Simple living in the country - back to basics

Cheery_Daff

So there are several points to tackle, starting with

* food & household
* joint treats
* personal spends 

We've had some extra income this year (from eg MB, bank switching etc) but we've also spent more on eg holidays - a total of £2181 for a few days with friends in Berlin, a week in Scarborough, and a couple of nights in Llandudno. So expensive 😱

Interestingly, despite saying goodbye to our final chickens in May, they still cost us £1080 this year 😱 Mostly vets bills 🙄 So we won't have that expense next year at least.

I've not spent much on the garden , just £78 over the year. And only £81 for the year on clothes 😂 (counted under personal spends, but clearly everything has come from charity shops, including shoes this year 😂).

So, I'll be doing Uber Frugal January again to tip us back into some good habits 😊 Anyone else in?

LadyWithAPlan

I will be doing Uber fitness in January so my food bill may be going up ! 

I would manage about 5 mins without my laptop ..  so glad you got that sorted - backmarket are great and tbh I never think it’s worth saving old computers beyond back up stuff 

liking all your detailed stats .. will be joining next year as got YNAB for a year for free with my student card - I always have spreadsheets and budgets but rarely reflect on the end of each month but focus on upcoming .. but YNAB has the reports built in so  
I will trawl through some old posts to see where I am - I know my voluntary spending over last quarter is over £4k. .. 

Cheery_Daff

I think it's just a useful way of seeing whether your spending has been aligning with your goals, and nudge you back into some good habits! 😊 I don't usually do it at the end of the month though, just the end of the year as I rejig priorities and categories for next year 😊

Just been talking with @KajiKita about DIY, and had started wittering a little too much, so shifting over here to my own wittering space 😂😂

So, this is the 'difficult' bit of kitchen floor. There's a step between kitchen and dining areas, they used to be separate rooms, and we removed the massive stone wall and chimney. It was just rubble for a long time 🙄 but the builders filled it in - but filled it in level with the rest of the floor, making it impossible to do anything without either creating a step, or digging out several inches of concrete. 

Mr Cheery wants to keep the terrazzo tiles, so can't just cover the whole floor, like any sensible person would do. 

This is looking from the dining room towards the kitchen. (Excuse the rest of the mess!)


And this is looking from the kitchen back down.



You can see there's a manky bit of pink carpet over the step because we did fit a bit of oak trim, but never finished or varnished, so the carpet is stopping it getting muddy 🙄

We did make a decision about what to do last year, but just haven't done it yet 🙄😂 We've bought a load of carpet tiles to go over the concrete, and a metal lip thing to stop tripping. But we can't get them down until the skirting is in place, and we can't do the skirting until this little bit under the radiator is done (the sink used to be here, that's why it's not tiled).



As you can see, we DO have tiles to go there, and they will be level with the existing floor once fitted, so no excuses really! 

Anyway, not really looking for solutions here - we already have tiles for the small space, and already have carpet tiles and metal trim for the big space. Need to level out the bit of concrete we've been walking on, which has got a bit worn (it might not be actual concrete, not sure). 

So, in order.

1. Fit green tiles under radiator
2. Level concrete below step
3. Buy and fit skirting
4. Fit carpet tiles.

I know carpet tiles are a ridiculous solution 😂😂 but I reckon anyone buying our house in the future would want to re-do that entire ridiculous floor anyway, so no point us spending a fortune - I just want something that feels vaguely finished!

rtandon27

Cheery, your detailed stats were quite interesting, to compare & contrast with our own!  For household categories, I separated out 2 kinds of medical out from household during the past year - one for supplements/over the counter/prescriptions and another for chiropractor - the first was because I was previously including with groceries, which skews the budget & the second as it's completely my expenditure as well partially refundable through work health insurance.

We've been relatively frugal over the past year, partially due to a recently diagnosed chronic health issue which meant a lot of in-house resting & partially because day-to-day costs have gone up in a scary way since the pandemic. That being said, I'm happy to join in with an Uber Frugal month, especially in the grocery department!

KajiKita

Lovely kitchen units and work top 😊
You have a plan! Yaay 😊

KK

Elisheba

Very interesting reading how your spending has broken down for the year - thanks for sharing 😁. Unfortunately I know my budget isn't strictly accurate for some months for personal spends and food/groceries, so no point breaking that part down, but my bills section is correct so I might pull that section apart a bit.

Cheery_Daff

rtandon27 said:

Cheery, your detailed stats were quite interesting, to compare & contrast with our own!  For household categories, I separated out 2 kinds of medical out from household during the past year - one for supplements/over the counter/prescriptions and another for chiropractor - the first was because I was previously including with groceries, which skews the budget & the second as it's completely my expenditure as well partially refundable through work health insurance.

We've been relatively frugal over the past year, partially due to a recently diagnosed chronic health issue which meant a lot of in-house resting & partially because day-to-day costs have gone up in a scary way since the pandemic. That being said, I'm happy to join in with an Uber Frugal month, especially in the grocery department!

Ah yes, we've got a separate medical pot - originally for prescriptions for Mr Cheery, but his are now free (and mine were free anyway). Now I plonk general health stuff in there, unless it comes from the supermarket, in which case it's been going into the food budget... 🤔 Another thing to be more mindful about separating! 

Sorry your resting has been enforced 😕 You're right about scary cost increases though. Glad you're on board with Uber Frugal Jan. Not sure how it will pan out for us, bills etc have already been adjusted to within an inch of their lives, but no doubt there are many improvements we can make, and it will do me good to re-read some old Frugalwoods posts!

Having a nice evening sewing Mr Cheery's new hat 😃 This is the 5th one I've made him in this style, and it's getting much easier 😂  This one is gold velvet, made from an old curtain that we used to have over the back door in the old house, but the mice have been at it 🙄  I'll post a picture when it's done 😁

Humdinger1

Cheery_Daff said:

Frog email sent, response received asking me not to contact again (expected). Feel sh*t, but there we are 😕 My fault originally - a thoughtless action, the result of a busy week and pain from a wonky back. I dealt with it as I could at the time, and with the aftermath as I could today, but can't avoid that someone is annoyed, and has also informed lots of others how annoyed they are. Several learning points for me.

Not a good feeling, and not one I want to cultivate very often! 😕

@Cheery_Daff I'm on p374.  The above sounds a very childish response.   No-one gets it right 100% of the time (though I'm sure you come close) but that has sll the hallmarks of an unhealthy grudge that will not help the life or career of the respondent! You are fab.  Love Humdinger xx 

joedenise

I break down my supermarket shop into various pots.  It's so easy with YNAB to separate them out.  After all you can buy things apart from food there.  Sometimes my grocery spend will be quite small compared with the overall bill.  For example I might spend £50 but only £15 is actual groceries as I've bought some socks (clothing pot), some plasters (medical pot), a new roasting tin (household pot), more than a month's worth of tinned tomatoes (bulk fund).

It means I can easily see how much we are actually spending on that month's shopping and also how much is being bought in bulk over the year.

CCW007

I love your kitchen units, it's what I would like in our kitchen. Do you mind me asking where they are from?