Cheery's country living adventure

Cheery_Daff

Oh, and the premium bonds winnings arrived in the bank so I've transferred to the kitchen fund, which now stands at £1596.11 😁

We got a quote for dismantling and transporting one we found on ebay the other day (down south somewhere, so quite a distance) - the total was £1300 so we've already got enough to cover that! Be nice if we had enough to cover the cost of the actual kitchen too - we should do if we get a second hand one, fingers crossed. 

Cheery_Daff

Oh, and while I'm thinking about it - I must take the dosh out of premium bonds for the windows and new car. Hate taking money out of premium bonds! But that's the savings account and it's better to do it at the start of the month rather than being resentful near the end 😂 And I'll have to get used to it - all the money for the builder is in there too! Question is, am I going to be all sentimental about keeping my oldest bonds that I've had since a child (and which have won precisely nothing in 40 years) or will I request the newer ones (which takes longer and is more of a faff??) 🙄

beanielou

Boo to dentist.
Yah for second jab.
My second one was much more stabby than the first one too.
Also been very very tired since the second one.

Cheery_Daff

Aha beanie, thank you - I'd been feeling a bit lacking in energy today but I'd forgotten about the jab 😂 Not as severe as last time when I kept falling asleep but I've definitely been on a bit of a go slow...

Fortune_Smiles

I had my second jab this afternoon and it was much less stabby that the first one 😊  But that might be because I told the vaccinator I was nervous because of my stabby first jab 😆  He was very gentle with me 😊

Fortune x

Cheery_Daff

I forgot to take my little card thing so maybe my stabbing was a punishment Oddly enough my arm doesn't hurt at all today, whereas it was sore for several days last time despite the initial less pain. 

Checked mortgage balance, about £100 lower than my spreadsheet which was nice Realised they were open til 8pm so tried to ring - but got a recorded message saying 'we are open 8am until 8pm, please call back during those hours' - it IS during those hours! Skiving off ten mins early, tut tut I'll ring in the morning. 

Much as it pains me, I'm going to drop it back to the normal monthly payment of £919.99 for a while. This vexes me because it takes my mortgage free date up to March 2042, only 11 months off the original! and I'll be 61!

However, it will let us save £2320 over the next four months, so add that to the existing kitchen fund is a total of almost £4000, plus whatever we can rustle up from extras between now and then - I'd anticipate another £1000 hopefully, so a total of £5000. Builder's quote was about £13,000, with the cost of the actual kitchen on top, so £5000 towards that will be a substantial addition. 

Part of me is a little worried about savings in the future. We're estimating about £20,000 for the building work in total, which will 'only' leave us with about £25,000 in savings (more than we ever had before this, and even more than we had when Mr Cheery gave up work completely (!) but still!). We've been overpaying the mortgage by almost £600 a month, which is great, but once I drop to four days a week we'll lose about £500 a month. 

Much as I want to get back to overpaying the mortgage, I do want to build the savings back up a bit. Obviously we'll need a new car, and we haven't been on holiday since a weekend at a friend's house in 2017 so even a couple of days away would be nice... And we were meant to be replacing the stable block roof - farmer kept putting it off, then Mr Cheery was ill so we didn't care, and now we're getting close to swallow nesting season and we've had some in there before so I'm not even mentioning it til the autumn now. And there are various other things that we've been putting off buying (and will likely do for a while) - not least a new mattress. 

I don't know, maybe I'm just tired and in scarcity mode. I feel like we've overpaid the mortgage LOADS in the last couple of years, and it's only taken 11 months off the end date, and won't even have saved us any interest over the original estimate (because our current fixed rate is higher than the one we started with). 

Still, we've NEVER spent anything like this building work money before, and are unlikely to do so again. And once the building work is paid for, we can start saving some and drip feeding bits to the mortgage again. My wages will go up again each year, and I'm planning to apply for promotion again next year (whether I'll get it is another matter). 

And who knows, Agent Million may yet call...  

Karmacat

Oh Cheery!  Scarcity mode is completely understandable ... and you were feeling overwhelmed yesterday, which is why you went to Flylady ... and you have a *big* property, with a lot of different things that need doing ... there's an awful lot going on.  Take care of yourself.

Cheery_Daff

Thanks KC, I know this will pass eventually! Trying to do too many things at once at the minute 🙄 Anyway, if we rustle up £5k 'extra' then we'll only lose £15k from savings, even less if we end up with a second hand kitchen, so all good.

Getting closer to a car I think. Mr Cheery has identified a couple today that would meet requirements. If they're still available tomorrow, I'll ring about going to see them Friday or Saturday. Can't wait to get that job over and done with!! Not least because I suspect there is something slightly amiss with the existing car but can't take it to the garage until we have another one... 🙄

Got all caught up with Martin's email this evening and have applied, and been accepted for, an Amex credit card 😮Not had one for years 😮 and still have mixed feelings now. But it will offer an extra level of protection if eg we buy a new kitchen and has cashback attached so we'll be able yo use it for shopping. Watched a video about setting it up in YNAB and will pay off in full every month of course.

Right, snoozing...

Cheery_Daff

Urgh, today is NOT going parti ularly smoothly. Blaming hormones (and possibly vaccine) for wading-through-treacle head 🙄

Took forever to drag myself out of bed. Tried to wake up in cafe and did a little, but since I got back been going round in circles. Keep starting things then stopping them again.

Only useful thing we've done is sent a message about a car! Finally! May come to nowt but feels like progress at least. We've said we can go and test drive tomorrow or Saturday so let's see if we get a reply...

Only got about an hour now before we have to stop and get our acts together for a vets trip. What a waste of a day! 🙄

Chiglepig

I hate days like that - especially when I suspect they're hormonally inspired - I just try to be kind to myself and think how much more productive tomorrow will be. Also, try writing down everything you have done, I bet it's more than you think.