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

sashybo

Happy Birthday 🥳 

Glad you're seeing the positives of being at home and being able to get out into the garden.

Willowtree222

Happy belated birthday Hairy,. xx

[Deleted User]

Sorry I missed your biirthday, HHOD. Sending belated hugs and a slice of cake  Sorry the 'old' birthday cake emoji has gone though but I see lots of posters are still inserting a variety of emojis that I can't find on here.  Where are you all getting them from? Not been online much as our broadband out here is dire at the best of time (slow and poor bandwith) and at the moment so many  people are needing to use it for essential purposes.  I'm trying not to hog it.  I love Elizabeth's 'loafing' too LOL.  Fits the bill exactly of what a lot of us might be forced to do over the coming months. Enjoy your chocolate and make nice plans for how you'll spend your birthday money when we are let out of our 'prisons' again.

Is Stepdad coping all right?

We had our annual central heating oil boiler service due next week (which to honest I'd temporarily forgotten about through not checking the calendar/planner much recently) and the engineer's wife phoned yesterday to apologise for having to cancel it.  I'm not worried by that at all (relieved actually and I would have cancelled it myself when I realised it was imminent) but she said not to worry because he would still come out if we had an emergency and had no heat or hot water.  Probably won't be needing the heat much  (but there's currently a hard white frost EEK)  but we'd struggle without the hot water as we have no immersion or any other way of getting any.  He's come out to various emergencies over the years, always turns up whatever the hour and his charges are really reasonable.  He's a real hero in my eyes! It's a weight off my mind because our boiler is absolutely  ancient and the engineer an real genius for keeping it going for so many years.  His  3 children have been born, gone through university and  established themselves in careers  in the years he's been resuscitating this boiler LOL.  Being self-employed he must be worried at the moment but I hope the Chancellor's announcement later today will be a relief (in all senses of the word). I hope it will be a lifeline to all the self-employed like your DH, HHOD.  Keeping fingers crossed for you xxx

Wishing you all a good day.  Stay safe xxx

HairyHandofDartmoor

Nicnak said:

Happy belated birthday Hairy,. xx

Thanks Nicnak

HairyHandofDartmoor

Delichon said:

Sorry I missed your biirthday, HHOD. Sending belated hugs and a slice of cake  Sorry the 'old' birthday cake emoji has gone though but I see lots of posters are still inserting a variety of emojis that I can't find on here.  Where are you all getting them from? Not been online much as our broadband out here is dire at the best of time (slow and poor bandwith) and at the moment so many  people are needing to use it for essential purposes.  I'm trying not to hog it.  I love Elizabeth's 'loafing' too LOL.  Fits the bill exactly of what a lot of us might be forced to do over the coming months. Enjoy your chocolate and make nice plans for how you'll spend your birthday money when we are let out of our 'prisons' again.

Is Stepdad coping all right?

We had our annual central heating oil boiler service due next week (which to honest I'd temporarily forgotten about through not checking the calendar/planner much recently) and the engineer's wife phoned yesterday to apologise for having to cancel it.  I'm not worried by that at all (relieved actually and I would have cancelled it myself when I realised it was imminent) but she said not to worry because he would still come out if we had an emergency and had no heat or hot water.  Probably won't be needing the heat much  (but there's currently a hard white frost EEK)  but we'd struggle without the hot water as we have no immersion or any other way of getting any.  He's come out to various emergencies over the years, always turns up whatever the hour and his charges are really reasonable.  He's a real hero in my eyes! It's a weight off my mind because our boiler is absolutely  ancient and the engineer an real genius for keeping it going for so many years.  His  3 children have been born, gone through university and  established themselves in careers  in the years he's been resuscitating this boiler LOL.  Being self-employed he must be worried at the moment but I hope the Chancellor's announcement later today will be a relief (in all senses of the word). I hope it will be a lifeline to all the self-employed like your DH, HHOD.  Keeping fingers crossed for you xxx

Wishing you all a good day.  Stay safe xxx

Thank Delichon . I'm using the emojis that are available on my tablet as the ones provided on the forum seem a bit limited. In the panel at the top (as you post) is a smiley face and if you click on it they seem to have a limited number of emojis there in a drop down menu). I'm using the ones on my tablet as there's more variety. I do miss the old MSE ones though like the Eek emoji, the Lol emoji, etc.

Stepdad is busy gardening and says they have a lot to do around the house, so he seems to be coping. I said let us know if you need anything, but their cleaner lives in their village and has offered to pick up bits for them.

I hope your boiler keeps going! Definitely best not to have anyone in the house as you say. 

We're lucky that it's warm and sunny here, definitely Springlike 🌞.

HairyHandofDartmoor

BIRTHDAY UPDATE
My birthday evening was good as DS2 appeared with a present for me, a crime thriller book wrapped up in printer paper as he couldn't find any wrapping paper 📚 ❤. Then I had a video chat with DS3 which was lovely ❤. After that we ate a nice curry that DH cooked ❤ followed by chocolate fudge cake. Then DH, DS1, DS2 and I watched an episode of The Grand Tour, followed by a few episodes of the Simpsons. DS2 chose the programmes, but I loved watching them with him as he only spends the evening with us on rare occasions (birthdays and Christmas) so being with him for an evening felt like a real treat ❤ 😁. Also they are the type of programmes we all watched together when he was at school and it's really sweet that he still likes them. Overall the best birthday it could have been for my first (and hopefully my last) Socially Distanced Birthday 🤔.

Last night I order a bag of compost and some bedding plants (Pansies and Geraniums) with my birthday money so that I can make the garden look nice for the Summer. It really keeps my spirits up having some lovely flowers to look at 🌹🌻🌷🏵.

HOUSEWORK & GARDENING UPDATE
I haven't done much but I put the clothes horse in the garden first thing, put another wash on and now the second wash is drying outside. It's lovely and warm out, almost like a Summer's day. 

I took the tarpaulin off our garden bench and that reminded me that I need to sand and paint it with some weather proofing stuff, so I should have time to do that now my working hours are so reduced. I also need to paint the shed with some weather proofing paint over the Spring/Summer. No rush for either, as long as I weather proof them both before the autumn.

I weeded two garden pots and pulled up a few large weeds from a border. I also poured a kettle full of boiling water over one of our cobbled squares in our patio as they sprout weeds like mad 🌱. The garden doesn't look noticeably better 🤣 but if I do ten minutes to half an hour a day, I can gradually improve the garden without killing myself in the process. 

I hope everyone is having a good and safe Thursday .

doingitanyway

Your socially distanced birthday sounds lovely.

I will be copying you with ordering compost and bedding plants. I also want herbs.

Like you I am doing the little and often with the garden.

beanielou

Sounds lovely 

foxgloves

Agree HHoD, it's amazing what can be achieved on the gardening front with just half an hour to an hour a day. And little & often helps stop it getting to the level of unkemptness which leads to it all turning into a giant chore.
F x

HairyHandofDartmoor

foxgloves said:

Agree HHoD, it's amazing what can be achieved on the gardening front with just half an hour to an hour a day. And little & often helps stop it getting to the level of unkemptness which leads to it all turning into a giant chore.
F x

I hope so because my garden may be tiny but it's got an amazing number of weeds 😱🤣. The rain and our temperate west country climate don't help, so I can honestly say that our weeds never stop growing🌱😱 At least it will give me something to do in my newly acquired leisure time 🙂.