Simple living in the country - back to basics

Cheery_Daff

Cheery_Daff said:

Plans for 2022

Overall
I need to focus on my health and energy levels as an absolute priority, even before the house (although they will benefit each other). I'd also like us to have some fun, which has been sorely lacking this year! 

Finances
* Main focus needs to be on rebuilding the savings. I'd like to save £600 a month from normal income, and make an extra £400 a month from any and all other sources (MB, premium bonds winnings (ever hopeful!), prolific, covid study, anything Mr Cheery's self-employment earns etc). Together that will mean an extra £12,000 over the year. 

* Mortgage - without any OPs we'll be at £171,690.05 by the end of the year. I'd love to be under £170k. Not sure yet how I'm going to fund this - according to my spreadsheet it means an OP of £140 a month, and I'd want that to be on top of the savings above. 

Home
* Main focus is on finishing kitchen/dining room and bedroom. 

* As part of the reorganisation I'll set up the spare bedroom as my craft room

* I'd love to re-do the bathroom! But that might be towards the end of the year, if at all... 

Garden & land
* Extra bit of extension on the chicken run

* grow and actually harvest some veg

* cut the hay field

* fix some dry stone walls (and probably watch some others fall down...)

Health
NEED to focus on this. Healthy eating, exercise, rest, recuperation, and I'd love to lose at least a couple of stone this year (if nothing else it will mean I can fit back into some of my own clothes!)

Let's see how many of those plans survive the next year, shall we?!

Just plonking this here to come back to in a minute... 

Cheery_Daff

So, let's have a look how we did according to those goals, shall we??

OVERALL
I need to focus on my health and energy levels as an absolute priority, even before the house (although they will benefit each other). I'd also like us to have some fun, which has been sorely lacking this year! 

Well, this year has certainly been better than last year, and the year before! I was quite lacking in energy for the first half, but I did go to the docs, and have dealt with that in various ways (more to come) and I do feel a bit better, although still work to do. And we have actually had some fun! Been for a night in Llandudno, a night in Blackpool, and 2 nights in Edinburgh for a wedding. Before that we hadn't had more than one night away at a time since 2017, and then only staying with friends. Not exactly a wild ride, but it's certainly been an improvement. 

FINANCES
* Main focus needs to be on rebuilding the savings. I'd like to save £600 a month from normal income, and make an extra £400 a month from any and all other sources (MB, premium bonds winnings (ever hopeful!), prolific, covid study, anything Mr Cheery's self-employment earns etc). Together that will mean an extra £12,000 over the year. 

Ha, well even without adding things up I can tell you I did NOT save £600 a month from normal income, and make an extra £400 a month  I don't know what I was thinking - that was wildly overambitious!  Extra earnings so far: 

* Happy wheel = £1747.95
* Premium bonds = £25 (won about £475 last year but we've paid for the kitchen since then!)
* QMee = £25.80 (gave up in about May I think)
* Covid study = £400 (all in supermarket vouchers)
= £2198.75

Marginally less than my projected £12k  Not including Mr Cheery's extra income here it still won't have got us anywhere near that total. Hey ho!  

YNAB tells me our net worth (just what's in the banks, not house/assets/pensions or anything) has increased by 9.6% - great, except that only equates to £1069... Could do better, I think!

* Mortgage - without any OPs we'll be at £171,690.05 by the end of the year. I'd love to be under £170k. Not sure yet how I'm going to fund this - according to my spreadsheet it means an OP of £140 a month, and I'd want that to be on top of the savings above. 

Decided to focus on building up savings rather than OPing this year, and we've not made it under £170k sadly. We're currently standing at £171.433.12, having paid off £11,310 and having £3925 worth of interest added.

Fortune_Smiles

Well done Cheery!  2022 has been a tough year and you've made excellent progress.

Fortune x

Cheery_Daff

HOME
* Main focus is on finishing kitchen/dining room and bedroom. 

Yep, although it's still not done. Bedroom is painted, clothes rails are up, blinds are made (but not put up yet), and we've been sleeping in ther for weeks (albeit on just a mattress). Kitchen has had one coat of paint (but not the second), the ceiling is finished (hooray!!), two blinds are up and the other two made. Still needs some work.

I have carpeted and repainted and reorganised the study though, which wasn't on the list. 

* As part of the reorganisation I'll set up the spare bedroom as my craft room

Not yet - although we do have the spare bed up there. Got stalled when we had to dismantle our bed and the frame is still in there, waiting to be rebuilt in the other room. I have at least decluttered everything and it's all waiting in the downstairs loo for the room to be finished. 

* I'd love to re-do the bathroom! But that might be towards the end of the year, if at all... 

Ha - no chance! On the list for next year!

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GARDEN & LAND
* Extra bit of extension on the chicken run

No - we bought the stuff, and I've laid out where the posts go, but not actually got round to putting it up. 

* grow and actually harvest some veg

Er... no. 

* cut the hay field

I haven't quite finished, but I've got far further than any year before, and I'm still hopeful there'll be time to do the rest before the spring. 

* fix some dry stone walls (and probably watch some others fall down...)

Ha, well, I've certainly watched a couple more fall down... 

**********************************************************************
HEALTH
NEED to focus on this. Healthy eating, exercise, rest, recuperation, and I'd love to lose at least a couple of stone this year (if nothing else it will mean I can fit back into some of my own clothes!)

I've lost a stone, but no more. I do feel better for it, but would like to lose more. I've not done much in the way of exercise (except for the other day!) I have had the two teeth I lost last year replaced with bridges though so I look slightly better! (one of them is still giving me trouble so I'm back to the dentist in January). 

***********************************************************************
Overall, it's felt like a recovery year after the two before - 2021 in particular was really stressful, and 2022 has felt much better. I don't feel like I've made that much progress in anything really, but we've slowly chipped away at the DIY, and we're ending the year with slightly more money than we started it with, despite increased costs, so all good. 

I didn't make any goals here in relation to work, but it's been a good year professionally for me - got a promotion, started a new project, applied for a funding bid, published a paper. 

Now for another cup of tea and I'll tackle next year's budget. Told you it'd be a waffly day! 

Fortune_Smiles

Ooops 🤭 didn't realise there was more to come.  Fabulous!

Fortune x

beanielou

Awesome 😎 x

Cheery_Daff

Thank you both 😊

Just sat poring over next year's budget. Going on Jan-Nov monthly averages from 2022, we theoretically have £115 spare a month for saving. I'd really like to save more than that...

I can see various places we can tweak - we're generally pretty frugal by nature, but we don't really make any effort to restrict our spending at the minute 🙄

I definitely want to tackle the food budget. We've been getting £40 of supermarket vouchers a month, and yet we're still spending an average of £246 a month on food on top of that 🙄

I might try separating it a bit more - at the minute that budget line includes food, general household stuff (,loo roll, toothpaste, light bulbs etc), and booze. I think it might be instructive to at least separate drink out! We don't drink loads, but we do like a nightcap of an evening...

I think we can also cut presents - we've done an average of £43 a month on birthday presents, and £50 a month on Christmas. I think we can probably be a little bit more frugal than that. 

Must remember our budget has been a bit affected by Mr Cheery's dad this year - vastly increased our diesel budget, and we do tend to buy various bits for him while we're over there. So that, combined with increased costs of other things, is likely while I'm feeling like we've not been saving as much as I feel we 'should' have been. 

Anyway. I'm going to ruminate on all that for a while, and see where we end up. Need to have a proper think about savings goals too.

(Should point out I'd save more if I wasn't currently back in the cafe again 😂 although in my defence I did only spend £2.75 today 🙄😂)

Cheery_Daff

Ok, here goes nothing. Accurate SOA based on actual monthly averages from 2022... Only thing I've guessed is current house value (irrelevant anyway as we're not moving), and car values (paid about £1500 for each, but they're 14 & 15 years old so not exactly growing in value).

I've bundled both of our incomes together, all costs cover both of us. Other notes in bold below. Any thoughts appreciated!

beanielou

You forgot thev SOA Cheery!

Cheery_Daff

Household Information

Number of adults in household........... 2

Number of children in household......... 0

Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details

Monthly income after tax................ 3194

Partners monthly income after tax....... 0

Benefits................................ 0

Other income............................ 0

Total monthly income.................... 3194

Monthly Expense Details

Mortgage................................ 920

Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0

Rent.................................... 0

Management charge (leasehold property).. 0

Council tax............................. 196

Electricity............................. 60.96 - actual monthly average this year, accurate meter readings

Gas..................................... 163 - not on mains gas, actual amount paid out this year, although we won't get another invoice til Feb now - see earlier post about difficulty of calculating!

Oil..................................... 0

Water rates............................. 10.8 - we have a septic tank, so don't pay for mains drainage. Septic tank emptying included in household maintenance below

Telephone (land line)................... 0 - included with internet below

Mobile phone............................ 20 - both on £10 sim only deals with giff gaff

TV Licence.............................. 13.25

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0

Internet Services....................... 29.99 

Groceries etc. ......................... 260.82 - we've also had roughly £40 a month supermarket vouchers, not included here. This includes toiletries, household sundries

Clothing................................ 0 - included in our personal spends below

Petrol/diesel........................... 301 - two diesel cars, one does 55mpg, the other 70mpg. Work is a 52 mile round trip 2 or 3 times a week, supermarket is 16 mile round trip, Mr Cheery's dad is about a 200 mile round trip, been at least 2 or 3 times a month all this year

Road tax................................ 5 - both cars on £30 a year tax

Car Insurance........................... 58 - due in Feb. Goes down each year as we only had one car before we moved here, so I had no NCB. I'll have 5 years this time. 

Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 85

Car parking............................. 5

Other travel............................ 0

Childcare/nursery....................... 0

Other child related expenses............ 0

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 47.4 - £38 of this is the dentist - we've both had various things wrong this year, crown, bridges etc

Pet insurance/vet bills................. 135 - this includes chicken food/bedding as well as vets. We had a couple of very expensive home visits from the vet during the bird flu lockdown in the spring - hopefully not to be repeated!

Buildings insurance..................... 0 - in with contents

Contents insurance...................... 15.2

Life assurance ......................... 7.63 - just me, Mr Cheery doesn't have this

Other insurance......................... 0

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 85

Haircuts................................ 0 - we both cut our own hair. I last had my hair cut by the local college about 18 months ago, came from personal spends

Entertainment........................... 138 - joint cafe/eating out

Holiday................................. 61 - four nights in hotels over the course of the year

Emergency fund.......................... 77 - this is what we actually spent on maintenance this year - including a £545 boiler repair this month

Garden & land........................... 26.53

Replacement appliances.................. 19.08 - mostly my new laptop, which was about £215

YNAB.................................... 5.65

My union fees........................... 27.18

My work (professional membership etc)... 17.31 - no, work won't pay for these

Donations............................... 20

Group memberships....................... 4.25

Web hosting............................. 24.73 - need to take a proper look at this, it's a hangover Mr Cheery has from a while back but I think it's linked to various band websites so don't want to just cancel it

Mr Cheery spends (incl dad)............. 168

My spends (incl clothes)................ 115[b]

Total monthly expenses.................. 3122.78

Assets

Cash.................................... 11875

House value (Gross)..................... 500000

Shares and bonds........................ 0

Car(s).................................. 3000

Other assets............................ 0[b]

Total Assets............................ 514875

Secured & HP Debts

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR

Mortgage...................... 171433...(920)......2.26[b]

Total secured & HP debts...... 171433....-.........-   [/b]

Unsecured Debts

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR[b]

Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-  

Monthly Budget Summary

Total monthly income.................... 3,194

Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,122.78

Available for debt repayments........... 71.22

Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0

Amount left after debt repayments....... 71.22

Personal Balance Sheet Summary

Total assets (things you own)........... 514,875

Total HP & Secured debt................. -171,433

Total Unsecured debt.................... -0[b]

Net Assets.............................. 343,442