Simple living in the country - back to basics

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, and I meant to say, my aquarobics class means that gym membership for February is now down to £12 a visit 😂😂

edwink

Glad you are having a more restful, relaxing day today.  Does us all good to recharge our batteries once in a while 😊😊😊

Hopefully, now your building work is done and you are plodding on with getting the remaining work like decorating done you will have some ME time on your hands. Especially with the strike happening at the moment too.  Have you thought about popping over to the craft/stash using thread and joining in there?. Maybe you haven't seen it on the forum.  Basically, it is just trying to use the stash of craft materials and fabrics we have at home to make things like birthday cards, Christmas presents, or reusable fabric items. I personally have found the thread very motivating and have made a good start to the year of using things I have in my craft room. Maybe a thread like that will help you along with some "hobby time" that will allow you to take time out and relax. Just a thought 😊

Hope you managed to get the chickens run sorted this afternoon, especially the muddy side of it. Nothing worse than constant wind and rain when you keep chickens because everything gets so muddy and the chickens absolutely hate the wind.

Edwink x

Cheery_Daff

Thanks edwink! I shall look out for that thread. Once all the room-moving is complete I should have a functional craft room, so I will definitely be up for using up some of my stash!  😊😊

I made a valiant attempt at the chicken run, and removed two trugs worth of mud. Progress was, of course, impeded by the chickens 'helping' 😂😂 as you'll know yourself edwink, it is completely impossible to put a spade into the ground without a chicken jumping on it, standing right in front of it, or scraping off what you just dug up 😂😂 They were having an absolutely great time and I couldn't begrudge them one bit though. I'm just going to have to do it in stages - now it's stopped raining it's drying out pretty quickly in there, thank goodness. I'll have a proper clear out come spring - just trying to stop myself slipping at the minute, which I think I've done now.

Feel like I'm most in need of a nap right now - but first of all I'm going to ring and increase the mortgage  DD to £1000, which is a monthly OP of £70.01 😂 and according to my spreadsheet, will knock a couple of years off the finish date 😊😊 We were paying £1500 last year, but stopped with the building work, and then me dropping down to 4 days. Obviously we can't up it to what it was with me having lost a day... but it feels good to make some kind of regular OP again 😊 Everything else is going to building the savings back up for now, but I figured rounding up the mortgage would make me feel like we were making progress 😊

CathT

I'm so relieved for you that your application is in, things like that take up so much head space don't they. Good news about the OP, it's great when you've committed to an increase as it really feels those months will soon be knocked off. 

I confess I've had a little nap this afternoon and I'm blaming an hours walking up and down hills which although I loved, it did feel a little like being on a stair master machine at the gym! 

Cheery_Daff

Thanks Cath - glad you got in a little nap! I confess I didn't...  and likely won't now. Very impressed at you walking up and down all those hills!

I have been playing around with spreadsheets though, and have just joined the next iteration of the 3 year mortgage challenge, so bear with me for a rather dull mortgage update

Mortgage at start of 2022: £178,818.20
Mortgage at end of challenge (end Jan 2025) with no overpayments: £156,396.52
Goal for challenges: get under £145,000

If I do nothing other than increasing the monthly payment by £70.01, by the end of the challenge we'll be at £153,504.63. I'm going to need to average around another £200 a month on top of that to meet the goal. 

Our fix ends September 2024. We're on 2.26% at the minute, but who knows what interest rates will be doing by then.

If we ONLY overpay that monthly £70.01, the mortgage will finish in April 2040. That's 3 years earlier than the original end date. If we manage to overpay the extra £200 a month, it'll finish in Sept 2036, and have saved us over £8000 in interest (although obviously that will depend on the fix rate - my original projected savings on interest was based on our original interest rate of 1.8%. Now the rate has increased, it's telling me I'm only going to have saved £57 even if I've paid it off 3 years early!). 

Not going to be throwing anything else at it at this point - I want to build savings back up to a comfortable level again first. Not sure I can define 'a comfortable level', but we're definitely not at it We've got £8500 sitting in premium bonds at the minute, but that's mostly allocated to pots like car maintenance, house maintenance, household emergency, a weekend away, dentist, vets etc. Good to have that, of course, but I'd like a bit more for longer term stuff before throwing it all at the mortgage. We had planned to have the roof replaced on the stable block before Mr Cheery got ill and we decided to pay for the kitchen - that's been shelved for now, but will need doing at some point before next winter really. 

Anyway, we're getting there! Added an extra £600 last month in savings/extra income, and I'm at £605 for this month, without having even done any MB yet. That's not going into premium bonds though - need to build up the float in the current account again. It's been sorely depleted by a full tank of LPG, 2 lots of car insurance, and the house insurance, all in the last few weeks. Very pleased I haven't had to dip into the premium bonds for any of that, but I don't like getting down to the last £100 in the current account before payday if I don't have to. 

Right - tea!

Fortune_Smiles

Lovely to read that you're having some R&R Cheery and I look forward to seeing some gorgeous photos of future bakes and crafting projects 🧵🎨🎂

Fortune x

beanielou

5 months for a decision 

Cheery_Daff

beanielou said:

5 months for a decision 

I know! It's blithering ridiculous. Two stages, two references, plus an extra external reviewer (who I have no control over). But even so - I don't think it needs to take 5 months! Hey ho, out of my hands now.

Had a bit of a go on the Happy Wheel this evening - up £24 so that's a nice way to ease myself back into it!

MovingForwards

Congratulations trimming the application down and submitting it, we all promise not to ask anything about it until the end of July.

With your strike days, how viable would it be to have it as a 'you' day, catch up with friends, do another class or something similar. As normally all your days are taken with paid work and home work.

Cheery_Daff

MovingForwards said:

Congratulations trimming the application down and submitting it, we all promise not to ask anything about it until the end of July.

With your strike days, how viable would it be to have it as a 'you' day, catch up with friends, do another class or something similar. As normally all your days are taken with paid work and home work.

Perfectly viable,  and a good suggestion! I've got another 3 days next week so at least some of that time will be spent doing nice things. I do really want to move into our new bedroom though so I will be oiling the skirting boards and doing the last bit of painting - I noticed today that I'd only done one coat round the inside of the window reveals 🙄😂

Not doing any of it tonight though, off to bed, and before 11 as well 😁