Daffy's 'a nice cup of tea cheers you up' diary

Cheery_Daff

Quite right ZTD, it IS contributing, so carry on! And thanks for the links, I'll pop over and have a look at those in a bit.

All good points Dedicated DFW - for some reason I was forgetting all about volunteering - although I've always done it (full time for a while) in various places.

I've actually been thinking today about things I'm part of in general, and whether I want to get rid of a few out of my life. For example, I'm a member of the local LETS scheme, and haven't done anything for several months. I could leave, and save them the paperwork. However, LETS is something I very much want to support, so instead, I'm going to make a commitment to trading *something* each month. (I do realise this isn't 'volunteering' by the way)

I'm also a member of our local Transition Towns group - again, I haven't done anything for a while. I do know that we've just acquired a new bit of land for a community garden though, so very soon there'll be working days to get that up and running.

Last year I did a bit of voluntary work for a small charity that I very much wholeheartedly support, but I had to stop, partly because of where the project got to, and partly because it was in another city, and they didn't pay expenses. I wouldn't be able to travel to them now I work full time, but there'll be something I can do for them remotely.

I'm thinking that what all this is about is putting time and energy (and money, in my case right now), into things that send contribute to making things I want to see in the world happen. So in this particular case, more local food growing, more people growing food, and more people swapping skills :T (there's other causes I feel strongly about, I just mean these things I've been thinking about today). I think I need to see the money thing as *part* of this, rather than separate to it, and that might well help me decide what to do.

So thanks for your comments :j :j It really does help spin off ways of thinking about things, doesn't it? :j Hooray for MSE! :T

Lara44

Ooo I'd love to hear where you get to with the LETS scheme, as I was looking into it recently, but don't know what skills I have to swap. Taking care of life admin?! Hmm...

With the charity thing I sponsor a child and then do that Samaritans Christmas present appeal. (Samaritans thing usually ends up to be leftover grabbits or presents I got but wasn't keen on whoops). I love Christmas and don't like to think of anyone not having something to open on Christmas day.

Cheery_Daff

The thing people have used me for most in the past Lara is giving lifts, and helping in the garden (literally just clearning weeds etc) - so nothing out of the ordinary! That kind of stuff tends to be the tuff people want help with Also dog sitting, waiting in for parcels, looking after hamsters etc... Music lessons seem to be quite popular too, so I'm told.

(mind you, there's someone on our LETS scheme who offers kinky cleaning.... :rotfl:)

Not up bright and early this morning :rotfl: Just got up to make another cuppa :rotfl:

Pottering is on the agenda today :j :j And possibly a run, maybe a little Shred, and some Sorting Out of finances...

Karmacat

LETS sounds really good - there used to be articles in Permaculture magazine about it, but I never got round to it - now might be a good idea, hey!

Charity giving - yes, I had to pull back on everything, it was horrible, and I still haven't put anything back in place which reminds me I'm sorry about the little (but intense) rant yesterday :o:o giving away everything beckons burnout and other unpleasant items, in my head anyway.

Well .... I remember David Bellamy saying something about charities: the basics are to do one international, one national, and one local. And of course, you're often looking at choosing between environmental, animal and people .... nowadays, I do as much as I can of my decluttering towards charity shops, and I also go to https://www.thehungersite.com to click every day - there's half a dozen or so clicks there every day. If I can't afford to give money, the least I can give is some clicks.

I also want to start doing some volunteering - this is actually a pretty rich town, so there isn't a huge amount here, but the Cats Protection League central place is a bus ride away, so I'll do something there - it will have to be when spring comes properly tho, I'm not going to risk picking up yet more infections ....

Sorry this is *quite* so long

Cheery_Daff

Gosh KC, that's not long at all - have you *seen* some of my posts?! :rotfl: :rotfl: It really is interesting and valuable seeing what everyone thinks - sometimes that's exactly how I work out what I think myself :j :j

International/national/local is a good thing to think about :T And you're right about environmental/people/animal too... My volunteering in the past has pretty much all been environmental education/conservation type stuff (which I miss a lot, actually, which should be telling me something!) So perhaps my time is best spent there, money elsewhere? We'll see

Speaking of money, we've just been having a bit of a chat about it. I don't even know where to start! Mr Daffs has hardly any income, but enough savings to live on for another year, potentially two if we live very frugally. I have a full time well paid job now, but no savings at all. So far our money has been separate, partly out of habit, partly because he can be rather disorganised and I like to keep control of my cash :rotfl: and partly because I've always had far less and have not been comfortable throwing my lot in until I earned more :rotfl:

So we don't want to run his savings down to nothing, so it makes sense for me to contribute more to the house etc while I'm earning far more. But then I haven't got any savings at all, and my contract at work only runs for two years, and I would very much like the option to have a year or two off then (or some savings at least so I don't have to panic and dash straight into something unsuitable!). So we need to let me have the option of saving up too.

Although you could say if we were really throwing our lot in together, we'd bung all the savings in together, and I'd instantly have half of his, and he'd have half of my nothing :rotfl:

At the minute, he owns the house alone, although we'll be looking at changing that soon. There's only 4 years left on the (very small) mortgage, so I'm basically looking at owning half a house having done absolutely nothing to merit it whatsoever - so contributing more than half the bills doesn't feel very arduous given the circumstances!

It feels like it should be easy :rotfl: There is, of course, the option of just throwing everything together in a joint fund, and that would partly make life easier.

I suspect part of my reluctance to do that comes from this being the first time I've ever had any real money to speak of, and I'm pretty good at budgeting and keeping track now, so it'd be pretty nice to see it building up from nothing into a decent savings fund.

We both absolutely trust each other, and are both far more inclined to be generous than otherwise, but I'm not sure what to do about al this!

(first job is sending Mr Daffs off to find all the bills - which are all in his name (and some in the name of his ex girlfriend from 20 years ago :rotfl:), and working out just exactly how much goes out in bills every month. That's a start, right??!

Time for a cuppa I think :coffee:

Karmacat

Thanks Daffs! Thats definitely cuppa time and you're also right about getting a girlfriend from 20 years ago off the bills :rotfl:

You're looking at exactly the issues that most mature couples (sorry! I'm thinking of Mr Daffs here!) face - when one owns a house, and the other doesn't .... there's no easy answer, or one size fits all.

I can understand what you're saying about wanting to build up *some* savings, now that you've the chance, for the very first time - maybe thats the first thing to do - not every single spare penny, but *something*. What were your debt repayments at their highest? Maybe thats a figure to go for initially. You can always save more in another arena, if thats still too little for your salary, but as a *regular* saving, it might well be enough.

How exciting! :j:j:j

Cheery_Daff

Thanks KC.

I didn't really have a debt repayment figure as such - I panicked when I realised PhD funding was coming to an end, figured I had around £3000 between credit card/overdraft, and just stopped all spending immediately and managed to pay both off within about 6 months :eek:

The original plan was to save £10000 by the time my contract ran out So I'm trying to stick to that - I'd need around £450 a month - which is doable. £400 a month is more doable, gives me more room for manoeuvre, and means I'd have £8800 - so there's a nice challenge for my signature - getting the whole thing up to £10,000 Should be pretty easy - I budget for 5 weeks every month, so when there's only 4, the spare food/fun/trains to work money can go in the savings pot. I also budget for having to go to work 3 times a week (at £15 a time) - but a lot of weeks I only go twice - so there's a nice bit of spare too.

It's all coming together I think :T Don't know exact figures until we've dug the bills/bank statements out, but we think the whole lot (mortgage, gas, electric, council tax, water rates, insurance, phone, internet, tv licence etc) comes to no more than £630 a month. I've been paying £265, so if I up my contribution to £400 (just for the sake of roundness :rotfl:), that means Mr Daffs' savings reduce at a much slower rate, and I contribute more while still being able to save another £400 a month.

And we did a back claim for single person's council tax discount for all the time Mr Daffs was here by himself, and when I was here but a student, and there was years of it, so we've still got about 8 months of paying no council tax, so a bit of that money will build nicely in the account :T

At the minute my budget is looking vaguely (!) like this...

1638 wages

400 rent
15 my phone
15 union fees
30 diesel (I won't use all this, it'll build up in car fund)
180 trains to work (this is the max (3 days a week for 5 weeks a month) - can siphon some of this into savings)
45 buses to work (again, the max, and I'll start cycling to work soon so this'll drop and I can put into savings)
150 food (30 a week - week 5 money can go to savings)
150 fun (20 a week, plus 50 in the bank for bigger treats/clothes/haircuts - haven't had most of these for a while!)
60 my emergency fund (dentist, broken laptops etc
40 house maintenance fund (just in case, boiler will need replacing etc soon)
100 holidays (this will cover both of us, for a big holiday plus 4 weekends away, plus days out for the year )
40 joint treats (tea and cake at the weekend, occasional pizza or day out etc - no point having cash if you can't both have treats!)
40 car maintenance (MOT, tax, insurance, breakdown, plus a bit of savings for a new one)
400 savings

So that *should* equal £1665 - although I can't imagine for a second that I haven't missed something out somewhere! :rotfl: And that's £28 over budget - so I'll figure out (later - head is fried now :rotfl:) where to drop that off

(I do realise there seems to be an awful lot of 'treats' related budgets in there! :rotfl: :rotfl: Partly justified because I haven't had an treats for a while :rotfl: partly I've just gone overboard )

(and after all that talk of charity giving, I haven't left any spare for that either! Oh dear, a little reworking required I suspect! :rotfl:)

vl2588

Budgeting for treats is super-organised

I always get told off at the shoe menders - which I think is bloody rude considering I am helping them to stay in business!

Karmacat

Thats a great budget! I'm sure there's enough squiggle room to find some charity amounts.

Cheery_Daff

Quite right VL :rotfl: If they tell me off when I pick them up too I might remind them of that very fact I could have said that me wearing them down so much gave them the opportunity to charge me an extra £4 :rotfl:

Just spend 45 minutes sorting out attic - nowhere near finished, but it's starting to get there! :j :j :j Shelves are filling up nicely, and you can *almost* see the floor :T (almost :rotfl:) I'm being quite ruthless - normally I'm a bit of a hoarder, keeping everything 'just in case', but there's some bits of fabric that I don't even like that much that I've been carrying around for years and years, so they're going :j :j

I'm quite pleased with myself for having created a present wrapping area too Just a couple of little shelves with wrapping paper to re-use, tissue paper, ribbon, bows etc (none of it new :rotfl:), plus the odd little thing I've collected for small presents :T If I'm super organised later I'll even add some sellotape and scissors and a pen or two - now that IS organised! :T

Mr Daffs is off out now though so I'm going to exceedingly good and do Shred, and then a little mini bit of pilates :j :j Then back to the attic I imagine..