An Enchanting Fairytale........ Part One.

Enchanted21

Finished jobs 1,2 and 3.

Tried to explain to kids the importance of friends acting like friends....... Munchkin is too forgiving sometimes and it's heartbreaking how upset he can be. But as soon as he has contact with 'his friend's ' he is very quickly forgiving. He reminds me, of me. Is that good? The older I get I begin to wonder. I don't want him to be taken advantage of. Hummmmmmmm.

I think I need a glass of wine and to watch the tennis, that way I will cross off item number 6 ...... Lol. 4/6 ain't bad :-)

Enchanted21

Morning! It's Thursday. And only 12 working days left until we break up for a six week holiday...... Whoop whoop!

Checked banking, nothing changed. !No money in or out, so I can't complain. Totals are thus......

Bills = £1647/£2420

Account = £24

Grocery = £56/£250

2nd P = £30/£30

3rd P = 1.95 + £3 owed.

NSD = 1/15


Debt Busting = £120. cash left over from credit card withdrawal.

Mr W went out this morning and bought a loaf of bread, so that !!!!!!s up my NSD for today. Humph! Oh well, I just need to be more organised.

Hopefully I will get Mr W payslip in the post today and I will have a clearer idea of how much we have to spend this coming week. Looking forward to having a little bit of money in the bank. I like Thursdays, purely for this reason :-)

Debt still stands at £38,109. Next month will see the final debt total. !As I'm not taking ANY more money from the credit cards. Then I will work on paying it off, bit by bit.

Enchanted21

I've been a very naughty Enchantress not posting on this diary....... Go on, give me a kick up the youknowwhat :-)

TBH not much happening in this neck of the woods at the min. Nice to say, really. Although, watch this space for tomorrow. Bills day, the big question is will I survive the mass culling of my bank account...... We'll see.

Also, I was very, very tempted to purchase a takeaway for tonight, but I pulled it out of the bag with Meatballs and spaghetti....... Whoopee!!

Glass of wine needed now and bit of downtime. Think I might have a look at some Louboutins........ Only look.......lol.... They give me motivation ;-). Hummmmmmm, cough!

Hope everyone is well and happy in DFDland?
Love, Enchanted Xx

Enchanted21

Well, I got what I asked for....... A huge kick up the Jacksie, but not in the form of what I was expecting, although it never rarely is.

I don't know so much about being in the Land of Enchantment at the moment, it's more like the Land of Completely Disappointed in Myself. Is there a chance you could have a second lightbulb moment? Maybe, only the last one was a flicker? Hummmmmm?

Now, what gave me the jolt, you might be wondering? It was like a strike of lightening! I know for sure, I have never been jealous of anyone in my life. I actually don't think I am now, but I'm experiencing some very strange emotions...... Annoyance, anger, bewilderment, sadness and just plain fed up. Hence the Land of Disappointment in Myself :-(

The reason being, I just logged onto my FB account to see my good friend's photo of her sitting in the place I would love to be..... The South Of France. I Love it there, lots of happy memories and moments with my lovely Hubby. Now, I am soooooo happy for my friend because she has had such a difficult personal year and she so deserves to be happy and enjoying herself :-). The thing is, we have not had a holiday for 5 years, basically because we haven't been able to afford one. But, that is exactly where I would choose to be right now ........ If I had the choice! And that's the crux of it ....... I don't. My choices are now limited because of the financial mess we are in. It affects all of us. I'm very, very cross with myself for allowing this to happen. But, I can see the benefit of this moment....... I will use it to propel me forward, to make better choices, to step it up a notch, to make sure sooner rather than later we are also sitting on a beach in the South of France.

So I would like to say a sincere thank you to my friend, who has unbeknown to her, helped me to see beyond when I need to be and what I need to be doing.

I really needed this kick up the backside....... As they say, He moves in mysterious ways Xx

Sorry for the ramble x

Enchanted Xx

please-let-me-be-lucky

I know what you mean about the holiday situation. We also havent been abroad for the last 5 years, and the only reason we've been lucky enough to holiday in Cornwall the last couple of years is because my in-laws paid for us all to go with them. This year we are having one night in Edinburgh as the sum total of our holidays away, though this has as much to do with my DH's accident than anything else.

One day we will be sunning ourselves whilst debt free and it will all be worth it!!

Enchanted21

Thanks Please Let Me Be Lucky for replying to my" woe is me " post :-)

To be truthful I'm actually having a hard time with it all. I KNOW we have very little money, but actually getting my head around it is another matter. ....... Who says they can't teach an old dog new tricks? I gotta learn some and quick.

We've never had a holiday in any shape or form for five years and really up until last night it has never really bothered me. But memories came flooding back of happy times spent in France. Maybe it was what I needed to get me started properly on this long journey.

Well, I've checked the accounts and we have £9.80 to last until Friday. All major bills for the month are paid. We have plenty of food in the cupboards and Hubby has petrol in his car to make it to work. So in theory we should be able to manage.......

This morning I have looked back over at the start of my diary and it came across as light and breezy not a care in the world. What I have realised is that even though I am still that person, I am also a person with different issues, that brings different emotions into the mix. People often see you in a certain way and soon enough you tend to take on that persona and you begin to only show those sides of your personality that people expect to see. Now, I'm experiencing more emotions and more parts of my personality are emerging.

What I have realised is that on this diary I can be truthful to myself. Explore all my feelings not just the ones I want people to see. Nobody knows me, heck at the moment I feel like I don't know me! This has been a revelation of sorts, a reincarnation. Let's just hope I can sort this mess out and allow myself the luxury of having the freedom to make my own choices. Because up until now, I thought I have had that luxury, until the bell rang 'time out' last night.

I seriously don't know where I am going with this journey, but all I can do is put one foot in front of the other, hoping I'm going in the right direction.

Thanks once again PLMBL x. One day we will enjoy the sunshine on our faces, until then I appreciate you taking this walk with me Xx

Enchanted Xxx

elly68

morning enchanted,well dont know if this will help my 2 are 11 and 9 respectively .my kick up the bum was when my 9 year old said the other day i wish i had a cc when we were in asda and he was lusting after wwe dvds and all i could think was i wish i had one that worked lol
as of last week i have started working in cash only and i think i am going to do it with the kids to hopefully teach them a bit about budgeting although i am allowing myself £100 a week i am only going to show them £80 hoping to keep the other £20 for a xmas present fund.
so my 9 year old was my kick up the bum ,have a happy day and enjoy many picnics in the park if its sunny get up and out with them .freeze diluting juice in the water bottles the night before and use them in the cool bag its the closest i can get to homemade slush for the kids.

Enchanted21

Morning elly68 :-)

I understand what you are saying about your son. I have a boy aged 10 and it practically kills me to say no when he asks for something. I always make up some vague excuse as to why we can't afford it, because it would break my heart for him to grow up and think, he can just buy anything. It's a tricky balance allowing my kids to enjoy what they can, within reason, without indulging them too much....... Because I would give them the world :-)

Yesterday was spent mostly on this website looking through the Old Style boards for inspiration. Confession......... I'm a bit of a cook/ baker...... A novice, but I would like to think I'm getting there. But, I spend an absolute fortune on food....... A fortune :-). So I decided that I would look for some cheap, healthy ideas. Oh my, I had to force myself to switch off the computer, I was on it for hours. Not that great when you have little ones to entertain. But, I managed :-)

Anyway, the upshot is, I made a list of all the foods in Mr T's Everyday ranges in a little book, wrote some recipes and went shopping armed with this info. What a revelation! I only spent £56! and I bought loads!
When I got home I explained to Hubby and he said...... Let's give it a go! At £56 for the week you can't fall off.

Now I have no idea what meals will taste like yet, as my usual shopping takes place in M & S, fresh food only. But for the sake of getting myself sorted I'm willing to bite the bullet and give this new idea a go.

In other news, Hubby got paid today, major bills are out of the account and we have money left over in the account :-). Pretty goooooood!

I've also made a diary showing what I expect to be leaving the account this month...... All totals made in red and what I expect due into the account. Anything that differs will be wrote down in black ink to note the difference, that way I can see where the extra money is going.

I've also wrote 3 categories ...... Necessity, Wants and Luxury. Each purchase will be placed under one of these headings. That way I can note how much I'm spending unnecessarily.

I'm pretty much starting again today with my totals and rather than have several pots on the go, for the moment I'm going to just stick with one..... Debt Busting.

Balance today = £0.

I like the idea of wiping the slate clean and starting afresh :-)

Love, Enchanted X

pennywisepoundstupid

Sounds like you are on a roll, some of the cheapy Tesco stuff we like as a family and other stuff we have tried and really don't like it, I think its about getting a balance, I would never ever drink cheap tea and it has to be twinnings everyday or yorkshire tea, kids like the everyday snack pack crisps, think they contain cheesy puffs, onion rings and I love the sweet and sour sauce, prefer it to uncle bens.

Good luck.x.

moo2moo

Tesco value range has some fab stuff and some truly awful. Rather than trying the instant coffee bung the dregs of a puddle into a mug, add a bit of grit from the bottom of a bird cage and bung in the microwave for a few minutes. You won't be able to tell the difference. I think thats quite possibly the worst thing in the entire range. That and the washing up liquid which is so thin that you use half a bottle without realising it, not that its got enough soap in in to do any good anyway.