I am such an idiot! When will I learn?

judi24

Cwtchie wrote: »

Have a good read of the old style board, jackieO is over there, she has no end if ideas and thrifty ways. One of the ideas she has is that you must have a little happy cash, not a great deal but it allows you to have a little of what you want without the need to feel guilty. Set the monthly amount you will have for treats/spoiling etc. and when it's gone, it's gone, then you can tell the kids why it's gone, what they have had and it would still be within budget. Maybe that way you can give the kids a choice," well it's either this or that, what do you want most?" they can choose. You might not feel so guilty doing it this way

This is a good idea - going to look at my spending budget - factor a bit in for treats and get the kids helping to decide how that is used

ampersand

judi - thankyou for accepting, reading and commenting thoughtfully. That's another rather rare quality that shines out in your posts.

re: 'but will look for more ideas and challenge kids to come up with some ideas'...why not simply start DOING?:-). I do see lots of planning/talking about doing, but judi - please JUST START. There'll be some disasters, but this all becomes part of the family tapestry. 'Remember that time we tried to make xxx and blablah/gross' etc.etc. This is the sort of thing that you, a super-sassy grandma one of these days [they'll LOVE being with you], will be prompted over and again to re-tell.

dd's 1 and 2 seem to have a good life focus: take credit for this.

Clean work clothing is a minor glitch that dd2 sorts out for herself.
Not your issue. It really is a very easy first STOP moment for you, judi:-}
Simple, obvious.
It'll be done by a machine anyway, won't it?, just not the judi machine.
That one's switched off:-)

Award yourself one putah-free day at home each week. It's easy: just don't start it up. You reflect such good open heart and that card-chopping is wonderful. Brilliantly well done.

I wrote about hwbs as a heating bill dent. They=real, calculable money-saving as much as snuggly, instant, personal comfort. Turning down your rads/ boiler 2 degrees C is not noticeable, except on your bill. An extra clothing layer adds warmth. It's remarkable how often this basic solution is ignored.

Saving's addictive judi. Endorphin interest rates rocket when debts drop.

Keeping family choices simple is another simple key, as hermia says. either / or = 2 options. That's enough. On other occasions another 2 will present themselves.

Calm and copable days during the coming week - with Mother Julian all the way:
"All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well"

judi24

We do do! Ampersand, Honestly its not just planning and talking - every year at Christmas we make a variety of sweets as gifts - some more edible than others granted!!! but this year it will be instead of not in addition to shop bought gifts!!!


and oh dear - I can't even begin to think about being a granny!!! although I was younger than my DD1 when I had her which is althogether too scary to think about!!!


Thinking about hotwater bottles - I came home from visiting a friend tonight and said to DD2 that it was a bit nippy out - her reply was its b***y freezing in this house - I suggested that she might try to shut the windows and back door and add a jumper as the heating was not going on for another month! She promptly sighed and went to bed!!!


Productive day for me today - cooked chicken wings and thighs in slow cooker - made chicken and bacon pasta for dinner (with enough leftover to add 2 portions to freezer stocks) and got enough chicken left for at least 2 meals (chicken cobbler and chicken with mash and cabbage is the plan)


Also made a start on garden tidyup for the winter - i could do with the grass to stop growing now though - so I can do other things than grass cutting!


Then went to visit a friend who's going for surgery this week - so a busy, productive but spending free day!


Didnt get round to doing debt total and signature - will do that tomorrow along with planning next months spending before payday hits on Friday.


This is the last week in my current job so going to be a bit emotional I fear - got my leaving do on Friday and I really hate these things! Do you think anyone would notice if i don't go?


Praying for calm and copable days!

ampersand

Consider them sent

You are a good friend - that, too, is clear. Hope your friend's surgery is successful.
You just need to be this same good friend to yourself.

Well done with sweetie plans, daughter+heating, clever elastic chicken.
I really do think you'd enjoy doing hedgerow liqueurs:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=hedgrow+liqueurs&rlz=1C1GGIT_enGB308GB353&oq=hedgrow+liqueurs&aqs=chrome..69i57.5801j0j4&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8#q=hedgerow+liqueur+recipes

Nearest w8r0s here is haggle-able in the jolliest way on fish/butchery/deli at end of day, which is very pleasing. Time it right with with free cappu, bien sûr, which surely makes me one of those lowering the tone, even in The Fens:j[is this possible? je me demande].
http://www.paidtoshop.co.uk/showthread.php?t=79683

Grass-cutting has a rhythmic thinky-time effect. Emptying for compost or neighbour's bunnies punctuates this. 'Snap' for 'grass', not 'lawn'. That's another venture altogether, never mine.

http://www.saint-dicton.com/ is today's fix:
Semis de Saint-Maurice,
R!colte à ton caprice !

judi24

Ampersand - your replies make me smile - they a real encouragement - Thankyou


I would love to make more hedge row goodies - but I thought i had left it too late this year? and to be honest I don't really give alcohol as gifts (but would quite happily try making it and sampling it just for research purposes of course!)


Loved the link to the Saints Calander - but I did have to do some on line translation my French is far from fluent - definately a job for when I have finished my Masters!


So today I have been doing yet more number crunching and planning (i know I know! need to do not just plan!) but i just wanted to be organised before payday as I have a little habbit of not working out my budget until a couple of days after payday, by which time I have taken kids out for tea, done a few bits of unplanned spending and started the month a couple of 100 pounds poorer when I actually sit down to plan! I also wanted to sort proper totals of my debts and do a snowball calculation.


So - what I have worked out is that if I budget for £600 a month for food (aiming for £250 this month), fuel (£60), parking ticket (£82), trip to friends birthday party (£100), and entertainment/kids bits/Christmas shopping (£100)( kids off he last week of the month too!)


I will be able to put £1200 towards my debt - so £954 after loan payment


My plan is to clear the £150 on the nationwide CC and close the account, clear the £414 OD on First Direct CA and close that too, £158 to the small Nationwide OD and close that account. That alone will simplify my finances and stop me trying to juggle so many accounts - it is too easy to forget who I owe what to!


I will pay £100 to Tesco CC and £132 to Barclaycard CC


After October I will pay everything towards the 2 CC's left and according to the Snowball Claculator they will be cleared in 13 months - if I can get a balance transfer card in a few months this will hopefully come down a little - so going to aim to get all CC debt paid by Sept/Oct 2015!!!


I am going to try to get out of going to the birthday party - although I feel I would be letting them and my DD2 down - it is a friends daughter's partner's 30th so it will be full of young people who I don't know and his family - who again I don't know - but my DD2 really wanted to go and has got the weekend off work ( a rare occasion as she works in retail). But I would have to drive (at least £25 in fuel), pay for hotel and pay for drinks at the party - so all in at least £100. (that would be much better spent elswhere)


Going to put the £250 refund from energy supplier towards Christmas and also managed to find an extended warranty document for a camera that my ex bought me - I tried to get them to give me a credit note so I could buy something else as I neither want or need a camera, but they refused. However I did spot a dinky video camera that would perfect for DS's Christmas - it was £10 more than the one I am taking back - but I can live with paying £10 for his Christmas present so will do that over the next week.




Right - off to do some real work!!!

Cwtchie

We are 5, two adults, a 21 a 19 and a 12. £250 for food = doable. Good luck!

judi24

Thanks Cwtchie - I have so much stuff in the the freezer and sore cupboards - i really need to focus on using it up - it just takes time and effort to be prepared. I don't need cleaning stuff - again I seem to stock pile bleach and other cleaning products - I will need washing powder and toilet roll at some point next month - but thats it!


I am planning on doing a proper freezer invatory and plan as many meals from that as possible before I go shopping

ViolaLass

judi24 wrote: »

Going to put the £250 refund from energy supplier towards Christmas and also managed to find an extended warranty document for a camera that my ex bought me - I tried to get them to give me a credit note so I could buy something else as I neither want or need a camera, but they refused. However I did spot a dinky video camera that would perfect for DS's Christmas - it was £10 more than the one I am taking back - but I can live with paying £10 for his Christmas present so will do that over the next week.

Now don't guilt trip yourself into spending the amount you've saved on other presents!

judi24

ViolaLass wrote: »

Now don't guilt trip yourself into spending the amount you've saved on other presents!

And there in lies the challenge! - going to really try to keep cost of Christmas down! I know this is my weakness!


I have just spoken to my mum about Christmas presents and she is going to get everyone thier Chritsmas PJ's and do a tea for us on Chrismas eve after Church - I usually buy the PJ's and mum buys a gift that no one wants or needs so I am really happy with this arrangement

ampersand

Judi - there's the mse Living from the Freezer Challenge - investigate.
Do freezer inventory with either daughter's help. Insist on it.
It can be fun - interesting baptismal labels for unidentifiables.

Really prowl the OS Threads.

Good b'day decision - tenuous connection. Peeps neither truly known nor dear to you. DD2 is old enough, financed enough, to find her own way there, surely? Call to friend: 'I can't make it but DD2 can. Is there any chance she can be collected from xxx? I know she's worried about a bed/floor for the night....' If friend really knows you, she'll agree/arrange sth in a flash....just as you have done, many, many, many times.

Young person's Coachcard? railcard?

£250 mthly for food is masses, as Cwtchie says. This can cover all grox, not just food, inc. bulk buys of bargains and means Living Well, not on poor grade substitutes. Fuel seems low. Even mine exceeds that and I use bus pass when poss. - rural here.

Yeast is free @ MrT - use a bowl, not a machine - cathartic, v.g. exercise for hands and fingers, cheap, easy-peasy, then SCRUMMY:-) Grate in onion / cheese/ leftover chopped olives+other, umpteen seeds, all sorts.

A thought - personal crimbo puds as pressies? Maybe stir in one or two quirky bits? Coin with year of birth? French santons I have by the dizaine.....and Les treize desserts:[trans.]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteen_desserts

Hold back on crimbo spends for now - it's September.
Get this month's new r!gime under your belt solidly for one month first.
Money in.
3 a/c's exterminated.
Brilliant. Pat yourself on back. Mum's on side, even better.

A ridiculous, annoying, very bad board game every crimbo is de rigueur under roofs I know......everyone must play.

Not too late for hedgerows at all. You can work wonders with basic booze over various fruits from now on-the longer they steep, the better. Recipes on mse.
I make wild apple jellies with rosemary, thyme, all sorts. Gorgeous on toast AND with meat.

Fruit/other trees for pressies? Crimbo is good time for bare-root stock.

Broom's revving - green tea and book await. Take care.