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

Cheery_Daff

😂😂 you lot 😂😂

I'm getting a headstart with this one, and hope to have it firmly embedded before January, which will hopefully show me that I *CAN* stick to things if I put my mind to it! 😃

Duolingo has helped in that regard - I think I'm at a streak of 1375 ish days now! It works because I set it at 3 minutes a day 😂 and often end up doing it as I get into bed, but I ALWAYS do it. 

Up early again this morning, did my yoga video 😊 'yoga for when you're spiralling' which is very apt at the minute 🙄😂 lovely way to start the day, little lamp on, candle lit, on a blanket on the floor, feels like a half way house between bed and the world 😊 and I feel so much more in control arriving at work knowing I started the day like that rather than scrolling nonsense on the phone and making myself late 😊

(I'm also well aware that I've only done this for 3 days (plus an evening session on Monday) so I'm not getting too smug about it yet 🙈😂 more trying to reinforce to myself how great it feels!)

Managed to snag a free n3ro coffee from the octopods at 6.15 this morning too 😊 

themadvix

Well done on the new habit Cheery (also positive reinforcement!) and the free coffee too!

EssexHebridean

I've just got enormous admiration for ANYONE who can do "stuff" before heading out to work in the morning - it's as much as I can cope with to get myself up, washed & dressed! 

Cheery_Daff

EssexHebridean said:

I've just got enormous admiration for ANYONE who can do "stuff" before heading out to work in the morning - it's as much as I can cope with to get myself up, washed & dressed! 

It helps that I don't have to be here for a specific time 😉😂

Cheery_Daff

Morning chums 😊

More candlelit yoga this morning 😊😊 and we are making use of our free coffee 😊😊

I'm catching up on the budget while in the cafe, sat here with my big cashbook and the banking app 😂 it's quite nice sitting here doing this, having discussions about where to cut back (er, cafe trips would probably be a good start... 🙈)

So, totals spent for November:

Food & household: £449.58/£350 = £99.58 overspend 😱
Diesel & parking: £321.23/£300 = £21.23 overspend
Joint treats: £211 80/£11.80 overspend
My spends: £124.15/£150 = 25.85 underspend
Mr C spends: £60.20/£150 = £89.80 underspend

Overall £1168.96/£1150 = £16.85 overspend 🙄

Not great, Mr C was shocked at the food budget as he'd thought we were being abstemious! About £120 of that was household rather than food - a new kitchen bin, lightbulbs, additional fancy pants rodent traps, new hot water bottle, vacuum bags to pack a spare duvet in etc. Some of those things could have been sourced more cheaply.

We didn't have as many small supermarket trips this month, but we did have three bigger ones, at £55-£65 each, and plenty of £5-£10 ones just popping in for milk & fruit etc. We never feel particularly extravagant  - neither of us eat meat, not loads of cheese etc, no bought packets of cakes and crisps etc. Some booze but not loads. I think I've bought 2 bags of quorn pieces this month, and some tofu, but I'm not sure I'd consider 99p blocks of tofu as extravagant 🙄

Nothing wildly out of the ordinary in my spending. Sponsored someone doing an event. Paid band subs (£24 for the term), a few solo cafe trips, a new charity shop dress, a couple of charity shop books. 

We had 6 tanks of diesel between the two cars (fairly standard i think) and I paid to park close to work 3 times (£8 a day with a staff discount) - not too bad over the course of a month. 

As for the joint treats budget... Well. That's what it's there for, but it seems we had 23 cafe/pub trips across the month 😱 well, some would have been having a second coffee on the same day 😬 and this is why we'll never be rich 😬 thus doesn't include solo cafe trips (although having said that, I may have miscounted some of Mr C's solo trips... but I think he usually pays cash...) Anyway...

So. We're keeping the budget the same this month, and then we'll reassess before the new year. Clearly we could do a lot better, and we'll need to do so if we want to add anything to longer term savings. I've not brought in any extra from Prolific this month either (ah, I've just remembered Mr C did have a gig earlier in the month that paid cash which I've not added to the budget, so that will bring us under budget a bit, hooray!)

Still, could do better all round!

beanielou

I love the way you have your cafe trips & enjoy it. Life is for living and being cheery 🤗

Cheery_Daff

Thanks Beanie We both grew up with very little (and certainly no cafe trips) and so we tend to be quite frugal in some areas by nature. But cafe trips are something we've both embraced and get a lot of joy from, and we tend to use them when we're feeling a bit glum or out of sorts, which has happened quite a bit lately... 

Anyway, we have decided to limit ourselves to 3 a week, which hardly feels like deprivation. Solo treats budget is of course separate, but for joint trips, 3 a week is plenty!! Let's see how we go - we might revise over Christmas when we're both off. It won't do us any harm to cultivate alternative forms of entertainment for a while.

Nice to get up early at the weekend and go out, and be home again by 10am! We're waiting for a phone call from the solicitor now, and then I'll ring my mum, it's her birthday today, and I need to see if she's free on Sunday to use my national trust voucher. As for the rest of today... 

* sort out the craft room, which has become a bit of a dumping ground, but I want it for storing and wrapping presents
* bit of meal planning and batch cooking
* flute
* general tidy round
* get under the kitchen cupboards, see what I can figure out about the fridge situation
* wrap a couple of parcels and possibly pop out to the village post office with them 
* possible daytime bath and wash my hair, put on some nail varnish. We'll see how the day goes. 

We're going out for tea with friends tonight, and then to see another friend's gig, so the treats budget will get a bit of a battering. We might stay over (at friend's house) not sure yet. 

So a nice restful day with bits of pottering. But first I need to finish the budgeting - need to transfer things to and from various pots. 

debtfreewannabe321

I've had a similar rant about the food shop bill. I have bought similar to what I always do too and yet month on month it's getting crazy.

I learned a new word today, thank you, "abstemious" I had to Google that one 🤣 unsure if I will remember it but I'd never come across it. 

Cheery_Daff

Ha, glad to be of service We use it a lot - mostly in reference to how abstemious we need to be in the future... 

Anyway, some excellent MSE activity today! I've been meaning to sit down and sort out the web provider for yonks. 20 odd years ago, before we even met, Mr C set up a web hosting account, through which he's had various websites over the years (all now defunct), and his email address, which he still uses. Over the years I've added, and then removed, a couple of websites. 

I have no idea what the cost was originally but I've been suggesting we look into this for a while... Anyway, I've taken control today. Looks like we were paying £9.88 a month in 2023 (can't see further back on the website), £17 a month in 2024, and now £25 a month Plus an additional charge twice a year which this year has increased to £155 So that's £600 a year now

Finally logged in today to see what on earth that's for. Various additional things that got set up when I had one of my websites (which I should have cancelled before) but it appears that what he originally signed up for (which 20 odd years ago was probably their basic package) is now so premium that it doesn't appear on the website as an option, and every other option is classed as a 'downgrade'. 

Looks like under his current package, he can technically have 60,000 email addresses And 500 cron jobs, whatever they are - needless to say they are of no use to us. 

Anyway, there's a package we can switch to for £2.50 a month, so £30 a year, saving £570 For goodness sake. I'll do that as soon as today's changes have taken effect - want to make sure that the one domain name that's left under the new package is the right one. But I'll definitely be cancelling tomorrow!! 

For goodness sake. How long have I been on MSE?! This is why I am in charge of the finances, but really, there's no real excuse for me not having done this before (other than that I kept asking him to log in and trying not to take control). 

Off to make a hot chocolate - although I don't know whether it should be a celebration or an admonishment!

Cheery_Daff

(and of course he could have a free email address, but that would mean losing the one he's had for over 20 years, and I think that's worth paying £2.50 for, for now at least)