Karmacat: I'm passionate about my DFW journey to riches

Karmacat

Ah.... an update. First off tho - Bob, the mortar flakes away when you run your finger along it, where I can reach. There are loads and loads of holes in it on the surface, so god only knows what its like behind that, there must be loads of holes through to the cavity.

After he'd gone, I rang around builders here, and got in touch with two (one of whom was telling me about the insurance scheme of the Federation of Master Builders, the other of whom is with the local fair trade organisation, as is my builder). And they gave me quotes £45-£70 *more* than my builder charged, for two square metres of grinding away and repointing!

Even so, I can't afford these charges, and it obviously needs doing. Plus while I was cleaning up, I looked at the boundary wall, just a single thickness of brick, and you can actually see through it, where the mortar has come away from the brick! So tomorrow I'm off to B&Q to buy some plasticiser and an angle grinder (to get rid of the top layer of mortar, which is what you're supposed to do) and the next fine day, I'm out there, doing my thing.



The ballet class (much more interesting) - I went in a T shirt and leggings that I had around, with sox and a pair of ballet shoes I had when I tried to go to a class about 20 years ago. I couldn't do a ballet class without having ballet shoes, it wouldn't feel *right*... the teacher is fine about normal clothes till you want to stay - and the regular students are in a variety of keep fit gear, not all leotards and pink tights.

boredofbeingathome

I have visions of you now carefully shaving off mortar with angle grinder doing a pirouette:rotfl: ....good luck:D

Karmacat

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

There are no words! There *would* be a pretty quick trip to the A&E department if I actually tried that, however

The_Dragon

boredofbeingathome wrote: »

I have visions of you now carefully shaving off mortar with angle grinder doing a pirouette:rotfl: ....good luck:D

Hmm not sure about pirouttes BOB, what about plies?

Karmacat

Aha! All the people who did ballet as kids are coming out of the woodwork now!

Karmacat

Right, I've got loads of lists going on right now, so I'm not going to do a to-do list. Suffice to say that today I have already:
- washed up.
- cleaned (some) woodwork and (some) walls in bathroom, toilet and working room - and I cleaned the sinks yesterday.
- done a load of washing.
- watered my little basil plants - I need to put some leaves in oil with some garlic, actually, there's loads of leaves on them.
- put some chickpeas and soybeans in to soak, to cook them in the slow cooker this evening.

Happy happy happy. Definitely going to go out on a lovely day like today, get some sunshine into me.

One thing on my list I must get on is what I call a "housekeeping"post here. And its a confession. I've spent loads and loads and loads on groceries - more than I would normally spend, actually, because, well, I see things like the NoTW voucher and think, ooh yes, I should spend that money, it'll save in the long run. And now, I've got loads and loads of food - I'll need more cornflakes before Christmas, and maybe some baked beans if I'm not organised enough to have some ready-cooked ones to hand that can be substituted, but otherwise the only thing I'm going to need is fresh veg. And I've waited so long to do this, I'm not sure if I'm not double counting the first one (I **will** go back on this thread and check!!). So here's the list:
9.21 Tesco 23rd Aug
11.35 Tesco 30th Aug
2.47 Lidl 1st Sept
7.99 Waitrose 1st Sept (okay, this was Manuka honey that had £2 off, I get viruses, it should be under medication really, not food!!!)
1.29 Sainsbury 5th Sept
0.74 Poundshop 7th Sept
5.94 Tesco 7th Sept (some of that was snacks to take on holiday).
45.89
====
84.88

I'm a bit shocked at that, actually! But the way the cupboards have ended up overflowing tells its own story.

So, the deal is, nothing else except fresh food till Christmas. 12 weeks I need to account for, at maybe £7 a week, thats still... £84. Jeez! How do people *do* this That means I'll be over the amended target of £300 for the second half of the year. And even so thats a lot of cooking so I can have treats and stuff (oh, which means I'll need more sugar. It doesn't end, does it!) Neither does this post. Sorry.

Karmacat

Ah, just updated my sig - £7 a week will leave me *under* the amended target. Good!

redsquirrel80

Morning Karma!

£7 a week should be do-able if you're well stocked up. As for how people do it, i.e. sticking to a strict budget.. I don't know! I guess they have incredible amounts of self-discipline, something which seems to be lacking with me, especially when it comes to a quiet Saturday night in and all I've got is a variety of frozen things involving mince and/ or lentils :rolleyes:

Enjoy the lovely weather today

hypno06

£7 or not, surely if you look back at what you would have spent in the same period last year, or the year before, you have still made huge improvements in that budget? So, whether you spend £7 a week, or £10 a week, or even a bit more, you are probably still quids in, and THAT is what is important :T

Karmacat

Thats true! And the thing about self discipline - the last set of accounts I threw out after the 7 year rule expired them, I looked at the supermarket receipts at the back under "personal spends". And okay, I still had my cats then, and they both used litter trays, but even so..... it was quite common for me to be spending £200 a month - just on me!!!! So £300 over six months is great. And it does make me think - no, I won't have that scone, that cup of tea, whatever, I'll go home and cook something straight away. Even the little thermos I bought for train journeys has saved me about £8 by now.