2014 Frugal Living Challenge

Goldiegirl

A mixed sort of day, some frugalness to some spending, but not frittering type of spending.


I made my first ever soup, based on the chicken carcass from Sundays chicken.


My mum always used to do this, but I've never done it - I think probably I couldn't be bothered before.


Anyway, I chose a recipe online, and cooked it up. It looks the right colour for chicken soup, and I tried a spoonful and it tastes ok. We will have a bowl each for lunch tomorrow with the remainder of the last batch of rolls that I made, and the other half of the soup is in the freezer for another time.


We had sausage casserole for dinner, and the other half of that is in the freezer.


My slow cooker was delivered today :T I will try it out later in the week.


Less frugally, I've accepted a quote of £240.00 for a man to cut back our shrubs and also clean all the fascia boards of our house, some of which are difficult to get too. Just waiting for him to get back to us, to get a day arranged. But it'll be money well spent to get this done.


Also paid the balance on a weekend away in April. It's a 2 night coach trip to see Downton Abbey ! It's £119 each, and that includes the coach, HB in a hotel, the visit to Downton and a Canal boat trip the next day. I think that's reasonable, although the hotel has mixed reviews!


All in all, I'm pleased with the cooking things I've done, and the money spent is on helpful / enjoyable things

never_too_old

cw18 wrote: »

I assume this is a fence alongside your back garden?

As such, the normal rule appears to be....
when you stand with your back to the back wall of the house, is the fence on your left or right? If it's on your right, then it's your fence. If it's on the left and there's a neighbouring property on that side it's theirs.
(If it's a front fence, then with your back to the front wall of the house your fence is to your left)

That's certainly been the case with all three of my properties (built in 1982, 1952 and 2002 respectively), and with both my parents properties (1964 and 1979), and with all the friends I know who've had fence problems over the years.

Evening
do you know how to find out if this is correct? it would be a godsend to us as the fence on the left in our garden was wrecked in the storms.:)

cw18

never_too_old wrote: »

Evening
do you know how to find out if this is correct? it would be a godsend to us as the fence on the left in our garden was wrecked in the storms.:)

Check the property deeds - it should (I think) be in there.
I still have the plans for the estate I live on, and that has symbols denoting who's responsible for each and every fence/wall on the estate.

SarahB1989_2

NSD here - still can't access online banking so avoiding spending any money for fear of breaching my overdraft limit.

Made moroccan stew for dinner tonight - recipe here as it was so good I want to share it with everyone! Says it serves 4 but I made 3 portions from 1/2 the ingredients, works out at only 37p a portion! Made minty yoghurt ("made" probably too strong a word, literally tipped some dried mint into plain yogurt) to go with it.

Shortie

cw18 wrote: »

I assume this is a fence alongside your back garden?

As such, the normal rule appears to be....
when you stand with your back to the back wall of the house, is the fence on your left or right? If it's on your right, then it's your fence. If it's on the left and there's a neighbouring property on that side it's theirs.
(If it's a front fence, then with your back to the front wall of the house your fence is to your left)

That's certainly been the case with all three of my properties (built in 1982, 1952 and 2002 respectively), and with both my parents properties (1964 and 1979), and with all the friends I know who've had fence problems over the years.

OOooohhhh awesome... the council told us we owned the one on the left so looks like we own them all - I did think it was the one on the right, but then assumed it wasn't ours as we owned the one on the left... Hmmm.. Mind you, years and years back we used to have field next to us before the council bought the land next to our house was on and built two houses on it so maybe I need to check with the council for future repairs that need t be done. I think I assumed it was theirs as the existing half height fence that is up has been built on their side of the boundary (there are still all the original concrete boundary posts between us and their fence has been put up on their side of those)

If it is ours I have no plans to replace the lot yet, but just trying to get back privacy, and if it's theirs to maintain then I'm not going to ask the council to replace it (they are still council owned) as the fence is okay - I just want to add some height to it

Thanks though - that's prompted me to check with the council to be sure

cw18

The neighbouring property being built after yours was well established could well mean different rules apply - and if the posts are their side of the original boundary line it does sound like it's more likely to be theirs. But certainly worth checking with the council now (and getting it in writing), as that means it should be quicker and easier to force them to repair damage in the future (they won't be able to drag their heels checking disputing ownership). That's the main reason I've always checked with my properties, and why I've held onto the plans for the estate (a copy from the builders as well as one that came with the copy of the deeds from the solicitor). I've actually had almost-neighbours asking me to check who was responsible for boundaries they've been disputing with their neighbours

Shortie

Thanks cw18 xxx

If we were wrongly informed about the one on the left then what's done is done (and wasn't done intentionally by our adjoining neighbour - she's a council tenant so wouldn't have paid for the repairs to that fence, so she's gained or lost nowt) but we don't have a copy of our title deeds (I think they're held by the mortgage co?) but you're right - I'll email the council now to get the info - that way I'll get a reply that I can keep - thanks for the tip there

pm2326

Shortie wrote: »

OOooohhhh awesome... the council told us we owned the one on the left so looks like we own them all - I did think it was the one on the right, but then assumed it wasn't ours as we owned the one on the left... Hmmm.. Mind you, years and years back we used to have field next to us before the council bought the land next to our house was on and built two houses on it so maybe I need to check with the council for future repairs that need t be done. I think I assumed it was theirs as the existing half height fence that is up has been built on their side of the boundary (there are still all the original concrete boundary posts between us and their fence has been put up on their side of those)

If it is ours I have no plans to replace the lot yet, but just trying to get back privacy, and if it's theirs to maintain then I'm not going to ask the council to replace it (they are still council owned) as the fence is okay - I just want to add some height to it

Thanks though - that's prompted me to check with the council to be sure

Hi

I'm in an ex council house and the houses on either side of me are still council. According to my deeds/plans and verified by my solicitor at the time of purchase, I'm responsible for the fences on both sides and I'm jointly responsible for the one running along the back with the neighbour who's house backs onto mine. I also have two fences at the front of the house that are mine, the only thing I'm not responsible for is the brick wall at the end of my front garden (something to do with the public footpath) and the neighbours garden gate :rotfl:

Someone climbed over the fence between the garden gates about 3 years ago and broke 2 of the panels, I left it to see if council would come fix it for neighbour but ended up fixing them myself last year.

Solicitor claimed that if one of the fences got damaged and I did nothing about it, then the council are in the right to fix it and then send me the bill....dont know if this is strictly true though.

Definately worth checking with your local council or your deeds before anything happens.

Shortie

Thanks pm2326, it'll be just our luck that we're the same, lol. Inspired, I've emailed the council to check. e were lucky in our old house that the boundary fence we owned at the back was replaced by my folks years before we moved in (yes.... the last house we bought was next to my parents ) and they put up a super doper one that was still going strong when we sold the house, and the house the other side had build a humungous brick wall built at some point, so we had nowt to worry about there. Maybe it's fencing-karma that has caught up with us :rotfl::rotfl:

afoolwithmoney

Not doing well at the moment in that only managed minimum payment plus £100 on cc this time. But have paid out £380 on car repairs & weve managed to book & pay for our first holiday in five years all in cash On course to scrap through the month in credit though