Regular Ramblings from LookingAhead

LookingAhead

Thanks everyone!

cathybird, the URL is:

http://www.eighth-day.co.uk/recipes.htm

And Moozie...thank you, you have helped with your 'coming out the other side after awful time' comment. I know what you mean...

LookingAhead

Got to get my head together and remember things that need paying for between now and New Year's Eve. Luckily I get paid again before Christmas (21st).

OK...what am I doing and how much will be needed.

Tomorrow (2nd Dec) - Works Christmas 'Do'. Free meal & some free wine but once that's gone (I think 4 bottles to a table) then you have to pay for yourself which is fair enough! Cab home which BF said he will pay for. Maybe I should take a tenner to be safe. So, £10 then.

Next week we have a departmental night out (Wednesday), hmmmm. Should be able to get a lift there & back but nothing will be paid for and I *have* to go. £20 I reckon. Damn! This really will have to be top whack spending.

Friday night I am out with a mate for a Christmas drink but she knows my predicament. She has offered to buy me a few drinks and we won't be out late so - coupled with the fact that I can get a lift there - I reckon £20 tops again (to include taxi home, no buses after 10.50pm!).

Oh my word I want to cry this is adding up already.

OK I think that is it socially until payday. Then I am invited to spend time with my hugely fun ex colleagues on Friday 22nd which I *hope* will be early doors at work as it is the Friday before Christmas. I can get the bus into town for £1.20 but would end up spending silly money on alcohol and taxi home I reckon. I *might* be able to talk BF into picking me up but to be fair, he would probably like to get home from work and either go out himself or settle in with Christmas Fayre and a bottle of mulled wine!
Hmmm may have to say no to this as much as it pains me. They're a great crowd & I miss them.

Manicure 21st December £16. Definitely having this! Sorry no compromise there. (If you saw the state of my rough, dry, split cuticles every month if I don't go, you'd tell me to do it too )

Wrapping paper & Christmas cards to buy. And food. Argh I can feel myself getting bogged down and wanting to ignore it! I can't do that.

OK. Groceries.....probably £150. To include toiletries & cleaning stuff. Will try to get it lower than that if possible.

Getting low on Dermalogica moisturiser too but think I can eke that out till the New Year - the top will be being cut off the top of that tube and no mistake. Think I can eke out hair products too. If not I now know someone who can get things cheap at the hair wholesaler place...I may have to pay her a visit.

I think that's it for now. So how much is this then? £216 before going out with ex colleagues! :eek: That's it, 22nd December is definitely off I think! Gutted but there you are.

Have I forgotten anything? Probably. I'll be back to edit if I have!

Wow, I was so tempted to do an 'emu' when it got to the grocery bit. But I didn't! That's a step in the right direction.

LookingAhead

Have resolved to NOT go out New Year's Eve as well. I did say that after the concert but this is an affirmation! Not unless BF wants to pay for everything!

kathfisch

Oooh, another thread to keep up to date with... I love it! Your ramblings are really entertaining LA and I hope they're helping you at the same time... it makes such a difference writing something when you know someone's going to read it!

Makes me think I should update my diary type thingy thread doo-dah... you know what I mean... so I might just do that!

Take care,

Kath x

MinnieSpender

LookingAhead wrote:

Thanks everyone!

cathybird, the URL is:

http://www.eighth-day.co.uk/recipes.htm

And Moozie...thank you, you have helped with your 'coming out the other side after awful time' comment. I know what you mean...

Oh, LA - I've been going there for nearly 20 years!

moozie_2

Glad it helped I know you know hence I mentioned it...

I love the honesty in your ramblings. I think it helps to be factual and realistic about things as under/over estimating is not helping the financial situation. I hope you have fun indoors on those nights that you decided to stay in

MinnieSpender wrote:

Oh, LA - I've been going there for nearly 20 years!

Min, when were you going to tell us? :rolleyes:

MinnieSpender

moozie wrote:

Min, when were you going to tell us? :rolleyes:

Hello.

My name is MinnieSpender and I am a non-meat eater.

Does that help?

:rotfl:

moozie_2

MinnieSpender wrote:

Hello.

My name is MinnieSpender and I am a non-meat eater.

Does that help?

:rotfl:

I meant about the site, silly Min :rolleyes:

Good luck with the carnivorous donkey

ZTD

moozie wrote:

Good luck with the carnivorous donkey

There have been allegations that I do eat veg. On occaision.

He says - about to have a couple of beef burgers for lunch...

Is bread a vegetable?

ZTD

LookingAhead wrote:

So does anyone else swing between saving every penny and being totally obsessed with cutting debt and thinking "Damn it life's too short" and proceed to go out and have a right old time of it?

Everybody does waver - that's not really a problem. Some days you do feel like being better than others.

LookingAhead wrote:

Well that's me.

But clearly it's a pattern that's not worked for me and I need to strike a balance.

The problem is not the wavering - the problem is not even your going from one extreme to the other - that's a sympton though. I would say the problem is in your justification of what's happening. If you're headed off the road but saying to yourself "this isn't a problem", then by virtue of not being able to/want to change what you're doing it then does become a problem.

If you correct your problems early, they don't become problems. If you've had a blow-out yesterday - move on - that was yesterday and this is today.

LookingAhead wrote:

There was an incident at the end of October (some of you may remember a thread I started at the time) which really put things in perspective for me. I felt at the time that the debt, albeit important to clear, was not the be all and end all.

That's right - it isn't. One of the things people should do when "on a roll" is to honestly look at what they are doing and ask the question: "Is this sustainable?".

If it can't last, then it won't last, and some people really have an emotional downer about falling off an impossibly uncomfortable "wagon", when what they should have done was find a wider, easier "wagon".

Sometimes this "downheartedness" at falling off the wagon prevents people from climbing back on again - at least for a while.

LookingAhead wrote:

I want to enjoy life, enjoy my friends, see places, do things. But hell, don't we all? And I have a responsibility to clear my debts. I don't *want* to be dishing out £500 every month in credit card payments and £300 in loans repayments AND contending with an overdraft anymore.

I have got to learn to budget and justify doing 'stuff'. And/or learn how to enjoy myself cheaply/more smartly.

It's all about priorities, and like you say doing things a little bit smarter. Sometimes cheapest isn't the cheapest. Cheap and unreliable often means expensive and unreliable.

LookingAhead wrote:

OK I want to think about positive stuff for a while. I may post again soon.

Well don't forget that when you want to talk about things - you have many friends here. If you need a good nagging, my door is open...