Cheery's country living adventure

Cheery_Daff

I've made a decision about mortgage overpayments...

It doesn't make a difference to the total mortgage unless I pay in chunks of £1000 or more :mad: I didn't know that when I first paid, so I've already given them £130 which they're just sitting on :mad:

Anyway, once I'm up to £1000 in the account I'm going to transfer that (the original £130 is included in my signature, so I'll have to get up to £1130) - and then anything extra I get this year (if there is anything :rotfl: ) is going to just build up the normal savings.

Well, that's the plan anyway, let's see if it actually works like that... :rotfl:

rtandon27

That makes sense Cheery - hopefully you can get some sort of interest on it while it sits with you instead of nowt while it sits with them!:D

Cheery_Daff

I can't imagine it'll be much! Never did get sorted with a proper interest-giving account

Payday here :money: So I have diligently sorted out YNAB and am alarmed by the stretching that's required to get the available money to cover the projected outgoings :eek: :eek:

I'm mostly being foxed by my own bad accounting And the fact that I'm having a crown fitted on a tooth next week :eek: and I *did* have over £200 in the dentist pot, but appear to have pilfered it for something else at some point... :mad:

So now I'm squeezing bits out of different pots and trying to shuffle things around.

As always, grateful that I know where the next meal is coming from (and the one after that, and the one after that) but I don't like edging back towards this scrimping and scraping feeling... :eek:

So I need to have a good look at what we've been spending and see what we can do about it. We're not extravagant really (not *that* extravagant) but I don't like the fact that there's nothing going IN to the savings account, or the holidays pot, and mortgage overpayments are only coming from 'extra' things. Feels too much like living on the edge (even though it's not in the strictest sense).

Will have a good look at the budget later and give myself a good talking to...

For now though I need to go and check the washing that we abandoned on the line last night hasn't blown into next door's field :rotfl:

Tescodealqueen

Check that TSB account i mentioned since they had problems with their IT upgrade its now paying 5 % not 3% on balances up to £1500 although you do have to faff about paying in 500 every month though it can just be there for seconds and transferred back out again and just leave in what you want

Cheery_Daff

So, to start with, some monthly bills... (I'm more anticipating changing our discretionary spends at this point rather than any of these but it's as good a place to start as any....)

Monthly bills
£890 Mortgage
£167 council tax
£58.37 electric (will likely change but we're in debit at the minute after a month or two of full time electric heaters...)
£80 gas (LPG tank, just been filled, they've estimated what we'll use so this amount will stand for a year then be reviewed - I anticipate downwards)
£14 water
£40 house phone and internet
£7.63 life insurance
£7.50 Mr Cheery's mobile
£10 my mobile
£23.96 union subs
£3.50 charity payment
TOTAL = £1301.96
Annual bills, saved for monthly
£12.50 TV licence
£12.50 car tax (£30 for one, £140 for the other - and yes I can see that doesn't add up now )
£12 RAC cover for both (a slight overestimate)
£22 house insurance (based on what we paid when we moved - I'll likely shift this downwards but needed something to cover before we moved in and the cheap ones wouldn't do it)
£80 car insurance (outrageous! But we'd never had 2 cars before so I'd only ever been a named driver which apparently warranted a £770 policy :eek: :eek: !!!!!!!s. Paid upfront so hopefully we won't need all this next year...)
£10 web hosting
TOTAL = £149
Other stuff I save for (average amounts, some of these get pilfered regularly)
£50 car maintenance (£100 balance)
£50 house maintenance (£38 balance)
£15 garden (£0 balance)
£20 dentist (£250 balance - will need next week)
£15 birthdays (£8.50 balance)
£20 Christmas (£83.36 balance)
£10 car replacement (£40 balance)
£25 professional memberships (£13.80 balance - won't be having all of these next year)
TOTAL = £205

Discretionary spends (average in the last 3 months since we moved)
£180 diesel (this has been going down steadily since a mad first month)
£150 food and household (this NEEDS to reduce - Mr Cheery officially spends the food budget from his wages (cash) so what the hell is this spending?!)
£120 treats budget (for both of us, mostly cafes)
£100 my spends (this includes the 'budget fiddling' category which I use when I've forgotten what I spent...)
TOTAL = £550

Grand total £2205.96 :eek:

Which kind of explains where we are. Urgh.

Not fiddling round changing suppliers for anything again after only moving house a couple of months ago - the main area to focus on here is the discretionary spending category...

I really don't want to scrimp on the treats budget We get a LOT of pleasure from pottering about in a cafe, Mr Cheery especially and I don't think an average of £60 a month each is outrageous.

What *is* outrageous though is that £150 on food and household - when the food budget is supposedly OUTSIDE of what's in this bank account :eek: So there's MUCH potential to save there, and in my spends category (which I won't cut to nothing, but doesn't need to include things like lunch at work... )

We're trying to get more efficient with trips in the car etc too but there have been odd occasions when for the sake of sanity we've ended up taking two cars to the city (eg when I have to be there before 9am, and Mr Cheery needs to stay til 11pm - that would drive us both mad if we went together!)

Anyway, enough waffling for one morning - can see where the main problem lies, just need to do something about it! :eek:

starnac

Don't beat yourself up too much Cheery. You've just moved house, it'll take a while to settle back into things. Which I know you will as you are so good at it.

Sometimes though we need to see it written down for it to make sense. You've done that and will be back on track in no time

Cheery_Daff

Thanks starnac :kisses3:

Not helped by a flat tyre on one of the cars this morning! :eek: Still, could have been worse. Just need to ring round and find somewhere that's got a replacement and time to fit it now, how tiresome...

Remembered to bring frozen soup for lunch though :j amd yogurt and fruit for snacks :j but forgot I'm still going to be here over tea time... Might see if I can scavenge a couple of slices of toast from a friend :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

Bloody car. One tyre needs replacing, oh look, the opposite one is worn through too so you'll need to replace that, might as well have alignment done while you're here, and if you're having it done might as well pay a bit extra and cover it for two years :eek: :eek:

Urgh.

I'm sure it's better to be safe than sorry but I always feel slightly like I'm being shafted in relation to car tyres :rotfl: :rotfl:

starnac

I know that feeling Cheery! Hope it didn't cost too much

Cheery_Daff

£300 :eek: So between that and the crown on my tooth, this month's budget has been royally f*cked up :eek:

However, as usual, I am grateful that I can cover it without missing meals.

Also, free dinner with work last night :j Although I ended up paying for a taxi, a couple of drinks and some raffle tickets so on the whole I spent more than I gained...

And free lunch at work today too :j Although I did end up getting the bus both to and from the car which cost £4 - I suspect on this occasion I might have been better paying for town centre parking... :eek:

Hey ho. Once I get back tonight I don't NEED to leave home til next Tuesday :j although I suspect I probably will do at some point - certainly don't need to come back to the city til then though :j