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

HairyHandofDartmoor

teafor2 wrote: »

Sorry to hear you're still not feeling 100% back to normal. Lack of sleep always tends to catch up with me a few days later rather than the day after.

I'm like you with hair appointments, I'm getting mine done this week, but it's just another job to cross off the list - I get no enjoyment from it at all

Blimey, fancy DS3 forgetting his laptop - I thought all technology was permanently glued to their hands these days :rotfl:

Good luck with the tax return and fingers crossed you come in under the £1k budget xx

Thanks TF2 . They spent so long packing DS3's big desktop computer with all the cables that go with it that they left his laptop on the armchair :rotfl:. Luckily he can manage without it until his first lecture on Thursday.

HairyHandofDartmoor

beanielou wrote: »

Hope you get the VAT return done.

Thanks Beanie .

WannabeFree wrote: »

Hope you get the VAT done.

Also hope you get another good nights sleep and feel better tomorrow

x

Thanks Wannabe .

HairyHandofDartmoor

foxgloves wrote: »

I think I shall have to read your diary from start to finish, HairyHand - I'm looking for a new one to dip into & having read your opening post, I can see a few similarities with mine! I reckon we are around a similar age, & I too first encountered the dizzy joys of being able to borrow money at age 19........, meeting the very lovely but similarly endebted (actually, he was even worse!) Mr F along the way. The teensiest flicker of light bulb happened now & again, but nothing more than a damp match & lasting about as long! Our last chunk (not including mortgage) was paid off when I was 46 - the most amazing feeling, but we've needed all those budgeting skills as that year also coincided with me taking redundancy, so drifting back to the bad old ways was never going to be an option. Our lifestyle has barely changed, apart from doing a lot more camping & booking a lot fewer holiday cottages, so that means we must have been frittering pretty much the equivalent of my entire salary back in the Spendy Years!! It's shocking when I put it like that!
Anyway, I shall be starting your diary from tonight - I do find they help keep me in the right mindset.
F

Hi Foxgloves . Yes it does sound like we have a lot in common. I'm 55 so I don't know if that's the same age as you?

Good luck with reading my diary as it's very very long :rotfl:. It's like War and Peace but less erudite :rotfl:.

I post almost every day because it always makes me feel cheerful being on here and helps me focus on money matters .

foxgloves

Well, snap! I was 55 on Sunday!
F

HairyHandofDartmoor

foxgloves wrote: »

Well, snap! I was 55 on Sunday!
F

Happy birthday for Sunday :bdaycake:. I was 55 at the end of March .

HairyHandofDartmoor

Well we've calculated the VAT return and the VAT office owe us money :rotfl:. We didn't earn very much in the last quarter and DH invested in a laptop and some other equipment for the business after we got the tax rebate/PPI. Also we paid our accountants in that quarter, so once we knocked off all the purchases it came to more than the VAT owed :rotfl:.

This is brilliant news because it means we can use the £1000 I'd put aside for the VAT towards our May living expenses :T. I was worried that we would be struggling because of DH not invoicing the new customer in time.

However, things are never straightforward. We couldn't submit our VAT return because we couldn't log in :mad:. I know the log in details are correct, so I think they must have changed something due to Making Tax Digital :mad:. We're probably the only business in Britain not to de-register for VAT if they've never earnt over the VAT threshold . So we're probably the only business in Britain trying to log in under the old system, but that's what we were told to do by the accountants. Anyway DH has messaged them and they'll reply within two days apparantly. I hope we don't get fined for submitting it late :mad:.

foxgloves

Thank-you. I told someone I know that I was due to be 55 the next day & he said "Bloody HELL"..... I went round with a smile on my face all morning..... before realising that it might not have been a compliment, lol, he might have thought I looked 103!
I quite like being in my 50s on the whole. My confidence has never been hire & I just no longer give two flying wot-nots about what people think of me, so it's very liberating..... but not as liberating as living within our means feels after the naughty Spendy Decades.

foxgloves

"Hire?" Bloomin' phone changing my letters, grrrr.

milann

I don’t believe the laptop was left behind - that was the reason you were taking him back to uni.....mmmm......I actually can believe it my dd leaves something every time she comes to stay - she is in her 30’s now and lives 200+ miles away but has left something right from her uni days over 15 years ago....where’s the roll eye emoji when you need it:p

HairyHandofDartmoor

foxgloves wrote: »

Thank-you. I told someone I know that I was due to be 55 the next day & he said "Bloody HELL"..... I went round with a smile on my face all morning..... before realising that it might not have been a compliment, lol, he might have thought I looked 103!
I quite like being in my 50s on the whole. My confidence has never been hire & I just no longer give two flying wot-nots about what people think of me, so it's very liberating..... but not as liberating as living within our means feels after the naughty Spendy Decades.

:rotfl: It does sound old doesn't it Foxgloves? I just hope I don't look 55 :eek:.

But I agree with you that I'm much more confident than I used to be and care much less what people think. I'd hate to be 18 again because I was very shy and nervous then. I also agree about it being liberating living within our means .