A Year of Living Frugabulously

lizzie_dripping

Lula - unless it is for a bet or an exam, life is too short to read Dickens.

There, that's one book off the list for you.

vasseur

lizzie_dripping wrote: »

Lula - unless it is for a bet or an exam, life is too short to read Dickens.

Thanks for this, I have struggled and struggled with CD. Now I feel less guilty

fedupandskint

Happy weekend missus.

Just popping on to say that. I'm tired today after a longish run last night so once I get up and running (not literally!) I'll be prepping some oranges for marmalade making for tomorrow and attempt to do some cleaning.

You sound uber organised with money so please send me some money organisation wishes and vibes over the net for me to catch and use!

taxi73

Just popping by to say Hi and how fabulous you are doing...as for madam in the office what I'd do to her is unprintable..lol

Karmacat

Thanks Cheery - I remember that now! Wish I'd got it then, having freeloaded the first few pages in the bookshop, it looks great.

Horace

Sorry to hear about the Goblin..I think she has a sister who works with my chum in a Wisbech GP's surgery - they sound very similar in nature:mad:

I have every sympathy re the HB forms - they are a pain in the bottom. I know that when I applied (I seem constantly to have to re-apply) I had to send copies of all my bank statements, a copy of my accounts, copies of share certificates (Lloyds and my own) and the letter to say that I was in receipt of JSA. Must admit that they dislike me because they would ask for copies of my receipts - they were many and plentiful and in a folder in monthly punched pockets. No way I could afford to copy them so I would take them into the Neighbourhood Office and watch them visibly cringe:rotfl:

More news on my house front, the survey was done and found problems and as the initial offer was made subject to survey the offer was then reduced - it needs lintels at the front and back of the house and thus it needs new windows. The agent got a bit antsy so mum (she can be formidable) said that either vendors accept the offer or she will pull out of the sale - the vendors have accepted the new offer although they are not happy about it (lintels are important and you can see that the wall above the lounge window is visibly starting to sag). I drove past today and felt a little thrill in my heart when I saw the sold board up:)

Alys Fowler lives about 6 miles away from me - she is as mad as a box of frogs. She has started something called urban foraging around here where people go and pick fruit from trees in people's gardens and let them have a share of the fruit and the remainder goes to the foragers.

Life is too short to read Dickens - I can remember reading his tedious books at school and vowed never to read them again. Our other reading material was by HG Wells and Thomas Hardy - HG Wells is a bit hard going, Thomas Hardy is a bit better.

freshair_2

Hi Lula, nasty goblin..... unplugging network cables generally confuses people without too much IT knowledge, assuming this as you had to explain where the favourites are, and it can happen quite easily on its own.

Makes goblin look foolish when she has to call IT to fix???? just an idea.

Hope everything else is ok, with your grocery budget £200 is what me DS and a dog spend at the moment there has only been 1 month since October we went over, no prizes for guessing which month but it started with Dec and ended in ember

Keep smiling karma will come back and bite her on the bum

Horace

Freshair - that sounds like a super idea to tinker with the network cables. Even loosening the cable on the back of the monitor will cause intermittent problems and cables come loose all the time:rotfl:

Moving stuff around is also a good one - that way the favourite mug is not in the correct place all the time but when she looks again it is back where it always lives..drives 'em mad when you move stuff around and move it back again.

Lula-Hula

Hello again my lovelies,

apologies for having a rant & then abandoning ship. I've been reading. Lots .

I've just read back through your suggestions as to how to deal with La Goblina & they do make me giggle. I particularly like the one about playing with network cables. This week, I've focused on taking measures to protect my own 'puter from outside interference.

Against IT man's wishes I insisted on installing firefox as well as having IE. Well, I need somewhere to do all my cheeky quidco transactions, as well as MSE, Amazon & all the online newspapers I read . I've removed all the stuff I'm working on from IE 'favourites' & added them all to the bookmarks menu on firefox. I also have the little calendar on my desktop & I've now put that over the top of the firefox icon so to the untrained eye I only have IE :rotfl::shhh:.


She's not been any trouble the last 2 days & I inadvertently gave her kittens today when I changed the client details on a job. Unbeknown to me, it changed every single other job for that client & reassigned all her invoices too :eek:. She was freaking out & I felt a bit guilty, but as soon as I changed the details back again it all reverted to normal & she lost that greeny grey look. It's now wonder my computer access is a lot less privileged than the unholy trinity's :rotfl:

Let's talk money :

I've sent off another 46 forms for the HB claim & am expecting demands for my shoe size, favourite colour, the amount of gold stars earned by DD in primary school & the cat's phone number any day now .

I couldn't help but be a bit sarcy in my covering letter; "... terribly sorry but I can't let you have my March payslip by the 6th as you requested; I won't be getting it myself until the 30th ... "

Naughty I know, but hopefully the man has a sense of humour & the ability to laugh at bureaucracy, otherwise, I forsee me being skint for a long time as he bounces my claim back at me.

Lula-Hula

Right, I promise I'll concentrate on the money now :


- Payday yesterday :j- actually not quite that exciting, but I'm not exactly grafting for it at the moment so feel quite lucky to be getting paid still.

- Online funds all topped up today as follows :

Gas & Electricity = £370
Car Tax = £100
Car Insurance = £125
Car Maintenance - £125

I also paid another £50 in to the repayment fund. Not much, but I'm determined to pay in something.

I've not put any money in DDs clothes fund yet, but will do that tomorrow. Only £20 this month as I had to buy her a new PE top yesterday. Well, I gave her £10, she bought the top for £7.50 & then proceeded to 'buy me' a picnic with the change. I'm sure this has happened before & it's been discussed on here, but I'll get my own back one way or another. This week's pocket money is not being released until her room passes inspection

Cash funds have also been topped up :

Xmas = £90
Gifts = £90
Childcare = £145
Fun = £30

By taking out the full £200 for Grocery & Household Spends I won't have enough money if the HB claim gets knocked back. I do have the free overdraft though, so decided to play optimistic & after work today I headed to Sainsbugs & withdrew the whole £200 for the months expenses :eek:

I've waited so long to be able to do this, I just couldn't resist.

I was able to plan ahead a bit so got decent stuff on offer like chicken & meat to put in the freezer. I'm on a very strict eating plan anyway so that helps & we're still well stocked with household items & there were no candles on offer so of the £78 I spent, less than £3 was on household / toiletries . I did spend a fair bit on teas & herbs & spices, but they last for the longest time so there will be no waste.

I do need to get more kitty pouches tomorrow so that will bump up the spends a bit, but I can end the month with money left ...


Bed now, G'night
xx