Returning to MFW, my elusive unicorn!

coldcazzie

Money shuffle is nearly complete. Last month was a low CC month, which was great, but probably a blip tbh.

After saying that this month would be when everything was back to normal in our joint account... it is not.

Mainly because Himself and I are now both going away for weekends - I'm going on a retreat with some colleagues and he's meeting some friends (one of whom lives abroad and is flying in specially) and they're going to do friend bonding at the zoo and whatnot. So we've had to pay for both of those, and my son has some friends visiting the UK on holiday in June, so we are also planning to go see them for a day while they are here. In London. We do not live near London. Looks to be nigh on a tank of fuel to get there, and another to get back, and even with the fuel rises that will still be cheaper than a pair of off-peak train tickets!

That being said, the amount of self-debts we had (where we'd overspent in a particular category and borrowed money from other ones) has lessened greatly, and I keep reminding myself we had a horrible 3 months Nov-Jan and that has definitely taken its toll. We're allowed to take time to recover.

And yet, despite that, I feel guilty. It's probably internalised capitalism. But knowing that doesn't make it any less intense. Sigh.

coldcazzie

Sold our ill-fitted woodburner today. When I say ill-fitted, I mean the previous owner took the gas fire out, and then shoved a wood burner in the hole and called it good. Chimney still has the gas cowls on the top chimney sweep is coming out to sweep it next week and cap the chimney and then we'll decide whether we are going to board it or what.

Only £40 but I think I'll OP it

peb

If you live where I think you do (apologies if I'm mixing you up with someone else) Grand Central start from o think £14.70 each way.  At the moment I'm struggling at trying to work out what trains are released from for my London trip

coldcazzie

Off peak return for 1 adult 1 child is £145.50. Individual singles tickets are £87 in each direction, so £174 total.

It's about 200 miles to the place we are probably staying.

According to the fuel calculator:

Total fuel cost: £38.00

Gallons of fuel: 5.26

Litres of fuel: 23.91

Mileage: 200 mile(s)

Fuel type: Unleaded

Fuel price used for this calculation: 158.90 pence per litre

Mpg used for this calculation: 37.5 MPG

Baileys_Babe

The car cost is door to door but with the train, there will be a cost to get from home to the station and the same at the other end which also needs to be factored in.

coldcazzie

Baileys_Babe said:

The car cost is door to door but with the train, there will be a cost to get from home to the station and the same at the other end which also needs to be factored in.

Yes, that's true, so collection/drop off by Himself at this end, and we'd still have to get the tube out from/back to King's Cross at the other end.

coldcazzie

Honestly, I wish it was cheaper to get the train, and sometimes it is, but we've a very limited time to get down and back, Kid has an exam the next day and friends are only available on limited days. If the tickets were £15 then we'd not even consider using the car. I wasn't expecting nearly £90 in each direction; it's appalling.

coldcazzie

It'd probably be cheaper to fly down!

Baileys_Babe

I wish public transport was cheaper and then more of us would use it.

Very rarely is it cheaper to use public transport for the journeys I've compared and that is not taking into account time and convenience. I do not want to make umpteen changes, I'm okay with some but not lots.

coldcazzie

Yeah, especially when you get to multiple people travelling. The parking in Leeds is extortionate but to get the train there is even worse by the time we're buying 5 returns, so we drive if we are making the effort to go that far afield. The park and ride in York is pretty good imo, but not loads of cities have park and ride.