Simple living in the country - back to basics

Cheery_Daff

So we don't feel remotely deprived - but also not particularly flush either. That £11k is just what's in all the accounts added together, so it includes stuff saved for annual bills - currently about £850 for the next LPG bill, £450 for the car insurance etc, as well as all next month's normal monthly payments (mortgage etc)

In terms of what I consider actual savings (rather than saving each month for specific annual bills), we've got allocated: 

£1500 towards the next time we need a new car
£1000 next lot of replacement windows
£900 rendering side of house (hopefully done in the spring)
£1000 towards decorating the stairs (which will likely go towards hiring some kind of scaffolding towers so I can plaster it first)
£1500 household emergencies
£1000 household maintenance

All good, and wildly above what I could have imagined we'd have even a few years ago - but it somehow still feels a little on the precarious side, with several of those pots earmarked for spending this year (windows, rendering, stairs). 

Mr Cheery is already claiming his works pension - that's included in the income total, so we won't be getting any more on that front. He's nearly 7 years off the state pension - and I'm a good 25 years off mine so it might as well be 100 years away 

Darn it - just realised I didn't include the MB income in all that! That's worked out at an extra £145.66 a month (I only started doing it seriously again in April, and this also includes taking off the annual fees for Oddsmonkey etc)

Anyway, that's not guaranteed. Without it, we have £71.22 surplus, with it we have £216.88. 

I feel like I want to do quite a bit of trimming to increase the amount we're able to save... 

KajiKita

To be fair I can’t see much in there that could be trimmed … Donations?

The other way of looking at it is to increase income. I know you do MB so I don’t think you’d have time for much more but could Mr Cheery get a small local job? That might make the difference you are looking for?

KK

Karmacat

I can understand it feels a little bit precarious ... I mean, you're plentifully in the black, but nowadays, who knows?  

Of the things you've listed, these are my immediate thoughts:
- grocery etc, you've focussed on it before as being excessive, and you could probably get it down £30 or so, but its not huge for these days, I wouldn't have thought?
- presents are a fair bit, I agree, but that includes presents *between* you and Mr Cheery?
- entertainment (cafes) - you know!  
- the web hosting, yes, its a chunk, some decisions need to be thought about?
- personal spends: this is where your discretionary purchases lie, and that's what you have most power over, of course, these and entertainment.
- I'm a bit concerned that Mr Cheery doesn't have life insurance, in terms of covering the mortgage if he's gone/ having to sell the property quite quickly, no matter what the state of the market is.  

My other sense is that you know all of that, and I should 🤐 zip it.  And that the stress of looking after Mr Cheery Senior's needs entails spending some money, nothing much to be done about that.

Though if you could get a nice bed of fruit bushes established, some of your food bill might go down, without very much extra work  

Cheery_Daff

Thank you both for your helpful thoughts, very much appreciated 

KK, yes, increasing income is the obvious answer, and definitely something to consider. I certainly won't be taking on a part time job. I'm not saying much on here, but Mr Cheery's health isn't always the most stable, so a regular commitment might not be possible, but we'll see. If push comes to shove, I could potentially go back up to full time which would give us a nice extra wodge - but I don't think we're anywhere near desperate enough for us to do that yet!

And your suggestions, KC: 
- grocery etc, you've focussed on it before as being excessive, and you could probably get it down £30 or so, but its not huge for these days, I wouldn't have thought? - no, it doesn't feel huge. I'm sure we could do far more with batch cooking etc, but I do take lunches to work, eat porridge for breakfast etc, and we don't eat meat, so that does make things a bit cheaper. The focus of a January challenge, perhaps

- presents are a fair bit, I agree, but that includes presents *between* you and Mr Cheery? - yep, it does. 

- entertainment (cafes) - you know!  - yes, I know...

- the web hosting, yes, its a chunk, some decisions need to be thought about? - yes, we'll discuss this in the new year

- personal spends: this is where your discretionary purchases lie, and that's what you have most power over, of course, these and entertainment. - yep, indeed, and I can definitely reduce mine a bit

- I'm a bit concerned that Mr Cheery doesn't have life insurance, in terms of covering the mortgage if he's gone/ having to sell the property quite quickly, no matter what the state of the market is.  - Good point, but this was a conscious decision (although of course it may have still been the wrong one!) - he's older, so it was much more expensive. If I die while I'm still working, my life insurance will pay off the mortgage, and he gets a 'death in service' payout of £140k, so he'll be fine. If he goes first (which, barring misadventure, is more likely), I can have 6 months off work with full pay, 6 months half pay (assuming I continue in this job, of course) and after that I'd just have to get over it and go back to work. I'd still get two thirds of his works pension, so that would leave me with most of the household income, so I'd still be able to afford to live here if I wanted to, and we've got a good deal of equity in this house now, so I could sell it and pay the mortgage off, and still buy somewhere smaller outright. 

My other sense is that you know all of that, and I should 🤐 zip it.  - absolutely not - I asked for suggestions!

And that the stress of looking after Mr Cheery Senior's needs entails spending some money, nothing much to be done about that. - indeed, don't begrudge that one bit, just need to make sure we allow for it in the budget

Though if you could get a nice bed of fruit bushes established, some of your food bill might go down, without very much extra work  - also a good point. We've got a decent garden, and I've very much NOT made use of it these last two years - making a half hearted attempt to grow things and then not harvesting them. Could definitely make better use of that!

Keep those suggestions coming people - I might not use them all (sorry!) but I will definitely give all of them proper consideration  

Cheery_Daff

I should also say, we could easily be in a MUCH better financial position if we hadn't moved here... This isn't a cheap house to run, and, as I say, if we were desperate we could move somewhere more sensible - with hindsight we could have not mortgaged ourselves quite as much as we did... But we chose to have a bit of an adventure, and we knew it would be tight for a few years, especially with the building work etc. Just under 7 years til Mr Cheery's state pension kicks in, so if we can keep going at this rate or better til then, then we'll be laughing. 

themadvix

With the garden, perhaps to make life easier, just focus on the stuff that grows itself - potatoes, courgettes, garlic, onions come to mind. And maybe buy some plants from a garden centre for trickier things? (I bought tomato plants, peppers and Brussels sprouts/cabbage and while I’ll be growing the former two from seed this year, buying a few brassica seedlings rather than whole seed packets and having to look after more seedlings definitely appeals). And Karma is right about fruit except for having the time to pick and process when there’s a glut!

Cheery_Daff

I tend to do fine with the earlier part of growing - and then I don't get stuff out of the greenhouse in time 🙄 Definitely something to do some thinking/planning around. A few direct sown crops might not go amiss. Mind you, all my beans grew beautifully last year and I let every single one of them fall off and rot cos I was so distracted by the builders 🙄

I think being slightly more under-ambitious in the garden this year might not go amiss - fewer different things, keep it nice and simple, but try to see it through 😊

Karmacat

Cheery_Daff said:

I tend to do fine with the earlier part of growing - and then I don't get stuff out of the greenhouse in time 🙄 Definitely something to do some thinking/planning around. A few direct sown crops might not go amiss. Mind you, all my beans grew beautifully last year and I let every single one of them fall off and rot cos I was so distracted by the builders 🙄

I think being slightly more under-ambitious in the garden this year might not go amiss - fewer different things, keep it nice and simple, but try to see it through 😊

I don't get quite as far along the growing path as this, but I definitely recognise in myself that tendency to start and then everything just falls apart or dies somehow.

Keeping it simple *and* trying to see it through ... yes, and this is the challenge for me too.  I did harvest maybe 70% of my rhubarb this season just gone, and that was huge for me.  Is it too late to plant garlic now?  Kale!  Surely I can grow some kale ... I tried, it was one of the things that died ... Yeah, I really, really recognise being too ambitious 

As for the financial position you're in because you chose that house.  Your house sounds lovely!  Land and trees and dry stone hedges and outbuildings and chickens and don't you have a well in the cellar?  I bet you could write a book about the history of your house, or David Olusoga could do one of his series about it.  Of course you bought it!

Cheery_Daff

Thank you 😊 our house is indeed lovely, I don't regret it at all! I just need to be a bit more mindful, and get back to some of my old frugal habits! 

I grew an excellent kale crop one year, it was the curly stuff, and it just thrived. I did have to do some epic caterpillar removal once it had grown though 😮 They next year I grew kavalo nero (or however you spell it) - it grew well, but was completely decimated before I harvested it. Definitely need netting if I try it again (I've got netting, I just didn't use it!) 

Beans seem to grow well here, despite the wind. I did have a decent potato crop one year but they all got blight. Bizarrely, I ended up with a massive load of turnips one year as well 😂

Not had much luck with squash here, I think I've just never got them in the ground early enough. We're 1300ft above sea level, and near the top of a windy hill, so we tend to be quite exposed and get lots of weather. I've planted my edible windbreak of course which is filling out nicely now 😊 Maybe that will make a difference this year too 😊

Definitely think 'see it through' or something similar could be a useful phrase of the year for me!

Cheery_Daff

Urgh, I've definitely acquired some kind of lurgy 🙄 Not surprising really - Mr Cheery has been coughing his guts up and sneezing since before Christmas, and while we've tried to stay in separate rooms, keep everything washed etc, we are still in the same house so it was probably inevitable. I might have avoided it if I hadn't knocked myself out with that race.

Anyway, I likely would have stayed asleep if he hadn't switched the landing light on then left it on while he went off to do something else 🙄 That, his coughing fit in the kitchen (right below me), plus my stiff neck and stuffy nose, wasn't a good sleeping combination 🙄

Still, I am now furnished with a refreshed hot water bottle, reinvigorated wheat bag for my neck, and some paracetamol, so I hope to sleep soundly until morning! Bit of a howling gale here, so I shall put on some kind of white noise thing so I'm not listening out for bits of the barn roof blowing off 🙄😂

Got some plans for tomorrow - although given how rubbish I feel right this second they might change! 

* make the last 2 present bags - I'll have used all of both of the festive tablecloths i bought in a charity shop, and will clear the sewing machine off the dining table 😊

* paint the final tiny strip in the study - it's only a foot wide and barely noticeable in most lights, but I can see it's there, and I've got a couple of little tester pots of paint, so might as well do it and then they can stop cluttering the room up

* finalise budget for next year and allocate dosh to all my categories - Mr Cheery's pension has been paid tonight, and I've remembered to pay the plumber, so my totals are a bit off.

* write December's blog post

* more end of year planning!

None of that seems too energetic, and most of it can be done in front of Call the Midwife 😂 I'm up to the 2020 Christmas special now, and there are only 2 series to go after that - might be done with them tomorrow at the rate I'm going 😂

Glad I went out yesterday for tissues and cough medicine etc, although I wishe I'd thought to get some of my own favourite invalid food - cornflakes! 😂