Simple living in the country - back to basics

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, meant to post a picture from my walk 😁 Certainly blew the cobwebs away! 

themadvix

Beautiful photo Cheery! It sounds like you’ve had a lovely day 😊

Are you behind on Call the Midwife? I couldn’t see it in the Guide this Sunday so assumed the series had ended.

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, no, I only missed the latest one, but maybe there wasn't one this week anyway? I will be most disappointed if so!!

joedenise

I was going to say the same thing @Cheery_Daff.  I was really disappointed on Sunday to find it wasn't on.  I'm assuming the series has finished although I don't remember them saying it was the last one.

Tescodealqueen

joedenise said:

I was going to say the same thing @Cheery_Daff.  I was really disappointed on Sunday to find it wasn't on.  I'm assuming the series has finished although I don't remember them saying it was the last one.

Sorry to disappoint but I believe the series has finished. Though if you are interested Granchester starts again soon

joedenise

Tescodealqueen said:

joedenise said:

I was going to say the same thing @Cheery_Daff.  I was really disappointed on Sunday to find it wasn't on.  I'm assuming the series has finished although I don't remember them saying it was the last one.

Sorry to disappoint but I believe the series has finished. Though if you are interested Granchester starts again soon

Not for me unfortunately!

Cheery_Daff

Pah, you're all right of course! How very disappointing!! I'm working my way through Father Brown, so that will have to suffice - I think I've got at least a couple of those left!

So. Extremely tasty pasta bake made, and three extra portions for the freezer (although that might end up being two after Mr Cheery has had some). 

Banking done - some 'highlights' from a not-so-uber frugal Feb... 

£140 on my personal spends, including gym membership, new fitness watch, and various other bits
£156 diesel - although we did fill one car up yesterday so that will be added to March
£253 on food - not great... but I didn't use any vouchers in Feb. Need to get some printed off - I'll have at least £100 worth to use in March so that should come down considerably. 
£204 in cafes...

Hmm. I'm trying to build a bit of a float back up in the current account WITHOUT pulling anything out of Premium Bonds, but it's getting a bit squeaky... All the savings for annual costs are in premium bonds, and recently we've had two lots of car insurance, house insurance, a tank of gas just before Christmas, and another one due this week (although shouldn't have to pay for that til April)... 

There's also a £1063 credit card payment to go out soon - that's two lots of car insurance, diesel, some work expenses etc. 

Hmm. Not sure we'll make it without withdrawing a bit, which is annoying. Although we do have quite a bit of cash at the minute, Mr Cheery's dad having refunded some stuff we bought for him with cash, so maybe if we try to run that down rather than the bank account... And use all the vouchers for food. The credit card payment will go out after my payday, but even so, I'm not sure there'll be enough left after that for the mortgage at the start of April without pulling some out. 

Not exactly a big crisis, but I do NOT like taking out of Premium Bonds! Maybe we'll have a nice win tomorrow so it won't make any difference?! That would be nice wouldn't it?!  

At least (touch wood) we don't have any other big annual things due for a while...

Cheery_Daff

Oh, I should say we managed to add a total of £600 to the long term savings pot in Feb, which means I've done that in both Jan and Feb now 😊

Of course, my YNAB virtual pots don't correspond with my actual bank accounts so that doesn't exactly help withthe not withdrawing from Premium Bonds issue 😂 But still, it feels good to be adding to savings, not just spending (even if it's stuff that's been saved up for).

Aiming for another £600 to add to savings in March, and I won't have a power cut cheque to help me this time. I stupidly shut the computer down before finishing off the virtual pot shuffling so I'll have to see how close I can get once I get out of the bath. Going to get back on the case with Matched Betting again this month though so hopefully that will help. 

Cheery_Daff

Ah, just realised I can do it from the app - £400 allocated from this month's income to long term savings, so just need another £200 from extra income to meet my goal, although obviously going over that is fine too! 😁

Also just realised I haven't added the £24 I made from MB in Feb to Feb's pot, so I'll add that to start me off in March. Should be able to wangle at least £15 out of Prolific I think, already up to about £5 in there. 

First increased mortgage payment went out yesterday too - nicely overpaying by £70.01 each month now which feels good, even if I'm not throwing any extra at it. 

Right, bath!

SusieT

Would be good if you were able to manage without taking PB money out. 
Looking at the picture from your walk, I used to do the same route when I lived in that direction!