A Year of Living Frugabulously

fedupandskint

I did get one, its lovely and I love it (as much as you can love a metal bike!)

I've been out on mine today and enjoyed a gentle first ride out. First time I've been out on a bike in years. Looking forward to building up some more distance as its nice a quick and doesn't take too much effort to get up to a quick pace.

Just need to find somewhere for it to live now!

Lula-Hula

Just the thought of it makes me feel icky at the moment.

Had a lovely day on Sunday; lunch was a great success & DD1s BF had most of the banana cake which was pleasing.

The bike is a lovely dark purpley red colour with a bit of shimmer to it. Sadly, it's languished in the shed for the last week as since the hose pipe ban was announced, it has rained every day :undecided.

DD is back to school next week & I aim to get back on my health/exercise plan so will be walking after work & then riding in the evenings too. I've regained a couple of the pounds I , is NOT surprising bearing in mind what I consumed at the week end & the weather becoming cold again has brought out the old carb cravings :mad:.

Popped in to town after work yesterday as DD had a hankering for some boots, but instead she fell in love with a cool pair of black hi-tops so I got her those for the bargainous price of just £23. I was keen to spend some money after not shopping for a while but honestly did not find a single thing that I wanted .

I have however had another win on ebay so my budget is very nearly broken & has just £2.69 left in it. I have claimed a £10 DP voucher from survey earnings though so will have something to fall back on if the need hits me.

Zipped in to the co op on the way home today & spent about £8 so now have £7.20 left in my weekly budget.

Not much else to report really; work is very quiet, the Goblin has been 'civil' & Grumpy is still on holiday so the office is very boring.

Off to watch the Apprentice, so bye for now
xx

taxi73

That's the law of sod re the bike and the rain..especially with the hosepipe ban.
That's great that DD didn't cost too much and thst you didn't find anything.
Hope you have a fab weekend

fedupandskint

I had to swap my bike for a smallerone as ended up with 2 sizes too big somehow.

Anyway, I'm soooo happy with it and a much better colour too. Might even get out on it on Sunday.

Happy weekend!

SneaksyWhippet

I'm a new discoverer of this thread and am reading every page! Currently up to page 18; bookmarked to be continued later.

What a lovely find; it's really made my day

SneaksyWhippet

Finished! Wow, Lula, I am an addict of your diary. It was amazing to follow your ups and downs of the past few months; almost like reading a novel.

I've been itching to find out what happens next at the end of each page. I've laughed with you, cried with you and hoped with you. I just love your attitude to life, not to mention your delightfully engaging style of writing, and you've put such a smile on my face. Thank you, Lula! You've motivated me to be more positive and really commit to sorting out my finances, while still remaining fun and fabulous I have also joined your devoted clan of Goblin-hexers.

I'm now going to dig out your previous diary to catch up on some background. Here's to more inspirational reading!

Lula-Hula

Hello lovely people :hello: & a very special hello & welcome to our new guest 'SneaksyWhippet :j

I just love your name, I keep having to say it out loud & very satisfying it is too - I urge everyone to try it, NOW .

Thank you for such lovely said things about my diary & I confess that I don't rabbit on here half as much as I used to - probably a relief to many - & this is largely due to being in a far healthier place now & actually trying to have a birrova life. (Yes, actually playing 'draw something' with friends is having a life, so there ).

I really wouldn't bother to go back over previous diaries - life is too short for that; suffice to say - I was messy, had debts & bad people in my life - along with much drama, ridiculosity & hilarity.

I'm now less messy, have no debts but still no money, good people in my life, less drama & much ridiculosity & hilarity :rotfl:.

I keep forgetting to record my Frugal & Fabulous moments, but I think my mad ebay spendage this year, which have resulted in me decimating my entire year's clothes budget in just 4 months :eek: is a fairly good example of both.

For just under £100 I have acquired 2 x brand new frocks, 1 x pair brand new jeans, 1 x brand new cardi, 1 x nearly new jumper, 2 x brand new tops, 2 x nearly new tops, 4 x brand new vest tops, & 1 x brand new pair of shoes. No cheap carp either, all decent stuff .

I had to do a bit of grocery shopping yesterday & ended up spending about £20, but got 2 x £2 coins in my change which has boosted the Fabby New Bag fund to £74 :T.

Due to not doing home-job work this week I've been very chilled & relaxed, but haven't paid in to any of the funds & been a bit short of cash too. Still worth it though, so I fully intend to take the next Bank Holiday week off too - but will try to save up some cash before then, so there's nore spending money available.

Today was a good example of being both Frugal & Fabulous. We went to visit a rellie who has an upcoming birthday. I rummaged in my toiletries & wrapping materials stashes & put together a really lovely basket of Body Shop goodies & made a card using various items we had in our craft supplies - very frugal

I drove over to my Dads & he insisted on driving to rellies & back ( saving over 160 miles worth of fuel) & insisted on paying for lunch too - extremely frugal .

After lunch we went for a long walk & saw gazillions of lambs leaping about, herons & swans nesting by a lake & bluebells & primroses in swathes & on returning to rellies we were provided with cups of tea & gorgeous chocolate cakes with caramel icing & a chunk of fudge on top; exceedingly fabulous :j.

There was also a potentially embarassing moment. DD hadn't managed to finish her huge slab of pizza, so I'd wrapped it in napkins & taken it with us in order to feed it to the ducks at the lake. There was just a solitary & extremely ignorant duck on the lake who refused to even acknowledge our existence, let alone deign to come & eat pieces of pizza so I ended up carrying this slice the 3 miles back again.

En route, a truck pulled over, a very tasty man about my age jumped out & hailed my Dad. Bearing in mind we were in the middle of the country & at least 90 miles out of his locale, it was a bit surprising to meet someone he knew, but it turns out he did. I wondered just how much sheep poo I had trodden in & waited to be introduced to this handsome hunk.

There I was doing my best to look desirable & appealing, rather than like a woman who has trekked across fields wearing floral wellies - of which one appears to have sprung a leak as one sock is most definitely squelching - & has hair that is country-bumpkin-wind-whipped rather than sexily tousled, lips that are close to being pale & dry rather than red & moist & all of a sudden 2 small, furry beast launch themselves at me.

Dishy driver has 2 dogs who I think area bout to get me an introduction as they clearly have immediately fallen in love with me.

Then I remembered, that I had in fact got a large slice of pizza wrapped in soggy napkins stuffed into my pocket & this is what the mutts are finding so appealing :rotfl:.

I was actually relieved when the man moved off without being introduced & I was able to return to the car with my squashy slice of pizza & hop through all the muddy bits with my non-leaky wellie

In other news, I was so baffled by the bank holiday that I got my week out of sync & forgot to top up DDs lunch card so she'll have to take money in on Monday.

Scary mobile direct debit due out next week, I start paying rent again & the council tax has gone up by £15 a month.

On the plus side, I've had another Quidco payment of £5.40 & think another CB payment is due on Monday so I'll be able to update the Holiday Funds news then.

Very tired - all that fresh country air - so I'm off to bed now,

G'night
xx

fedupandskint

Good morning Lula

Now, have you been out on your bike yet? Make sure you do and don't just leave it unused now will you? I'm making myself go out on mine and aiming to go out later today for a racy pootle about round the waterpark tracks.

I procured 2 x £2 coins yesterday too which have gone into my holiday fund along with another £2 from toiletries I've used up now standing at £46. Holiday spends fund now stands at about £100 all in change pots so coming along quite well for now.

Were you glad you weren't introduced to the driver in the end? Anyway whichever way, have a good day and rest of weekend.

Karmacat

It might be just as well you weren't introduced, Lula - my mum *used* to do that, about ten years ago now, and one woman said to me "oh, I've heard about you!" :eek::eek::eek:

Hope the soggy pizza didn't stain your lovely new purchases, and that Sunday was just as nice.

Lula-Hula

Good evening all,

fedupandskint - nope, bike remains clenan shiny & dry for the moment I don't do riding in savage wind or lashing rain - that's what the dirty car is for .

Due to drought I now have very valid & eco reason for it being so dirty :j.

Great excitement here - Quidco payment of £5.40 gone in to the bank :rotfl:.

Actually, CB gone in too so Holiday Fund is now looking rather sexy at just a smidge over £600 ( still need to pay remaining £130 for DDs camping trip though )

I rather underestimated mobile bill as had made a charity donation via it, so am rather short of funds this week. Attempted to pay for DDs lunches for the week, only to discover that inspite of now having a balance of some £330 ( are they getting deliveries from Harrods food hall I wonder ?) there was no money showing as available & the payment system was down. Again.

I find it amazing that they say this system saves a school about £15,000 p/a. Personally, I'd rather they just re-hired a bursars assistant to deal with lunch money. I've had enough of it so am now gathering coins up on a daily basis to give to DD as the manual payment machine only takes coins.

Anyway ... Grumpy was back at work today having safely made his way back from remote Scottish islands & to a place with working internet & hence words with friends. It hasn't stopped him from winning another game by about 100 points though.

Gropey also rather cheery today & has in principle allowed me to take a couple of days off in June, meaning that due to Bank holiday & Jubilee I get 10 days off work & don't have to pay for any childcare :T. The Goblin was off swimming at the local swamp this morning so I missed seeing her entirely :j:D:j

I did a quick run to Sainsbugs after work & with coins now very precious I resolved to be in & out within 30 minutes, thereby not needing to pay for parking . I did it & managed to only spend £23.19 in there, of which £4.15 was on anti allergy stuff for DD. By my calculations, I now have about £9.30 left for the week, which is fine as we have plenty of stuff like pasta, rice, tins, quorn etc ...

As I've now started paying rent again & not quite cleared the bike & footstool CC purchases, I decided to remove the £100 I paid in to the E.R.F fund & put that towards the CC so I now owe just £160 on it.

Went for a brisk walk after work & then came home to find a bit of home-job work. Actually didn't mind as my cash reserves are almost empty so it'll be good to have that on Thursday. I might re-jig how I operate all the funds after the next payday....

Talking of which, that's another 2 weeks to go _pale_.

Off to update sig,

bye for now
x