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Money talks

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When I was growing up, my Dad ran a very successful business and Mum worked at home; okay I would have said a stay-at-home Mum, but I have never been comfortable using that phrase to describe Mum because it somewhat has a way of conjuring a mental picture of a woman who is home all day doing nothing or watching TV - well just throw in a few chores. Okay back to Mum. The phrase just doesn’t suit her. She had nine kids to bring up, two or more extended family per time living with her, and several others dropping in to visit, or spend a few days or weeks (yeah weeks) unannounced. Dad gave us money to buy lunch and if we needed anything else, we saved from our lunch money. My father got to know we saved and blew his top; “why are you saving?” he wanted to know, “ is it to pay rent or pay your school fees ?” He told us never to save , that if he gives us money for anything the money should be used for the purpose it was given.  He told us we were his responsibility and if we needed...

Show me the money

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never thought of myself as one to waste money. I mean, I’m a self proclaimed bargain hunter. But when does it stop being about spending wisely, and starts being about trying to stop yourself from buying everything you don’t need? Any one else know what I mean? The problem is I find those “sale” prices. EVERY TIME! And then I end up feeling pressured, by myself no less, into buying everything. Towards the end of 2018, I realized something had to change. Because I had new responsibilities, like paying rent for the house I’d just moved in to, I ended up being more conscious of my spending. Like I mentioned earlier, I have always thought of myself as someone who’s quite good with money. Maybe it was because I didn’t really have much to spend those times as opposed to now. But it was a shock to my system when I began to take stock of my finance at the end of 2018. This was prompted by a post on here in December called Realistic Stock Taking (i...

G0& ask your Father!

 I enjoyed the car ride to our shopping destinations and loved window shopping, I just did not understand why mum was sometimes grumpy whilst shopping.   Most of the time she did not want you tagging along but at the slightest opportunity, we would happily grab our shoes and sit in the front seat of the car looking out of the window and dreaming about being able to go out by ourselves. The only time you were allowed to chip in is when you go out Christmas clothes shopping.   “Which colour do you prefer”?   At many stops she would say ‘wait for me in the car’, there was one year we waited in the car even for Christmas clothes shopping and to make matters worse, we ended up not seeing the Christmas clothes till Christmas morning (heavens, there was one year they did not even fit – big enough to grow into so we wore them later in the year)!   On the flip side, we had great times sneaking into our parent room going to the wardrobe, and taking a sneak peek the...

NEW may mean change

There is a   Family Tradition that holds every last day of the Year in my birth home. The day   is usually filled with prayers of Thanksgiving   for the ending year & requests for the coming year. It is one tradition that we(my brothers and I) somehow did not grumble much   about, because   though it meant being without food for most of the day,iit also meant   doing   the   least possible house work while remaining indoors . I cannot remember when it started but it has always been and ever before the era of mobile phones, myself and my siblings   all had to be   present physically   to participate. But over the years after relocating, I had not   conventionally participated in it for over a decade     and   so had some of my siblings who had gone ahead to have their own homes. So I was surprised when an idea popped into my mind last year. I quickly swung into action     making me to send ...

Survey Time-Determined to serve you better

So dear readers, we have finally made it to the last day of the year and with a sense of gratitude for your patronage throughout the year, really want to appreciate you all specially . We would like you to know we do not take it for granted that you visit and read   this blog. Neither do we take your shares, word of mouth testimony or even your comments on the blog, not to mention the many several texts  you send appreciating the work we do . Our passion is real as it breaks our heart over and over again to see people suffer because of the unhealthy relationships .  We want to serve you better in 2019 and would like you to help us do so, Can I crave your indulgence to please fill this survey and get as many that you share the blog to to do likewise.  Kindly click on the link below  :Estimated finish time-5 minutes https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/KC9C7P5 Gracillis.

Really Thinking

Whenever we read an autobiography, one of the things that is noticeable is that it is not the day to day activities of the people’s lives that are written down rather it is the significant events in their lives that we read about and the word significant in a good autobiography does not necessarily mean   “good.” Sometimes events are unfolded and recounted, which   may to a reader seem common or trivial however the significance of the events recorded is at the sole discretion of the author. And so coming to the last   Friday of the year, I will not attempt to give a rundown commentary of the year rather taking stock,   .I would say, that for me, I am grateful, grateful to be alive and   in my right mind ! Sometimes when we come to the end of the year and start to look back, there is actually a mixed feeling of regrets and triumphs   and I do know a number of people whom this year has been a year where they cried tears of joy as they saw things they...

Right Response

It was my birthday. I had a party  and several friends were invited. It was not that I had many friends but they all tried to turn up. Most of them managed to address birthday cards to me. In those days, that in itself was expensive.There were some cards that I had duplicates and triplicates but  I got very few presents amongst which  was a  little A5 sized plaque that was framed that my brother gave me. I was disappointed at the scarcity of presents as I  expected to have received more. After all , I had thrown a party and fed people for free. I will tell you straightaway that my brother got the brunt of my disappointment, as I took the plaque he gave. I doubt if I said a proper Thank you or even said a Thank You until  he  accosted me to find out if I had received the gift.I am sure my thoughts spoke louder than my words. I was unable to appreciate what was given to me because I had expectations to receive more and this usually is a problem when...