13 Moons part 2 - Freebird & Frugabulous

Lula-Hula

Hi girls,

so lovely that you all pop round to mine & dont mind in the least that I'm smothered in self tanning lotion & wearing pj's :A

Gwen my lovely - you are not drinking alone - I have just finished ramming a crunchie bar down my throat ( second one today & I have absolutely no idea why I cant lose weight :rotfl:) but decided that I should join you all & am now quaffing a man wearing a lovely red frock coat. That sounds so wrong, but I'm not sure that downing a Beefeater sounds much better .

You'll have to forgive my smutty mind, I've spent far too much time with boys who read Nuts mangazine & feel they have to outdo each others sexploits.

Anyway, more news - not that exciting so do hope you're not still waiting Buffy

I've received a £3.50 tatco clubcard voucher :rotfl:.

I spoke to the music lesson peeps & we worked out that due to school inset day tomorrow & PGL trip in June, that DD woud only get 4 lessons & it really wasnt worth her starting with one teacher & then having to move to another in September. So, they are giving me a full refund which I will put to good use & I'll search for other lessons once DD settled at high school. I think that's about £110 to come back .

I have ordered a fabby fabalicious pair of shoes from M&S online. Have lost the link, but they're on the clothes challenge & Shoesy's thread if you want to have a peek. I loved them instantly & best of all they're free :j. I had a £25 gift card left over from christmas, M&S sent me a 15% discount code & with delivery ( no store delivery round here ) the price came in at £24.75 .

Yes, I had thought of using the gift card to buy DD some school stuff, but .... I have another 3 months to save up for her stuff & it was a gift card to me & I've not bought anything for ages, so they're all mine mine mine .

Other news is that all my mad expenditure on the shiny 0% CC has resulted in £9.90 cashback. Not enough to party on, but still better than £9.90 interest & will be great for free booze / food when converted to vouchers .

PS - this should be the link to shoes :

:http://www.marksandspencer.com/Autog...f_rd_s=right-1

Karmacat

All sounds good, Lula, and those shoes are beautiful! I'd walk straight past them, sadly, they're *way* too high for me

skint_spice

Shouldn't have peeked at the sandals - they are fab and available in my size... must not click!!!

Souk08

OOh Lula they're lovely. I was looking at shoes in there last week, they've got some lovely ones.

taxi73

they are lovely and sadly too high for me too but gorgeous....everything seems to be ticking along nicely at your end x

Lula-Hula

Good morning ladies :hello:

we're having a pyjama day today so inspite of waking up at 8.30 & brewing up a large coffee, I'm still lounging about in bed with the tv on. Watching those auction & renovation progs is one of my guilty pleasures. I love seeing just how much space can be created by clever ideas. Staggered by the price of property in London though; :eek: a tiny, tiny flat for £380,000 & no outdoor space either.

It's not all laziness though- I've done some surveys & as child benefit has gone in to my account, I've made a payment to the CC, so the balance is now £1100.

It will be just 9 weeks at £122.22 per week to clear it by 1st August, or 22 weeks at £50 per week to clear it by the end of the 0% rate. If we want to go away somewhere at the end of July, then I will be using the CC to pay for it & saving up home-job money for spending.

Off for a wander around the diaries so bye for now
xx

fedupandskint

Evening missus - you sound nice and chirpy again which is good.

I'm happy now uni is over for the next month for a rest before tackle some dissertation work over the summer. Just work for a few more weeks then its holibobs time for a well earned break

Just deciding whether to have a glass of wine or cuppa with choccie, hmm choices choices on a Friday but hey! Its the BH!!

Lula-Hula

Hiya fedupandskint - sorry have got around to catching up with your diary yet, but very glad to hear you've got some down time planned .

By the power of not venturing out until this evening, I've achieved my 16th NSD so very pleased with that.

It's not for lack of trying though. I've been feeling very run down, lethargic & lazy today - hormonal probably - so have put my time to good use by searching for holiday cottages & working out where I want to aim for when DF again. It's been a bit revealing which is in fact a good thing. Although fully focused on clearing the CC I have been wondering what to do with my time, money ( providing I am still in paid work) & what to work towards.

A Lula without a plan is a dangerous & wasteful creature who could quite easily fritter away time & money for the forseeable future. I am a seasoned drifter & wanderer with no great ambitions & it has always been an obstacle. Today I think I've made a breakthrough though

I've often talked of the camper van dream & yet never quite been keen enough to do anything. Re reading Karma's post about the lack of onboard 'facilities' rang so loud & clear in my own head & finally reality dawned. It has niggled at me all along & now I can finally admit that it is enough of a big deal to make me put that pipe dream aside. If I still have to use campsites & share facilities then having a camper van will not provide the escape/sanctuary that I desire.

I already have a car to get me about & it's a lot easier to drive, manoeouvre, park & maintain than a camper van will be. I was looking at them on ebay & all I didnt feel any yearnings at all.

I then loaded another of my favourite searches & had an immediate emotional & physical reaction; boats are pulling at my heart strings. They offer so much more of an alternative to my everyday life. Even the small ones have 'facilities'. I dont need to live on one, but I could happily spend a week on one. The space is both larger & far more creative than in a van. It would still provide a break even if I only went to spend a day on it & didn't go anywhere. I dont think that a day spent in a camper van parked at the garage block would have the same effect :rotfl:

I also want to be able to have more mini breaks. Ideally, I would like to be able to have a long weekend each school holiday. I think this is easily possible with a bit of forward planning & use of offers, cashback etc.

The 2 years of learning how to budget & save for future expenses is now entrenched behaviour & although I do have the occasional splurge on mad & unnecessary things ( fab shoes) I am a lot happier in myself & no longer seek to fill my empty spaces with stuff. There's not a lot that *needs* doing to the home; I dont have any money invested in it & it is a home rather than a future pension, or security or source of income. We keep our stuff here & live in it.

None of the above will make much sense to anyone else; but is a very significant step for me & I needed to write it down.

I've found some lovely cottages to rent - although a week in some is more than a month in my place & hip hip hurrah; the company I want to book with is on quidco. Whilst Norfolk does look lovely, I'm probably going to opt for Cornwall as the last 2 visits there were with other bossy peeps & there are many places that we didnt get to, so this will be mine & DDs holiday to do what we want . It will rack up the CC, but I can save like mad for spends then it wont cost a bean while we're away ( pre-saved money doesn't count )


Off to bed now in readyness for a big spend tomorrow

G'night
xx

PS - completely forgot to say that I did do the weights workout & have bath before collecting DD

Karmacat

Lula-Hula wrote: »

A Lula without a plan is a dangerous & wasteful creature who could quite easily fritter away time & money for the forseeable future. I am a seasoned drifter & wanderer with no great ambitions & it has always been an obstacle. Today I think I've made a breakthrough though
Its easy to drift - and about 10-15 years ago, I certainly made the mistake of filling up my space with *stuff* - which I'm still getting rid of :eek:

I've often talked of the camper van dream & yet never quite been keen enough to do anything. Re reading Karma's post about the lack of onboard 'facilities' rang so loud & clear in my own head & finally reality dawned. It has niggled at me all along & now I can finally admit that it is enough of a big deal to make me put that pipe dream aside. If I still have to use campsites & share facilities then having a camper van will not provide the escape/sanctuary that I desire.
I got a namecheck :j:j:j Its a big deal to me too, absolutely.

I then loaded another of my favourite searches & had an immediate emotional & physical reaction; boats are pulling at my heart strings. They offer so much more of an alternative to my everyday life. Even the small ones have 'facilities'. I dont need to live on one, but I could happily spend a week on one. The space is both larger & far more creative than in a van. It would still provide a break even if I only went to spend a day on it & didn't go anywhere. I dont think that a day spent in a camper van parked at the garage block would have the same effect :rotfl:
My thinking exactly. And they don't cost nearly as much as a camper :money::j

The 2 years of learning how to budget & save for future expenses is now entrenched behaviour & although I do have the occasional splurge on mad & unnecessary things ( fab shoes) I am a lot happier in myself & no longer seek to fill my empty spaces with stuff. There's not a lot that *needs* doing to the home; I dont have any money invested in it & it is a home rather than a future pension, or security or source of income. We keep our stuff here & live in it.

None of the above will make much sense to anyone else; but is a very significant step for me & I needed to write it down.
It certainly makes sense to me, its lovely. I'm a bit different in that the house *is* mine, but I'll be very happy to let it go, either to rent it out, or sell it, and go live on a boat :j the spacesaving effects of a kindle will probably come into play there

I've found some lovely cottages to rent - although a week in some is more than a month in my place & hip hip hurrah; the company I want to book with is on quidco. Whilst Norfolk does look lovely, I'm probably going to opt for Cornwall as the last 2 visits there were with other bossy peeps & there are many places that we didnt get to, so this will be mine & DDs holiday to do what we want . It will rack up the CC, but I can save like mad for spends then it wont cost a bean while we're away ( pre-saved money doesn't count )
Oh god yes, if it was my own choice, thats where I'd be going, if I holidayed in this country. I can find stuff I'm interested in in Norfolk, for sure, but I'd choose the sub-tropicalness of Cornwall, the ruggedness, the Eden Project, the boytoys (it was a gremlin that wrote that )


Off to bed now in readyness for a big spend tomorrow

G'night
xx

PS - completely forgot to say that I did do the weights workout & have bath before collecting DD

Are you buying the boat today? Look at lots first! Test drive! And let me come along and watch!

Lula-Hula

Good afternoon to all,

thanks for the feedback about my plans. It was finding that rental site for camper vans that actually made my decision final. I can easily rent one for weekends, and in all honesty, that's probably as long as I could cope with.

Also, we wont be able to have much of a party in one, whereas there'll be far more room for everyone on a boat . I do need something BIG to aim for to keep me focused.

Thanks for the link to the Day Dream thread se999 - I'm already a regular lurker on there & once I get started on the serious savings, I'll be requesting permission to join too.

But, & it is a big BUT, I have just got a teeny weeny little issue to deal with first. The small matter of having just booked a weeks holiday in Cornwall at the end of July :whistle:.

From my first appearance here, I planned to be DF by the time DD started high school. So, I did that & then it all went a bit wrong - cooker, laptop - & then I realised that I didnt have a holiday organised. Yes, DD is away on her trip with school & no, it certainly wasnt free . But, we didnt go away last year & with lovely auntie having sold her place in Portugal, we cant do the last minute flights that I was counting on.

I need to take DD away somewhere & give her a fab time. So, we are booked into a lovely little riverside cottage that is just 3 miles from the Eden project where, I have wanted to go for ages. The town has a train station so we can get to the coast without using the car & there are just loads of things we do & places to go. So glad I didn't book yesterday as the prices were all reduced this morning but with insurance & booking fees it still came in at £695 :eek:.

Amazingly, the cashback tracked instantly & I should be getting £35 for that which does help somewhat. I'll brace myself for a couple of tanks of fuel at about £90 but we can take most of our own food & I'm already on the case with cheap entries. Eden project is cheaper if using public transport & under 14s are then free. Such a shame that we miss Brandon Flowers performing by just a couple of weeks, but never mind, we'll have seen him only 4 weeks before.

A couple of things I need to be aware of are that we will be going BEFORE July payday :undecided & that my car is due to be serviced & mot'd at the beginning of Aug so I may need to bring that forward to make sure it's all ready for a long journey.

When we come back, we'll have another week before I go back to work & DD is at playscheme. Need to book that v soon.

What I'm trying to say is that my not so-shiny-now CC is now wearing a balance of some £1795.06p .

Hmmm not quite so F***ing Fabulous as what it was wearing yesterday then.

22 weeks until 0% runs out Aaaaaaaaaggggggghhhhhh

Although, this is more like short term, planned (apart from laptop) & interest-free borrowing, rather than stinky old out of control debt.

I have no idea just how all this is going to work, bearing in mind I still need to buy approx £200 worth of uniform, pay for £350 worth of childcare, purchase a laptop & no doubt all sorts of other things will occur too.

It will work out though ( ever the optimist ) & my first step towards success is going to be cancelling my holiday from home-job next week & getting my @rse in gear to earn some spending money.

Already wondering how to co ordinate & fund 3 separate savings pots as from November ; 1 for boat, 1 for long hol next summer, & 1 for regular mini breaks in between.

What a completely bonkers idea ... I love it

bye for now ...
xx

* slinks off to remove the Debt Free declaration from sig*