Cheery's path to fulfilment - finishing the DIY, looking after myself, appreciating the garden 🌻

rtandon27

Happy New Year @Cheery_Daff to you & Mr Cheery!

Hope you are both resting up well despite the unplanned adventure and that the lurgy has left you both.

Sometimes needs must & it's just a comfort to know that funds are easy to access for just such situations.

Elisheba

Sound like a bit of comfort and ease was what was needed after a somewhat challenging Xmas and NY. If avoiding a few hours of driving helps, and doesn't break the bank, then it sounds like a good idea.

Mrs_Money_Penny

I don’t blame you staying the extra night especially when your both not feeling 100%. Sorry you have had a rubbish end/start of the year. Here’s hoping all three of you will be feeling better soon. Happy New Year. x

Cheery_Daff

Thank you all xxx

I'm going to brave MeadowHell this morning for a bit of late Christmas shopping while Mr C is at the dentist. Wish me luck!! 

(I might also be in the market for some new boots.... 🙈 My current ones were £15 from a charity shop about 18 months ago and I have worn them constantly, including for work, ever since. They're knee high and collapsing now, not bad for general knocking around in, but very scruffy for work, even for me. They need reheeling, but given the state of the rest of them, I don't think I'm going to. But even if I do, I'll need new ones for work. Been looking in charity shops for a couple of months now with no luck, so it might have to be the sales...

Tescodealqueen

Cheery_Daff said:

Thank you all xxx

I'm going to brave MeadowHell this morning for a bit of late Christmas shopping while Mr C is at the dentist. Wish me luck!! 

(I might also be in the market for some new boots.... 🙈 My current ones were £15 from a charity shop about 18 months ago and I have worn them constantly, including for work, ever since. They're knee high and collapsing now, not bad for general knocking around in, but very scruffy for work, even for me. They need reheeling, but given the state of the rest of them, I don't think I'm going to. But even if I do, I'll need new ones for work. Been looking in charity shops for a couple of months now with no luck, so it might have to be the sales...

Best of luck I try to avoid MeadowHell at all costs, I think I’d prefer the dentist

Jessy103

When I first moved to Yorkshire from my rural village in Lincolnshire, Meadowhell was amazing and i loved it, that didn't last long and then when I went I would just go to the shops I needed and then got out ASAP 🤣 The floor always made my feet hurt!

dawnybabes

I love a good Meadowhell trip but perhaps not this week ! 

badmemory

As far as I am concerned it has always been the place from *****hell.  Awful.

Cheery_Daff

Ha, it does tend to incite strong feelings! For me, it's just a shopping centre, not a pit of hell. On the whole I don't need to be there (and would rather not be in a shop at all quite frankly), but it has a useful collection of shops so if I need something specific I do sometimes go - on average once every year or two. As it happens, it wasn't actually that busy yesterday (but I agree Jessy, the floor is far too shiny!)

Anyway, I am finally at home and starting this year's budget. I've added in the mortgage and standard DDs for this month (which went out yesterday) but I'm not messing around adding all the bits we spent over the last couple of days - this year's spending starts from today. 

I've got a list of financial tasks to sort over the coming days: 

- transfer all money out of NW regular savers
- transfer NW regular saver dosh into Eco savings account
- cancel NW standing orders
- Check Mr C's co-op regular saver - this didn't open properly, so we opened it again, and they closed it, because they said there was already one open. Need to check if we can actually see it, and, if so, transfer some money in
- empty FD regular saver - can't see anywhere that will let me do that, but that might be because the transfer to normal savings account is still ongoing (it's still called 'regular saver' although the interest rate now says 1.73%) - will give it a couple of days
- find login details for four accounts we used for switching. I checked another one and it had £137 in! 
- set up a micro OP on the mortgage!

Budget all set up for the new year. I do this in YNAB as you know, and I'm not always the most consistent so by the end of the year it's a bit tatty and needs a tidy up. The new year always feels a bit squeaky - because I allocate EVERYTHING we need for January (and make sure all the annual pots have the appropriate amount in). That means, when my wages come in mid month, they can be allocated to February's spending, and when Mr C's pension is paid at the end of the month, February is fully funded. I always start the year off like this and then it sometimes slips a bit towards the end... 

Still, everything is looking ok, although over the next few weeks we have house insurance, car insurance, and probably another £700 LPG top up, so money does seem to leave at an alarming rate. Also the big car has a red engine light on and needs to go to the garage (I need to ring them now, in fact). 

BUT - everything is budgeted for. And I WILL keep on top of logging my spending! 

Cheery_Daff

Ha, what a plonker! I hadn't added the balance from the main savings account! So that's another £2000 into the budget, which is obviously now looking rather more like it should. January normally feels tight for the above reasons but I did feel like I'd lost quite a lot in transferring from one year to the next! 

Hey ho. That account itself will have all the regular saver dosh transferred into it over the next few days, so will look a lot healthier, and I can start drip feeding it out as and when we find relevant regular savers.