Cheery's buttling diary: tea in one hand, plant pot in the other, running shoes on

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  • starnac
    starnac Posts: 5,917 Forumite
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    :o I had plastic storage tubs for my birthday off DH :o I've been sorting my fabric into them so I can see exactly what I have without having to rummage through big cardboard boxes (and make a mess). I could def do with some more although I daren't tell hubby that :o
    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: 15,710 Forumite
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    Plenty in Poundland at the minute :D :rotfl:
  • Cheery_Daff
    Cheery_Daff Posts: 15,710 Forumite
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    Evening money-saving pals :hello:

    Not much going on here. Ate about 47 pieces of cake today so not very mobile this evening :o :rotfl: (in fact I'm almost literally just rolling about the house like this smiley :rotfl: :rotfl: ) :D

    Trying to make a decision about a couple of events I was planning...

    One is a 6 day international permaculture convergence in September - I'm doing a permaculture diploma, meant to be presenting one of my projects at this event... then I started wibbling about the fact that it costs £275 (including all workshops, camping for 6 nights and all meals).

    Then I remembered I'm booked on a one day course, in June, in London, about a possible future career direction I was thinking of... Already booked onto this and paid £195 :eek: but I'm the only person booked so they won't confirm yet, and train fares keep getting more expensive - currently £108 and counting... :eek:

    Dawned on me that they both cost roughly the same amount - one is just a day, and the other is an entire week long holiday with all catering etc... It's looking increasingly like the one day thing will be cancelled anyway, but if I cancel myself in the next 2 weeks I'll get a full refund - which I could then use to fund the convergence...

    Could theoretically go to both I suppose, but that feels rather decadent and will cost pretty much as much as a fortnight's holiday for the pair of us :eek: :eek: So I don't feel like I can justify that, not while we're trying to move house! :eek:

    Hmm. Not a decision to make tonight I don't think!
  • Cheery_Daff
    Cheery_Daff Posts: 15,710 Forumite
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    Decision made - one day event cancelled this afternoon and refund in my account within an hour :eek: Very efficient :j Booked the other event - and with the refund plus the money I was allocating for travel, I had the whole thing covered :j :j
  • stepuptothepl8
    stepuptothepl8 Posts: 913 Forumite
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    Sounds ideal, I love it when a plan comes together ! :D
    LBM 1st Feb 2015 £18182 to go :o
    my diary: time to step up to the plate. SPC#079
  • Cheery_Daff
    Cheery_Daff Posts: 15,710 Forumite
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    So do I :D :j :j

    Sadly it's slightly foiled my other plan :o :rotfl: But it was a bit of a pie-in-the-sky plan anyway :o

    You know I've been using YNAB since November? It tracks your 'net worth' and gives you a nice graph, which I've been enjoying very much (I do like a nice graph :D ) Of course, it's not our *real* net worth - doesn't include house/pension or whatever else you're meant to include, but includes the contents of all your bank accounts :D

    It measures it on the last day of the month - which is usually the day I get paid :j so it then drops again throughout the month (as I pay bills etc) until BOING, it shoots back up again (hopefully higher than the previous month!) when I get paid again :j :j

    Anyway, we were all *just about* on track to hit £10,000 when I got paid this month :eek: :eek: :eek: But sadly now I've gone and booked this event we won't quite make it (unless I can think of a way of making £150 or so and having it in the bank account in the next 10 days :rotfl: ) So we'll have to wait til next month.

    I always feel slightly reticent posting stuff like that on here :o I know how much people are struggling, and I know what it's like having been in that same place myself just a few short years ago. But there isn't a day goes by when I'm not grateful for everything I've learned from everyone here, all the good habits I got into, all those times when I've saved a few pence here, a few pounds there, it all adds up.

    I'm grateful that I've landed up with a pretty secure, reasonably well paid job. I'm grateful that having acquired so many thrifty habits we didn't spend all my wages as soon as we got them.

    And (yet again, I know you're all probably sick of hearing me go on!) I'm grateful for YNAB, because while I've been working 4 or 5 days a week since 2011, £2500 of that £10k has been added in the 6 months since I started using it...

    Which is quite an incentive to *keep* using it, I tell you! :j Love seeing all my little virtual envelopes :j And it does make me stop spending on stuff (sometimes at least :o :rotfl: )

    Anyway, thank you for listening to me get overexcited about something that daft :o I was talking to Mr Cheery the other day about when we first met, and I had to draw money out of a cash machine on a credit card cos he'd frivolously asked me to buy him a cup of tea not realising the financial mess I was in :o Possibly one of the most expensive cups of tea I ever bought :o:o Feels so long ago now (thank goodness!) :o
  • Cheery_Daff
    Cheery_Daff Posts: 15,710 Forumite
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    Anyway, moving swiftly on from my boastful ramblings :o

    Had a phone call from a plasterer tonight who reckons he can actually plaster my impossible ceiling :j :j :j Can't tell you how excited I am :D It's way up in the eaves, between a load of beams, got some plasterboard (but not fully done) and has insulation sticking out etc. And is two floors up, so you can't actually reach it from *anywhere*. But he's willing to attempt, and I'm willing to let him - he's the only one who's actually bothered to give us a quote :rotfl:

    I'm actually booked on a DIY plastering course in a couple of weeks as a contingency :D :rotfl: At least I'll be able to do the bathroom myself! :j

    Still not got anyone to fix the roof mind you, and it's a bit daft to plaster the inside when the outside isn't particularly waterproof... :eek: Refusing to pay £1500 for it though when it's just one bit of dodgy mortaring - on the case with a friend who might be able to do it instead...

    Anyway - four days off :D
  • rtandon27
    rtandon27 Posts: 4,536 Forumite
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    Cheery_Daff wrote: »
    ...boastful ramblings...


    Cheery darling - congratulations on having learned the skills needed to be able to boast! Nothing wrong with giving yourself a pat on the back to celebrate your success or sharing it with your MSE friends!
    4 YEARS 10 MONTHS DEBT FREE!!! (24 OCT 2016)
    (With heartfelt thanks to those who have gone before us & their indubitable generosity.)
    ...and now I have a mortgage! (23 AUG 2021)
    17 YEARS 4 MONTHS LEFT OF 20 YEARS
  • starnac
    starnac Posts: 5,917 Forumite
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    It's always nice to hear stories about what it's like after debt freedom too! And if you can do that in 6 months then it's a pretty inspiring story. So don't feel bad about boasting. There are different types of boast and that was the good type :D
    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: 15,710 Forumite
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    Aw thank you lovely ladies :kisses3: What an ace bunch you are :j :j

    Not much to report today. Woken at 8am by a wasp buzzing REALLY LOUDLY round the bedroom, too the pair of us ages to herd it out of the skylight :rotfl: But then stayed in bed for ages reading, which was nice :j

    Took 4 bags of books to charity shop :j :j Then we were on the way to the tip when I shoved a bit of breadcake into Mr Cheery's mouth while he was driving (oh the romance :rotfl: ) and his temporary crown fell :eek: for the second time in a week! :eek:

    Fortunately the dentist squeezed him in straight away so I did a bit of food shopping while he was in there (we always seem to eat more exoticly when I do the food shopping :o Which is why Mr Cheery mostly does it... :rotfl: )

    Then we popped to a pal's house for a cuppa, then took a car full of stuff to the tip, then to another pal's house for another cuppa, then a bit of internet house viewing :D :j :j

    And then some sorting in the attic - I now have 40 plastic tubs up there, all full of fabric, wool, and as of today, spare cards, card making stuff, cellophane, christmas cards and gift tags, hair stuff, blank notebooks, papery crafts... :eek: :rotfl:

    Also gathered all the spare stationery into a (giant) pile - I could pretty much open my own branch of Staples I think :o :rotfl: So many hundreds of plastic wallets!! Where on earth do they all come from?! :rotfl: :rotfl:

    Still, some came in handy as I also sorted all house finances paperwork, car paperwork, one off stuff we need to keep etc into neatly organised folders :j :j :j

    Somehow there's still a giant pile of crap in the middle of the floor but I'm getting there... :rotfl: :rotfl:

    Might need to go to Poundland for more tubs tomorrow mind you... :rotfl:
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