Cheery's country living adventure

missymoo81

Oooh cheery love the list! I like the way it’s split into chunks of time rather than every hour, going to sit and think how I can figure out a similar list for myself to get things done next week!

Cheery_Daff

It makes things seem more realistic Missy! Otherwise something will happen and I'll miss my really specific timeslot and get annoyed. This way at least I can have a vague 'do this before lunch' and it seems more manageable. I got the idea from the Down to Earth blog, which I adore or rather Rhonda's book (which I bought myself as a birthday present and have recently been re-reading in a bid to make myself appreciate housework a bit more...) 

Right - I copied my list so I could paste it and cross some things off, but then just copied the blog link instead so I'll have to post the list in a new post... hang on... 

Cheery_Daff

OK, first of all bear with me while I try to sort out this LPG nonsense... 

LPG compare has sent me two options. 

(1) Existing supplier
33p a litre + 5% VAT (so 34.65p) for 12 months, then 'variable' for 12 months (they increased it by 6p per litre in the second year this time, so if they did that again, it would take it to 40.65p for the whole of the second year)

(2) New supplier
32.5p a litre + 5% VAT (so 34.13p) for 12 months, then no more than 3.5p a litre increase in each 6 month period following that (so if they apply 3.5p increase both times, which they probably will, it'll be 38p, then 41.5p)

It's really hard to work out average annual consumption, they don't give it anywhere, and they don't deliver at the same times. However, I've done a bit of calculating (that I won't bore you with), it looks like we use roughly 4200 litres a year. 

So... 

(1) Existing supplier
YEAR 1: 34.65p x 4200 litres = £1455.30 
YEAR 2: (uncapped, but let's assume same as this year at increase of 6ppl) 40.65 x 4200 litres = £1707.30
PLUS standing charge £70 x 2 = £140
TOTAL over 2 years = £3302.60

(2) New supplier
YEAR 1: 34.13p x 4200 = £1433.46
YEAR 2: 38p x 2100 (6 months) = £798 and 41.4p x 2100 = £869.40 = Year 2 total of £1667
PLUS standing charge £75 x 2 = £150
TOTAL over 2 years = £3250.46

Good grief, I don't know. New supplier comes in £52.14 cheaper over 2 years, BUT (a) I've only estimated our total consumption; (b) existing supplier could potentially increase MUCH more than 6ppl in year two as there's no cap; (c) I've assumed we'd have an even delivery across each of the time brackets, which it's likely we wouldn't. 

So really, it's much of a muchness I think. Partly I'm tempted to stay with the existing supplier for ease, but partly they've annoyed me in various small ways so I might as well try someone else new (especially as they have a capped price in the second year). Hmm - will ring existing supplier and see what they say... 

Cheery_Daff

Right. Spoken to existing supplier who dropped to 32ppl. I've emailed the comparison bloke (and as far as I can work out, it is just one bloke, LPG comparison isn't a big market ) to check the cap for the new supplier is an ACTUAL cap (not with a get out clause that if the wholesale price increases they'll increase the charge). If it's an actual cap, we'll switch. 

While on the phone, I also paid off the remainder of the account with existing supplier (£395), and switched to a variable DD, so we'll only get charged when we've had a delivery, rather than every month. What a palaver. Bring on ground source heat pumps I say! (although of course that brings its own set of issues I'm sure!)

Anyway - list progress... 

7.30-9.30 - Starting the day
- let chickens out (yes I know that doesn't need to be on a list, but I want to be able to cross it off!)
- workout
- breakfast
- shower
- tidy bathroom (pick up and fold clothes, hoover, clean sink etc)

9.30-12.00 - Plotting and scheming and errands
- wrap friend's present and put letter in envelope
- take both to post office
- cafe trip with Mr Cheery (and notebook to plan final third of the year  ) 
- possible trip to town for fruit etc (we did this, and it's crossed off in edit mode but not in published mode for some reason...)

12.00-2.00 - Lunch and sitting down
- make and eat lunch
- see if LPG people have replied to email
- banks & YNAB 
- possible blog post

2.00-5.00 - Activity time!
- measure and cut wood for kitchen ceiling (doing things in stages...)
- possibly attach battens to joists
- sort out piles of clean washing in bedroom
- hoover bedroom
- start sorting out clothes in other upstairs room
- clean out chicken house and put new feeder back in the run
- clear up chimney-sweeping mess in study

5.00-7.30 - Transition to evening
- shut chickens in run, and later in house
- make and eat tea (possibly with a couple of extra portions for the freezer)
- hoover downstairs
- washing up and clean kitchen

7.30 - Evening cheerfulness
- No particular plans, might write a letter or two, finally get round to watching some of Gardeners World, have a bath... 

Not tooooo bad, although things haven't necessarily been done in the same order, and it's 3pm and I haven't finished the 12-2 list yet...

rtandon27

Ah - but you have made progress Cheery! 👏👏👏

Cheery_Daff

(Apologies for the million posts today, it's helping me get my head straight!)

LPG compare man confirmed that cap is indeed a cap, so I've just got him checking the new supplier can deliver in a smaller tanker (people have stupidly tried, and failed to get an 18 tonne truck down here), and then I'll confirm the switch. 

Banks all sorted and looking reasonable. September is fully funded, and £200 has gone into long term savings for August. I'd prefer more - but it would have been more if my strike pay hadn't been deducted, so that's fine. I'm going to try to get at least £200 into the long term savings pot for the next 3 months (while strike pay is coming out) then aim to up it substantially in the new year.

Should also get a bit of a pay rise in September so I'm going to add that onto the mortgage payment - we're already overpaying a bit, but doing this would mean we'd be overpaying £150 a month, meaning almost another 2 years off the mortgage date (compared to now). Can't complain at that (and in fact I'm tempted to bung that extra £200 a month on it too, as long term savings are healthy right now as we didn't put any of Mr Cheery's pension lump sum to the mortgage just in case of any job loss/weirdness in current situation). 

In fact.... just done some playing with the mortgage spreadsheet (always a fun rainy day activity!)  If
(a) we add my payrise every year (which assumes I'll stay in the same job, but let's assume that for now) AND
(b) we add £200 a month for the rest of this year instead of putting it to long term savings, and £300 a month once they've stopped taking my strike pay (and we could probably add more)

we'd finish paying it off by June 2031 (by the time I'm 51, which is 12 years early), and save ourselves over £36,000 in interest

DEFINITELY going to aim for that now!

themadvix

Ooh that’s exciting Cheery! See, you might not have got everything on the list done, but you’ve done other really important stuff!!

 How was your plotting for the last third of the year? Would love to be doing some of that but things are all a bit up in the air at the moment here!

Cheery_Daff

Thanks ladies (missed you in the middle of my ramblings RT!)

Yes I'm pretty excited about all this. We'd originally planned to put some of the pension off the mortgage, but at the minute felt happier to have a couple of years living expenses to hand just in case, as things seem generally quite uncertain right now. So at least drop feeding the mortgage feels manageable (although I must remember that £200 a month is roughly what I spend on diesel in a normal commuting month... but it doesn't seem like there'll be one of them for a while anyway...)

Plotting is... uninspired so far...

Karmacat

But you've actually *been* plotting, Cheery, its just that there's more than the last third of the year involved   Paying off the mortgage that early would be brilliant.  And I love that you're close enough to Chatsworth to pop over, thats gorgeous.

Cheery_Daff

Thanks KC, you're right of course! And thanks to my longer term plottings, my shorter-term financial plottings now have a bit more focus at least. 

Yes, we are only just over half an hour from Chatsworth here! I confess this is the first time I've been since we moved here though Lots of potential for cheery days out round here though

My list-crossing-off seems to have ground to a halt... Had a nice afternoon of drinking tea, watching the rain out of the window, reading my old blog posts, pondering the future... but no DIY done yet! Still time though I suppose...