A Year of Living Frugabulously

Shoe_Gal

Hope you're OK sweetie? x

o2bfree

I have missed your musings.
I lurk on your diary, I hope you are OK

Karmacat

Lula-Hula wrote: »

His Royal Furriness is now fully stocked with munch for the rest of the month :jThis is important as he's starting to go out more now & I dread him bringing home his catches to share

Having topped up with the extra bits I needed, I'm now left with £109.50 + £2.50 which I spent on buying an e-cloth for DD1 & have to take back from the money I'm using to do hampers for her.

She & her B/F are moving in to their new home & apart from all the items of furniture I've been saving for them : sofa bed, bookcase, 2 tables, bench seat, old desktop computer I'm making them up some hampers to start them off.

I'm not sure about His Royal Furriness but I think Lula's fine - she's racing about for DD1 as far as I'm aware - she's probably going to come back online and turn minimalist, with getting rid of all that furniture! Just thought I'd better let people know - I may have finished my own diary on mse, but I still hang out on other people's :j

RosaBernicia

Thanks for the update KC :A *calls the coastguard to cancel search party*

Happy new house DD1 and BF, Lula hope you're having fun and being spoilt in return for all your hard work!

Rosa xx

Lula-Hula

Hello you gorgeous lot :A,

so, so sorry for being absent so long & causing concern & thank you for noting my absence & caring :kisses3:. Welcome o2bfree, lovely to see you here

Karma has pretty much sussed it out;

DD1 got the news that they were due to move in to their flat this Friday so ... I was indeed racing around getting hampers ready for them . Really pleased with everything I've got; full set of household stuff from loo rolls & washing powder, through cloths & scrubbies to a scented candle & bin bags; everything they'll need.

Foodwise I got various pasta, rice & tortillas etc, tins of soup, beans, sweetcorn, tuna, tomatoes etc.. & a full set of basic pantry items like flour, baking powder, salt & pepper, stock cubes, olive oil, ketchup, & stuff like tea bags, coffee, juice, pasta sauce, cake, sugar, long life milk for emergencies. I filled 3 baskets ( No, DD1 you cannot keep them ) & 2 plastic storage boxes ( hoping they won't come back here )with stuff.

I emerged from Sainsbugs last Thursday with a boot full of bags & was absolutely stunned that it only came to about £75 :T. I then spent about another £12 in waitr:)se so have come in under my £100 budget. I did use some of my own stocks where I had duplicates & there is no fresh stuff so that helped.

Good job I didn't buy any fresh stuff as she called earlier to tell me that someone in the chain hasn't signed thei paperwork & the moving date has now been postponed to the 23rd . Looks like I'll be eating the box of 15 eggs I bought for them with a use by date of the 25th :rotfl:.

I shall be doing my very best to be minimalist too .

Littlest was invited to the cinema, shopping & sleepover at the weekend so I chose to be a complete bore & started my spring cleaning.

I had a brilliant time; ate when it suited me, listened to my radio station & managed to get into DDs room to sort through her clothes. 12 pairs of holey socks ejected, 4 grown out of t-shirts, 2 pairs of trousers & I also discovered that she has 12, yes 12 pairs of school tights ... so why has she worn trousers every day since about November then :think:


Anyway, going back a few days; we had to go to town last Tuesday to buy a birthday gift for DDs friend. It was an eventful trip & I am now holding a one-woman stand against thorntons, on the grounds of costing me £165. DD wanted to get one of those choccie slabs that they decorate for you & while in there I got chatting to the sales assistant, a kindly grey haired, rather dumpy & frumpy, but chatty sort. I declined her offer to sample things due to being on a very strict eating plan. The usual female 'you don't need to diet' conversation ensued & then we entered the treacherous realms of the 'guess my age game' ...

So, there she was in her dark tracksuit & polo shirt with grey bob & she's suggesting that she thinks I'm 'probably' younger than her. She emphasised & repeated the 'probably' a few times. I stood tall in my knee high boots & felt quietly confident in my frivolous Joe Brown dress & nearly keeled over when she suggested I was 'late 40's, maybe 50' :eek:. She was 51. I laughed out loud & said that actually she was 7 years out, whilst mentally snarling & plotting to never set foot in the shop again.

DD sniggered quietly, paid for her chocolate slab & marched me out of the shop before I could rap Frumpydump over the head with it.

I then dragged her straight to the opticians & ordered a new pair of glasses. Actually it was 2, as they were on a 2 for 1 deal & I very nearly left the child in there as she just added insult to injury when declaring that the first pair I tried on made me look like Cruella de Ville :mad:.

Excellent service from Specsavers by the way; had a text on Thursday to say my new glasses were ready so I went to twon again on Friday to get them. Lovely sales assistant in there; told me how fab they were & how much they suited me & age didn't come up in conversation once .

I had a fabby experience of Lulas Karmic Law when about 5 minutes after having bought a Big Issue, I found the perfect little cardi for just £10 & then a sweet pair of metallic blue ankle strap shoes for just £8 :j. I have already confessed on the Clothes Challenge & altered my sig accordingly.



I have more news, both financial & other but I really do need to get myself off to bed now so will finish the update tomorrow. I'll catch up with everyone's diaries asap too

G'night all
xx

Karmacat

Lula! That Thornton's woman :eek::eek::eek:

And DD2 quietly sniggering :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Sorry dates for DD1's move have been changed tho

Any chance of any equivalent tales of His Royal Furriness? What's he getting up to? I'm a cat lover, what can I tell you

RosaBernicia

:rotfl: I shall boycott Thorntons on your behalf which adds to my excuses to go in Hotel Choc instead

Hurrah for hampers, you lovely lovely person :A and bah to people changing moving dates.

I think I had better hide from the mere mention of the Clothes Challenge since I think I've found a new favourite dress company...:D

Rosa xx

Lula-Hula

Ooh new favourite dress shop Rosa ? Please tell, I like dress shops ... am currently bidding on 2 White Stuff frocks on ebay

*must not release competitive streak, must not release competitive streak, must not release competitive streak ... repeat ad inifinitum. Or at least until the items have ended :rotfl:.

So, money news; I finally have the details of how much rent & council tax I have to pay now that my wages have dropped. I had to ring up to find out & discovered that my lazy rounding up of figures over the last year & overpayment since February means that I am in credit, so have been officially advised not to pay any more rent until April :j.

The water bill for the next year is in too, so at last I can sit down & do a budget for the next few months.

I've made a couple of other changes too. Cancelled the window cleaner. It seems that he now chooses to turn up every 3 - 4 weeks rather than 8 which was our agreement, & I'm not paying over £100 a year on getting the windows cleaned. I'm not bothered about the front as we have voiles up so cant see them anyway, & I can do the back myself as there's a flat roof. He left a note through the door saying he'd been & then turned up the next day for payment, the day it rained all day long & I suspect this is strategic.

I'm also rather scared that he's getting a bit familiar & bracing himself to get even more familiar :eek: a man who has an insane ex wife who he insists on telling me about & more children than teeth ( who he now has custody of) , I can do without . Total of £8 a month regained.

I also carried through my threat of cutting back on the cable service. We've downgraded to basic tv channels so hopefully DD will now grow up speaking good old English rather than some hideous Amercianized cartoon version of it. I confess that my reasons for cutting the channels are actually more to do with loathing & despising Nickelodious rather than saving money; which is a convenient excuse & I am not afraid to use it .

Sadly, Uncle Richard is not getting too familiar but his staff were very helpful when I asked what else I could save money on; I no longer have caller ID at £2 a month,so total regained from the cable service is about £8 a month.

£16 a month retrieved is not huge amount, but it does help .

Home-job has been fairly busy the last 2 weeks as I've covered for others so the funds are topped up as below :

Xmas fund = £110
Gift fund = £90
Childcare = £165
Entertainment = £81.60.

The poor holiday fund has been sadly depleted what with disco & camp deposits & hampers & I still have to pay the remaining £120 for camp, but DD says she's not that bothered about a holiday this year, but I'll keep saving & hopefully find something cheap & cheerful in the summer.

NO ! I do not mean camping :mad:.

I have about £200 on the CCCCC but can pay that off before the end of the month as I have a couple of weeks without having to pay rent .

As from April, serious payments to the ERF will start & I have a delicious 10 days off work but only using 4 days holiday - courtesy of cunning planning around Easter . it also means only paying for 3 days of childcare .

I'm doing ok with the reading challenge, current James Patterson book is apallingy bad, so will be very pleased to donate that to charity shop. Saving all the good ones til last & now that lovely weather is here, I need to get out in the garden & grow some food.

Off to meet DD at school now for parents consultation so best go wash & scrub up to make a good impression.

Bye for now
xx

RosaBernicia

I'll tell you about new favourite dress shop so long as I'm not held responsible for the results

Rosa xx

Karmacat

Good ideas on cutting back - lots of easy ways there, thats great!

But I think we should be told how on earth you store all the clothes you by I'm fascinated at how you manage it!