manage. 'Want not need' I think it's a case of....:rotfl:

Anyway, better go get my face on...don't want to scare anyone;)

Thanks for the Boots tip. I have some spare cash that could go on some sets. I'll be checking on Xmas eve too. My matalan gift bags arrived today so they can go in with the stash too. They are really good quality

pixiechick99

We had a lovely day with my sis, her hub and girls here:D I am exhausted though and quite fancy going to bed now. Guess the B12 hasn't worked on me yet:o

We had some lunch, played some cards and dd2 made gingerbread cookies with my youngest niece (she's 3). Nice to have some visitors here as we usually go to them - much bigger house and easier with them having younger girlies.

So, I haven't spent anything today;) Tomorrow I may take the girls to the cinema to see New Year's Eve, will see if they can get up and ready in time...I seriously doubt it:o

Been a lovely mild day so the heating was on for about an hour and a half this morning and not since - fab news for the bills:T

Ok, I'm flagging, time for bed with a Christmassy book, bliss:p

pixiechick99

So, on to the job of tidying the house, putting Xmas goodies away and generally getting myself organised for the new year:beer:
Girls are with their dad until after dinner tonight so I have lots of time, but I just don't know where to start:o

I nipped out this morning and bought a set of 2 rattan effect drawer units - one with 4 drawers, the other with 2 - £20. They fit nicely on either side of the sink, a perfect fit in the teeny bathroom;) I want to get another to sit in the only other free space in the bathroom - right now I have a wooden laundry bin there, but that could be hidden in the girls closet, I think we need drawer space more.

Girls got lots of toiletries for Xmas, so did I - so it'd be good to have them all in the bathroom tidied away.

While I was out today I bought dd2 a new school blazer and dd1 a school jumper - £40:eek: DD2's current blazer is a wreck though - all the pockets have torn inside so her stuff ends up somewhere in the lining, usually round her back, not good to rummage around for your pens;) DD1's jumper was just too small so bought her a new one and dd2 can have her grown out of one if she wants. Luckily eldest keeps her clothes better than youngest, so I can hand down her stuff - if I had a 3rd child it would get no hand me downs from dd2:p

I signed up for the January grocery challenge - although I do have a budget and try to keep within in, I need to really get back to being careful with the food budget. So, £250 for Jan will be the target - should be fine eh?! At the moment I have £41 left for food until next Thurs when tax credits go in and my wwekly £65 is added to the grocery account to bring it up to it's full whack. So I'll start my month of food spends next Thurs. Shouldn't need to be too much until then.

I don't need to cook until tomorrow night - girls eating at dad's tonight which is great. We're at home Friday, then on Sat will go to my sis for the night, home again on NY day...ready to tear down the decorations and get back to normal:D Funny, I always love getting the decorations up, but on NY Day I want them gone!

I'd better get on with the house - not sure what to do first...think I'll take all the girls pressie's upstairs and try find homes. Though I have been contemplating emptying all the drawers (bedside table ones and dressing table ones) as they're full of stuff that they don't look at - a right waste of storage space. Hmmm...onwards:T

Hope anyone reading had a lovely Christmas:D

vasseur

I love this part after Xmas when you can put all the lovely new stuff away and get rid of some of the old . Fortunately my dd is really good at chucking things out so we got rid of a load of stuff yesterday. It's at this time of year that I really want to buy new things for the house too.

I love the decs going up too but I also love the complete feeling of tidiness when they come down. I think I'll leave ours up till the 2nd as I have everyone coming to me for NYD so it will be nice to keep them up then.

£250 sounds do-able for the food budget. I joined that challenge a couple of years ago and failed miserably from month 1 but I wasn't so MSE then. Might be different now

pixiechick99

Yep I'm looking about wondering what else I need for the house - I'm desperate to be more clutter-free and organised this year. As we moved the tv to the centre of the long wall in the lounge when we put the tree up, there's going to be a space in the corner once the tree is down. I prefer the tv more central now, it sounds better and feels more cosy. But wondering what to fill the corner with;) I'm thinking a tall thin bookcase would be nice. And I'd love a new unit for the tv - right now it's on an imitation pine thing - bought when we moved in to our last house - dd2 wasn't born then:o So, the stand is 13years old, haha, it looks it too.

So far today I've attacked the girls' room:D I was ruthless and chucked out 3 drawers of [EMAIL="!!!!"]!!!![/EMAIL] from the dressing table - old hairbands, make up and smellies that don't smell too good now. DD2's bedside drawers got attacked too, then I moved to their closet - it's really an old ensuite that is a walk in wardrobe now (all plumbing has been removed;)). So, on one side there's hanging space and the other side 4 huge, deep shelves. The top 2 shelves are full of board games/old Sylvanian family stuff/toys etc. Lots of it got thrown, I just haven't got the time or energy to sell it. I filled the top shelp with books from under dd2's bed - cleared a bit of space there. It's looking better.

After my sit down with a cuppa right now, I'l take up their new Xmas stuff so I can tidy the lounge better tomorrow.

Just watching Deal or no Deal and will read my book as it's very good...(the book).

pixiechick99

We nipped to town yesterday - I picked up my Christmas pressie to myself - a gift box on Marc Jacobs Lola perfume reduced from £47 to £25 in the HoF sale. I ordered that on Xmas Eve when the Boots sale was driving me mad;)

What else? DD's bought themsleves a jumper each in town and I bought dd1 some trousers. I also bought myself a top in the Next sale for £7...had admired it on my sister last week, then there it was - the only one in the shop, conveniently in my size...I had to buy it:D We had a KFC for dinner which was disappointing...the place was busy, messy and there were no napkins, but it saved me cooking.

Today's plans are:

• Go to T's for a few bits to last until next Fri when my grocery account will be filled and my Jan Grocery Challenge will begin.
• Take the tree down - no point leaving it up now, we're not here on NY Eve so it can go.
• Tidy the lounge
• start organising finances ready for the new year
• sort rubbish/recycling out
• Sort all the piles of books on my bedroom shelves - ones to keep, ones for charity and ones still to read.

Ok - that's the plan for today. De-christmassing the place will take up the time. I need to go up the attic and bring down the boxes to pack them away in..grrr, what a job:o

pixiechick99

Last night I decided that I'd like a Kindle;)
So I'm going to see if I can use survey vouchers to pay for it...I like a challenge. I will have £20 in Amaz0n vouchers from Shop and Scan in a couple of weeks - they kindly trebled the reward for uploading barcodes and receipts in the 2weeks over Christmas. Ex m-i-l gave me £10...so I nearly have £30 already. I am on £26 with Onepoll, but that comes in cash to the bank so may not use that. I just checked my emails and I have been sent a £10 voucher for using my Amaz0n cc - the cc which will be paid off now asap of course;)

I checked mysurvey last night as I've been lazy and not bothering, also I must check valued opinions as I think I only need £3 of surveys to reach £10,

Might count £2 coins too...I already have a few:D

pixiechick99

I have £8.50 on Valued Opinins so nearly at voucher payout:beer: I have £6 in £2 coins and just remembered that dd1 owes me £2 as I bought her chocolate yesterday - she didn't want to break a £20note..so will go rummage in her purse upstairs and hope there's a £2 coin:T

Girls went over to their dad's (well his mum's, buy you get what I mean;)) - just for a couple fo hours to get them out (and off laptops, probably playing a game over there). I went to T's and got enough to last til next Friday. I had £40 in the grocery account...it came to £39.50:D I did also buy a new pukka pad for my organising and some work trousers that I thought were a good buy at £8, but they came up at £4:T Just hope they fit now - I usually find T's size 8 just a weeny bir small and a 10 too big, so we'll see...fingers crossed.

We are all de-christmassed now. Lounge looks lovely a tidy - moved a few bits around too and am really pleased. I'd like a few pictures/canvases on the wall so will look out for bargains.

£20 petrol in the car too. I shouldn't need to spend now until tax credits next week - that's the plan anyway.

vasseur

All looking financially sound for the end of the year pixie :T

I need to get some more pictures too. Thing is they aren't the sort of thing you can just go out and buy. Or at least I can't . Maybe I'm a bit picky but I think they are the sort of thing that you see when you're not looking for them IYSWIM? I need one above my bed and a couple more in the living room.

pixiechick99

Quiet day at home here...2nd NSD of the year:D Sat was an NSD too and I think Friday was.

I have £7 in my purse in change, lots of notes to go to the bank (money ex owed for pressies I bought for him to give girls). Back to work on Wednesday - girls and I both have inset tomorrow. So the £7 is to last until Tax Credits day on Thurs, which will be fine...we'll only need milk and bread I think.

New Year motivation has passed me by, I'm still exhausted, feel a bit under the weather. DD2 was sick last night and is just on the sofa in pjs today. I have spent a while tidying the bookshelves in my room - 2 big bags of books for charity, a few neat shelves of books already read but ones to keep and another shelf of books still to read. So no rush for my Kindle really:o

Afraid diary motivation is lacking too...I must have one of the most unpopular diaries;)

I'm meant to be going to see my college tutor tomorrow too, I have done nothing since September, I am a lazy moo:( I know I should finish the course, but oh it's not an inspiring thought.