Simple living in the country - back to basics

Cheery_Daff

Thank you all, and poor old FDawg being scared of the mean old sparrows! 😂😂

The dog has had a long walk, and a bath. He usually barely gets walked at all, so I hope I've tired him out - we probably only went a mile and a half, but walked up to the moors and back so lots to sniff. 

Then we gave him a bath, which he enjoyed rather less than his walk 😂 But he ponged, and our house was starting to pong. Smells of wet dog now but I hope that will wear off as he dries! 

Sigh. I'm trying to work on getting *something* normal done. I've hoovered and am trying to restore order in the bathroom. Mr Cheery wants to go to the cafe later - we won't be taking the dog with us this time as he just whined yesterday and we ended up shutting him in the car. 

Before then, I might try to do a little bit of ceiling painting? And put some washing on. 

I'd like to get back to my plan of inviting my family round for lunch one day. We had to cancel because Mr Cheery was isolating, then he got let out early with negative tests on day 6 and 7, and now we've had the fiasco with the dog. Everything feels up in the air because we'll hopefully take the dog back soon, but when? and Mr Cheery might have to go over and do some work on his dad's house, but that will depends on his sister, and no definite plans are being made.

I might just pick a day and invite them anyway, and if Mr Cheery isn't here then it's tough.

Of course that does mean I'll need to finish buying their Christmas presents!!

Karmacat

Things are so uncertain at the moment, aren't they, Cheery?  Even for me - I'm plotting what to pack and what I might do for rabbit sitting (I'll be away for 10 days) but I've no idea if their flight will take off, or even if the cruise ship they're on has to isolate, and I have to stay and look after the rabbit ... just carrying on with the preparations and also acknowledging to myself that nothing might happen at all, after all this.

PS - I feel for you with the dog, and for the dog itself, animals get caught up in their humans' activities and find themselves in unknown situations.  I like the idea of just having your family over anyway, I hope you can see them.

Cheery_Daff

That's exactly it KC, dealing with the uncertainty. I feel like I've spent a lot of the last few months dealing with uncertainty, not knowing when builders were going to be here, or whether things were going to go wrong, on top of the covid-related uncertainties all of us have been dealing with. I feel like I've put so many things on hold - even eating properly and exercise - for no good reason. Need to just make some plans, and get on with some things, and if things get cancelled then we can deal with it later, rather than not making plans at all. 

Tomorrow might have to be a shopping day though 😂

Fortune_Smiles

Cheery_Daff said:

That's exactly it KC, dealing with the uncertainty. I feel like I've spent a lot of the last few months dealing with uncertainty, not knowing when builders were going to be here, or whether things were going to go wrong, on top of the covid-related uncertainties all of us have been dealing with. I feel like I've put so many things on hold - even eating properly and exercise - for no good reason. Need to just make some plans, and get on with some things, and if things get cancelled then we can deal with it later, rather than not making plans at all. 

Tomorrow might have to be a shopping day though 😂

That's a great way to look at things Cheery - switch the focus from what you can't control to what you can.  Because what you focus on multiplies 🙂

Fortune x

Cheery_Daff

You're right there Fortune, and I've definitely been focusing on anxieties and gloom for too long! 

Just reading back over old diary, and spotted some mortgage percentages, so worked out some more recent ones.

We've now paid off 16.85% of the total mortgage. Only just over £11,000 this year - we've not made any overpayments as channelled everything into kitchen fund.

Nice to see it as a percentage though - maybe with a bit of a push we could get to 25% this next year?!

starnac

That's a nice percentage there Cheery!

Focusing on what you can control is great advice there. It will help with the uncertainty 

Cheery_Daff

Thanks starnac! 

Not sure we'll get to 25% this year - that would mean paying £1468 a month. Our contractual payments are £920 so that's quite an overpayment, and our focus needs to be on building up the savings again.

If we up the monthly payment to £950, we'll be at £171,952 by the end of the year, which is 20.02%, which feels like a nice round number, and it might be nice to aim to get it under £170,000 if circumstances allow 😊

Karmacat

Upping to £950 a month sounds doable from where you are, even though you're focussing on building up the savings again.

And the whole "focussing on what you can control, because what you focus on multiplies", I like that a lot.  I'm going to think about that one.

Jessy103

That's a good percentage cheery and I hope you get to your 25% target!

I 'd agree with the others regarding the dog. We have 2 and both sleep in a crate in our bedroom. Helps them settle but keeps them out of our bed! x

beanielou

Another vote for the crate in your bedroom if it will fit.