Simple living in the country - back to basics

themadvix

Very interesting spin on the workhouse Cheery! What was the timeframe for her research though? Before the 1834 Poor Law Act some workhouses were certainly a much friendlier, safer and charitable place than they became after the Act. I can't imagine anyone 'wanting' to be there, but in some places they would certainly have offered security, three square meals and they weren't as strict, as punishment-oriented or as poorly provisioned as they became later on.

Definitely don't worry about the lumpy outgoings (although I can see how the lumpy incoming from the strikes is more concerning). We too, with recent redundancy worries, have been tempted to panic a bit, but then I remembered that we had a lot less when we first got married and we really know how to live cheaply and stretch our money - so I didn't need to panic. You can definitely do the same - by several orders of magnitude better, I suspect.

Cheery_Daff

Interesting point about timings TMV - this one was opened about 5 years after the act I think, so she reckoned they'd ironed out some of the more severe things that happened directly after the act. This was also a relatively small one (around 80 inmates) so that might have made a difference. Who knows, it might have been great! I just didn't take that from the evidence we were shown.

And thank you for your financial reassurance, you're right, of course 😊

greent

I've also got ancestors who died in the workhouse. As they had living, local (but probably dirt poor) family I would guess they went in so as not to burden them. I think one was quite incapacitated and relatively young, so couldn't assist in bringing in any income.

Love discovering little facts along the way - just a shame it takes up so much time!! 

Cheery_Daff

Really interesting point about funerals and not burdening families. I can see how that might drive someone to 'want' to go in there. 

Morning all

Funny old week here. Working days all messed up for various reasons, and we had some bad news about a friend yesterday which has unsettled us considerably. Still, another set of friends came to visit with their children and we had a lovely afternoon They even helped me weed the veg patch -NOT my intention, especially not as it was drizzling, but we went outside intending to just peer at the chickens through the windows, and the kids spotted a spade and wanted to start digging, and I wasn't about to stop them
 
The sun is shining today, and I may get out and dig another couple of post holes, but it's also car insurance day. I've missed the optimum time for renewal, annoyingly, but it's not due til the 18th, so still a couple of weeks. 

I'm using MSE's new tool - I don't think they had it this time last year? I've just put in details for one car so far, and the quote has come back £72 cheaper than the renewal for that car, so that's promising! I've also checked mileage on past MOTs which I don't think I'd done before - I've got the overall mileage between both cars roughly right, but apparently we do FAR more in one car than the other - as in 18,000 miles in one and 5,000 in the one I usually use for work I had about 10k on each, so that needs adjusting - the £72 reduction is for the one we use more, with the additional mileage. It also includes a courtesy car as standard, which current policy doesn't. 

I haven't put in driving licence numbers yet, largely because I couldn't be bothered getting off the sofa to find them  

Need to put in driving licence numbers for that car, then check the other, then check multicar, but I'm confident I can get a decent reduction. 

Renewal quote is £640 for both cars - I'd love to get it closer to £500!

First though, need to get dressed and do medication for Bessie Chicken... 

Cheery_Daff

Right, medication done, other faffing, and considerable car insurance messing 🙄

Joint renewal quote: £640.79

Cheapest multi-car quote for same cover (including legal and protected NCB): £667.51 🙄

Cheapest combination of individual policies for same cover: £490.55

They're all fully comp - I've not been back and checked TPT - slightly losing energy for this, but I WILL check, just in case. 

Had to stick business use on so I can claim mileage - ridiculous really as I barely do any, mostly just driving to the train station 😂, but worth having for the odd thing, and I don't think it's added much to the policy. 

Right, going to check TPT then bite the bullet and buy the best one - and hopefully it'll let me pay with the credit card for a bit of extra cashback 😂 Oh, and I suppose I should check the cashback sites - YAWN. 

Still, looks like it's going to save about £150 on the renewal quote so not too bad - that'll be well used at the minute (mostly to top up the pots I raided for the garage bill...)

Cheery_Daff

Good grief, what an awful lot of messing around. 

So. Checked TopCashBack - cashback for multicar policy with the cheapest insurer for the bigger car. Clicked through, but the website timed out several times, so clicked through from the MSE comparison tool instead, and set up multicar from there - which did indeed work out cheaper than the two separate policies. No idea if that means cashback will go through or not. 

Grand total? 
£640.79 renewal price
£471.16 actual price
= £169.63 saving

I'll take that for a few hours of messing about!

Celebratory cup of tea is in order, I say!

KajiKita

Well done!! 👏😊🎉🥳

KK

Cheery_Daff

Thanks  

Slightly less well done is last month's spending report... 

Food = £270.43/£250
My spends = £88.90/£80 
Joint treats = £167.40/£80

Oh dear! Very much need to get a handle on ourselves! We were both still feeling rough for the first couple of weeks, and we've had issues with both of us changing medication and Bessie Chicken being ill but even so, got rather into the habit of 'we need a treat'... 

My spends
In relation to my spends, that breaks down into: 
£26.07 socialising (one leaving do for a colleague in a pub, and tea in a supermarket cafe with a pal)
£7.99 book for a book club (couldn't get it from the library or anywhere else -haven't even finished it!)
£29.95 for 6 weeks of Slimming World
£15 ish sitting in cafes by myself (!)
Then the other £9 on toiletries, ingredients for soap making etc, and the odd little thing from a charity shop. 

Not wildly outlandish but does need pulling in. 

Joint treats
As for joint treats... 
£6 for drinks at an event
£28.85 eating out at a pub twice
£20 taking Mr Cheery's dad to a cafe after the funeral (not entirely sure this should have been labelled as a 'treat' but hey)
£112 on 11 'normal' cafe trips over the course of the month. 

Hmm. 

Food & household
And as for food, 29 different transactions! Some were odd non-food things, as my category is 'food & household' (a couple of oils for soap making, jam thermometer, caustic soda, a tin to keep chicken food in, replacement phone charger) but clearly we do an awful lot of nipping in to a shop and spending a few quid repeatedly... This is always how we've done things though, rarely do a big shop - the biggest was £34. 

Also managed to spend £424 on diesel in January That was two family visits for me, plus various trips to Mr Cheery Snr of course, and back and forth to work, but I don't feel like we've done an outlandish amount of driving. I suppose we've gone into Feb with almost full tanks in both cars, so hopefully this month will be better. 

beanielou

Passes raspberry gin.

KajiKita

I often find those projectty type spends (for the soaps etc) creep up on me ….
I try to cheer myself by reminding self of the success of those projects (made piccalilli for the first time last year) and that the hardware or long term consumables (a 5 litre bottle of vinegar in my case!) will for years / the next batch 😊

KK