OS Singlies - We Do It Our Way!

LavenderBees

3forholidays wrote: »

Just noticed your sig - you are doing so well with the savings challenge.

Hmmm....Well, yes and no.

TBH, I'm not...or not in the way I should be....To foster (one child) I need to try to live on under £1k a month, which means I should be able to save lots more than I actually have managed from my monthly salary...too much of my savings challenge is actually my small inheritance from my Mam .

If I take that away, then I have managed to save far less than I challenged myself to on a monthly basis.

Hence frugal living for the next few months to ensure it is possible, but also because savings make me feel a little more secure for the time I won't be earning my current salary, which could be sooner rather than later .

So, I'm back on the frugal trail, using vouchers where I can, not shopping as a hobby (even tho all my shopping is sale/reduced...it still quickly mounts up), trying to stick to a shopping list for food (not very successfully), driving down my broadband bill etc. It's all stuff I should have continued doing after I had slogged to pay off my mortgage, but I relaxed...or more accurately spent a bit more money to alleviate the misery of losing my parents... only natural, I think, but I'm back on the case now and feeling better for taking control again.

Thank goodness for MSE, I say, these forums have equipped me to find ways to build financial stability, as well as providing friendship and companionship, which I would argue is even more important.

Good luck with the chores, Rosie, but try to build in some down time too....I always picture you doing your chores, dancing to your music, and that makes me smile

Well, my bathroom is calling me :eek:

:rotfl:

LB xx

LavenderBees

mothernerd wrote: »

Not sure if my plans are exciting or not. I have to decide if I want to go to mum's for the day. It involves her partner's twin grand-daughters, their partners, two small children (5yo and nearly 2yo) and two mad puppies (neither of whom is a puppy any longer but still try to jump onto your knee).

I stayed at home for the first few weeks after my operation and since then it has only been married grand-daughter plus 2yo (+ one or more dogs) or not yet married couple (including 26yo fiance who acts like a 6yo) usually just from teatime or sometimes just mum and her partner (he has Alzheimer's and hearing aids so alternates between behaving like a 6yo and messing with his hearing aids and then complaining about/ whistling along with them).

Apart from my first week home from hospital, when I had three visitors plus one small child I haven't had to cope with more than one friend of DS3's being in the house. Ah well, I can always come home again if it gets too much.

I swapped the five library books taken out last Saturday yesterday as I had read them all and I have also rented the film Philomena from them for a week. Watched it last night but could easily watch it again.

I have had no internet access since Monday. It was supposed to be fixed by 8pm yesterday but it was 3am this morning (DS3 told me, I was reading a book in between trying to sleep). So if I get bored I have half a film and at least two programmes that I have only seen the first 10 minutes of plus any new episodes of things I am vaguely following if I get tired of reading and sewing.

I have washed and dried 4 wash loads (and done the in again out again dance with some done earlier in the week) and re-located all my clothes into a regular set of drawers. My plan for the week was to start walking to the other house once a day and bring some of the plant pots and shed stuff back here but the wild weather made even going to the library a struggle and the pots are safer in the shed there than being flung around the yard here.

So braving the hordes today and then quiet pottering for the rest of the weekend. I have some things I could put up for sale now I have phone and internet back. I can't ask DS3 for any help as he has been unable to access/ work on his business all week. He got his sales figures for (last month?/ month before) before it went down but hasn't been able to access that money and transfer it to paying off some of his student overdraft and he has another game ready to go but couldn't post it on the internet. He was climbing the walls by yesterday. He's fast asleep now so I suspect he stayed up all night after I fell asleep.

I hope you all have a great weekend, however you choose to spend it and deepest sympathy for those of you with pita colleagues.

It sounds like a good idea to get the tougher/more challenging part of your weekend out of the way, then you can relax into your pottering weekend.

A week without phone or broadband is quite hard, I think. Different if it was your choice, but I always miss things much more when imposed on me!

I have Philomena in my DVD stash...I will watch that later on your recommendation

That bloomin bathroom still is shouting, better get to it :rotfl:

LB xx

JustKeepSwimming_2

Byatt wrote: »

Its blowing a hoolie here too...what's that saying about March?

Jks, you don't sound pathetic...you should hear me when I'm in full mode! I think on here we have a glimpse of our mood/world which can seem as if we are always in that mood/world, but being able to say it, just helps, I find, to somehow help me carry on.

And My Boy Cat often wanders off when I'm talking...although he does give good

head bops. (Tried to get those words on one line...:o ) Oh and he slept on my back last night, first time in ages.

I'm going to get myself a nice Easter Egg, one of those good ones, but cheap...:EasterBun

I need to cull my wardrobe again. It's packed but I only wear a few regular items so really need the space. I usually try things on Ellie just before I go out and then I become one sad, sweaty mess as I find nothing fits! :eek::rotfl:

Thanks Byatt (& everyone else for their good wishes) - feeling much better today. I'm with you on the whole nothing fitting/sweaty mess mode of dress, which is why I love fleece so much :rotfl:

I have lots of lovely clothes, but very little fits me well. I'm an odd shape - not much in the way of shoulders so bras are forever falling off them, & fitted tops don't hang right; everything looks indecently low cut :eek:. I used to alter simple tops along the shoulder seams, but I don't have the patience now, & they never looked that good anyway.

My waist (& I use that term loosely as I don't think I've ever gone it at the sides) has never been in proportion with my hips (still remember the humiliation of being told I was a most peculiar shape when I went for a school uniform fitting at 11 & not being able to find a pinafore dress that fitted, so I had to wear the hideous flared, pleated skirt which did little for me).

Put me into a fitted dress & its hilarious; there is so much extra fabric where it shouldn't be & bits where the zip won't do up - I'd love to be able to wear something posh, just once & have it look like it should on me.

Thankfully loose'ish trousers are OK (as long as they're not fitted) & when worn with a long T shirt, a lot can be hidden.

Like many of you though, I'm not looking forward to summer & wearing less. Oh, & shaving legs & all that nonsense :rotfl:

I shall try & cut down, although I haven't lost a single ounce since having the flu - can you believe it? I've eaten less than half than I would normally for almost a month, & only had a few glasses of wine from 1 bottle - but, no weight loss. Really doesn't seem fair :rotfl:

I'm quite happy to carry on cutting out wine though, as the few nights I've had a glass I've slept badly - LB you are right! I'll leave my stash of 15 bottles under the stairs & cut it out for a few more weeks & see how I go. (I'm in a wine club so get 2 cases delivered at a time). Last year I did try getting up 30 minutes earlier & going or a brisk walk before doing anything & that helped to shift some fat, but I got so bored & felt I could use that half hour better by doing more chores etc - bonkers really, as what is more important than health?

Byatt wrote: »

....Just watched a film on iPlayer...a time travelling thing, a bit violent, well whatisname was in it, Die Hard chappie, so no surprise, but interesting concept. I always overload my brain when it's to do with time travel and what would or could happen!

Anyone read "The Time Traveller's Wife"? I read it years ago & totally believed in time travel while I was engrossed :rotfl:. The book was so much better than the film IMHO.

Mothernerd - I'd hate to be without t'internet at all . It's hard to imagine life without it. I'd be climbing the walls too. I admire you being disciplined enough to get you're chores done first - I'm still putting off sorting out DS's bedroom as its such a tip Have got lots of laundry done though, & some cleaning so I haven't been completely useless. I keep looking at DD's tidy bedroom & smiling - I may not let her in it when she comes back :rotfl:

Do you think we scared off Wannalot? Hope not....

My Easter gift to myself was 2 bunches of lovely yellow roses (£5 - no idea if that's reasonable or not as I rarely buy flowers unless they're end of market day specials. And I really don't need to eat anymore chocolate. Ever.)

Enjoy the long w/e all (& commiserations to those of you who have to work).

CRANKY40

Good afternoon. I haven't posted this week as we were very tired here. Ds has been back at school for two weeks after his time off after his operation, but I think the whole thing took it out of him and it has taken a lot of my energy to get him to school every day this week.

LB do you only get the fostering payment if you have a child or do you receive the allowances that come with a child too like child benefit and child tax credits? I don't suppose that you do. That doesn't seem right somehow.

It's only just stopped raining here and the cats are having one of those in/out days. One of them is wanting to come in or out roughly every 15 minutes because they want to go out but when they get outside they don't like it.

We're having an easy day today, just mooching around the house. I have cleaned the kitchen and rearranged it a bit. I've also swept the floor as it was looking like an explosion in a cardboard factory. Our oldest cat likes to chew up cardboard boxes and usually has at least one and sometimes two on the go.

Hope you all have a restful and happy weekend.

LavenderBees

CRANKY40 wrote: »

Good afternoon. I haven't posted this week as we were very tired here. Ds has been back at school for two weeks after his time off after his operation, but I think the whole thing took it out of him and it has taken a lot of my energy to get him to school every day this week.

LB do you only get the fostering payment if you have a child or do you receive the allowances that come with a child too like child benefit and child tax credits? I don't suppose that you do. That doesn't seem right somehow.

It's only just stopped raining here and the cats are having one of those in/out days. One of them is wanting to come in or out roughly every 15 minutes because they want to go out but when they get outside they don't like it.

We're having an easy day today, just mooching around the house. I have cleaned the kitchen and rearranged it a bit. I've also swept the floor as it was looking like an explosion in a cardboard factory. Our oldest cat likes to chew up cardboard boxes and usually has at least one and sometimes two on the go.

Hope you all have a restful and happy weekend.

I would imagine the stress of the build up to the op, not to mention the op and reovery stages will have taken it out on both of you. Glad you have a chance to potter now.

For fostering, my local authority pays a small retainer fee when you don't have a child, but the allowance when you do have a child is quite small. This is what I have based my budget on, although private agencies do offer more allowance, mainly because they seem not to offer any retainer (though one who is visiting me next week offers something for a month between child placements), and also because they tend to have the more difficult to place children....generally older children/children with some challenges to overcome. It seems people still prefer to take the babies/very young children, which leaves the older ones struggling to be placed.

Child benefit and child tax credits are not given. However, working tax credit may be applicable and foster carers do get generous tax breaks to try to offset the frankly rubbish allowances.

There are big pros to the agencies, apart from finance, namely they seem to offer far more support than my local authority (who hasn't even rung me to take up my offer of a chat about this yet....contrast that with these 2 agencies who have both chatted to me twice for over an hour/arranged visits to assess my house and talk over my concerns/talked about the initial and ongoing training and support they will offer/offered me chances to talk to other single foster carers etc).

As a single inexperienced carer, I am well aware I will need lots of support and sounding boards, so guess which way I'm headed at the moment.

I also had read a study/report from one of the university's that clearly came to the conclusion that taking all kinds of things into account, it seems carers with private agencies are generally happier and feel much more supported than through local authorities.

Anyway, I'll see what they think when they see my wee house (bathroom now has no limescale and lovely clean grout between the tiles. Am sure if anything will persuade them, clean bathroom tiles will! :rotfl:)

Well, that's my tea break over....ironing awaits. I'm glad I'm not the only one doing chores today

JKS - Methinks you put yourself down far too much.... :iloveyou:...in a none romantic kinda way, I hasten to add :rotfl:

LB xx

Horace

Haven't posted for ages - been busy.

I have a new community work placement so I am no longer at the place with the rude people and instead I am working in a charity shop. Must admit that I am enjoying it especially as I have been given responsibility for an area - it has changed in a week from being a jumble of clothes and bags to being neatly laid out - even the jewellery has been tidied and hung up. I have bought a dress for £3.50 (Eastex), a zipped case of knitting pins for a fiver (for a pal) and spent £1 on some pendants without chains - I was also given 2 bags of broken necklaces and other bits of broken jewellery.

Great to have some days off - today I have been round at a friend's house and we have been bagging up sweets in case we run out of Easter Eggs tomorrow. It was great working with her kids and at one point a male Mandarin duck paid a visit - he was so tame and was eating out of the children's hands. I came home with an unused Moulinex Deep Fat Fryer and my friend went home with my slightly used (twice) huge George Foreman Grill complete with cook book and accessories (it makes sense for her to have it because they are a family of 4 and the fryer is too small for her family).

Tomorrow is Easter Egg Hunt day and we will be in the park in the afternoon running our hunt.

Spending the rest of this weekend tidying the house and once I get a jump start I will be visiting my parents whom I haven't seen for ages.

Hope everyone OK - Happy Easter.

3forholidays

Nice to 'hear' from you Horace. The charity shop sounds like a better work placement for you. Hope that the Easter egg hunt goes well tomorrow.

LB Your house will be fine, I'm sure. Don't forget about locks for the kitchen cupboards etc.

mum2one

typical I did a big reply and my battery died....

We had a really good break, I enjoyed the surrounding of the theatre more than the play, - it was a good play "The widow in black", to sum it up, if your a person that jumps at every noise, your get so much out of the play, if your not, then your just following 2 men on a stage...

We found a lovely Indian restaurant, went on our 1st ngt, was going to get a takeaway on the wed ngt, as DD said we could one we dont like and prices were on par with what we had paid, - so decision made back to the Indian.

Worked out the best, we had a really good night, we ended up joining this family at their table next thing it was midngt...

Typical it rained literally solid, then thurs morning it was beautiful so went via Fleetwood market, it broke the day up.

I had a really good time with DD, it sounds daft but we were a lot closer than we were at home, - whether that was we were together litrally 24/7...

A quiet time over Easter weekend, planning a day up the coast (family outing) and hair cuts,

Decided were going to go up for a wend for the illuminations, stay at the same b+b.It was really nice place, and bless there hearts they've said dont bother waiting/buying a voucher there do us the discount rate of the voucher for us. That was really nice.

Felt weird today, a Friday and I wasn't going to clinic, but did go and get the dressing changed at the walk in touch wood the depth is reducing, and it doesn't need packing, - but - (this is me) theres a bit of concern that it is healing too quickly so might have to have some of it burnt off.... know more next Friday.

Hope everyone has a good weekend xxx

JustKeepSwimming_2

LavenderBees wrote: »

...JKS - Methinks you put yourself down far too much.... :iloveyou:...in a none romantic kinda way, I hasten to add :rotfl:

LB xx

Aw, thanks hun. Right back at you! It was Byatt's description of being a sweaty mess that made me think about how I look; most of the time I don't even notice & even though we have a floor length mirror on the wall in the hallway, I rarely look at myself much apart from checking that I'm decent & my shoes match (been caught out there once or twice )

Being so out of proportion (& its been mentioned at every medical I've had for new jobs or by new GPs so it isn't my just my opinion) doesn't usually bother me except when I'm clothes shopping

3forholidays wrote: »

Nice to 'hear' from you Horace. The charity shop sounds like a better work placement for you. Hope that the Easter egg hunt goes well tomorrow.

LB Your house will be fine, I'm sure. Don't forget about locks for the kitchen cupboards etc.

Good to hear about the new placement Horace; it does sound much better. I did a few months volunteering in one when my DD was a baby & I came home with loads of stuff :rotfl: Hope the Easter egg hunt goes well - we used to love going on them when DD & DS were little, but now they're too cool to join in.

Hadn't thought about those kitchen locks 3forholidays - they used to drive me bananas although I guess they're a necessary evil. Along with electrical socket covers & stair gates.

mum2one wrote: »

...Felt weird today, a Friday and I wasn't going to clinic, but did go and get the dressing changed at the walk in touch wood the depth is reducing, and it doesn't need packing, - but - (this is me) theres a bit of concern that it is healing too quickly so might have to have some of it burnt off.... know more next Friday.

Hope everyone has a good weekend xxx

Glad the break went well Mum2one, sounds like you had fun despite the weather. I am surprised by your comment of healing too quickly - didn't realise this could happen. Bless you, you are having a rubbish time healthwise.

Well I'm glad to report that I have gutted DS's bedroom. Vile or what :rotfl: Not quite as bad as DD's room, but a very close second. I've still got quite a bit to do in there & I'm going to have to go back & get some more boxes as I didn't realise there was quite so much carp under his bed. I dreamt about his room last night; he'd got all his toys out & strewn them over his floor & I started to cry - anyone think I'm taking this far too seriously

Of course going out to buy boxes means I have to get dressed. I'm sat in bed, listening to the wireless & drinking strong tea, so it may take me a while.

Hope everyone has a lovely Easter w/e & gets lots of chocolate :EasterBun

BookWorm

Morning

I could get used to these long weekends - what a luxury to not be rushing off somewhere!

I had fish and chips too last night - bit naughty but oh so nice!

Off to catch up on what I have missed.

Have a great day all

BW