Cheery's country living adventure

themadvix

They look great Cheery, I think I might have to do this (although limited fabric stash, so will have to wait until charity shops reopen for some). Have just wrapped niece's birthday present (rather large Playmobil box - secondhand) and resented using the wrapping paper knowing that a) it'll be torn off by niece (she is only four!) and b) sister wouldn't keep and reuse it anyway... (unless I can sneak it away after they've unwrapped on the doorstep...). Will be peering through the window to watch her play with it

Pity about the walk, but snow!

Cheery_Daff

Ha, yes Vix, I was always slightly resentful about wrapping paper! I've actually got three rolls that I bought in the sales last year which I'm going to try to keep as long as possible, probably just using it to send small presents to friends' children in the post. 

So we've had a nice day! Pancakes for breakfast, a bit of light pottering, then after checking the local webcams after lunch we ventured into town. There had been quite a lot of snow (and it was still snowing and quite windy when we should have been on our walk, so it was the right thing to cancel), but by then it had warmed up, the snow plough had been down our lane, and the roads were clear. 

Got a LOT of bargains in the supermarket, they had LOADS of reduced veg, and not just Christmassy stuff We got 3 boxes of blueberries for the freezer, some fresh herbs, a couple of boxes of tomatoes, plus chicory, avocado, mangoes, corn on the cob, bags of spinach etc. Also got a few packs of wholemeal pittas reduced to 15p to go in the freezer. There was so much it was ridiculous, and I imagine a fair bit of it will go in the bin sadly, as it was already almost 3pm by that point

So we have lots of veg to use up! Which will encourage me to cook some wholesome meals Aubergine parmigiana tonight - meant to be following a Joe Wicks recipe, but we had an opened jar of cheap pasta sauce in the fridge, so I basically fried up a couple of aubergines (not reduced), them set them aside and cooked onion, garlic and mushrooms, stirred in the sauce, and layered it with the aubergine, and put mozzarella on top. Had it with some of the salad and gosh it was tasty, and there's another portion for tomorrow.

Actually remembered it's our altered bin day tomorrow, and managed to get the recycling to the top of the drive before it went dark - a minor miracle   I relied SO much on watching when the neighbours put their bins out in our old house  

Took the chickens some porridge, and apples on sticks, and some hay to keep them cosy. They're coping fine with their own lockdown - don't even attempt to escape through the door any more Bit sad really but it's good they're not distressed, they seem perfectly happy, and we're making every attempt to change something about their environment every day to keep them occupied. 

While we were out their some neighbours walked by with their dog, so we had a nice long chat. They moved in late last year, and I took them a Christmas card, and we've been slowly getting to know them a bit by chatting when we bump into them, which isn't often, but the footpath past our house leads directly to their house, so is reasonably regularly. It's nice to have some other relatively new folks, and ones who seem pretty cheery and like minded- looking forward to getting to know them a bit more when we can all visit each other!

Oh, and I checked the guage on the LPG tank - 30%. Had a text the week before Christmas  saying they were delivering the next day but clearly they didn't. Must check the online account to make sure they've got the right reading. They tend to top up while they're in the area with the small truck (the big one doesn't fit here) so maybe they just ran out, and thought we had plenty left.

Right, will stop waffling!

themadvix

Depending on the supermarket they might give away the leftover stuff via either Olio (Tesco) or Too Good to Go (Morrison’s), so there’s hope!

 Sounds like you had a lovely day! Glad the chickens are coping, although they sound very pampered so I’m sure they would be!

Cheery_Daff

Thanks Vix Good point with the veg - it's Morrisons, so let's hope it does get given away. In the meantime I need to work out what to do with the mountain we've acquired!

Meant to be walking with a different friend today - she's only 6 miles away but her husband went out first thing and the roads were covered in black ice, so we decided to postpone. We'll reassess this afternoon, but it's not really warmed up at all.

Exciting morning today - I've started a new budget! As you know, I use YNAB, and was trying to decide whether to use their 'fresh start' feature, which wipes all your history but keeps your budget categories. Today I decided NOPE - I've just started a whole new budget, different categories and everything. It feels all exciting again! 

Some things I've done... 

* split my spending from just socialising/clothes/travel/other into a wider range, and added things from elsewhere in the budget that really are just ME, so I can keep track better - socialising/clothes/books/stationery/exercise/counselling/other

* Split the chicken budget into (1) food, treats & bedding; (2) vets; (3) building materials. Useful to see how much is day to day normal spending, and how much has been illness, extensions etc. 

* Split the car maintenance into a category for each car - one is quite a bit older and more rickety than the other (but is also used a lot less). Hoping to limp it to the end of 2021 as we only really use it as a back up these days, or for taking stuff to the tip. Not doing without it though - when I'm in the office Mr Cheery would be stranded without a car. 

* Added a separate category for work - I pay for my own professional memberships, and do occasionally buy books, and there's a course I want (not need) to go on in Feb, so I thought it would be good to have it as a separate 'professional development' category rather than just in with my normal fun spends

* I've split the savings pot into separate categories
- kitchen (allocated £4k, although I can't imagine we'll spend anywhere close to this, but may need some electrical work doing)
- stable block roof (allocated £7k - again, not sure exactly what this will cost)
- household emergency (new washing machine, repairs to septic tank, new boiler etc - allocated £1500)
- car replacement (allocated £1500 - hoping to get through this year though)
- holiday (allocated £1500 - we live in hope!!)
- 6 months income replacement (allocated £16000 - but I need to work out minimum expenses rather than income, so this might go down a bit)

We're left with just under £15,000 in long term savings after allocating all those pots. It doesn't feel like much... (although clearly wildly more than I've had in the past!) but then most other potential emergencies and planned work is allocated for, so really it's fine. 

I think my financial goals this year are to
(1) keep track of the budget regularly
(2) spend within the budget!
(3) all extras to the mortgage

I'll rejig slightly on Friday (1st Jan) once I know final totals for the year. Feels good to have done some shuffling though! 

Oh, and I STILL need to cancel the damn Audible subscription - going to do that now!!

South_coast

Ooh, looking good Cheery! I love splitting money out into separate pots - it's so much better for my brain than seeing it in one big lump!

Cheery_Daff

Hmm, can't cancel Audible membership without losing my credits (which I've already paid for - 6 books worth apparently! ) So I've put it on pause for three months, during which time I WILL use them up...

themadvix

Ooh, Cheery, how exciting - my budget is due for an overhaul (personal stuff only, but this includes car expenses and stuff). Have just opened a Starling account for this as you can have actual separate pots for each thing - I hoping it's really going to help me see what I have/haven't got in each pot as my spreadsheet is a complete mess (and I've overwritten some of the formulae that DH put in for me, whoops!). I know I need to split out some categories/add some more too.

rtandon27

Ooooo Cheery - I love a good plan - you've done well to separate out your savings pots - I've also evolved to that over the years - makes visualisation so much easier!

Also here budgeting in YNAB for next month and the year ahead.  I'm hoping to reduce our grocery output by 20% going forward - other than that, no actual over-expenditures.  My financial tidy needs to include getting my head around optimizing our savings and automating any money shuffling between accounts - It needs to be effortless to work for me!  Also need to make plans for the 2nd half of next year before OH's pension starts coming in in Jan 2022.  Our instantly accessible pot that covers his monthly contributions will be depleted by June & I'm wondering if we can make it through without touching the ISA's???

Karmacat

I love the sound of your food mountain - how brilliant is that!   And I can really understand not wanting to lose your YNAB history - I don't know when we'd ever look at things like that, but I'm the same, I hate losing information like that :

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, more budgetters, how fun! Sounds like you've got a good challenge on your hands there RT! 

Fortunately my history is NOT lost as it happens KC, hooray! It'll essentially just be stored in a different spreadsheet, so I'll be able to access it, but not from within the new budget, which I never did anyway. I do like looking back as well! 

Quite pleased with my new categories, and I do love a bit of novelty.

Looks like there's not going to be much chance for spending anyway - we're heading into tier 4 from midnight I'm surprisingly disappointed - we had ONE meet up with friends planned for this entire fortnight, it was postponed yesterday because of the bloody snow, and now we can't do it at all

Still, I did have a relatively impromptu meet up and walk with a local pal this afternoon which was lovely. 

Bonnie, one of the new chickens, has been under the weather today. Mr Cheery brought her into the house earlier for treats and a warm up. She's in the hen house with the others now, but sat on the floor by the door, not all snuggled with them like she usually is.

She'd best pull round - I just cannot be doing with any more things happening this year