Cherry takes the reins

Cherryfudge

HairyHandofDartmoor wrote: »

Saving accounts suck at the moment. Martin recommends the best ones but some of them need you to save a set amount each month and aren't always easy access. It depends upon your needs of course.

Good luck with the mortgage overpaying, we have ten years to run on ours and would love to overpay it one day

I will have a look thanks. I have to get DH on board as he's very nervous about anything that doesn't involve leaving money exactly where it is or spending it! We need to keep an account that we could use with a month or so's notice, I think, just in case either of us is out of work and we need to draw on the EF. I did see one a while ago that I liked the look of but whether it's still available is anyone's guess. Then again we need some sort of shorter term fund in case the washing machine dies or something. We have enough savings to last us a few months but not really enough to constitute a classic emergency fund.

Wish the powers that be paid me for reading diaries! :rotfl:

Cherryfudge

So there are some good cash offers around for switching accounts - one so good it closed within hours! I scrolled down the list and found another that I really like the look of (£200 cash back and 5% on the associated savings account) but it wants more money per month than I earn. If I can persuade DH that it would be good to transfer his pay to a completely new account (:eek::eek:), it could do us two favours in one.

Well, we'll see.

Meanwhile I had an amazingly long lie-in this morning as well as an early-for-me night last night so all I have got done is laundry - oh, and fixing the sock drying whirly thing. The pegs come off it occasionally and I paper-clip them back. Saves about a pound a year.

This was supposed to be the day I made the Christmas cake. I might get as far as mixing at this rate.

Cherryfudge

Today turned out productive: lots and lots of laundry done and nearly dry on the line (so now it's draped over everything). Cake mixed late afternoon but came out of the oven half an hour ago and seems to have worked. I really feel like doing more baking now but it's late and there are lots of sorting/chucking/cleaning jobs coming to light in the far corners of the kitchen into which I delved looking for the brandy, the big square cake tin, the dried fruit that I only bought to other day, etc.

This is the down-side of working more: my kitchen used to be cleaner and more orderly. I need to go on a mission to claim it back. It was a shame to throw out some foods that were out of date but they needed to go (an ancient bag of sage and onion stuffing mix - left open! :eek: Mushrooms in the fridge gone slimy :eek:). There isn't enough cupboard space for equipment so it gets shoved in wherever there's space and then doesn't get used as much as I'd like, so maybe when I get the kitchen done (roll on 2019 - I've put my foot down about this so long as DD doesn't chose that year to get married) I will have wonderful cupboards.

So I have a Christmas cake and lots of clean clothes... then a short run with DH before tea of hm veggie soup which didn't really cost anything as I just rounded up odds and ends of veg and lentils, saut!ed them in butter, added water and a stock cube... you get the idea. We finished up some French bread with it too: waste not, want not.

The run was interesting: not a long one but the first time I've run after dark. The lights I bought last week seem to show up well and because it was cooler I think I ran a bit faster.

Spends:
Nothing
MS stuff:
Used up lots of veg for a 'free' tea.
Researched a new bank account and introduced DH to the idea.
Confession time:
Found and threw out various OOD foods... don't like waste.
Didn't get round to piano practice (not uncommon but wastes the money I'm spending on lessons).

XSpender

Cherryfudge wrote: »

The run was interesting: not a long one but the first time I've run after dark. The lights I bought last week seem to show up well and because it was cooler I think I ran a bit faster.

[

I always find I run more in winter than in summer (not this week though ), not sure if it's the dark I like or because it is cooler.

Cherryfudge

XSpender wrote: »

I always find I run more in winter than in summer (not this week though ), not sure if it's the dark I like or because it is cooler.

Cooler is definitely good! Not sure how I'll cope with actual cold, though.

Cherryfudge

I got very little sleep the night before last so I was too tired to post yesterday, but I caught up last night and here I am again.

Not much spent yesterday but I treated myself to a cheap book download, and a friend has suggested I get back into knitting with a very simple project: a baby blanket for http://www.knittingforcharity.org/blue_light_babies_giving_babies_born_in_unusual_circumstance.html. That's all very well, but how difficult can I make it?! I got some pretty wool, DK so it would be straightforward to find a pattern (I thought). Oh no. Firstly I noticed it has a percentage of wool, so it might not be soft enough for a newborn. Then I realised I don't know how big this blanket should be so I started to google patterns and everything seems to need circular needles. I have heaps of needles but I don't think there's even one circular one so I was going to set off to the shops again when I remembered there's a bag of knitting needles at Mum's old house and I'll be back there next week. So then I emailed my sister to ask if she wants any...

*sigh*.

This was all so I could have a way to wind down in the evening that doesn't involve a screen. I know I have huge amounts of books but if I switch a light on to read in bed, it will wake DH (hence the kindle, which hides under the covers! ).

I am going to put the wool down as a donation but if I end up using it for my own stuff, I'll try to remember to swap it to 'hobbies'.

26th
Spends:
Wool (donation) £2.00
Book (download) £0.99
MS stuff:
'Free' dinner at work (leftovers that we're not allowed to re-freeze, so I'll take something to add to the ingredients cupboard as a thank you).

Cherryfudge

Going to work is a good way of keeping out of the shops. Nothing spent today and almost nothing out of my share of the housekeeping this week, though I will need to do some shopping in the morning as I'm nearly out of bread and milk.

It's gone from mild to bright, clear and cold. I actually wore a coat to walk home from work this evening and I don't like coats. What's more, the guinea pig has now come indoors of a night, a bit earlier than previous years as he no longer has a friend to keep him warm.

I did some online shopping for next week's trip to work on Mum's house and the site seems to have crashed so I have that to do again. It will be about £40 so it's just as well this week's money has hardly been used. On the positive side, I've avoided ordering to the house for months and have either bought locally, carried things with me or lived off stores. I will also be cancelling my lesson for next week to make the most of the opportunity to work, so there's another tenner saved.

Cherryfudge

Spoke too early!

Online shopping completed: £43.39
Gift £10.99

Cherryfudge

I seem to have raided the shops. Shouldn't really be let out with a fuzzy head and a feeling of still having cash left over.

Spends:
Gifts £10.00 + £8.00
Pets 7.95
Hobbies £8.22
Household £1.99
Housekeeping £8.57

As I managed to buy guinea pig food in each of two different shops, I was definitely not with it!

MS stuff:
Covered an extra half hour at work.
Bought knitting wool for my own use but on sale price.
Resisted ready meals even though I was short of time to sort out a meal to take in to work. Settled for a tin at 50p... and enjoyed eating the contents.
Saw a beautiful scarf in the sales and got it while I saw it - probably for a present for DD. She would love it but I have to double check she has a coat that it will match or it may and up in my presents instead! :rotfl:

Confession time:
See scarf, above.

Cherryfudge

No spending today... not much sleep either despite the clocks changing. I started knitting so I wouldn't spend time in front of a screen before going to sleep and found I was doing just another row... and just another row! Then when I finally went to bed I wasn't quite warm enough and maybe a bit hungry so I took the advice I'd seen somewhere and went downstairs again. Made a cuppa and toast (which was against the advice but it always helps me sleep), knitted till I was warmed though from my drink and tried sleeping again. Just under five hours' sleep in the end. So the question tonight is: do I dare start knitting?!