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

beanielou

Be kind to yourself xx

missymoo81

Have a relaxing evening x

greenbee

I wouldn't worry about not having heard yet. We tend to contact the 'definite no' lot first while we deliberate about the real contenders. I know private sector is different, but it can take us a couple of weeks to get through interviews and make a decision. Sometimes even longer - people are busy, and finding times they are available for interviews when our interviewers are also available can be difficult. 

Cheery_Daff

Thank you all for your kind words and reassurance! Very much appreciated xxx

Still no word 😬 I have come into the office to avoid being sat at home driving myself up the walls 😬 Not that there are many other people here but at least it's out of the house 😂

The phone is charged, and I'm checking emails every 30 mins in case a message arrives that way. Can't do anything else really, except get on with some work in the meantime in case I have to stay here 😂

themadvix

Ah, Cheery, I made a beeline when I saw you'd posted.... how frustrating to be keeping you in suspense - although as others have pointed out, I think even a week might be quick to hear in some cases.

A good plan to go into the office - and a structured approach to checking your emails 😂

Cheery_Daff

Ha, sorry for making you think there was some news I've been jumping every time the phone went today (only twice, and both times Mr Cheery )

So. I've just spent a happy hour tallying up October's budget. It's not pretty... 

Food & household: Budget £350, spent £405.19
Diesel & parking: Budget £300, spent £291.11
Joint treats: budget £200, spent £219.25
My spends: budget £150, spent £187.67
Mr C spends: budget £150, spent £153.43

Total budget £1150, spent £1256.65

Hmm. We did have a bit of income though: £100 from Mr C's exploits, and £18.03 from my Prolific things. 

Which means we are left with £11.38, so I've transferred that to the long term savings account :lo:lol:

Not very impressive. Last month we had about £232 leftover from these pots, and that was without the additional income! 

Hey ho, it's done now. I suspect I may have wrongly allocated a diesel spend to the food budget (it was a payment to a supermarket, and on reflection the amount seems unlikely for food and more in keeping with diesel). Either way, the overall budget would have been the same so I'm not worrying too much. 

We did also have some unusual spends. Mr C bought a drum kit, I paid for some career advice from my personal spends, I also paid my YHA annual membership, we bought a bit of bedding for the spare bed, and went out for a curry with some friends.

What mainly trashed the budget was NOT PAYING ENOUGH ATTENTION. Mr C has been ill, I've been distracted by this job application, and overall we had 36 transactions in the food & household pot - £15 in one supermarket, £10 the next day in another, £20 the next day in another. Aside from that £53 (which I suspect was actually diesel), the biggest amount we spent in a supermarket in one go was £39.33, and next under that was £23. So that's only really one 'proper shop', and a big load of 'top up shops', and we all know how they go! 

So, budgets are set (at the same amount) for next month, and I will report back in on progress....

Cheery_Daff

So, first report, because we are already 3 days in! 

Amounts remaining: 

Food & household: £297.22/£350
Diesel & parking: £300/300
Joint treats: £178.85/£200
My spends: £114.80/£150
Mr C spends: £100/£150

Some explanations...
* joint treats - one transaction from Friday, which didn't actually clear til Monday, but I didn't realise until I'd already squared away last month's budget, so it's coming out of this month
* I've paid band subs (£24) and sponsored someone (£10) so my spends have taken an early dip!
* Mr C has chosen to take £50 in cash for spends and have it all accounted for straight away, so he doesn't have to keep recording it

Last month I spent a shocking £44 on parking at work - unavoidable in a couple of cases (quick turnarounds etc) but largely just laziness... Must do better!

Cheery_Daff

Oh, but we did make a decision and have cancelled YNAB. Subscription still runs to the end of Jan but then it will stop, saving us £80 a year, I think.

I've also cancelled Team Casino - I've barely done the Happy wheel this year. Every year before I've more than made back the £135 subscription, but this year I've hardly done it. Again, it runs til the end of Jan so I can try in the meantime and change my mind if I have a flurry of activity. Mainly I did the same things anyway, which I can carry on without them.

So £215 saved for next year! 

Next thing on the list is the webmail subscription, hangover from Mr C's early self employed and web hosting days.  They suddenly seem to have started charging £25 a month and I'm not sure why. He'll have had an email, but needs to log in and check and see if we can cancel or at least reduce (I'm sure we used to pay £8 a month).

Not a job for tonight though!

KajiKita

In terms of the food spends and the top shops, do you meal plan and do one shop per week? That might help?

100% with Mr Cheery and having packet money as cash and once it’s gone, it’s gone. I can’t be doing with all that logging either! 😉

Maybe set yourself a budget for parking? £20 pcm? That way you can use parking when you really need it (vast amounts of files to take in, horrendous weather etc) without worry, but you can also keep an eye on it. 

KK

edinburgher

Have you cancelled YNAB before? We did once but went back. Then again, we're a lot more spendy than you and the tracking element is helpful for us. I'd consider doing similar when the girls are older.