Simple living in the country - back to basics

Cheery_Daff

Stop taunting me about how tasty butternut squash is when I haven't got any!! 😂😂😂 Not fair! 😂😂😂

Baileys_Babe

Cheery_Daff said:

Stop taunting me about how tasty butternut squash is when I haven't got any!! 😂😂😂 Not fair! 😂😂😂

I don't have any either, just dreaming

Suffolk_lass

I have a sack full! Grown last year and over-wintering... If you are passing Suffolk do shout - I think there are four very very large ones left (and a couple or three Crown Prince pumpkins too (yum... sorry!)

Cheery_Daff

Suffolk_lass said:

I have a sack full! Grown last year and over-wintering... If you are passing Suffolk do shout - I think there are four very very large ones left (and a couple or three Crown Prince pumpkins too (yum... sorry!)

Thank you! Although I should confess I don't think I've ever passed Suffolk in my life 😮😂 Might just pick some up from the shop 😁

edwink

I've got 6 butternut squashes here Cheery from last years growing season and they are HUGE but you don't live anywhere near me either 🤣🤣🤣  Sorry about that! Yum, Yum, Yum.

Edwink x

badmemory

I must confess to really liking the singed bits.  I know they are really bad for you.  I have to be careful not to deliberately overcook things so they are singed.

themadvix

Singed/crispy bits are yum, totally agree Badmemory!

Cheery_Daff

I'm a big fan of crispy bits - but last night I basically just made charcoal 🙄😂😂

Cheery_Daff

Uber Frugal January Round Up! 

Right then, Monday Finances Day, and the end of Uber Frugal January - it's time for a round up! 

My spends
£104.26 in Jan, down from an average of £148 last year. 
Surprised at how much I spent! That includes the gym (£36), panto + meal the other night (£27.50), one cafe + lunch with a pal (£18), an unexpected taxi, and a couple of other small bits. 

Food & household
£115.15, down from a whopping average of £370 last year. There were only five months under £300 last year, so this is a massive improvement. Of course we used £50 of vouchers as well (but we also did that most months last year). Still ploughing through the stockpile, but we've stocked up on a few cheapo things as well. Mostly this is just actual cooking in the new kitchen, and batch cooking stuff for the freezer. Delighted with this! 

Diesel
£346.63, up from an average of £158 last year (although clearly that's a useless comparison as there were several months last year when we barely left the house). This isn't normal - I think there have been at least 6 or 7 trips to Mr Cheery's dad, which is a round trip of about 200 miles, so that's shooting things up quite drastically.

Joint treats (the cafe budget)
£38.15, down massively from an average of £205 last year (again, another useless average, since the cafe was closed for the first 4 months of last year!) We had £40 worth of vouchers in January which was great. Still a massive improvement. 

Overall I'm delighted with that. Food and joint treats were the big spenders that I wanted to reduce, and we really have, without noticing much. Diesel is what it is, for now at least. My spends are surprising, I really felt like I didn't spend much, eek! The panto night out was pretty unusual though. I certainly did less frittering.

In terms of savings, I put £600 aside at the start of the month, but we've ended up spending around £400 on stuff for Mr Cheery's dad, so I've allocated an extra £200 to long term savings. We also made £215 in extra income (mostly my bonus from work, and a few other bits), so I've allocated that to long term savings too.

Prolific I've not counted - up to £5.73 and I won't withdraw til it reaches £10, will count it then. Also not counted the power cut compensation since I lost the cheque! Have emailed asking them to reissue it... Idiot. 

Matched betting/casino - I've made £117, but paid for the two annual memberships, so the grand total is minus £168. Going to take the hit from the MB budget, and just not take any extra income for this month. From now on I'll allocate money each month from the normal budget for net year's memberships. 

As for February... I've allocated: 

My spends = £86 (gym membership + £50)
Food & household = £120 (plus the £50 voucher)
Diesel = £300 (but again, that will be what it will be. Should be ok, both cars are at least half full, and trips to Mr Cheery's dad are settling more into a routine now, but we'll reallocate if necessary)
Joint treats = £80 (roughly what we spent last month including the vouchers, so should be ok) 

I've put £200 in the savings pot as a starting point, and will endeavour not to spend that. I've also allocated £300 to Mr Cheery's dad, but if we end up not spending all that, I'll reallocate some to savings. This is also house and car insurance month, so any spare from the savings in those pots can go into savings as well. 

Nice to get back into the habit of thriftiness and seeing the long term savings pot building back up. 

No sign of Agent Million today, pah, but hopefully we'll all be on the list of the high value winners tomorrow!! 

themadvix

That’sa great round up and great progress Cheery!

 Your spends maybe were quite high, but they were for specific things, rather, as you say, than for frittering, so I think that’s a good thing - quality of life bits rather than ‘where did that money go?’