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Cheery's country living adventure
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... well that last post sounded like I was making excuses... Clearly we have a lot we can reduce!
Food and household
This is the big one. Our actual food shopping trips are pretty frugal - and then we ruin it by me popping to a corner shop on the way home from work to 'just pick up a few things'. BIG part of our overspending :eek:
Diesel
To be fair, there's not too much we could have done about this the last few months, as I've had to be in the office every day. However, from now until next October I get to work at home a LOT (as in most of the time) so this will hopefully substantially reduce anyway :money:
My personal spends
As always there's room for improvement in my own personal spends. An average of £10 on travel (buses and taxis) isn't too bad, £20 on clothes could be improved (although that includes winter boots etc), and about £55 on socialising and other isn't too bad - although I think the majority of the £124 on 'budget fiddling' actually belongs in this category too...
Dentist/medical is what it is - not going to try to reduce that (my prescriptions are all free anyway as I had my thyroid removed several years ago which puts me on some kind of register). Home and car maintenance we don't spend unnecessarily - but I'm not putting them off when they're needed. I do have a couple of magazine subscriptions which I'm very fond off -they've largely been on '5 issues for £5' promotions but I'll keep an eye on the renewal dates...
Let's have a minor celebration - we are EPIC at this :j :j :j :j
We do loads of stuff ourselves, from cutting our own hair to knitting socks to plastering to removing entire internal chimney walls :j Mr Cheery is ACE at getting free stuff from Freegle, Gumtree and the like (most recently an 8 foot oak table). We are both competent, reasonably fit and healthy, and willing to have a go :j :j
Some things I do want to get better at...
* doing daily/weekly/monthly maintenance checks on the car
* making some more of my own clothes
Since we moved the only thing we've paid others for is putting up some scaffolding, and fitting 3 radiators (and I think we'd both be willing to do that ourselves next time having watched this lot do it - the radiators that is, not the scaffolding!!)
A frugal success!
Thinking through a typical day... for me... with existing frugal habits highlighted in green and potential for improvement in red...
Week days
Wake at 5, mess about on phone til I've woken up properly, up at 5.30, make breakfast in tupperware and tea in a travel mug. Take chickens their breakfast (chicken food mixed with hot water and a bit of porridge). Drive to work, find free parking space.
Morning in the office, drinking tea from the tea kitty. Lunchtime - oops, sometimes I forget (or can't be bothered) to bring lunch so usually get a baked potato and cottage cheese from the canteen.
Mid afternoon - bored of work so a little trip to the vending machine...
Drive home, stopping at a shop on the way usually for treats/drinks/snacks. Evening at home.
Weekend day
Up at 7.30 to let chickens out, eat breakfast at home. Mr Cheery gets up, and we often pop out to a cafe for a cuppa (and sometimes a scone). Sometimes a trip into town - free parking, a wander round the charity shops, and often a nip into a supermarket for a top up shop.
Obviously my life is slightly more varied than that... :eek:
Pleased with myself that I've managed to avoid paying for parking since we moved :rotfl: It's been a bit of a trial at times mind you - either I have to get to work before 7am, or I end up having to park over a mile away and walk in. I've done it though!
(I'm flagging a bit now
I do plan ahead in relation to parking, combining trips into the city with Mr Cheery. And sometimes I plan ahead in terms of lunch, but not always... I've also fallen into the habit of just 'foraging' for tea each night, rather than proper cooking (which would lead to proper leftovers). So again some room for improvement.
As for buying used - we pretty much only ever do anyway :j I can't even remember the last thing I bought new :eek: Well, fruit trees and radiators :rotfl: but in terms of everyday stuff... Will certainly keep an eye on things though.
So that's it for the steps - except for Step 11 (banish excuses) which is more what I intend to do during January :j My main excuse has been being 'too busy' to cook/plan
And now I think it's about time I went to bed
Hey ho. On a better note I got over £20 on Peolific today so I've just cashed that out and ot can go to the motgage when it arrives :money:
And now REALLY to bed!
Mortgage Neutral Deficit: £60,885.85... Mortgage Neutral Savings: £10,544.62
MFiT-T5 #8 - £14,635 of £23,100 (63.35%)
1% Mortgage Challenge - £15.86 of £705
Still, onwards and upward! (or hopefully downwards in relation to spending :rotfl: )
I have decided to take today off work :j Emailed the boss and put my out of office message on til 7th Jan :j :j :j I'm still not properly better so there is very little point having yet another half ar3ed day in the office where I'm just being ineffective and slightly useless
So I'm hanging around this morning, and this afternoon Mr Cheery and I are going to do some leisurely Christmas shopping :j Much-needed Christmas shopping - I haven't got him a single present yet, and barely have anything for most of the other people I need to buy for :eek:
But it'll be a gentle one, and I'm going to sit and write a list first over a nice cup of tea :j
Right, it was open on another tab anyway, so I've just done it. Since I've just opened a new current account which needs a bit of maintenance (in terms of debits to offset a low charge) and I've got the inheritance money to distribute, it's absolutely great timing for me.
Very glad to hear you're not going in again till the 7th - you really sound like you need it. How are the chickens?
Retired August 2016
Paid off French mortgage September 2018
New kitchen fully installed June 2019
Not counting this! 2020
Garden fencing completed, woohoo 2021
Yes uber frugal month is a whole month of activities and things to look at, this is just the advanced preparation! But to us old hands there's probably not THAT much new in there... But it's good to have a focus :j