Cheery's country living adventure

Moneywhizz

Glad my post prompted a return to your diary. Look forward to your holiday posting and your goals/plans for next year.

Cheery_Daff

Morning MSE chums :hello: Hope you all had merry festivities :j :j

All cheerful here :j Christmas eve we had a visit from our farming neighbour and young daughter (I think they were trying to stay out of the way while Mummy helped Father Christmas :rotfl:)

Christmas day was just us, and we went for a couple of walks and fed treats to the chickens :j Very jolly :j

Boxing day I barely moved off my chair currently watching all episodes of Call the Midwife which is quite an undertaking :eek: :rotfl: but it's making me sit down and do my knitting, and I'm pleased to report that yesterday I actually finished a sock that I started in about March :rotfl: Hopefully I'll finish the second before I go back to work :rotfl:

Last night some local friends were meant to be visiting but they actually managed to not be able to find our house so went home again :rotfl: they only live a few miles away so we packed up mince pies and went to them :rotfl: they were quite embarrassed but it was good for us because it had made us tidy the house, and also made me feel like I wasn't the only vaguely incompetent person (I managed to suck the veg knife up the Hoover the other day - winning at life indeed) :rotfl:

Today our favourite cafe is open again so that's where we are :j Family visits on Sunday, and not many other plans :j

Cheery_Daff

Family visiting done :j Quite an undertaking in my family as I have to go to three different houses :eek: :rotfl:

And I had to do it all without poor Mr Cheery, who has shingles :eek: Poor thing is feeling quite ill and in rather a lot of pain

In non-MSE news we ticked off a 2020 goal by booking a trip to the ballet next Friday :eek: £70 for two tickets :eek: and I refused to pay an extra £2.64 for insurance so Mr Cheery had best be feeling better by then!! :eek: :rotfl:

Karmacat

Poor Mr Cheery! That is indeed *very* painful I hope you both get to the ballet - is it modern or classic? I love ballet

Cheery_Daff

Classic one KC, and in a building in a nearby town that has been on my list to go into since we moved! :j :j Most exciting :j

Today has been sunny :j And will probably be the last sunny day of my holidays So much wanted to be outside - but sadly I had a deadline that I'd not managed to meet before I left for Christmas... It's an application for a little external role - not even necessary or important to anyone other than me, won't come with any extra pay, and I probably won't get it anyway :rotfl: but if I *do* it'll look great on my promotion application next year :j And Future Me would NOT have forgiven Present Me if I hadn't applied...

Anyway, that took til about 2.30, and then me and Mr Cheery ventured out into the world to our favourite cafe - and were reminded why we only ever go as soon as it opens :eek: It was packed, couldn't even squeeze onto a table with someone else, and other people were hanging around to get in :eek: :eek:

We scarpered, had a very gentle bimble round some charity shops, and had a decidedly mediocre scone (served on a slate of all things) in another cafe. Hmm.

Anyway, today has been kind of the start of my new year (well, not really, but as it's Monday...) so I've made a start with my new flylady and exercise routines :j :j :rotfl: :rotfl: Will I be the only person to wimp out of my new years resolutions before the new year even starts?! :rotfl:

Speaking of routines - today is Monday Finances Day :rotfl: :money: Off to do the last YNAB of the year - and it's bound to be in a right old mess as I didn't record much over Christmas I may be some time...

Cheery_Daff

Oops, haven't been doing YNAB all this time, I promise

Did take a while though as I'd not entered much on the app while I was dashing round doing my last minute Christmas shopping so I had a LOT to add in...

But it's done now :j :j and I've done a cursory adding in of the MB dosh too (I don't keep track of that in YNAB so every now & then just need to update the total).

Tomorrow I'll do some totals from 2019 :eek: :eek: and set out some financial plans for 2020 :money:

Cheery_Daff

So, we are having a quiet evening in as Mr Cheery is still rather under the weather, so I'm doing a bit of tallying up :j

First of all, a year of Matched Betting, which I finally plucked up the courage to start on 16th March.

March: £163
April: £812
May: £872
June: £552
July: £591
August: £570
September: £352
October: £300
November: £394
December: £191
TOTAL: £4793

Obviously a flurry at the start with all the easy sign ups, and after that some months better than others. I didn't quite make my aim of £5100 (the cost of the original building work) but I got pretty close :j

The swings are partly because some months are busier for me at work, or the weather is nice and I'd rather be outside :rotfl: This is a side hustle after all, on top of a full time job and everything else

Casino is responsible for some of the swings of course - some months work out better than others, but casino is responsible for £2300 of that total so near enough half - and it's less reliant on being around at set times so often fits in better with what I'm doing.

So, that's the good stuff :rotfl: :rotfl: Now let's delve into the YNAB reports....

Cheery_Daff

And YNAB categories (possibly slightly oddly organised but I'm not reorganising them now!) Also rounding up to the nearest pound

My fun spends = Average £100 a month (£1207 total)
Food & household = £219 a month (£2627 total) (Mr Cheery spends some cash on this too so not quite accurate - doesn't spend that much though)
Diesel £157 (£1894)
Chickens £37 (£441)
Treats budget (tea and cake in cafes, the odd meal out) = £135 (£1626)

Won't bore you with the gas bill/mortgage etc - that's a thrilling post for another day as I try to reduce everything :rotfl:

This lot is all in annual totals as I want to get on and do something else this evening

Mr Cheery's spends (that aren't just bits of cash while out and about) = £775
Magazines and memberships = £729 :eek:
Dentist = £421 :eek:
Christmas = £401
Garden and land = £379
Diploma (mostly events and tutorials) = £264
Birthdays = £214
My spends (hmm, need to combine my categories..) = £271
Giving = £80 (pathetic!)
Budget fiddling = £1300 :eek:

Hmm :eek: :rotfl: :rotfl: Some clear areas for improvement there :eek:

'Net worth' (in this case just the amount in our bank accounts) is DOWN £1300 - but I'm not too worried as we've shelled out for building work, new car etc, and it could have been a whole lot worse

In terms of savings, we've currently got monthly amounts set aside for all annual bills as appropriate, all January's bills covered, and several savings pots (which I may reallocate)

Car maintenance: £250
Home maintenance: £6.30 (took a hit with the recent purchase of excessive power tools)
Household emergency: £1000
Income replacement: £6526

Not tooooo bad. Want to get income replacement up a bit (not decided on number yet) then will start throwing at mortgage again.

And on that note - see you next year! :j :j

StrawberrySuze

Happy New Year Cheery, here's to nice cafe trips, a light at the end of the renovating tunnel and lots of MB riches :beer::j:D

Tescodealqueen

Happy New Year Cheery. All looks good. I have had a couple of Christmas get 5 magazine for 5 pound offers recently including Country Living , I do cancel the payment and start up again with a new offer. Felt guilty at first but I figure they need numbers of subscribers to attract advertisers so if they weren't happy to let us do it they wouldnt so that eases the guilt a bit and I get my fix of monthly magazines.