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

HairyHandofDartmoor

I am so exhausted! Two very late nights have made me hit the wall .

We left late on Friday (5pm) as DH was working and DS3 is terrible at packing, so we arrived at the uni at 11.30pm. By the time we unloaded DS3 and his belongings and got to DH's sister's house it was 1.30am :eek: not helped by us taking a wrong turn resulting in a long diversion because our sat nav stopped working :mad:.

Then we woke up a 6.50am on Saturday chatted to SIL, drove for an hour to the family do, left at 5.30pm and after many tiredness coffee breaks finally got home at 1.45am :eek:. We managed to lie in until 8am this morning, but I woke up with a horrible headache and I'm totally exhausted today .

POSITIVES
-Got DH safely to uni
-Attended very pleasant family do & spent time with relatives including my dad & sister
-Spent some time with DH's sister

NEGATIVES
-Spent a fortune on petrol (2 full tanks!)
-Spent a fortune of food
-Exhausted ourselves completely
-Our sat nav has stopped working

greenbee

Sat nag stopping working is annoying. I realised I should probably buy an atlas in case of it failing (it took me a very odd way to my mum’s last week to avoid the Easter traffic and I’d have been totally lost). There were outages on the traffic service on Friday which was annoying but thankfully didn’t impact my journey.

I always fill up with fuel at my mum’s as it is so much cheaper than here.

Hope you have a restful day!

HairyHandofDartmoor

DH has said he refuses to do another long journey until we have a new sat nav, and I agree with him because taking wrong turns late at night when you're already exhausted is no joke . We used the gps on DH's phone to navigate but it's not as good as the sat nav as the instructions are less clear, plus it's used up most of his data now.

Also we need to stop trying to do to much in one weekend. Driving here and there visiting various relatives in a limited time is too exhausting and we get through a ton of petrol. DH and I tend to push ourselves beyond our limits and then take ages to recover .

Next time we go we'll have to collect DS3 from uni for the summer holidays, pack every single thing in his room and help him clean the room so he gets his deposit back. So I suggested we put some money aside to stay in a cheap hotel very near the uni for the night, because DH's relatives are an hour's drive away, which means an extra two hours of driving making us more tired and using more petrol money. So I feel like a hotel would be money well spent and save our sanity!

teafor2

Oh my goodness HHD that does sound an exhausting weekend with long journeys even without the sat nav playing silly bu**ers. Do you share the driving? I hate motorway driving so would be really loathe to do any.

Nice that you got to see your family though. I'm sure when you've had a couple of good nights sleep you'll look back and think it was worth it.

Fingers crossed, from a travel point of view, DS3 won't want to come home again too soon. Have a very restful afternoon. xx

HairyHandofDartmoor

greenbee wrote: »

Sat nag stopping working is annoying. I realised I should probably buy an atlas in case of it failing (it took me a very odd way to my mum’s last week to avoid the Easter traffic and I’d have been totally lost). There were outages on the traffic service on Friday which was annoying but thankfully didn’t impact my journey.

I always fill up with fuel at my mum’s as it is so much cheaper than here.

Hope you have a restful day!

Thanks Greenbee . We used two full tanks to get to the uni and back, plus driving to SIL's house for the night, and then on to the family do. So a lot of driving and a lot of petrol .

HairyHandofDartmoor

teafor2 wrote: »

Oh my goodness HHD that does sound an exhausting weekend with long journeys even without the sat nav playing silly bu**ers. Do you share the driving? I hate motorway driving so would be really loathe to do any.

Nice that you got to see your family though. I'm sure when you've had a couple of good nights sleep you'll look back and think it was worth it.

Fingers crossed, from a travel point of view, DS3 won't want to come home again too soon. Have a very restful afternoon. xx

I can't drive unfortunately, so poor DH has to do all the driving . Even as a passenger I felt exhausted so I don't know how he coped! DH does love driving and is a very good driver luckily.

It was lovely to see family though . My dad is 85 and I hadn't seen him since last August and I always enjoy seeing my sister. Plus there were cousins I hadn't seen for about six years.

teafor2

My hubby is the same, he really enjoys driving and I think even if I did offer to do some he would be too nervous of what I was doing to fully relax or sleep :rotfl:

Lovely that you got to see your Dad after so long and also managed to catch up with your sister and the rest of your family. xx

greenbee

HairyHandofDartmoor wrote: »

Thanks Greenbee . :eek: to mouse ladders :rotfl:.

The little sods are back in the garage. I know, because they're trying to get in to the mouse poison... :rotfl::rotfl: (I've got some out for them)

HairyHandofDartmoor wrote: »

Next time we go we'll have to collect DS3 from uni for the summer holidays, pack every single thing in his room and help him clean the room so he gets his deposit back. So I suggested we put some money aside to stay in a cheap hotel very near the uni for the night, because DH's relatives are an hour's drive away, which means an extra two hours of driving making us more tired and using more petrol money. So I feel like a hotel would be money well spent and save our sanity!

Given what you've said about not seeing your family much, is there any chance you could take some holiday before you collect DS and take a few days to drive down and see your family, see DH's family and then collect DS on the way home? Treat it as a holiday, break the journey, and budget for petrol and the odd hotel room. If you can turn it into a holiday you may be less exhausted and resent it less.

HairyHandofDartmoor

teafor2 wrote: »

My hubby is the same, he really enjoys driving and I think even if I did offer to do some he would be too nervous of what I was doing to fully relax or sleep :rotfl:

Lovely that you got to see your Dad after so long and also managed to catch up with your sister and the rest of your family. xx

Thanks TF2 . I don't relax when DH drives as despite him being a good driver I think I must be a nervous passenger, plus I chat to him to keep him alert and tell him what the road signs are saying (I'm beginning to see why I find journeys tiring :rotfl:).

doingitanyway

I'm glad you enjoyed seeing family and DS is safely delivered.
It sounds very full on so I am not surprised you are exhausted.
I like the idea of making such things a little mini break and slowing everything down.
Bah to the sat nav not working. How stressful!

Now you are home I hope you can relax before the week begins.