PigginSkint's DFW Diary

PigginSkint

Firstly an update on yesterday's to-do list

PigginSkint wrote: »

• Complete passport application form and send it off - form done, will post today
• Complete European health card form - done, will post today
• Parcel up book that I have sold ready for posting - done, will post today
• Look for missing Avon order - looked, couldn't find, try again later
• Load dishwasher and tidy kitchen - done
• Tidy living room - well, I started...;)
• Put clean washing away - oops, still need to do!

PigginSkint

Regarding the balance transfers, I forgot one other option that I have if my attempt to transfer my balance back to the LTSB card fails. I have also got a balance transfer deal for my (now empty) Virgin card – 4.9% until April 2008. Not ideal but it is better than leaving it on the Egg card! I will wait and see what happens but it’s nice that I’ve got a reasonable contingency plan! :T

Well it is now confession time! I spent some money yesterday BUT I didn’t use my credit card. I used my debit card and will transfer the amount needed from my other account to cover it. What I bought was a set of trolley suitcases as we will really need some for when we go to Poland in August. I have been looking around for a good deal and found one – on Amazon of all places. A 6 piece set comprising 3 different sized trolley suitcases (quite big ones), 2 other biggish bags and a toiletries bag for £39.99 plus delivery charge of £7. The biggest suitcase will probably be too big to take but I thought it would be useful for when OH has to lug loads of stuff around when he is doing shows.

DS is definitely not in my good books at the moment. He has still not found his PE kit, annoying in itself, but today I realised the worst part of this – it means he has lost his trainers as well as they were with the rest of his kit. Arrrgggghhh!! :mad: They were not cheap (although not hugely expensive) as they were a decent pair – Regatta I think. Luckily he has got an old pair that he has at his Dad’s that he can use for now but it still means that he is going to need a new pair. I shall wait until the end of term (only 2 weeks away) and if his kit doesn’t turn up I shall have to buy him some more. One thing is for certain, it will be cheap trainers from now on! Also I will try to see if I can get the rest 2nd hand.

As you will see from my previous post I finally managed to get round to doing my passport form last night, surprisingly straight forward actually. I was a bit confused about what supporting documents I needed to send so I phoned them up. As it is a renewal passport, my name is the same as on my current passport and I don’t look that different from my old passport (longer hair, worn up most of the time, and a bit fatter) the only thing I need to send is my current passport. I don’t know where I got the idea that I needed my marriage certificate – oh well, at least I’ve got it now for when I eventually get round to doing my divorce petition. I re-read the stuff about the photos and what it says is that photos for renewal passports do not need a countersignature if I can still be recognised from the photo on my current passport – which I can.

Anyway, I am really glad it’s Friday – I am sooooo tired. From tonight I shall have the house to myself for about 24 hours as DS will be going to his Dad’s this evening and OH is not due back until early tomorrow evening.

PigginSkint

I have to confess that I had a bit of a splurge on Saturday! I desperately needed something to wear for the wedding that we are going to this Saturday (the first of 3 this summer). I have been trying to find something in the charity shops but no luck. So I went to TK Maxx. I spent rather more than I planned to – about £90 – but got loads of stuff. I didn’t manage to get a complete outfit as such, but I got plenty that I can mix and match with other stuff that I have got at home. Plus I got stuff that I can wear to work – I needed some new work clothes really. I also got a couple of cheap handbags (which will go with either of the 2 outfits that I’m planning), a new umbrella (all of ours have been wrecked when it has been windy) and a new pair of shorts for DS (to replace the ones that he lost). I also went to Asda to get DS some plain red polo shirts for his PE kit (again, to replace the one that he lost).

I should add that although I paid for the TK Maxx purchases on my credit card I have actually ready transferred the money from my other account into my current account to pay it off and the payment will go out tomorrow. It makes me feel less guilty for doing it! Mind you, it is so rare that I do anything like that (I can't remember the last time I bought clothes from anywhere other than a charity shop) so that lessens the guilt even more!;)

Remember the palaver the other week over buying a new fryer? Well the bl****y thing is not working now! :mad: I changed the oil last weekend and cleaned it out and then when I came to switch it on there seemed to be no power getting to it. I thought it might be the fuse so I bought some the other day and on Saturday changed the fuse – and it is still not working. Soooo annoying. So now I am going to have to try and find the receipt so I can take it back to Argos. Luckily it is listed on my credit card statement so if all else fails I can use that.

PigginSkint

Hi All

I had an early (and loooonnnnggg) meeting this morning and I have had a trip out to tour the local (local to work) charity shops at lunchtime so this is the first opportunity I have had to do an update.

The reason I was touring the charity shops was to try and find a smartish shirt for DS to wear to the wedding on Saturday as I had failed miserably last Saturday. Just to go off on a tangent slightly – can you believe that Next don’t do clothes for teenage boys? Children up to 12 – yes! Men – yes! Teenagers – no! Is it me or this ridiculous? :mad:

Anyway having failed in the charity shops in my home town I have today tried the ones in a village/town close to wear I work – success! I found 2 possibles (in separate shops) which I bought – one for £1.25 and one for £1.50. The £1.25 one is a long sleeved blue and black stripey shirt (not unlike one the Money Saving Guru himself might wear), age 11-12 so it might be a bit on the small side but for that price it is worth a try. The £1.50 is similar but short sleeved, age 9-16 (work that one out!) – as it is short sleeved we might get away with it because we haven’t got to worry about the sleeves being too short!

OH had to buy himself a new mobile phone at the weekend as he has managed to wreck the joystick on his other one, meaning he can’t use any of the menus etc etc. He has only had it a year. Grrrr! He went back to the shop to see if it could be mended but it would cost about the same to buy a new one! At least he hasn’t bought a really expensive one – he paid about £60 for it. I shall tell him off if I catch him playing games on it too much though – I am convinced that is how he managed to wreck the other one.

Oh well, better go – I’ve got to write the minutes from this morning’s meeting. Yawn! It will be good to get it out of the way though and I like to write minutes (or at least the first draft) within 24 hours if I can, while it is still fresh in my brain.

PigginSkint

I am just having a break from minute-writing (boooorrringgg!) to update on those things I forgot to update on earlier.

I have sold another book! Yippee! I shall probably only get about £2.50 once I’ve paid for the postage but it all helps. I am going to be going through my CD collection at some point and put some up for sale as well. I searched for some of my CDs (the ones I am thinking of selling) on Amazon last week some time to see how much they are going for and it looks I could make quite a bit doing that. The advantage of doing it through Amazon is that it doesn't take long to list them (about 1 minute per item) and you only pay fees if they sell.

My Avon delivery came this morning so no doubt I shall be spending this evening bagging it up and getting the books ready to go out. This has presented me with something of a dilemma because normally I would put the books out on a Wednesday or Thursday (OH normally does this for me if he is around) to collect on a Saturday. I can’t do that this week because we are going to a wedding. So I can either put them out tonight to collect on Thursday (not an option that fills me with joy given how much else I’ve got to do tonight!) or put them out on Thursday to collect on Monday. Actually I think I might go with the 2nd option as OH is not working on Thursday. Hee hee!! :rotfl:

PigginSkint

Good news! My balance transfer from my LTSB card to my Egg card has now gone through so now I can transfer it back again before the 0% deal expires on Friday!:j

I didn’t do my Avon last night – I was just too tired to do anything! I shall have to do it tonight.

I asked OH to make dinner last night and his answer was the usual one – ‘fancy a takeaway?’. I have to admit I was a very bad girl and said yes – not very money saving I know but he was paying! :rotfl: We had Chinese (so not as expensive as an Indian – not what we have anyway!) and both of us only ate half which means we can have the other half for dinner tonight. So it was a bit more money saving than it might have been.

I have just realised that I think I forgot to tell the saga of the thermos flask. I bought one for OH ages ago so that he wouldn’t spend so much money on coffees when he is out working. When I was off sick he washed it out one day and I dried it (I think that’s what happened) – anyway, while I was doing this the valve on the bottom of the screw top/pouring spout came off and wouldn’t go back on again. It doesn’t look obviously broken but it just won’t stay in. This means that it is now useless. As I was feeling low when it happened this was just what I didn’t need and spent the next half an hour sobbing my heart out. It seems daft now but I had bought that flask to save money and he only used it about twice! I have been trying to find out if it is possible to buy spare parts for these things, but no luck so far. Anyway, I happened to be in Aldi the other day and I noticed that they had got some flasks in (not thermos brand but who cares?), the same size (1 litre), for half the price of the other one - £4.99. So I bought one! They hold 4 mugs of coffee – if he was to buy that amount of coffee from a coffee shop he would pay more that the cost of the flask, so I think this was a good buy.

I mentioned yesterday that I had bought some shirts for DS for the wedding we are going to on Saturday. Last night when I took his stuff to him at his Dad’s I took them with me for him to try on – they both fit! Yippee! :j The long sleeved one looks better but as he is growing like a weed the short sleeved one won’t go to waste.

I have been to physio this morning – lower limb rehab clinic - which was an interesting experience! It was basically circuit training but I was pleasantly surprised by it – the one and only time I did circuit training I nearly passed out! Anyway, the exercise was not what you could call gentle but it was nothing I couldn’t handle. The most challenging bits for me were the balance exercises – not my strongest suit!

I think that’s all for now. If I think of anything else (no doubt I will) I will update again later.

PigginSkint

One thing I forgot earlier (I said I would forget something) I have just remembered that I will be getting a payrise next month. Yippee! I will get an extra 3% and I think our performance related pay is due next month as well so I might get a bit more as well – fingers crossed.

I really must get on and update my job description so I can submit a case for having my job rebanded. My deadline for myself to do this is 10th August because that is my last day at work before my holidays – I am having 3 weeks off as usual so I will be back on 3rd September. I very much doubt that I shall have time to do this at work (though of course you never know!) so I shall probably have to do it at home. Lord knows when I will have time!!

PigginSkint

Hi All

I have had a really bad morning so far. I only realised when I was going to bed last night that I had forgotten to buy some milk. :mad: This meant that I had to wait until after 7am this morning for the shop to open so I could go and buy some so I could have some breakfast. I had planned to get my ‘normal’ train this morning but having to wait until 7am to buy milk scuppered that idea – I would have had to leave at 7:05am to catch it.It was when I came to open the door that I discovered that OH hadn’t locked it last night :mad: – he was late in because he had gone to see an old friend after work – which pleased me greatly as you can probably imagine. Then when I was finally just about ready to leave to go to work I couldn’t find my keys! Arrrgggghhhhh! :mad: Now the one thing that is likely to drive me up the wall more than anything else is not being able to find something! Last night when I locked up before going to bed (about 10 mins before OH arrived home) I had put my keys where I normally put them – at the bottom of the stairs (the layout of our house is such that when you walk through the front door, the stairs are straight in front of you) so that they are near the door but not too near. Were they there when I went to pick them up? Were they heck! I then spent ages trying to find them. Eventually I found them in the basket that I have on the bottom step which is where I put post as it arrives (all current bills etc), which had been the first place that I had looked. Somehow they had got buried under all the stuff so I couldn’t see them and it was only when I turned the basket upside down and tipped everything out that I found them. I don’t know how on earth they got in there but my best guess is that OH put his bag down on the stairs when he got in and knocked the keys into the basket. By the time I found them I realised that I was going to miss the train I wanted to catch so it meant I would have to go for the next one, which is usually packed :mad: – luckily I did manage to get a seat this morning.

Last night I bagged my Avon order up ready to do the deliveries. I wrote the list of orders in my notebook that I have for this purpose (normally I do this when I place my order but I didn’t get round to doing it this time) – and I had a very nice surprise. My total orders came to a little over £300 – excellent! :j

What was not so good was that after I had got my books ready to go out I couldn’t find my calling book. This means that the plan to get OH to put my books out for me today is done for. Oh well, he will just have to do them tomorrow instead – it doesn’t make much difference actually as they are not due back in until Monday anyway. I have given OH instructions to have a bit of a tidy up today and have a look for it. It can’t be far away! I have told him to look under the sofas – often when I lose things, that is where they end up!! I did do a bit of searching and tidying last night but no luck – I had been watching Anthea Turner’s Perfect Housewife and it shamed me into doing some!

My next-door neighbour (and friend) might have solved my problem re DS’s lost trainers. Last night she gave me a pair (after checking we are the same shoe size – we are) that she has worn twice and can’t get on with. DS takes the same shoe size as me so they might do for him, to replace his lost ones. He is back tonight so I can get him to try them on. They are Nike and although they are women’s trainers they are not obviously so – they will just need the label inside them that says ‘women’s’ taking out. If they don’t fit him – as I said before, he is growing like a weed! – I will have them!

chocaholic110

PigginSkint wrote: »

Hi All



The reason I was touring the charity shops was to try and find a smartish shirt for DS to wear to the wedding on Saturday as I had failed miserably last Saturday. Just to go off on a tangent slightly – can you believe that Next don’t do clothes for teenage boys? Children up to 12 – yes! Men – yes! Teenagers – no! Is it me or this ridiculous? :mad:

Hi there, been having a good old trawl through your diary.

I found this out a couple of weeks ago looking for a shirt for nearly 13 year old DS to wear for a Christening. You might find what you are looking for in the men's section. I got DS a top labelled XS that was his chest size. think it is a ploy to charge teenagers full price for their clothing rather than being VAT free as children's clothes are.

PigginSkint

chocaholic110 wrote: »

Hi there, been having a good old trawl through your diary.

I found this out a couple of weeks ago looking for a shirt for nearly 13 year old DS to wear for a Christening. You might find what you are looking for in the men's section. I got DS a top labelled XS that was his chest size. think it is a ploy to charge teenagers full price for their clothing rather than being VAT free as children's clothes are.

Thanks for your reply. Great minds think alike! As you say the XS shirts probably would have fitted him (that's where the shop assistant advised me to look) but, like you say, it wouldn't be VAT free like children's clothes are. Sneaky aren't they? It seems you are as cynical as me!