Cheery's country living adventure

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  • Tescodealqueen
    Tescodealqueen Posts: 1,195 Forumite
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    Congratulations on your secret wedding, sounds like a romantic thing to do, and,whether it is right or wrong, it sometimes makes practica! Financial things a bit easier.
    Happy 2019 to you both xx
  • Karmacat
    Karmacat Posts: 39,460 Forumite
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    Congratulations, Cheery and Mr Cheery! That's a very *you* way to get married, suits you down to the ground :):):)

    And your mortgage has already fallen, in spite of all the things you inevitably have to pay out on - good for you.

    Sorry to hear about your friend, though, Cheery, and your gloomy family stuff. Commiserations.


    But in the main - fantastic achievements. Here's to 2019!
    2023: the year I get to buy a car
  • Februarycat
    Februarycat Posts: 1,385 Forumite
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    Congratulations to you both and Happy 2019
  • taka
    taka Posts: 3,483 Forumite
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    Happy new year Cheery and also congratulations to you both!


    Sorry to hear the news of your friend and mentor passing.
    Mortgage free as of 12/08/20!
    MFiT-5 no 45
    You can't fly with one foot on the ground!
  • Cheery_Daff
    Cheery_Daff Posts: 15,710 Forumite
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    Thank you, you lovely lot :kisses3:

    Hope 2019 has dawned cheerfully for you :) We had unexpected visitors last night - some friends got in touch in the afternoon to see what we were doing, and eventually decided about 8pm to join us :j Got here about 10, and we had a lovely mellow evening of drinking and snacking and nattering, with a little fire outside at midnight and watching the fireworks on the other side of the valley (bizarrely, we could see them but not hear them - the best sort!)

    Had a nice leisurely day today, lots of sitting around (and eating :o ), a spot of tree planting, and a whole lot of plotting and scheming, which is my favourite thing to do at this time of year :D

    Currently drinking the last of my home made advocaat and winding down towards bed :)

    Anyway, it's Uber Frugal Month Day 1! So I might come back and put that in a separate post to keep track. And I was also planning to start a new YNAB budget today :money:

    Back in a tic...
  • Cheery_Daff
    Cheery_Daff Posts: 15,710 Forumite
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    edited 1 January 2019 at 10:41PM
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    Uber Frugal Month Day 1

    So today's email is mostly about following the action points in the post she's linked to - which I've already done :j Which is a good job as I am tired and hungover and feel like I need a day in hand to recover slightly :o :rotfl:

    Today's challenge is to write down why we're participating - for me this is about refocusing on my spending to stop it sneaking out of hand, getting back in touch with some of my old habits (cooking for a start!!), and getting into some good habits to stand us in good stead for the future :j

    I've also started making inroads into a little side hustle project which may or may not come to anything but we'll see. If it ever does make any money, I'd like that to go straight towards paying the mortgage off :money:

    So there we are. Off to have a poke around to see if anyone else is talking about Uber Frugal Month :D

    (eek, no Cheery, don't get sidetracked! :eek: You're setting up your new YNAB budget and then you are going to fill your hot water bottle and go to BED, where you will NOT be poking around on the internet for an hour :eek: Remember your resolutions! :eek: :o :rotfl:
  • Cheery_Daff
    Cheery_Daff Posts: 15,710 Forumite
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    Right :j Positive MSE mini-steps taken today:

    (1) Made a fresh start with my YNAB budget :j All looking nice and shiny and I've managed to allocate £20 to the mortgage account already :j I'll keep it there for now in case it turns out I've missed something obvious :o :rotfl:

    (2) Did a small Prolific survey for 40p - will add nicely to my existing 22p total :rotfl:

    (3) A No Spend Day! :j :j Very rare round here :rotfl: :rotfl:

    (4) Home made advocaat :D Although I'm not sure that counts, as the bottle of budget brandy I bought to go in it actually cost slightly more than the bottle of cheapo advocaat I'd usually buy :o :rotfl: :rotfl:

    (5) Three eggs from the ladies today :j

    (6) I've planted several elder bushes today :j Only borderline MSE as I did actually buy them :rotfl: but they're part of my longer term strategy for growing all our fruit and veg and will eventually bring me many cheerful elderflower things and elderberry things :D

    (7) Cleaned up with my own home made 'miracle spray' (am I clutching at straws now?!)

    (8) Made a start on a potential side hustle venture :j Not going to share much about this here as it's just an experiment and I want to feel free to abandon the whole thing without anyone knowing about it if it doesn't work out :D

    That's quite a lot of small things actually :j

    Tomorrow... Not much planned, although the weather is fine so I'd like to get out in the garden and do a bit of laying out beds ready to plant when things warm up. I've got some wood to go round the edges, and cardboard to lay on top, and a few wheelbarrows of mostly-rotted compost to go on the top so I should be able to make some progress.

    I've got a blood test appointment in the afternoon so that'll be a little trip to town, and I must collect my prescription.

    And I've got a load of tedious life admin phone calls too that I've been putting off since before the holidays :o Got to ring...

    * the builder
    * the dentist (filling came out the other day)
    * the garage (car due an MOT at the end of the month but there are a few annoying things so I want to send it in early)
    * the musical instrument repair woman (before group rehearsals start again)

    I've also got three parcels to get wrapped and to the post office (not necessarily tomorrow), and I want to order a book from the library catalogue - it's out on loan at the minute and they'll have to send it out on the mobile library which only comes every 3 weeks so I might not get it til Easter :rotfl: :rotfl: :D

    Anyway, enough waffling from me! Feeling very positive about 2019 tonight (might just be the advocaat :o :rotfl: :rotfl: )
  • Cheery_Daff
    Cheery_Daff Posts: 15,710 Forumite
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    Uber Frugal Month Day 2

    Morning MSE chums, it's day 2 of Uber Frugal Month! :j

    Today we're thinking about the rest of our lives :eek: I find this quite difficult sometimes :o I basically have two competing career goals

    (1) be excellent and get promoted and to the top of my field as soon as possible
    (2) give up work altogether and spend my time pottering in the garden and writing cheerful things about it

    :rotfl: I suppose they're not *that* opposing if you think about it - (1) is how I am planning on getting to (2) after all :D But they *feel* opposing sometimes when I want to be at home and all I'm doing is heading off to work again :o

    But unless I start doing the lottery or find a richer man than Mr Cheery I suppose (2) is not going to be instant! And in the meantime, I can do as much of (2) as possible whilst also making (1) does not impinge too much on home life.

    So perhaps it's best to think that (1) is my intermediate goal, and (2) is my life long goal, and I can work on both at the same time... And in order to achieve either of them, I need to FOCUS - not get sidetracked by a million internet rabbit holes :o (although there's always room for a bit of that I think :D But perhaps not hours of it a day... :o )

    And I suppose the less I spend now, the less I'll have to save through working at (1) so the sooner I'll get to do (2) :D And if I get to the stage where I can miraculously do (2) before I achieve (1) well then (1) will be ditched and I will be a happy gardening fairy, drinking tea and playing with my chickens and looking at the view for the rest of my days :j
  • Cheery_Daff
    Cheery_Daff Posts: 15,710 Forumite
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    So today is proving to be quite productive so far, although I have barely left the living room (other than to let the chickens out). So far I've:

    * ordered a book through the online library service (cost me 50p but I also discovered I had 2 audio books on there that I returned to the mobile library in August! Fortunately the nice lady removed them...)
    * rang another nice lady to book my flute in for a service - taking it round today
    * texted farmer to get number for builder - I wrote it down somewhere but clearly not anywhere sensible
    * checked when local events programme starts up again - I thought it was today but it's Feb
    * rang dentist about a million times but it's engaged

    Also done lots of disappearing down internet rabbit holes :o

    So in the spirit of FOCUSING I'm going to make myself another cup of tea :rotfl: and get outside with it to spend an hour in the garden :j

    I've got to go into town for a blood test later so Mr Cheery is going to come too and we'll tag on a little wander about (although we must remember that it IS Uber Frugal Month after all so probably we shouldn't be doing idle wandering round town!)

    Hope you're all having a cheery start to the year :j
  • Karmacat
    Karmacat Posts: 39,460 Forumite
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    Great stuff, Cheery, I particularly love the planting of the elder bushes, thats going to be wonderful :)
    2023: the year I get to buy a car
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