Cheery's country living adventure

PurpleFairy26

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Oh that's annoying. Might email them to ask.

Hmm, that's interesting as the same thing happened to me and I just stopped getting them. Was a while ago, might email too. Thanks for the thought.

Cheery_Daff

Maybe they just got bored of hearing from the likes of us and fancied some new panelists?! :rotfl:

I am celebrating high achievement today - I successfully sorted out both car AND home insurance! :j :j :j

Car insurance I'd budgeted £500 and it cost £505, although £267 was refunded when I had to take the little car off again, and will add it back on again once the existing insurance runs out (yawn). Still, a great improvement on last year's total of £900 :eek: :eek: (because I had no NCB as we'd only ever had one car before)

House insurance I'd budgeted £300, renewal quote was £335, and through using the much-hated comparison process I got it for £225 :money: Pleased about that, and a bit extra to tuck away into the savings account (not the mortgage as it's not extra income - but it's nice to be able to add something to savings rather than taking it out for once!)

Fed up of dealing with stupid bureaucracy though - in the last couple of days, on top of this, I've also had to deal with having to re-order the LPG which has almost run out :eek: Currently taking bets on whether they'll top it up before the central heating goes off :eek:

Oh, and some stupid delivery driver 'couldn't find' our house today :mad: Didn't bother to ring though :mad: so that was another faffy phone call and messing about and he'll have to try again tomorrow.

Yawn.

Very ready for a break from life admin!

(I imagine the savings will have arrived back in the bank by now so I could theoretically transfer to new savings accounts but I just do NOT have the energy tonight and feel I should look at Mr Cheery for a bit rather than a computer screen A lovely job for Thursday!) :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

Morning MSE chums :hello:

FINALLY the PO money has arrived in the current account :j :j and I've promptly transferred it back out again :rotfl:

£2500 to the NW current
£250 to NW monthly saver
£1500 to TSB current

Can't transfer directly to TSB monthly saver as that needs a standing order from TSB current, which I don't want to set up until the money has arrived in there.

All gone with Faster Payments, but clearly in my case that was never going to be instant :rotfl: so I'll save setting up my standing orders for tomorrow.

Feel like I'm actually making some progress though! j :j :j

Still left to do:

* Standing order from NW current to TSB current for £1000
* Standing order from TSB current to NW current for £1000
* Standing order from normal current to NW saver for £250
* Standing order from normal current to TSB (to feed TSB saver) for £250
* Standing order from TSB current to TSB saver for £250

Can't set up standing orders from PO I don't think, so BIG NOTES IN DIARY each month to transfer £500 to current to start drip feeding the savings accounts :money:

Gosh I will be glad when this is all automated :rotfl: :rotfl: I know it's extra money in interest, but you don't half have to work for it :rotfl:

Right, best get my act together. We're going out in an hour and the chickens are going to have to fend for themselves all day :eek: Normally they'd be fine in the run, but they're not going in there until it's fully stoat proof so they're still sleeping in my study at the minute, and obviously I can't leave the back door open, so they're going to have to stay in there all day.

Fortunately it's a bit dingy today (and in that room in general) so I'm going to leave the lights off so they'll take themselves to bed when it goes dark. They've got food and water and a load of bedding and a nest box so they should be fine :eek: Back at midnight to see the damage :rotfl:

Fingers crossed for an LPG delivery today :eek: and for the chicken run mesh delivery driver to find us :eek:

fannyadams

We use Britannia Rescue (think they are called LV), they have a package where the people are covered as well as one car. We pay £139.00 for the privilege. It means that if either of us are in someone else's vehicle and that vehicle isn't covered we can get them recovered if we're with them.
I also get 'free breakdown cover' from the RAC, through my car insurance (Direct Line) but I have had so many problems with the RAC rescuing us from various places we've had to take out extra (more reliable) breakdown insurance.
You've reminded me, I need to see if I can get my eldest on this policy as well...

https://www.lv.com/breakdown-cover

Cheery_Daff

Thanks FA :j

Well today has been trying :eek: this whole bloody week has been trying actually feel mired in a pit of chickens and bureaucracy :rotfl: everything I touch seems to go wrong

In reality I'm probably just tired, and not letting myself grieve properly for my little feathery pals (because grieving for chickens seems a bit daft )

I've also been REALLY looking forward to this new change in my work circumstances for over a year, worried really hard to clear the decks both in terms of work tasks and completely decluttered the study, swept the chimney etc - got literally ONE day in and then chicken disaster struck and the room is now a chicken coop and I'm camped out working at the dining table.

Should only be another few days - I'm pleased to report that the mesh delivery driver did actually find us today - but I think I've underestimated the effect is had on my ability to cope with everything else

Anyway after several fiascos in the office this morning i sacked the whole thing off at lunchtime and went into town for a haircut £22 and I actually love it :j Not that much different but I've been cutting it myself for 18 months so having a proper cut and dry makes a difference and she straightened it too which has made a HUGE difference :j so much so that i might look out for a pair of straighteners myself for special occasions :eek:

Managed to change Me Cheery's holiday change back into pounds so that's £71.89 to the mortgage :money:

Oh, and my money shuffling this morning earned me a call from the bank fraud dept :eek: except i missed it cos i was in the hairdressers so i ended up on hold for 15 mins :mad: finally they accepted that i hadn't stolen my own card, card reader, and security info and they've now put the payment through.

Sigh.

Finally home and in bed now so best go to sleep and hope tomorrow is better (and that the bloody lpg delivery arrives, aarrgghh!!)

Karmacat

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Well today has been trying :eek: this whole bloody week has been trying actually feel mired in a pit of chickens and bureaucracy :rotfl: everything I touch seems to go wrong

In reality I'm probably just tired, and not letting myself grieve properly for my little feathery pals (because grieving for chickens seems a bit daft )

:kisses3: Oh Cheery!



Well, for a start, I hope you slept better. But you're finding it so hard to accept that grief can be for little feathered friends of course it can! That's what the whole Rainbow Bridge phenomenon is about https://www.rainbowsbridge.com/Poem.htm


Let yourself grieve, and your natural cheeriness will come back a lot sooner.

Cheery_Daff

Thank you :kisses3:

Currently outside in the sunshine with the ladies :j :j :j SO lovely to be out here - and it's warm enough to actually sit out and work! With woolly jumper and fingerless gloves :rotfl: The ladies are lounging in their dust baths - so lovely and so funny. They've scratched out giant holes (deeper than a chicken) in a sheltered sunny spot under some trees and just scratch around in there, fluffing the dust under their feathers (which is how they keep mites at bay).

So funny to see them contorting to get the soil under their feathers. They also spend quite a lot of time just lying there nestled into their little holes, with their wings stretched out in the sunshine :j :j

They're still a little bit jumpy but pretty near back to normal now, thank goodness :j :j I'm VERY ready for them to live outside again - but they can't do that til Mr Cheery has covered the run with stoat proof mesh and fortified the hen house. <sends building vibes to Mr Cheery>

Plumber is due today to fix the leaking boiler - no sign of him yet... hoping he can fix it while there's still some gas in the tank to check it works!

Went for a walk over the fields this morning and met a new neighbour which was nice :j She gave me the spare key to my house :eek: :rotfl: :rotfl: Which is why you should always change your locks when you move house :eek: :rotfl: (We didn't - well, we changed one door but not the other so rather pointless...)

Cheery_Daff

Still no sign of the plumber... but the LPG delivery just turned up so we can have the heating back on :j :j It never actually ran out, we were just being very sparing with it just in case...

Cheery_Daff

Plumber is here now :j :j And the good news is the problem seems to be the one he thought it was :j Except he's not actually brought with him the part to fix it, 'because the woman couldn't find it at the supplier this morning'. So what, exactly, is the purpose of his visit today, if he's going to have to come back AGAIN? "well, it's a nice drive out here" Yes, it is, but I would (a) like some working central heating, and (b) like not to have to wait in for the bloody plumber every day! :mad:

Update - he's now gone again - to drive back to the city to collect the thing the woman couldn't find this morning. So he's driven an hour out here, then back there, then back here, then he'll have to go back there. Why didn't he just hang round while she found it?! Hope he's not going to charge me for 4 hours of driving :eek:

Makes me feel like some kind of efficiency guru :rotfl: :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

Plumber is coming back in the morning (apparently).

Just thinking about various financial related things coming up soon...

- need to send proof of NCB to car insurance people before 25th March
- breakdown cover for small car by 3rd March
- check money has gone into new accounts and set up standing orders between them all
- payday on Monday so do some YNAB sorting
- put the money from the changed currency in the mortgage savings pot and update signature
- remember to ring in a couple of weeks and add little car back onto insurance

Er, that's it I think, not too bad.

Not really sure what to do with myself this evening! We're both quite tired . Could always do some tidying up I suppose. Or perhaps a yoga video?? Or a bath?? Feel listless and in need of a nap - maybe I'll just go to bed now :rotfl: