Simple living in the country - back to basics

Cheery_Daff

Thank you all, yes indeed it is good to have something to work from.

Surprised myself by not being grumpy about it at all today, although I have ended up talking about it to several more people.

Had a nice day at work today, I'd employed someone I know to come in and take us on a little local field trip 😊 I did end up paying for her lunch, but I don't mind that, it was lovely to see her. Mr Cheery came in with me so diesel shared.

No expensive valentine's activities for us. He had a tin of soup and I made a tofu and peanut stir fry 😂 We are at least sitting on the same sofa! 

Nothing financial to report. I tried to print the house insurance documents, having forgotten to swipe to collect them from the printer on Monday, and it wouldn't let me log into the online insurance portal 🤔 I filled in my email address to reset the password, but I've not had a reset email 🤔 I could definitely log in on Monday (as I found the documents and pressed print - they just didn't make it out of the printer).

Does this have anything to do with the questions they wanted to ask me on the phone? Or the email they sent with a dodgy-looking link? Neither warned me that if I didn't respond immediately I'd be logged out of my account. I hope they haven't unexpectedly cancelled my insurance!! 😱

The letter they promised hasn't arrive yet. Maybe I should risk it and open their email link... 🤔

Not tonight though!

ladyholly

I think I would phone them rather than opening a liink.

Cheery_Daff

Evening MSE chums 😊

Well, a good day today! I've been struggling with motivation lately, putting things off and annoying myself and feeling guilty 🙄  Didn't even get out if he'd until 9.30am, so didn't start work early, blah blah.

I suspect some of it's been down to the uncertainty over this job, but I've tinkered with my HRT dose too, as advised by doc, so we'll see.

Anyway, today has been better. I was idling around online over breakfast and read something motivational, can't even remember what now 😂 but whatever it was obviously hit a nerve and jolted me into action, and I got all kinds done 😂

We did have a short cafe trip this afternoon - I had a specific document to read and sometimes it's nice to do that elsewhere. And we had a free cuppa on the loyalty card 😊

Didn't end up finishing til 7.30, although in the light of not starting til 10 that's not quite as bad as it sounds.

Productive evening too. Cooked, played flute for an hour, remembered the recycling, repatriated a mouse to the lay-by 🙄, got Christmas presents ready for family visit tomorrow 🙄😂

So, tomorrow I MUST sort out the car insurance. It might autorenew (last day is Sunday) but I do want to check. Quote is about £100 over last year so I might not be able to get it any cheaper but we'll see.

House insurance remains a mystery. Still can't log in online, still not sent me a replacement password link - but they've clearly got my email as today they sent me another 'congratulations your policy has started!' email 🙄 promised letter still hasn't arrived in the post.

Anyway, a job for the evening, not the morning. 

Might also drop in on my dad tomorrow as we'll be passing not far. I think he was due into hospital for an operation today, but I texted yesterday to ask and haven't had a reply. Will ring tomorrow and see what's going on. 

Right, best get some sleep...

Staffordia

I had a car insurance renewal quote through this month for £70 more. I went through Quidco and got a quote for less than I paid last year. Hopefully the cashback will pay out as well 🙏 

Cheery_Daff

Fingers crossed Staffordia! I've got cashback tracking for the house insurance, and for one of the bank switches I did recently.

So, a reasonable day. We stopped off for breakfast and a brief unsuccessful charity shop mooch, then spent the afternoon with relatives, who took us to visit a kind of house clearance warehouse. Picked up a few useful things for a grand total of £7, pleased with that 😊

Tired now, unsurprising since there has been a lot of driving, and I have mostly eaten toast and biscuits 🙄😂 Just about to do a gentle workout. 

Not dealt with the car insurance yet, and it's too late tonight 🙄 First thing tomorrow I will be on the case! 

Also I can see there's a couple of new bank switches available. We've got done the Lloyds one recently, but haven't had a NatWest accout - certainly haven't had switching cash from them. 

Need to get a handle on my system though. Can't switch out of the one we most recently switched to as it needs to stay open for 3 months to meet the conditions (and that's a job for tomorrow too - need to set up DDs and standing order to put money in and out). I think we do both have a spare sacrificial account, but I do need to get it all written in one place rather than scattered through the pages of my everyday notebook.

Cheery_Daff

So, a list for Saturday. Mr Cheery rather bizarrely has a hospital appointment at 3.30 (on a Saturday!) So that will involved a couple of hours of driving, but before that...

* another workout (also fairly gentle)
* car insurance
* get all bank switch details written down somewhere obvious
* do whatever necessary to meet conditions for last switch
* investigate new switch and start the process - I missed one because it got pulled before I got round to it so trying to keep on the case! 
* normal banking check - I'd forgotten it's payday today (it's paid early if the actual day is a weekend) so can do some allocating
* flute practice
* bit of decluttering in the study
* sort out ziffit - I've got stuff ready in a box and zapped, just haven't pressed for collection
* find 3 more things for Vintec

That'll do I think!

Cheery_Daff

Ok, banking and YNAB checked and shuffled. All looking ok. 

Extra from NI shifts has been added to the monthly savings total from now on, so that'll be £410 a month (that doesn't include saving for annual spends eg insurance etc). Very pleased with this - not so long ago we weren't saving anything at all from normal monthly income so this feels a lot safer. I've also added the bank rewards into there, plus the money I'd put into the water bill category, which obviously isn't getting used this month, so this is at just over £440 now. 

Very much looking forward to distributing it at the end of the month! I'll be able to complete the replacement income pot, which I'm delighted about (just one month for now, but I feel better having a bit of generic, unallocated savings), then the rest will be split between the new car fund, home maintenance (which includes septic tank emptying, chimney sweep etc), and the holiday fund. We're planning to visit our friends in Ireland at some point in the next 2 or 3 months - need to get dates picked and things booked now I know I'm not going to be start a new job in that time frame. 

As for extra income this month, not looking too great. I have a bank switch of £175 which will appear at some point, but it might be early March. Prolific is at £4.86, 1P is at £12.95 so probably won't pay out this month, YouGov is about £21 I think, and YLive is £29, so neither will pay out in Feb. 

I've got some cashback pending - £20 for a bank switch, £32 for insurance, £3 for something I can't remember, but it's all still pending so not counting on that. 

Should get £25 for taking part in some research - as a voucher, but I'll use in a supermarket and count the cash amount into the budget. Happy Wheel is actually in positive numbers at the minute - up about £50 this month, but I'm not holding my breath that it'll stay there! 

Still, some respectable savings, and little bits of extra income are creeping slowly upwards. Should be another £250 of bank switches to appear in March/April (on top of the £175, plus I can see there's another one available - we should both be eligible so that'll be another £400 I think, must check. Getting there! 

If I don't end up with a new job this year, I'm planning on building up savings as much as possible this year, and starting OPs again next year once we're happier with level of savings. Mortgage fix is up in September though, so we might see what things look like around then... 

themadvix

Excellent progress with savings there Cheery! But watch the account switches don’t impact your credit score if you need a new mortgage later in the year.

Cheery_Daff

themadvix said:

Excellent progress with savings there Cheery! But watch the account switches don’t impact your credit score if you need a new mortgage later in the year.

Thanks 😊 We'll only be going with existing mortgage provider so hopefully that won't be an issue. Mr Cheery's age (need to lend until he's 80) and the amount of land we have pretty much excludes everyone else! 🙄 Obviously it's possible we could find a broker to check (although my previous experience with a broker was worse than useless so I'm reluctant) but last time we were offered favourable rates as good as anything available through the MSE comparison tool. I did check the first few as well last time, and none would lend to 80 or on 10 acres of land. I'll do the same this time (although you know my dislike of comparison messing about 😂).

But yes, you make a good point about credit scores!

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, interesting. I just checked the MSE credit club. Overall score is 975 - it's usually 999 so it's obviously had a bit of an impact. Debt to income ratio is very good - we don't have any except mortgage and it doesn't count that. But disposable income is very weak. Interesting - i wonder if they've recalculated? Pretty sure last time I looked there was a high chance of being accepted for loans and credit cards (not that I'm planning any) but now there isn't 🤔 

Anyway. Something to keep an eye on I suppose.

Right, got one of those stupid visual migraines starting so best get off the phone and go and do something else 🙄 Not that it seems to make much difference!