Cheery's country living adventure

missymoo81

 Big hugs Cheery. What an awful time for you 😢. It’s easy to forget how dear loved ones are and how short life is sometimes. I’ll be giving OH an extra big squeeze today. Much love xx

Cheery_Daff

Thank you all for your kind words xxx Life is indeed short sometimes xxxx

Funny old day here. I was SO tired last night, and slept really well until Mr Cheery joined me at 5am, but then I just couldn't go back to sleep, and was tossing and turning and uncomfortable, so I ended up on the sofa, where I dozed fitfully til about 9.30, made pancakes for breakfast, then snuggled up and read til about 11, at which point it was SO DARN COLD (although I was cosy under blankets) I could see my breath in front of my face (!) so got up to put the heating on. 

Ended up having a sneaky daytime bath, since the weather was so vile I confess I was most indulgent and kept topping the hot water up and was in there nearly 2 hours

I've done a couple of minor admin tasks, cleaned the bathroom, and sat with the chickens for an hour, but otherwise not much. 

but I've been investigating Premium Bonds, after a comment on Karmacat's diary, and I think I may well go for them for a year to replace our savings account, which has just dropped to 0.1% (or 0.01% - must check!) I've got various regular savers with smaller amounts, but this is the main bulk of savings, which I'd prefer to be accessible (and able to drip feed if I find another suitable regular saver). I've checked the premium bonds calculator, and for the amount we'd be putting in, and with 'average luck' (ha!) it reckons we'd get more than the best savings account - obviously we'd see about that... but the amounts of interest on the dosh we've got would be relatively small anyway, so I think I'm willing to give it a go for a year and see how we get on

It does add a teensy bit of excitement to the banking at least, doesn't it?!

I've already got £5 worth that someone bought when I was born (and which has won literally NOTHING in 40 years) so I need to dig out my number so I can add more to the same account. I've still got time to do it and get into the March draw I think... 

missymoo81

Hey cheery, I have the house deposit in premium bonds as my saving account. So far since august (I think) I’ve won about £250. 

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, that's exciting Missy! 

Well, of course it's not straightforward  

Found my old holdings number (hooray for filing!) and tried to register online. But for some reason the system won't recognise me. No problem - I just have to fill out an online form, print it, and they'll post me a password. Except I don't think I ever changed my address... Rang them, but they had a 40 minute waiting time (!) - but fortunately they also have a change of address form you can do instantly online that doesn't require logging in. Bravo! 

So that's done - just need to wait 10 days for notification, and then I can send them the other blithering form saying I want to register for online account management  

Doesn't matter - usually takes forever to transfer dosh out of the post office anyway so by the time all that happens I might be ready to buy the new bonds! 

Cheery_Daff

Ah - Post Office website is down. 

Each job always seems to spawn lots of other little jobs!

Hey ho. Tea and toast instead I think

I don't think there's anything else financial to deal with this month, but February brings renewals for car and house insurance, and one of the regular savers runs out, so it would be nice to get this out of the way before all that starts. 

CathT

We are still awaiting our first win here but it doesn't stop me getting excited for PB day. There is an app too which makes checking so much easier. 

I've been so cold today too, had an unplanned nap for 5-10 minutes so was even colder when I woke then! 

Cheery_Daff

Definitely a day for a hot water bottle and a blanket!!
Well I have had a surprisingly productive evening! Been putting more insulation in the ceiling, and have finished the 'dining room' end of the kitchen! Well. I've had to leave a few gaps so Mr cheery can potentially add some extra bolts into the wall... but I've finished all the bits I'm allowed to finish anyway! Would you like to see?? 

Cheery_Daff

What an absolute palaver I think there are 43 of those little spaces between the joists in total across the whole kitchen. Every single one has had to have a batten screwed into each side, then a layer of solid insulation and a layer of floppy insulation (and of course I did all the battens first as they needed to be measured more exactly, which was the right decision, but has meant unscrewing some of them to get the insulation to fit in...). And of course every single one is going to need it's own individually cut piece of plasterboard as well

I've already decided I will NOT be plastering each gap I'm going to be putting some kind of wood filler round the edges of the plasterboard and then painting the board directly - and if anybody sees fit to complain about that, well, they'll be given the Yellow pages to find a real plasterer

It's pretty MSE so far - all the insulation is off cuts from other people's projects, feeble etc, that's been collected over the last couple of years. I'd calculated we had enough to do the whole ceiling - but then realised there was enough space to have two layers, so I've done that, and we'll need to buy some more once this is used up. Still, most of it will have been free, which is pretty good!

Obviously had to buy the plasterboard and battens and screws etc - and if you remember Matched Betting paid for the ceiling itself!

Clearly we're a long way off a functioning kitchen... but today I feel a lot closer to having a functioning ceiling at least!! On a roll now - too tired tonight but I reckon I can use up the rest of the insulation we have here tomorrow, and maybe even get started on the plasterboard! Woo hoo!

Baileys_Babe

You are making great progress on the ceiling, well done.

rtandon27

Well done Cheery!  Very impressive work