Simple living in the country - back to basics

Cheery_Daff

Hi all, 

I'm Cheery, been round here a long time now, and feeling in need of a new space to spread out for the new year

We are two, Mr Cheery and I, and at the start of 2018 we moved from a terraced house in a city to a detached house with 11 acres of very soggy fields in the middle of nowhere. It's been a steep, and rather expensive, learning curve. Our nearest shop is 2 miles away, nearest town 7 miles, and my job is 27 miles away - an hour's drive each way. 

We used to be very thrifty, and we paid off the mortgage in the old house (not particularly through thrift - Mr Cheery is older than me and just paid it for 25 years), and LOVED throwing lots of spare dosh into a savings account. However, we spent most of those savings on moving here - and also took out another 25 year mortgage. 

Last year we took Mr Cheery's pension (early). The lump sum has paid for a big chunk of building work in the house - kitchen/dining room, and bedroom above. There's still DIY to do (painting, skirting boards, finishing plaster boarding between the joists on the kitchen ceiling) but the builders are (mostly) gone now, thank goodness. They were here for almost 4 months, and it was VERY stressful. 

So the lump sum has been VERY severely depleted, and since I went down to four days a week in September, we've actually been spending just over what we earn. Clearly that needs to stop.

So this coming year I want to get back into my thrifty old ways! We were without a proper kitchen for two years, and now we have one again (hooray!) I want to go back to cooking from scratch, batch cooking for the freezer, making soap, making my own household cleaners, experimenting with making cheese... We have a lovely veg patch which was sadly neglected last year, and currently have 6 chickens, so a steady supply of eggs (and vets bills). 

I'm going to be doing the FrugalWoods Uber Frugal Month in January again (first did in 2017) so I'll start off with a few posts about that to get my head back into thriftiness. 

I should confess I type quickly and am a dreadful waffler, so apologies in advance... 

If you're nosey, my previous diary (started when we first moved out to the countryside) is HERE. 

Cheery_Daff

Ok, I'm going to work through the pre-uber frugal month prompts, since they're as good a way as any to get everything laid out.  

STEP 1: ESTABLISH YOUR GOALS

Why are you participating in this Challenge?
Because we have got into some terribly spendy ways while having building work done and living without a kitchen for 2 years, and the savings are looking very depleted, and we have made no mortgage over payments for AGES, and I don't like it. And I like the start of a new year for some new goals!

What do you hope to achieve?
* Save at least £600 from normal income to long-term savings
* Make at least £200 extra and save that too
* Get into some good habits for the rest of the year!

What are your long-term life goals?
Pay off the mortgage early and retire at 50! (I'm 41 - I'm not sure I'll make both, but Mr Cheery is 18 years older than me and is already mostly retired, and I'd like to join him, which I can't do while we've still got the mortgage).

Once retired, I'd like to spend my days pottering in the veg patch with the chickens, and my evenings sitting in front of the fire knitting. Sometimes I do both these things anyway, but I don't want to have to stop them to go to work!

Where do you want to be in 5 years? In 10 years?
By the end of 2026 (I'll be 46), with no overpayments, the mortgage will be just over £142k - I'd like it to be under £120k by that point, and preferably under £100k. 

In 10 years, by the end of 2031, I'll be 51. I'd LOVE to have the mortgage paid off, and be down to working 3 days a week, with the option of ditching work altogether if I want to at that point. 

What about your current lifestyle might prevent those goals from happening and what can you do about it?
We are by nature pretty frugal, but have got into some awful habits of food shopping every day, buying convenience food, eating breakfast in our favourite cafe several times a week, and generally just being more frittery than is wise. 

I also dropped down to four days a week, and while that did make a significant dent in our finances, and clearly we would achieve our goals more quickly if I went full time again, I'm not going to. 

chicker

Oooh happy new diary! 

I started trying to read your last diary but it was growing faster than I could catch up 😂 so I might stand a better chance with this one!

Good luck with your goals!

L9XSS

Best of luck. It’s great to get your targets set as milestones, that helped me immensely in my journey. Your new place sounds idyllic. My DP loves knitting too! Balancing working and retirement is good for the soul. 

rtandon27

Happy New Diary Cheery!  Always a joy to tag along on your journey! xxx

Cheery_Daff

STEP 2: REVIEW LAST MONTH'S SPENDING & STEP 3: CATEGORISE YOUR EXPENSES

I'm lumping these in together. I've been using YNAB for a few years now (yes, I know, it's a paid service and we're being frugal, but it's been very helpful and I'm not changing now). Anyway, it means I can give actual monthly averages over the last year. 

Fixed mandatory expenses
* Mortgage = £919.99
* Council tax = £189
* House phone & internet = £29.99
* My union fees = £27.12
* Water bill (we have a septic tank so no drainage charge) = £14.xx
* My life insurance = £7.63
* TV licence = £13.12 (paid annually)
TOTAL = £1200.85 a month

Relatively fixed stuff (that I might look at in January or through the year)
* My mobile = £15
* Mr Cheery's mobile = £6
* Electricity = £72.11 (our supplier went bust so no changing, but we'll focus on turning things off)
* Gas = £131 (this is a monthly average - we're on LPG and pay when they top up the tank, which they've just done but will charge for in January. We're out of contract and can switch supplier though)
* Car insurance = £40.62 (paid annually)
* Breakdown cover = £13.74 (paid annually, and clearly we can get it cheaper - for tedious reasons we've had two overlapping policies for some of this year which we won't have next year)
* Car tax = £5 (2 cars, £30 tax each, paid annually)
* House insurance = £16.64 (paid annually)
TOTAL = £300.11 a month


Other costs that are mostly just what they are
* Car maintenance = £136  - eek!
* Vets = £179.68 (no, we can't get insurance - they're chickens, and yes, this is ridiculous!)
* Home maintenance = £88.23 (gutter cleaning, chimney sweeping, septic tank emptying etc)
* Dentist = £24.28 
* Medical = £38.46 (Mr Cheery's prescription certificate, plus anything else bought from the chemist)
TOTAL = £378.42

Discretionary spends
* Food & household = £364.38
* Joint treats (mostly cafes) = £207.25 (but remember the cafe was shut for the first 4 months, so actual monthly spend lately is higher...)
* Diesel = £158.77
* My personal spends = £57.87
* Clothes = £47.99
* Chicken food, treats & bedding = £39.63
* Mr Cheery's personal spends = £32.32 (probably won't ask him to reduce that much!)
* Exercise = £24.95 (mostly my gym membership, which is £35 but didn't start til the summer)
* Books = £16.72
* Garden & land = £14.72 (seeds, compost, garden tools etc)
TOTAL = £964.60

So, in total, that's £2843.98. Our joint income is £2956.38, so that's a difference of £112.40, which has more than been taken up with other things that have happened as a one off etc through the year. So clearly we need to get a grip, and that £965 of discretionary expenses each month is the first target!

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, other people, hello!!

Chicker, goodness, don't try to catch up! I don't half waffle... L9XSS good to hear you have a knitter in your family too! Our new place is sometimes idyllic, and sometimes fills me with horror at the amount of mud and things that need doing... And lovely to see you RT!

Right, stopped for a bowl of Mr Cheery's sweet potato and sprout soup, and now on with... 

STEP 4: WHAT CAN I ELIMINATE ENTIRELY?
Definitely books! And clothes - pretty much all of mine come from charity shops, but I have had some new bras and a couple of pairs of boots this year (sadly one of those pairs of boots is now ruined as the soles are almost flopping off). Certainly don't need any in January. Most of my clothes buying is just seeing things while charity shop pottering, so I should probably stop doing that for a few weeks.

Shouldn't be buying any gardening stuff in January (although I will need to check my seed stock... but I think I have plenty from last year). 

We will be eliminating joint treats for January - we have vouchers for our favourite cafe and will be using those up, and once they're gone, that's it. We also have £20 from a relative for Christmas, so I might keep that as a treats back up, just in case.

STEP 5: EMBRACE THE ART OF SUBSTITUTION
Not sure here... I MAY ditch the gym membership and go pay-as-you-go for swimming - but at the same time I am appallingly unfit and very much need to lose some weight before I have to buy a whole new set of outfits. We'll see on this one. 

STEP 6: REDUCE SPENDING ON DISCRETIONARY EXPENSES
FOOD being the biggest one here! We have plenty of food in at the minute, and £100 in supermarket vouchers from the ONS covid study we're part of. I'm planning to spend NOTHING on food (except those vouchers) in January (although I realise we may end up buying milk from the local shop - no point driving 16 mile round trip to the supermarket for the sake of saving £1.20).

I'll also be batch cooking to stock up the freezer, and getting a handle on lunches for when I'm working, so I don't just end up with porridge.  

I think we could also reduce diesel a bit - I'm working at home for the first two weeks, and should only have to be in the office once or twice a week for the rest of January. I'd quite happily stay at home the rest of the time, but Mr Cheery does get itchy feet sometimes... 

I think I'll try and keep my personal spends under £30 to match Mr Cheery's average (not including the gym membership!)

Cheery_Daff

STEP 7: EMPOWER YOURSELF TO INSOURCE
We are pretty good at this - if you exclude our recent experience with the building work... Still plenty left for us to do, and I don't plan to get anyone else in to do anything, certainly before the end of January, and preferably for the rest of my life (The exception being the granite man, who needs to come back and do the joints in the worktop properly, but that's already paid for, and the nice plumber, who is trying to get hold of an electric water heater for the loft). 

We already do most other things ourselves - hair cuts (although I did have mine done at the local college for the first time in 4 years recently), gardening, DIY, whatever. 

STEP 8: EXAMINE YOUR HABITS
We use a lot of electricity... need to get better at turning things off. Gas bill is high, but we now have a working thermostat, radiators in all rooms, and a ceiling between the kitchen and bedroom/loft space, so making good improvements! Thermostat set at 16-17 when we're in, 10 when we're out and overnight, so not too bad. 

We don't have a lot of baths/showers (although I do have a long shower when I have one). We only do washing about once a week, twice at most. 

We ARE in the habit of nipping to the shops every day though - doesn't help with either diesel or food - and we usually go to the cafe 3 or 4 (or 5) times a week - definitely something to stop. 

STEP 9: PLAN AHEAD
We have definitely NOT been planning ahead when it comes to food, so I'll be doing this from now on, with meal plans and batch cooking, and sorting lunch the night before work (even on the days when I'm working at home). 

STEP 10: IF YOU DO BUY STUFF, BUY IT USED (OR CHEAP)
This is our default anyway. Over the years, Mr Cheery has been excellent at sourcing stuff from Freegle etc, and we recently got a free day bed for the spare room. We've had to buy a fair bit of new stuff for the DIY/kitchen stuff - paint, carpet, radiators, built in appliances etc, but I think we've got most of what we need now (except skirting board for downstairs, and windowsills). No more buying new stuff!

STEP 11: BANISH EXCUSES
I can already feel these creeping in...  Will keep an eye on them as we go through the month... 

So there we are - all nicely prepared to start UFM next Saturday, and with a good idea of what we're currently spending, and what we can get rid of. Ready, steady, GO!

Savingtomove

Ooooo happy shiny new diary!! Looking forward to seeing how you get on and I think I will be copying with the Uber frugal January!….

Tescodealqueen

Happy new diary xx

edwink

Happy new frugal diary Cheery.

Edwink x