Cheery's country living adventure

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  • Cheery_Daff
    Cheery_Daff Posts: 15,608
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    Ooh, more lovely people! :j :j Thank you so much for popping in :D

    Greent, I can see you have paid off your own mortgage early - I shall look to you for inspiration! :D

    Looks like you're making an excellent job of it too newgirly :j :j Well done :D Surely I've got to get somewhere surrounded by all you lovely lot :D

    Ooh, gallygirl, you brought cake! :D:D:D Excellent work :D I feel that chickens must have 'old lady' names somehow, maybe Gertrude and Edith and Ethel and Maud (although having said that, I know at least one five year old called Edith so what do I know??) In reality, as we're having rescue chickens, they might end up all looking exactly the same and just being referred to as 'the chickens' :o :rotfl:
  • Cheery_Daff
    Cheery_Daff Posts: 15,608
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    So, a mortgage update :D :rotfl:
    Starting balance: £215,000 :eek:
    Payments made: 1 x £890
    Current total: £214,432.50

    Still a way to go :rotfl:

    I'm using this calculator which tells me what the balance will be if I stick to normal payments. I'll ring the building society at the end of each month to get an updated balance and see how far ahead of myself I am :D

    Our fixed deal runs out in September 2019 (so after 19 months) - if I don't make any overpayments, the balance at that point will be
    £204,070.69
    It would be lovely to be looking for a remortgage deal with under £200,000 left so that will be my first big goal :j

    Let's say that's a round (ish) £4100 extra over the next 19 months, which is
    £216 extra a month :eek:
    Best get cracking then!
  • Busy_Mee1
    Busy_Mee1 Posts: 1,015 Forumite
    Hi Cheery I have seen you about on the DFW board and lovely to see you over here. The new house, land and life sound so exciting..I will be reading with interest x
  • gallygirl
    gallygirl Posts: 17,228
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    I feel that chickens must have 'old lady' names somehow, maybe Gertrude and Edith and Ethel and Maud (although having said that, I know at least one five year old called Edith so what do I know??) In reality, as we're having rescue chickens, they might end up all looking exactly the same and just being referred to as 'the chickens' :o :rotfl:
    Or flowers - Hyacinth, Bluebell, Daisy, Petunia :)

    DS had one called Bluebell - RIP :(. They now have one called Twobelle in her memory :rotfl:.
    A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort
    :) Mortgage Balance = £0 :)
    "Do what others won't early in life so you can do what others can't later in life"
  • Cheery_Daff
    Cheery_Daff Posts: 15,608
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    Thanks BusyMee1 :hello:

    Ooh, excellent flowery names gallygirl :D :j Will keep you posted :D (although I will warn you chickens might be a long way off yet...)

    Working at home today, so took a couple of things I had to read to the local cafe with Mr Cheery for a cuppa :D £5.10 from the treats budget (I may have had a small fairy cake :o )

    That should be it for the treats budget til the weekend as I'm at work the rest of the week.

    Still working out diesel. Our cars are pretty efficient and when we head back to the city (about 25 miles) we're trying to go together and combine errands etc. Some days I go on my own, and take the smaller car so Mr Cheery has the bigger one for fetching and carrying.

    Did a £4.40 study on prolific this morning :j :j I generally ignore survey sites these days, I'm not in such a stretched position that I can bear the endless being screened out etc :o But I still do prolific, and yougov when they come through on my phone (probably about 10 years off a payout there). Oh, and the secret survey site when they pop up every couple of weeks :money:

    I'm up to £16.48 on Prolific now - I'll cash out when it gets to £20 and that'll be my first mortgage overpayment :j :j :j
  • Cheery_Daff
    Cheery_Daff Posts: 15,608
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    Morning MSE chums :hello:

    YNAB done and bank checked this morning - life insurance payment has gone out. I'd actually forgotten this existed as I've never had it before and it's the first time they've taken it, so have had to add it into the budget :rotfl: Fortunately it's only £7.63 a month so won't break the bank (and I'd budgeted for it originally, just forgot to give it a line in YNAB!)

    Also this morning:
    * emailed someone about joining the local email news group thingy which they're just setting up
    * emailed the local smallholders association about joining :D (technically we're not 'smallholders' but we have so much land I figured they might be able to give us some useful advice, and their next meeting is about growing veg anyway :D )

    * filled in Secret Survey household questions - no dosh attached but there was actually only one question and they're pretty reliable about sending surveys so I don't mind :D 400 points in there, only need one more survey and I can claim £5 which will go straight to the mortgage :j

    Need to crack on with a bit of work, and dig my foldy bike out of the garage (and helmet and bag etc) - I've got one meeting at one site and another half an hour later at another site and there's not *quite* enough time to walk without rushing :rotfl:

    Have a cheery day chums :j
  • starnac
    starnac Posts: 5,917
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    Hey Cheery.

    Subscribed to your new diary. Good luck with everything
    Goals for September
    Declutter 10/20
    Money Made £56.52/£200
    Overpayments £0/£200 not this month as need to put into savings instead
  • Cheery_Daff
    Cheery_Daff Posts: 15,608
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    edited 13 March 2018 at 9:29PM
    Thanks starnac :j

    A few bits to report from today. First of all the good news - just got 25p for a 2 minute prolific study :money: :rotfl: Up to £16.73 there now so might be able to reach payout by the weekend :j

    Took lunch to work, and fruit, and snaffled a biscuit from a meeting so didn't buy any snacks :D However I did find myself in town at lunchtime and bought a hoodie from a charity shop (£5.49) and a new pair of jeans for £16 :eek: Most unlike me, I SO very rarely buy new clothes. However I am rather more rotund than I would like at the minute and I am SO sick of having to hoik my one pair of decent jeans up because they keep being forced down by my podginess :o These ones actually fit and I put them on before my meeting and haven't thought about my trousers since :D It's been bliss :D :rotfl:

    (I really buy clothes very rarely, and they are usually ALL from charity shops!)

    In other news, we had replies from both the local email group and the smallholders' association and we are now members of both :D Email group is free, smallholders' association is £15 a year for the two of us. First meeting in a couple of weeks - I'm hoping they'll be able to tell me where I can acquire some free manure :D :rotfl:

    Local farmer flagged us down on the way home this evening to give us the number for the local buildings regulations guy as we need to do some work. Wouldn't normally contemplate structural stuff :eek: and usually a fan of doing things myself :D However, floors in two of our upstairs rooms are dangerously boingy (you can see individual footsteps walk across the kitchen ceiling... :eek: ) so they need replacing - it seems as if there are literally no joists holding up the floors in one of them :eek:

    While we're at it, we'd like to take out a supporting wall downstairs... Had a builder pal round to quote and he seems confident it's quite a straightforward job (famous last words :rotfl: I've already mentally trebled his vague quote :rotfl: ). Anyway, I've fired off an email to the guy and we'll see what happens.

    Been back to the city today but Mr Cheery came with me so no need to run around finding a parking space :j And we went and picked up the second half of our new sofa from Freegle on the way home :money: It's extremely comfy, ENORMOUS, and also covered in cat hair :eek: Will require a bit of work, but will be worth it - but not today.

    Ready for bed now!

    Oh, and I had to send a report to the council as our bin wasn't collected :rotfl: I have NO idea what happens with bin collections round here. We're really rural and there is literally one other house on our road :rotfl: Bin was full of rotten meat when we moved in so I stuck it as far from the house as possible at the end of the drive the day after we moved in. That was apparently bin day - and also the day the snow started, and the bin was literally entirely covered :eek: Left it there, and they came and collected it about 4 days ago, but there was a big lump of ice at the bottom which didn't come out so now that's thawed, I've emptied all the water, added a couple of normal bags of rubbish - and it hasn't been collected :rotfl:

    Next week is recycling - I don't even have any recycling bins yet as we had to order (and pay for) them and they've not arrived yet...

    Feels easier to just do a tip run myself every week :rotfl:
  • Congratulations on your move to the country...wow 11 acres! Bliss!

    I live rurally and am on a septic tank but there is a cost element if you get it emptied. Some "onion bulb" types will fill over time and need emptying. Just a thought...

    Have fun planning !
    paydbx2024 #2 £480/£5000 . Mortgage £144k start ~ £148k Jun 23 -
    2024 savings challenge £5/£2000
    EF £140. Savings 2 £30.00. Weekly savings envelope #17
  • Cheery_Daff
    Cheery_Daff Posts: 15,608
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    Hi Honeysuckle :hello: Ooh, I shall be looking to you for septic tank advice :D I imagine we will indeed have to get the tank emptied at some point, but I'm (probably unwisely) putting that out of my mind for now :D It's on my (increasingly long) list of new things to investigate :D

    Having a productive morning so far. We've fallen into an early to bed, early to rise thing since moving here (I'm hoping it will make us wealthy as well as healthy and wise :rotfl: ). Sun rise this morning was lovely, so we took our tea at half 6 and sat on a wall to get the best view. Saw our local hare munching the grass on the drive too, how lovely :)

    Buildings regulations geezer is coming on Monday :j

    Grasped the nettle and dealt with the electricity supply this morning. We'd not come across the meter (having not actually looked :rotfl: ) - I'd tried to switch companies, but it was rejected (presumably as we didn't have an account ourselves with the original). So this morning I rang the original, set up an account, gave them a meter reading from now, and now I can apply to switch again :rotfl:

    They'll have to estimate the last couple of weeks worth, but I suppose that might end up working in our favour as we've had to have plug in heaters going most of the time to warm the walls up :blink:

    We're on their standard tariff so it's not going to be bargainous, but it'll only be six weeks worth before we switch so not too bad.

    Right, best get on with some more work!
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