Simple living in the country - back to basics

Cheery_Daff · 28 March 2023 at 10:15PM

In poo terms, chicken poo is one of the least offensive, thank goodness 😂

No painting done, but I did retrieve the hoover which has been languishing upstairs for a few days, and hoovered all downstairs, which was very well needed.

Tea made, and leftovers packed for tomorrow.

Actual positive numbers on the Happy wheel today - £16! Very exciting! Still down £72 for March, but it's slowly creeping nearer to zero 🙄

Prolific is up to £19 odd so at least that will offset some of it!

EssexHebridean · 29 March 2023 at 10:14AM

Sounding lovely and organised there Cheery - and you're doing far better on prolific than I am at the moment - must remember to have a look this evening and see if they have anything to offer me!

Suffolk_lass · 29 March 2023 at 11:36AM

Thank you for the nudge re surveys. I only signed up for one but quite close to payout of £10 and there was an 80 point two minute survey waiting

Cheery_Daff · 31 March 2023 at 2:10PM

Afternoon chums

Banks and YNAB done this afternoon. Not looking too bad. Totals for March:

Food = £251.82
My spends = £190.07
Joint treats (cafes and eating out etc) = £221.60

Hmm, bit on the spendy side... Food isn't too bad - that includes household stuff like vaccuum bags for under bed storage, and toiletries etc.

Joint treats looks like I've misaccounted - Mr Cheery's dad did give us £50 back for the meal out, but I've obviously categorised it as generally 'money in' in YNAB, rather than allocating it to that specific pot, so that's actually £170 ish. Still outrageous. 17 separate payments to cafes (!) and one trip to the pub. Some of those cafe trips will be having two drinks in the same visit, but even so.

My spends is also ridiculous, although there were some one off expenses in there. Flute service was £80 (the last one was 4 years ago so I don't resent it!). I paid dues for the music group I'm part of (£21 but that's all paid up til September now). I had that weekend event (£35), so between those things that's £136. The other £54 was the odd thing in charity shops, cafe trips by myself etc. Must do better!

Did manage to keep the £200 monthly saving intact though, so that's been transferred to the income replacement pot, which now stands at £1700 (I'm aiming for £2500). All pots fully allocated for April, and nothing particularly spendy planned. I've got a couple of work trips away, but everything should be on expenses for those.

Right, need to do beaky duties.

Cheery_Daff · 1 April 2023 at 10:09AM

Morning chums! Happy April fool's day, and in our case, happy Christmas 2! 😂😂

We did a LOT of stuff yesterday. Spare bedroom is now painted (apart from the architrave on one wall - it was a darker colour and needed 3 coats but the final bit wasn't dry enough last night). Bed is in place, floor hoovered etc.

Of course, they may not even use that room as it's only got a single bed and there's a (small) double sofa bed in the study 😂 but never mind - it's my craft room and I was sorting it out anyway.

So, a plan for the day:

* marzipan and ice the cake
* sort out headlight bulb for the car
* paint the final bit of architrave
* dust living room
* finish tidying study
* hoover and dust study
* change table cloth
* pin up fairy lights in kitchen
* hoover round again (mostly done yesterday but just a quick whizz plus the kitchen)
* make the rest of the trifle 😂
* Christmas Dinner! (I think Mr Cheery will mostly do that - he usually does. I might disappear to sort the headlights while he does it)

Right, best get on! Friends aren't coming til 6 so got a few hours (which will undoubtedly go more quickly than they should...)