Finally Debt Free After 34 Years, But Still Need to Live Frugally

milann

Hope you’re enjoying your half term - I can’t believe how quickly it’s going and how totally rubbish the weather is. Thoroughly depressing. We’d hoped to get out to a NT place today but it’d be no fun in the hail, wind and rain so we’re staying put.
 We’ve had it a lot better than most places though - there’s a few fences down round and about but Delichon sounds as if it’s really bad around her neck of the woods.

I hope the wedding goes well at weekend and you can relax enough to enjoy it. My bil got married fairly quickly after my sister passed away. He asked me to do the catering and make a wedding cake - I had very mixed feelings. In the end I reasoned my sister would have wanted him to be happy and he was faithful to her when she was alive (as far as I know) and life is short and can throw all sorts of unpleasantries our way - so we have to grab life by the whatnots and make the most of it. I did the catering but I never really took to his new wife and 1 son refused to have anything to do with them - didn’t go to the wedding. But I didn’t have to live with her and I had my dh to go home to every night not a lonely house. It made my bil happy but wasn’t what he’d had with my sister.

HairyHandofDartmoor

Onebrokelady said:

Well done on finishing your assignments Hairy, you can have a bit of relaxing time now before going back to school 😊 

Thanks OBL .

HairyHandofDartmoor

Delichon said:\

Well done on finishing both assignments.  Often the thought of doing something we don't want to do is much worse than actually doing something.  Here's to some excellent marks/grades for them both.

Will you be having a lot of house-guests over the wedding weekend?  I know your sister lives in Scotland and you go to stay with her.  It's lovely that she's coming all that way for the wedding.  Your stepdad will really appreciate the effort.  I hope the weather picks up for the big day.

It was obviously good for you and your DH's stress levels getting your debt paid off, congratulations.  I'd certainly encourage DH now to pull out all the stops  to build up some sort of pension pot again.  Relying just on the state pension isn't a comfortable prospect, neither is having to work until your 70s.  I know you have started paid work recently but it isn't full time and any pension pot you build up won't be massive, given the age you started it.  We all have total faith that you'll get a permanent job sooner rather than later though.

As for the floods, our hamlet and others nearby were evacuated earlier in the week.  We have been allowed back now and apart from difficult travelling conditions and lengthy detours because of standing water and a garden under about 2 feet of water we seem to have escaped a lot of the devastation seen on the TV news programmes..  Thankfully  the interior of the house was spared.  So far that is as we've been put on alert again as it's torrential rain now and there could be more flooding to come.  We've had several mini power cuts today already too.    I hope everyone is faring better than us though I'm counting my blessings that we escaped relatively lightly.

Thanks Delichon . I only get a pass/fail for my assignments but I want to make sure I get a pass. The thought of doing them is definitely worse.

We don't have a spare bedroom so we don't have any house guests for the wedding thank goodness, it's stressful enough without that! As long as the weather is dry is the main thing I think for the wedding.

My pension won't be much but it will be better than nothing. We may have to live mainly on the state pension, but at least our mortgage will be paid off and we're used to a frugal lifestyle. DH's pension would only have paid out about £300 a month, but that would have helped of course. But it can't be helped, I'd rather be debt free.

I hope your house continues to escape the flooding!

HairyHandofDartmoor

Elisheba said:

Blimey!  Well done, HH.  With all the frugal living you do these days, and the peace of mind you now have, I'm sure it was worth it and you'll both work something out and sort out your retirement and live well for your garden years

Thanks Elisheba . We are definitely good at frugal living.

HairyHandofDartmoor

milann said:

Hope you’re enjoying your half term - I can’t believe how quickly it’s going and how totally rubbish the weather is. Thoroughly depressing. We’d hoped to get out to a NT place today but it’d be no fun in the hail, wind and rain so we’re staying put.
 We’ve had it a lot better than most places though - there’s a few fences down round and about but Delichon sounds as if it’s really bad around her neck of the woods.

I hope the wedding goes well at weekend and you can relax enough to enjoy it. My bil got married fairly quickly after my sister passed away. He asked me to do the catering and make a wedding cake - I had very mixed feelings. In the end I reasoned my sister would have wanted him to be happy and he was faithful to her when she was alive (as far as I know) and life is short and can throw all sorts of unpleasantries our way - so we have to grab life by the whatnots and make the most of it. I did the catering but I never really took to his new wife and 1 son refused to have anything to do with them - didn’t go to the wedding. But I didn’t have to live with her and I had my dh to go home to every night not a lonely house. It made my bil happy but wasn’t what he’d had with my sister.

Thanks Milann . The weather is terrible! I'm just glad I've got the two assignments done. The week does seem to be flying by and I've only done half the things I wanted to but never mind.

It's what my stepdad wants and I hope it will make him happy anyway.

HairyHandofDartmoor

HairyHandofDartmoor said:

I'm going to make a to do list so I'm more organised:


Get out wedding clothes and try on
Wash wedding clothes and hang up
Go into town with DS1
Hang up three pictures
Wrap up five paintings and bag up other items
Sort out rubbish bags in garden
That actually doesn't look too bad now I've put it into bullet points. I just need to get on with things now .

I've done a few more things on my list but I seem to have run out of day now. No day is ever long enough!

jwil

Glad you had a nice day out the other day and congrats on doing the assignments!
Hope the wedding goes well this weekend. x

beanielou

Your list is going well 

HairyHandofDartmoor

Thanks @jwil and @beanielou . 

Since my last post I've hung up another picture and rearranged a few others. So that's three pictures that are now off the floor and the re-arranged ones are looking better 😇. It's surprising how long that type of thing takes though, by the time you've decided where to put them, raised them up or lowered them down a bit, etc, etc! We've still got a bookcase in the middle of the living room but we haven't had time to de-clutter the office and make room for it 🤬. I've no idea when we'll have time to do that, but never mind 🙄.

I feel quite tired now. Tomorrow will be a busy day because I'm going to a friend's house for coffee in the morning, need to get wedding clothes ironed, etc, in the afternoon and then are going for a hen and stag meal in the evening. There's no rest for the wicked! 

beanielou

No rest indeed!
Up here we have the hen do before the weddding~~usually a couple of weeks before.
Whispers  :- I still have a picture propped up on the floor which I got a year past Christmas!!
I actually really like it there now!!