Firstly - why is it that every school morning I have to cajole children out of beds but on the school hols they are bouncing around at 6.30am!!!!
So its that time - time to round up what has happened in the last month, K has been quite poorly again, Kidney Stones have played a huge part in our lives this month, we thought that K had cracked the secret of getting rid of them, drink water till you slosh about when you walk, it has worked for a couple of weeks but today they have come back, so annoying, he's had a blood test but has to go back for another this week and a chat to a Nurse has been booked about lifestyle changes - that should be interesting, I've never known anyone eat as many veg as he does.
Money has been tight as predicted and we thought we would be ok this month but K had an MOT on his car and it failed to the tune of £280. Gosh and gulp. We have managed to reduce the cost by about £100 - thankfully my brother will do some of the work and the garage will do what he can't, we'll buy the parts ourselves as its cheaper, still an expense we could do without.
C had her 13th birthday, we all clubbed together and got her a Chrome Laptop, the look on her face was priceless, it was one of those moments that I'll never forget, I also joined her on Facebook so now she sits quietly palying away on the Facebook games, worth every penny if you ask me lol.
13!! I never thought I'd be Mum to a 13 year old girl.
K has applied for another job, he had an interview so now he is waiting for the good or bad news, if he gets the job he will be paid £5k more a year - what a difference it will make, so its fingers [an everything else] crossed.
T has found some life in his old bones and continues to plod on, he has bursts of energy and then tires quickly and sleeps a lot.
C and D are both doing really well at school. C has been picked, along with some others, to do a dance routine that will be shown at Bedford University and then later at the School Performance, very exciting, she is also in a school play aptly named "Teachers", I'm looking forward to seeing both performances later in the year.
K has started his own blog. He's an artist and a very good one, it was time to showcase his talents, between us we have cobbled together a blog, unfortunately the photography is all down to me so its not showing his pictures in the best light but maybe in time I'll get better.
So blog hop to kev'sart.miltonkeynes - go on, you know you want to.
I have joined a Gym, ta da!!! £20 a month gets me full gym membership and full use of the swimming pool so even if I just use it for taking the children swimming once a week it will pay for itself and that means the gym bit will be free.
The weather has been appalling all month, hardly any sunshine and lots of snow - for someone who really likes the snow I have to admit to being thoroughly fed up with it now, all I want is some sunshine, I need to start planting seeds at the Lottie but at the moment there's no chance of that as the ground is way to cold and the hard frosts we are getting will kill everything. So I'm late in starting, which means that soon I'll be planting seeds like a mad woman and my hands will be constantly muddy - I can't wait, I'm so fed up with not being able to get started.
Enough of my moans for now
Helen x
Showing posts with label Birthday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Birthday. Show all posts
Sunday, 31 March 2013
Tuesday, 29 May 2012
Grocery Shopping Rant and other bits
K is feeling a lot better today, thank goodness! We went to the Lottie and planted peas and runners. We had to give everything a good water, the weeds are getting out of control!
Grocery shopping - this month we have spent £323, that's a horrendous amount for 2 adults and 2 children and our budget is £250. We have overspent by £73 and we need things. K and I sat down tonight and decided to do the following
1. use up what we have, we have 1 large freezer and 2 smaller ones and they are FULL, stuffed to the gunnel's with food, how terrible that is too have so much food in, its what I call dead money - we've paid a supermarket money for food that we can then store for months! All those deals come around time and time again and yet we have fallen for the trap they have set us, well no more Mr Moneygrabbingsupermarket, we buy what we NEED and that's it.
2. We are drawing out cash each week for the shopping we need [£75 per week for June] and what we don't use goes into the car tax/insurance pot. If we need more money one week for shopping and we don't have enough then we have to wait till the next week till we can buy it.
3.Take advantage of offers but realise that the offers always appear again and again and again, we don't need to buy enough for 6 months, we need to shop smartly.
4. Get rid of the freezer in the garage, we've given ourselves 3 months to run it down, this will also save on the leccy to run it.
5. Use the money saved to buy car insurance for the year, pay upfront and then save for the next year, it may take us a couple of years to get to the point where we can pay in one instalment instead of 12 but this will happen and its cheaper to pay once a year [avoid those charges for monthly payments] we also want to pay for the car tax yearly instead of every 6 months as its also cheaper to do that.
6. Remember that every pound saved is ours and not the supermarkets
I can't describe how angry I am that we have fallen into the traps set by the supermarkets - we know better but we still got sucked in by them. We struggle every month, especially for the last 2 weeks and that's hardly surprising given how much we are spending on food! There are areas of expenditure we can do little about - petrol for example but where we can we will save. Lidl and Aldis will be our new bestest mates and Tesco can go jump, petrol is what we will use them for and also offers that suit us not them. We will also buy more from the Market - fruit and veg etc, we don't make enough use of the market, that's another change about to happen.
Nice part - I used Groupon the other day to buy tickets to take Mum and the children to a Medieval Day on Monday 4th June - day out for £12 plus petrol, we'll take our own food and drinks [we always do] and I'll buy the children an ice cream. They have pocket money to take with them if they want to buy themselves something but I buy nothing for them, sounds hard but they are happy with this. Their Dad gives them a lot of pocket money and they get to keep it and spend it on what they want to [within reason] everything they want to buy has to be okayed by me and its always discussed in detail and we scour the Internet to get things cheaply [D really "gets" this, C sometimes struggles and wants things NOW] Even if the weather is poop I'm sure we'll have a nice day.
Yesterday it was Mums birthday so we went for a walk at Harold Odell Country Park, boy was it hot, we were really daft and didn't take water to drink so had to buy a drink there, £4 for a tea and a hot chocolate, expensive, cake was £3 a slice - didn't buy any. We had a lovely, lovely walk.
The weather is due to cool down for a few days, that will make weeding at the Lottie a lot easier
Helen x
Grocery shopping - this month we have spent £323, that's a horrendous amount for 2 adults and 2 children and our budget is £250. We have overspent by £73 and we need things. K and I sat down tonight and decided to do the following
1. use up what we have, we have 1 large freezer and 2 smaller ones and they are FULL, stuffed to the gunnel's with food, how terrible that is too have so much food in, its what I call dead money - we've paid a supermarket money for food that we can then store for months! All those deals come around time and time again and yet we have fallen for the trap they have set us, well no more Mr Moneygrabbingsupermarket, we buy what we NEED and that's it.
2. We are drawing out cash each week for the shopping we need [£75 per week for June] and what we don't use goes into the car tax/insurance pot. If we need more money one week for shopping and we don't have enough then we have to wait till the next week till we can buy it.
3.Take advantage of offers but realise that the offers always appear again and again and again, we don't need to buy enough for 6 months, we need to shop smartly.
4. Get rid of the freezer in the garage, we've given ourselves 3 months to run it down, this will also save on the leccy to run it.
5. Use the money saved to buy car insurance for the year, pay upfront and then save for the next year, it may take us a couple of years to get to the point where we can pay in one instalment instead of 12 but this will happen and its cheaper to pay once a year [avoid those charges for monthly payments] we also want to pay for the car tax yearly instead of every 6 months as its also cheaper to do that.
6. Remember that every pound saved is ours and not the supermarkets
I can't describe how angry I am that we have fallen into the traps set by the supermarkets - we know better but we still got sucked in by them. We struggle every month, especially for the last 2 weeks and that's hardly surprising given how much we are spending on food! There are areas of expenditure we can do little about - petrol for example but where we can we will save. Lidl and Aldis will be our new bestest mates and Tesco can go jump, petrol is what we will use them for and also offers that suit us not them. We will also buy more from the Market - fruit and veg etc, we don't make enough use of the market, that's another change about to happen.
Nice part - I used Groupon the other day to buy tickets to take Mum and the children to a Medieval Day on Monday 4th June - day out for £12 plus petrol, we'll take our own food and drinks [we always do] and I'll buy the children an ice cream. They have pocket money to take with them if they want to buy themselves something but I buy nothing for them, sounds hard but they are happy with this. Their Dad gives them a lot of pocket money and they get to keep it and spend it on what they want to [within reason] everything they want to buy has to be okayed by me and its always discussed in detail and we scour the Internet to get things cheaply [D really "gets" this, C sometimes struggles and wants things NOW] Even if the weather is poop I'm sure we'll have a nice day.
Yesterday it was Mums birthday so we went for a walk at Harold Odell Country Park, boy was it hot, we were really daft and didn't take water to drink so had to buy a drink there, £4 for a tea and a hot chocolate, expensive, cake was £3 a slice - didn't buy any. We had a lovely, lovely walk.
The weather is due to cool down for a few days, that will make weeding at the Lottie a lot easier
Helen x
Saturday, 26 May 2012
Birthday, Lottie, Coughs and Colds
Morning
On Wednesday it was my 47th birthday - yeah!!
I was given lots of lovely presents. K and I spent the morning and some of the afternoon at the Lottie, planting things, weeding and generally tidying up. We took the camping stove and K made bacon butties whilst we were there - a lovely way to spend a day. We then went to my Mums for Tea. K stayed at home because by this time he was suffering badly from a cold which has now turned into a chest "thing". Poor man is really suffering now - and that's what happens when you give up smoking.
The weather here has turned very hot, I shouldn't complain but its a tad too hot for me - I like Spring and Autumn days and the snow, this heat makes me tired, it zaps my energy.
Today is another Lottie day if K is up for it, we'll see. He's currently snoring on the sofa lol.
I hope that you are all planning something nice to do this weekend and that you are enjoying the sunshine
Helen x
On Wednesday it was my 47th birthday - yeah!!
I was given lots of lovely presents. K and I spent the morning and some of the afternoon at the Lottie, planting things, weeding and generally tidying up. We took the camping stove and K made bacon butties whilst we were there - a lovely way to spend a day. We then went to my Mums for Tea. K stayed at home because by this time he was suffering badly from a cold which has now turned into a chest "thing". Poor man is really suffering now - and that's what happens when you give up smoking.
The weather here has turned very hot, I shouldn't complain but its a tad too hot for me - I like Spring and Autumn days and the snow, this heat makes me tired, it zaps my energy.
Today is another Lottie day if K is up for it, we'll see. He's currently snoring on the sofa lol.
I hope that you are all planning something nice to do this weekend and that you are enjoying the sunshine
Helen x
Monday, 19 March 2012
Birthday, Friendships, School Trips, Lottie
Wow 12 days since my last post - bad woman!! Lots of things happening here. K had his 50th birthday on the 12th. It was a low key affair as being 50 is not good lol. The children wanted to make something of it so we invited Mum around and had a buffet tea. K liked his pressies so much - they are still sat on his desk in the bedroom! C has her birthday on 21st so I've been getting ready for that - actually no I haven't as I bought everything in the Jan sales and for her main pressie she's having money, just need to wrap it all tomorrow.
D is going to Overstrand with his school for 3 days as of Wednesday, he's very excited, he's decided that his blank needs to stay at home though, he's growing up.
C is going to France with her school next Monday for 5 days,she has just had a big fall out with her friend and is very upset, she's also worried that it might make her trip a difficult one, these are the times when I wish I could give her 1/10th of my confidence - she has none - then she could just tell the nasty madam to go away once and for all and then stand up to the ones that are mean to her, I don't remember having any problems at school with my friends, we all got on together and played nicely, nowadays they do nothing but compete for attention from each other and try and beat each other in the fashion/boyfriend/who's done what stakes. C gets really upset about it all and feels very inferior, she has just over 1 year left before moving onto secondary school - home ed seems more and more likely!
Housework has fallen by the wayside so today I've spent all my time clearing, cleaning, hoovering blah, blah, blah
The Lottie is coming along nicely as we've been over there alot, Lettuce's are sprouting away and lots of seeds have been planted along with Onions, Garlic and Shallots - I love these next few months at the Lottie, I love to see everything growing and the wait for the produce is almost orgasmic.
Photos of the Lottie next time
H x
D is going to Overstrand with his school for 3 days as of Wednesday, he's very excited, he's decided that his blank needs to stay at home though, he's growing up.
C is going to France with her school next Monday for 5 days,she has just had a big fall out with her friend and is very upset, she's also worried that it might make her trip a difficult one, these are the times when I wish I could give her 1/10th of my confidence - she has none - then she could just tell the nasty madam to go away once and for all and then stand up to the ones that are mean to her, I don't remember having any problems at school with my friends, we all got on together and played nicely, nowadays they do nothing but compete for attention from each other and try and beat each other in the fashion/boyfriend/who's done what stakes. C gets really upset about it all and feels very inferior, she has just over 1 year left before moving onto secondary school - home ed seems more and more likely!
Housework has fallen by the wayside so today I've spent all my time clearing, cleaning, hoovering blah, blah, blah
The Lottie is coming along nicely as we've been over there alot, Lettuce's are sprouting away and lots of seeds have been planted along with Onions, Garlic and Shallots - I love these next few months at the Lottie, I love to see everything growing and the wait for the produce is almost orgasmic.
Photos of the Lottie next time
H x
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