** Debtbusting, Decluttering and Married life by Mrs Orange Fairy :-) **

OrangeFairy

What a lovely day!

Taken DD2 for her ballet lesson this morning and then went off to Mr T's for some bits. Got tonnes of yogurts with a good date on offer. Stocked up on them. Should sort the kids out for about 3 weeks!! Hopefully. Couldnt remember if OH had bought mild cheese for the kids so i bought some. In fact he had but means what we have will last all of July! Bought some basics biscuits. Will fob DD2 off with them when she asks for snacks rather than wasting more expensive items on her!! We officially have NO space in our freezer!! And our fridge is well packed.

Need to write up my grocery spend list. OH needs to look on his account to see what he has spent in Mr T so far.

DD1 at ballet now so i am cleaning the oven - im not skiving!! Just letting the stuff soak in!! Then DD2 and i are going to collect her and go off to my Mums house. The kids can play with my young siblings, have an ice cream and be as happy as if they had had an afternoon out! I can sit down with a cup of tea and some custard creams.

I want to sit and think of cheap/free activities to do in the holidays. Like plan some craft and cooking afternoons etc. Mum has her free beach pass for the closest beach (2 mins up the road) and i have nation trust free parking in the next closest besch (about 8 mins up the road) So they are good things to do. Geacaching is something we will get on to again as we love it, the kids love it, it is free and it is included on my 101 list

Need to sort these bliming CD's to make some money on music magpie! Been sitting by the computer desk for ages!!

Also want to clean up and list kids bikes on the fore sale page in our area on facebook. Great way of getting rid of stuff!

Right off to clean the oven!! xxx

OrangeFairy

A paying out day today

£125 for uncle for rent
£50 to ballet for costumes for their show - already given them £45!
£13.45 to Aunt for ballet items she ordered for me!

Found out yesterday that my Uncle's business has gone into liquidation I feel really sad about it. The have a big £600k house. But like a £400k mortgage on it. So are downsizing a LOT as he will have to get a lower paid job now. Their whole way of life will have to change. We said we will go for cheap / free days out with them to occupy her kids over the hols etc. She has 3 girls 11,9, and 5. They all do ballet. She spends £650 a term on dance and acting classes!!! I spend £250 a term and that is bad enough. The oldest is £400 of that. The kids are selling old toys to go towards their lessons and then my Aunt said the oldest will then have to drop a couple of classes.

If they were sensible they should try and find a £200k house here and have no mortgage! Though you dont get very much in our village for 200k. And they are making a big drop. They are looking at about £280k so getting a £80k mortgage if they can. But they would be better off being ortgage free and then have a lot more freedom with their money!

Boguht my Aunt some flowers today to say we were thinking of them. My and my Mum went halves xx

OrangeFairy

Morning all

Now is the start of 3 fulltime weeks. Ill be looking forward to them being over!! Means i will need to call in a billion favours to have the kids after school for 3 weeks and i will have less time to see them and do housework Though i am all about being positive at the moment.......so

Woohoo that i will spend less money while being at work more
Woohoo that the extra over these 3 weeks will give me 2 weeks worth of time off to use over the holidays in August!

PROPER diet/healthy eating starts today. Just weighed myself at 11 stone 3 lb (1lb off last week). SO the lose 21lb in my sig starts today! I have done my measurements too. I dont plan to eating stupidly - just more healthily - cut down of carbs and do some more exercise!

I have motivation as my cousin, who is a really bad dieter and I have never been bigger than, has lost a load of weight. She is exercising an hour a day and i would say is smaller than me now! :eek: Though she doesnt work so obviously working out is a lot easier!

Right off to tidy up the lounge and get some breakfast on - porridge and a cup of tea xx

Choc-addict

Good luck with the exercise and healthy eating - i'm embarking on a health drive now in build up to wedding! I follow rosemary conley as find it works well for me and helps me with my portion sizes, although i think really exercise is key as it helps tone up and change the body shape.

On a nicer note....I'VE FOUND MY DRESS!!!!!.....:j:j:j I have been looking for a while and the dress that I have 'liked' and was going with was for some reason niggling at me and I wasn't happy. Anyway I went back to the shop saturday with my mum and the assistant there was fantastic, I had actually bypassed the dress when deciding which ones to try on and she asked me if I would try this particular dress on for her as she thought it would really suit me...she was right.... I LOVE IT! So excited as actually feel so different upon trying this one on compared to any others, I thought I was going mad and being picky before but now I know that I just hadn't found the right one for me and so glad I trusted my insticts and went back to the shop.

Sorry waffling there.....

Hope next 3 weeks aren't too bad, I find being as organised as possible helps with the busy times xx

OrangeFairy

Fantastic news Choc!!! I was so pleased when i chose mine! I was gonig to describe it to you and then realised i have shoved loads of pics on fb anyway! lol. I'm so have you happy found THE ONE! :j:j:j:j

Forgot to mention we had a great inexpensive day out yesterday. Spent £11. We went to one of the beaches nearby as there was a sandcastle competition, There were some awesome creations! An amazing dragon made of sand with smoke coming out from its nose! Took a picnic on the beach and had a paddle in the sea. The kids and Daddy built a sandcastle and then we looked around a couple of shops and then had an ice cream. Mine was lemon meringue flavour!! yummy!!! So £6 on parking and £5 on ice creams for a lovely few hours. Then after that off to MIL's for a bbq. So a free dinner.

Though for pudding as my last night of being bad we had jam and clotted cream scones with clotted cream ice cream with then more clotted cream on top!!! Oh dear!!

I have been good today and have decided to start using my fitness pal again as i found it really handy before.

Work was okay. Going to be a mad week. Working all week and then were were invited to 4 parties/gatherings at the weekend! Had to say no to one as two were saturday night. Plus the girls ballet lessons and DD1 has her bestfriends birthday party! All go. My collegues wedding friday, our friends 30th saturday and my cousins 21st on sunday. In fact my cousins birthday is monday and it is my bros birthday on the sunday so will need to fit him in too!!

I have eaten well today with only fruit snacks and a handful of cashews. Tuna sandwich for lunch and soup for dinner. A litre of water finished. I have walked 40 mins. 20 mins during my lunch hour and 20 mins after work. Then 15 mins on my mums cross trainer. A good start.

That is my day! xx

OrangeFairy

Not much to tell at the mo. Worked the last 3 days and had rushed evenings

Lunch from stores and hot and spicy pork for dinner. I had put on the meal plan for me to make breaded chicken pieces for the girls. However this will be fiddley and it would also mean i would have to buy some chicken when there are things in the freezer they could have. Plus getting home at 5.30 and trying to get them fed, bathed, homework and bed for 7.30 is a struggle. Perhaps ill do it for a weekend evening.

Joined the flylady thread today to give my housework some structure. I want to join the payment a day thread for August. Will have a look at it later

OH has booked Harry Potter at the cinema for next Sunday!!!! I am sooooo excited!! We are going to change up our Mr T vouchers for Pizza Express vouchers and go out for a pizza after. I am a bit worried that people will be disgusted that we are taking the girls. They are 8 and 6 but really into Harry Potter. It is a 12A - so recommended for over 12's but under 12s need to be accompanied by an adult.

Need to get organised tonight - want to get the housework done, and kids sorted and in bed so i can read my book for a bit and then watch the apprentice. x

jtr2803

Don't worry about the cinema hun, I expect there will be a lot of younger kids there and it's up to you as their mum to decide what is appropriate!

I desperately want to see the new Transformers but we are going to wait till next Wednesday I think as OH is on Orange now . I have been sooooooooo lazy with housework and OH has been doing lots which makes a nice change!

OrangeFairy

Didnt realise i hadnt posted in a while!

Been a mad last week and weekend.

Been MSE while at work as i am fulltime. So that has been good.

Friday we went to my colleagues wedding which was okay. They are both nice indiviuals but arent a great couple. So it is pretty weird to go to a wedding where almost everyone that knows them properly knows they should have called it a day 5 years ago. I wish them both the best though. No present to buy as we decided it would be easier not to do for eachothers as we were both asking for money!

Saturday we went out for a friends 30th suprise birthday (which he said he knew she was planning) Kids stayed at MILs overnight. I took 2 smirnoff ices in my bag in attempt to save some money! I wish i had taken more as it was in a room well away from the bar so they wouldnt have seen. My annoying thing was OH told me last night that we spent £60 on drinks! This has infact quite !!!!ed me off :mad: I would have been happy having the 2 drinks i took and then perhaps another 2. But everytime i turned around he had another one there for me. It was getting annoying at the time as i wasnt bothered about more but i wasnt going to argue with him infront of everyone of he probably would have called me boring and embarrassed me But after being told he spent £60 has made it worse. He loves MSE and has just probably thrown and unnecessary £30 down the drain!! So much for a frugal month. Over a weeks worth shopping on alcohol! The MSE bit was we got fed dinner (buffet food)

Then yesterday we had a family gathering for my cousins 21st. We got fed buffet food there and the MSE side was that my Aunt was urging us to take loads away as there was too much for my Uncles lunches for the week. So today we all have lunch made up of the buffet food from last night and i got some sausage rolls and pork cocktail sausages for DD2 to have with scrambled egg for dinner tonight

Off to work today - feels like i am going for a rest after this weekend . Will work hard!

Other news - ordered Pizza Express vouchers with our Mr T vouchersfor after our Harry Potter film on Sunday so it will feel like a bigger day out!
OH has just told me that we have been offered his Mum and Dad's garden table and chairs. They need a sand and paint and then they will be fine and it saves us buying some now! :j

Right off to get ready for work! x

OrangeFairy

Hello diary land!

Still not too much going on here. Just work!

Sent OH off to work with a list for shopping. We dont need very much.

I need him to look into his grocery spend to add it to my spreadsheet. I am hoping we are donig okay this month food wise.

Sorted through CD's properly on monday night. I had a bag to bin, a bag of singles to ebay/charity shop and loads being picked up by music magpie on friday. Need to get OH to look through and copy any songs he wants before they go.

Following flylady thread - last night thoroughly cleaned the bathroom, decluttered desk and lounge and then hoovered and cleaned the woodwork

I am in a decluttering mood at the moment but the enthusiasm is being wasted while i am working fulltime as i dont have time to do it by the time i have got in, sorted the kids out etc.!!

I have written a list of my declutter areas so i can cross off areas as i sort them - they are broken down into small tasks to be more motivating!

1. [STRIKE]cd's[/STRIKE]
2. catalogue shelves
3. [STRIKE]top of fridge[/STRIKE]
4. [STRIKE]fridge[/STRIKE]
5. medicine cupboard
6. underwear collection
7. my clothes
8. DD1 clothes
9. DD2 clothes
10. cutlery drawer
11. Plastics shelves
12. Cups and glasses
13. Under sink cupboard
14. [STRIKE]Bread cupboard[/STRIKE]
15. Baking tray drawer and pots and pans
    
16. My bedside cabinet
17. Under the bed and linen shelf
    
18. DD1's room
19. DD2's room
20. Bathroom cabinet
21. Bathroom cupboard
22. Under the stairs!!!!! :eek:
23. DVD's
    
24. Paperwork boxes - declutter
    
25. The garage
26. OH and my shoes
27. Declutter garden of rocks and rubbish!
28. Ebay corner
29. Coats
30. The dreaded LOFT!!! :mad:
    

I need to do a bit more ebaying to raise money. Tempted to look for a second job. Maybe cleaning or something. There are people i know who get paid £50 to clean a holiday cottage one morning a week. That would suit me perfectly if i could find one!

Debenhams refunded me £35 for my tiara that i forgot i had returned! Nice extra bit!

Right off to continue work!

wendz86

I was thinking of starting the flylady thread. Have very little motivation to do housework and would be good to do one room a day, break it down a bit.

Good luck with all the decluttering!