Cheery's country living adventure

rtandon27

Karmacat wrote: »

...she got quite cross with me the other day because I referred to my Hobbs dress (Hobbs is posh) as "the black/white/grey one with circles on" rather than "the Hobbs dress". I didn't dare say anything :cool: :rotfl:

Oh dear - I didn't realize H0bbs was 'posh' - just thought they were that nice store that had lovely cloths at ridiculous prices - but the sales are real ones!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I have no clue - really I don't...:o

Cheery_Daff

Busy_Mee1 wrote: »

Other people's reactions to this are quite interesting. They range from the "why are you being so tight - you only live once" to " how many holidays are you having ?" And " you are so lucky to have this lovely house" Honestly the word lucky makes me cross...we didn't win the house in a raffle :mad: I would accept that we are fortunate, and we have our health and ability to work, but we make very consious decisions about where we spend our money.

Oh Busy Mee, you are SO right! I have been surprised by the reactions of some of our friends to us buying this place - most people have been lovely of course but yes, 'lucky' is a word that's appeared a few times...

I agree - we are fortunate to have our health and ability to work, privileged not to be persecuted and largely free to go about our business - but so are pretty much all of our friends. Mr Cheery and I both grew up on council estates (unlike a lot of our friends), rarely go abroad on holiday (unlike a lot of our friends), and certainly won't be receiving a house/inheritance when our parents die (unlike a lot of our friends).

Yes we have the age difference on our side (although obviously it's not always going to be 'on our side') - but basically we got here through Mr Cheery working full time (or nearly) in an office for 25 years, and me having to do similar for the next decade or two.

Yes, we are now 'landowners', 'landed gentry' or whatever else people want to call us - some people we know seem to forget this is also an option open to them if they are also willing to work full time, scrimp a bit, spend half their daylight hours lugging stones, shovelling mud, or fixing things, drive everywhere for everything, and live miles away from their friends.

It's not difficult to understand how it happened!

Gosh, sorry! Sparked a rant from me too! I absolutely get and understand the concept of privilege, and understand and am very grateful for what we have, and compared to a lot of people, we have had a good start in life and a relatively easy ride. We have had no major accidents or illness in ourselves or our immediate families. In that sense, yes, we are lucky.

But when people who are similarly privileged seem to somehow think we've been lucky (rather than just made different decisions to them) it does make me cross!

Anyway, let's think about flowers and cheerful things

Karmacat

rtandon27 wrote: »

Oh dear - I didn't realize H0bbs was 'posh' - just thought they were that nice store that had lovely cloths at ridiculous prices - but the sales are real ones!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I have no clue - really I don't...:o

Sadly, thats the point - the price is the indicator I bought my Hobbs dress 7 years ago now, it was £80 reduced to £40. As you say, the sale prices are real ones :rotfl:There's quite a big distortion going on, but I'm not going to unpack it with her.

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

... Mr Cheery and I both grew up on council estates (unlike a lot of our friends), rarely go abroad on holiday (unlike a lot of our friends), and certainly won't be receiving a house/inheritance when our parents die (unlike a lot of our friends).

Indeed! As you probably remember, I've just inherited a third of the price of my mother's house ... it's made a *huge* difference to my finances, and that's luck, pure and simple.

Yes we have the age difference on our side (although obviously it's not always going to be 'on our side') - but basically we got here through Mr Cheery working full time (or nearly) in an office for 25 years, and me having to do similar for the next decade or two.

I know you'll have thought about the effects in later life of that age imbalance. But all that will be a long, long way away

Yes, we are now 'landowners', 'landed gentry' or whatever else people want to call us - some people we know seem to forget this is also an option open to them if they are also willing to work full time, scrimp a bit, spend half their daylight hours lugging stones, shovelling mud, or fixing things, drive everywhere for everything, and live miles away from their friends.

I just *love* the thought of you being landed gentry :j:j:j
And you're perfectly exemplifying that saying that I found, "the harder I work, the luckier I get". It includes lugging stones about and fixing things, as well as the academic work for your professional life. I'm really chuffed for you that you managed to go for both.

But when people who are similarly privileged seem to somehow think we've been lucky (rather than just made different decisions to them) it does make me cross!

Thats the thing! 100% yes. It still surprises me that some people don't understand that.

Anyway, let's think about flowers and cheerful things

#raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens#


Didn't there used to be a rainbow smiley? Have some cake instead:
:bdaycake:

Cheery_Daff

Thanks KC

Slightly embarrassed at my ranting now :rotfl: In truth I'm having a bit of a grouchy day - no good reason, just hormonal and got a bit of a cold and too busy being distracted and not doing what I'm meant to be doing so feeling a bit useless

Hey ho. At least I haven't spent anything yet! :money: That'll change though as I'm off to the instrument repair lady this evening... but that cost was planned and budgeted well before Christmas and something I use frequently and brings me a lot of joy so it's as well that it works! :j

Right, have done a couple of small cheery things to get myself out of my funk, and in the half hour I've got left sat in front of my work computer I'm going to get SOMETHING finished at least, so I can start tomorrow with a sense of achievement :j :j

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, forgot to say the post office savings account pin numbers arrived today :j Can't do anything with them as they haven't yet given us an account number but I'm hopeful this will arrive soon! :j

I've made a note to open the current accounts on Monday (finances day). Trying to stick to the old Flylady idea of having a weekly plan with designated things on set days so I don't get sidetracked trying to do everything on the same day.

:think: how's that going for you today, Cheery? :whistle:



Anyway

Monday - YNAB and finances
Tuesday - admin (paperwork, filing etc)
Wednesday - errands, posting things (usually the day I'm in the city)
Thursday - washing
Friday - general clean round the house
Saturday - clean out the chicken house
Sunday - get all the rubbish out of the cars

Only had a week and a half and I'm not doing great :rotfl: :rotfl: But the intention is there! :rotfl:

WannabeFree

Jumps out of luking

Realises I just 'lucky' in the wrong sense and can offend people I'm so guilty of this I would say 'Oh you're so lucky to have such a nice house' Not mean lucky you've had it handed to you on a plate but more in the sense 'its nice you have such a lovely house' But now I've read the posts I realise it doesn't come across that way sometimes

P.S I'm sorry if I have said that to you Cheery or anyone else

Turned into a longer post than I thought - jumps back into lurking :A

x

Busy_Mee1

Aww Wannabe I doubt anyone could take offence at anything you said because clearly everything you say and do comes from a good place and is meant in the right way.

I aspire to be as nice as you

Cheery_Daff

Aw wanabee, please don't feel bad! darn it, this always happens to me when I rant I do it so very rarely and then when I do I always upset somebody nice

I'm just grouchy today hormonal and unproductive and Mr Cheery is grouchy too and now I've upset cheery people on the internet and really I think it's about time I just went to bed

WannabeFree

I'm not upset and not at you certainly not, I just realised how it 'sounds' when it's wrote down and I agree with you btw it would make me want to say something back I'm glad you are/where grouchy and posted it as I'd have never have thought of it from the other side.

I hope you and Mr Cheery are both feeling better/happier soon.

x

Karmacat

Awww. When its well meaning people who speak up, with kindness, even though there's grumpiness involved somewhere internally, it usually ends well


:kisses3::kisses3::kisses3: