Abby Lacey

Ramblings of a happy camper!


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Spend spend spend

shopaholicMy name is Abby and I’m a spendaholic.

I like to spend for spending’s sake and my obsession with online ordering (and subsequent returning, I hasten to add) has got out of control and now it must stop.

So in the spirt of getting my sh*t together, I cut up my store cards. I’m not keen on the shops anyway and only buy from them because I don’t have to spend cash… It’s just so easy.

Today was a good day to #getmyshittogether and #cutupthosecards – gone, done!

A photo posted by Abby Lacey (@abbylacey) on Jan 18, 2017 at 11:26am PST

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I also went through all my statements and looked at the amount of interest I’d being paying and was shocked. On one certain department store card alone, I paid a whopping £40 interest last month – I’d be fleeced!

It might (will) take me a while to pay off the card and whilst probably not the best option, but the only option, I did a 0% balance transfer so that although I’m theoretically robbing Peter to pay Paul, I will only pay a balance transfer fee and not the massive load of interest every month = shorter time to pay off.

Man, it feels so good too. It’s been a month of not convincing myself I must have a new this, that and the other, and frivolously spending, and I think it might be addictive.

I know this  is a serious subject and I’m not making light of it, it’s just my style. If you feel out of control with debts, help is out there.

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Simon says…

January. A shitty month of no money, post Christmas realisation that you’ve gone way over the top during the festive season, you come crashing back to earth with a bang… And a sickness bug if you’re lucky.

I stumbled across a couple of audio books by the brilliant Sarah Knight and devoured them within a couple of days.

The first, The Life Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck, was amazing, but the second Get Your Sh*t Together was why I’m here, now.

Without ruining it for those who’ve not read it (or breaching any copyright laws), Sarah likens us to Alvin and the Chipmunks, i.e. we fall into one of three personalities:

Alvin (“a ‘fake it till you make it’ kinda guy”), Simon (“Keeps up appearances while dying from a thousand self-inflicted cuts”), Theodore (“relatively hopeless”). I’m a Simon – think I’ve got my sh*t together but really, I’m a swan (I’m not referring to my beauty.. ha ha).

So whilst I could have done a real Simon-like thing and dismiss the book smugly thinking, ‘I don’t need this, I’m got my sh*t together already’, I realised that I really need help, like really.

So I got working. I sorted my sock drawer. Yes, the start of getting my sh*t together was sorting my sock drawer – I love socks. I really love them so much so that Sam (husband) marvels at how easy it is to buy Christmas pressies for me as I appreciate them so much! During the difficult task of sorting ones to relegate to the duster pile (I can’t possibly throw them away just because they have a little hole or two in them), I discovered a pair of socks I’d never worn and realised even more how much I needed to do this.

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I’m back!

I know I haven’t written for a while.

After my #40B440 challenge of 40 blogs, I felt I’d really drained my creative resources and so took a (very) long break, but inspired by some books I’ve read (OK, listened to on Audible – getting me to read is a challenge one step too far) and a friend’s blog (if you haven’t already read it, I urge you to; Lorna really tells it like it is, in an amusing and touching way – find it here: themumblings.co.uk), I’ve decided to resurrect my blog and write some tales on my year of getting my sh*t together.

ive-been-vowing-to-get-my-shit-together-since-pretty-10386984Watch this space…

 


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If you’re happy and you know it

The Mumblings

Let’s chat about happiness.

As evidence taken from some of my previous posts would advocate – I’m an anxiety fuelled, woeful bemoaning mutha (with a penchant for a tipple or two).

On paper, it doesn’t sound all that Jubilant really does it?

I know I’ve said it before, nevertheless I think it’s always beneficial to recap – I set sail on my blog voyage as a cathartic way to liberate some head space. To get it all out there (lord help me, and perhaps you) indulge my ramblings, but possibly, more often than not – offload, and sometimes have a good moan.

So, although a number of my posts seem to depict that my journey through motherhood has been a glum, desolate and miserable one, it really hasn’t – I’ve had a bloody ball! It’s just that trying to be continuously cheerful, assured AND Jovial is – well, quite tiring…

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Advent Challenge

acLast year was the Lacey family’s inaugural Advent Challenge, well this year it’s back and, in my true ‘let’s recycle everything’ style, the vessel for this is not the lucky dip jar, but my M&S beauty advent calendar box!

As per last year, the list is full of fun and good deeds. In no particular order (although once they hit the calendar, there may be a little ‘arranging’:

  • Tell someone you love them
  • Give something to charity
  • Buy a lottery ticket and post it through a stranger’s letter box
  • Send a Christmas card to your neighbour
  • Make paper snowflakes and hang them from the ceiling
  • Wear Christmas jumpers for a family selfie
  • Make Christmas cookies
  • Make a Christmas decoration for the tree
  • Tidy your room!
  • Walk like a turkey!
  • Decorate the windows with snow spray
  • Sing Christmas carols at someone’s front door
  • Send Christmas cards to your friends
  • Tell 3 people that you’re doing an Advent Challenge
  • Phone someone and when they answer say “Ho ho ho”
  • Make up a Christmas rap
  • Help wrap some presents
  • Say Merry Christmas to everyone you meet
  • Dance around to Christmas songs!
  • Write a letter to a friend
  • Play with someone at school that you wouldn’t normally
  • Go for a walk and collect anything Christmassy
  • Think of 3 things to be thankful for
  • Watch a Christmas movie

Merry Christmas one and all!

 


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The first month of 40

I cannot believe it’s been over a month since my 40th birthday, and what an amazing day it was:

I went for a bike ride with the #TeamBadInfluences girls in the morning, followed by bubbles at Coppa Club, then finished getting everything ready for the party.

Birthday bubbles

My lovely friends arrived at 7.30pm as instructed (“Don’t be late – I don’t do late!”) and we had a ball! I got so many bottles of champagne, a balloon ride from the girls (no. 3 of my #40b440), a Thai Massage with the wonderful Katie Winterton, a flying lesson from my parents and brother & sister-in-law, and my lovely in-laws, Char and Kit, fed the troops a delicious  curry.

Happy birthday

The following day was, suffice it to say, spent clearing up the bottles, glasses (not one broken!), plates, cutlery, decorations and tents, followed by a hairy dog at the pub.

Since then, life has returned to some sort of normality and frankly, it’s a bit dull. I need a challenge. I need to be kept busy (busier than normal, I mean – not just the every day work-life stuff) and I am determined to set more challenges… so watch this space!

 


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The 40 effect

@abbylacey #40b440When I started working on my 40B440 list, I wasn’t in the least bit aware of the journey it would take me on.

I thought I was challenging myself to do things I’d always wanted to, but hadn’t got round to/had the nerve to; some one time, big things, others smaller, every day things. But actually it was much more than that. It was a change of attitude.

Does this ring a bell? You may remember my lovely guest blogger, Kasmira Kit, saying in October, that despite being almost at the end of her 40 B4 40, she was in no way done with saying ‘YES’ to adventure. That’s exactly I how feel.

My attitude has changed beyond belief; from chatting to an artist on one of my ’29. Visit an art gallery at least once a month’ trips, to taking the opportunity to have a photo taken with the one and only Goldie (something I’d never have done as soooo far out of my old comfort zone).

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve not had some sort of epiphany and now am going to turn in an adrenaline junkie, but I my attitude is now more of ‘why not?’ than ‘why should I?’!

So here I am on the eve of my 40th birthday, writing my 40th blog, and although not everything on my list has been done, I feel so many more adventures are yet to come… starting with a little party tomorrow!