Simple living in the country - back to basics

badmemory

It shows how important keeping paperwork can be.  I still have all my P60s from my first year in work, dated April 1964.  I used to keep all my payslips & back then they were weekly, until I got my P60.  I even used to check that they added up.  Yes folks I was just a little anal already at 18.  I'm thinking I might dump them now, well next time I'm in the loft.  But I know someone in Mr Cheerys position except he was almost 30 years missing, as were several others who worked with him.  He couldn't even get dole because according to them he had never worked so had no entitlement.

Are you sure he actually needs those years, it may well be that he doesn't.  Try the Future Pension service they are really helpful.  I was on to them yesterday morning about my sons shortfall, so that is done & paid for.  I've been nagging for a couple of years now about one of the years which will not be available after this tax year..  Of course they were very busy because Martin has been telling people to get on it.  I was so cross with him (that's DS not Martin) because it wouldn't have taken so long hanging on if he had got it done when I first suggested it.  I don't actually get cross with him because there is no point & frankly life is too short.

Cheery_Daff

Yes, he's already spoken to the Future Pension Service - they advised chasing HMRC about it. He does still need several years worth - and there's no earthly point missing out on these ones when he's already paid contributions for them. For one of the years, the HMRC records say both 'no contributions' and 'contributed £1500' so there's clearly a mistake!

Anyway, hopefully all sorted out soon!

MissRikkiC

@Cheery_Daff I’m a lurker who just found your diary. Can you link me your previous one too! I’d love to go back and read

Cheery_Daff

Hi MissRikkiC 😊

For info, you can click on anyone's profile picture and scroll right down to the 'activity' section to see all the threads they've ever started 😊

But for reference (please DON'T go back and read all these 😱😱 But I've just amused myself reading the first post of each one!)

2010-2011, which started with me earning £780 a month, and in which I (finally!) finished my PhD and started working full time

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2517795/daffys-a-nice-cup-of-tea-cheers-you-up-diary/p1

2011-2012, which started with me working full time and trying to save £500 a month so I could give up working full time 😂

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3247456/daffys-patchwork-dreams-diary/p1

2014-2018, in which I returned to the forum after a break, was working 4 days a week, spent several years redecorating the house, paid off the mortgage, got a new full time job, then moved from the city to the middle of nowhere 😂 and took on a new £215k mortgage. Eventful 😂

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4879089/cheerys-buttling-diary-tea-in-one-hand-plant-pot-in-the-other-running-shoes-on/p1

2018-2021, which started with us recovering from the Beast from the East, and saw us through two epic lots of traumatic building work, Mr Cheery being quite ill, acquiring chickens, covid, and me dropping back down to 4 days a week again, oh, and sneaking off to get married without mentioning it on here til years later 😂

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5808739/cheerys-country-living-adventure/p1

And then the current one, which has so far been far less eventful than my last diary, thank goodness! 

Gosh I don't half waffle on 😂 although I suppose that lot does span 13 years, and I do post pretty much daily most of the time, if not more 😱

slm6002

It is lovely to look back on old diaries and see where we were and where we are now.  Hopefully they show learning and improving and moving forwards (probably backwards as well at some point). 

Cheery_Daff

Ha, yes, there's definitely been some going backwards! 😂 But plenty of learning and improving. 

Interesting to just read my first couple of posts for each of those. At one point I was saving a 'patchwork fund' for when my contract ended, and I quite quickly got up to about £6k, then started merrily spending it when my job was extended. I'd moved into Mr Cheery's house and had literally no idea of all the things that could potentially go wrong that might need money to spend (new boiler etc). Those things haunt me now 🙄😂

MissRikkiC

Thank you Cheery. I am reading through your diary after you having just moved back in 2018, it makes for a lovely break with a brew

Cheery_Daff

Ha, I do like a nice break with a brew 😁 Hope you don't get too lost in it! 

Morning MSE chums 😊😊 Foggy here - we're in some kind of strange inversion - as we drove up the lane we came out of the fog, just like that, all of a sudden. It was most bizarre! You could actually see the exact line in the field where the fog started, it was most odd.

Anyway, we have had a Valentine's breakfast in the cafe (well, tea and a bit of flapjack 😂) and are now back home, after a brief chat with our local farmer pal who was doing some work in a field. 

I've been having a bit of a tidy up, got some washing on, and made a phone call. We had a letter from the local building inspectors for the council, saying the building inspectors who certified our building work (not the most recent, which didn't need it, but before, when we had the ceiling replaced) had ceased trading, so they might need to come and inspect 🙄

However, ours was actually signed off last August and we already have the final certificate, so I spoke to a nice man who said to just forward that on, and that should be the end of it. So that's something off the list (although technically it shouldn't have even been ON my list if the certificate had gone to the council properly like it should have done, but hey).

I've been reading the latest issue of Permaculture Magazine this morning, and it's got me all fired up for doing some projects 😁 I've been feeling quite helpless and disempowered over the last few months, like things were spiralling out of my control, so it was nice to read about people getting on and doing stuff. Got some lovely ideas for the garden, and it made me all enthusiastic about getting the chicken extension done.

So, today. It's a strike day, but technically for me it's actually my non-working day as I'm working Friday this week. So I'm in need of a plan...

* get the final 4 holes dug for the chicken run
* finish tidying up!
* hang washing
* change sheets
* make something wholesome for dinner and tea (and try to get at least one portion of something in the freezer)
* write address on friend's letter and actually get the darn thing in the post! (Post office might be tomorrow, but having the address would be a start!)

If I can get all those post holes dug, I might get the posts in them and measure up what we need to cut off - they're far too long at the minute....

Cheery_Daff

Doing lots of thinking about the garden lately. The chicken extension is going to take quite a bit of space! 

We've got two bits of garden - I think of the as front and back, but actually they're both in front of the house. One next to the house, then the other side of the gate, across the drive/footpath, is the rest - mostly flat, very exposed and windy, and where the washing line, veg patch, chicken run, windbreak area all are. 

I want to get the front bit next to the house in order this year for sitting about in and growing a few things, but I also want to do something with the bigger 'back' bit, as sometimes it does feel a bit like sitting in a field 😂

Anyway, all my reading this morning has been giving me ideas 😁 None of which will happen if I spend the whole day sat here talking to you 😂

Will report back 😁

greenbee

The point about gardens, Cheery, is that they're a lifetime project! You can do them alongside the house, but they'll keep you busy long after the hard work on the house is finished. They evolve and change with your life. 

I'd definitely work out your seating areas and make a start on those. Or at least make a start on an area that is unlikely to be damaged by builders/building work. A herb garden near the kitchen is always a good idea. 

With the bigger back bit, maybe think first about how you can break it up to create divisions between the different areas. Shrubs/hedging between them will help with the windiness. My parents put a hornbeam hedge round their whirly washing line which has worked very well. I put one in along the side of my drive to screen the garden from the cars just before I put the house on the market... (hornbeam is pretty easy to grow and maintain). I've also put in some mixed native hedging, my mum has put in a wild bird food hedge and I'd really like to do an edible hedge for humans (although i realise that if I did the wildlife would eat the fruit/nuts) with things like currants and hazel. 

Trees and hedges are the things to do now, as they take time to grow and will give you structure to work within later on.