Shopaholic? Me?

Yay! It’s boxing day which means the start of sales… time to hit the shops and the best bit you can do it all from your laptop while watching a nice classic movie!

Here is to hoping that you have a Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Shopaholic!

It is that time of year again, and I think I need to come up with some resolutions. I think I need them to be simple just so that I can stick to them. I don’t have many but they won’t be easy.

1. Diet & Fitness – I must start a diet and lose at least 2 stones. I also need to improve my health and fitness. A good diet and joining a gym will all contribute to this.
2. Fiscal Independance – I need to start funding my own shopping. I need to start earning some cash and be able to afford my shopping. I would like to step up my shopping to include some more luxury items especially if I lose that weight! So I probably need to get myself to raleigh accountants and get my finances in order.
3. Quality Time – I spend lots of time with the kids but I think I need to spend more time playing rather than looking after the kids. Now if someone else did all the cleaning, chores etc would it not be that much easier?

3 Resolutions… can I last the week let alone the year? Fingers crossed.

I guess it is now time to write my letter to Santa or he might just miss me. Do you think I am asking for too much?

Dear Santa,

I hope you are all geared up for Christmas because I am certainly not. If you are just waiting for my letter, all I ask for are just 3 things.

• low cost energy
• a prepared perfect christmas without any effort on my part and
• a lie in

Thank you Santa

Love

Shopaholic.

(See things I want are things not easily bought! Think I asked for too much?)

I need a couple of gifts. You know the kind, obligatory but you don’t really care… and so I was thinking Thornton Chocolates! Looks like I care, looks good but nice and easy going. And Half price!

Do you have any idea how much there is to know about balloons?

If you walk into a shop and ask for balloons for a party, you would think that the first question they would ask you would be how many? Not so. You need to know if you want air or helium, latex or mylar, printed or plain, if you wanted them treated or not!! So to make your ordering balloons easy for your New Year’s Party or for any Party, here are some facts:-

• Latex Balloons are the stardard type. They can be air or helium filled.
• If you want them air filled, the image on the balloon needs to have the nozzle at the top. Helium needs to have the nozzle below the picture.
• Latex balloons float for up to 12 hours with helium. They stay inflated with air for months. To have them float for longer, they can be treated with hifloat. Then they would float for days.
• Mylar balloons last up to 2 weeks fully inflated but can float for over a month (depending on size).
• Mylar balloons can be reinflated and / or topped up several times.
• A latex balloon will decompose in the same time that a leaf will.
• Balloons will explode and shatter when they reach a certain altitude.
• Balloons are NOT detrimental to the environment.
• Helium is a natural gas. There is a finite amount.
• Balloons bring a smile to almost everyone’s face!
• A party is not a party without balloons!
• Balloons make a nice change to flowers!

We were setting up the Christmas tree and it brought back memories of last year. My hubby lost his wedding ring last year when he went to our shed to get our tree stand. For the whole period I went over lots of mens wedding ring s but none could replace it because none of them were sentimental. However Santa was looking out for us and we found it when we were getting out our turkey on the 23rd. I nearly died with excitement and was simply bursting till Christmas. I wrapped it in box within box within box within box. It was a great Christmas!

Have you seen the cost of education? Private education is steep. Mind you, I guess you get what you pay for. So now I either get a job at the school even if it is just one of the Janitor Jobs just to get a discount – rumour has it is as much as 40% discount. Or otherwise, I need to get a good paying job which fits into school hours and school holidays. Now where can I get a job like that?

As you may have realised we have been house hunting but it has been quite a ride. Bearing in mind the economic you would think that prices of houses would have dropped. Not so. Prices are higher than ever and people seem to be happier to leave the house on the market rather than drop the price. Some won’t even drop 1%. They think because a house has a clawfoot tub, magnolia decor and granite surfaces in the kitchen that they can ask for any price. We saw a house and they are asking for 580k in an area where the average price is 500k. Admittedly it is one of the larger houses but the rest are immaculate. This house has damp, rotting inbuilt fridges, missing cheap laminate etc.