Keeping up appearances.......

chevalier

Glad to see that you have made progress. Have ou thought about saying you are trying to reduce your carbon footprint to the young ones. th
en you could downgrade food go those with less packaging?

HappyNow

Bum. It was payday yesterday for both Mr Happy and myself, so I've done our paperwork today. All the bills are paid, money has been set aside for essentials such as petrol to work, animal feed etc. And the grand total left over for groceries between now and 15th Feb? £35!!! .

We did well over Christmas and I was congratulating myself on paying for most of it via ebay sales and by re-circulating money that we got as presents from our parents. It only actually cost us about £200 - it's probably been nearer £1000 previously and I don't think anyone noticed a difference this year.

Then this week Mr Happy's car had yet another breakdown (brakes this time) which cost £320, the landlord insurance on our rental house had to be found (£123), and we needed a large order of coal because we've used so much with all being home over the holidays in this freezing weather. We need to keep the coal stocked up because our access track is steep and narrow, and the coal wagon can't get down in snow or ice.

I do have money I can access so I won't need to use a credit card, but it's not my money. Little Miss Happy's uni accomodation fees are sat in a seperate account to cover her rent for the next three months. I will borrow the absolute minimum to keep us alive, but it will have to be put back on 15th Feb.

So, it's on with the pinny to see what I can construct from the scraps in the fridge. Mr Happy is going to wonder what's hit him .

Edited to clarify - Little Miss H's accomodation money is from her student loan, I don't pay for her rent. I just hold it in our spare account for safe (!) keeping and it goes out by standing order each month.

HappyNow

Morning Granny, bit of a cold one

Chev! Great to see you back, I've kept checking on your diary to see if you've updated it. Hope you're doing OK now x Thanks for your comments and as you will see from my note above, I'm doing an extreme food downgrade this month!

dogcat_2

Hiya Happy,

Just wanted to say fab thread, well done. I have subscribed.;)

grannyx2

I know you feel like these extra expenses are a step in the wrong direction but just imagine how things would have been if on top of all this you'd also had to find the money to pay for the Christmas just gone. You have done really well and continue to do so, keep plodding, it'll get easier one day.

Granny x

[Deleted User]

HappyNow wrote: »

Then this week Mr Happy's car had yet another breakdown (brakes this time) which cost £320, the landlord insurance on our rental house had to be found (£123), and we needed a large order of coal because we've used so much with all being home over the holidays in this freezing weather. We need to keep the coal stocked up because our access track is steep and narrow, and the coal wagon can't get down in snow or ice.

I know how you feel...

One of the cars needed £470 spent on its brakes and £75 for a new tyre. And thats getting it done by friends in the trade.

Not only that but yesterday greeted us with £356 of vet bills.

And just like you just forked of more cash for a coal delivery...

Going to have to buy logs too at some point

Country life in January eh!

Gumtree/ebay is going flat out right now

All the best!

chevalier

Sorry to hear about the car. Dang things. Can be so annoying. But I am with Granny here. It would have been much worse if you had a Christmas money hangover to deal with too.

Do you have to have coal or could you burn logs if you could find them? Sometimes peeps do offer wood for burning on freecycle...

I have started to up date but got interupted.
chev

HappyNow

dogcat wrote: »

Hiya Happy,

Just wanted to say fab thread, well done. I have subscribed.;)

Hi dogcat, welcome and thanks for reading . Hope you will stick around x

grannyx2 wrote: »

I know you feel like these extra expenses are a step in the wrong direction but just imagine how things would have been if on top of all this you'd also had to find the money to pay for the Christmas just gone. You have done really well and continue to do so, keep plodding, it'll get easier one day.
Granny x

Thanks Granny . Reading through some of the diaries I think lots of people are struggling this month. Here's to a magnificent February for us all !

HappyNow

chevalier wrote: »

Sorry to hear about the car. Dang things. Can be so annoying. But I am with Granny here. It would have been much worse if you had a Christmas money hangover to deal with too.

Do you have to have coal or could you burn logs if you could find them? Sometimes peeps do offer wood for burning on freecycle...

I have started to up date but got interupted.
chev

Hi Chev, what a good idea, I never thought of trying Freecycle. Our stoves can burn logs so I've just had a look on there. Sadly there's none on just now but I will keep checking back. Thanks for the suggestion .

Coal works better for us really because we have stoves rather than open fires and they stay alight better with coal, but wood is perfect for evenings when we can keep chucking it on.

jeepjunkie wrote: »

I know how you feel...

One of the cars needed £470 spent on its brakes and £75 for a new tyre. And thats getting it done by friends in the trade.

Not only that but yesterday greeted us with £356 of vet bills.

And just like you just forked of more cash for a coal delivery...

Going to have to buy logs too at some point

Country life in January eh!

Gumtree/ebay is going flat out right now

All the best!

Ouch - your car bill was even worse than ours. I hope that's the last bill for a while for both of us! At some point this year I think Mr Happy's car will have to be swapped - it seems to spend more time in the garage than on the road. We're in such a rural location though that we really need 4 wheel drives to have any hope of getting to work in winter, and they are so expensive to buy and run .

That's a massive vet bill too. I hope your animal made a full recovery to make it money well spent. Last year I opened a special savings account with the intention of building up a balance to cover vet bills. Unfortunately there is still not a penny in it, so I'm praying everything keeps well! I had a sick horse last year and the bills practically wiped me out - he's still alive and well though, and eating many ££££ worth of food each week!

poohbear59

Hi Mrs H, sorry to hear you too are having a difficult time financially.

We have had loads of wood given to us for our stove eg we were given an old kitchen to burn yesterday. Though I have bitten the bullet and bought some 10kg bags of coal just to boost the heat output. We definitely need it this week.

Our animals cost us a packet too. Does your vet allow you to pay over a few months? Ours did until he was robbed by someone and now trusts none of us to pay monthly.
The big dog has been limping but we think/ are hoping it is just salt in his paws. He isn't insured.

Hopefully we can help each to survive the very lean next month.