Cheery's country living adventure

Tescodealqueen

I'm pretty sure you're not lazy greenbee! I wouldn't have all this worked out if I hadn't been using YNAB for years - you can literally just click a box and it tells you monthly averages for each of your categories for whatever date you like 😁 Nothing that actually requires any effort! (Although there is the effort of inputting it all in the first place of course).

Cheery I have quoted this bit. Gone back to YNAB recently as tried to do it on the cheap when they changed to subscription from one off payment. Can you only get these reports on a laptop I generally use an app and cant for the life of me work out how to get a proper report

greenbee

themadvix said:

Greenbee and Baileys Babe, I’m with you too - did a rough budget yesterday for the first time ever (for month-to-month spending, I do have pots for annual stuff) and wondered when I posted that on my diary if I’d get kicked out of MFW - so glad I’m not alone!

Now do I go and spend the rest of the day reading your diary from the start? It’s raining, and too soggy to garden, but I should probably squeeze in a bit of housework and some cooking before this afternoon’s yoga… 

i don’t share detailed budget info in my diary, as I’m aware I have a high income compared to many people here. And I’m now past the keeping the heating off when it’s freezing (can’t work from home when it’s too cold to type), and am generally trying to balance quality of life with financial security. Less mortgage, more pension and more savings gives me more options. Then again, I spent an outrageous amount of money on a hair cut and colour yesterday because I’m recording a video next week for a conference the week after… my colleagues get me as I am, but the general public get a more professional-looking version. Having said that, hair (and nail) costs are a lot lower than they were pre-pandemic with constant travel, conferences and customer meetings.

Cheery_Daff

I confess I am reasonably good at TRACKING, but not actually that good at sticking to a budget... I do a LOT of shuffling... and we don't really deprive ourselves of anything (but we also have pretty frugal tastes). 

It's definitely all about balancing financial security with quality of life though greenbee, as you say. I do sometimes feel weird about sharing too much here, but I do love reading it when other people do, and I learn so much, so I try to anyway. I feel like my individual income is pretty decent, but as a household we're a lot closer to 'average' I think. 

Just realised after reading your posts that I'm sat here under a blanket with cold fingers - when I could actually just put the heating on!  

TDQ - I do get YNAB reports on the laptop, yes. I've just checked the app, and can only see age of money and net worth on there, not the more detailed stuff. Hope you can figure it out! 

Right, going to put the heating on then coming back for a kitchen fund update!

Cheery_Daff

KITCHEN FUND UPDATE
Kitchen fund currently stands at £5032.42, which is 71.89% of the total we're aiming for. Not too bad. 

Didn't feel like we'd added much in October, but I've just checked and it's a total of £796.17. Much of that was from Mr Cheery's SEISS grant though, and a chunk as a wedding present from Mr Cheery's dad - plus covid study vouchers, £25 premium bonds, and £178 from last month's MB. 

No MB to add at the start of November - I've done SO little in October, and am currently just in minus figures... Might see if I can get a few free bets on Mr Cheery's accounts today to top us up a bit! 

Updated paper spreadsheet too - not looking too bad. Known costs are up to £30,690, plus likely extras for some extra plumbing, the electrician fixing the thermostat etc, plus obviously things like carpet which I've not added in yet. We've now paid out £15,469 in total - I'm quite pleased we're doing it as we're going along so it won't feel so bad at the end. 

Expecting another builder invoice probably this weekend (we had one at the end of September), and we'll need to pay the next third to the kitchen fitters when they get on site (a week on Tuesday, probably around £2600), but at least we'll have had to chance to go through another Premium Bonds draw by then - roll on Agent Million! 

Right, today's plan involves

* getting steroids into Rusty Chicken
* painting first coat on bedroom ceiling!
* getting at least THREE more plasterboards on kitchen ceiling

Mr Cheery is full of cold and doing a precautionary covid test - fingers crossed... (and also fingers crossed I don't get whatever he's got)

Tescodealqueen

Thanks for confirming Cheery, don’t often use the laptop phone and tablet so handy so definitely a job to do. 

greenbee

Do you fancy a trip down south to do my decorating @Cheery_Daff? 

I've just spent an hour or so weeding the stream in the sunshine. I thought about doing more, but need to get ready for my long covid yoga this afternoon. Which means tidying (and hoovering and dusting... it becomes much more obvious when you're on the floor or in poses for a long time!). After that I'll probably fall asleep!

Cheery_Daff

greenbee said:

Do you fancy a trip down south to do my decorating @Cheery_Daff? 

I've just spent an hour or so weeding the stream in the sunshine. I thought about doing more, but need to get ready for my long covid yoga this afternoon. Which means tidying (and hoovering and dusting... it becomes much more obvious when you're on the floor or in poses for a long time!). After that I'll probably fall asleep!

Ha - I'd much rather be doing your decorating than mine I think! 

Not going to be doing any decorating at all today I don't think. Rusty chicken isn't doing well at all, and we think she might have sour crop, so the vet's emailed me a prescription for antibiotics, and fortunately I have enough for the weekend, and we'll hopefully be able to collect on Monday from somewhere close. 

Also, we found one of our light fittings in the skip! !!!!!!. Doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it (although of course now it's grubby and stained having been in the skip overnight) so no idea why it's been thrown away. Most vexing. It's a white, plaster-style one, which you can paint (but we weren't sure we were going to) - annoyingly they're not available for delivery so I think we're going to have to drive to the nearest H0m3base (about 30 miles each way) to buy another one. Grrr. 

So no, not much blithering decorating getting done today, mostly just buying light fittings that we've already bought once, and worrying about (and shoving tablets down the neck of) chickens. 

edwink

I do admire you so much for all your dedication to your budgets and all the number crunching you do. By the way, they make good reading on here, and as I have said before your thread is so interesting. Honestly, I don't know where you find the time for all that you do at home not to mention working as well, you must go to bed exhausted some days. I think it is so sensible that you have now gone down to 4 days a week with your job and hopefully, once all the builders have finally left your quality of life will be much better with an extra day at home to spend time pottering etc.  Would be lovely to see a pic or two of your finished renovation once it is all done.  How exciting for you both and just in time for Christmas in a lovely warm house. 

Aww, Cheery you really haven't had much luck with some of your chicken's health, I really do feel for you. I hope Rusty will be ok, bless her.  It isn't easy when they are not well and won't take their medication. I try anything and everything I can think of to make them take it just like you do. It can be a bit frustrating and tiring I know especially if you have had a long day and then one of them is playing up. When I read about your milage and some of the eye-watering vet's bills you have had I feel so fortunate our chicken vet is only 5 miles away and even more fortunate that our vet actually keeps chickens herself so has a real interest in hen health. We didn't have a good experience with our first vet either. 

Keep up the good work and remember to put your heating on because it does work now, bless you x

Edwink 

Cheery_Daff

Thanks edwink xxx Yes I wish our vet was closer. If I wasn't so attached to them I might do more experimenting with different vets, as badmemory wisely suggested earlier, but now I've found somewhere I trust, it's very hard each individual time to make the decision NOT to use them. 

Weather is VILE here today. I've opened the door of the hen house, and it was still so gloomy they all just looked at me 🙄 I've left the hen house door open, but the door of the run shut, so at least they'll be dry and sheltered from the wind. Rusty is still standing, we'll bring her in the house today I think. Normally I like to leave them pottering around with the others, but I think being warm and dry today will be helpful, and we can massage her crop more regularly. 

Anyway, I would LOVE to get a bit of DIY done today. Need to get at least one ceiling panel fitted so the electrician can fit the light & smoke alarm, and I would love to paint upstairs ceiling too, just the first coat. 

Band practice this afternoon, and I need to talk to my sister at some point too.

EssexHebridean

With the hens/vet thing, it’s what you’d do with any animal outside a purely commercial environment. People who have horses can’t just use the local domestic small animal practise, even when we had the cat we didn’t use the most local vets as we KNEW (from experience!) that their service was poor - we used a local independent a bit further away who we trusted as my parents used them with their dog. If you had a sick child you’d want them treated by a Doctor who knew what they were doing- so why not the same with any other family member?! Pets are expensive, and even more so where there is no insurance option available! 

That is annoying about the light fitting. Assume you will be removing the cost of it and the travel to get it from an invoice to be paid? (Or at least suggesting that’s what “should” happen to make the point.) 

Glorious about the heating situation though - That must feel amazing, and even more so now what heat the system is producing is far more likely to stay where you’ve put it than to escape through various holes etc! 

Also very impressed with the financial analysis- we could certainly not get ours that detailed - but as you say this is the advantage with YNAB isn’t it. I’m working on the basis that I can get ours detailed enough for our purposes, so the spend on YNAB isn’t worth it for us though. Greenbee I am in a situation mid way between you and Cheery I think on the sharing/income front. My personal income is relatively low, MrEH’s is pretty high compared to many on here- I’ve not shared a full SOA on here because it feels wrong to put his income out there in a public forum like this one - it’s too much personal info.