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

Willowtree222

Lovely to hear from you. Schools are very intense places and I’m glad you’re better now.
x

beanielou

Good to hear from you.
Massive well done to DS3 

jwil

Lovely to hear from you again

Enjoy your time with your Sister, and well done to DS too

Chrystal

Lovely to see you posting again, and congratulations on passing your level 2 Also massive well done to DS3, he's worked hard to get where he is and deserves praise.

Hope you feel better really quickly and can enjoy some well deserved free time XXX

Sun_Addict

Good to hear from you again. Glad all is ok. Well done to both you and DS3 👏🥳

milann

Good to see you back. Enjoy the school holidays 👍

Seasidegal58

It was lovely to read your update. I hope you're having a wonderful time with your sister!😃👍

elizabethhull

Just back from our first time away for 3 years, and I see your lovely update. What a nice surprise !

Why do some people have to be mean and spoil things for others, I never get it.

You've obviously been working really hard, and doing anything in the heat we've had is a trial.

Enjoy your sister's visit and congrats to DS - he must be so pleased.

HairyHandofDartmoor

Thanks for all your lovely comments 😊. I hope you enjoyed your time away @elizabethhull. 

I had a great time when my sister was here. We went out every day to the beach, moors, NT places and had lovely weather. We saw a lot of other relatives too so I had a brilliant time 😁, although I was sad when she had to go back to Scotland.

This week I've been catching up with washing, housework, gardening, etc. It's so nice to have time for pottering around the house and garden and after three weeks off work I'm feeling really chilled 😀 . Tuesday and Wednesday I did college assignments and worked on them all day with half an hour for lunch. I finished the two that needed doing and my tutor is home with covid so she marked them the very next day. I'm up to 18% completed on my Level 3 course now. I'm going to do as many assignments as possible this holiday as it will give me less to do in the term time weekends.

Today I planted some pansies and begonias in pots and some French lavender to fill a gap in the border. I also did some weeding and sweeping. I enjoy pottering in the garden and it looks much better. I find the heat really draining. It's around 30 degrees here today so I started gardening at 8.30am and finished at 11am when I was driven indoors by the heat 🔥. I'm sat indoors in front of the fan now and it's going to be indoor jobs from now on as it's cooler in my house than outside at the moment.

Our car has been making a weird and alarming grinding noise recently 😲 which was caused by the lock mechanism on the boot turning on and off really quickly . Our garage disabled the mechanism which was the cheapest option and now we have to lock it with the key but it's cheaper than trying to fix it. We also needed a new brake light and two new tyres (plus they checked brakes, etc,) which cost £262. Our car is a total money pit . Our dishwasher has also gone wrong 😑. We've switched insurance from our oven to the dishwasher but we can't call the engineer out for a month, so we're having to wash all the dishes by hand which is a nuisance. Our biggest worry was cost so we're washing dishes in cold water so our bills don't go up.

I'm worried about our energy bills doubling in October so we're trying to have less lights on in the evening and will try to manage without heating this winter. Food is costing a fortune at the moment too 💷. 

We're going to the South East to visit my Dad and stepmum next week. The DSs are staying at home and I've asked them to water the pots in the garden while we're away. I'm looking forward to seeing my Dad who is (89 and still very active) and having some memorable days out together. We're missing the heatwave luckily. We'll spend petrol money getting there and will need some spending money for coffees and the odd meal out while we're away, but it's our only holiday this year so we want to enjoy it 😊.

I hope everyone has had a good week and avoided sunstroke ☀️ .

milann

Enjoy your trip away to see your dad. 

It sounds as if you had a lovely time with your sister.