13 Moons part 2 - Freebird & Frugabulous

Souk08

Lol at missing gentleman callers by being at work!!!

Lula-Hula

Lula-Hula wrote: »

In no particular order



[STRIKE] - Return non-fitting impulse buy items from whence they came [/STRIKE] DONE

[STRIKE] - 3 loads of laundry[/STRIKE] DONE

[STRIKE] - Take bag of stuff to be charitized[/STRIKE] DONE

[STRIKE] - Take DDs instant camera to be processed[/STRIKE] DONE

- Complete all forms relating to High School & post them

[STRIKE] - Vacuum everywhere[/STRIKE] DONE

[STRIKE] - Catch up on all surveys[/STRIKE] DONE

[STRIKE] - Email some rellies[/STRIKE] DONE

[STRIKE] - Visit other rellie[/STRIKE] DONE

[STRIKE] - Ironing[/STRIKE] DONE

[STRIKE] - Make plans for holiday trips[/STRIKE] DONE

[STRIKE] - Do some real holiday costings ( as opposed to the vague ones in my head)[/STRIKE] DONE

- Clean the bathroom ... Errr, ummmm ahhhhh :whistle:

[STRIKE] - Clean the kitchen[/STRIKE] DONE

[STRIKE] - Wash/scrub floors[/STRIKE] DONE

- Buy more liquorice tea bags ... errr not yet dammit

- EXERCISE PROPERLY ... hmmmm depends on what you call exercise really

[STRIKE] - Drink one, & only one bottle of delicious cider [/STRIKE]

DONE Twice actually , whoops :rotfl:



Getting there ...

so close although an epic fail on the bathroom but with good reason

Lula-Hula

I marched off to the cashpoint & withdrew £20 then on to the post office to return the parcel. That cost me £2.16.

I then headed off to next village carrying the bag of charity stuff. It was really heavy & I had to carry it quite awkwardly so I don't think it did me much good.

Anyway, the shop assistant was very appreciative as always & I found a sweet set of mini canvas prints to go in the kitchen. Herbs in pots & lovely colours, brand new & all for just £2.25 . I felt replenished.

Next stop was Boots to get DDs photos processed. While in there I decide to get some more skincare potions & ended up spending £45 . I've realised that to buy the whole facial potions range in one go would cost me £100 so do try very hard to buy when on offer. On the plus side I do now have over £20 of points.

I came home & was shattered by the time got back & not sure why. I made a huge tuna salad & it was delicious. I then got on with vacuuming everywhere, cleaning the kitchen form top to bottom & then scrubbing the floor & also the stairs. It looks great now .

Checked emails & discovered that the Ipsos points have been awarded so I headed off to Amazon to apply the gift certificate. I did have a naughty spend on a book ... £0.01 + £2.80 p&p . I now have £19.44 in my Amazon account so that's great.

DD brought home our tickets for the performance & her SATs results. I was very pleased for & proud of her; Lit was a 5a, Writing was a 5b & Maths a 5b :T.

Her final week of GG before the summer so I dropped her off & then headed off to M&S on a hunt for school shirts. None available in her size unfortunately. I braced myself & then went to the unmentionable place . They had packs of 3 shirts in the right size for £6 - couldn't resist but will try to get some nice M&S ones too.

Then it all went a bit wrong & I found myself hurling items into the trolley like a woman possessed. Somehow, I spent another £26.54 on groceries so have now have a running total of £106.37.

I also got a few toiletries while they were on offer as we're down to our last spare toothbrush :eek: & DD is going through shampoo like it's chocolate.

I am so tired now so shooting to bed in the hope that a good night's sleep & a lie in will refresh me.

G'night
xx

Shoe_Gal

Sounds like you're doing really well with exercise and dieting , well done you

Lula-Hula

Shoe_Gal wrote: »

Sounds like you're doing really well with exercise and dieting , well done you

Thanks hon :A although ...

the exercise has been rather non-existent in the last 24 hours & I have just quaffed a bottle of cider ... but apart from that it's going ok. What you posted on your diary about not being who or where you want to be has made me think about a few things too. I am the only one who can sort out my weight/size/fitness. I may be getting older every year that passes, but I don't have to get fatter too, however, I need to actually do stuff to change that.

As far as finances are concerned, I still have a long way to go :think:.

I still don't really do the whole scrimping & saving thing to clear debt - I'm far too fond of treating myself too & although the current debt is fresh stuff rather than stale old debt from years ago, I know how easy it would be to just keep on spending because I've seen something that I like .

I'm not sure how it came about, but I've seriously under budgeted for clothes this year. Getting DD kitted out for high school is costing a lot more than I thought, & she also needed stuff for her school trip that + she keeps on growing up & up & up.

Obviously, I want to have more money to be able to save & to have fun with every month, but it does seem that all my plans & intentions are thwarted every month. Ok, so I didn't have to book a holiday cottage & I could have just kept on kicking myself over the laptop drama & saved up for a new one.

But when the borrowing is free, why would I wait ? It's not as though I've not paid my regular bills in order to pay off these little luxuries & I have kept up with all my savings funds for future expenses. Seems that I have learned some useful practices but I just don't scrimp enough to be totally dedicated to the 'cause' :undecided

taxi73

you're going great guns on that list..had to laugh at the gentleman callers...LOL

Karmacat

Lula-Hula wrote: »

...the exercise has been rather non-existent in the last 24 hours & I have just quaffed a bottle of cider ... but apart from that it's going ok.

But drinking a bottle of cider was on your list :j

I'm not sure how it came about, but I've seriously under budgeted for clothes this year. Getting DD kitted out for high school is costing a lot more than I thought, & she also needed stuff for her school trip that + she keeps on growing up & up & up.

Well, an awful lot of that spending, 99%, is unavoidable, Lula, you can't blame yourself for that - well, you can, but you shouldn't.

Obviously, I want to have more money to be able to save & to have fun with every month, but it does seem that all my plans & intentions are thwarted every month. Ok, so I didn't have to book a holiday cottage & I could have just kept on kicking myself over the laptop drama & saved up for a new one.

But when the borrowing is free, why would I wait ? It's not as though I've not paid my regular bills in order to pay off these little luxuries & I have kept up with all my savings funds for future expenses. Seems that I have learned some useful practices but I just don't scrimp enough to be totally dedicated to the 'cause' :undecided

This is really interesting. Your outgoings are still less than your income .... ole Bob Cratchit's thing... so in one sense, yes, why would you wait? Your job isn't secure, not terribly, so on that level you *might* want to rein in the spending.

But ... if you can pay your bills, why not? I learned very graphically, when my brother in law died, that we can never tell how much time we have. And I do think that part of my health problem over the last few years has been that I sacrificed too much to try to earn more from badly paying gigs, so I could keep the level of savings up. I always had enough savings to pay off the actual debt at any time.... if I'd done that, and then had a think through about my second career while I was still in my previous house, who knows what I'd have decided? Actually, I still think the move was the right idea (I was in that town yesterday), but the point is, its very individual, and you don't know what the future holds, so as long as you're not beggaring yourself in the future (which you're not), then I say, go for it! Plus, scrimping as I did might actually be counter productive - at some stages, I think it was for me.

Erm, sorry about the essay

Lula-Hula

Hello all :wave:

I'm delighted to have just read your post Karma - it really does hit home & resonate. Your thoughts are always welcome here in whatever format ( essay, sentence or novella ) & highly valued :A

It's now 4 years since my dear mum died aged just 68 & that has certainly coloured my thinking in terms of a healthy living balance. As you know, once the initial shock has faded we cannot help but be very aware of our own mortality after such an event & begin to think about what we have achieved & what we want to do with the time we estimate we have left. We rarely know when when our time is up & this afternoon we're off to visit my maternal grandmother who is in excellent health & approaching 97.

The current CC debt is still easily payable both within the 0% time limit & even immediately should that be necessary - due to various funds & savings in place. My issue is that when I first started the DFW journey I said I wanted to be DF by the time DD starts High School. August 1st would have been nice, but I feel that's unachievable without emptying funds. I don't really want to do that as that will then leave me very vulnerable should a redundancy situation arise.

I think I have a fair amount in the utlities coffers but again, with winter price hikes approaching I'm loathe to empty them without being sure of continued employment. I pay £100 in each month & whilst I do build up a bit of credit in the summer, this in turn covers the winter payments. The car funds are looking good too but I don't yet know what will be discovered when it has it's service ....

I just like nice neat, tidy round numbers & have my sights set on being 100 % & forever DF by September 1st.

I want weekend breaks, day trips, festivals, camping ( ok, that's slightly untrue) & to know that I don't have to pay anything back

It will happen & I must learn patience. I was telling DD the importance of this when gardening. I was revelling in my wild part of the garden earlier.

The rockery-ish area that I created a couple of years ago is looking good now. Ivy has grown across the gate in the corner & is starting to creep up the garage walls. The lavender is blooming, the buddleia has cones about to burst open, the honeysuckle hedge is interwoven with brambles which annoy me as they invade & yet please me as they are laden with berries. And best of all, I finally have tall - over 6ft - hollyhocks :j. Some are a pale creamy colour & there are also some vibrant magenta coloured ones. I love them & I love just sitting there on my pink bench watching the fuzzy buzzies zooming about hoovering up the nectar. Just bliss .

Aside from all this loveliness, DD has finally declared her swing too small, created a new lethal looking one in the tree & granted me permission to remove the old metal swing set :T. This means I can extend the veg patch to something less comedy & more serious. I am rather excited.

I will continue to be excited until such time as I have to remove the foot square concrete blocks that dear Dad insisted on embedding the legs of the swing set into & then dismantling it. The excitement will probably continue to fade as I then have to dig the patch over & dispose of turf. At that point I'll need to remember to use it to build my very own grass armchair .

Back to reality; I have done the ironing & definitely have no recollection of planning to clean the bathroom now :whistle:.

Must go wash up & remove DDs cakes from the oven before visiting.

Back later with financial updates ....

xx

Wordsmith

Lula-Hula wrote: »

The rockery-ish area that I created a couple of years ago is looking good now. Ivy has grown across the gate in the corner & is starting to creep up the garage walls. The lavender is blooming, the buddleia has cones about to burst open, the honeysuckle hedge is interwoven with brambles which annoy me as they invade & yet please me as they are laden with berries. And best of all, I finally have tall - over 6ft - hollyhocks :j. Some are a pale creamy colour & there are also some vibrant magenta coloured ones. I love them & I love just sitting there on my pink bench watching the fuzzy buzzies zooming about hoovering up the nectar. Just bliss .

It sounds bliss. Your words conjure up a lovely image.

Lula-Hula wrote: »

At that point I'll need to remember to use it to build my very own grass armchair .

This sounds a great idea. I googled "grass armchair" and found a kit! I'm sure you don't need a kit. Are you going to do it? Really do it? It sounds a fab idea. I think you should. And then let me know how.

Mags30

Lula-Hula wrote: »

As far as finances are concerned, I still have a long way to go :think:.

I still don't really do the whole scrimping & saving thing to clear debt - I'm far too fond of treating myself too & although the current debt is fresh stuff rather than stale old debt from years ago, I know how easy it would be to just keep on spending because I've seen something that I like .

Sounds familiar I think the problem is more to do with the cost of living than anything you are doing wrong. I can't live proper "old style" either, it's just not me and you can't enforce old style living on DD, girls her age tend to enjoy things that cost money. That's not her fault, it's just the way society is. Plus when her Mammy treats herself to nice things sometimes it's only natural that DD will want some nice things too

I always think it would help me so much if there was someone to split the bills with, the finances wouldn't be so tight if we only paid half of the gas bill, half of the car insurance, or half of the school fees.