Cheery's country living adventure

Karmacat

Woah, *your* cellar is flooded? Backs up a bit ... - you have a well? Life is amazing

Cheery_Daff

We do indeed have a well - although it's not a picturesque wishing well type of thing with a little roof over it and a winding bucket :rotfl: it's more just a square in the floor that's full of water.

Apparently it was originally outside, and over the years the house expanded and it ended up in the cellar (which is vaulted, and pretty exciting think although quite small, and also quite damp, especially at the minute :eek: )

Apparently the house wasn't connected to the mains water supply til the mid 1980s as they just used the well :rotfl: I'm thinking it'll come in handy in the event of a zombie apocalypse :eek: :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

Anyway, tomorrow night is Monday Finances night under the new regime :money: Couple of things to do:

* check MB accounts
* YNAB (which shouldn't take that long as I did it last week)
* check T&CS for other current accounts with regular savers - need to figure out (a) where to take the money for the builders from, and (b) how much I need to keep putting in the regular savers to keep them active.

My mum's been here over the weekend and she's given me a hand to get moving with decorating the hall :j We've finished stripped and standing the walls, and filled in all the holes, and given it all a good wipe down so it's pretty much ready to paint (apart from one small section which needs plastering).

I suspect they were originally painted too soon after plastering, as the current paint (which was under wallpaper that was barely stuck on) is really powdery - which indicates to me that too much water was sucked into the plaster... so I'll give the whole lot a mist coat of watery white paint before I do the proper painting - don't want to waste my 'Happy Yellow' paint after all! :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

Pleased to report (a) it's not raining and (b) the cellar is no longer filled with water :j :j A good start to the week! :rotfl:

Matched betting has taken rather a hit this month. I didn't do any at all for the first couple of weeks, and it's not really been a priority over the last few days either, so I'm only up to about £350. Still, that's £350 I didn't have at the start of the month :applause: Will make a concerted effort tonight (I would LOVE to get the total over £4000 this month but I think that involves about another £70 so it is unlikely unless there's an unusual casino win!)

Never mind. Aiming to be at £4500 by the end of October, and £5100 by the end of November, which will cover the building work :money: :money:

Tescodealqueen

Man U tonight and Tottenham match tomorrow night help with that £70:)

Cheery_Daff

Might do! Although I don't think I've yet managed a decent golden goal payout :rotfl: I tend to do a lock in so I at least get a bit of profit but usually just end up making a couple of quid (and now I've been gubbed by Betway so I can't even do the same offer on each team, wah!) :rotfl:
Still, a bit is better than nowt!

Cheery_Daff

Ok, so Monday Finances Day :money:

All looking fine in MB accounts. No giant wins yesterday so I ended September at £352, not too bad considering I missed over a fortnight with one thing and another. Back on it properly now and hoping to get to a total of £4500 by the end of October (which means making just under £600 this month).

I did YNAB - need to reign in the spends as things are looking rather sparse in the main bank account right now :eek: :eek:

So I'm going back to basics for a couple of things. Going to get back into the habit of bringing lunch to work - I've completely got out of it, and even if I just end up with a sandwich it's £3, and I'll often end up at the vending machine too :eek:

I have actually brought leftovers today :j :j Just need to keep that up :rotfl:

That's the main thing that's got out of hand And just buying random bits of food here and there. And occasional charity shop purchases (although I'm not particularly wild with that). Had a couple of work expenses that I haven't claimed for too, only £40 but I really need to get on with that.

I'm avoiding that actually but perhaps if I work through it... I volunteer (in my work time) as chair of a committee for a professional membership organisation I'm part of. They do pay expenses, but ask us to claim from our organisations where we can. I didn't get round to asking work if I could claim through them early enough, and we have a blanket rule that all train tickets have to be booked in advance through work and can't be claimed back later (stupid rule but they're clearly trying to ration it a bit). Because I paid myself, I now can't claim back from work - but I'm reluctant to claim from the other organisation because I feel like I *should* have claimed from work...

Result is I've not claimed from either and am now about £40 out of pocket :mad:

Right, that's it. I'll check with work about next time, but this time, I'll claim from the other organisation. I am putting in a considerable amount of time for them for free after all!

I'm sure I'll feel better once I'm back in the swing of things with MB. And checking YNAB etc every week will help too. Will try to keep on top of things with the YNAB app too!

Right, must get on with some work...

Cheery_Daff

Tuesday is Admin Day. Not actually got much admin to do, except I suppose making a start on the pile of letters and nonsense in my study that need filing or throwing, oh and I need to find a gas fitter who'll cap off the gas pipe in the kitchen before the builders get here.

If there's any more time I'll figure out the T&Cs for the regular savers.

Oh, and I need to get on with the decorating! We stripped and sanded and washed the walls at the weekend so I need to do a watered down coat over everything, and PVA and plaster the bits that need plastering (might do that first, then I can paint it all together).

And a bit of MBing of course.

I haven't got time for a job!! :eek: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

Well I got a first watery coat of white paint on a couple of the walls the other night, and it was drying almost straight away which confirmed my suspicions about it not having been done before and the plaster just sucking in all the water :eek:

Didn't get all the walls done as I only had a small tarp, the paint was really watery and splashing everywhere, and I didn't want to get it on the carpet. Also I'd had to take the light fitting off to strip the ceiling and a standard lamp was just not enough light to work by. Going to wait til the weekend to do the rest.

Had an email from the electricity company saying they've clearly been overestimating and putting money back into our account, which means we're now £110 in credit which is nice. Will try to remember to send meter readings next time they ask. And the cows will be going in a few weeks so we can turn the electric fence off which will help a bit.

Also had a text and email yesterday from the building society saying the mortgage fix has been completed so that's another thing done and dusted that I don't have to think about for five years :j

What I DO need to think about is bulbs for the car - drove behind Mr Cheery yesterday and noticed one of the bulbs had gone in the back of the big car - and when I stopped someone came over and told me a bulb had gone in the back of the one I was driving too :eek: gah! So that'll need sorting out at the weekend too. No idea where to get car bulbs from round here.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed here at the minute, feeling like time is ticking. I have a work thing that needs finishing by tomorrow at the latest, and I was meant to send the final bits for my diploma by the end of September, but haven't finished them yet. Builders are coming a week on Monday, so need to finish the decorating in the hall so we can move things back out of the music room to create a temporary kitchen in there, and also need to find someone to disconnect the gas pipe and remove the cooker.

So not that much *really* but it does rather mean I never quite know what to be focusing on at any one point Exercise is being neglected, as it has been for months so I think my first task is to get dressed, make a cup of tea and go for a walk to look at the frost :j

Then work (and while I'm working - at home today - focus on that and nothing else). Then this evening is Zumba, but I might get in an hour of decorating before it goes dark, and then spend an hour or two on the diploma - would be good to get that finished and sent off by the weekend.

Ok, so it's not too bad, just need to get on instead of worrying about it Mr Cheery has been full of cold for days and while I don't have it yet, I do feel rather on the edge of it... So I want to crack on with stuff before it arrives :eek: :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

Afternoon folks :hello:

On a bit of a go slow today Trying to focus on work... but somehow mind is wandering all over the place... Ridiculous really as it just means I'm going to have to work late to get this work finished! :mad:

Anyway, part of my mind wandering is about finances. We're fine - but I'm fretting a bit about this building work as it's going to wipe out a large portion of our savings I'm trying to build them back up with MB dosh, and will hopefully have enough to cover the building work in total by the end of November :j :j

But I don't feel on top of things I do FAR too much nipping for a pint of milk and spending a tenner (always have). I've always been rubbish at NSDs at this time of year now we've moved I end up doing so much driving that I'm tired in the evenings and just grab something for tea from the shop. We spend quite a bit on tea and cake in cafes (but very rarely eat out/go to the pub/ go to the cinema etc and haven't been on holiday for several years so...). Bills are all over the place too (see earlier discussion of £95 a month for electric and £151 a month gas :eek: :eek: ) Also got a couple of magazine subscriptions that I might well cancel, and various other bits and pieces going out.

As I say we're managing fine, I've just had a £65 a month pay rise (although the £30 increase in the mortgage has taken some of that), and we have no debt other than the mortgage so this is not a hair-on-fire emergency by any stretch.

But I would like to feel like I'm on top of things, like I'm adding to savings, like I have some spare to put towards the mortgage... MB is helping of course, but it also takes up quite a bit of time so it's always a bit of a battle as to whether time or money is the bigger priority! :rotfl:

I think I might actually sit down and do a proper SOA tonight :eek: Not sure I've EVER done a proper one, even in the 10 (11??) years I've been on the forum :eek: quite scared But it should be relatively straightforward - I can pull reports from YNAB about what I've been spending on average on diesel, food, cafe trips etc (gosh, that'll be frightening :eek: ) and it'll even give me a slap in the face with how much I've put into the 'budget fiddling' category... :eek:

So yes, I'll do that tonight, and get it posted up here :eek: and all you lovely people can be shocked and I can be embarrassed and then hopefully pull my finger out a bit :rotfl: