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

HairyHandofDartmoor

beanielou said:

Are you enjoying your coffee machine? 

I just got a really old one from a friend. 

It came with some capsules. Choca something or another. They are ok. Don’t think I would buy any though. It is very noisy. Maybe as it’s very old? 

Thank you Beanie . You know what I'm really enjoying the coffee machine and I'm treating myself to one latte a day as I was really missing my weekly Costalot treat. My machine is very quiet and I absolutely love it. I feel really posh buying coffee pods now  🤣.

beanielou

HairyHandofDartmoor said:

beanielou said:

Are you enjoying your coffee machine? 

I just got a really old one from a friend. 

It came with some capsules. Choca something or another. They are ok. Don’t think I would buy any though. It is very noisy. Maybe as it’s very old? 

Thank you Beanie . You know what I'm really enjoying the coffee machine and I'm treating myself to one latte a day as I was really missing my weekly Costalot treat. My machine is very quiet and I absolutely love it. I feel really posh buying coffee pods now  🤣.

So glad that you are enjoying the  machine. Get you with the posh pods. 😃

Seasidegal58

Caught up with you Hairy - it's a good plan to start applying for TA positions during the holiday as you never know what may pop up. Hope it proves to be a success. 😀
P.S. hope SG reconsiders and decides to keep posting on diaries. I'll miss her posts. ☹️ 

HairyHandofDartmoor

Seasidegal58 said:

Caught up with you Hairy - it's a good plan to start applying for TA positions during the holiday as you never know what may pop up. Hope it proves to be a success. 😀
P.S. hope SG reconsiders and decides to keep posting on diaries. I'll miss her posts. ☹️ 

Thanks SSG .

Onebrokelady

Sounds like you've got lots of plans in the pipeline Hairy, such a good idea to apply for jobs at other schools, you deserve a job after all the work you have put in to your course xx

jwil

Just caught up with your diary,  lots going on!
Congratulations on the extra TA work and nearly finishing your course

milann

School sounds as if it’s been good. I’m half looking forward to going in and half dreading it as I’ve really enjoyed my time at home and still have lo5s I want to do. I’m still very annoyed at the retirement age changing.....I wouldn’t be there if they hadn’t messed with it. I’m down to 5 years to go until I can stay at home for good 🙄 That said I do enjoy my job when I get there.

beanielou

Could you go part time Milan & do 2/3 days?

HairyHandofDartmoor

Onebrokelady said:

Sounds like you've got lots of plans in the pipeline Hairy, such a good idea to apply for jobs at other schools, you deserve a job after all the work you have put in to your course xx

jwil said:

Just caught up with your diary,  lots going on!
Congratulations on the extra TA work and nearly finishing your course

milann said:

School sounds as if it’s been good. I’m half looking forward to going in and half dreading it as I’ve really enjoyed my time at home and still have lo5s I want to do. I’m still very annoyed at the retirement age changing.....I wouldn’t be there if they hadn’t messed with it. I’m down to 5 years to go until I can stay at home for good 🙄 That said I do enjoy my job when I get there.

Thanks everyone .

HairyHandofDartmoor

I've had a good week at school and despite my reservations beforehand I enjoyed being there. I'm definitely doing three days a week of teaching assistant cover in addition to my lunchtime job, so that's good for the budget. On Thursday the head teacher wanted me to go around and clean all the communal areas with disinfectant (taps, door handles, tables, etc) and then I was cleaning resources in the classrooms. I had a chance to go around and chat to almost all the staff and I had fun cleaning wooden pirate ships, clocks and such like 🙂.

Today DH and I decided to postpone our walk by the sea as it's quite chilly and windy. Instead DH pulled down some of our trellis and sawed some more branches off our dead hedge and I swept it all up. I'm very excited because we've decided we are going to go ahead and get our back and short side fences put up along the top of the wall 😁. I have some insurance money set aside from our kitchen flood, so with me being offered the teaching assistant cover we've decided we can afford to spend the money on the fences. I've texted our builder to ask him how soon he could come and do it. Now we've made the decision I want it done straight away so I hope he's not too busy at the moment.

DH and I felt inspired to take a walk around our neighbourhood after that, taking photos of all the fences we saw and deciding which were good or bad. I have to say that we saw more bad fences than good ones and we decided that our new back gate is the nicest one out of all the back gates we saw on our walk 🙂. DS1 thinks we're bonkers 🤣.

I've put two washes on too, although it's spotting with rain💧 so I'm having to dry them indoors. I'm enjoying having a day to relax and catch up with jobs.

The weather should be warmer and sunnier tomorrow so we may go for our sea walk then. I wore a hoody and a jacket on our walk today and my hands felt cold so I was wishing I had gloves! I think it was the wind chill factor 🌬. But it should go from 13 degrees today up to 18 degrees tomorrow.

DH's eye is almost normal now thanks to the antibiotic ointment and tablets. BIL has gone into a hospice for a week as his pain had got so bad 😞 but they're hoping he can have some more radiotherapy at the hospital after they've sorted out his pain relief.

Now that face coverings are compulsory on public transport and recommended by WHO for other places, I've bitten the bullet and orderd a cloth face mask online 😷. I don't have any material or a sewing machine so I don't feel up to the challenge of making one. I've ordered a machine washable mask that is similar in style to surgical masks and comes with a filter which I can replace with a coffee filter or even kitchen towel.  Does anyone know how often the filter in a face mask should be changed? DH is going to order a cloth mask too but he has to measure his face first 🤣 .

I hope everyone is having a good Saturday  🙂.