I thought it would be interesting to write down in black and white what the actual fixed expenses I have are. This is all in my excel budget spreadsheet as well but I suspect that I'm so used to looking at that, I don't really see it any more.
Rent - 560
Gas/electricity - 35 (usually get a little bit back after the annual readings are done)
Pension - 150
Bus/train ticket - 55
Home phone/internet - 26 plus whatever I spend on calls
Annual expenses (divided by 12 and rounded to give monthly amount)
House insurances - 17
Travel insurance - 7
Bahncard - 18 (gives me 50% discount on train travel)
Choir - 12
Rental association - 5
Total (not including servicing debt): 885
That's quite a bit really. I also try to put about 15 a month aside for preserving supplies. Still being fairly at the beginning stage of preserving my own stuff I need to build up a bit more of a stash of jars as well as replacing lids as necessary. Not to mention someday I would like to get a pressure canner and a much bigger dehydrator than the one I currently have.
My aim this month is again to spend as little money as possible so that I have a good amount left at the end of the month - I would like to be able to transfer at least 100 extra to my credit card. However, I do need to pay two dentist's bills so will need to keep to a strict budget to achieve this. I still have a few things I need to finish from the freezer and did buy some cheese, apples and veg at the weekend so I really shouldn't need to buy anything more along the lines of food for at least a week. And will perhaps only need some more cheese and milk at that stage.
I wanted to do a two-day detox over this weekend but haven't done so. I did have some chocolate on Saturday but that was the last of it and apart from a couple of biscuits left over from Christmas that I found yesterday (thank goodness for tupperware - they were as good as new) I ate nothing sweet yesterday. I still have a few biscuits left and just had a couple with a cup of tea so hopefully that will stave off any sugar withdrawal headaches. I have a pile of leeks to make soup with, a bunch of chard which I plan to add to a tomato-based pasta sauce and that will give me lunches and dinners for the rest of the week with bread and cheese and chutney to keep a bit of variety going as well. I'll see if the stress of month end (which means billing needs to be done in work) makes me long to reach for chocolate and potentially buy some good dark chocolate to get me through that without eating too much.
Now, I did very little of what I planned to do yesterday. I bought ten folders on Saturday and was determined to do all the filing that I have essentially been ignoring since I moved here. I have a suitcase full of stuff on the living room floor and I am sick of looking at it. I had promised myself that I would do it yesterday no matter how long it took but I didn't even start it. So my reward of spending today reading my library books and with only the ironing as a chore is out the window. I am going to do the ironing now (it's not something I actually do very often but I'm getting sick of needing to be up a few minutes early every day just so I'll have something ironed to wear to work). Then I think I'll see how it goes. It is another gorgeous spring day and a nice walk in the park, although it was supposed to be part of my reward for having finished the filing yesterday, might still need to happen just to get some fresh air into my brain!
Monday, April 05, 2010
Sunday, April 04, 2010
Getting stuff done
Sunday
13.30: the estate agent who has his offices in our back courtyard rang the doorbell, surprised he is here today but that was great as he had taken in a package for me during the week and I was able to go down and collect it
14.15: have managed to do all the washing up, wipe down the counter and washing machine and put back the stuff that normally lives there (have to take it off when I'm using the machine and this is working out well as it means everything gets cleared off and wiped down at least once a week)
14.25: am enjoying a quickly put together lunch of bread, cheese and chutney and am on to my second cup of herbal tea
Monday
16.18: have done ALL the ironing, even bedclothes (always such a pain to do but I should make more of an effort as it does make them fold up smaller, handy when you don't have much storage space) and have put everything away, including the clothes horse which sometimes seems to be in permanent residence on the sitting floor. I've also put the leek soup on to cook and have made another quick lunch of bread, cheese, chutney and herbal tea. And I've sorted out the t-shirts I bought last summer which are now too big for me - I need to chop these up before I start wearing them again as they really are too big for me. I bought cheap t-shirts last year knowing they wouldn't last long, planning to cut them into strips and make a rag rug when then were past respectable use. I still have enough of the size smaller to do me. Am glad to have sorted them out now rather than hanging on to t-shirts that really aren't in great condition and hanging off me.
21.30: did go for a quick walk (just over 30 minutes) and combined it with a trip via the donate old clothes container to get rid of a bag of clothes that my lodger left here to be gotten rid of. Before I left I cleared off the 'day bed', which has been the main couch in my living room for the last year and dumped all the stuff out of the suitcase onto that. Brought the suitcase straight down to the cellar - no excuses anymore, all that stuff needs to be filed and put away properly before anyone can come over to visit. Put away the ironing board and iron. Took some measurements in my bedroom. I have been using my couch bed as my bed for the past year and although a year ago I was sick of sleeping in a single bed (the 'day bed') now I'm more sick of not having the nice couch I wanted in my living room. I also recently bought another wardrobe and cupboard so that my lodger would have somewhere to put his stuff - he is gone now but does still have some stuff here. I had rearranged my room quickly to fit it in but having taken some measurements I think I see a better way to do it so for sometime in the next month the plan is to move the couch back out into the sitting room, move the day bed back into the bedroom (a pain as it doesn't quite fit through the door so I'll have to take it apart) and basically move the rest of the bedroom furniture around too. I want the living room to be finished (except for painting) finally. Have food cooking as well - swiss chard, carrots, onion, wild garlic, home canned tomatoes, lots of pepper and herbs. That'll go nicely with pasta for lunches.
13.30: the estate agent who has his offices in our back courtyard rang the doorbell, surprised he is here today but that was great as he had taken in a package for me during the week and I was able to go down and collect it
14.15: have managed to do all the washing up, wipe down the counter and washing machine and put back the stuff that normally lives there (have to take it off when I'm using the machine and this is working out well as it means everything gets cleared off and wiped down at least once a week)
14.25: am enjoying a quickly put together lunch of bread, cheese and chutney and am on to my second cup of herbal tea
Monday
16.18: have done ALL the ironing, even bedclothes (always such a pain to do but I should make more of an effort as it does make them fold up smaller, handy when you don't have much storage space) and have put everything away, including the clothes horse which sometimes seems to be in permanent residence on the sitting floor. I've also put the leek soup on to cook and have made another quick lunch of bread, cheese, chutney and herbal tea. And I've sorted out the t-shirts I bought last summer which are now too big for me - I need to chop these up before I start wearing them again as they really are too big for me. I bought cheap t-shirts last year knowing they wouldn't last long, planning to cut them into strips and make a rag rug when then were past respectable use. I still have enough of the size smaller to do me. Am glad to have sorted them out now rather than hanging on to t-shirts that really aren't in great condition and hanging off me.
21.30: did go for a quick walk (just over 30 minutes) and combined it with a trip via the donate old clothes container to get rid of a bag of clothes that my lodger left here to be gotten rid of. Before I left I cleared off the 'day bed', which has been the main couch in my living room for the last year and dumped all the stuff out of the suitcase onto that. Brought the suitcase straight down to the cellar - no excuses anymore, all that stuff needs to be filed and put away properly before anyone can come over to visit. Put away the ironing board and iron. Took some measurements in my bedroom. I have been using my couch bed as my bed for the past year and although a year ago I was sick of sleeping in a single bed (the 'day bed') now I'm more sick of not having the nice couch I wanted in my living room. I also recently bought another wardrobe and cupboard so that my lodger would have somewhere to put his stuff - he is gone now but does still have some stuff here. I had rearranged my room quickly to fit it in but having taken some measurements I think I see a better way to do it so for sometime in the next month the plan is to move the couch back out into the sitting room, move the day bed back into the bedroom (a pain as it doesn't quite fit through the door so I'll have to take it apart) and basically move the rest of the bedroom furniture around too. I want the living room to be finished (except for painting) finally. Have food cooking as well - swiss chard, carrots, onion, wild garlic, home canned tomatoes, lots of pepper and herbs. That'll go nicely with pasta for lunches.
I got april fooled
Well and truly caught out. Wednesday and Thursday were much cooler days than we've been having recently, temperatures in the morning down to 4 or 5 again rather than the 10 or 11 we've been getting used to over the last few weeks. And I'd seen pictures and heard about the blizzards in Ireland and the UK as well as us having a brief sleet and hailstone shower on Thursday afternoon. So on Thursday evening, when I was waiting in the train station to go home and I saw the weather forecast on one of the information screens saying that Friday was going to be extremely cold with temperatures between minus twelve and minus seventeen, I just believed it. When I came home I made sure to close all the windows and I turned on the radiators in all the rooms so that just in case it got below freezing overnight, nothing would freeze up. At seven on Friday morning it was only four degrees so I assumed it would keep getting colder. My sort of half-thought out plan of going out for a long walk didn't seem quite so appealing any more so I switched it to a day of mostly staying in bed reading. I remember texting my brother at around ten to say that the cold weather didn't really seem to be materialising but I think it was late afternoon before I copped on that it wasn't just the weathermen making a mistake - it must have been an april fool's joke. Looks like despite my increasing cynicism over the last few years, I'm still as gullible as ever!
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Debt accumulating again
I was doing okay on managing my finances and slowly starting to come out the other side of the expense of moving and starting to be more positive about everything but winter has had a toll and the overdraft and credit card have crept up again with very little to show for it. So, I decided to bite the bullet and post the totals here so that I can (hopefully) take pleasure in seeing those amounts come down. They can't get much higher since they are both more or less at the limit as it is.
Overdraft on 28 Feb 10: 2363
Credit card on 28 Feb 10: 1995,86
To people who don't or never have lived on credit, these will seem like huge amounts. They are. But as someone who spent many years living in the boom time Ireland which encouraged many other silly people as well as me to spend obscene amounts of credit, they don't stress me too much. But then again that's mostly because I try not to think about it. But this card and overdraft are my safety net for emergencies so I need to free them up again just in case. I have started saving a bit over the last few months and I am happy that I am putting enough away to cover my annual expenses as they arise plus a little bit more. I also recently started paying into a pension - could have waited another year to do that and put the money on the card/overdraft instead but I had already been over a year without a pension and didn't want to leave the break any longer than that. And I am one of those strange people who somewhere along the way lost the ability to save properly and finds it easier to pay off debt instead. I am trying to change that and was being quite successful but the move has knocked me off-stride entierely and it's just as much of a struggle, if not more, to get back again.
In addition to the card and overdraft I am still paying off my Irish loan and there is another year and a half to go on that. So although I earn a decent wage, lots of money is already spoken for by the time I get it.
The overdraft and credit card are both Irish so I usually transfer money from my German current account as soon as I get paid to cover my loan payment (plus a small standing order to charity) as well as a payment to my credit card and round the amount up so that at least a small amount goes towards the overdraft as well. Generally the plan is that whatever I then have leftover cash in my current account at the end of the month I will then transfer that as well. Don't often have much left though. Working on it, which I will try to post about later.
Overdraft on 28 Feb 10: 2363
Credit card on 28 Feb 10: 1995,86
To people who don't or never have lived on credit, these will seem like huge amounts. They are. But as someone who spent many years living in the boom time Ireland which encouraged many other silly people as well as me to spend obscene amounts of credit, they don't stress me too much. But then again that's mostly because I try not to think about it. But this card and overdraft are my safety net for emergencies so I need to free them up again just in case. I have started saving a bit over the last few months and I am happy that I am putting enough away to cover my annual expenses as they arise plus a little bit more. I also recently started paying into a pension - could have waited another year to do that and put the money on the card/overdraft instead but I had already been over a year without a pension and didn't want to leave the break any longer than that. And I am one of those strange people who somewhere along the way lost the ability to save properly and finds it easier to pay off debt instead. I am trying to change that and was being quite successful but the move has knocked me off-stride entierely and it's just as much of a struggle, if not more, to get back again.
In addition to the card and overdraft I am still paying off my Irish loan and there is another year and a half to go on that. So although I earn a decent wage, lots of money is already spoken for by the time I get it.
The overdraft and credit card are both Irish so I usually transfer money from my German current account as soon as I get paid to cover my loan payment (plus a small standing order to charity) as well as a payment to my credit card and round the amount up so that at least a small amount goes towards the overdraft as well. Generally the plan is that whatever I then have leftover cash in my current account at the end of the month I will then transfer that as well. Don't often have much left though. Working on it, which I will try to post about later.
Moderating again
Spambots seem to have found me again so the comment moderation has been switched back on to always. Don't remember switching it to only older posts before, which worries me slightly but not too much as I often to things and then forget about them. Now I have a note made as to when I changed the setting back to full moderation so I can look back and remind myself if I need to :-)
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Shovelling shit and making mincemeat
That pretty much should sum up my day I think. The shovelling shit part is over. The biogarten got its annual delivery of manure during the week so today we transported it from near the gate, where it is delivered over to the deep bed that it goes into. Of course nothing goes quite that smoothly and when I arrived everyone was more or less just standing around looking into the deep bed, which had a pool of water in the bottom of it. The drain seemed to be stuffed up somehow so we couldn't start until that had been sorted out. It took a while to figure out what the problem was and then someone went home to get a power hose attachment yoke to try and flush out the last few inches. In the meantime we got rid of the remains of the very old bottom layer of that bed, which was just too wet to leave there. That was eight or ten wheelbarrowfulls down to the other end of the garden and distributed along the path which is beside the boundary fence. It was raining slightly today after a week of plenty of rain so it was all very muddy. Then we put a layer of leaf mulch into half the bed and then we uncovered the steaming pile of horse manure and straw and started bringing barrowfulls of that over to the bed. Two people had the delightful job of stamping it all down, three shovelled and two transported back and forth. Everybody swapped what they were doing at some stage although it all just happened very easily with no hassle and no major organisation required. Just as it should be.
Once they finally got the drain sorted properly we did the same with the remaining half of the bed. And then the final layer of topsoil (freshly sieved soil from last week) went on. Apparently every other year there is normally another layer of leaf mulch between the manure and the topsoil but this year there was some discussion about whether that insulates it all too much so they decided to try it without.
I am really tired now and I know I will be aching by Monday but it wasn't difficult work really. I like that they just let me work at my own pace (which tends to be a bit slower than most people). I'm more of a tortoise than a hare really.
Before heading to the garden I had been to the market. I decided that I should try and spend as little as possible on food this month, using up what's in the freezer and so on and more or less only buying fresh milk, bread and cheese as needed. Got to the market and realised that I had ordered suet, which I needed to collect today as well as mince to go with it. So this evening I will be trying to make mincemeat using the recipe from River Cottage Year. I'm going to make an ordinary one without meat as well I think and then in a month or so I will buy a shop jar of it and to a taste comparison. Have to go out and get some mixed peel now, don't think this is the time to start trying to make my own candied peel although that's coming soon too I think.
Other purchases from the market:
Cheese
Cream chees with chives and garlic
Milk
Yoghurt
Leeks
Potatoes
Onions
Lamb's lettuce (way too expensive but I have a craving for salad all of a sudden)
Beans
4 slices of ham for toasted ham and cheese sandwiches this evening
I forgot to ask what type of beans they were - they were dried, purple ones. I have to soak them overnight and then cook them for about an hour. Going to have an Eintopf for dinner tomorrow I think. As well as that I'll use some of the mince to make a bolognese sauce and that should leave me sorted for lunches and dinners for next week.
The rain cleared off after an hour or so in the garden this morning and by about half-twelve it was lovely and sunny. Even some of the Germans took off their jackets. I'd been in a long sleeve t-shirt with a short sleeve t-shirt over it since I arrived and was plenty hot on my back where the sun was shining. All the crocus were open by then as well and there are hundreds of snowdrops. Saw bees busy at work on some of the flowers too. Spring has really arrived this past week and it feels like it's going to move in really quickly now. Happy days!
Once they finally got the drain sorted properly we did the same with the remaining half of the bed. And then the final layer of topsoil (freshly sieved soil from last week) went on. Apparently every other year there is normally another layer of leaf mulch between the manure and the topsoil but this year there was some discussion about whether that insulates it all too much so they decided to try it without.
I am really tired now and I know I will be aching by Monday but it wasn't difficult work really. I like that they just let me work at my own pace (which tends to be a bit slower than most people). I'm more of a tortoise than a hare really.
Before heading to the garden I had been to the market. I decided that I should try and spend as little as possible on food this month, using up what's in the freezer and so on and more or less only buying fresh milk, bread and cheese as needed. Got to the market and realised that I had ordered suet, which I needed to collect today as well as mince to go with it. So this evening I will be trying to make mincemeat using the recipe from River Cottage Year. I'm going to make an ordinary one without meat as well I think and then in a month or so I will buy a shop jar of it and to a taste comparison. Have to go out and get some mixed peel now, don't think this is the time to start trying to make my own candied peel although that's coming soon too I think.
Other purchases from the market:
Cheese
Cream chees with chives and garlic
Milk
Yoghurt
Leeks
Potatoes
Onions
Lamb's lettuce (way too expensive but I have a craving for salad all of a sudden)
Beans
4 slices of ham for toasted ham and cheese sandwiches this evening
I forgot to ask what type of beans they were - they were dried, purple ones. I have to soak them overnight and then cook them for about an hour. Going to have an Eintopf for dinner tomorrow I think. As well as that I'll use some of the mince to make a bolognese sauce and that should leave me sorted for lunches and dinners for next week.
The rain cleared off after an hour or so in the garden this morning and by about half-twelve it was lovely and sunny. Even some of the Germans took off their jackets. I'd been in a long sleeve t-shirt with a short sleeve t-shirt over it since I arrived and was plenty hot on my back where the sun was shining. All the crocus were open by then as well and there are hundreds of snowdrops. Saw bees busy at work on some of the flowers too. Spring has really arrived this past week and it feels like it's going to move in really quickly now. Happy days!
Monday, February 22, 2010
Kitchen done
Finally finished switching the tupperware into the dresser in the kitchen and the baking stuff I don't use quite as often into the cupboard which is now in the sitting room. Somehow feel like I have ended up with lots more space. Cleared off the window sill as well, which has been accumulated lots of rubbishy bits and bobs in between the few plants I still have. Moved them all off and cleaned the window sill properly and got rid of all the rubbish (including finding a small something which I had intended sending to a friend for her birthday a month ago and then couldn't find to send it!). Looks much better now. I also moved the oven off the top of the washing machine onto the counter and put the oils and vinegars that were there onto the washing machine. I will not be able to use the machine with that stuff on top of it but my reasoning at this stage is that it means I will need to move all of that off the top of the machine at least once a week which should stop too much mess accumulating in the spare space. It's nice to be able to sit in there again.
I was up early this morning getting my lodger up and going with him to register at the town hall and then the dole office. So that's a start anyway. He even went to the bank after I had gone to work and sorted out a moratorium on his loan repayments and has written a letter to his landlord to officially hand in his notice on his flat up north and arrange to pay him the last three months (notice period) rent as soon as he has found work again. I managed to get some information from the Spanish consulate to start him thinking about dealing with the formalities around the apartment he inherited from his dad over a year ago as well so it feels like slowly he is starting to look forward. It's a good feeling which I am just trying to appreciate without worrying too much about the two steps back which might follow this one forward.
I was up early this morning getting my lodger up and going with him to register at the town hall and then the dole office. So that's a start anyway. He even went to the bank after I had gone to work and sorted out a moratorium on his loan repayments and has written a letter to his landlord to officially hand in his notice on his flat up north and arrange to pay him the last three months (notice period) rent as soon as he has found work again. I managed to get some information from the Spanish consulate to start him thinking about dealing with the formalities around the apartment he inherited from his dad over a year ago as well so it feels like slowly he is starting to look forward. It's a good feeling which I am just trying to appreciate without worrying too much about the two steps back which might follow this one forward.
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