We're aware that some users are experiencing technical issues which the team are working to resolve. See the Community Noticeboard for more info. Thank you for your patience.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!

Cheery's country living adventure

Options
15681011524

Comments

  • Cheery_Daff
    Cheery_Daff Posts: 17,126 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Hello lovely people :hello:

    What an excellent suggestion ZTD, thank you! :j We're with the Co op, and their regular saver is 0.6% :rotfl: Not going to move current accounts at this stage, I am adminned out after moving house :o However, our new local building society does one at 1.75%, with a bonus which takes it up to 2.25% if you only make one withdrawal in a year, which isn't too bad as these things go. That would give us a teensy bit of interest, and would mean we wouldn't have easy access to what we'd saved up and could just take it out in one go at the end of the year and plonk it in the mortgage account.

    Annoyingly, the interest is paid on the anniversary of the account (which would probably be April now in reality), whereas the mortgage review (when they do the interest) is up in Feb. But we are allowed ONE withdrawal so we'd just make that, then carry on saving as normal.

    Oh, hang on a minute... just spotted this bizarre condition:

    Once the initial deposit is made, further monthly payments to the account must be of the same value as the initial deposit. Variations in monthly deposit amounts cannot be accepted.

    What kind of nonsense is that?! :eek: :rotfl: You can also only withdraw in person :rotfl:

    Hmm. Not willing to put a huge amount of time into this :o but right now I'm thinking we'd be best just sticking it in my old savings account which is still with the same bank as the joint one, and where I can put 1p at a time if I want to AND manage the whole thing online...

    :rotfl:

    But I'll see how I feel after another cup of tea :D
  • Tescodealqueen
    Tescodealqueen Posts: 1,260 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Cheery try a look at a TSB classic account, pays 3% on anything up to 1500 pounds. You can transfer in and out of it as you like and administer it online, we do it in conjunction with our Coop account which we want to keep. Might be worth a few minutes admin
  • pinkypig
    pinkypig Posts: 1,814 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Congratulations - an op in month one is amazing :T. I hope you had celebratory cake!

    PP xx
    Original mortgage £112,000 . Final payment due August 2027.
    Mortgage neutral achieved August 2020 - 7 years early!!!
  • Cheery_Daff
    Cheery_Daff Posts: 17,126 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Morning all from our snowy arctic wastelands :hello:

    We have had what's felt like about 100 visitors over the weekend :eek: In reality, just seven grown ups, five children, and two dogs - and not all at the same time either :rotfl: but it has felt rather busy :D

    We haven't done a load of mass catering, just had bread and cheese and salad :rotfl: Mostly the people with children brought food with them - not sure whether they didn't trust us to provide, or didn't trust their children not to turn their noses up... :rotfl: Still, an awful lot of it went uneaten so I'm rather glad we didn't provide it in the end :rotfl:

    LOTS of chocolate has been consumed though and there have been THREE easter egg hunts, and now even I am feeling rather like I don't need any chocolate any more today :rotfl:

    Banks looking ok, although diesel spends are rather :eek: :eek: I remember once suggesting to Pippi about combining trips :o and it seems we are rather in need of taking our own advice :rotfl: :rotfl: We've done an unusual amount of running around in March as I've had to go back to the city for work four days most weeks, plus Mr Cheery has been running about collecting things from Freegle to do up the house :j

    Still, it is NOT sustainable to be spending £228 a month on diesel, when we were only spending about £50 before :eek: :eek: :eek:

    But I did fill one car up on the 31st, and the other on the 22nd, so I'm hoping they should last a little bit and this month won't be too bad... :eek:

    I'm not in Sheffield at all this week (although Mr Cheery will be going once). Might be taking a trip over to Lincolnshire on Wednesday which will eat quite a bit... but I'm hoping to stay put a little after that! :eek:

    I've got 8 trips to Sheffield this month, so if Mr Cheery can combine his with mine that should help limit things somewhat. We do end up just popping into town for little bits here and there - but these days 'just popping into town' is a 10 mile round trip which adds up...

    Anyway, something to ponder...
  • Cheery_Daff
    Cheery_Daff Posts: 17,126 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited 2 April 2018 at 5:10PM
    Oh! I forgot the very thing I came in for!! :rotfl:

    Another overpayment :money:

    £21.41 from Prolific
    £50 bonus for signing up for Bulb using my sister's referral link :j :j She got £50 too - so if anyone is thinking of signing up with them and wants a referral do drop me a PM and I will be happy to oblige as we'll both get £50 :money:

    That's gone onto our account with them rather than coming directly to us, but I've taken it out of the electricity pot and paid the whole £71.41 to the mortgage :j

    Or rather, I'm now putting overpayments into a separate savings account and will pay to the mortgage once we've got £1000 in there...

    :money:
  • try_harder
    try_harder Posts: 1,532 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Loving the sound of your new home and well done on the savings ,it will soon add up
  • greenbee
    greenbee Posts: 17,786 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    It takes time getting used to the lifestyle when you move from city to country - no more 'popping out' for something you've forgotten and a lot more planning or making do! Or getting stuff delivered...

    Sounds like Easter was fun. We had a houseful on Saturday and took the kids out to do the NT easter egg hunt which used up a bit more energy that doing one at home would have done. Sunday was gardening and recovery :)
  • edwink
    edwink Posts: 3,003 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Homepage Hero Photogenic
    edited 3 April 2018 at 7:23PM
    Jo_and_Gary_s_2015_September_Harvest_010.jpg


    It takes work and time but eventually this is what you will have to look forward to cheerydaff once you are up and running with your veg beds. This is the kind of rewards you will get for all of your hard work:).

    And yes those are purple carrots in that pic. Actually they are called Rainbow carrots and grow in purple, yellow and of course orange. We gave some of ours to a friend and she said that the flavour was outstanding BUT she preferred her carrots orange:D. They really are quite a talking point when you have friends round for supper.

    Glad you managed to pay some off of your mortgage already. You are one determined young lady you really are:cool:. Congratulations and well done on that first payment.

    I really do love reading your thread because you are so inspiring! Well done :)

    Edwink

    ETA... Sorry the picture is so big I will make any others smaller next time
    *3.36 kWp solar panel system,10 x Ultima & 4 x Panasonic solar panels, Solaredge Inverter *Biomass boiler stove for cooking, hot water & heating *2000ltr Rainwater harvesting system for loo flushing *Hybrid Toyota Auris car *RIP Pingu, Hoppy, Ginger & Biscuit *Hens & Ducks* chat thread. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5282209
  • Cheery_Daff
    Cheery_Daff Posts: 17,126 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Aw, thank you Edwink! What a lovely thing to say :D And look at your inspiring veg! :j :j I've actually grown quite a bit over the years in our tiny city garden so I'm quite excited at what I can do now I've got a LOT more space :j :j One year I weighed and costed everything I grew in that tiny garden and it was a surprising amount!

    In fact I've just been out in the greenhouse having a sowing session :j :j No idea whether any of them will survive - or in fact whether the greenhouse will survive - it's a plastic one from Wilkos and sounded rather rattly when I was in there just now :eek: :rotfl:

    You're right Greenbee, it will indeed take a bit of getting used to! We're about 5 miles from the nearest town and it is rather tempting to pop in there every day - the roads are good and we can be there in about 10 minutes... We did have a day of staying at home yesterday and I LOVED it :j :j Not sure Mr Cheery was quite so convinced mind you - we've been into town AND back out again to the local village cafe today :o :rotfl:

    Thanks try harder :j It does indeed add up :D In fact I noticed yesterday that I'd had another £100 refund from the old house insurance (I think) but that I'd just allocated it to the general pot last month. Now I'm having a dilemma - do I pinch it back again to go as a mortgage overpayment? If I do that, I'll have to pilfer and swap things round because some pots would be short in allocation for this month... Or do I just leave it where it was?

    I did promise that I wouldn't make life tooooo difficult for us in a bid to pay the mortgage off early! :o :rotfl:
  • Cheery_Daff
    Cheery_Daff Posts: 17,126 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Evening MSE chums :hello:

    Not much to report here. NO shops today :j :j I do love a day without shops, but my old life in town involved a LOT of just nipping in for bits on the way home from places, and Mr Cheery loves a shop and it's difficult to keep him out of them :rotfl: He's extremely thrifty, but that for him often involves just nipping in to see what bargains are available... :rotfl:

    Anyway, he's been out most of the day, so I have been pottering at home :j and went for an 11 mile bike ride in which I got the most soggy and filthy I've been for a long time :rotfl: :rotfl:

    Discovered I can get a residents' permit for the national park car parks :j £25 for the year, but then I can park in them for freeeeeee :money: Must be a new initiative, because they do a non-residents one too for £40 which I might have had before if I'd known about it.

    They're not everywhere, but I do use them when I cycle and run up and down the old railway trails - I would have spent £3.50 today so I'm sure it'll be worth it :money:

    Been out this evening to a little local event which cost £3 including tea and cake :D My type of event :j :j

    Not sure what's happening tomorrow, a friend and the builder both said they might come either tomorrow or Friday and I've not heard from either of them about which day... However, I suspect neither of them will be here too early though, and I'm still off work, so might trot out for a little run again :j
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 351K Banking & Borrowing
  • 253.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 453.6K Spending & Discounts
  • 244K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 599K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 176.9K Life & Family
  • 257.4K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.6K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.