One frugal year = freedom and choices

lobbyludd

M21,
those are amazing threads, you are so organised. subscribed (although a little daunted!)

all kids ok, touch wood, glad yours is too, mine looked more like zombies than goths!

all cc debt now on 0%, rang gas/electric people yesterday and if I ring them next week they'll refund my overpayment. going to get ds a platform and den for his climbing frame for birthday, amazon do the platform, which with the vouchers I've earned will be £15, and if i can get a 20% discount code to work for ELC (no luck yet) the den will be 44, leaving me £40 to take him and 2 friends to the cinema and macdonalds for his birthday treat (which is what he wants).

sping cleaned the kitchen (my version, which is prob just normal housework to most) promptly followed by the kids breaking into a seed-planting and papier mache fest on the kitchen table undoing most of my good work.

biscuits don't get near a tin here, they just go straight in my mouth!

mum2one

that is brilliant news about the 0%, at least you know every penny counts in the rollercoaster of debt free life!

Sounds positive with gas + elec, certainly at right time with sons bday.

Just a thought if you can't get the elc discount voucher to work, worth looking if its only any cashback sites, (I use topcashback and quidco), not sure on postage, sometimes better from store.

xx

lobbyludd

phew, final ebay package picked up on saturday (I'm going to have a rest from it for a week, concentrate on taking photos and writing some descriptions).

Dad is here, got the kids to school and will pick them up and has said he will get me a new TV today (I told him we were quite happy with the broken one for the moment and remonstrated that I'd give him the money - but not too hard I have to confess, because that money is earmarked elsewhere this month).

He's going to try and put up a light fitting for me too,
I find accepting any practical or financial help with good grace and without feeling guilty very hard: If I don't do everything myself and am entirely self-sufficient I feel like a) a failure and that b) I'm taking advantage, which is very very daft when it's your own dad helping you out because he loves you,

I'm fine with help that points you in the right direction to do somethign myself, but having to rely on others, just feels very uncomfortable to me.

lindsaygalaxy

I still sometimes get funny about not doing stuff myself even though I have now been with my partner nearly 2 years and he now lives with us! I was too used to being independent for me and the kids. But let people help - look at your threads - you certianly work hard enough! And if someone wants to get you a present, enjoy

lobbyludd

dad gone home - was lovely to have him here and kids are missing him, he put up a light for me and bought loads of groceries and tupperware because he couldn't find them in my idiosyncratic kitchen storing system (*I* know where everything is, and it makes perfect sense to me, and yes, tools are in the larder with the store cupboard stock items, but they are on their own seperate shelf and there because it's easier to access than the shed).

as an aside: the following is my kitchen utensil storage system: in the cutlery drawer there are 4 compartments, one is adult knives, 1 is adult forks, 1 is adult spoons, the last one is small people's cutlery and teaspoons. Sharp knives are in the knife block, and there are 2 utensil jars by the cooker, 1 is glass and fairly fragile so has the plastic and wooden utensils in it, and one is stoneware and less fragile so has the stainless steel ones in it (I generally have both a plastic/wooden and a stainless steel item of spatulas etc just because that is how it's worked out).

There is also one drawer underneath the cutlery drawer with utensils that people have bought us/we've thought were a good idea over the years that never/hardly ever get used (roast lifters, corn on the cob prongs, fondue forks, silver cheese knife sets with mice on them (?that was a gift....) etc)

this seems to be a practical system that makes sense to me, I know where everything is...

Apparently though to my dad, step-mum, mother and step-father this is an indecipherable random chaos with no semblance of organisation that only I could come up with.

Have I made some sort of cutlery faux pas here that I am unaware of? :rotfl:

anyhoo, have been on the CSA website as ex has told me that I AM going reinburse him for a pair of his expensive sunglasses that his children broke whilst in his care and that if I don't he'll take the money from the child maintenence. The children dispute that they broke them, but that's beside the point frankly: it's absurd.

My refusal to agree to this has led to more name-calling. I've told him that if he does cut the cM again I'm asking the CSA to review his payments and collect them at source. He's countered with threats to inform the tax credits about my "lies" to them, which he's welcome to. By "lies" he means the divorce settlement: which I asked tax credits about at the time and doesn't count towards income for tax credits, so the threats hold no water.

he's soo lovely, I just get such a warm fuzzy feeling inside whenever he's around.

mum2one

daren't have ur family into our kitchen, its a military planned operation trying to find anything, but like u its in a semi structued order.

Like cultery - every day stuff, - the posh set for visitors, the draw of cooking utensils, although it does need a de gut.

What a p r a t ur ex is, it must be nice to afford expensive sunglasses, (sorry to sound horrible).

Sounds like he's trying it out, hope it gets sorted soon. x

lobbyludd

don't get me wrong, if they opened a cupboard, I've a fairly good idea of the general type of stuff that's in there, but less clue as to what exactly and where. but with cutlery I' thought I was quite good.

they are all uber-organised though.

my brother and I missed out on that gene, which is essentially their fault, so I'm not taking it personally. re the sun-glasses. yes. quite.

caved and bought rapidly bean-sprouting son some trousers (will wrap them up for his birthday) used £20 next vouchers and had a £10 off £25 code, so got £40 worth for £10 (2 pairs of trousers and a new top), his growth releases some others for ebaying unless I can make them into shorts- we'll ahve to see

brizzledfw

Blimey LL you're doing very well.. keeping up with that total ar*e of an ex sounds like a FT job:rotfl: although I have to say the sunglasses story sounds one to relayed up and down the country..I will definitely be passing it on when I am next with my girlie friends down the pub!!

Hope you're OK - hugs if you need them:D

PS..cutlery..weeeel, it does sound complicated (me...I am very simple!!..) but whatever works for you is the main thing!

lobbyludd

last night I did not purchase on my 0% for 15 month for purchases credit card: a lovely blue ceramic rise and fall light that would be just perfect for my kitchen and was reduced to £140 from £200


I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not , it wasn't quite the perfect blue though, that one was still £200+ and I guess if you're going to spend that amount of money on something, it should be the one you want and I will appreciate it much more if I save up/generate the money for it BEFORE I buy it.



I'm trying to feel noble about it, rather than childish: do I need a new light for the kitchen? no

I emailed ELC about a 20% discount for son's birthday coming, up, they sent me a link to a voucher that expired in the middle of last year and didn't cover what I want to buy, John lewis's lhave it though so I've emailed them to price-match ELC (JL's is £10 more expensive) as I have a £10 jl voucher from VO that arrived just after christmas that I stashed and lost and have now found :) so hopefully that will come in at £45 actual spends, and will go via kidsart as JL pay 2-3% into a registered child trust fund for purchases made through there (I don't use it often, I'd rather have quidco than cash into the kid's CTF's, but for places like JL that don't participate in quidco/TCB, it's better than a slap in the face with a wet kipper).

that will be me all voucherless then, so I'd better get busy with surveys etc.

have daftly suggested setting up a book-club at my house in a couple of weeks, never been to one, have no idea what you do, so need to source cheap booze and cake supplies (can't bake/won't bake, but would love to make some ginger beer) and some advice from people who've been to one - my only insight is seeing something on eastenders once - I don't remember it going that well, probably not the best model.

MY CUTLERY SYSTEM IS NOT COMPLEX - WHY DOES NO-ONE UNDERSTAND!?!?!?!?!!!

lobbyludd

used a £5 code on the discounts board for ebay to get a handle for my larder, it's arrived just now at work (just paid p&p) and it's lovely (and I did need one as it has no handle and sticks: you have to jemmy it open to get to the food).

and I feel much better about this than I would have done about the blue light fitting.

and have just realised that the unused utensil drawer is the next good candidate for ebay. What starting price would you put for cheese knives adorned with mice????