Cheery's country living adventure

South_coast

Lovely photo Cheery 😍

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, more merry Christmasses - Merry Christmas to you all too!

Gosh it's chilly today! I just can't get warm. Lounged around in my dressing gown this morning, gave the chickens some porridge, then nipped into town - NOT my idea of a fun Boxing Day, but a gadget of Mr Cheery's had broken on Chrostmas Day, and while ordering a replacement online, he'd noticed it was actually in stock at our local branch for less than half price. 

So we parked up (for free, of course), then wandered through the park, went into the one shop, and another one for milk, then came home. 

Been sat with a hot water bottle but it's just NOT warming me up enough so I'm running a cheeky daytime bath

Still not got round to bank sorting - might do that tonight. I'll run my YNAB reports too - it'll be interesting to see how various things (diesel!! Cafes!) compare to last year. My feeling is we've spent a roughly similar amount overall. I donated at least part of the commuting costs to the food bank for the first few months - got out of the habit of that so might have to top it back up. Obviously there have been periods with no cafes, but did we make up for that when we were allowed to?? We've not been out for dinner at all this year I don't think - our favourite restaurant closed down before last Christmas and we never did find a replacement.

We've probably spent more on food, and we did have our extravagant luxury weekend in lieu of a holiday... but we've had barely any day trips, and not even that much charity shop wandering. I've probably bought more books online though...

I had three weeks on strike, so lost income there, but then we started claiming Mr Cheery's work pension.

So will things have balanced themselves out?? Who knows! 

Contemplating uber frugal January again to make sure I'm following good discipline in checking bill, savings accounts etc, and making sure the store cupboard gets rotated. We keep a decent stash here as we're so far from everything, but of course some things get eaten more quickly than others so I want to make sure nothing is in danger of going off!

Might be my evening's activity planned...

Baileys_Babe

I was like that yesterday @Cheery_Daff not being able to get warm, I felt really cold to my core. Unfortunately, I couldn't wrap up in my dressing gown as we had various online meetups with various combinations of the family 🤣

Today I feel better, but I can feel the temperature dropping.

I am going to look at us doing some kind of frugality in January, partly to reset any bad habits that have crept in and partly as I want to pay a lump sum off the mortgage.

I would like to go through all our various grocery cupboards to check what we have and discover anything we have forgotten. Also, it would be good to have a rearrange it see if we use can use the space more effectively as we replaced one piece of furniture with a new (to us) dresser in the autumn.

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, sounds like a good plan BB. Glad you're warmer too! I'm feeling much more cosy after my bath

So I'm about to dive into the online banking, wish me luck!!

Might put Call the Midwife on in the background to make it less objectionable

rtandon27

🎄❄🎅 Happy Holidays to You & Mr Cheery! xxx 🎅❄🎄

Baileys_Babe

Cheery_Daff said:

So I'm about to dive into the online banking, wish me luck!!

Might put Call the Midwife on in the background to make it less objectionable

I do the weekly banking check on a Tuesday, I'm in no rush to look before then.

I'm looking forward to watching Call the Midwife, preferably by myself with a large pot of tea.

Cheery_Daff

Sadly I've not done any weekly banking since November it seems so it was rather a job Must do better in 2021

Karmacat

That sounds like you were **freezing**, Cheery, very unpleasant.  It hasn't been like that down here, thankfully - but you've got me worried about "weekly banking" now - I don't actually check the outgoings at all!  Of course, I don't use cash any more, I just spend online - supermarket shopping, Christmas presents at JL, kindle books from Amazon for me, the veg seeds from Real Seeds etc - hmmm.  Maybe once I get the pension credits coming in, I need to start doing that too.  I'll definitely be working on the finances, so that can be added into the mix.  Have a lovely evening.

Cheery_Daff

Ha - I don't think I've done actual WEEKLY banking for a long time KC! I do have aspirations towards it though, and sometimes manage it for a couple of weeks in a row I am in awe of BB When I DO get round to it, I do mine on Money Mondays However, it seems I haven't actually reconciled finances since November

I do have a tendency to fritter on lots of smaller purchases, so it's easy to lose track of what's going in and out - if you're happy with your own spending levels there's no real reason why you 'should' do it every week I suppose - I've just got it into my head that I 'should' and then feel bad when I don't! I do like to keep track in YNAB though, and it IS easier when you do it regularly (and use the darn app to add stuff when you buy it, rather than having to tediously add it all up in one go!)

Anyway, the totals are in..... I'll start a new post.... *drumroll*

Cheery_Daff

CHEERY HOUSEHOLD FINANCES - COMPARING 2020 to 2019
Overall spending (on everything)
2019: £42,140
2020: £39,250
Difference: -£2890

So as predicted, surprisingly little difference! (I do realise we're not QUITE at the end of the year yet, but I don't think we've spent £3k this week...). I won't bore you with every single category - I'm fairly convinced I've added some things to one category one year, and a different one the next year. Christmas spending is wildly up this year, but I confess I've just lumped ALL paypal transactions from December into the 'Christmas' category as I was getting fed up of checking properly, so some of that will be from our 'not-a-holiday' weekend, and some normal household stuff and chicken supplies. 

So what are some of the headline differences? 

Reductions
Diesel: down by £1049 to £845 (which still seems a lot considering we've hardly been anywhere)
Treats budget: down by £459 to £1165 (which also seems a lot considering we've hardly been anywhere!)
Electricity: down by £331 to £605 (they were just ridiculously overcharging us last year)
Magazines and memberships: down by £330 to £325 (I pruned quite a few professional memberships, mag subscriptions etc, although still work to do)
Dentist: down by £222 to £199 (but neither of us have been since March of course, and I suspect both of us will need at least one filling)

Increases
Food and household: up by £1724 to £4351 
Chickens: up by £1094 to £1535 
My personal spends: up by £1515 to £1687 (at least some of this has got to be due to recategorisation, surely?!)

There were other smaller things that cancelled each other out, or were the result of either expected annual increases, or renegotiating deals - down £70 on the car insurance, up £72 on the MOT, down on the car tax, up on the house insurance, slightly more on birthdays and donations. My mobile bill was £87 higher over the year - I upped my data plan so I had a back up if the house internet wafted out while I was teaching online. We didn't buy a new car this year (so £1300 down on last year!), but we did have our ridiculous 'holiday at home' which cost £800 (!!!) but did at least result in new bedding, fancy lamps, nightwear, and all manner of decorations that are obviously now permanent, and all manner of food and drink that was very much enjoyed. Mr Cheery would usually be paid in cash, so I wouldn't track his spending (which isn't much, but would likely have been quite a bit of the food and some Christmas presents), but this year his income has disappeared - but instead we claimed his pension, which I'm now tracking through the bank account. 

The mortgage surprised me - apparently I've only spent an extra £649 this year which seems unlikely as I'm currently overpaying £400 a month... Will investigate - again, I expect a categorisation mishap... 

So there we have it, the Cheery family finances - or at least the current account and household spending anyway. Off to investigate the state of the savings accounts and then see if there's been an overall net worth increase... (let's hope so!)