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

elizabethhull

This washing business is hard to assess.
For instance, in our house we have a kitchen cloth, used for the washing-up and any kitchen-top spills (not the floor!), which is changed daily. I wash them at 90C once a fortnight, along with loo hand towels, and throw them away when they fall to bits. They last about 18mths.
Other people use a daily J-cloth which is thrown away.

But which method is cheaper or environmentally better ? I have no idea.

Based on our own machine usage and that we are but 2 in the house, your once-a-day load sounds entirely reasonable.

[Deleted User]

HairyHandofDartmoor wrote: »

Yes DS2 went to New Orleans alone twice, and went to Iceland too with DS3 and was in Spain all alone for eight weeks. He is much braver than I am .

I'd forgotten about the Iceland trip:o

I'm faffing about doing a lot of nothing much this morning when I should be getting to grips with my Income & Expenditure forms that 2 of my creditors asked for weeks ago. I finally stopped procrastinating and sent letters at the weekend starting the ball rolling with my F&F settlement offers. I suspect when creditors contact me and hopefully consider accepting or negotiating that they'll need to know how much I have available to pay in the normal way, if my position is still dire and they'll never be paid off just by monthly payments. I've been paying £1 a month each for just over a year so I can build up a F&F pot as I have no other savings or money I could use for it. This is the final push to be debt free, I'm scared of messing something up.


OH is trying to clear up the leaves on the grass, he wants to give the grass a cut as soon as it dries out a bit. All this past rain has been a nightmare on our clay soil, it gets waterlogged:eek:. I can't venture far, someone has to stay in earshot of the landline phone as he is waiting for a call from the Haematology consultant between 11 and 12 but last time they were running late and he was hanging around by the phone for about 3 hours:eek:. He isn't the most patient of people so he's doing something else today and I'll call him when they actually phone.


OH has a form of Leukaemia, nothing life threatening, the Consultant says he'll die with it rather than from it:rotfl:. It just means his immunity is impaired and although he looks remarkably robust for someone in his late 70s and is physically fit and active he succumbs to all sorts of infections that would never have bothered him before. He catches everything going. When he got Shingles (I know you don't 'catch' that IYKWIM) last year he was so ill, the GP was even phoning is in the evening to check he was OK. He has to have regular blood tests and then used to have a face-to-face consultation with the Haematologist every 6 months. Now, with cutbacks, unless there is any drastic change in his blood readings he has a phone consultation instead. Saves a long trip to the hospital and a long wait but OH says it's a total waste of time having the phone call as it's obvious there's no change or they would have called him in. He says they could put 'no change' in a letter and save everyone's time.

beanielou

Yah for all our lovely awesome sons fighting against the challanges of life & keeping going :T :T :j :j :T :T

enthusiasticsaver

I don't think one washing load a day is excessive in your situation HH. Doing a quick wash rather than a 3 hour cycle will help on using less power. LED bulbs are also good for using less wattage. Are you in deficit with npower? Swapping suppliers when you are straight may help. We are high users as home during the day and DH feels the cold so we use PFP energy which are better for high users. Costs are creeping up though even though we are on fixed tariff so think the colder evenings are making our heating come on more. Hope you get through today ok and enjoy your afternoon with your uncle/aunt. The first birthday after losing a loved one is always the worst.

HairyHandofDartmoor

@Carboot Good luck with your F&Fs, fingers crossed. Sorry about your OH's cancer but good that it's being controlled.

@Beanie .

@EnthusiasticSaver Thank you today is a difficult day. We are in deficit with NPow3r until 2020, otherwise we'd have jumped ship by now. I'm glad our heating doesn't come on when it's cold. We've managed without the heating up to now and we've all survived .

HairyHandofDartmoor

The sun has come out now which is better for our day out, although the rain was more suited to my frame of mind . Anyway I'm sure going out will help to distract me.

I need to get ready to go now so I must come off here .

beanielou

Thinking of you today xx

WannabeFree

Thinking of you today HH x

I'm still catching up but do you mean you have a debt with the energy company? If so I really recommend looking into their trust fund (Mine was a different provider but I'm sure there is one that covers it) I thought I had ZERO chance of getting help from them and it was only after posting on here I thought I'll apply and the worst that can happen is they say no. However they cleared my debt (it was a huge amount) and also got me a cooker as mine was broken.

Another thing washing .. I don't think one load a day is excessive. I do at least 3 loads a day more than likely 4 or 5 if I'm honest. I do only use the quick wash for clothes/uniform and its only 28 minutes and it cleans them fine!

I'm still catching up so no doubt I'll be back

x

please-let-me-be-lucky

Thinking of you today Xx

Willowtree222

Thinking of you today. xx