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

KajiKita

It’s amazing how the spending creep happens without us noticing isn’t it … I did some financial housekeeping recently and found some things that really weren’t adding value at all … Still, sorting them out is like getting a painless pay rise! 😊

Hope the new fencing brings you more privacy and helps Mr CD feel better about being at home with the new neighbours. 

KK

rtandon27

@Cheery_Daff - hooray for the fence panels arriving!  That will give both of you a sense of control over your own space again!

Don't forget about flow when it comes to money.  Having savings is nice but if it stops the flow of life by hanging onto it, then it's time to do a bit of spending.  Stagnant money truly equals a stagnant life! 

Glad that you identified that pesky gym membership though, we didn't use ours enough to justify the costs and not renewing meant an extra mortgage overpayment instead!  Two months shaved off the mortgage for every extra month of money paid!  I'm sure that by not renewing you'll soon see those savings building up again!

Cheery_Daff

Crikey @rtandon27 I was wondering how expensive your gym was if you could overpay a whole month of mortgage each month 😮 but I realised that's probably not what you meant 😂 That's a good way of looking at things, I'll work it out.

For us, a year's worth of gym is £823, and a month's mortgage is £1060 so not huge lots of difference. If we used it, fine, but we don't. I haven't even been using enough to justify half of it, and pay as you go is very easy so back to that it is! 

Making use of my English Heritage membership today as the concert is nearby. It's raining SO hard though! But that at least means it's quite quiet 😂 In the spirit of thriftiness I brought sandwiches with me (I always take lunch to work, but rarely on a day out), and a cuppa too in a fantastic thermal cup Mr C's friend donated recently - it's so fantastic I'm going to invest in another so we have one each for summer adventures. 

I did sneak a piece of cake from the EH cafe.... but it was £3.60 rather than over £10 that I would have spent on tea and lunch (and probably cake too). Could do better, but could also do worse...

Right, need to shift my car and get into the concert venue and I hope I don't steam too much from having got a bit damp 😬😂

rtandon27

@Cheery_Daff - I definately meant a year's worth of gym was a month of overpayment! - If I could afford a posh gym, I'd not have a mortgage or frequent the MSE boards! 🤣🤣🤣

Our local gym does not have pay as you go!  ...and the only way to get a huge discount and use a credit card is to pay a year upfront!...  It was worth it when I was still under the care of the ocupational therapist, but once I was mobile and able to get outside regularly, the gym was a bit worthless!  OH made big lans to go every day after dropping me off at the station, but after a couple of weeks, the novelty wore off and the annoying person shouting down their mobile phone while on the treadmill got the better of him.  So it was a complete waste of money for both of us!  Lesson learned & we won't be doing it again!

earthgirl2

I stopped my gym membership for the summer as I just prefer to be outside but I also think I'll just keep up exercise outside or at home and save the money! Enjoy your day out!

Elisheba

Back in my very spendy days my ex and I both had memberships to a very fancy gym (the sort of place people go for spa days) which was almost £200 a month for both of us, iirc. We both went for about 3 months, and then almost never went again - but it took another 2 years for us to cancel the membership 😳😳😳😳.

Cheery_Daff

Wow, £200 a month must have been a proper fancy pants gym! 

Nice weekend here, although rather a lot packed in! Concert was cheerful 😊 then I dashed home, swapped cars, and we went to Mr C's gig. Late night, stayed over, late brunch at friends' house, didn't make it home til 4 and have been loafing since then 😊

I've packed breakfast, lunch and snacks for work tomorrow, and snagged myself a parking permit. I've also packed teabags and milk, so I shouldn't need to spend anything else. 

I'm going to have a budget evening tomorrow. Cancelling the gym and having a good old rootle through everything else.

Cheery_Daff

Prolific sitting at £13.04 with £2.25 pending. Can I get to £30 by the end of the month?? Will keep checking!

Elisheba

Sorry, should have been clearer - the gym was almost a £100 each, so £200 altogether. My goodness, it was a nice gym though.  The swimming pool and jacuzzi looked out onto a lake and golf course, there were sun loungers, and they provided the towels.  Still - a lot of money wasted as we didn't go very often!

Cheery_Daff

Ours is £68 between us. The swimming pool looks out over the park which is nice, but it's definitely less fancy than yours 😂

Just saved myself a bit of cash. Over the years I've developed myself a kind of planning workbook that I use for planning at work, with all kinds of sections relevant to my job, and space for weekly/monthly reviews, and a review at the end of each semester.

I used to just print at work, but for the last few years I've been sending them off to get nicely spiral bound. They're more robust, but there are 3 a year, usually about £13, each, so almost £40 a year.

Now decided to print at work again - I've actually got a spiral binding machine if necessary, but I think it'll be fine in a clip file. Not quite as nice, but £40 is £40 😊