Has anyone managed it? Anyone in their 40's especially?
Somebody asked me today why we dont just get a new car...not in a snotty way but just asking why Im walking to school now.
Truth is in theory we could get a car, but we would have to take a loan out to buy it, our savings are non existent.
Since having Fonzy we have seen our income drop almost year on year and our expenses increase as the kiddos keep on growing!
It may be pie in the sky hoping to live debt free in modern UK? It certainly wont be happening as quickly as I'd like but considering everything I am feeling pretty pleased with how we're doing so far.
That is why we cannot afford to replace the old car straight away. We are saving up, but I would rather put the money to a new sofa {ours is broken, usable but by no means comfy} and a couple of days at the seaside
making memories like these
This week has seen us walking to school in some cruddy weather, not pouring rain but windy wet miserable weather. Today Friday saw me feeling incredibly tired...so I'm starting on some multi vits and my left knee is still protesting so I'm also thinking cod liver oil as well?
Week 2 and Im adjusting, slowly, to the new routine...it helps to know that there are others out there who are juggling nursery/school runs on foot who aren't thrilled with it all either!
Hi, we live debt free and always have. It's a struggle but it can happen. We have what we need and usually get that second hand. If we don't have the money then we can't get whatever it is we may think we are after.
ReplyDeleteI think when you accept that it is ok to live like that its fine. Someone asked me the other day, how can you survive AND be happy on one wage, and my reply was we don't want for things, yeah we have a vision board for things we would like in our lives, wether that be a holiday or a bike (material or non) but we are happy to think that it will come one day but we are happy to wait for it to happen.
We ride bikes to school and people have told us we are mad when it is pouring (and here in Australia when it pours it really pours), but even the kids reply but we can change our clothes when we get home, there is no need to drive, even when we can.
I hope that makes sense, I feel like i am rambling!
I can really recommend a vision board if you don't already have one - google it if you don't know much about it, believe me they really work x
I've not herd of a vision board before, I've had wish lists since I left home very young. Some things on the wish list are whats needed and others are what I would like in the ideal world!
DeleteThank you for sharing, not rambling at all!
Nicky
x
Hello again
ReplyDeleteSorry if life is a bit blurgh at the moment for you. I hope that all hopes and dreams are realised soon. Walking to school can be a bit of a slog (certainly when mine too were younger) but it all comes good. The children take about 30 minutes to walk to school and I expect them to make that walk in all weathers (gosh I sound nasty - Dom is the nice one in the family!). I have always had the walk to school rule - corny though it sounds I do believe that it is good for them. Funnily enough when they arrive home like drowned rats (because they have forgotten their umbrellas) they like the fact I will have a warm towel and hot soup waiting for them (just like an advert!). When the children were younger I worked shifts and would finish at 01.30 am - be home by about 2.45am - have a few hours shut eye before having to get up and rally for school. I remember being a bit tired and crabby at that point in life!
I am sure it will all come good for you - hard work pays off. Dom is younger than me so he can say that he was debt free in his forties - decades (literally) of being mean and thrifty really does pay off. Any extra money we had I always put into the mortgage and that made a huge difference. Camping holidays, own hair cuts (sometimes very badly indeed), second hand (of course!) and me still having the one pair of shoes have all been grist to the mill. Keep going dearie and look after your knee.
Best wishes
Jenny
Me again - should have read home by 02.15 in the morning (I like to be accurate!)
DeleteWe always used to walk everywhere I enjoyed it, 21years on and I think it's the feeling of taking a step backwards that narcks me the most. I am learning to see that it isn't a step back it is in fact a step to the road of being a debt less again this year and also a step to the right side of being kind to the enviroment.
DeleteIm a creature of habit and change is always hard to embrace wholeheartedly straight away.
Nicky
x
I don't drive so my children have always had to walk to school. It is only a 20 minute walk but usually takes longer at school run times because of the volume of traffic. We have to cross the road several times and can be stood waiting anything up to 10 minutes before someone will let us cross. I don't know anyone else who walks every day, even those who live closer! My first child started the nursery at the school when she was three and the youngest will be leaving Year Six next month so I have been trudging up and down to that school for 18 years! I do find myself resenting the time out of my day but apart from that I don't think it has done the children any harm at all. I know people who drop their children off in the car then drive to the gym to do an exercise class! I have had lots of comments over the years, some people seem to think it is a form of abuse to make a child walk in the rain, but none of them have come down with pneumonia yet. If more people left the cars at home the roads would be safer for the rest of us. Youngest's next school is just around the corner from us so I am going to have to make a conscious effort to get some exercise from Septenber! I dread to think how much money a car, petrol, tax etc would have cost over the years. Mrs RV x
ReplyDeleteI tried to work it out and we've been doing the school run to this school for the past 15years, the first 5years by foot the last 10years by car...so I've a BIG habit to break/change. Once Fonzy starts school in September it will be just the normal two trips, which will be a breeze after this! :
DeleteNicky
x
we walk to school too but i live jst a few doors away from the school gates so really that doesn't count. But we live mostly debt free. we do sometimes dip in to an overdraft which we have as a back up but most of the time stay out of it. We have no credit cards but we do have a loan we are paying off for house extension and alterations which we are half way through paying off and in 3 years we will be debt free completely. If i had credit cards and store cards i would feel so scared about not having the money to pay for it all x
ReplyDeleteIt is scarey to be in the situation of struggling to meet commitments...when we took them on we were working hard, life was financially sweeter...I certainly didn't see liquidation of the company I worked for on the cards and the other half didn't expect to see budgets that covered his job slashed and like Monty Pythons Spanish Inquisition nobody expected the double dip recession!
DeleteLeaving home just before my 16th birthday put me on a back footer before I even started to climb any ladders...2 steps up, 3 steps down.
Nicky
x