Wandering on

CP2016 · 2 January 2018 at 1:09PM

Hi ramblehan and welcome back, I remember reading your old diary. We also have an oil fired aga and wood fired central heating so I can sympathise regarding costs - I like a nice mild winter.. We spend a lot of time in our thermals.

I wish you a calm and steady new year with a well ordered budget (I also use YNAB),

pennywisepoundstupid · 2 January 2018 at 1:50PM

ramblehan wrote: »

Hi Pennywise,

Good to hear I am not alone! we've spent about £800 on oil already this winter and I'm not sure how much more we'll have to put in. We have an oil fired aga and wood fired central heating. This year's been extra tricky as we don't have any wood supplies of our own because we moved so are having to buy it all in - £300 spent so far. Find it very depressing (our last home we had solar panels and wood-fired central heating and with the solar credits we were actually £400 in credit after all expenses had gone out) sigh! I think reality most people have to pay what we are paying now so it's just adjusting to a less efficient house!

We have probably spent similar on oil, we have oil central heating, wood burners and use electric for cooking etc. DH works in farmimg so we never have to buy wood, there is always a tree that's blown down, old fence posts and an unlimited supply of pallets to be burnt so that's one big saving.

Do you have a diary - I will look you up and subscribe. Thanks for checking in. It is really difficult to save money when you live rurally isn't it - we have to use car to get anywhere and then you don't have the cheapest shops close by either!

Yes I have a diary, i'm useless at doing links but if you click on my name and you should be able to find it in my public profile, its called Alway's believe that something wonderful is about to happen!

Have a great day xx

System · 2 January 2018 at 2:40PM

CP2016 wrote: »

Hi ramblehan and welcome back, I remember reading your old diary. We also have an oil fired aga and wood fired central heating so I can sympathise regarding costs - I like a nice mild winter.. We spend a lot of time in our thermals.

I wish you a calm and steady new year with a well ordered budget (I also use YNAB),

Oh yes - Thermals. Even the dog has one for the really bad nights!
Thanks for checking in CP2016.

System · 2 January 2018 at 2:56PM

Pennywise - we are currently going through a stack of old fence posts to supplement what we are buying in!!!- we should be OK for next year as doing a load of hedgelaying this winter - on aged relative's plot so hopefully won't be too bad next winter.
I've found your diary and subscribed!

System · 5 January 2018 at 12:22PM

Thank goodness for going back to work: normality of a sort returns to the household. and we did good - made lunches and 2 NSD's. Now on 2 days off, so trying to be good. Today is my day with my daughter so usually she has her swimming class, but had to wait in for a delivery. Going to try and be very good and spend little to nothing this afternoon, but want to do something nice so we have some quality time together.

Had a surprise bit of good news yesterday when I received a cheque for £50 in the post - it was a deposit refund for a room we booked at a village hall in December and I had forgotten all about it - BONUS. This will help out for sure. My work expenses of £160 approved and paperwork sent off so that should arrive within a couple of weeks. I want to try and put at least half of it into emergency fund, but I think I will definitely need to top up my petrol as some travelling with work to do (but I will get expenses back later for this too so a good earner in reality!) and maybe food a little too (but hopefully not)

Need to plan next week's menu and food shopping, but feels like this is a job for tomorrow.

Off to see the chickens and check on the sheep in a moment - and then perhaps a proper walk later - free and good fitness - especially if I'm carrying a nearly 3 year old on my back!

System · 5 January 2018 at 12:25PM

Oh - other bonus. Someone locally wants to get rid of a shed on FB and we were first in the queue - so this, with a bit of work will become a split residence for our 2 cockerels and their lovely ladies (yet to arrive - will need to figure out how to do this (get in fertlised eggs or young birds but will all depend on £££) so looks like plans are moving on in chicken land.

Tomorrow will be busy as got the shed to go and collect and we want to move the sheep and worm them. A very unsimple task as they are feral!

System · 5 January 2018 at 1:14PM

Another good result for a morning's admin:

Got in touch with Wessex water about water bill and they have said they will just start the account from today - so that's 9 months free water they have just gifted us - Thank you Wessex Water! Wasn't expecting that!

Progress made on January goals:

Check Ynab weekly at least Checked 5th Jan OK
Stay in budget for food for month (this may be tricky) on track
Review electricity / broadband suppliers etc as a year has passed since we moved in, so might be able to get a better deal
Call Water company as despite several calls still haven't had a bill from them since we moved in. Need to get it sorted before we owe too much (but really this is their fault!!!) Done
Organise a prepaid card for DH (I already have one) Done
Start a better form of savings tracker so I can see some positives.
Post a budget planned and then an 'actually what happened' budget - Shame myself into better behaviours!! Done - on track atm
Sign DD up for free childcare hours -Done
Carry on setting goals regularly

System · 5 January 2018 at 8:27PM

Feeling very MSE now*** - It's been a good take charge kind of day. Just sorted out new broadband & phoneline (£23.99 a month for broadband, phone rental and anytime calls to landlines and mobiles, versus current one where I pay about £50/month including calls!)

My work today is done!

***if only I hadn't driven to the post office to pay in £50 surprise cheque to discover I had left it at home.......Doh. A tab embarrassing!

Poor_Single_lady · 7 January 2018 at 11:43AM

Oh Ramble I have images of you trying to chase the sheep- I'm sure it's more orderly in real live than it is in my head!

How many sheep and chickens have you got. It sounds amazing to me. Will you get cows too, one of my friends has cows but they always seem a bit more frightening than timid sheep - And in my limited knowledge of these things a lot more work than sheep.

System · 8 January 2018 at 2:11PM

Hey PSL, Surprisingly getting the sheep in and worming them went without a hitch! However, we wanted to move them to a new paddock which we did - and then they started testing the fence in the new bit, and managed to get back into the old bit, where they remain even now - laughing at us from a distance! Hey ho! There's about 20 sheep at the moment. My DH would like a small number of cows but we've a long way to go before that's possible. If we do go down that route, I'm going to get myself on a 'cow course' as I don't have a clue!

Updates wise - I've done my shopping and meal planning - and got everything for £45 for the week so all good there.
In some not so good news - BT are trying to charge me a cancellation fee and a fee for the wireless box as we have left contract 11 days early (so they are charging £55 for something that 11 days later would be free....grrrr. I'm going to see if Sky will cover it, but if not, I've worked out we will still be better off on the new package as we make lots of calls. So I'll just have to grin and bear it.

NSD yesterday and today - so 4 already for the month.

Wandering on

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