Cheery's buttling diary: tea in one hand, plant pot in the other, running shoes on

Cheery_Daff

Just back from meeting - slightly nerve wracking drive home after it started snowing but all ok til I slithered about trying to park :eek: Mr Cheery wanted me to pick him up but given my hatred of snowy driving, and the fact he's only 15 mins walk away, I said no

Kettle's on for hot water bottle Thank goodness for hot water bottles

starnac

Hope the snow isn't too bad with you? It's sleeting here. Basically just white rain! No chance of it sticking at all! Shame

Your savings figure looks really good, especially as we are only one month in!

Cheery_Daff

White rain indeed starnac - we have about 5 inches and counting! :eek: Been ridiculous today! Only thing for it is to go to bed

Just had another energy statement - surprised it was only £46 (gas and electric) but it turns out it only covers the period 7th to 14th January :rotfl: That'll be explaining it then... :rotfl: Still £361 in credit :j

Right, bed I think! :j

Cheery_Daff

:j :j woohoo - payday! :j :j

And we all know what that means - budget fiddling :D

LOVE playing around with YNAB (sorry, did I say that already? Should probably join the YNAB forum and rave about it there instead)

So... here's how various pots stand as of 1st Feb

Patchwork Fund = £5329 :j
Emergency fund = £1000
House maintenance = £331
Car repairs = £84
Holiday fund = £200
No quibble = £153
VSP = £41.87

Not bad at all :j

Car insurance and RAC both due this month - money is sat there waiting for them :j Not got any holidays or No Quibble weekends planned so that can sit there til needed :j

House maintenance... well, we'll be needing a new cooker this month, but should easily get a second hand one for about £80 (current one is second hand and has lasted us 25 years :eek: :money: ) And bizarrely, the roofer who mended our slate never sent us a bill, so I suppose that might turn up at some point?!

Karmacat

Hurray to budget fiddling :j:j:jWell done you :T

Lula-Hula

Hurray for it being a new money month :j

Although not a YNABer, I'm loving my little app and looking forward to doing my updates on Sunday :rotfl:

Looks like you're doing very well so far, excellent savings :T

Just wondering how you're getting on with new Coop online banking ?
I ask because I loathe, detest and despise it so far :mad: It makes me want to move banks - that bad. thank goodness for great app !

Happy journeys for the weekend :j

Cheery_Daff

Thanks ladies

Co-op internet banking... Hmm... login is fine, same but bigger writing. Main thing I use it for is transfers between accounts and the new way is an utter pest!! A big giant list of all the transfers i've ever made between all 5 of my accounts - really confusing!

Don't understand why it can't be the same as the app - pick an account to transfer from (and it shows you the balance for each one, not just account number) and to. Internet thing just feels untidy and hard to navigate!

Won't make me change bank, but i'd much rather use app (although that's been crashing a lot the last couple of weeks - wonder if that's because everyone's using app instead of new internet bank?!) :rotfl:

Knitting on train now

Karmacat

Hope you're having a great weekend and tell us what you're knitting when you're back, please

rtandon27

Is it your London weekend Cheery? If so have fun!!! :j:j Tell us all about it & what you are knitting!

As to raving about YNAB - don't stop! - it's fabulous to hear about everyone's different moneysaving obsessions!;)

My budget tool consists of a homemade x-cel spreadsheet - I look at it once a week & create a 'fresh sheet' each month - that brand new feeling is really great - but then I like the fiddling - this month will be extra fun as we have two salaries for the first time in 6 months:j - means joint debts accrued over that time will get a good wack at & I can go back to clearing 'my' debt - the legacy from having an ex!:rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

I love reading about other people's money saving obsessions too this is clearly a good home for us! :rotfl:

I'm knitting socks Love knitting socks self-stripey wool and double pointed needles :j So cheerful and ideal for trains :j

Need to find a new pattern though - this is just a really basic one i got free with a ball of wool years ago - simple but not the most elegant socks :rotfl: Also i accidentally bought several 50g balls of wool from the internet that i'm trying to get through, but 50g only does one and a half socks with this pattern so they're a bit madly coloured! :rotfl:

On final leg of train back from London :j had a lovely of exhausting weekend and ate SO MUCH FOOD! Freezing yesterday so we went from cafe to restaurant to gallery to restaurant to pub to jazz club to restaurant :eek:

Stuck within budget though :eek:

Then I was pretty much FORCED to buy a new pair of boots Reduced to £35 (actually i have no idea what they were reduced FROM!) Dark red ankle cowboy boots with all manner of buckles and chains which i adore and a folded over knitted bit at the top. Sound bonkers - will find a photo when I get home. Look great with jeans and my friend was convinced they'd look great with a skirt too but i've never quite got into the ankle-boots-and-skirt look so i'll have to experiment!

Needless to say i didn't have £35 in the clothes budget so will have to swipe it from my general fund spends money. Worth it though - I'm really rather taken with them :j :j