Cheery's country living adventure

Baileys_Babe

@rtandon27 looking forward to regular duck updates

edwink

South_coast said:

What a beautiful feel-good story 😀 Thanks for sharing

I agree a real feel-good story, well said.  Thanks from me too rtandon27
Edwink x

Cheery_Daff

Oooh, lovely story RT! Looking forward to your duck updates over the next few weeks, how lovely! 

Well, things are rather strange aren't they? Feeling immensely grateful for SO many things right now. A safe home, stable work I can do from home, a bit of outdoor space. We still have access to the thing we need (@ldi last night had run out of crisps, which I can happily live without, and was looking dangerously low on booze, but we did go about an hour after the pub-closing announcement, so that's not a surprise!)

Starting to think about plans for while this is all happening. In the short term, need to think about things like getting enough exercise, not sitting down for the entire day, not spending the whole day staring at screens, not working longer and longer hours, eating into the now 'spare' time I would have been commuting... (all things I've been doing this week...). Finding myself sitting with breakfast at my desk and starting work at 8am, and somehow still there at 6.30pm Even breaks from work I'm still sat in the same chair, looking at something different on the same screen, and I can feel myself starting to seize up already after a week

So there's that. Mr Cheery is doing a great job of clearing out the temporary kitchen - we still had a load of stuff in boxes since we moved, and even more since we knocked down the proper kitchen, so now all stockpiled food etc has been retrieved from various hiding places and he's set up a storecupboard on the shelves by the back door. We had one anyway, but hadn't been able to get at it since we shut down the kitchen. He's rather anxious about all this (and doesn't have the distraction of full time, mind-consuming work like I do) so I think knowing we have enough is making him a bit calmer. 

We had our first online social evening the other day! It was a bit bizarre... but nice to see our pals, and we ended up chatting or nearly 2 hours! It's harder than face to face though, I think there's a compulsion to keep talking. And I've been doing a lot of online/phone stuff for work (which should calm down now) so it's been a bit exhausting.

Longer term of course need to think about contingency plans for work etc - who knows what will happen there?? I don't think I'm at any great risk, but you just don't know. 

In brighter news, the first monthly payment of Mr Cheery's pension arrives at the end of the month After three months that will have covered what we'll lose because of my strike, and then we can start ploughing it into savings. 

Right, I need to get up off the sofa, giving myself a headache now with all this screen staring, and I'm all curled up and my back aches. NOT good, need to nip this in the bud. I think we're off to the tip this morning - not much social contact there! But we've been amassing an increasingly unsightly pile of rubbish since before Christmas, and if we've got to be at home all the time it would be nice to not have to look at it! Also our little recycling service doesn't take bottles, which we also haven't got rid of since before Christmas

Back later - need to get these darn savings sorted out!

Karmacat

Great post, Cheery, looking after our health and our standard of living any way we can is good.  What's the situation with your temporary/ proper kitchen, are you stuck in the middle of horrendous renovations, or are you nearly done?

rtandon27

Good Morning Cheery - good to hear you Mr has sorted out the stores in some semblance of order! - I'm sure he's a lot happier knowing what's in the house & what is available for meals.

I felt much better earlier this week once I'd done a stock-take and realized what I needed to focus on getting into the house & what did not need to be purchased!  My OH does the cooking but is not much for knowing what can be used and in what quantities, so we are always better off with a meal plan of some sort - at the moment it is a list of recipes that we can work our way through using what we have in the house.

Keeping some sort of plan for health & exercise is a good plan - I've not had enough this week and starting to feel sluggish!  Keep us posted on what are plans are for this - may need to steal a few ideas.

(Mrs Duck has hunkered down on her nest after making a layer of insulation out of dried bits of rosemary and fresh daffodil leaves - she seems to have learnt we are not a threat to her & does not even shift when we open the kitchen door to let the air in when we cook! - I do however wonder how she feels smelling eggs cooking into an omelette!)

Cheery_Daff

Aw, so pleased Mrs Duck is nicely settled RT! Don't worry, I imagine she can't tell you're making an omelette... My chickens happily tuck into their own eggs if I ever drop one! 

Thanks for asking about the kitchen KC. Things are progressing very slowly... I did a bit of plastering upstairs, but now have to do it again as I did various things wrong (not done it for a couple of years and forgot some fundamentals!) Mr Cheery's cut up some wood for the kitchen, we've amassed various bits and pieces to build things back up when we're ready. 

Mr Cheery needs to do some of the bigger stuff before I can get involved, so for now I'm focusing on upstairs, although I confess neither of us are going very quickly. I'm trying not to get too stressed about it, it's pretty much become the new normal now... Trying to get into a bit of a routine with normal things - even washing up doesn't get done regularly round here at the minute... 

Cheery_Daff

Right. I have avoided YNAB for FAR too long and I know darn well I haven't been using the app either Properly had my head in the sand lately, for NO good reason! 

So I'm going in. I may be some time... Send a search party in an hour... 

Cheery_Daff

(In fact when I logged in to YNAB it said 'Coming out of budget hibernation' - oh dear!! 

rtandon27

Oh dear! - I've never seen mine say that!
I multi-tasked on Thursday & updated my YNAB while listening to a very boring teleconference call!  Had to juggle the budget to make sure we had enough for groceries!  Most of my workday lunches are had out, so shifted all the money from there to the groceries!  Also cleared out the (very small) take-away budget as we have only one out here in the middle of nowhere & it's shut for the foreseeable future!  We've had a delivery & a veg box in so should be good for a couple of weeks until the next delivery is due!
Now off to investigate how I can get a season's pass refund as I only used one of the four weeks! (insert shrieky smiley here!)

Cheery_Daff

Excellent work RT! 

Well, I finally made it through my YNAB marathon All sorted (eventually) and I'm not going to tell you how much I had to put through the 'Budget Fiddling' category

Still, done now. And I've also set up a regular payment to my new regular saver account (which I've missed the first month of due to my dilly dallying), and set up one for Mr Cheery too, and made the first payment to that as well. Bravo! 

Oh, and I FINALLY transferred the pension lump sum to the normal savings account, yay! Will need to drip feed £1000 a month from it to feed the two savers so must remember that (but I've set them up for just after payday so if it takes a few days it's not too much of a bother). 

Oh, and I've FINALLY got round to checking the bra I ordered... Ordered 2 different sizes, so I need to return one - except I just left it sitting there and now we've gone past the 28 day window... I want an exchange rather than a refund, so I'm going to ring in the morning and ask nicely if they'll let me have it anyway... 

I *think* I'm nearly all caught up with my financial and administrative chores now! Need to find eldest nephew a birthday present (he's 14 soon, eek!) but that's it for birthdays til the end of next month I think (and the next one is 22 so just gets dosh/vouchers). All good. 

Feel MUCH better for getting all that out the way, not sure why I've been avoiding it!