Freecycle round up!

Have done pretty well so far.

12ft trampoline. Only needed a net and cushioning which I ebayed for £45
Tv cabinet and hifi cabinet. Cherry Oak and sturdy
Cache of bratz dolls with lots of clothes and accessories, a motor bike and toy horses Even includes boy dolls!
Lots of clothes for weeny some  5-6, 6-7. Perfect
18inch bike (Needs some work) and a pair of gym shoes for weeny.
Glasses - drinking ones

Am hoping to snaffle a chest of drawers at some point too.



Other stuff am looking for:
oil filled radiator
bamboo blind s
electric carving knife
cd player

Will post pics when I work out how to do to from my smart phone Worked it out! What a beaut!

A jolly good day with a wee puff of smoke!

Apart from my lap top going to techno heaven. Boo. it was Biggles old one and had done time in a war zone so  fair dues. RIP Lappy. Thats the wee puff of smoke.

Will sort something out. I have Weeny Girls PC which is my old standalone. Creaking and crumbling and slow as it is.

Had the IVF appointment today. We had pretty much decided no. As it turns out the lovely doc agrees. I am good at conception all things considered he said. 7 times up the stick. in ten years. He suggested that I may have been pg more but had not known and may have a low progesterone issue which hinders implantation. He feels that IVF is not useful as I can do that bit albeit it getting slower at it these days. Combined with the law of diminishing return and 39 year old eggs things are not so hot. However as we will not be using contraception he has supplied me with lovely progesterone suppositories lol lol lol  TMI??? Am to use these if I think there is a good chance of doing the deed and hitting the jackpot!  ha ha not easy when you are restricted to weekends only but possible as we have found out.

There are lots of expensive treatments if you choose to do IVF and are a recurrent M/Cer but the drugs don't sound too hot and stopping your T cells from working and T ceels being the ones that keep the nasties at bay or having to go in for intravenous lipids combined with the elderly egg thing is not my bag. You should only start the treatment if you know when you will get pg/are pregnant. If I was younger by about 6 years then would do as the eggs would be less ancient. Will do the progesterone and asprin ( 75mg per day) combined with vitamins and carry on as usual and accept the fact that its a probable no no. Biggles will agree. He was not keen on IVF and being a tight Yorkshire bastard wants to see return for his money and have odds on his side!

He, the doctor/consultant was a very nice chap indeed. He has also said he will scan me as soon as I hit five weeks and to get in touch if we get pg again.  Means I have to drive to Hexham which is 55 miles away but hey ho I mind not. Big county I live in! The cons of living in the country! Meh!

Counselling tomorrow followed by lidl for cheap food bits, a dress to get fixed ( sewn by a dress maker person), a tv unit to collect and floors to wash. I don't work Fridays - well I do sometimes on a time off in lieu basis-  Only working four days means I can take Weeny to school and pick her up again. Gives her a break from being a full time first in last out inmate at wrap around care! T-O-I-L also means I save money during summer hols and she gets a better deal. Bugger is I still have to pay for petrol to get into work to get the toil! Overall its a better quality of life!

Peace and monkey nuts! Night y'all

Title change! More

Why I changed my title!

I am not shunning frugaldom I just have no frugal goals. Frugality is great especially when it leads you somewhere. I am just plain poor. yes I am in fuel poverty its official. I own nothing and live in social housing. My frugal ways will not allow me to pay off a mortgage, save for another mortgage or pay into an additional  pension plan.

I have not left being frugal. I still need to live. What frugality does allow me to do is live better than someone who is not frugal. I am not fighting the good fight and winning.  I am just keeping my head above water  by budgeting. And sometimes its tough as there are no flags or banners waving me forward. There is no motion.

No you cry you can always change your situation blah de blah blah.. err no I have exhausted those avenues and am caught in a cycle. 

1. I am not able to orchestrate a move to affordable housing easily and in good time. Social housing does not work well with this. if you don't know the social housing system as it stands in 2012 I will explain it to you at another time. .

2. I must travel to work. No changing that. No buses and as I have strict times for child care I am not flexible enough for car sharing.  This takes up a lot of my salary. Fuel Poverty! More than food spent!

3. Change jobs.... I am restricted by where and when I can work given the limits of childcare and parenting.  I live in the country in a reasonably nice social housing hooose and am limited by point one.  Private renting is out of my league and my old job does not exist anymore. Retraining - see point 1 and country living.


What I can do is penny pinch and give my daughter a cool childhood on not a lot of dosh. I earn just enough to not get benefits of any kind including school dinners, prescriptions etc. They draw the line somewhere and that's me. The line has to be drawn simple as that so lets get on with it!

So good bye frugal rural life and  hello:

  Con Dem- Ned Plebdom- Cheers Marra Dave!

with the caveat of:

 ''Southern Plebby Working Single Mother exiled far north trying to keep afloat after all the blessings brought by Tory Dave. Penny pinching and scraping by with a caustic sense of humour and a wee sweary!''

Explanation

Con Dem etc - ref to them in power that brought about the changes that knacked me big time.

Plebdom - I am a pleb- simples- working class background, now a single mother in cooncil property ha ha Ok I got me a education somewhere along the line but I am more pleb than professional and do not ear a professional salary. Also single parent - demonic aren't they!

Marra is makem - or sunderlandeese for friend/mate. This is scarcasm.
I also feel condemned to plebdom and blame Dave as all my efforts and drive were thwarted by that evil Bullingdon Etonian!


I likes it!

 

On tree climbing.......

My job is wonderfully varied! Approached in my office well one of my team members offices while doing some pc stuff I was approached to give some support to a staff trying to get a girl up a tree down!. Not far up a tree but she was anxious apparently and having a time of it.


At first I was concerned as it goes overly so that she may require mental health support. It was pissing down and she was up a tree in the woods near the stream and wouldn't come down and wanted to be left alone outside in the open air and rain.  This was Monday- not had the time to post properly as the lap top went bang!! Another tale booo!

Anyhoo went down with my coffee not chuffed. It was pouring, cold, muddy. I am not a mental health professional.

Got there. Askedstaff ( 3 of them standing way back pleading with her to come down) her age - 17, She looked older as she was a large girl. No way could you get her to move unless she wanted to put it that way!

Bugger it thougth I . I need to make an assessment as to whether she does need the men in white coats or we will be stood in the pissing down rain for ever. She was perched on a tree that hung over  the bank that led to the river. Not too high but slippy.

In my Next work trousers with cooling coffee from the rain drops knocked it back  said 'Alreet pet' to tree girl and scampered up the bank. Slippy it was. Said are you gonna budge up or do I have to climb.... she ignored me so I climbed the tree. Swearing as I went. Not professional but as soon as the  ''Fuck it '' left my mouth she smiled and had a wee laugh to herself. Aha thought I not so morose as I was led to believe. Someone is have an attention paddy up a tree and wants some more attention more like. I plonked my mad middle aged arse ( am 39 nearly 40) next to her and figured she won't want to be sat here next to the sweary mary auld middle aged nut bag for too long.  I am still nimble and have some flexibility in the old hips... NO COMMENT ON HOW THEY ARE SO FLEXIBLE fnar fna.r I have lived. Nuff said. Nice spot I said.

And I was right. Down came Clarabella and she happily walked with me to a better more sheltered spot for a wee chat aboot life the universe and presentations.

I checked with the member of my team who is working with and knows the girl well that she does like a strop adn a paddy and attention.

A well timed purposeful swear can tell you alot about a person....

Thank you for reading. That is all