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

Sunshine_girl2

My philosophy is one day at a time HH. I think everyone is worried and not sleeping. I am keeping things simple not looking to far in front. At least with some of the financial interventions from government things may not be so bad . There is plenty of food in the shops , I have got toilet rolls for my neighbour today in a local cost cutter . I am buying less but more often if that makes sense. If I finish some butter then I am replacing it with another one etc. This has helped that worry for me. 

We have never had a situation like this in our life's and it is stressful , hopefully we will all survive it and come out of it all ok. 

HairyHandofDartmoor

beanielou said:

I have to admit to having hardly slept. 

It is constantly niggling at me 😢

It is hard not to feel anxious Beanie. x

Delichon said:

Thanks so much for your positivity, HHOD.  I agree, it is the uncertainty that's worrying us.  Best just be sensible, take the advised precautions and just soldier on.  No use us all getting into a state about what might happen but probably won't. 

 DH is often quoting whoever said (misquoting someone like Hemingway who in turn was misquoting Shakespeare in Julius Caesar I think) 
''A coward dies a thousand times, a brave man only once''

He says it when I get myself  into a tizz about something which will probably never happen.  I've started quoting it back at him as he worries about what-might-be a lot more than I do.

Thanks Delichon . That is a good misquote and is very true. We all often worry about things that never actually happen.

HairyHandofDartmoor

greenbee said:

My positivity - I'm not flying all over the world, and despite being confined to the house, it means I'm getting to spend time at home, and will probably have a few months where I can spend time in the garden which I love. On a global scale, this also means that air quality is improving and maybe the climate is in with a faint chance of recovering, particularly if a significant proportion of office-workers stay home even after this is over! I suspect I'll be travelling a lot less in future. 

Sun_Addict said:

It’s good to try and think of the positives and do as many normal things as possible. It’s difficult I know but worrying won’t change anything just make it worse.

It's nice to hear some positives outlooks in all of this . And think how thankful and appreciative of normality we'll be when all this is over.

HairyHandofDartmoor

Verbatim said:

I did an online Waitrose order yesterday and the first slot was 7/4! No wonder people are buying more if you need to wait 3 weeks for the next delivery. 

This is the trouble Verbatim, if you're solely reliant on online shopping you may get a bit hungry . Still they are restricting purchases now (finally) and are supposedly going to employ more pickers, delivery drivers, etc.

HairyHandofDartmoor

Sunshine_girl2 said:

My philosophy is one day at a time HH. I think everyone is worried and not sleeping. I am keeping things simple not looking to far in front. At least with some of the financial interventions from government things may not be so bad . There is plenty of food in the shops , I have got toilet rolls for my neighbour today in a local cost cutter . I am buying less but more often if that makes sense. If I finish some butter then I am replacing it with another one etc. This has helped that worry for me. 

We have never had a situation like this in our life's and it is stressful , hopefully we will all survive it and come out of it all ok. 

Thanks Sunshine . I agree that small frequent trips to the shops can be more fruitful than trying to do a big shop. We are all stressed and that's natural.

doingitanyway

Thanks for stressing the positives HH. It helps.
I also think smaller but more frequent shops may be the way to go. I have ordered an online shop but they seem to be removing goods as they go out of stock, so who knows what will turn up? 
My positive is thanks to MSE I had a good supply of YS foods. 
Have a relaxing evening and stay balanced

HairyHandofDartmoor

Well my day was interesting!

There were more staff off, so a teaching student was teaching the class I was in today (with my help) as about four teachers are either ill or self isolating. Two children were sent home this morning because they'd developed a new cough today or had a temperature and one child was sent home this afternooon. The parents shouldn't have sent them to school 😡. One boy was blowing his nose into a cotton handkerchief and then putting it down on the desk 😱 so I had to tell him to put it in his pocket. So much for use it and bin it. What are his parents thinking? 🤬

We're down to 19 pupils now in the class I was in today! Two MTAs were off today which made the lunchtime extra handwashing session interesting. One of them is also one of the cleaners, so the caretaker will have to try and take over her cleaning duties. It is beginning to feel like we're re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. 

Anyway we have a staff meeting tomorrow and it's an open secret that the school will be closed from Monday onwards. I don't know whether  to be devastated or relieved 🤔. I'm both I suppose. I don't want to get infected but I need the money 😕.

On the way home I popped into a food shop and got two loaves of white bread, two tins of soup and two jars of curry sauce. That will help us not to starve 🙂. I don't want to stockpile but there are four adults in my house and DS3 the gannet is coming home soon 😱.

HairyHandofDartmoor

Delichon said:

HairyHandofDartmoor said:

..... I am going to set aside some regular times each day to read my book, look for cute pictures of bunnies and kittens, and look at beautiful pictures of nature. This will give my mind and body a chance to relax and regain some normality.

I hope everyone has a good and a safe Wednesday .

I expect being in the company of small children is also something of an antidote to the gloom at the moment.  They say the funniest things 

Talking of children saying funny things. I was hearing a girl read this afternoon and she said to me "You're getting old." I said "That's not very polite, I'm not old yet" and she said "That's right,  your hair is still a colour." 🤣🤣

teafor2

Hi HHD I've just been listening to the news about schools closing as of Friday and thought of you. If you have so many staff off already maybe you'll be asked to go in and help with any pupils who parent's are classed as key workers and vulnerable children that they're going to accommodate? 

I think people stockpiling is having a knock on effect. I don't want to buy more than I need but I'm now thinking maybe I should get things when I see them while I can.  

My positive outlook on all this is that hopefully we will all be more appreciative of what we have and more importantly who we have when we finally come out of this. Take care of yourself. xx

badmemory

HairyHandofDartmoor said:

"That's right,  your hair is still a colour." 🤣🤣

OMG I wish I hadn't read that.  I have my 5 weekly hair colour in 2 weeks - what will I do if they cancel?  Somehow I will manage to eat.  But I am never going grey/white!!!  Tomorrow I will be looking at home dyes just in case!!!