Cheery's country living adventure

Karmacat · 7 May 2019 at 10:33AM

Have a good flight! Such beautiful views

themadvix · 7 May 2019 at 10:56AM

The Tesla will also be much more expensive than any car we own (save the money spent on the mini, but that's not really the same thing). With fuel costing DH about £1500 a year (and we're planning on moving further away from his work), savings on an electric would be substantial - he know his stuff when it comes to this (a well-researched video we watched suggested £1/day if charged at home and he'd be able to charge at work too).

Have a safe journey!

ETA: We reckon a 2nd hand Model 3 will be about £16k in a few years!

Cheery_Daff · 10 May 2019 at 8:09PM

You'll have to let us know how you get on with it! :j

Gosh I'm tired. Just got on the train which is the final leg of my journey and Mr Cheery will be picking me up from the station in 45 mins and I am SO pleased to be nearly home :j :j

Been sniffling and snuffling all week :eek: unsurprising really :rotfl: felt rotten the day we left

and gradually improved but still getting through at least a packet of tissues a day :rotfl:

Had a jolly time though. Because there were two of us we had a little 'serviced apartment' rather than two hotel rooms and it was the BEST thing and dead posh (by my standards anyway :rotfl: ) also meant that one night we didn't go out for tea, just got a couple of pizzas from @ldi and stayed in with a bottle of wine :rotfl: (a very small one :rotfl: )

Did a LOT of walking :eek: and also ate a LOT of cake. Didn't exchange money before we went, just used debit card so I imagine there will be a shocking amount of charges :eek:

Bad Cheery

But I'm nearly home and so very pleased :j :j :j

Slimming world tomorrow :eek: can't imagine it will be good news :rotfl: :rotfl: but I suspect I'll be staying at home quietly for most of the rest of the weekend.

Apparently the chickens have discovered the concept of pockets (and the fact that they sometimes have treats in them) while I was away :rotfl: :rotfl:

themadvix · 13 May 2019 at 10:03AM

Hope you've had a relaxing and recuperative weekend Cheery - you really sound like you needed one!

Love the thought of the chickens and pockets

Cheery_Daff · 13 May 2019 at 1:44PM

Certainly did, thank you :j

Not braved looking at the bank account yet :eek: Must do that tonight though

Nowt much else to report really. End of week 8 of matched betting yesterday and as of today I'm up to £1231 :eek: :money: Most jolly :j

We're going to withdraw a couple of hundred for celebratory and frivolous spends

and then plough on til we're at £2000 then withdraw £1000 to top up the mortgage then go on like that - a balance between a bit of unexpected fun money and a practical long term (but not immediately exciting) mortgage aim :j

No idea what I'm going to spend my frivolous bit on mind you :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff · 16 May 2019 at 6:43AM

So, I still haven't braved looking at the banks, naughty Cheery :eek:

So I'm making a promise that I will do it over breakfast this morning. Got into the habit of doing MB first thing but the bank does really need a look at after last week's trip - and i might as well see the damage and get on with claiming what expenses i can!

Not much else to report - finally read the electric meter and we're ahead of their estimate :eek: SO much need to get that hole in the ceiling fixed to stop losing all the heat

will need to order gas at some point too - tank down to about 30% and should order at 20. Only had a delivery in Feb though :eek:

So need to get on top of that. Had to eat in a hospital cafe yesterday (nothing to worry about, Mr Cheery just having a test) but it cost me about £8 just for tea, sandwich and crisps!! :eek: it was a horrible sandwich too! Very much need to get my act together to NOT do that again :eek:

Also ended up paying £2.50 for parking - normally we'd park further away and walk, but yesterday i was going straight to do a presentation at work so we parked closer (which was worth it actually as i arrived unhurried and it went well :j )

Back at the hospital again today but shouldn't be there as long and we've got to m me to park for free and walk. I'm going to work again after (but just while Mr Cheery does some other stuff) so will take lunch rather than buying it there - just veg b inspired by ElmoR talking about taking lunch every day and t talking the months of the end of the mortgage! :money:

Right, I'm wide awake so might as well get up and let the chickens out. They had to stay in their run most of yesterday while we were out and they'll have to do the same today so it'll be good to give them a few hours out first.

And then i can sorry out the bank and get YNAB ready for payday tomorrow and collect interest from various savings accounts ready for going off the mortgage :j

Mortgage fix is up in Sept so we can look for a new deal in June (which is nearly here :eek: ) In reality we have so many stupid conditions (Mr Cheery being self employed, being right at the top of what they'll lend us for our income, a massive age difference so mortgage needs to run til he's 80, having 10 acres of land with the house deeds) that i imagine we'll just stay with the same building savory, despite their lack of online banking for mortgages and inability to overpay by tiny bits at a time.

Would be great to have the balance under £200,000 by the time we remortgage though. From memory i think we were at about £208,000 at Christmas and pay £890 a month so if we can overpay maybe £2000 we might do it... Should be able to do that between normal little OP savings and MB :j

Still not applied for the married persons tax thing so that should add to the normal OP savings substantially - must prod Mr Cheery as it's him who had to apply, not me ...

Right, up and out!

Cheery_Daff · 16 May 2019 at 8:16AM

Ok, bullet bitten and YNAB done :eek:

Work not as bad as I thought - spent around £200 last week :eek: but will be able to claim some of that back - just need to figure out which receipts are for what (I don't think they'd thank me for claiming for all the loaves of tasty rye bread I brought home with me :rotfl: ) Should be able to claim at least half of that, if not a bit more though

I hope

Right - now to sort out the interest from all the different accounts and add to my mortgage balance :j :j

Cheery_Daff · 16 May 2019 at 8:23AM

Hmm, actually I'm not going to do that - it's easier than I thought to see how much interest has been added altogether over the year, so rather than each month having to go and find each little payment I'm just going to tot them up over all the accounts over the year (except for the main current account of course - this is just the savings accounts)

Anyway, the one I just checked has £15.38 interest so the others shouldn't be too far off that :j Bit annoying not to see my signature go up by too much

but it's gone up a bit because of the main current account :j

Greying_Pilgrim · 16 May 2019 at 8:56AM

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

So need to get on top of that. Had to eat in a hospital cafe yesterday (nothing to worry about, Mr Cheery just having a test) but it cost me about £8 just for tea, sandwich and crisps!! :eek: it was a horrible sandwich too! Very much need to get my act together to NOT do that again :eek:

Morning lovely,

I sooooo hear you on expensive lunches. We were in the same predicament on Tuesday, had to take mum for tests at a hospital in another area. She thought that there were refreshment services on-site. But it turns out it was a coffee machine and a snack-vending machine! Luckily, there was a tea shop just across the way - with a park attached :j But i had already packed snap for me and BG (who is a fussy what-not with food anyway!), but Mum's cup of tea and cheese salad sandwich (with crisps on the side) was £6.15! I think the sandwich was ok - she ate all of it anyway - and she said that the cup of tea was good and hot, but the crisps were really tangy salt & vinegar - who puts salt & vinegar crisps out with a sandwich? We sat away from the cafe - as I didn't want anyone telling us off for eating our own food on the premises - and i have to say, I think we had the better deal......

In hindsight, I wish I'd made an extra sandwich - i had cheese and tommy anyway, and she could have had a take-away cuppa, and sat with us one any one of several park benches.....

But eating-out costs just blow me away........:o Or am I just too tight?

Greying X

Cheery_Daff · 16 May 2019 at 10:21AM

I don't think you're too tight (or if you are, then I am too :rotfl: ) I do think it depends what you're paying for.

Our local cafe that we used to go to charged 80p for a home made scone, and they were lovely. Not expensive - and we were happy to go there several times a week and pay less than £5 for tea and scones for both of us each time :money:

They changed hands, and the new place does an offer of £5.50 for tea and scone :eek: We did it once just to see - it was an industrial, pre-sliced scone, they were alarmed when Mr Cheery didn't want butter or jam or it heating up and it became apparent why - it was pre-sliced and slightly stale and all round crap. They might have got away with it a bit if it was heated with jam and cream... but on its own? No.

Needless to say we only went once and won't be going back. The two places we do go regularly now charge about £1.90 for a scone - but they're both home made, big, and extremely tasty (even without butter and jam), and we're happy to pay that.

So it's more about value for me, up to a point. There's never any excuse for an £8 sandwich in my opinion, however fancypants it is.

Yesterday was just objectionable because it was a cheap pannini roll thing with two slices of cheese and two slices of industrial tomato on it and it didn't even taste of anything. No!

Which reminds me - after all my waffling I haven't actually made myself any lunch for today yet :rotfl:

Cheery's country living adventure

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