Simple living in the country - back to basics

Cheery_Daff

Not great Beanie, but we knew it'd need doing at some point, and all part of ongoing weatherproofing. I'd put £500 aside for it, so we'll see what they quote. I hadn't anticipated them replacing the fascia boards, but they do need doing, and pointless leaving the rotting ones there to drip into the new render, so all ok. 

They may well be able to squeeze us in between other jobs but we'll see. If we have to wait til April then that gives us longer to save for the windows as we'll have them all done at the same time. That one will need to be completely replaced, frame too, but the others I think we'll get away with replacing just individual panes, although I suppose more may have gone by the time we get round to it!

Hey ho. 

So, this week. In the office tomorrow. I'm doing someone's appraisal, then have my own in the afternoon, then a meeting with a rather senior bod about the future (nothing exciting will happen as a result, it's just a standard thing I think). 

Hoping I can work at home the rest of the week. Mr Cheery is going to see his dad on Friday, mostly to calling on another elderly and rather ill relative, so I'm going to stay home. Will I finish painting the kitchen ceiling?! I've found another half pot of ceiling paint in the garage, so it's a definite possibility! 

Then I can get on with the next stage of energy efficiency measures, which is making thermal blinds - bedroom first, then kitchen, and then if it goes well I might just make them for ALL the windows 😮 although there are 21 windows in total so perhaps not 😮😂

EssexHebridean

I quite like the idea of blinds throughout but not sure it will quite work for us - because of being ground floor we have to have nets - it's the only real solution to avoid people being able to see straight in that doesn't immediately tell anyone suspicious that we're away so much as I dislike them, we're stuck with them. Theoretically the binds would fir in the window recess for the bedroom, but we'd still want top curtains as well I think for the look of it as much as anything, and I do prefer a curtain that does at least allow some change in light levels as it starts to get light in the mornings, otherwise the "darkness to daylight" thing feels a bit abrupt for me - I struggle with that in hotels with blackout blinds. No question though, the thermal blinds we have in the kitchen and bathroom definitely make a big difference. 

Glad the weekend full of visitors went as well as it did - human crash-mats notwithstanding! And yes, definitely think you should have let the chickens roam and caged the dogs!

Cheery_Daff

We've got a bit of an assortment of window coverings at the minute. Curtains in the (current) bedroom, bamboo blinds in the living room and bathroom and nothing anywhere else. Mr Cheery has a (ridiculous, in my opinion) aversion to curtains 🙄 so blinds it is. The bamboo ones don't stop people being able to see in from the outside, just stop the windows being squares of inky blackness as we have no streetlights 😂 I work on the assumption that nobody will be walking past here in the dark - let's hope that's true else they might occasionally get an eyeful 😮😂😂

Anyway, a good day at work today. Three solid, productive meetings, and I've been told I am heading in the right direction by people who are in a position to judge both me and the direction 😂

What's NOT been good though is parking 😮 Had to pay £2.70 for 3 hours, that ended while I was in a meeting, and it wouldn't let me extend, so I had to move the car before the meeting (so there was an overlap) and pay another £2.70 for the next 3 hours, then my next meeting was somewhere else, so that cost me another £3 for 2 hours!! 😮😮 Absolutely not feasible to carry on that nonsense!! 

Could have been avoided by parking further away and walking - but I'm still feeling the coil-related effects of overdoing it at the weekend so was trying to avoid too much walking 🙄 Getting harder and harder to get a permit for the site itself - you have to book 7 working days in advance, but they're all gone before 9am 🙄 and the system won't let you book more than 7 working days in advance 🙄 It's doable sometimes, but quite a production, and I don't always know what days I need to be in. Clearly I can't rely on free parking by the office (occasionally there's a spot, but not really this time of year). Going to have to start parking further and walking though - I always used to and the exercise will generally do me good!

What else? We're almost out of chicken food and corn so £39 spent- that should last about 3 months though, maybe longer, so not too bad. 

Oh, and I figured out the mystery of the random 8.5kwh day last week - it was TWO days, not one 🙄 I'd clearly forgot to read the meter one day, and the next day merrily read it without realising, and just added it to the next line on the page. Much more reasonable. Ot'll be interesting to see what today works out as after the excesses of the weekend!

Right, bath and maybe happy wheel, although I'm going right off that at the minute 🙄😂😂

Karmacat

Awww, Cheery, once your coil settles in (so to speak!  sorry) you'll be doing your usual walk again.  And an excellent resolution for your electrical mystery  

Cheery_Daff

Fingers crossed KC! 

So, electric back down to normal use now. 

Friday - 10.x kwh
Saturday - 9.x
Sunday - 6.x
Monday - 5.1

Lots of people here, but the only real difference Fri and Sat was having the oven and/or hob on for ages (oven for about 4 hours in total on Friday 😮). And LOADS of washing up (no dishwasher, so a lot of emptying and filling the sink), and lights in several rooms at a time I suppose. It all adds up. Glad it's gone back down to normal now though! 

Had an email from Bulb, they're dropping DD from £72.11 to £30.33. Obviously that takes into account the £66. We're £176 in credit anyway, so we'll see where we end up. We'll definitely have used less in September than August, with all our checking and reading the meter every day, so hopefully we'll continue that over the winter, although obviously prices will go up too. 

So we'll have £41.73 that would have gone to the electric, and I'll be putting that straight into the gas fund. Hoping we can last a bit longer without a top up - I think we managed to just before Christmas last year. Mind you, we don't always control when they turn up - but I do know we didn't realise in time and got down to 5% of a tank last year 😮 We're meant to order at 30% - so even if we're at that point before Christmas that's still a huge improvement! 

Right. Working at home today, and first I'm nipping into town for a slimming wold weigh in - I've missed 3 classes now with one thing and another 🙄 hoping the damage won't be too bad  but not holding my breath 🙄😂

KajiKita

@Cheery_Daff

Yaay for the "Anyway, a good day at work today. Three solid, productive meetings, and I've been told I am heading in the right direction by people who are in a position to judge both me and the direction"  Bravo!

Boo! to the parking hassles - sounds annoying. Also hoping that the coil recovery kicks in soon and the walking becomes more feasible.

Crossing my fingers for the weigh in ....   

KK 

EssexHebridean

Sounds like once the coil settles it's time to join me in the ranks of "mixed commutes involving foldy bikes" again?! 

That's a right pain about the parking situation generally isn't it - do you find yourself wondering how many of those who snaffle the parking passes that DO exist are actually at a distance that they could realistically just walk or cycle for their whole journey anyway? 

Cheery_Daff

Oh there's definitely plenty who live within walking distance. But then so did I, until I chose to move to the middle of nowhere 😂😂 (I never drove to work when I did though, but do appreciate that other people have different circumstances). The real problem is a lit of staff in the middle of a built up residential area with only 60 staff parking spaces...

Foldy bike definitely comes into its own in such situations - although sadly I've yet to get mine fixed 🙄 Need to move that to the top of my to do list I think.

Quite a productive day at work, although I've been rather cold today. We did resort to putting the heating on for an hour this afternoon (mostly because we'd washed Poppy Chicken's backside and needed her to dry out a bit before we put her back outside) - it did reach a heady 16 degrees in the study at that point though 🙄 Definitely need to make progress on energy efficiency/warming measures this weekend - starting by getting the spare rugs out of the loft and giving myself a makeshift carpet!

Going into the office again tomorrow, but Mr Cheery is coming too so no paying for parking. Need to get all my stuff packed up as we're moving offices at the end of next week 😱

missymoo81

Hey @Cheery_Daff just caught up with your diary again. I love reading your diary. It always makes me feel all homely. Like a cup of tea and a biscuit! Glad you’re ok, loving all the energy talk. Feel I may need to get an energy measurer thing!

Cheery_Daff

Hi Missy, good to see you! I remember in the olden days our local library used to lend out energy owls so that might be worth investigating if yours does (my local one here doesn't, sadly!) Definitely worth it for us - I paid £13.99 I think, and apparently we've used about £13 less electricity than last month with just a couple of days to go, eek! 

Busy day today. I thought it would take me about an hour to pack my office space up - I've basically only got a bookshelf and a few drawers Famous last words Took me most of the day, but I did actually manage to finish it, and now I don't have to go back to the office at all until after the move (next weekend). What a palaver. Trying to avoid being there while everyone else is packing up - it's going to be utter chaos as it's a big open plan thing.  

Anyway. Not much to report. Prolific standing at £15.93 and I'm working at home tomorrow, so might see if I an get it over £20 before withdrawing. I was going to send that to a mortgage OP - not done one of those for ages. 

Happy Wheel STILL in disgraceful minus figures About £100 I think. Not done today yet, and it still might turn round, but I'm not holding my breath... 

Checked banks/YNAB and all looking surprisingly ok. We've spent about £300 on diesel again - but as usual this year, that's involved several trips to see Mr Cheery's dad. Food is at £241, but we've fed a lot of visitors. Cafe trips are at just £50! Clearly too busy feeding people at home Anyway, Mr Cheery's pension arrives on Friday so I'll parcel that out when it arrives, and I think we should even be able to add a bit more to the savings pots which is great - I already added the extra I got in my wages this month so even without the Happy Wheel money we're doing ok. 

Need to decide what to do about that - I usually withdraw that month's winnings from the Happy Wheel account to the main account, but if it's minus figures... I suppose I should put it back! We'll see how I feel about that on Friday...