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

HairyHandofDartmoor

BIL has had operation and had eight pins put in spine. In recovery now, so hopefully did the trick.

Today I've done three surveys for YG and PA hurrah :j .

Quiet day apart from that as we didn't leave the house.

Willowtree222

Hopefully that's it for BIL like you said. I sometimes like quiet days, they make it easier not to spend!

beanielou

As you say hope that does the job for your BIL.
8 pins :eek:

please-let-me-be-lucky

Glad to hear op went well Xx

HairyHandofDartmoor

Thanks Nicnak, beanielou, Lucky.

A quiet day is good for not spending but a bit boring. I get stir crazy easily

Still too much excitement can be a bad thing.

System

Glad to hear operation went well. Hope BIL has a comfortable night.

Seasidegal58

Echoing everyone re your BIL Hairy.

HairyHandofDartmoor

Thanks Cumbria and SSG. The night before last I was worried about BIL, last night I was worried about money

I spent part of yesterday doing calculations. We have November's living money and part of December's. Work on should cover the rest of December. But January is usually a quiet month and sometimes we have no work on, so I need to budget for this.

I'm worried that my niece's wedding at the end of November and going to visit BIL will use up too much cash and leave us with not enough to pay the bills in January. Also we have a VAT bill to budget for at the end of January .

So we need to earn as much as possible between now and Christmas and spend as little as possible.

When we go to visit BIL we can stay with DH's other brother or his sister. DS1 and DS3 have said they want to come too, so we may end up staying with other brother as he has more room.

The trouble is other brother has plenty of money. So what should we do if he suggests buying a takeaway for dinner? :eek: We would have to buy for four and it would be pricy. But if we're staying in their house we can't say "No you have to cook for us" :eek:. Dilemma. On the other hand other brother may offer to pay as he is generous ( he gave us our car).

The other thing is that we still don't know exactly which day we are going, who we will stay with and if it's okay for DS1 and DS3 to come too? This is the kind of uncertainty that makes me anxious as I like to plan well in advance. But we have to see how BIL recovers from the operation before deciding .

This is why we rarely go away, it costs a fortune and stresses us out .

HairyHandofDartmoor

Today's goals are:

Buy milk
Pay in cheque from customer
Collect prescriptions
Pay NPower
Check online banking
Check surveys
Get lots of work done
Get a wash in the machine

Yesterday I took some meter readings for gas and electricity and gave them to NPower online. I'm going to give them fotnightly readings to ensure we're not building up a big deficit.

Our energy consumption has been going up for the past three months compared to 2016, no idea why :mad:. But in October it stayed the same as last year :T. Possibly because DS1 was away for a week? We haven't put the heating on yet anyway, we're sitting with blankets and wearing jumpers to keep warm.

117pauline

Hi HHD

I hope you hear BIL has had a comfortable night and is on the road to recovery.

I can understand your feelings about the plans to visit your BIL and the wedding along with the other work worries. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is wait.

Good for you not having the heating on. It is freezing here this morning. I am trying to find some get up and go but it has got up and gone without me!

There was a MSE Not Buying It on here a couple of years ago which was quite popular because we used to record shops attempts to get us to spend and our successes in thwarting them.

The less I buy, the happier I am. There are certain areas where it is a struggle. Last year I only bought reduced price plants for the garden and so far this year I have bought no plants at all. I have cultivated and split plants, saved seeds and planted up stray seedlings which have brought lots of pleasure but i still yearn to spend

I hope you have a productive day
Take care
Pauline