We made it to the end of the month

I must start by saying a big Welcome to Jane, who has a  new blog called The love of Nostalgia, it looks as if it will be a good blog to read.

The last day of November and what a month......

We accepted an offer on the house and changed our minds about where to move to - for the time being at least ( i.e the hospital side of Ipswich rather than of our old home town 12 miles the other side of the County town ........will we ever get to our hovel in the hills?).

Cols acute allergic reaction to the stuff  he had to take to prepare for the camera thing meant they were only able to do part of the investigation so he is still lacking in energy and anemic and waiting for more tests next month to find out why.

It was our first month living entirely on savings.
How glad we are that we paid off the mortgage many years ago and so grateful we were sensible with the money inherited from my mum and dad - we could have gone on crazy spending sprees, cruises, foreign holidays etc. Instead what we invested in extending the house will be repaid when we sell and what we invested into savings accounts is still there for us to live on.

 My low/no spend challenge went quite well I think judging by the number of times I avoided buying a magazine! I have nothing to compare our spending with as no one else I know has ever shared what a low spending month in their home would be.
This is how it went :-
Direct Debits for Council Tax, water, phone/broadband and charities plus a birthday gift for our youngest came to £250. Diesel, the cats, the smallholding total about £140, The chemist, hospital car park, post office, a watch battery, clothes, kitchen and laundry was roughly £30. Food just over £100. And a really good amount of the 18 ( will need to re-think next year) Christmas presents that we are giving this year:- just over £300 making a grand total of money spent this month of  around £830.

 Is that good, bad or indifferent? I'd love to know.

In December we have car insurance, an electric bill, a big food shop and the rest of the Christmas presents to buy but again I will be avoiding all magazines and unnecessary spending. 

The very final tip of the 30 ways to save £1 list first published in 2013 was- Drive wisely, accelerate and brake slowly and don't carry more weight than you have to and take off the roof rack.

Out of all 30 tips I think the most useful one if you are serious about living on less is to STOP before you rush out to buy something and think if there is a way to use something you already have. Is the thing you are going to buy a need or a want? Are you buying something in order to save money - really? Is there something more useful you could do with that money? Will you regret what you have bought later?

And finally to cheer up a wet, grey end of November day here are a few busy bird feeder pictures

Back Tomorrow
Sue

H.A.I.S.L.O.S

Do you remember the acronym YUPPIES - Young Urban Professionals and then there was DINKY - Double Income No Kids Yet. Well, we are HAISLOS - Hardly Any Income So Living On Savings!

Virtually all our income streams have now finished or diminished to a trickle so now is when we start to live on the savings we tucked away all through the summer. We had a good season on the campsite, we sold loads of smallholding equipment and I had the unexpected pension pot payout, all this  spare cash  being put into an instant access account which, if we are careful, should see us through without having to touch the larger amounts in bonds, or what we put into ISAs in 2014.

I've purposely not mentioned much about house selling and viewings as it would have got a bit tedious, but there has been some serious interest  over the last few weeks. However no definite offers as they also have a house to sell and whoever buys their house will probably also need to find a buyer and so a chain builds with lots of potential pit-falls and delays. That's why we plan to be the upper end of the chain by either renting, buying an empty property to move into and prepare it for renting out or living in the caravan. As the cheapest place to live this winter is here on the smallholding we are not too worried about the wait, although if it gets to next spring without any signs of progress I may be tearing my hair out!

 I first wrote about our budget way back in 2013  and I find it very helpful to look at this budgeting list  every time circumstances change so I know exactly what will be needed.  My most recent  update was  in August  when we knew more about what was happening after health issues made us decide to sell-up. Now once again every item has been scrutinised to enable us to know what we can spare for travelling this month and what we need through until April - Surely the house will be sold by then...........



The first section - Council Tax and Water Direct Debits, both of these miss the months of February and March, The water bill for the campsite is due later this month. Electricity Bills are due December and March and the TV Licence is due in April.

The second section - The Campsite and Smallholding business - was an outlay of over £200 a month, now this will decrease to just petrol for the chainsaw and mower and diesel for the tractor.

The third section - The Car - MOT and Tax due in February, Insurance due in December. When we are at home  the amount of diesel we use is very little. Obviously it's more for pulling the caravan and having holidays but nowhere near what we used to spend on the Jeep Cherokee.

The fourth section - Everyday Expenses - I've cut the food spending by about £25 - £40 a month.
 We have enough coal and wood for heating and hot water and enough bottled gas for the hob to last us through until we sell.
 Cols prepayment prescription card isn't due until next May. House Insurance due in March. I'm still using postage stamps stockpiled before the price went up last April but I will need stamps for Christmas cards.
There are 2 of our Children's birthdays due before Christmas and then I will need money available for Christmas pressies for 3 Children, 3 partners, 2 sisters, 1 brother, 2 brothers-in law, 2 nephews and 1 niece and one Dad plus small gifts for a few friends.
 We won't need to spend anything on things for the house unless something breaks down.

The fifth Section - Extras that make life interesting - We joined the National Trust while we were away and I'm looking at this as an investment for the year ahead as it will allow us access to lots of interesting places without anymore expense - if we feel in need of a day out locally during the winter/spring we have several fairly local NT sites. I don't need any craft materials or books and we bought sacks of peanuts and bird seed mix from the feed mill when we last got chicken feed - enough for most of the winter. Christmas treats will be kept to a minimum - no extra decorations or tree needed, just a few bits of different food.

When you have a limited income it's vital to know what outgoings there will be and where you can shave bits off if necessary. Yes, we are lucky we have a home worth a lot of money, we have the back up of savings but we also have several years before we get a regular pension.

Back Soon
 Sue

We are going to be living on less.

Whether we sell the house soon or not so soon, we are going to have to find a way to live on less from October. There are several reasons - firstly because Col had to stop doing any heavy work for a couple of months our farmer friend had to find someone else to do the irrigation work. So no income from that this summer. For the same reason we didn't cut the third hay field and we've got 36 chickens instead of 130 and we didn't grow as much to sell. It's obvious there will be very little money going into savings for winter. The other reason is that we invested in Bonds at a good monthly interest rate with the inheritance when my Dad died and now those bonds are finishing, and interest rates are rock bottom.

 The plan was to sell this house, use the bond money to buy a small, cheap house that we would live in and prepare for renting out and meanwhile look for a small cottage somewhere cheaper. We would then have an income from the rental as well as the extra cash left over from the sale of this place to live on to see us through until Col gets his work pension and we both get our state pensions. It's looking very unlikely that we will sell the house before October so we will not be able to begin the plan.

Things are not as bad as they sound because I got the unexpected pension pot payout and clearing up here has given us extra money from selling scrap and the chicken sheds and we've done two car boot sales, plus the yard sale of course. However  living off savings instead of saving is going to need a whole different mindset.

I've been looking at how we have cut our budget to make the savings stretch and what else we can do in future.

This is the post about our budget I did in January this year before Cols new health problems and
before we knew we would definitely be putting the house up for sale.

 New updates and ideas in Blue What I wrote before is in black italics with old totals in red.


How we organise our budget 
 1. Council Tax. Because  we have lived here for 23 years our Council Tax is based on the tax bands when they were first set in  1991. I believe tax bands are re-calculated when houses are sold. We are also in a very rural area, so our Council Tax is a lot less than that paid in towns. We pay by direct debit over 10 months.  I'm not expecting the cost to go up very much as County, District and Parish councils have pledged to keep costs down.

2. Water Bill. We have a meter for the Campsite and farm buildings. The house is not metered. We have no mains sewer here, so septic tank drainage. The water bill for the house is direct debit over 10 months and is also based on the 1991 Council tax band. We pay the metered bill twice a year, this varies - the more campers we get the higher the bill. But the more campers the bigger the income anyway.The usage for farm/garden is low as we have huge rainfall collection tanks ( 8000 litres total!) on the farm buildings  and move the water around to water tanks in the garden.

3. Electric Bill. This varies a lot, again depending on how many campers come to the site. We pay quarterly for both.

4. TV Licence. I budget £15 a month, for 12 months. This allows for price increase and a bit left each year to add to anything with a shortage.
Total needed for those 4 things is approx £290 per month ( less for 2 months with no council tax)
 No change for these for the rest of the year.

The Campsite and smallholding businesses

1. Public Liability and Business insurance. We have to send a copy of this to The Camping and Caravanning Club. Without it we would be unable to run the site. We also need it because of selling eggs etc.  This seems to go up by a few pounds every year. Direct Debit £53 a month for 12 months at the moment. We paid this up front all at once in April which saved us about £25
2. Campsite electric inspection and test. Every year we have to have an electric test on the hook-ups and a certificate to say it's been done. A copy of this goes to the Camping and Caravanning Club. Without this we wouldn't be able to operate the campsite. It's around £75 each year. Nothing needed repair so it was just £60 this year.
3. Chicken feed. Range Layers pellets direct from the Mill. They changed from 25kg to 20 kg bags last year and  now  we collect 20 bags at a time. With the number of hens  we have at present this lasts a couple of months. When we drop down to 2 dozen hens for a while  one load will last us longer.We also need to buy grit and oyster shell. Even though they are free range they need these as our soil is heavy clay. We kept 36 old chickens, we  collect 10 bags of feed at a time which lasts us over 2 months.
4. Buying new point-of -lay  hens. To keep a steady egg supply for our customers, we replace the very old hens with new young hens each year. About 60 each year at £6.50 each. We plan to restock in summer so need to save for then. We are not going to restock with a large amount again. We plan to hang onto what we have, maybe replacing them with just half a dozen young hens if the house doesn't sell before winter.
5.Egg Boxes, Egg wash and cleaning cloths. We use plain grey boxes as they are the cheapest  and we buy them in big packs of 300 collecting 1500 once a year direct from a farm supplier. I use a sanitizing egg wash for cleaning muddy eggs and a clean cloth ( J cloth type) every day which then goes in the wash. We have enough to see us through.
6. Diesel for the tractor. We are allowed to use Red diesel for the tractor BUT nowhere locally sells it. We could have 1000 Litres delivered! except a tank costs a fortune and that amount would last us for ever. So we get a can full whenever possible from Morrisons in Ipswich as they are the only garage that we know of that sells it.
7.Petrol for the mower and chainsaw. Neither uses a huge amount. We need both, one for cutting the campsite and the other for cutting our free heating wood.
8.Campsite requisites. That's Loo rolls, paper towels, cleaning stuff. I usually buy these out of the housekeeping except for the paper towels which I stock up on when Viking mail order office supplies have a sale.
9. Multi purpose and seed compost plus seeds and plants for vegetables. I always check through several seed companies catalogues comparing prices. I have spent a lot less this year, cutting down in several places - £63 so far and seed potatoes still to buy. We sell probably 70 - 80% of what we grow so easily get our money back and earn a good income from June through to October. We are not sure what we will manage this year, it depends on how much Col can do.  
We cut down on some things because Col wasn't able to get all the beds ready at the right time. There are quite a lot of seeds in my seed tin and 3 bags of multi purpose compost left so if we are somewhere to grow things next year it won't cost very much.
10. Smallholding repairs and maintenance. There are always expenses when you own land and want to earn an income from it .Machinery repairs and replacements and maintenance and even small things like sticky labels for selling things at the gate, the list is endless. BUT as we will be doing less I shouldn't need to save so much each month.

Approx £240 a month needed  for the above This can be cut to about £200 a month perhaps more and of course these will all disappear when we sell.

 The ( B*****) Jeep!  The (B*****) Hyundai Tucson!
We changed the gas guzzling jeep,( but not to something smaller because Col wanted to make sure we could still tow a big trailer) to the Tucson in February. It has saved us a lot of money on diesel, the insurance is much the same, road tax a bit less. A recent repair cost £290.

1. Diesel for the Tucson. We try not to waste journeys and  do lots of  errands  when we are out. Luckily for most of our daily requirements we only need a 5 mile round trip. I cycle whenever I can. Our nearest petrol station is the local one in Leiston, who have now started giving Tesco Club Card points. They are often no more expensive than the supermarket filling stations and the nearest one of those is  over 20 miles away. We plan to change to something MUCH more economical later in the year as we won't need to haul large trailers about anymore
 The Plan changed so we could still tow a caravan/trailer
2.  Insurance. This is the almost the cheapest bit of running our car. As we are over 50 we get it via Saga and they will match any quote we can find elsewhere. Col checked out insurance for something smaller and it would be about £30 -£40 less each year.
3. MOT. Col is able to do most of the servicing so checks the car out before taking it to the garage.
4. Road Tax = Too Much but unavoidable! £285 this year. This will be much less when we swap to something smaller. It was a bit less but not a lot less
5.Bits for servicing, tires, oil  etc

Approx £200 a month in total at the moment but hopefully half that later in the year
.Less, but NOT 50% less.

The things we need for everyday life

1.All  Food and drink ( including Christmas)
2. Clothes and shoes ( Urgently need to save for something for our daughters wedding.)These were bought mainly off Ebay without spending a fortune. I have also bought 3 new bras this year but no other new clothes needed.
3 Personal Hygiene (  Loo rolls,Toothpaste, soap, shampoo etc etc)
4.Cleaning and Laundry stuff
5.Pre-payment prescription cards, opticians and dentist. ( I get free prescriptions after April)Prescriptions now free for me and optician check up
6. Phone and computer.When we move we will start again with a new provider as Talk Talk have put up prices, but it's not worth trying to change now.
7.Bottled gas for the hob  and coal to keep the Rayburn alight overnight when it's very cold We have enough to last us through the winter.   
8. Birthday and Christmas gifts for family and friends ( I MUST cut this for 2015) I plan to spend a lot less this year for Christmas gifts
9. House and contents insurance We swapped and saved
10. Smaller Things for the house Nothing needed
11. Postage I spent £20 to stock up on stamps before the price went up in April and haven't had to buy any more yet.

Approx £475 per month for all above but a bit less after April
 Have cut this to about £400 at the moment hopefully by more later.


We have money in savings for replacing household appliances, the expected expenses like pumping out the septic tank and the unexpected. These need to be added to if possible as there are always unexpected expenses!
We will be using savings rather than adding to them!


Then we want to have some money for the things that make life interesting
Books
Christmas treats
Days out We've had NO days out this summer, instead we bought a caravan and plan to have an Autumn holiday if the house doesn't sell by then.
Craft materials Must NOT buy anything else! Unless.................
Feeding the birds This is an area we will have to cut, especially if we don't have chickens and therefore don't go to the feed mill where bird food is cheaper.



 Can we earn more than £1205 now £1065 a month averaged out over the year?
 No, I don't think we can .

Hopefully we can but I'm not as sure as I was last year because our income comes from several sources and the list below is shorter than it was in 2014. And even shorter now!

• The campsite between April and October.....Praying for good weather! All OK, we are up on last year.
• Egg sales every day ( a lot less than last year and less again when we drop down to enable us to get on holiday). Income is now only about £20 a week, still enough to cover feed and to have free eggs for us.We don't plan to restock on a large scale here
• Sale of hay after haymaking and throughout year ( only our 2 acres here will be cut for hay in 2015) The man who owns one of the fields we rented asked Col to organise getting it cut and baled and didn't want any rent. We have sold the hay but are still waiting to be paid. We owe for getting the field cut and baled.
• Sale of fruit, vegetables and a few flowers mainly from June until November. As usual we are able to sell everything we grow. Lost the sale of flowers due to the road being closed.
• Income from Cs odd jobs. ( We don't know what he will be able to manage). He has been replaced in one and a half of the jobs he was doing regularly!
• Occasional income - Election duty, I opted out last year but will probably do it this year             (approx £100) I didn't do this as we were not sure how well Col would be.
• Car boot sale? - I swore last year not to do another for a few years but we have some STUFF! We found enough from the house and workshop to do 2 so far with an income of £300. Maybe doing another later.
•  Income from investments. This will decrease mid-year when our 5 year Bonds come to an end. Interest rates have dropped dramatically since we invested the money left to us by my Dad in 2010. The bonds finish in September/ October. We can't invest long term because we need money available for the  future plans.
• Repayments from money we loaned to someone in the family last year to help them out of bother.A third has been repaid so far.

.
 So that's our budget for 2015. If things go as planned we will be OK, if not we will have to use some of the savings. I will hate to see savings used  for everyday so will try to avoid if possible.

   The above is how I finished when this was written in January  and now we know things didn't go as planned, another health issue cropped up and we decided it was time to move.
 Now I just need to get my head around having to use savings to live on - after all, that's what they were there for but if we can't sell they are going to be eaten into much more than we wanted.
So S-t-r-e-t-c-h the savings will be the theme for the rest of the year.

Thanks for comments after the last post.
Back in a day or 3
Sue 

Planning the budget for 2015

Due to Cols heart attack and him having to take things a bit easier we think our income in 2015 will drop  by about  £300 a month, maybe more in the second half of the year. No more hedge cutting for our neighbour for a start. We have already halved the number of chickens we keep and plan to drop down to just a couple of dozen to enable us to have a short break and also get to our daughters wedding, we may increase numbers again later in the year. We will also not be hay-making on the two fields that we used to rent.

Here is an updated version of the post ( see it here) I did around this time last year

How we organise our budget

1. Council Tax. Because  we have lived here for 21 years our Council Tax is based on the tax bands when they were first set in  1991. I believe tax bands are re-calculated when houses are sold. We are also in a very rural area, so our Council Tax is a lot less than that paid in towns. We pay by direct debit over 10 months.  I'm not expecting the cost to go up very much as County, District and Parish councils have pledged to keep costs down.

2. Water Bill. We have a meter for the Campsite and farm buildings. The house is not metered. We have no mains sewer here, so septic tank drainage. The water bill for the house is direct debit over 10 months and is also based on the 1991 Council tax band. We pay the metered bill twice a year, this varies - the more campers we get the higher the bill. But the more campers the bigger the income anyway.The usage for farm/garden is low as we have huge rainfall collection tanks ( 8000 litres total!) on the farm buildings  and move the water around to water tanks in the garden.

3. Electric Bill. This varies a lot, again depending on how many campers come to the site. We pay quarterly for both.

4. TV Licence. I budget £15 a month, for 12 months. This allows for price increase and a bit left each year to add to anything with a shortage.
Total needed for those 4 things is approx £290 per month ( less for 2 months with no council tax)

The Campsite and smallholding businesses

1. Public Liability and Business insurance. We have to send a copy of this to The Camping and Caravanning Club. Without it we would be unable to run the site. We also need it because of selling eggs etc.  This seems to go up by a few pounds every year. Direct Debit £53 a month for 12 months at the moment.
2. Campsite electric inspection and test. Every year we have to have an electric test on the hook-ups and a certificate to say it's been done. A copy of this goes to the Camping and Caravanning Club. Without this we wouldn't be able to operate the campsite. It's around £75 each year.
3. Chicken feed. Range Layers pellets direct from the Mill. They changed from 25kg to 20 kg bags last year and  now  we collect 20 bags at a time. With the number of hens  we have at present this lasts a couple of months. When we drop down to 2 dozen hens for a while  one load will last us longer.We also need to buy grit and oyster shell. Even though they are free range they need these as our soil is heavy clay.
4. Buying new point-of -lay  hens. To keep a steady egg supply for our customers, we replace the very old hens with new young hens each year. About 60 each year at £6.50 each. We plan to restock in summer so need to save for then.
5.Egg Boxes, Egg wash and cleaning cloths. We use plain grey boxes as they are the cheapest  and we buy them in big packs of 300 collecting 1500 once a year direct from a farm supplier. I use a sanitizing egg wash for cleaning muddy eggs and a clean cloth ( J cloth type) every day which then goes in the wash.
6. Diesel for the tractor. We are allowed to use Red diesel for the tractor BUT nowhere locally sells it. We could have 1000 Litres delivered! except a tank costs a fortune and that amount would last us for ever. So we get a can full whenever possible from Morrisons in Ipswich as they are the only garage that we know of that sells it.
7.Petrol for the mower and chainsaw. Neither uses a huge amount. We need both, one for cutting the campsite and the other for cutting our free heating wood.
8.Campsite requisites. That's Loo rolls, paper towels, cleaning stuff. I usually buy these out of the housekeeping except for the paper towels which I stock up on when Viking mail order office supplies have a sale.
9. Multi purpose and seed compost plus seeds and plants for vegetables. I always check through several seed companies catalogues comparing prices. I have spent a lot less this year, cutting down in several places - £63 so far and seed potatoes still to buy. We sell probably 70 - 80% of what we grow so easily get our money back and earn a good income from June through to October. We are not sure what we will manage this year, it depends on how much Col can do.
10. Smallholding repairs and maintenance. There are always expenses when you own land and want to earn an income from it .Machinery repairs and replacements and maintenance and even small things like sticky labels for selling things at the gate, the list is endless. BUT as we will be doing less I shouldn't need to save so much each month.

Approx £240 a month needed  for the above

 The ( B*****) Jeep!

1. Diesel for the jeep. We try not to waste journeys and  do lots of  errands  when we are out. Luckily for most of our daily requirements we only need a 5 mile round trip. I cycle whenever I can. Our nearest petrol station is the local one in Leiston, who have now started giving Tesco Club Card points. They are often no more expensive than the supermarket filling stations and the nearest one of those is  over 20 miles away. We plan to change to something MUCH more economical later in the year as we won't need to haul large trailers about anymore.
2. Jeep Insurance. This is the almost the cheapest bit of running our gas-guzzling 4WD that we couldn't do without (in the past) on the smallholding. As we are over 50 we get it via Saga and they will match any quote we can find elsewhere. Col checked out insurance for something smaller and it would be about £30 -£40 less each year.
3.Jeep MOT. Col is able to do most of the servicing so checks the jeep out before taking it to the garage.
4. Jeep Tax = Too Much but unavoidable! £285 this year. This will be much less when we swap to something smaller.
5.Bits for servicing, tires, oil  etc

Approx £200 a month in total at the moment but hopefully half that later in the year.

The things we need for everyday life

1.All  Food and drink ( including Christmas)
2. Clothes and shoes ( Urgently need to save for something for our daughters wedding.)
3 Personal Hygiene (  Loo rolls,Toothpaste, soap, shampoo etc etc)
4.Cleaning and Laundry stuff
5.Pre-payment prescription cards, opticians and dentist. ( I get free prescriptions after April)
6. Phone and computer.
7.Bottled gas for the hob  and coal to keep the Rayburn alight overnight when it's very cold    
8. Birthday and Christmas gifts for family and friends ( I MUST cut this for 2015)
9. House and contents insurance
10. Smaller Things for the house
11. Postage

Approx £475 per month for all above but a bit less after April


We have money in savings for replacing household appliances, the expected expenses like pumping out the septic tank and the unexpected. These need to be added to if possible as there are always unexpected expenses!

So we will save whatever we can in the good months of summer

Then we want to have some money for the things that make life interesting
Books
Christmas treats
Days out
Craft materials
Feeding the birds

Whatever we can spare from not spending so much in any of the above categories.

 Can we earn more than £1205 a month averaged out over the year?

Hopefully we can but I'm not as sure as I was last year because our income comes from several sources and the list below is shorter than it was in 2014.

• The campsite between April and October.....Praying for good weather!
• Egg sales every day ( a lot less than last year and less again when we drop down to enable us to get on holiday).
• Sale of hay after haymaking and throughout year ( only our 2 acres here will be cut for hay in 2015)
• Sale of fruit, vegetables and a few flowers mainly from June until November
• Income from Cs odd jobs. ( We don't know what he will be able to manage).
• Occasional income - Election duty, I opted out last year but will probably do it this year ( approx £100)
• Car boot sale? - I swore last year not to do another for a few years but we have some STUFF! Goodness knows where it has come from and there's bound to be more if we search around.
•  Income from investments. This will decrease mid-year when our 5 year Bonds come to an end. Interest rates have dropped dramatically since we invested the money left to us by my Dad in 2010.
• Repayments from money we loaned to someone in the family last year to help them out of bother.

(Lots of people still think we have a pension but No, not yet. There might be a possibility of Cols work pension in 2017, otherwise we will have to wait until 2021 and 2023)

 So that's our budget for 2015. If things go as planned we will be OK, if not we will have to use some of the savings. I will hate to see savings used  for everyday so will try to avoid if possible.

We will try and stay here for another year and see how things go. We might have to move in 2016.

Back Tomorrow

PS Just noticed new followers, will do a proper welcome tomorrow
Sue

Halfway through the month, a look at spending and my "to do" list

 Half way through the month, so I thought I would look back at my November Plans list.
This is what I wrote at the beginning of the month

1. Continue eating our own fresh apples and fruit from the freezer so that we spend no money on fruit apart from an orange and a lemon for the Christmas cakes.✔
2. Make a double batch of Naan bread✔
3. Make a batch of Tomato and Herb rolls✔
4. Do the main monthly shop✔
5.  Sort the seed/veg plant order and make sure it is less than the £100 that it was last year.
6. Get chicken feed on the way back from Ipswich when C has his 24 hour heart monitor fitted✔
7. Christmas cakes to make, 1 for us and 3 small ones for gifts
8.  I need to find out what Cs Dad and Brother would like for Christmas and get them sorted out
9. We need to clear the 2 runner bean beds and store the canes away and pick off some beans for drying.✔
10. More clearing in the 3 poly-tunnels
11. Chop a few more sacks of kindling wood✔
12. Clean out the empty chicken shed✔
13. Clear a few veg beds - at least 3
14. I want to fit in  some cycling or swimming or both for fitness
15. Go and see the sea✔
16. Visit charity shops in a different town✔
17. Confirm how many people will be here on Christmas day✔ 

11 out of 17 things ticked and I have asked Cs Dad (a blue shirt) and brother what they want for Christmas, but his brother hasn't a clue - no help. He is the only person left with a blank space beside his name in my Christmas book.
I've looked at what seeds we have but as we can't decide if/what we will be growing for sale (or not) in 2015  I've done nothing about ordering.
 So overall not too bad. Plus some things have been done that were not on the list like hiring a breaker to finish the old shed base, clearing the broken concrete away and moving some wood from the open fronted cart shed into the wood shed for cutting.

 As for the plan to keep spending well below November of last year, that's on track apart from the cat costing me a small fortune.
So far this month
Direct Debits for Council Tax, Water, Phone, Charity donation, Business and Campsite insurance =£227. Diesel £49, Birthday and Christmas Gifts £228,( from money saved all year for gift spending and some was clothes for C) Huge sack of Peanuts for birds ( will last all winter) £25. Smallholding £55, Chicken Feed £61, Printer paper £3, Bathroom stuff £6, Stamps £6, Laundry Liquid ( years supply online bulk buy) £32, Me ( secondhand books and yarn) £6, Food inc. some for Xmas £117. And the Very Expensive Cat £121 ( 2 months of food as on offer)
Total of £933.
In the second half of the month I will be sorting out some more Christmas gifts and buying milk and a few bits of fresh stuff.

I was looking back at last years posts and found the one I did about how little do we need to live on.

This suddenly seems very apt as we try and decide what to do here (or somewhere else). We've been talking ourselves around in circles for the last few weeks and seem to have these options.

• Stay here and scale down on the strenuous work, live as simply as possible but perhaps forcing us to use savings to live on.
• Move somewhere in Suffolk that's much cheaper, leaving enough to also buy something to rent out for income.
• Have a complete change of scenery and move to another part of the country to somewhere a little cheaper and use savings to buy holiday flat/caravan in the same location to rent out for income.

• Get proper jobs. ( C says not an option!)

So that's half of the month gone, perhaps we will have more idea of what we are doing by the end of the month - but I doubt it

Back Tomorrow
Sue ☺

Checking finances

The first half of the year has gone so it's a good time to look back and check that all is well on the financial front.

I keep good records of all money in and out each month. When you are self employed it's necessary to know for things relating to the business but my records include what more or less every penny of the housekeeping etc has been spent on.I round up or down to keep things simple.
I can look back for several years and see how spending has varied.

When C stopped working full time for the County Council in March 2012 we had to increase chicken numbers and the amount of things we sell, as well as him doing odd jobs for people, to replace lost income. If we did nothing our income would be nothing! except for a bit of interest from investments made with money left to me by my step dad in 2009 which  covers some of our direct debits. We have also cut spending since 2012 without noticeably changing our lifestyle except for going  without holidays.

Looking back at the first 6 months of this year I can see that total income is down by £1,500 on the first 6 months of last year. C only did a few days work for the council this year before they ran out of money. 
Luckily spending is down by about £3,300 overall in comparison with the first 6 months of last year. The new mens toilets on the campsite didn't cost as much as doing the shower and ladies toilets last spring and there has also been less spending on smallholding machinery etc.
 Food spending is slightly down on the first half of last year.
 One thing that's gone down a lot is spending on diesel etc for the jeep and last year we had some repairs done. With  C now working only at our neighbours or other places locally and we are  trying harder to combine several errands in one trip out, I can now save less per month for the jeep part of OUR BUDGET.
 Spending on the chickens is up as we have 40 more than this time in 2013 but of course there is now more income from them.
 I have cut my personal spending by a good amount, perhaps feeling more settled and better control of the spells of depression  has helped with this.
Electric is up - prices increased in January.
Spending on the garden is up on last year.
Spending is much the same as last year for postage,clothes/shoes,health,gifts,household,
Spending on things in the bathroom is down by £40 over last year - very odd!
We have saved a little money most months so that total savings have increased by over £2,000 since the end of last year.

Overall things seem to be OK ( something will breakdown now I've said that!)

One interesting thing I discovered when looking at old diaries for Saturdays post was that I'm spending the same on food as I was 5 years ago. Now I know that food prices have increased in this period by between 12% and 15% ( I thought even more than that) which means in effect I have cut spending on food by that amount.


On a similar financial subject, do you look at your bank statement? We are old fashioned and don't use internet banking so  we have a paper statement in the post  each month.
 I check it when it arrives to make sure everything is the same as what I think it should be and there are no odd deductions. ( The chance of finding an odd addition? - none!)

I've heard that some people go on paying for things by direct debit - phone contracts or insurances for instance - that they no longer need. Imagine that - so much money that they don't notice £20 or £30 disappearing every month.

So onward into the second half of 2014. We shall keep spending as low as possible and try to increase savings in case we have any unexpected expenses.

I shall be back tomorrow with my review of the month .
Sue
PS Welcome to new followers on Bloglovin' and to Alison and Pennywise who have appeared in the little pictures on the right. Thank you for clicking the button and I hope you enjoy reading about the Simple Suffolk Life.

A Quiet Wednesday

I've just been reading all the new posts on favourite blogs  and Frugal Queen has one about vehicle Breakdown Cover which made me realise that I had forgotten to put this in the budget calculation post (here) . We have RAC basic cover so need to add about £75 a year to the Jeep part of the budget and the form for renewing the tax has arrived and that's gone up £10. Sometimes I think it would be cheaper to live in a town on a bus route and not far from the railway station so that we could do without a car.

Just a quiet sort of day here today.
 Him Outside went to Leiston this morning for lots of errands,including getting some battens for finishing the new stall that we sell from at the gate.
I've been doing a bit of cooking and some more cleaning and actually got outside to cut back some of the perennials in the front garden. There are plenty of weeds that need hoeing out but it's just too wet at the moment.

This afternoon the man who had most of our hay last summer came round to collect some more from our hay shed. He was supposed to be paying for it bit by bit but we've seen no money from him since September. He's now promised to settle up for all he's had on Friday of next week, we know he will pay up eventually - he won't get next years hay if he doesn't and he could lose his free pony grazing at our neighbours!
I've persuaded Him Outside to hang onto 50 bales just in case I can keep goats again. I kept milking goats for 18 years and even though it's 3 years since they went I still miss them. Every now and again I get really "broody" for having  goats back on the smallholding.

Many Thanks for comments yesterday and a special Thank You To Gina at Fan My Flame blog. I entered a Giveaway on her blog and received the lovely notebook this morning. Gina is a Textile Designer See her info here  who specializes in Machine embroidery and from her website I see she runs classes in her area. It must be brilliant to be able to conjure up ideas and designs, my mind doesn't seem to work like that which is why I'm only able to do cross stitch where I have a chart to follow! Our eldest is a Textile Designer too although she works mainly on computer design for the company Phase Eight. No idea where she got her talent from ? Not me or her Dad!

Planning the budget for 2014

Two Days to go, so time I got this post finished. We are ready...............

How do we know how much money we will need to live on next year?
How do we know what our income will be next year?

The answer to the first question is found by looking at how much was spent on everything this year and then adding a bit for inflation.

The answer to the second question is that we have no idea. We cannot rely on good weather bringing lots of people to the campsite nor can we rely on good crops from the garden. We will be buying new point-of-lay hens next spring so should have good egg sales through the summer, we have a bit of income from bonds using money that was left to me by my Dad but other than that it's in the lap of the Gods.

So it's a good thing that we were able to save some money into the ISAs during this summer.

A while back I did a blog about everything we need to save for so that we can live comfortably. Looking ahead to 2014 these are my rough estimates of what we will need.

1. Council Tax. Because  we have lived here for 21 years our Council Tax is based on the tax bands when they were first set in  1991. I believe tax bands are re-calculated when houses are sold. We are also in a very rural area, so our Council Tax is a lot less than that paid in towns. We pay by direct debit over 10 months.  I'm not expecting the cost to go up very much as County, District and Parish councils have pledged to keep costs down.

2. Water Bill. We have a meter for the Campsite and farm buildings. The house is not metered. We have no mains sewer here, so septic tank drainage. The water bill for the house is direct debit over 12 months and is also based on the 1991 Council tax band. We pay the metered bill twice a year, this varies - the more campers we get the higher the bill. But the more campers the bigger the income anyway.The usage for farm/garden is low as we have huge rainfall collection tanks ( 8000 litres total!) on the farm buildings  and move the water around to water tanks in the garden.

3. Electric Bill. This varies a lot, again depending on how many campers come to the site. We pay quarterly for both. Eon have just announced a 3% price rise in January and have taken away the prompt payment discount. We have checked comparison web sites but because of the variations it's difficult to work out. I wonder if being able to change companies is necessarily a good thing. Does it increase  costs for the companies? Don't they all put their prices up anyway? We may try direct debit again now that they have to pay it back  when you get into credit. At the moment we save up each month, By saving the money into our account means we get the little bit of interest on it.

4. TV Licence. I budget £15 a month, for 10 months. This allows for price increase.

Total needed for those 4 things is approx £290 per month ( less for 2 months with no council tax)

The Campsite and smallholding businesses

1. Public Liability and Business insurance. We have to send a copy of this to The Camping and Caravanning Club. Without it we would be unable to run the site. We also need it because of selling eggs etc.  This seems to go up by a few pounds every year. Direct Debit £51 a month for 12 months at the moment.

2. Campsite electric inspection and test. Every year we have to have an electric test on the hook-ups and a certificate to say it's been done. A copy of this goes to the Camping and Caravanning Club. Without this we wouldn't be able to operate the campsite. It's around £75 each year.

3. Chicken feed. Range Layers pellets direct from the Mill. £8.65 a sack at the moment. We go and collect it and fetch 12 or 14 bags at a time. With the number of hens we have this lasts a month. We also need to buy grit and oyster shell. Even though they are free range they need these as our soil is heavy clay.

4. Buying new point-of -lay  hens. To keep a steady egg supply for our customers, we replace the very old hens with new young hens each year. About 60 each year at £6.50 each.

5.Egg Boxes, Egg wash and cleaning cloths. We use plain grey boxes as they are the cheapest  and we buy them in big packs of 300 collecting 1500 once a year direct from a farm supplier. I use a sanitizing egg wash for cleaning muddy eggs and a clean cloth ( J cloth type) every day which then goes in the wash.

6. Diesel for the tractor. We are allowed to use Red diesel for the tractor BUT nowhere locally sells it. We could have 1000 Litres delivered! except a tank costs a fortune and that amount would last us for ever. So we get a can full whenever possible from Morrisons in Ipswich as they are the only garage that we know of that sells it.

7.Petrol for the mower and chainsaw. Neither uses a huge amount. We need both, one for cutting the campsite and the other for cutting our free heating wood.

8.Campsite requisites. That's Loo rolls, paper towels, cleaning stuff. I usually buy these out of the housekeeping except for the paper towels which I stock up on when Viking mail order office supplies have a sale.

9. Multi purpose and seed compost plus Seeds and plants for vegetables. I always check through several seed companies catalogues comparing prices. The total is usually around £140 each year. We sell probably 70 - 80% of what we grow so easily get our money back and earn a good income from June through to October.

10. Smallholding repairs and maintenance. There are always expenses when you own land and want to earn an income from it .Machinery repairs and replacements and maintenance and even small things like sticky labels for selling things at the gate, the list is endless.We also pay a rent for two hayfields but as we sell all the hay from these that covers the cost and makes an income for us.

Approx £440 a month needed  for the above

 The jeep

1. Diesel for the jeep. We try not to waste journeys and  do lots of  errands  when we are out. Luckily for most of our daily requirements we only need a 5 mile round trip. I cycle whenever I can. Our nearest petrol station is the local one in Leiston, who have now started giving Tesco Club Card points. They are often no more expensive than the supermarket filling stations and the nearest one of those is  over 20 miles away.

2. Jeep Insurance. This is the almost the cheapest bit of running our gas-guzzling 4WD that we couldn't do without on the smallholding. As we are over 50 we get it via Saga and they will match any quote we can find elsewhere.

3.Jeep MOT. Him Outside is able to do most of the servicing so checks the jeep out before taking it to the garage.

4. Jeep Tax = Too Much but unavoidable! £270 last year.

5.Bits for servicing, tires, oil  etc

Approx £200 a month in total

The things we need for everyday life

1.All  Food and drink ( including Christmas)
2. Clothes and shoes
3 Personal Hygiene (  Loo rolls,- Toothpaste,soap, shampoo etc etc)
4.Cleaning and Laundry
5.Pre-payment prescription cards, opticians and dentist.
6. Phone and computer.
7.Bottled gas for the hob  and coal to keep the Rayburn alight overnight          
8. Birthday and Christmas gifts for family and friends
9. House and contents insurance
10. Smaller Things for the house
11. Postage

Approx £550 per month for all above


We have money in savings for replacing household appliances, the expected expenses like pumping out the septic tank and the unexpected. These need to be added to regularly as there are always unexpected expenses!

So we will save whatever we can in the good months of summer


Then we want to have some money for the things that make life interesting
Books
Christmas treats
Days out
Craft materials
Feeding the birds

Whatever we can spare from not spending so much in any of the above categories.


Goodness me, all that lot added together totals too much! Can we earn more than £1480 a month averaged out over the year?

Hopefully we can.

Our income comes from several sources.

The campsite between April and October.
Egg sales every day
Monthly income from investment bond
Sale of hay after haymaking and throughout year
Sale of fruit, vegetables and a few flowers mainly from June until November
Income from Him Outsides odd jobs. Varying from half a day to two days a week through most  of the year.
Income from His County Council job.Previously this was 2 days a month. Since December it is 2 or 3 days a week until Mid January. Possibly continuing until April.( There may be some work after April, but unlikely as Council funding is being cut again in the new tax year.)
Any smallholding items he can buy at farm sales to repair/clean up and re-sell for a profit via the Smallholders Society.
Occasional income - Election duty ( not sure if there are any elections in 2014?)
Car boot sale?

So that's our budget for 2014. If things go as planned we will be OK, if not we will use some of the savings

No mortgage, No Debt and savings - Makes for a simple, self sufficient and Happy New Year!

How we budget on the Simple Suffolk Smallholding.

This is the post that escaped onto the blog before it was finished. Apologies to anyone who read it, commented and then found it gone. Now it is finally finished and allowed out!

This is NOT a HOW TO DO IT budget, it is how WE budget.

 It is the way we do things now that we are both self employed, have paid off the mortgage, have no debts and only ourselves to worry about.
When Him Outside had a salary and when we had a mortgage and  3 children at home we did things differently.
Everybody is different! 

Budgeting is easy. All you have to do is spend less than you earn!

 Some people do, perhaps in the minority nowadays. The others end up juggling credit cards or living with  debt.

But what about when you can't be sure what you will earn each month . It means you have to be even more canny with your money when you have a good month.
Our theory is that each month we have to earn enough to cover the next months expenditure. In a good month( usually in summer) money can be saved to use in the bad months of winter.

Everything  is divided by 12 to work out how much we need each month, some are set up as monthly direct debits.

The items marked * are the things that can be reduced, checked, altered so that we don't have to go without all the things in the last list.

The first part of the  budget is to have enough for the things that are most important, things that involve bailiffs or fines or being cut off if you don't pay them.
These are

• Council Tax 
• Water Bill
• Electricity Bill*
• TV License

( Until we paid off the mortgage it would have been top of this list)

Then there are things that we are required to have to be able to do things legally

• Public Liability and Business Insurance for campsite and smallholding
• Jeep Insurance*
• Jeep MOT 
• Jeep Tax
• Campsite  electric test and inspection

The things we need to pay for to be able to earn an income

• Chicken Feed
• Buying new Point of lay hens
• Buying egg boxes
• Phone and computer*
• Diesel for the jeep*
• Diesel for the tractor
• Petrol for the mower and chainsaw
• Campsite requisites*
• Seeds for growing vegetables*
• Replacing smallholding equipment *
• Rent for the hay fields

Things we need for a normal everyday life

• Food and drink*
• Clothes and shoes*
• Personal Hygiene etc *
• Cleaning and Laundry *
• Pre-payment prescription cards 
• Saving for dentist and opticians

• Bottled gas for the hob* 
• Coal to keep the Rayburn in overnight*
• Birthday and Christmas gifts for family*

 Things that could be gone without but we choose not to

• House and contents insurance

If there is enough for all the above then we put into savings

• Money for the winter months
• Money for occasional expenses like septic tank pump out.
• Money to cover replacement household appliances etc
• Savings for the unexpected

And finally the  things that make life enjoyable but which could be managed without  if things get tough. This last list is, in a way, the most important. Because we want to be able to do these things, we look for ways to keep all the other amounts that need spending down to a minimum

• Things for the garden but not for growing food
• Bird feeding
• Craft materials and hobbies
• Days out and holidays and Christmas treats
• Books 
• Charity donations

This is what we save on to afford that last list

Council Tax is fixed and paid by direct debit.

Water for the house is fixed based on old rates so not too expensive and paid by direct debit.. We have no sewer charges. ( septic tank drainage)
Water for smallholding and campsite are metered and we get 2 bills a year. We catch as much rainwater as we can for garden but we can't restrict what the campers use. So part of the campsite pitch fees must cover water.
Electric. With the Hook-ups and shower on the campsite plus normal household electric, this is a big bill twice a year but we can keep it lower when the campsite is closed by doing all the usual stuff like turning things off  etc. So a smaller bill in the other 2 quarters. We also installed solar thermal for heating water to stop us needing the immersion in summer when the Rayburn is not lit. Part of the campsite pitch fees must cover electric.
TV licence is fixed so needs saving for each month.


Public Liability and Business Insurance We have to have this for the campsite and smallholding. Not many companies do it for our small scale so we use the NFU. We do this by monthly Direct Debit.
Jeep. I've mentioned before about this blinkin' expensive annoying thing. At the moment we are stuck with it so it has to be budgeted for. We shop around for insurance, it's cheap now we are old!
Campsite Electrical Test and Inspection. This is a once a year check and we can't run the campsite without the certificate.

Chicken feed, buying new Point of lay hens and egg boxes. Egg sales are one of our best sources of income so the price that we sell eggs for has to cover all these things and make a profit. We do get some egg boxes returned but some are too yucky to use again. so we bulk buy egg boxes.
Phone and Computer Some campsite bookings come via email and many bargains found on internet. We try to keep phone costs down by using email. We just have cheap pay as you go mobiles.
Diesel and Petrol. Money needs saving for fuel for jeep, ( we try to do several errands at the same time when we are out, to save diesel) for the mower to keep campsite cut and for the  chainsaw that provides our winter fuel.
Campsite requisites are things like toilet roll, paper towels, cleaning stuff. I bulk buy paper towels from Viking when they are on offer.
Seeds and plants for vegetables I save money on seeds by checking prices and number  of seeds  in packets from catalogues and searching out any special offers. We grow things we like and things that sell easily.
Replacing smallholding equipment Him Outside goes to farm sales and looks on ebay for things we need for the smallholding, he repairs and rebuilds whenever he can.
Rent for the hayfields doesn't have to be paid until after we have sold some hay.


Food and Drink We hardly ever eat out and only have an occasional take-away. I bake and make from scratch most of the time, but we don't go without things we like.
Clothes and shoes I avoid going anywhere that requires good clothes! Lots of things come from charity shops. Shoe spending is high for me because of foot problems.
Personal Stuff. We cut each others hair, use cheap soap etc. I don't bother with makeup.
Cleaning and Laundry I use Ecover liquids in very small amounts for washing machine ( with soda crystals added) and washing up. Vinegar, washing up liquid and bicarb  for most cleaning. Old tea towels  etc for cleaning cloths and dusters. Open windows for fresh air, line dry washing or over the Rayburn. Our VERY hard water here means that some cleaning needs something stronger like Harpic for the loo.
Health we use a prepayment prescription card to save money and save up for dentist and optician visits.
Bottled gas for the hob and coal We found a cheaper place to get the gas and only use coal when the weather is very cold to keep the Rayburn in overnight. Other heating is by wood, almost always free.
Christmas and birthday gifts. I save all year for birthday and Christmas presents for our children and their partners. We've stopped doing birthday gifts for other family members. Christmas presents for extended family are bought all year around when I see things that might be good. I try really hard to think of things people will find useful, I hate to waste money on useless stuff. I make chutneys to give as gifts.
House Insurance . I wouldn't want to be without this.

Savings. Life is much easier with some money saved. Savings earn interest which is even better.
As we never know what will happen next month, let alone next year we rely on these savings for the
expected bills and the unexpected.

By being frugal on some things we can afford to feed the birds, buy an occasional magazine or a cheap book from  Amazon, have some special food at Christmas, buy some craft things for card making, buy a shrub or tree for the garden, have a holiday every other year, have afternoons doing nothing in the summer, have trips out to visit car boot sales, do a tour of charity shops in a different town or to visit charity book sales. And to make a couple of small regular charity donations.

Our way of life would be much too boring for many people but it suits us.