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Finally Debt Free After 34 Years, But Still Need to Live Frugally
Comments
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elizabethhull wrote: »Now I'm really impressed. I make pretty well everything foodwise that can be homemade for Xmas, but I draw the line at mince pies because they are so time-consuming, and hardly last 5 mins !!
You've had a very productive day, hope you enjoyed the Xmas film and sleep well tonight.
Thanks Elizabeth. DH enjoys bakings.
Finally_Solvent wrote: »Mmmm, home made mince pies:j. Bliss. :beer: to your DH. Does DH make his own pastry from scratch or buy ready-made? We eat so few of them now the children are grown up and far away:( that I just buy a few from our local bakers. Really nice and not expensive so win-win. I hardly ever make pastry now except for apple pies to freeze when we have a glut of apples in the autumn. DH often prefers the apple without the piecrust anyway,just lightly stewed. I'm not complaining as it saves my time and money;). I once bought some ready-made filo pastry when it was vastly reduced in the supermarket. I'd eaten things made with filo but never made any or used any myself so at the giveaway price it was worth a go. Turned out lovely:j (it wasn't for mince pies but for more savoury things) but it didn't last long though as we had visitors that weekend and I barely got a taste myself:(. When I went back to the supermarket it was at regular price and, having to be uber-frugal at that time:o, I couldn't afford to buy it. I sort of forgot about it (filo pastry is definitely not one of life's essentials:rotfl:) and never did get round to seeking out any more on offer. I'll have to go online and see if it's easy to make myself. I always found pastry making quite therapeutic when I was stressed with my job somehow
You probably were wise not braving the shops in town yesterday:T, although I've no idea what today will be like. DH had to go into our local small town yesterday. He always avoids going in on Saturdays because there's a market taking up the whole town square and parking anywhere near the centre of town is impossible on market day. It's bad on other days with narrow, winding streets but at least the market square is available to park in. DH enjoys walking so never minds parking on the outskirts (in the street for free) and walking in unless he's in a hurry or has something really heavy to carry but he said yesterday he was driving round for ages looking for a space anywhere. The other small carparks were full (with queues to get in as soon as anyone left) and all the extra shoppers were parking in the streets right out to the very edge of town. To add insult to injury it was teeming with rain and windy so, not only was he gone ages, he came home really grumpy:(. The pavements are narrow and shops small and he said everywhere was heaving. Drivers were hooting people to get out of the way as there were so many people about they had to walk in the street as well as the narrow pavement:eek:. A for queuing to be served in shops, that's what made him grumpiest of all.
All that this early in December:eek:. Goodness knows what subsequent Saturdays will be like. Yet they say the traditional High Street is struggling! Good luck if you venture out. Knowing you you'll seek out some great bargains and be sensible with your spending:A
Thanks FS. Sometimes DH makes his own pastry but if he's in a hurry he uses premade. DH's shopping trip sounds very stressful :eek:.
Morning HHDGreat that you got asked to cover again and even though you spent £12 at the fair you were still up at the end of the day.
If I were you I'd not rely too much on being at home to catch up on things as you definitely seem to be the person school go to if they need cover and with all these bugs around I bet you're called on again at some point soon.
Have a lovely day and I hope you manage to find some presents if you do go shopping. xx
Thanks TF2. I'm torn between wanting to be asked to do cover to help pay for Christmas and not wanting to be asked in order to have time to prepare for Christmas :rotfl:.
Finally Debt Free After 34 Years, But Still Need to Live Frugally
Debt in July 2017 = £58,766 😱 DEBT FREE 31 OCTOBER 2017 :T 🎉
EMERGENCY FUND 1 = £50/£5,000. EMERGENCY FUND 2 = £10/£5,000.
CHRISTMAS SAVINGS = £0/£500. SEF = £1,400/£12,000 PREMIUM BONDS ME = £350. PREMIUM BONDS DH = £300.
HOLIDAY MONEY = £0 TIME LEFT TO PAY OFF MORTGAGE = 5 YEARS 1 MONTHS0 -
doingitanyway wrote: »You've been working really hard HH. I hope you have a chance to relax today. I love that you are enjoying all the Christmas films
Thanks DIA. We all enjoy a good Christmas film
.
Finally Debt Free After 34 Years, But Still Need to Live Frugally
Debt in July 2017 = £58,766 😱 DEBT FREE 31 OCTOBER 2017 :T 🎉
EMERGENCY FUND 1 = £50/£5,000. EMERGENCY FUND 2 = £10/£5,000.
CHRISTMAS SAVINGS = £0/£500. SEF = £1,400/£12,000 PREMIUM BONDS ME = £350. PREMIUM BONDS DH = £300.
HOLIDAY MONEY = £0 TIME LEFT TO PAY OFF MORTGAGE = 5 YEARS 1 MONTHS0 -
A successful day of shopping was had today. DH and I nipped into town earlyish, bought a few presents, had coffee together, then got a few essentials in Mr T on the way home. One of the presents had 30% off and some others were 3 for 2.
It was funny in town because in the car park lift DH and I were the only ones NOT dressed as santa :rotfl:. We realised that there was a santa fun run :xmassmile taking place but we had no idea before we got there :rotfl:.
I've made a Christmas card list and a present list. All the rest of our presents are going to be vouchers from the rainforest people or edible gifts from the NT shop. So if we can make a trip to our local NT place soon we can get a few presents and then hopefully order the rest in the next few days.
I tried to transfer money from my Christmas savings account only to be told that it would be activated on the first working day :mad:. So I had to 'borrow' some money from the EF to pay for our Christmas shopping today. I'll repay it when the money appears tomorrow.
Apart from that I've ironed some tops for work and we've watched a film called Christmas With The Coopers.
I hope everyone is having a good Sunday :xmassmile.Finally Debt Free After 34 Years, But Still Need to Live Frugally
Debt in July 2017 = £58,766 😱 DEBT FREE 31 OCTOBER 2017 :T 🎉
EMERGENCY FUND 1 = £50/£5,000. EMERGENCY FUND 2 = £10/£5,000.
CHRISTMAS SAVINGS = £0/£500. SEF = £1,400/£12,000 PREMIUM BONDS ME = £350. PREMIUM BONDS DH = £300.
HOLIDAY MONEY = £0 TIME LEFT TO PAY OFF MORTGAGE = 5 YEARS 1 MONTHS0 -
That was a good reduction, HH0D - 30% off a present item. I'd have been pleased with that, 3 for 2 offers always useful too. I got one of those on 3 big boxes of festive chocs a few weeks ago. I wanted two for presents, but the third one was useful because I used the chocs to fill our advent calendar & that meant I didn't have to buy anything else for that purpose.
Annoying you had to borrow from your EF. Savings accounts can have funny little rules sometimes. I emailed a savings account provider with a query last week because I made a payment into my account, but a whole week later, even though the balance was correct, the 'available balance' was showing the previous figure as though I hadn't paid anything in. It was clear that the payment had gone out of our current account a few days before, so I though I would query it. It turns out that the 'available balance' doesn't change until 7 full working days have passed since making the deposit & I had been counting weekend days. Well silly old me! As it hadn't been a cheque & had gone out of my current account AND was showing as a transaction on the savings account, I did think it might have been showing a correct available balance. I shall know next time. Grrrr.......
F x
F x2025's challenges: 1) To fill our 10 Savings Pots to their healthiest level ever
2) To read 100 books (36/100) 3) The Shrinking of Foxgloves 8.1kg/30kg
"Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards" (Soren Kirkegaard 1813-55)0 -
Sounds like you had a productive shopping day apart from having to borrow from your EF. At least you can put the money back and that's a very good thing
xx
I get knocked down but I get up again (Chumbawamba, Tubthumping)0 -
Well done on a stressfree shopping trip. Good plan to go early:beer: Your bargains sound really good and your idea for what to give as presents this year sounds hassle-free too. Maybe you will find time to relax a bit after all:)
I was in a small local convenience shop last week. I try to avoid going there as it's so expensive like most 'convenience' stores:( but I'd forgotten something in town and it was the only shop between there and home. The extra petrol used in turning round and going back to town would have been more than the extra cost of the item in the local shop IYKWIM. Anyway, point of this rambling is that they had some lovely National Trust christmas cards for sale. I can't see what connection this shop has with NT and they don't sell any other charity cards but the NT ones were lovely. I still had 2 'better' cards to get (extra to my usual animal charity assorted packs) so I bought a couple. Really pleased with them, they're very classy and weren't all that expensive considering even the cost of staples like milk and bread in that shop.
Don't worry about borrowing from the EF. It's there for such things as shortfall etc when money that's due doesn't materialise. You know it can be replaced as soon as it does (and we all know you will:T) so don't give it another thought
Have a good day:beer:. When does your school finish for Christmas?0 -
That was a good reduction, HH0D - 30% off a present item. I'd have been pleased with that, 3 for 2 offers always useful too. I got one of those on 3 big boxes of festive chocs a few weeks ago. I wanted two for presents, but the third one was useful because I used the chocs to fill our advent calendar & that meant I didn't have to buy anything else for that purpose.
Annoying you had to borrow from your EF. Savings accounts can have funny little rules sometimes. I emailed a savings account provider with a query last week because I made a payment into my account, but a whole week later, even though the balance was correct, the 'available balance' was showing the previous figure as though I hadn't paid anything in. It was clear that the payment had gone out of our current account a few days before, so I though I would query it. It turns out that the 'available balance' doesn't change until 7 full working days have passed since making the deposit & I had been counting weekend days. Well silly old me! As it hadn't been a cheque & had gone out of my current account AND was showing as a transaction on the savings account, I did think it might have been showing a correct available balance. I shall know next time. Grrrr.......
F x
F x
I was amazed because most financial places seem to treat weekends like a working day as far as online transactions are concerned :mad:. So it's worth remembering to check if you can get at your money at the weekend if a sudden emergency crops up!
That's ridiculous taking seven days to update the available balance. It's annoying when your money appears to be in limbo as you worry it will disappear and you'll never see it again :eek:.
DH downloaded the B@rcl@ys ap recently on my advice because we received a cheque for a small amount and I said it's not worth wasting a morning going into the town centre (where our nearest branch is) paying to park, paying it in and then waiting five working days for it to clear :mad:. So he downloaded the ap and scanned the cheque so it was paid in from his armchair and it had cleared the next day :T. It's annoying that you need the ap before you get good service, but they're obviously trying to encourage uptake of ap use so they can close down more branches and save money :mad:.Finally Debt Free After 34 Years, But Still Need to Live Frugally
Debt in July 2017 = £58,766 😱 DEBT FREE 31 OCTOBER 2017 :T 🎉
EMERGENCY FUND 1 = £50/£5,000. EMERGENCY FUND 2 = £10/£5,000.
CHRISTMAS SAVINGS = £0/£500. SEF = £1,400/£12,000 PREMIUM BONDS ME = £350. PREMIUM BONDS DH = £300.
HOLIDAY MONEY = £0 TIME LEFT TO PAY OFF MORTGAGE = 5 YEARS 1 MONTHS0 -
Sun_Addict wrote: »Sounds like you had a productive shopping day apart from having to borrow from your EF. At least you can put the money back and that's a very good thing
xx
Thanks SA.
Finally_Solvent wrote: »Well done on a stressfree shopping trip. Good plan to go early:beer: Your bargains sound really good and your idea for what to give as presents this year sounds hassle-free too. Maybe you will find time to relax a bit after all:)
I was in a small local convenience shop last week. I try to avoid going there as it's so expensive like most 'convenience' stores:( but I'd forgotten something in town and it was the only shop between there and home. The extra petrol used in turning round and going back to town would have been more than the extra cost of the item in the local shop IYKWIM. Anyway, point of this rambling is that they had some lovely National Trust christmas cards for sale. I can't see what connection this shop has with NT and they don't sell any other charity cards but the NT ones were lovely. I still had 2 'better' cards to get (extra to my usual animal charity assorted packs) so I bought a couple. Really pleased with them, they're very classy and weren't all that expensive considering even the cost of staples like milk and bread in that shop.
Don't worry about borrowing from the EF. It's there for such things as shortfall etc when money that's due doesn't materialise. You know it can be replaced as soon as it does (and we all know you will:T) so don't give it another thought
Have a good day:beer:. When does your school finish for Christmas?
Thanks FS. I break up on the 20th which I feel is quite late and won't give me much time to get ready for Christmas.
Finally Debt Free After 34 Years, But Still Need to Live Frugally
Debt in July 2017 = £58,766 😱 DEBT FREE 31 OCTOBER 2017 :T 🎉
EMERGENCY FUND 1 = £50/£5,000. EMERGENCY FUND 2 = £10/£5,000.
CHRISTMAS SAVINGS = £0/£500. SEF = £1,400/£12,000 PREMIUM BONDS ME = £350. PREMIUM BONDS DH = £300.
HOLIDAY MONEY = £0 TIME LEFT TO PAY OFF MORTGAGE = 5 YEARS 1 MONTHS0 -
Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day and I had a good session at school. I went to Pilates with my friend in the evening and really enjoyed the exercise and the social aspect
.
Quite a contrast to today as it's blowing a gale and chucking it down with rain :eek:. I'm fully expecting wet playtime today so I'm planning how to occupy the children. I find it's always best to plan these things in advance!
I forced myself to write six Christmas cards this morning :T. That may not sound like much but I've been looking at the pile for a week and haven't been able to face writing any. I don't want to write too many at once due to the arthritis in my fingers, so I think if I write six a day then I should finish in time to post them second class.
DH has made a sale which should see us through Christmas without having to raid the EF any more so that's very good news :T :T. We should get the money this week. He's also done a quote for another smaller job so hopefully that will come our way. I don't get paid until the 23 December which is only two days early, so wouldn't leave me much time for shopping if I was relying on that money to pay for my Christmas presents! I'm hoping I might be able to use my overtime money to replenish my EF a bit now that DH has made a few sales.
I hope everyone is having a good Tuesday and aren't getting too soggy if you have rain like me.Finally Debt Free After 34 Years, But Still Need to Live Frugally
Debt in July 2017 = £58,766 😱 DEBT FREE 31 OCTOBER 2017 :T 🎉
EMERGENCY FUND 1 = £50/£5,000. EMERGENCY FUND 2 = £10/£5,000.
CHRISTMAS SAVINGS = £0/£500. SEF = £1,400/£12,000 PREMIUM BONDS ME = £350. PREMIUM BONDS DH = £300.
HOLIDAY MONEY = £0 TIME LEFT TO PAY OFF MORTGAGE = 5 YEARS 1 MONTHS0 -
Our local bank branch is closing in May next year.
. :mad:
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Lou~ Debt free Wanabe No 55 DF 03/14.**Credit card debt free 30/06/10~** MFW. Finally mortgage free O2/ 2021****
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***Fall down seven times,stand up eight*** ~~Japanese proverb. ***Keep plodding*** Out of debt, out of danger. ***Be the difference.***
One debt remaining. Home improvement loan.0
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