Five Year Fix, Five Year Plan

FlacosFloozie

Remember you can use pot on the patio to grow things too- great for plants that flower at differnet times to provide pollen. I have park mulch down in the borders to help improve the soil and keep weeds down but it's also great for providing a habitat for insects. We have a bird feeder on a pole which doesn't take up much room but is very popular.

Merlin's_Beard

@FlacosFloozie - plan is to have herbs in pots on the patio in a kind of kitchen garden but not letting them terrorise the rest of the plants sort of way (yes I'm focusing on the bits I don't know and not the bits where I am certain). I've got bark in the front garden that the developers put in and it looks pretty good too.

@redofromstart- that's a really  good idea about having things in bloom every month. I think I've said yes to a climbing honeysuckle that my mum is producing from somewhere (a relative's garden? My brother's? Who knows)

@savingholmes - I'll definitely look into the plants you're suggesting. Evergreens will help to make the place look a bit less prison exercise-yardish in winter!

Work night out last night, so very unproductive today. Was not as expensive as it could have been - my share of the taxi will be £34 all in, and only bought a couple of drinks (£11ish). The charity the night was in aid of raised a huge amount of money as well, so a success all round. Staring at my painted bright purple nails a bit sadly at the minute, because they'll have to go before work tomorrow. Also still far more covered in glitter than I thought was possible (face painting).

That's the good news.

The bad news - the annual estate fee has started to kick in now that the builders have fully relinquished the first phase of the development. £110 owed for a partial year, due next month.

Which means I think I'll be at least £35 short in my garden YNAB pot by the time the landscapers want paying, before I even think about variable expenditure for June. Thanks to the emergency fund this is annoying reshuffling rather than a mad scramble. But it's still annoying, and I'm hoping to not have to pull anything out my ISA for this, but I'm not sure if that's going to work.

savingholmes

Sounds like a fun night out. 

Eek to annual fees - is that for shared greenery?

Merlin's_Beard

@savingholmes - yes shared areas around the estate. £165 for the 12 month period pro rata-ed from the start of May. Hopefully eventually it goes away if and when the council adopts the roads, but that will be way into the future.

There seems to be a bit of confusion about it now, though - we all paid a little bit on completion of our houses (£65 in my case) and there's perhaps a suggestion that this should be taken off our bill? So I'm hanging off paying until the last minute in case a new bill gets issued for less!

redofromstart

Herbs in pots on the patio sounds lovely. Most of mine have been carefully picked supermarket ones potted on. 75p or so a pot for young plants in tired soil. Most respond well for water and feeding.

Merlin's_Beard

May round up!

Surveys: £118.50. This is definitely with some effort - I'm now getting £12 a month for letting someone attach a box to the tv and monitor me, but most of it is prolific.

Food: £101. Turns out all I have to do is do my big shops at the end of April and the start of June... I was being careful, though, and emptying things out of the cupboard instead of buying new.

Books: 3 bought, 4 read (the three other books of Becky Chambers Wayfarers series, and Afua Hirsch's Brit(ish) - a non fiction that really made me think). Another net positive books for months.

Fun spends: a night out, and a theatre ticket bought for June.

Garden: £2677.76/£3420 but will make this up out of the end of May pay and won't have to dip into savings.

HMRC have started to look through my tax and are sending me a refund and have altered my tax code, so I'm getting more this month net - this is from the professional deductions, not the pension/mileage which I think they haven't got to yet.

All in all, a pretty good month.

savingholmes

Glad things are going better. Sounds like you have a good balance with treat spends allowed for in the budget. Impressive result on the surveys.

Merlin's_Beard

Email from ST today-  they've been charging me for waste water, and they shouldn't have been (apparently the estate isn't maintained by them yet?) so I'm getting a refund of £46.45 after they've backdated that to last August when I completed.

Also checking on my SP account - they've taken the cost cap change from July into account and want to reduce my DD from £160 to £120, so there's another win.

Otherwise, had a nice few weeks - trip out with friend last weekend was great, lovely weather, didn't overspend too much (mainly food).

Garden been pushed back a day -  landscapers decided this morning that the traffic from a weekend event dispersing was too much to get to me. I do live on top of this event and the traffic is predictably very bad when the campsite closes, but it is quite annoying that they couldn't have told me that last week (or at all, I had to chase them).

Fingers crossed for tomorrow!

Have written myself a to-do list of the things I need to get done over these two weeks, because if it's written down it might happen.

Failed to get tickets to Tim Minchin, which sold out in less than 5 minutes at my closest theatre, but still a play to go and see tomorrow if I can navigate the city park and ride system (eek!).

savingholmes

Always nice to get refunds and notices of lowered bills. 

Hope the landscaping starts tomorrow. Sounds like it will be lovely once done.

Love the 'might happen' bit - a lot like my lists...

Merlin's_Beard

Landscapers still not arrived.... "weather slowing the lads down" (also apparently all communication devices to let me know about this, if I'm being snarky and irritated, which is mainly coming from mild panic that they have my money and aren't turning up). They say they will still get it done in the time I've got off... we'll see. All I can do is wait at the minute!

Play was amazingly gorgeous, may have cried a bit (a lot). With the amount of hard saving I did through the pandemic for my deposit, and then trying to rebuild my emergency fund, I had completely forgotten just how much I love a live performance. Must do this more often. And got in and out and saw the play for under £25 (excluding petrol), so not completely bank breaking.