Simple living in the country - back to basics

ElmoR

Sorry to hear about Bonny.

Good spot on that new calculator...running off to have a go now.

2004/2005 was a dodgy year for state pension contributions?? I was on Maternity Leave that year and P/T working, chances that was screwed up probably high...Running off to check that one too...

Cheery_Daff

Our food was lower, but again was a guess - I've not checked the YNAB report on that for a while...

The average clothes thing was shocking to me, but I guess a lot of people on a similar income will be buying for kids etc too - even so, £181 a month seemed quite a lot, but maybe I'm skewed after years of charity shopping! 

Sadly the average eating out budget did pretty closely match what we spend on cafes though 🙈 Funny, I don't think of us as eating out much - but I guess as I am currently sat in a cafe waiting for an egg butty to arrive, I think I'm quite delusional... 🙄 I think we spend less each time (usually less than a tenner between us) but clearly we do that a lot of times!

Cheery_Daff

I should say that obviously I KNOW how much time we spend in cafes! I just don't mentally count it as 'eating out'- that feels like restaurants or takeaways 😂 Cafes are cafes - for us an entirely separate pot 🙄

Karmacat

Nice one, Cheery the figures for me are so weird, I'll post them on my diary, not yours.  Enjoy your cafe visit  

South_coast

Cheery_Daff said:

The average clothes thing was shocking to me, but I guess a lot of people on a similar income will be buying for kids etc too

Yes, it would have been helpful if it asked about the size of your household and not just your income, so that you could compare apples more with apples. 

P.S. Love an egg butty 😋 Was it fried egg, or with mayo/cress?

Cheery_Daff

Always fried egg, NEVER mayo in anything, bleurgh!! 😂 We had one fried egg butty and one veggie sausage butty and cut them in half and shared 😁

I did think that, but I suppose if it's just a quick calculator to see how much costs are likely to rise, it doesn't really matter how many people are in the household - I suppose it's just literally you spend x on electricity, prices will rise by y so now you'll spend z.

Anyway, unproductive and grumpy day here after a nice start 🙄 STILL not got out in the field, although I did make it to the library for the first time in ages, and we've bought some new pegs (where do they go?!), a clothes airer (ours lost a leg several months ago and while we've been propping it on a basket, the top has now collapsed altogether and it won't hold anything heavier than a tea towel), and an assortment of other small household items.

Back home now - and how is it almost 3.30?? 

So, as much as I desperately want to be out scything, the next priority is the washing machine. I want to definitively ascertain TODAY whether it's something we can fix, and if not, make a decision about whether to get a repairer in, and if not, whether to buy second hand or new. 

The air is weirdly still today, not normal for up here on our windy hilltop at all. Combined with the grey skies it all feels a bit listless and odd (well, I myself feel listless and odd, anyway!) 😂

badmemory

Future Pensions actually have a good reputation, much better than HMRC & DWP.  I think they are politely trying to tell you that at some point they believe HMRC have messed up.  They can't actually say that though.  This pension thing is a good lesson in never ever throwing P60s away as they are your only proof of what you paid in any year.

Cheery_Daff

Maybe I was a bit mean to the Future Pensions Centre! 😂 They lady was very nice, and I did very much appreciate being able to pass the phone to Mr Cheery so we didn't have to queue twice. It was more that in our case they didn't really add anything, as pretty much everything we asked they told us to ring HMRC (who, when we'd previously asked the same questions of HMRC, had told us to ring the Future Pensions Centre... so we felt a bit like we were going round in circles!)

Anyway, today just got more and more grouchy 🙄 Investigated what we could with the washing machine, unscrewed and checked the pipes and the hose, no blockages, checked the pump filter again, no issues, checked the belt, which seems to be appropriately tight (although I've never felt one before so who knows).

Done a test wash and nothing has changed, so now we need to make the next decision. Mr Cheery has found a few relatively new ones for sale locally for £100-150 which seem decent a decent certainly more energy efficient than this one, so we'll definitely go second hand rather than new. Just need to decide if we're going to try to get someone out to repair this one - will see if we can get a local recommendation over the next few days. 

Attempted to meet up with some pals for tea, but by the time they got back to us it was 2 hours later, I'd arranged to have a video call with my sister, and I was just too tired to have a night out, stay over, and go straight to Mr Cheery's dad's tomorrow. Glad I said no, because I do feel better for talking to my sister and doing a bit of light tidying up.

Mr Cheery has dropped his MP3 player and seems to have lost EVERYTHING - years of curated music, including some he's written himself 🙄 Going to try again tomorrow and see what we can retrieve - yet another reminder to back everything up... 🙄

Will be glad when today is over! Although tomorrow is going to involve 5 hours of driving, a load of cleaning, and maybe some plastering and gardening (of the clearing brambles variety, not tending to beautiful roses) 🙄

And I still haven't done any scything! 🙄

Cheery_Daff

Afternoon MSE chums 😊

Today is marginally better 😊 Got up early and did a bit of scything, which got me kudos points with the farmer's dad who spotted me when he came to check the cows 😂

Drove to Mr Cheery's dad's, and I confess I made myself scarce when the conversation turned to the present situation, and the three of them were having a rather heated discussion, and as the only person who wasn't a blood relative, I figured I was best off out the way...

Anyway, somehow they've all gone out now, and I'm left behind cleaning the kitchen - or rather having a well earned sit down with a blueberry muffin 😂 Mr Cheery and his dad should come back with some paint and scrim tape and then I can get on with the plastering properly - if there's any time by that point! Might take the dog for a walk instead...

Quite enjoying the peace and quiet actually although I wish I was cleaning my own house instead of someone else's 😂

greenbee

Maybe you should try this instead of scything next year? https://www.linkedin.com/posts/university-of-cambridge_cambridgeuniversity-cambridge-activity-6969594476453359617-itDp?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios