Cheery's country living adventure
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Cheery_Daff said:
Got a LOT of student one-to-one meetings today,mostly for the same thing, so feel like I've been saying the same things over and over again 😂 Have left Mr Cheery on chicken duties while I wait for the latest one, who seems to have forgotten she's booked an appointment... 🙄 Hey ho!
I get to the end of those actually asking them what I've already covered . . . I think of it as good pedagogic practice to make them summarise what they've remembered and understood2014 starting mortgage £165,0002015 second charge £20,000 - Jan 2021 paid off in fullCurrent outstanding balance - £115,8568 -
Ha, yes, good point! These were mostly pastoral ones today, so it was actually really nice to have a proper catch up with them all 😊
And we have good news - working central heating!!! 😁😁😁 Not in all of the house, as a lot of it is still disconnected to fit the new radiators. But in the lovong room, bathroom, and the room I work in, which are the important ones. And a thermostat too!! Need to add £80 to the spreadsheet for the thermostat, and obviously extra work for the electrician as that wasn't part of the original deal, but it's definitely worth it.
And the new radiators are all attached to the wall! Most exciting. They're coming back tomorrow to finish the pipe work, then they should all be connected and working too! Can't tell you how excited I am!
No great chicken news though, Rusgy is still very off colour and not eating properly 😕 No obvious sign of anything wrong, but just not well. We have a check up at the vets tomorrow so hopefully they can fix her, but if there's not really anything wrong, it's hard to know how... All fingers crossed if you can spare them please.
Right. Work is finished for the week, need to tuck chickens into bed, make some tea (got a couple of final Hello Fresh meals left) then collapse in a heap.
Tomorrow I've got a blood test at 8.05am (how did I agree to that?!) Then another epic road trip to the vets, so we'll likely be out 1pm til about 6pm. Then I'll need the weekend to recover!11 -
Make sure you have radiator keys that fit ... you'll spend the next 6 months getting air out of the system if your pipes have as many kinks as mine! Lagging is definitely worth doing. And make sure they put inhibitor in the system to avoid your radiators rusting (and get some extra to add yourselves after you've got the air out.
Happy new heating!9 -
Yep, they are on the case with all those things. They've changed the valves on the radiators to more standard/easily accessible ones too.
So exciting being warm!7 -
YAWN - plonker of an electrician has wired the kitchen lights into the dining room 🙄we have had SO many conversations about the different lights, and he's literally moved the box labelled DINING ROOM LIGHTS out of the dining room, and fetched in the one labelled KITCHEN LIGHTS 🙄😂
Gosh, it never ends, does it??
I suspect the plumber spotted the mistake from something he said as he was leaving, but we hadn't clocked it at that point, as he'd not put the lights themselves on, just the fittings at the back.
Hey ho. He's back next week so he'll just have to do them again. They're going to be here forever! 🙄😂😂9 -
OK, let's get started with Uber Frugal Month planning! Hooray!
LPG
First up - the LPG bill. We pay each time we have the tank topped up (the monthly DD system was getting too annoying), so in the last 12 months we've spent:
£436.22 - November 2020
£613.49 - Jan 2021
£597.57 - March 2021
£69.30 - May 2021 (this is the annual standing charge)
£293.67 - June 2021 (no idea why they bothered topping us up at that point)
= £2010.25
Until today, we've only used gas for hot water since June - the system estimates we have 70% of a tank left. I'll check tomorrow in the daylight (the tank is in a field). We'll definitely get past the end of November, and will probably have a top up at some point around Christmas, depending on the weather, so let's say the average annual use is that £2010.25/12 = £167.
That's already saved us a bit, as I put £220 aside each month just in case, but that seems to be a bit high, and we currently have £736 sitting in there - that's enough to top up in November if necessary, and then Nov + Dec + Jan money will be enough to top up in Jan.
I will look at this at some point though - we were on 38.9p a litre at the last invoice, and I'm pretty sure we've had a letter saying it's going up 5p a litre, and I'm pretty sure we could get cheaper if we switched.
ELECTRICITY
Current payments £89.88 a month, and we're £166.34 in credit. They recommend lowering the DD to £72.11 - I've submitted a new meter reading and it's not outlandishly higher than the September one, so I've lowered the DD (the next payment is Monday though, so that will go through).
So overall, with a bit of shuffling, I've lowered the amount I send to the LPG fun by £53 a month, and lowered the electricity DD by £16.87 a month = £69.87 a month more to play with
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Cheery_Daff said:...So overall, with a bit of shuffling, I've lowered the amount I send to the LPG fun by £53 a month, and lowered the electricity DD by £16.87 a month = £69.87 a month more to play with ...4 YEARS 10 MONTHS DEBT FREE!!! (24 OCT 2016)(With heartfelt thanks to those who have gone before us & their indubitable generosity.)...and now I have a mortgage! (23 AUG 2021)17 YEARS 4 MONTHS LEFT OF 20 YEARS6
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That all sounds great Cheery - the electricity use should drop massively with the central heating up and running properly too, so hopefully that might come down some more yet! Great wrangling of the LPG figures too, even if they are quite scary numbers! Good to know what you’re looking at though, and you can always readjust if needed after all.🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00
Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her6 -
Yep, nothing good ever comes from hiding from your actual spending, however frightening it is!
I don't think the LPG bill will reduce, given how prices have increased, but we should be able to offset some of that by switching and fixing, and other improvements since last winter include
* insulation in kitchen ceiling
* no hole from bedroom to loft (well, the loft hatch still doesn't have a cover but it will soon)
* two extra radiators in kitchen
* double glazing everywhere
* a working thermostat for the central heating
I've always used an electric heater in my study, because the radiators never got properly hot, but they've increased the size of the pipework now so that should get rid of the need for that too. Fingers crossed.
Anyway. Today will NOT be a no spend day - partly because we are currently in the cafe 😂 and I have already been to the supermarket (and for a blood test, which took THREE people to actually get any blood out of me).
We are also going to the vets, and with two chickens, so two consultation fees even if there's no medication or scans or blood tests 🙄
Speaking of chickens... we are starting the process of adopting some new ones. We said we would before the winter (so we can separate them for a while before any bird flu restrictions kick in) and there's an adoption date on 13th Nov. Also, while we hope our two currently ill ladies will pull through,at least one of them is quite elderly and might not... Just another two I think.
You're meant to get more new ones than you've already got, but that would mean getting 5, and overall having 9, and I'm not sure either my nerves or my bank account can cope with that many 😂
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Right - two chickens reserved and donated for Collecting on the 13th.
Also - we have kitchen news! Kitchen geezers rang earlier and they're coming a week on Tuesday. So current timeline looks something like this...
Today - radiators fitted, central heating working through the whole house!
w/b 1st Nov - electrician back, lights fitted, skirting boards on
w/b 8th Nov - off work. Kitchen fitted, granite templating (hopefully) done. Collecting new chickens at the weekend
w/b 15th Nov - back to work, chicken supervision.
w/b 22nd Nov - possible granite fitting?
w/b 29th Nov - possible granite fitting (they said it might take 3 weeks...), then sink/hob fitting
w/b 6th - poss sink/hob, final electrics (fridge/oven) and plumbing (sink)
Then in between all that, I've got a few panels left to put on the kitchen ceiling, and then the whole of upstairs needs painting, then downstairs. Once skirting boards are on upstairs we can sort carpets and start using up there (hopefully). The lights work, but the plug sockets are on the same ring as downstairs, and that might not be turned on til December at this rate, so we'll have to have an extension cable if we do move in before then...
Getting there! When the builder comes back after holidays next week I'll make it very clear I want it all done well before Christmas!8
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