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

Cheery_Daff

Evening MSE chums

A gentle,  uneventful one here, which is just what was needed. I lit a candle and sat at the kitchen table for much of the day, plotting and scheming, which is one of my favourite activities. Mr Cheery got up, and we decanted to a cafe for an hour or so, where we got a free cuppa with a loyalty card, then had a little trip around the charity shops. Mr C is under the weather so has gone off for a nap, and I have done more plotting and scheming.  Not scheming for anything exciting, you understand! Just to make life a little more manageable. 

Just did another Prolific study - standing at £20.96 now, with £8.25 pending, so it looks like I will make it to £30 by the end of the month (if this clears, of course, and if not, it's a nice start to September). 

I'm feeling in need of a little income challenge for September. We're instigating the new budget, which should gently reign in our spending a little, but I think a 'make £5 a day' challenge for me might not go amiss. Will see if I can persuade Mr C into re-engaging with Prolific but he only took to it for a week or two the first time so I won't hold my breath. 

In the meantime, I am off to try my first experiment with the tinned spaghetti - wish me luck! I will report back  

joedenise

Hope you enjoy your tinned spaghetti!  Something I admit I've never even eaten but my kids used to like it instead of beans.

Cheery_Daff

Well, I confess I didn't do anything super exciting this evening. I kept it nice and simple, with Jack Monroe's suggestion for rinsing off the tomato sauce, and serving with cheese and salt and pepper. I did that, but, not being in dire straights right now, I also served it with a simple stir fry (just onion and red pepper) and some toasted sesame seeds (I keep a small pot of these by the cooker for livening things up). 

Perfectly acceptable. I wouldn't bother buying tinned spaghetti for this purpose, of course, and wouldn't be serving it up at a dinner party but it was an acceptable carb addition to have with a stir fry, and I might well just end up using the rest of the tins like this for easy weekday meals. We'll see. 

Right, I need to stop plotting and scheming and actually DO something. Tidy off the dining table, wash a few dishes, and take the recycling to the end of the drive before it goes dark (and take the compost out too).

Then Mr C has found us a film to watch (no idea what) so I shall be settling in with my crochet. 

(Somehow we have run out of milk!! So I'm on my last cup of tea until tomorrow, gah! Unless he takes a notion to go to the 24 hour garage, which I won't be suggesting or approving of, but if we do end up with milk I will definitely drink some more tea ) 

Cheery_Daff

Still no milk. I'd nip to the village shop, but I suspect Mr C will get up and immediately want to go out for coffee, and then I'll be annoyed at having to go out twice. So instead I'll just be annoyed byt have no tea 🙄😂

Head is rather scrambled trying to get to grips with next month's budget 😬 I don't think I'm helping myself trying to run the new paper version alongside YNAB, and it's not even started yet! 🤯

I've used some of Mr C's pension today to top up some things that have been overspent in August 😬 And now I can't work out how to deal with that in the paper budget. Do I just allocate all of our income as planned, but adjust the savings pots down? Or adjust the income? I suppose it doesn't really matter in the longer term. 

Wondered about shifting some of the pots to a savings account (pots don't remotely correlate woth accounts - not necessary in YNAB but giving me a headache after it). But then I got to fretting about what happens if something happens to me very suddenly and Mr C can't find the savings accounts? (He can - there are explicit instructions in the file and it's with our main bank - but he's not great at online banking, or ringing people up). 

Anyway, all this indicates I probably need a cup of tea 😂😂 

Any more suggestions for keeping banking simple? I feel like I've overcomplicated everything and am drowning a bit! 😬🤯😱

joedenise

Definitely sounds like you've over complicated things by trying to run YNAB and a paper system!

I think I'd start September's paper budget with your bank account balances rather than trying to sort out having used some of MrC's pension this month!

Don't know if that is any help or whether I've muddied the waters even more!

I'm sure you'll work something out that works for you both.  Maybe it's time to teach MrC how to use YNAB!

KajiKita

I'm not 100% clear what is going on with Mr C's pension income - is it part of August's income or September's? 
I think I would be inclined to drop the savings pots (as that would be the effect in my budgets if I'd overspent in a category) and give myself a clear month of full income to give myself chance to get used to the new working practice you are trying to switch to. 

Perhaps what is also needed is a think around what 'functions' you get from YNAB you are trying to replicate in spreadsheets / on paper? I think there is inevitably a different 'structure' in each format and if you go back to first principles of what you are trying to ACHIEVE, the way forward with the analogue option might become clearer? 

Am I making any sense here at all? 

KK

Cheery_Daff

Thank you both, you are indeed making sense! 

@KajiKita Mr C's pension comes on the last working day of the month, and I try to allocate income received eg in August to be the budget for September. I've been using YNAB more as a tracker than a budgeting tool, this year at least, so there's a fair bit of shuffling at the end of the month when things don't add up 😬

I suppose I'm trying to get us back on track, and reign in our spending, particularly on food and treats. Mr C is on board, but pays NO attention currently to how much is in a budget or how much is left, and won't use an app etc. He's pretty good at being frugal when he puts his mind to it though.

Cheery_Daff

So. A spendy day today 😬 bought a voucher for a spa day with my sister for the end of her exams. We've been talking about this for years - I've still never been to a spa although she's now been several times with other people 😂 £99 for the two of us, including lunch. Need to remember to use the voucher in Sept but that gives us an incentive to get it in the diary! 

Also had a haircut! Many of you will know I don't do this very often 😂 Once every 12-18 months 😬 I've never had a super great experience, and often come out feeling I could have done just as good a job myself 😬 My sister recommended the posh t0n1&guy as doing a cut that looks nice even when you don't mess about with it, so that's what I've done. I booked with a trainee (so it was half price) and refused all additional treatments etc. £42, and I got a cuppa and they switched on the massage chair while they were shampooing 😂

it looks nice 😊 the true result will be once I've washed and 'styled' it myself of course 😂 but hopefully it'll be slightly more professional for my return to work on Monday. On the experience of today I'd definitely go back.

Currently having a free cuppa with a voucher before I head home.

rtandon27

Oooo - a spa day & a haircut? -- What in the world has happened to you Cheery?  🤣🤣🤣  Pre-pandemic I used to go to Toni&Guy in the big smoke & loved my hairdressser so much that I followed her to Woking when she got a promotion - she kept my cut at mates rates though!

As to budgeting...
...you know my vote...
...ditch the paper...
...keep YNAB...
...write instructions for MrCheery on a paper and add to your binder...
...he'll cope when/if it's every needed!

Cheery_Daff

Ha, I know, it's outrageous! Neither will be repeated very often, fortunately 😂