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

HairyHandofDartmoor

milann said:

Hopefully the plumber has gone home and ds has had his shower 👍 and the bill wasn’t expensive. Dh phoned our plumber and he suggested we try various things - all of which we’ve already tried. He suggested going on line and researching pairing the boiler with the thermostat.....but we can’t do it yet because it’s working now 😡 Plumber said if we don’t have any joy to get back to him.....

Thanks Milann

Nicnak said:

Hopefully it wasn't as expensive as you thought and it will be fixed for a long time now. x

Thanks Nicnak

doingitanyway said:

I hope the plumber cost you less than £300. I had a service when I left the old house and it cost me £94 and he didn't even flush the system through...

I love that you and OH are able to have coffees in the garden now. Must be nice

Thanks DIA

HairyHandofDartmoor

We had a bit of stressful saga with the boiler yesterday! The water volume from the hot tap was about half or a third of it's normal amount so DH and I had an awful shower 😫. Anyway we rang the plumber and he popped back late afternoon and it turned out he'd forgotten to turn a valve on  🙄. Anyway, it's all sorted now and I'm looking forward to a nice hot shower tonight. We haven't had his bill yet so we have no idea how much it's going to be 🙄. I hope it won't be more than £300, but it wll be at least that.

Yesterday afternoon we met aunt and uncle at our local NT place and had a lovely time 😀. We hadn't seen them since the Christmas holidays so had lots of catching up to do and we had a gorgeous walk around the gardens where there was some amazing spring flowers. I reallly enjoyed it and found it very calming 😀 .

On the way home there were massive road alterations and we had to go a new route home, so we went to Mr A for a few bits as we were passing it. It's not our usual haunt but I got two loaves of bread reduced to 5p each and thirty cans of coke for £10.50. I also got some Costalot lattes for £4 each, so the detour turned out to be worthwhile.

When I was cooking dinner the fan oven was playing up which destroyed my mood of calm 😖. That's the boiler, the washing machine and now the oven playing up this week 😫. Anyway the grill and ordinary oven setting was working so I was still able to cook dinner, but I wasted half an hour waiting for the oven to warm up. I hate it when appliances go wrong 😡 .

Today we had to nip to Mr M first thing as I realised I needed multipurpose compost. It was only £3 a bag which I thought was very reasonable and I got two bags as I'm fed up with running out and making constant trips to the shops. I couldn't believe how busy the streets were and every street we tried to drive down seemed to be blocked by a removal van, a council van, or some idiot doing something 😡. I've decided that there are too many people in the world 😂.

Anyway my mood improved when I got out into the garden 🙂. I repotted a fuscia into a new pot as the old pot had cracked in the frost. Then I planted a new plant in a pot. I can't remember what it's called but it has glossy red leaves. Then I decided to plant the snowdrops from my Mum's old garden in the border. They've been in a pot but only had two flowers this winter, so I thought they might do better in the ground. I've planted them under our Philadelphus tree where they should get plenty of dappled shade. I hope they do well there. 

I stopped gardening after that as I was starting to feel tired and achey. DH came out for a while and did some weeding and then watered the pots late afternoon, and we had coffee on our garden bench ☕☕. Our garden is such a peaceful space 🙂. The bug hotel is painted and ready to go on the fence, so I'm hoping DH will do that tomorrow. We need to paint the bird box rooves white and they they'll be ready to put up too.

I'm loving being on holiday at the moment 😀. I hope everyone is having a good Friday.

jwil

Glad you are having a lovely holiday   I'm with you on there being too many people 😆

Willowtree222

Your Friday reminded me of it being like your old Saturday saunter and made me smile. 

Hopefully the bug box will be up today and you are able to enjoy a nice coffee in the garden x

Fidelia

Sorry that your oven is playing up after all the other malfunctions you've had to put up with this past week.  I may be mixing you up with someone on another diary but didn't you have  a replacement oven quite recently or maybe it was your DH who managed to fix it without having to fork out for a new one or a repair man.  I seem to recall reading something about ovens/hobs anyway but might have got it all wrong (as usual!).

Your garden is sounding a lovely peaceful haven now, HH.  Well done to you for on getting your sleeves rolled up and putting the effort in.  I expect the fact that your fence has given you a lot more privacy is a major factor in your enjoyment of your own space.  Living so isolated has lots of drawbacks but having no near neighbours was top of our 'must have' list when we were looking to buy our house.  We've never regretted it, although the house is a money pit and we've spent what seems like the majority of the 35 years we've been here living on a building site!

I hope your boiler repair isn't too eye-wateringly expensive.  DH can fix most things (after a fashion but often after a lot of nagging from me to get on with it!) but you have to be pretty self-reliant when sources of help are pretty distant and often costly.  One thing we've never stinted on though is having the boiler serviced every year.  Money well spent as it's served us well for about 30 years and apart from a replacement pump a couple of years ago has never let us down.  I'm sure it isn't as efficient as modern ones though and we keep talking about replacing it but there are more crucial things to address first.  Being an oil-burning boiler I don't think it burns as cleanly as gas and the service man usually has to replace a sooted-up 'nozzle' each time but it's a cheap item so we don't mind.

Sun_Addict

I find appliances tend to break down in threes. Also agree there’s too many people about. I suppose it’s lack of places to go at the moment, hopefully they’ll disperse a bit when things start opening up again. 

I’m glad you’re getting so much pleasure from your garden 🪴 

milann

Your garden sounds lovely. I’ve bought some bedding plants but they are currently on my floor in front of the patio windows as it’s too cold to do anything with them outside yet.

elizabethhull

I agree about the triple breakdowns - well it often seems that way. Hopefully now you've had your 3 malfunctions, that will be it for ages. Fingers crossed !

When we had our second vaccine on Wed, it was lovely to see people, to exchange comments, to feel part of humanity again. After approx. a fortnight, I plan to go the dentist & DH wants to get his eyes checked.

Onebrokelady

Fidelia said:

Sorry that your oven is playing up after all the other malfunctions you've had to put up with this past week.  I may be mixing you up with someone on another diary but didn't you have  a replacement oven quite recently or maybe it was your DH who managed to fix it without having to fork out for a new one or a repair man.  I seem to recall reading something about ovens/hobs anyway but might have got it all wrong (as usual!).

Your garden is sounding a lovely peaceful haven now, HH.  Well done to you for on getting your sleeves rolled up and putting the effort in.  I expect the fact that your fence has given you a lot more privacy is a major factor in your enjoyment of your own space.  Living so isolated has lots of drawbacks but having no near neighbours was top of our 'must have' list when we were looking to buy our house.  We've never regretted it, although the house is a money pit and we've spent what seems like the majority of the 35 years we've been here living on a building site!

I hope your boiler repair isn't too eye-wateringly expensive.  DH can fix most things (after a fashion but often after a lot of nagging from me to get on with it!) but you have to be pretty self-reliant when sources of help are pretty distant and often costly.  One thing we've never stinted on though is having the boiler serviced every year.  Money well spent as it's served us well for about 30 years and apart from a replacement pump a couple of years ago has never let us down.  I'm sure it isn't as efficient as modern ones though and we keep talking about replacing it but there are more crucial things to address first.  Being an oil-burning boiler I don't think it burns as cleanly as gas and the service man usually has to replace a sooted-up 'nozzle' each time but it's a cheap item so we don't mind.

If your boiler is still working well for you I would hang onto to it until it's dying days, the one I  with this house was the original boiler that was put in when the house was built,it was huge and was housed on the floor in a large cupboard. Eventually it became too old to repair so i had to have a new one and it's rubbish, it works ok on the summer but packs up in really cold weather and I have to run the hot tap for ages before I get any hot water, these new boilers are really not made like the old ones 

Onebrokelady

I'm glad you managed to get out for a walk Hairy, it sounded lovely. I'm hoping to get some bits done in my garden on my days off next week, I need to prune the hedge up by the washing line because it's got loads of brambles tangled up in it and they keep attacking my washing 🙀