Cheery's country living adventure

Cheery_Daff

Right, I've made myself a cuppa, and sat down in the study with the aim of sorting out some financial stuff. Been putting some of it off so I'll have a list, and I don't want it to take longer than an hour! :eek: Going to break everything down into teeny tiny steps

* reconcile YNAB
* check back to notes about what needs transferring into and out of accounts each month
* check money went into PO savings account
* transfer rest of balance in to there
* check if I can set up regular transfer, and if not, put note in diary for appropriate days
* set up online account for new NW account
* transfer in whatever needs transferring according to my list
* check how to open regular saver (and do if it's possible online)
* apply for TSB account

Then, once all the bank account shuffling is done...

* pay car tax for little car
* file couple of bits of paperwork in a sensible place

Lots of things, but each quite small - I've just been putting them off!

Cheery_Daff

Hmm, being thwarted by technology :rotfl: :rotfl:

* [STRIKE]reconcile YNAB[/STRIKE]
* [STRIKE]check back to notes about what needs transferring into and out of accounts each month[/STRIKE]
* [STRIKE]check money went into PO savings account[/STRIKE]
* [STRIKE]transfer rest of balance in to there[/STRIKE] - always slightly alarming as nothing happens instantly so I can't SEE it's happened :eek:
* check if I can set up regular transfer, and if not, put note in diary for appropriate days - yes I can, but as I can't transfer into NW yet there's not much point
* set up online account for new NW account - apparently this is already set up as part of the application - but I can't get into it yet because you need a card reader the first time
* transfer in whatever needs transferring according to my list
* check how to open regular saver (and do if it's possible online)
* apply for TSB account

Then, once all the bank account shuffling is done...

* [STRIKE]pay car tax for little car[/STRIKE]
* [STRIKE]file couple of bits of paperwork in a sensible place[/STRIKE]

On a roll now, and I've had reminders for both house insurance and insurance for big car :eek: so might take a look at those too...

Big car renewal price is £180 for both of us - cheaper than last year, so I might have a very quick check then just let that roll.

House insurance is £330 (think I already moaned about that ) so might need more of a check

Insurance for little car is due end of Feb too - last year it was £700 :eek: :eek: Car only cost £500 :eek: :eek: :rotfl: The perils of only ever having one car between the pair of you - as Mr Cheery had already been driving for 20 years when I met him, and I didn't pass til after I met him, and we've always shared a car, I've only ever been a named driver - which means they now act as if I'm a reckless 17 year old boy :eek:

Hopefully a year of careful driving will have knocked that down a bit at least :eek:

Karmacat

You're on a roll, Cheery! All sounds very good - and I really hope the car insurance comes right down!

Cheery_Daff

Right - more things ticked off! :j

applied for TSB account - single this time as you need to go into the bank for a joint one and there's not a chance of that :rotfl: Mr Cheery knows of course and all above board (will only be sticking £1500 in there anyway)

Did a couple of quotes for the car insurance. Tried a multi car one - didn't bother last year as we'd only had insurance for one for about 2 weeks when we bought the second car, and we bought the second one in the 10 days between exchanging and moving so we had enough to do :rotfl:

Anyway, initial investigations suggest we might be able to get both for £500 :money:

I'll check them separately too (YAWN), but renewal for big one was £180 (down from £356 last year apparently!) - not had renewal for little one yet, but it'd have to be less than £300 to make it worthwhile having separate (and given it was £700 last year this is unlikely...)

Anyway, I very much like the idea of having both on the same policy - saves paperwork and faffing :j :j

Not buying anything yet as remembered late in the day that Mr Cheery had a small 'incident' last year when someone clipped his wing mirror, then caught up with him at some traffic lights and yelled at him and threatened to report him for failing to stop :eek: (the other guy hadn't stopped either...). Poor Mr Cheery isn't used to being threatened :eek: and was rather alarmed - so we reported it to the police ourselves. Of course nothing came of it and it's all been dismissed (there was no damage) but we did have to notify the insurer.

I completely put the whole thing out of my head, can't even remember when it was, so need to dig out the paperwork and see - it's in the loft though so not tonight.

And now I'm stepping away from the computer and going to talk to Mr Cheery about something other than finances :rotfl: :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

Afternoon MSE chums :hello:

Gosh it's chilly :eek: Is it snowing where you are?? I went to work on Tuesday (had to drive to one city and get the train to another) and didn't get home til Thursday evening! :eek: To be fair, I knew we were going to get quite the dumping of snow on Tuesday night so I arranged to stay over, and I probably could have made it home on Wednesday night but had to be back early Thursday anyway and had a comfy bed at my friend's house...

Spending not toooo bad. Train on Tuesday will be covered by work, there was a free buffet lunch and I snaffled cake to share with my friend too :j Went out for a curry with other work pals in the evening which ended up costing £25 as we shared the cost for the one person there who wasn't on a permanent contract (an excellent tradition which I'm happy to support).

Wednesday I was on a course, and of course as I hadn't gone from home, I had no dinner with me so ended up with butty and crisps from the cafe, and paying for tea during the day too :eek: On Thursday it dawned on us that we could just go and use our own tea kitty in the other building for free tea so we did that instead :rotfl: And I'd gone to the supermarket the day before and picked up some lunch items for cheaper than the cafe so not too bad.

Today I'm working at home :j but we did nip out to a cafe this morning Didn't have a scone though as I'd already eaten, and we got to the end of a loyalty card so tea for 2 of us plus one teacake was £4.70 :money: Not too bad. No plans to go anywhere else for the rest of the day.

Uber Frugal Month has gone by the wayside a little bit I don't plan to catch up with all the posts I'm counting it a success that it prompted me to sort out all my bank accounts to get much higher interest - with help from you lovely lot too of course :money:

Mind you, there is still plenty to sort out in relation to that - we've not had any post since Monday because of the snow so I'm expecting a flurry of letters with login details and new cards to appear all at once next Monday :eek: :rotfl:

Karmacat

Sounds good, Cherry, though fancy your course not *providing* free tea! Is that a thing now? Dear me ...



I'm glad UFM was of some help to you - it was definitely a help to me to work through the stuff, and then look at what you'd written on here about each thing, so thank you for that.

Cheery_Daff

Didn't occur to me that there would be free tea at the course :rotfl: Strange now you say it as there often is But this was organised internally (although with an external trainer) and work is trying to cut down on non-essential spends... Anyway, as we all work there, we have access to free tea anyway in our own kitchen - it was just a few buildings away :rotfl: (And the course was in a computer lab - maybe they figured they were best not providing tea in one of those...)

Just been out for a stomp round the fields - now I'm working at home more I'm trying to get out for at least one little circuit a day Just half an hour today as the sun set, beautiful sky and some epic views in the snow :j Blithering cold though :eek:

But as we said the other day - it makes the inside of the house seem much warmer :rotfl:

Karmacat

I really do like the sound of your walks, Cheery!

Cheery_Daff

It was lovely once I'd got up enough pace to keep warm!

Done a factory reset of my phone this evening as thi

Cheery_Daff

Ha - I was going to say I did a factory reset as things were being stupid but now all the settings are wrong and I'll have to spend days fiddling with it.

At least it might take photos again though!

Plumber might be coming tomorrow - boiler has been leaking and water pressure drops every night and needs depressurizing every morning. Most tedious.

We're also going to have a go at sweeping the chimney in the study - isn't the warmest room, especially when you're just sat still all day, so a fire will be ace! :j