Simple living in the country - back to basics

beanielou

Hope heating continues to do what is should.
Oooh I love fronty fancies 
Not seen them this year yet.

Cheery_Daff

Me too Beanie! Although somehow I only got one out of the whole box 😂😂 These were in a Sainsburys at a train station.

Surprisingly I did get my reserved seat, woo hoo! And I managed to get a cup of tea.

Very ready to be home though. Still got another train to catch, and then a drive, so won't be back til about 8. Very tiresome.

Still, no working this weekend (which is an improvement on the last two), and only four days of work left before I've got TWENTY FOUR DAYS OFF 😀😀😀😀😀

Can't tell you how ready I am for that 😁😁😁

beanielou

Woohoo!
The countdown begins 
Where is that jumping smillie when you need it!

Cheery_Daff

I know, I moss the jumping smiley too! 

YAWN. Managed to get a butty and a cuppa at the changeover, but then they announced my train and I walked off without putting any milk in 🙄 Never mind - it's still wet and warm. But then they changed my train platform, just as the train pulled in- all of a sudden it wasn't our train, but a different one, causing much confusion.

and now I'm standing on the opposite one looking at my cup of tea which I managed to leave on a windowsill on the old platform when I stopped to put my purse back in my bag 🙄😂😂

Still, train driver just apologised for the 'small fiasco' so there's that 😂

Cheery_Daff

Finally made it home, and delighted to report the heating is still working! Mr Cheery had dropped the thermostat to 8 degrees when he went out this morning (which we usually do when out/overnight) and the radiators were warm, so the house had obviously dropped below 8 and was trying to warm itself back up 🥶🥶🥶 

I nipped into Aldi and somehow spent £67 😱 But that was the best part of a weekly shop (we've run out of loads of things), plus some festive booze for visitors tomorrow and beyond.

Chickens tucked into bed - pleased to see there was still liquid in their water bowls, which means the temperature in their run is considerably warmer than outside, which is great. 

Trying to spur myself on for a last few tasks:

* put bedding in wash for visitors tomorrow (sadly I don't think there's any clean stuff 🙄)
* quickly wipe out fridge
* put shopping away
* chop up cooking apples and get them into the hay box
* Happy wheel
* hang sheets on radiators
* get warm and cosy

Karmacat

Warm and cosy would be best of all enjoy your evening.

beanielou

A vote for warm & cosy from me too 
(My feet are chuffing freezing)

Cheery_Daff

Well, I didn't do the cooking apples, and the sheets were hung up this morning, but otherwise all done! 

Friends haven't stayed anyway - one isn't very well, so the other came on his own and left about 9. Still lovely to see him, and somehow we were so stuffed from lunch that we didn't eat anything else 😂

Breakfast in the cafe this morning - it was quiet because it kept snowijg on and off, which puts people off travelling out here. Nothing disruptive anywhere we needed to go though. 

Just won £62 on the Happy Wheel, so December total is £207 which is great considering it's only the 10th! Obviously that can go down as well as up... 🙄

Just been introduced to a new YouTube homestead person via another person I follow - only watched part of one of her videos so far but I like her 😊 She talks about 'making your waiting room your classroom'  which i really like - while you're waiting for your ultimate dream, start learning how to do all the little things now. It's certainly something I've embraced over the years - we never would have even considered moving here if I hadn't already tried my hand at food growing, done a chicken keeping course, bits of dry stone walling, a permaculture course etc. And of course built a massive library of homestead and gardening books 😂 I didn't really have a long term plan to move somewhere like this, but it opened itself as a possibility 😊😊

Anyway, looking forward to watching more of her stuff. I'd tell you her name if I could remember but I've shut the tablet now and started drinking so it'll have to wait 😂

Karmacat

I'll look forward to that, Cheery, she sounds one to keep an eye on, and the "waiting room/classroom" is wonderful, a real summary of getting to live your dream, even if you don't know what it is yet  

Cheery_Daff

Indeed KC - I suppose it's a case of doing the things you love now, rather than waiting, in whatever form you can, because you just don't know where the future will take you. So get fit, learn to sew, grow some food, visit places you think you might like to live etc etc 

It's Roots & Refuge Farm I've been watching - I've only watched two videos so far so no idea what else she says!

Anyway, been getting my head in a tangle with YNAB and the banks. I did reconcile mid November after my payday, but I've done a lot of Christmas shopping since then... Anyway, it was £500 out, and I couldn't figure out why Checked, checked again, and ended up going all the way back to the start of October, ticking things off in two different ways. 

I was surprised by the amount of small transactions I'd entered wrongly   Just transposing a couple of numbers her and there. Some I'd missed altogether, and then done a general YNAB 'adjustment' at the end of the month to take account of it (there's only so long I'm willing to spend looking for an extra £10 in my accounting!)

It turns out I'd entered the £496 MB income from October as an inflow TWICE. And gone through the whole reconciliation process in the middle of November without realising - how?! I have no idea. I think the computer was playing up at that point so maybe I stopped in the middle of the process?? 

Anyway, we're up to date again now (well, after a £15 adjustment - goodness knows what I've done there and after almost 2 hours of looking I'm not inclined to look any more!)

Been far more spendy than we should have been this month, with one thing and another. There's been quite a bit of socialising! But it is what it is. There's still money in the Christmas pot (good job, as I haven't finished the Christmas shopping). 

Couple of observations: 

* I'd forgotten we don't pay the water bill in December - that's £16.20 allocated elsewhere (just to the general pot given the amount of messing about this month!)
* We didn't have a pot for replacement tech etc, so I've created one, and taken my laptop money out of the home maintenance pot. I'm going to try to separate replacement white goods/tech, from DIY, from general home maintenance stuff in next year's budget
* Electric DD has dropped again, to £21 this time. We'd been paying £72, so I'm allocating all extra to the LPG fund, as last year we had a tank before Christmas, and another one late Feb I think. I usually stick £167 a month in there anyway, and we're on a 2 year fix (assuming they continue to honour that). We've got £814 in there at the minute, and we've still got half a tank left at the minute, so even if they do deliver before Christmas, it'll only be a max of about £650 worth I think, and they won't take payment til the end of Jan anyway. So that's ok. I did read about a one off £100 payment for people on LPG/oil but I've not heard anything else about that. 
* Had a reminder from the garage - I hadn't paid the MOT bill. Whoops (Although I do partly blame them for not letting you pay on the day and just sending an invoice several weeks later ). Anyway, paid now. 

We had a little bit of snow yesterday afternoon, but no more overnight, so things are pretty but not disruptive out there - my favourite type of snow Now I've done all my financial messing about, Mr Cheery and I are going on a little Christmas shopping excursion, possibly via a cafe - I want to re-look at my list and see what's left and try to be a bit strategic about it. Not too much to go now, I don't think!

And then later we'll maybe put up the Christmas tree