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

HairyHandofDartmoor

beanielou said:

Remember your gloves tomorrow 
Put them on a string in your coat 😂

🤣😂 The trouble is I need clean ones every day because of the virus and I keep forgetting to put a clean pair in my pocket.

HairyHandofDartmoor

jwil said:

Congrats to DH on the sale!

I don't know how kids do it, mine are always coming home without their jumpers on, while I'm wrapped up in umpteen layers!

Sun_Addict said:

I don’t think you feel the cold when you’re young. I can remember going out in strapless dresses in December in the snow as a teenager. Had a coat on top when outside though not totally mad 🤣

beanielou said:

I did the same! 

I probably did too but that was more vanity. The children at school are too young to do it for vanity reasons so they must be bonkers 🤣.

HairyHandofDartmoor

One of my first jobs of the day was to call up every child from the class to put a bauble on the class Christmas tree🎄, which must be one of my best ever jobs in school 😁. The teacher has bought a new enormous tree and it looks really festive now 🎄. The children are very excited about Christmas and keep coming up to me in the playground and telling me what their elf on a shelf has been getting up to at night 🤣. One of them said their elf had put wrapping paper across their bedroom door and another found their elf in the fridge 🤣😂 . I had a good day but was freezing cold all day again and kept my coat on for most ot the day. All the staff were saying thery were looking forward to going home so they could get warm 😨. At least I remembered my gloves today 🧤.

I'm warmer now I'm home, but still need a blanket and fingerless gloves 🧤 despite turning the heating up a notch. Our living room windows have big gaps where you can fit your hand in and so cold air can come in 😩. I felt cold in bed last night despite having our winter duvet on so I'll need an extra blanket tonight. There's snow on Dartmoor, Princetown where the prison is always gets the most, but we don't have any in my town yet.

I can't believe I break up in two weeks and it's only three weeks until Christmas 🙀. We may hit the shops tomorrow as I need to get presents, but only if we can get up and out early as I don't fancy mingling with hordes of people . I also need to write in some Christmas cards and order some rainforest vouchers.

I hope everyone is having a splendid Friday and that nobody is snowed in 🙂⛄.

Sun_Addict

You can get insulating tape for your windows that will fill in the gaps and help warm things up a bit.  Mr SA put some on our patio doors in the kitchen where they open and we can feel the difference.  I’m like you and really feel the cold, I hate being cold it makes me lethargic.

Sunshine_girl2

I feel cold just reading about you at school , sitting in chilly walkways and windows open. I hope you get to go out tomorrow to do your Christmas shopping , I should imagine early morning is best to avoid the crowds . My nearest Primark is open 24 hours at the minute and people have been queuing for two hours to get in and that's during the night. Completely mad I think , but each to their own. 

Enjoy a quiet weekend . 

beanielou

Enjoy your weekend   

milann

Bet they all loved putting a decoration on the tree. My last school every child made a decoration, put it on the tree and took it home for Christmas. It was often something with glitter and a photo of themselves.
Happy shopping tomorrow 👍

HairyHandofDartmoor

Sun_Addict said:

You can get insulating tape for your windows that will fill in the gaps and help warm things up a bit.  Mr SA put some on our patio doors in the kitchen where they open and we can feel the difference.  I’m like you and really feel the cold, I hate being cold it makes me lethargic.

Thanks SA We tried that last winter but it all peeled off, plus it wasn't thick enough to fill the gaps properly.

Sunshine_girl2 said:

I feel cold just reading about you at school , sitting in chilly walkways and windows open. I hope you get to go out tomorrow to do your Christmas shopping , I should imagine early morning is best to avoid the crowds . My nearest Primark is open 24 hours at the minute and people have been queuing for two hours to get in and that's during the night. Completely mad I think , but each to their own. 

Enjoy a quiet weekend . 

Thanks Sunshine . EEK to queuing two hours to go into Pimani 🙀. I don't think I'd ever be that desperate to shop.

beanielou said:

Enjoy your weekend   

Thanks Beanie

milann said:

Bet they all loved putting a decoration on the tree. My last school every child made a decoration, put it on the tree and took it home for Christmas. It was often something with glitter and a photo of themselves.
Happy shopping tomorrow 👍

Thanks Milann . They did enjoy it.

HairyHandofDartmoor

I suggested to DH last night that we don't bother to go to the shops today. My reasoning was that if we went we'd end up spending money we don't have on things we don't need, plus we have a lot to do at at home this weekend. DH agreed with my logic 🙂.

I had to nip to Mr M to get some items that were left off Friday's Mr T delivery. There's still a limit of ninety something items and with four adults in the house we always go over the limit and have to delete things 😣. So we ended up without cheese, eggs, toothpaste and a few other important items 😣. I'm pleased with how much our Mr T delivery cost though because it worked out at about £1 per item, which shows we're shopping frugally 😇 but just need a lot of food. This delivery was intended to last two weeks, but it's a struggle to buy enough for two weeks because of the limit on items. I got everything we needed in Mr M and got my 10% school discount which is much appreciated and saving me money 🙂. It wasn't that busy and I didn't have to queue to go in. 

When I got home I put away some food items left over from Friday's Mr T delivery, tidied up the kitchen, put kitchen towel filters in my masks so they're ready to wear, refilled my small hand sanitiser bottles from one of our big bottles, and did some other fiddly jobs that I don't seem to get time to do when I'm at school. I did two washes so the clothes horses are full to bursting, but I'm putting a few items on the radiators so I can speed up the drying process a bit.

After lunch I decided it was time to tackle the dreaded Christmas cards 🙈. I bought them last year in a charity shop sale, but needed to write in them and address them. I spent all afternoon on it and had to message various relatives to ask for new addresses (curse people who keep moving house 😖), but it's all done apart from two addresses that I'm waiting for. DH and DS1 bought some stamps about a month ago, but there weren't quite enough, so we need to get a few more to finish off. However I can confidently say that most of the Christmas cards are written, addressed, stamped and ready to go in the post box 🎉🎉🎉. I need DH to sign the ones for his family and then they'll be ready to go too. It's a weight off my mind to get the cards sorted as I always worry if I leave them to the last minute. Tomorrow DH and I need to start ordering presents and rainforest vouchers online, but for today I'm going to relax now after my efforts today. I feel quite virtuous at getting all the cards done 😇. I still need to write some cards for colleagues, but I can do those next weekend as I don't have to post them. If it was left to DH nobody would ever get a Christmas card which would be a shame 🙄. He'd have good intentions but would never get around to actually writing any, I even write the ones for his family so all he has to do is sign them 🙄 .

I treated myself to a few online items today 😏. I was browsing on Etsy and have ordered four crocheted Christmas brooches to wear to school. There's a Christmas pudding, a snowman, a robin and a brussel sprout 🤣 and they'll all really cute. I hope they arrive in time to wear to school before I break up, but if they don't I can always wear them next year.

I also ordered two new masks on Etsy. I wear them at school every day now when we bring the children in in the mornings and take them out to their parents at the end of the day, and I feel as though I don't have enough. The vaccine may have been approved but I was reading an article that said we'll probably be wearing masks and socially distancing for another year, as it'll take time to build up herd immunity due to the length of time taken to vaccinate everyone, not to mention internation travel and people who won't have the vaccine delaying herd immunity. I've got one mask by that seller already and it's very comfortable and well made in a lovely librty fabric.

Anyway DH is cooking tonight so I'm taking a well earned rest  😁. I hope everyone is having a magnificent Saturday.

beanielou

Christmas brooches sound amazing. 

What a lovely idea.