Over the Rainbow and Happy Ever After

castlelough

Well today definitely wasn't a NSD! :eek:
I had budgeted for some of my spends - a €50 voucher for a birthday present for a very good friend and an engagement present for my sister and her fiance! I bought them a fab wicker picnic basket from Joules. It was in the sale, but with delivery to Ireland it worked out at just under €80, which was only a little bit over my allotted budget! Plus, I know they are going to get great use out of it - they love taking picnics out with them and are very outdoorsy.
Still NOT very MSN of me at all....

Unbudgeted spends included treating my friend (and myself!) to an indulgent lunch in a lovely cafe! (€31 :eek:) But she deserved it! She was so, so good looking after everyone who came to our house to pay their respects when Dad passed away. I picked up a few groceries for my Mum @ €9, but in fairness, I have been fed since I arrived home to her over a week ago. And I also had an icecream earlier on!

My To-Do list was a bit hit and miss too....

5. Make three phonecalls to different fertility specialists to make appts (each for different reasons!).
6. Make an appt to have day 21 blood tests done with my local doctor next week.

My fertility-related phonecalls went alright. I've made an appointment with two of them, and I didn't phone the third specialist yet. I'll do that tomorrow, as she should have had my test results back two weeks ago...:mad:
It's all such a lot of money.... . The first apt is going to cost €280 - that's next week. The other appt is going to cost €265 in September. :eek::eek::eek:
I didn't manage to make the doctor's apt yet...

On the plus side, I did manage to reduce my credit card limit today to €1000 - I cannot remember when it was ever this low! And it makes me so HAPPY!!! :beer:
Heading home tomorrow :j - my brother is driving me and he and his soon-to-be (shhhhhhh!) fianc! are coming down to stay....after a night in a nice hotel and a romantic proposal! Seems strange timing, but my brother had told Dad all his plans and Dad was so excited.....He would have wanted my brother to go ahead and make his long-suffering girlfriend his fiance!....so hopefully another family engagement is imminent!

cazmanian_minx

*waves hello*

*subscribes*

Newyorkdreams

Hi hon - I just wanted to drop by and let you know I'm thinking of you. I don't post much anymore but I still keep up with your news. Keep strong, you will get through all of this.

NYD x

castlelough

Oh dear, I've somehow managed to lose a large post... :mad:

Have had quite a lovely few days with my brother and his fianc!. They were a lovely distraction.

We spent two days surfing, as I live near one of the best surf beaches in Ireland. I had tried it once in Australia, and had decided it wasn't for me, but they convinced me to give it another shot...and I had an absolute ball! It was relatively inexpensive too - €15 for up to 4 hours hire of wetsuit and surfboard. So now I have something fun to do with future guests, as it isn't particularly weather dependant. It was a cloudy, dull day, but that didn't matter at all.

I did manage to exceed my grocery and petrol budgets though while we had our guests. So I'm going to try to cut back somewhere else...:A.

Aiming for a low-spend day tomorrow. Am going on a fairly long hike of the Cliffs of Moher, a well-known scenic tourist spot in my county. I've wanted to do this for ages! Having lived here for three years now - it's about time!!!

Have been stalking the MFW board.... just need to get myself a mortgage first :rotfl:and debt free of course. Feeling motivated, but I definitely need to work harder at putting my money where my mouth is!

Must do a post tomorrow about my most expensive luxury... my horse!
Does anyone know how I would post a photograph?

Castle xx

cazmanian_minx

Are you getting the screen that tell you you're blocked after you hit Post? Seems to be happening all over the forum at the moment - I just wrote an explanation of how to post a photo and lost it! The short answer is there's a little icon with two mountains and a sun above the posting box, click that and paste in a link to your photo (needs to be hosted on Photobucket or similar). Looking forward to seeing your horse

Did you manage to stand up surfing? I've had a couple of goes and am absolutely RUBBISH! Mr Minx has been very kind and said that it's because his boards aren't suitable for learning on (they're the ones he used to compete on) and with a bigger more buoyant board I'd probably be fine, but I think I'll stick to body boarding!

castlelough

Hi Cazmanian Minx!
Thanks so much for your lovely reply! It really cheered me up! :)Thanks for the photo posting tips... will have to look up Photobucket! It's a shame it isn't more straight forward! It sounds like Mr.Mynx is a really good surfer!!! I did stand up, before promptly toppling off again! Also we were using huge foam boards which made it easier!

Well I'm so annoyed with myself. I just checked my online bank balance and I'm down almost €100 more than I expected? How did that happen???? My own fault for taking my eyes off the ball and for not keeping track of when my laser purchases had come off the balance. Grrrr. :mad: Lesson learned the hard way. I've managed to overspend this fortnight. I've spent the money I was going to put towards two different wedding presents. So next fortnight's budget will have to be adjusted.

The only positive progress to report is that DH is meeting our engineer tomorrow to get the updated paperwork that our bank manager is waiting on. :j I've gone home to my family for a few days again. While I'm still on school holidays I'm going to make the most of the chance to get home. Really glad DH is going to get this little job done, as it has been holding us up for a while now. Although our finances aren't perfect, I think we may be close enough now to satisfy the bank! :j
DH needs to sort out the accounts for his farm with his accountant and then I think we may be good to go.... hopefully...

How is everyone else getting on?

castlelough

I've just transferred €103.46 from my credit union savings off one of my credit union loans. And.....my total debt has now fallen BELOW €6k!!! Woohoo! So pleased!
Payday tomorrow too, so I'll be chipping a little more off then too.
And budgeting a bit better for the coming fortnight!!!! :beer:

Inspired by Loumac's diary, I also intend to use that gym membership I bought last month! With everything that has been going on I've only been once! Need to get back to working on losing a few lbs as well!

castlelough

Ooh you know when you have been going so well for a while, and then the old you starts to appear here and there.....

*Spending more than you had budgeted on presents for people?

*Thinking about putting things on the credit card? (no! no! no!)

*Browsing the online websites of expensive clothing brands?

*Buying a [STRIKE]few[/STRIKE] more expensive bottle of wine than usual, because your worth it of course?!

*Buying 4 magazines in a fortnight, none of which you actually have any interest in reading?

*Stopping at the book section in Tesco, then taking books in and out of the trolley until you get to the checkout and decide you just HAVE to have it, even though you have heaps of books at home that you haven't yet read?

And more.....

I really need to focus over the coming weeks. I am getting a bit complacent as I get nearer to my short-term debt-free goal which is to:
clear the Credit Card and the small credit union loan and GET A MORTGAGE!!!

So in the short-term those two debts only amount to approx €1050. Then I will be just paying my usual fortnightly repayments off the larger credit union loan, and not increasing them, which would leave me debt free in 2015 (as long as I didn't have to take out any other loans along the way).

When I get the two small debts cleared I will be trying to get as much money together for furniture for our house and the Baby Fund and paying for our horse, who is about to get VERY, VERY expensive.

He is a young thoroughbred racehorse, and we are hoping to bring him to the track in the Autumn! He ran last year and won two Point-to-Point races, and is showing a lot of promise. A more entrepreneurial person would have sold him for around €30k then, but no, not I....
I couldn't do it. He is my little rescue horse, bought for a mere €200 to save his life...and I could never pass him into hands where he could end up being neglected further down the line.

So, no. Not very MSE of me at all.

He was injured last October (very minor) and has been enjoying most of his time since then resting up and out in the field at home. This gave us a great financial break and I got so much of my debt paid down...
But he has been back in training with his trainer for the last 9-10 weeks so although we've been chipping away at his bill - it is racking up! And the entry fees and jockey fees for the track are expensive!
Still, we've come so far with him. He will probably have 3 or 4 runs and come home in the Spring for a holiday. So it can only cost soooooo much, right?!

Anyway there are my mini-goals and challenges for the next while!

LittleMissKitty

Looks like you've noticed before it gets bad, I'm struggling with the 'little' things too. Hubby got back after a uni residential week last night and the temptation to get a take-away was almost overwhelming!

On the positive side - how exciting about your little rescue-horse being so talented! I hope it goes well for you and him.

castlelough

Well!
I've signed up to two different survey companies! Have earned €4.50 so far - every little helps!

I've had quite a low-spend week, although I met a friend for lunch yesterday who was 'treating' me, but forgot her money - so I ended up paying! That happened me with a different friend last week too. Now I genuinely believe that both incidents were accidental, but ... <sigh> that's me down €50!

Now, in the good old days I used to insist on treating everyone (on credit!) all of the time. I was far too generous, and the new sensible (though hopefully never mean) me is here to stay.

Hope everyone is getting on well!
Castle