two frugal years to freedom: a fritterer's tale

mum2one

Hope the movie ngt went ok, bless DD she sounds one in a million xx

lobbyludd

I'm told movie night was a success, but I was in the kitchen burning popcorn for most of it so I have no idea of the plot of Dr who now (I rarely do when I've watched the whole thing anyway). still in the end managed to prepare the order for separate bowls of sweet and salted popcorn, found the recipe that tells me how not to burn them, and dipped in for the last 2 mins. This is supposed to be family time so next time the popcorn is being done before the programme/movie goes on and everyone gets their own drinks!

lovely day here, think I may venture into the neglected garden which has gone slightly too far in the decayed-elegance direction to actual just decay now. I don't like a garden that is so pristine and manicured it feels like a park - I like it to look like once it was kept like that but the plants have taken over, like a secret garden (this is absolutely not because I am too lazy to keep it any other way, that is just an added bonus but that may be how I discovered that it's my favourite look!).

anyhoo, as I've got to the point now where I may be able to sell the grass as hay and a neighbourhood cat has deposited 2 presents in it bleugh, and a fairly big plant is dying (I have daughters ready to replace, but will cut back hard and see if it returns) it needs attention.

I've hemmed a quarter of the door curtain - this is a big step for me, I've made a LOT of curtains in my life and rarely hem any of them, I just leave them ragged on the floor - because I hate hemming - boring sewing - but I shall attempt to do at least another quarter today (it's a door curtain - a quarter is only 60-70 cm! definitely not worthy of the medal and fanfare I feel i deserve....).

need to do the rest of the adpoints (not sure I like the new set up), start picking up on the swagbucks front for amazon vouchers for yule.

the overnight salting of tomatoes and onions has been accomplished for chutney making (I don't think I've ever made chutney before) so will do the rest of the recipe today and see how it turns out.

lobbyludd

chutney making is stinky!

had to stuff my dressing gown in the gap between the kitchen door and hall - suspect next door is vinegared out too, as we somehow share smells (very neighbourly). That'll learn them for waking me up in the wee hours by burning the paint off of their stairs with a heat gun, leaving me convinced the house was burning down. there is clearly a hole somewhere connecting our internal atmospheres. (I love them really - actually I do they are fab neighbours).

recipe asked for malt vinegar, of which I had none, so used what I had - mixture of sherry, chianti and red wine vinegars (bought for recipes that time forgot and since never used). WOW it is rich, definitely not to accompany namby-pamby delicately flavoured foods.

just sterilising the old jam and pesto and other random jars and will bung it in too cool and mature.

might form part of a hamper for bro and SIL, already have blackberry vodka and damson gin soaking so with chutney, cheese and some fancy crackers that should make an appreciated yule thing.

liltdiddylilt

Judi, do all of your kids still live at home?! I can't cope with 1 sometimes... I sometimes wonder how people manage with more than that! I have the love to give.. just not the arms and neverending cash! As for school changing the uniform... I cannot believe that! Luckily when I was a kid I got my sisters school hand-me-downs from 8 years beforehand if the uniform had changed, I may well ave been going in knickers and Clarks shoes... :rotfl:

Thank you for the list M2O. I am not joking, I have just stored it. I am going to start squirrelling away things now! Shes only 2...

lobbyludd

so, dd went back to school today, not at all happily, which was a shock because until 6pm yesterday I thought she went back wednesday. she came home happier but for now childminder is having to take her in instead of her going to breakfast club (latter is free, former is an extra £20 per week) but if she goes in happy it's definitely worth it.

ds goes to hs for the first time tomorrow, and is very nervous, so is having a long bath now and hopefully we will get an early night and sleep well.

feel very peculiar, city I live and work in is awash with armed police, security fencing, helicopters and arriving security forces, I am unnerved and unsettled by it, thy are twitchy (sirens every 5 mins), we are twitchy. I had to tell my team at work about some insecurity in our jobs because it was published on a website and I didn't want them happening on it. Some [STRIKE]idiots[/STRIKE] highly trained professionals in training and development in my organisation have pulled the plug on me accessing some gov-funded training after I got through the interview for it today, because they haven't procured it and it wouldn't be available for everyone in the organisation.

and I came home and asked neighbour how he was over the garden fence and his wife died last week <this is so very clearly not about me, and it should have put everything in perspective, but it hasn't, I feel worse about it all.

I feel guilty that I spoke to her on Tuesday but haven't noticed that she wasn't about since (are houses are practically in each-others). I will miss her a lot we have lived next to each other for 11 years, but I feel guilty for being upset and missing her when her family are devastated. Her death seems to have compounded how I am feeling about the stuff I don't like in my life, and I feel guilty about that, because it feels like I'm stealing the grief that rightly belongs to others and using it to wallow about other things.

final loan payment has gone out so that is done - hurrah, and am working at home for 3 days as work building shut in case of ?terrorist attack or perhaps to allow the leader of the free world to borrow my desk. who knows.

early to bed me thinks.

lobbyludd

on lunch (at home ) ds went off to school in his blazer, very nervous evidenced by the shopkeeper at the end of the road having to help him spot when safe to cross. I then had to fight the urge to drive him the mile and a half to ensure he got there. he will be fine, he will be fine!!

woke very early, at 5 for some reason, may have a lunchtime nap, am feeling much better than yesterday which was a shock, as neighbour had cancer but was beating that - she died of something else unexpectedly. She was so FULL of life, it seems incredible that she could just be gone.

life is short. I want rid of this debt and to thrive. I've lost patience with my job (very frustrating environment to work in currently), when the debt has gone I can down-size my job and retrain/try another career, if I'm made redundant that will clear my debt and I can do the same.

my kids are brilliant, my home is safe, warm and lovely, my family, friends and neighbours are great. I am blessed.

so I've applied for and got a 0% balance transfer card for £8K - it is from my least favourite financial institution, and the BT rate lasts for only 14 months. My 29.95APR (and rising) cc and pay-thru-the-nose overdraft are to be transferred, I will save the transfer fee within 2 months of transfer due to the change in interest, and it releases me to switch from my current account to a decent one (with a switching bonus thta should almost totally pay the transfer fee meaning I'm quids in from the get go).

I shall cut up the card when it arrived. Offer old card chance to BT at 0 my remaining debts and if not close. I will not spend on hated card.

crucially I have not bought myself a single thing to try and manage my emotions - not food, not something for the house, nothing. this is a great stride forward.

off to nap - because I can

mum2one

Sorry to hear about your neighbour, we lost a acquintance to cancer - the furneral is on Monday, on the good side, I've picked up dad from the hospital, what a farce - 3 hrs I was waiting for him as they hadnt got his mediciation....

Def agree something like that makes you evaluate what you have and where you are, I know when we were told dad had got cancer, it was frightening, one thing I really want to do is finish my degree, - just got to get it funded

That sounds gd the balance transfer, as you say your cover the cost in saving the interest.

Take care xxxx

lobbyludd

great that you've got him home M21

liltdiddylilt

Great news about your dad M21. I am so sorry to hear about your neighbour LL.

And you are right that sometimes it is a case of the straw that broke the camels back. 11 years is a long time to live next to someone. Some of my best friends have been neighbours along the way and then morphed when they moved into really good friends

You are fine to be aggrieved about everything that is going on. I am sorry you are feeling so rotten though. Hugs to you!!

lobbyludd

has been a day of wee-beasties.

went into dd's room to get her up this morning and by her radiator was a 4 + inch across spider. I had to think of a distraction for her and a way to get it out without either of the kids knowing or neither of them would sleep for weeks. I am afraid I killed it. with my hand. (gloved in red leather, there was no way I was going in defenceless). I am sorry to those who love them, but my kids need sleep and so do I.

must be getting autumny if the big spiders are coming in - I can see I am going to have to have words with them again (goes along the lines of they can scamper and party to their whatever-passes-for-hearts' content in unoccupied rooms during the night, but if I see them, they are dead - this seems to work normally - this morning's was probably a spider from foreign parts who didn't understand the local customs).

this afternoon I went to bring in some washing (still working from home) and was buzzed by a small blue damson-fly, very beautiful, and loads of spiders busily spinning away in the dusky sun now (which is fine, they've told me I can skip about in the garden as much as I like, but if they see me after dark, I'm dead - fair's fair).
so there you go.

My strawberries have decided to flower now, in September - what is that about?

ds didn't bother to get a locker at school because (and I quote) he was "too lazy and they've probably all gone by now", saving me £15, he appears to have only eaten chips this week, meaning most of his dinner money should be intact - not sure how this fits into the school's healthy eating agenda that was prominent in the prospectus.

and in a rare spreadsheet fail I hadn't noted down paying my ee bill for 2 months so the money I was saving to pay the arrears is in fact spare! so friend is coming over for take-away tomorrow. hurrah!

I think I may be able to pay a massive £1K off of one of my cc's next month if everything goes as planned. This should bring me back on track with the payment amounts to be clear in 2 years (21 months now nearly).

2 weeks to payday - I am so looking forward to making a big payment! lol.

thanks for kind words my lovelies, very much appreciated x.