13 Moons part 2 - Freebird & Frugabulous

Lula-Hula

I'm on fire today :cool: -

woke up at 7.30, stripped the beds & have now done all the laundry which is blowing about on the line.

Whizzed about scrubbing kitchen & bathroom & washed the floors. I even managed to get DD to clean her room by refusing permission to watch a movie until it was done .

I hemmed the skirt while I was watching the lovely James & next on my list is lunch followed by some vacuuming & then garden time .

We're out tomorrow visiting so need to get a move on ...

Whhhhhhoooooosssssshhhh

Wordsmith

Crikey!

[I tried to post just the line above, which I thought very succinctly summed up my reaction on reading your post, but apparently you have to have more than ten characters in a post. Now I have.]

taxi73

you are a whirlwind today...am tired just reading that

Karmacat

And there is fun stuff this weekend, out visiting tomorrow! Hurray!

Lula-Hula

Karmacat wrote: »

And there is fun stuff this weekend, out visiting tomorrow! Hurray!

There is also wine drinking tonight :j

There's been an awful lot of pottering & meandering here this afternoon. DD has been on strike. Despite my best efforts to get her fired up, she went in the bath at 2.30 & has been in pyjamas since claiming extreme tiredness. Admittedly she has had a very active week, but this degree of lethargy is unusual; perhaps it's a pre-teen thing that I don't remember :think:.

It does mean that I've completed all tasks apart from watering the veg patch which is next on my list & the ironing which I shall tackle
tomorrow morning before we go out. I also spent some time watching Derby day & a bit of pottering on ebay yearning over boats & lifestyles.

Yet again I had the nasty blinding lightbulb of realisation that I forgot about the cheque for childminding :doh: which would explain why I had more money in my account than I should have. I still haven't paid the £150 into my savings funds or the fees for summer playscheme. It's all getting a bit scary now; in order to clear the CC before the 0% runs out I need to pay £81 per week towards it _pale_

For the first time in all this excitement of new laptops, cookers & holidays, I'm starting to feel just the teensiest bit concerned. I've been using the CC each week for all shopping as it is a cashback card so I do earn on what I spend. I paid over £230 off the balance yesterday, but only £95 of that was paying off the 'static' balance as the rest was to cover what I spent.

If I continue to do that, then I have a feeling that I might get myself tangled up & make a costly mistake. I think that I need to start treating that balance as a 'proper bad debt' & maybe not use the CC as a regular payment method until it's all cleared. I am very keen not to get myself back on the treadmill & already I find myself committed to making regular payments for some time, while I still have other things to fund.

I need a very strict budget to keep me focused & the only way I can do that is to withdraw cash from the bank each week & make it last.

As we have stocked up on all the basic groceries, I am going to allow £30 each week for top ups & that will HAVE to suffice.

£20 of my spends yesterday was on fruit, veg, dairy & bread. I bought some tuna for me to have with salad for lunches. I assumed it would be cheaper than buying mackerel of chicken ... £3.59 for 3 tins :eek:. I'll be ekeing that out to cover at least 6 meals.

Right, I'm off to water the veg patch - does anyone know if & how to use the seeds from peppers to grow own ones next year ?

Bye for now
xx

Lula-Hula

Feeling a bit calmer about the CC now. I was getting a bit panicky earlier . I must remember that I owe less than I have.

Went out to water the veg patch & realised just how much more I can grow if I set my mind to it.

Watched The Kings Speech with DD - she wasn't keen at first but a combination of wanting to stay up late & my saying that she should watch for half an hour before saying that it's boring, led her to persevere & we both really enjoyed it.

I love the undercurrent that sometimes we may find ourselves in situations that we don't want to be in, but that with some determination, hard work & perseverance we can achieve great things.

We have also pledged to use the word 'splendid' far more

I've now finished the bottle of wine I bought yesterday. It's a shame because it was lovely, but I do need to keep wine as a weekend treat & form now it will have to come from my pocket money as I certainly can't afford to spend £4 out of my grocery budget on booze. * curses self for forgetting to buy more tonic water yesterday*.

Off for a bath & then a wander round the diaries ...

Karmacat

Glad you stopped panicking by the end of the evening - but yes, it needs keeping an eye on, you're right. I think your Tesco Shoe Challenge is a good idea - that if they hurt after wearing them for an hour, they have to go. You might look at what has to go, and not *buy* that type any more - no matter how much you like the style, if they hurt, then you only want one pair at the most, and those to be worn when you're getting a lift somewhere, or hosting at home :D:D

Enjoy today tho!

taxi73

All very positive and love the sentence about not liking the situation we may find ourselves in and totally agree with those sentiments

Lula-Hula

Bonjour, bonjour mes amis :hello:

I am so on it today that I should really give myself a medal.

I woke up at 7.30 so shoved the trick wash load in the machine ( yes, can't believe I feel for the undiscovered fetid PE kit prank again ) & launched myself into an enthusiastic yoga session.

Hung the washing out & got on with the ironing which hardly took any time at all.

Dragged DD out of her room & we marched off down to the co op to buy some eggs ( box of 12 random sized free range ones is just £1.89 ) as DD wants to make a cake to take with us this afternoon, some chocolate chips to fill cake with, a baguette for lunch & I spotted fathers day cards & thinking ahead I decided to buy one now.

Total spend was £5.70 & having double checked yesterday's grocery spends I was a bit out & have now spent a total of £83.97.

I withdrew £30 from the cash machine & now my purse contains just £24.30p.

This is the way forward. I may still use the CC for fuelling up as that would just take my whole budget for the week & mean we'd be really hungry. Not splendid.

I might also use it for small shopping at the co op as that provides the highest cashback reward. Otherwise, I will not be using the CC for everyday purchases until the balance is cleared.

Interestingly, it seems that I have lost 2lbs. Gosh, it must be true that sweets, cakes, biscuits & crisps are a bit calorific. Amazing.

Splendid, in fact

I'm away now to gather the washing in, whisper some encouragement to the 3 carrots that have appeared & then complete the last bit of ironing before working out how to take cake & not eat it :think:

Lula-Hula

Bonsoir mes beauties,

We had a lovely afternoon catching up with one of my fave people & were treated to an unexpected & yet fantastic spread including delicious salmon sandwiches, walnut & coffee cake, teacakes, iced buns & of course DDs cake.

I scoffed loads of salmon sarnies & resisted all attempts to make me eat cake but in the end I succumbed to an iced bun . Feel very naughty, but we didnt eat anything when we came. Which isn't at all surprising as we didn't get back until after 8.

It drizzled with rain all afternoon ( of course - I ran up & down the stairs whilst weight lifting 2 watering cans last night just to keep the 3 carrots hydrated). It is now chucking it down & sounds like it it will keep going all night.

Never mind, the gardens need it & coming home to know that the place is clean tidy & all laundry, ironing & chores are done was great. That must be how life is for the wealthy - & I would cope if it was thrust upon me

To money matters :

I forgot all about the ebay dress until checking my emails & found that I had won it :j. Whoops, sorry Karma but it's a great little sundress & only £4.98 so hopefully there will be some more of the big yellow hot thing about.

I've had an email from the GG leader to say that their unit was succesful in getting tickets for the Big Gig in october . DD is ecstatic as it's so close to her birthday - not yet sure if I'll be going along, but will be happy either way. That's a cheque that will now be banked & I still need to pay the balance which I think is about £25.

I was sorely tempted to forget about the bank saving funds in order to throw another £100 at the CC, but that way lies destruction of hard lessons learned. If I'd paid the full amount I woud have only been left with £5 in my account & my adding up can be a bit off so I thought it safer to just pay £100 & leave £50 in my current account; I can top it up when more money comes in.

I now have:

£150 in the utilities fund ( that's the one I owe the £50 to )
£200 in the car service/maintenance fund,
£180 in the car insurance fund,
& £10 in the car tax fund ( I just bought a year so that's why so low)

As far as the wealth vs debt situation ...

thanks to Bank Savings Funds, Cash Savings Funds, Safety/Slush Fund, Sealed Pot, Laptop Savings, Pocket Money & Grocery Cash, I win again this week :j.

It looks quite generous as I'm £285 in the lead. However, once Ive taken off the £50 owed to Bank Savings Fund & the £205 due to Summer Childcare ... it's not so impressive .

If I take away the Grocery Cash ( which I probably shouldn't count anyway as it is fairly essential) then I have a mere £5.70 credit . I do like to sail close to the sun :cool:


Never mind, a win is a win & I haven't sent off the cheque for childcare yet & music lesson refund should happen within the next week so a more resounding victory is expected soon.

Hoping to stock up on some NSDs in the next few days so wilbe be reporting in again soon.

Hope everyone's monday is splendid

G'night
xx