13 Moons part 2 - Freebird & Frugabulous

Souk08

Hey doll, back and all caught up. I did see some chat about not ironing a few pages back but will ignore it as I missed you all so much :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Enjoy some time off, deffo agree re freedom and not having loads of 'stuff' and I'm knackered so off to my bed with its nice fresh and newly ironed covers X

taxi73

Sounds like you're having a great time Lula...great that you've treated yourself to the concert as we all deserve treats and life is too short.

fedupandskint

Lula-Hula wrote: »

Hello fedupandskint

What sort of camping equipment do you need ? I have quite a few bits & might be able to help you out

Hmm still deciding what to get!

Lula-Hula

fedupandskint wrote: »

Hmm still deciding what to get!

A room in a hotel I reckon

Where abouts are you planning to go ? I have 2 tents, windbreak, folding bed, hanging lantern, trangia, folding table, folding chairs, picnic stuff, just no will to actually go camping .

Although, this weather does actually make me think that I might be able to cope for just a few days. When I went with my sister & nieces we did it all wrong; spent far too much time on the actual site trying to prepare meals when really we should have just stayed out all day, eaten out as much as possible - just done cooked brekkie at camp & then come back to sleep. It was quite difficult as DD had broken her arm so swimming was out, getting dressed was a nightmare & the weather was foul. Put me right off.


Souk - glad to have you back & as for not ironing ??? dont know what you're talking about :whistle:.

Taxi - hello, must pop over to yours & check out your doings, ( ditto Fedupandskint)


It's been glorious here today so I did a bit of laundry, cut the grass, washed off table & chairs, got parasol out of shed & de-spidered it & set the bbq up ready for tomorrow as we have rellies coming over. Checked the forecast only to discover that we're due heavy showers & possible thunder storms in the afternoon .

Ah well, the garden looks nice anyway & some rain would do it a lot of good.

It's been a NSD so far but we're about to head to the co op as yet again the ice cream man has let us down. Cant remember how much I have left to spend so will need to check back previous posts, I often wonder how on earth I managed anything without my little diary here to remind of what I'm meant to be doing

Lula-Hula

Right,

I am very confused; we wandered to the shop ( loving that balmy light evening stroll) & I spent £14.65 which is fine, but I am confused because when I checked my sig, it says I've only spent £108.12p so far this month :huh:

Really ? That doesnt sound like me at all ;)lucky that I keep all my receipts until the end of the month so I'm just going to add them all up to make sure that's right ...

* after a longish interval *

... Er no, turns out I omitted one of my receipts & the grand total is in fact £180.02p. It will be a struggle to only spend £20 tomorrow as I need to get some bbq bits as well as regular food for the week.

The good news is I've not bought anything on ebay today

RosaBernicia

Lula-Hula wrote: »

I so agree with you there

I like the sound of your cashback too - not quite sure how I go about that as technically, mine will be an upgrade. Maybe I should cancel my current contract & then start a new one.

I dont want to pay as much as £35 as already have a virgin phone/tv/internet package that costs about £38 a month, but will increase minutes allowance so dont need to use home phone at all for outgoing calls. I've noticed that the lower the monthly cost, the longer the contract though .

Ah well, got to keep up with technology

I swopped old SIM to PAYG and ordered new one to get cashback... HOWEVER, didn't realise that you (apparently) can't move your number within the same network so had to use new one :mad:. Not a major problem as v easy to text/ email all contacts from posh new one, but annoying if you did want to keep your number. Though cunning plan has just occurred to me if you were to be v organised - should be theoretically possible to move number to free SIM on other network, then to new contract *cunning chuckle*

I think you're right about less minutes = more months on contract; also looked at SIM-free but worked out more expensive than contract version.

Gardening will be happening here tomorrow too - avoided it today but ran down to veg patch to pick some and it needs water plus next bit digging ready for new seedlings

Re. BBQ bits recommend Wilko's?

Rosa xx

taxi73

£20 that's very tight..good luck with that.

Lula-Hula

taxi73 wrote: »

£20 that's very tight..good luck with that.

Not enough luck unfortunately - that nearly covered the easter eggs that I'd forgotten to buy. The total spend was in fact an eye-watering £67.38 :eek:. In my defence though ; ( wait for it this will be gooooood ) Another £10 of that was on bbq stuff for today so I really only went £10 over & &, &, & er no that's it, I;m all out of excuses . Food is bloody expensive, especially the fresh variety & especially in Waitrose .

My total Household expenditure for the month ( includes, groceries, easter eggs, cleaning, laundry & cat food) is now £248.61

That's horrific, & I am annoyed with myself for not getting a better grip. I simply cannot afford to spend that kind of money each month. Obviously, I didnt have that much cash on me so .... I used the shiny new CC.

Clearly, the whole monthly big shop & then weekly top ups thing is not working for me. I absolutely hate to say it but I dont think the waitrose thing is working for me either. I have to tackle this somehow or I will never progress beyond lurching from payday to payday & never having anything left over.

Feeling a bit angsty about rellie visit too, previous conversation re finances & pensions still niggling & my recent admittance to myself that I do indeed, still have a few issues with 'family'. I dont feel close to any of them & the fact that I feel as I do right now, when a visit is imminent almost makes me wish I lived abroad.

The main difficulty today being that it is quite a significant date, but I feel no emotion & it's hard to comunicate this to others without sounding terribly bitter, which I'm not. I just had a very different parenting & childhood from my siblings; to be honest, they were all very different from each others but mine was particularly isolated & to a certain extent I was quite neglected in some repsects (emotionally, guidance, support & encouragement - wise rather than physically) which has resulted in my being emotionally quite distant from them & very self sufficient.

I cannot do weeping & wailing about things that are in the past & I also cannot do fake sentiment & nostalgia.

Ignore me, I'm using this diary as a means to externalise or similar bullsh!tty terms meaning whine about stuff & deflect attention away from the fact that I have absolutely massacred my grocery budget, again :whistle:


Time to sow some seeds now, literally. I'm off to find the carrots & parsnips & scatter them about.

Bye for now
xx

boredofbeingathome

Well how i see it Lula, is that you are working on minimizing the budget. In all honesty, it is a work in progress and you will get there.

Have a bash at menu planning then just buy the ingredients you need- take a stock of everything in cupboard and try and use up where you can. The difficult thing i always find, is that when the weather changes, we don't always fancy what is in and will buy something else- then i spot something when i am shopping and before i know it an extra £20 on the bill So i have to be aware of weak spots like that.

Good luck. x

Dan29

Lula-Hula wrote: »

I do indeed, still have a few issues with 'family'. I dont feel close to any of them & the fact that I feel as I do right now, when a visit is imminent almost makes me wish I lived abroad.

The main difficulty today being that it is quite a significant date, but I feel no emotion & it's hard to comunicate this to others without sounding terribly bitter, which I'm not. I just had a very different parenting & childhood from my siblings; to be honest, they were all very different from each others but mine was particularly isolated & to a certain extent I was quite neglected in some repsects (emotionally, guidance, support & encouragement - wise rather than physically) which has resulted in my being emotionally quite distant from them & very self sufficient.

I cannot do weeping & wailing about things that are in the past & I also cannot do fake sentiment & nostalgia.

Hi Lula

Well that could have been written by me. I decided about a year ago that I wasn't going to see or speak to my dad any more, and I was expecting his birthday (in December) to be difficult, but in the end I felt nothing at all. However, it was difficult to explain this to the rest of my family in a way that made sense to them.

Everyone's different though aren't they - even/especially members of the same family - and there are very rarely any rights or wrongs when it comes to this sort of thing. Certainly you're in no way in the wrong, even if your siblings don't feel the same way as you. It sounds like you have very good reasons for feeling as you do - reasons that I can certainly identify with - but even if you didn't, your life, your feelings and your decisions are your own, and I don't see why you should have to explain or apologise to others just because they feel differently.

I know it's difficult, but we don't have to feel close to everyone/anyone in our family. That's something they have to earn and maintain through their behaviour - and definitely not by criticising ours.

Good luck with the visit xx