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

amber03

Wishing a better2021 for everybody on here.xx

Seasidegal58

I love your holly tree!  So pretty!😀
I hope you and your family have a very happy New Year and all the best for a healthy prosperous 2021. 🥳🍾

milann

Here’s to a positive 2021 - Happy New Year 🥂

doingitanyway

Happy New Year 🥳💕🎉

teafor2

Happy New Year HHD Wishing you and your family all the best for 2021. xx

jwil

The holly tree looks lovely!  Happy New Year!

HairyHandofDartmoor

Nicnak said:

Happy New Year 🥳💕🎉

Thanks Nicnak .

beanielou said:

Wishing you a positive happy & healthy new year xx

Thanks Beanie .

HairyHandofDartmoor

amber03 said:

Wishing a better2021 for everybody on here.xx

Thanks Amber .

Seasidegal58 said:

I love your holly tree!  So pretty!😀
I hope you and your family have a very happy New Year and all the best for a healthy prosperous 2021. 🥳🍾

Thanks SSG .

milann said:

Here’s to a positive 2021 - Happy New Year 🥂

Thanks Milann .

doingitanyway said:

Happy New Year 🥳💕🎉

Thanks DIA . 

teafor2 said:

Happy New Year HHD Wishing you and your family all the best for 2021. xx

Thanks TF2 . 

jwil said:

The holly tree looks lovely!  Happy New Year!

Thanks Jwil . 

HairyHandofDartmoor

Happy 2021 everyone. We've made it through a difficult year and I hope 2021 is a better one for everyone.

In some ways 2020 was good to me and in other ways bad. Bad things were my BIL dying of lung cancer in the summer and not being able to see friends and family as much as I would have liked, especially DS3 who we didn't see for seven and a half months. Good things were having our first family holiday for nine years and finishing my TA course. 

I'm not making resolutions but my goals for 2021 are:

1. To have another family holiday in the summer with some money that my sister very kindly gave me for this purpose
2. To increase my secret emergency fund and build up our two main emergency funds
3. For my family to stay healthy and not catch the virus (this is more of a hope than a goal)
4. To get some permanent TA hours

HairyHandofDartmoor

New Year's Eve was somewhat marred for us by an argument between DS1 and DS2 😞. They've had issues in the past, but have been on good terms for ages now and both came on holiday to Somerset last August, so it was very upsetting when this row blew up seemingly out of nowhere 😞. It shows there are still some underlying resentments, but they made it up and both said they hadn't meant most of what they'd said to each other and said that they did care for each other. DS3 was a brilliant mediator and DH and I did our best too. Anyway we moved on from it and had a (rather belated) roast dinner together, then watched a film together (The Mummy) and toasted in the New Year together 🍾🙂. 

On New Year's Day we all felt tired after the cooking, a late night and emotional drama, so we decided not to go for a walk as we'd originally planned. Instead we just relaxed, put the dishwasher on twice and handwashed some big items that wouldn't fit in the dishwasher. We all watched a film together in the evening (The Mummy 2) so DS1 and DS2 were making an effort to put the row behind them 🙂. 

Yesterday I was determined to go for a walk and we arranged to meet my niece and her partner at a forest on Dartmoor 🌲. They have quite a large car park, toilets, a stream and some footpaths through the forest with moorland views, so it's a lovely place to go. When we were driving over the moors to get there we were excited to see snow on the ground and there were lines of cars parked by the sides of the road for miles with people sledging and playing in the snow ❄🌨☃️. It was difficult for two cars to get past each other at some points where the parking wasn't very considerate! We don't get snow in Devon very often so the local population get very excited when it happens 🤣. There were spaces in the forest car park luckily, although the toilets were locked so DH and I both had to pee behind a bush at one point during the walk. We had a lovely walk along a forest path 🌲 and there was snow on the ground so it looked positively nordic with the pine trees and snow 🌲🌲❄❄. Then we walked by the stream too which looked beautiful with snow around it. It was freezing cold though and my hands felt cold even in my sheepskin mittens. We drank hot drinks ☕ and ate mince pies 🥧 (that we'd brought with us) after the walk. We had a good catch up with my niece and her partner and the whole outing made me feel very positive and invigorated. I was very pleased that both DS1 and DS2 came with us for the walk 😁, although we couldn't persuade DS3 to come. In the evening we all watched North By Northwest which is one of my favourite films.

Today I'm going to take down the Christmas decorations. Twelth night is on the 5th I think but I'll be at school on that day and will be too tired to do it. I don't want to be superstitous, but I don't want to tempt fate by leaving them up after twelth night and I want to have complete rest tomorrow before I go back to school on Tuesday. So today is the day. DH and I have decided to leave up the fairy lights until the spring though, to cheer us up in the dark mornings and evenings, so I'll just take down the two Christmas trees, the tinsel around the pictures, the cards, the advent calendars, the front door wreath and the Christmas tablecloth. We had our own Christmas tablecloth on the table for all of December, but decided to put the Christmas tablecloth my mum made and used for years on our table for the New Year. I think this will be a nice tradition and my mum would be pleased that her tablecloth is still being used 🙂. I hate taking down the decorations as the house looks so bare without them 😒, particularly our big tree in the living room which makes me feel cheerful whenever I look at it. But I'll get used to it and at least we'll still have the fairy lights up.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend 🙂.