Stopping shopping epic fail

After dropping little bear at nursery I went into town for a coffee and cake. I haven't done this for months, and I thought I could really use it.

So, cost of hot chocolate and cake was not exactly bargain basement but in the circumstances I thought it acceptable. Cost of two magazines to read while eating said cake - well, one was a 'want to look at this magazine for ages and have never seen it on the shelf' and one was a magazine next to it so could have been less expensive but I can salve my conscience.

Then I planned to walk up to the Art Gallery to go and be puzzled at the modern art. But I passed a Cath Kidston shop. I have never been one for girly flowers, I have resolutely refused pink, but something in Cath Kidston calls to me. Regrettably it is less than inexpensive. Sigh. I spent less than I could, and I think I can cope with it in smallish doses - the house is not likely to go floral. But I still spent.

Also there is now a Waitrose in the middle of town, which I hadn't realised. I popped in to see what the fuss was about, and came out with two dozen sausages that had better be worth the money and a treat for OH (who is poorly).

I think I have used up this month's allowance of treats already.

Shopping!

I need to really watch the pennies for a few months. We are having two holidays this year. They are at the same cottage, self catering, less than two hundred miles away, one of them off peak (before little bear starts school). I pay the final payment this month, then next month is car stuff. I am a bit guilty about having those two holidays, but they are a near necessity for OH, he is not getting the breaks he needs.

The papers are full of worries about food and fuel rises, so I need to get on top of all that. By the time the takeaways are added in we are spending a fortune. We are also effectively making over the house, with darling father moving in. Re-thinking all the ways we use the house is meaning that we are getting rid of lots and lots of stuff, but we will need to buy other stuff, including a new sort of wardrobe type unit for OH's room.

So, I MUST NOT SHOP!

(and I can hide the two patterns and big lump of yarn coming in the post)

Also I need to look at earning money when little bear starts school in September.

Random shopping

Why have I just bought geraniums? I have brown fingers. I am useless with plants. There is nowhere in the house that is appropriate to have pot plants as all the window sills are above radiators.

This is very worrying, but at least it isn't yarn.

Grumpy lttle bear

Little bear is so tired, in denial and running a mild temperature. Normal for four.

He woke up at 5.30, and because I misread the time I allowed him to put the tv on. Darn.

I have told him that 1pm we are all having a nap, mum, grandad and little bear. Fingers crossed. Darling father and I won't have any trouble dropping off.

Clutterbust nudges

Today I was looking for a bulb for my knitting lamp. With the house so junk filled it is hard to tell if there is one in the house but the obvious place was the cupboard in the kitchen that is also the medicine cabinet, nice and high on the wall. It houses the electric meter, so bulbs migrate there for some reason.

I couldn't find a bulb there. However I got a few bruises from all the stuff cascading out. The drugs squad would probably find it a bit disappointing. There are about a dozen half finished packs of painkillers (standard over the counter ones). There are lots of half finished bottles of baby nurofen (I keep forgetting to look, little bear doesn't get dosed that often) and pack after pack after pack of vitamins.

I take Berocca, which helps. A little while ago it was on offer. Yep, I bought a sackful and there are still a load in there, as well as a pile of little bear's vitamins (on the same offer). There is also a ten years supply of tea tree oil and some citronella. A Boots First Aid Kit hit me on the head.

There is no chance of finding anything at all in an emergency, so tomorrow, at some point, reluctantly, I am going to try and sort it out. Really it is a question of organising what is there, perhaps putting it in small boxes as a divide and conquer measure, and very little to throw away.

However I think one of the keys to clutterbust is to find a home for everything. Once I know that bulbs should all be kept in one particular place that is where I put them, that is where I look and I don't keep buying eg bulbs when I don't need to. Then things don't overflow so much into heaps and get shoved just anywhere and add to the piles of STUFF and stops the place that it is in being a home for something else.

So I had better grit my teeth and get on with it.

Moderately grumpy

Lesley - your comment brought a lump to my throat. I am doing a hated 'yes, but..' I sleep on the sofa at the moment as I can wedge my sore shoulder in. I haven't really been able to sleep in a bed for a bit, though it is better. I just have trouble getting deep sleep when I am on duty, for little bear, and really I've been like that since November, with one or two nights off. It's not that OH isn't willing, it's just that I've been watching out for my dratted shoulder. I should be able to go back to normal now and while we have (this week, from my friend ebay) now acquired a foam flop out chair/bed, the sofa is actually remarkably comfy. Last week, when little bear was poorly, was v draining as I got v little sleep. I am actually going to go away and doze on the sofa as this morning I was so tired that I went to sleep after little bear got up and was so fast asleep that I didn't hear OH until he was leaving the house! This worries me, as normally I would hear everything of little bear while I dozed, so I am concerned I could miss something.

So, still tired, but you would not believe how much I managed to do yesterday despite a grumpy little bear. Washing hung out, home cooking, clearing, tidying and generally moving around with a purpose. Have completely failed to do that today. But little bear is in a better mood so that is nice.

Grumpier Sybil

I have been v run down recently (sorry to be so self indulgent, but background) and this morning when little bear decided he was going to play downstairs I said fine, but mummy needs to sleep, you must let mummy sleep.

I crawled back under the duvet on the sofa. Snooze for ten minutes...

'muuuuum, where's my pink motorbike?'
'Mummy is having a sleep, I'll look for it later.' Ten minutes pass.
'Muuuuum, where is the remote?'
'Mummy is having a sleep. You had the remote last, is it on the chair?' It was. Another ten minutes passed.
'muuuuum.'

So I am grumpy from tiredness, grumpy because of little bear's determination to be bouncy, grumpy because the five minutes I wanted to browse the forums (and it was five minutes only) were similarly punctuated, and completely ready to sulk. This is not a grown up position, and I am doing my best to be a big girl, but my best is not currently v good. Being called smelly pants by little bear didn't improve my mood (he had a disciplinary tickle).

And evil cat is sulking about the current lack of fresh chicken.