Fire Fox's Debt-Free in 2009 Diary

claire0788

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Forgot to say yesterday that I received the promised explanation from Yorkshire Water of why they debited £480 from my bank account last week. Sadly the letter contained no such explanation, simply informing me that my last reading "looks to be extremely high" and that they have requested payment for £19,518.33 :eek: on 28th September 2008 (sic). They further inform me that they are "unable to cancel this transaction in time" and suggest I stop the payment with my bank.

:rotfl: I don't think it's me who has been reading the meter incorrectly ....

That is so daft ! How can they possibly think that you spent that much on water use !? Get your pen and paper out for writing your letter off complaint and oh no you have had sleepless nights worrying and the upset their mistakes have had... =P

Fire_Fox

Intergalactic_Floozie wrote: »

banana bread, banana bread, banana bread!!!!!

I usually do make banana bread, but Mr. Fire Fox hasn't been hungry at all the last few weeks so I haven't bothered. Plus ten bananas is an awful lotta loaves ... I probably should as the oven will have to be on for the cottage pie. Just looked and there are recipes for banana and carrot muffins on the net, could kill two birds with one stone thanks Floozie! :cool:

Fire_Fox

I've never made a cottage pie before, but planning on using:
One pack reduced beef mince
Same again of Value veg (carrot, onion, mushrooms)
Red lentils cos I got away with it last time
Beef stock cube
[strike] Lemon thyme[/strike] just too far gone!
Worcestershire sauce
Tomato puree
Half a glass red wine

And for the mash:
Value potatoes
Sweet potato
Horseradish
Vegetable stock powder.

No garlic or tinned tomatoes as I want it to be more of a stew than a bolognese sauce. Does that sound ok?

Taylo_2

I'm a bloke, so technically I have no idea, but it sounds pretty good to me.

Fire_Fox

Well ... the two parts of the cottage pie are made which was a proper two and a half hour mission (no I don't know how I managed to drag it out that long either!). Went s**t or bust and added three small red onions, two carrots AND a third of a large pack of mushrooms to the mince. Boiled the lentils in beef stock to help disguise them so needed a second stock cube to flavour the meat and mountain of veg.

Completed a £1 YouGov survey, a 25p Valued Opinions survey and most of the washing up in between stirring so now sat with a glass of wine. Chuffed I have earned £7 in surveys this week and it's only Wednesday! :beer: Have also chased up the survey from June that did not track properly. Can't believe that, after seven months, all those points and pence add up to £110 tracked survey money, of which £65 has found its way to my sticky mitt!

Fire_Fox

Postie this morning left a card for a recorded delivery letter - which I suspect is to do with the disputed service charges - and another letter from Yorkshire Water. YW have apologised for the last letter, confirmed in writing that they are re-crediting my account with £460. They go on to say that they are crediting a further £40 for any inconvenience and bank charges, leaving us £20 up! :j No explanation of the £19K bill, so I suppose we shall find out in September ...

It's totally worth complaining: in 2007 and 2008 we got £50 off a Next bed as the headboard was back to front, £150 off an IKEA wardrobe after multiple botched deliveries, a free coffee table from Dwell which arrived damaged, and a free Tefal slow/ rice cooker after Amazon botched refunds. :rotfl:

kirstenc

I have never complained about anything tbh, but now that email is on the up and up, I might do that now. Although I have never really had cause to, all my home delivery stuff has gone very well!

Fire_Fox

Been TV shopping this afternoon, never seen such pointless sales staff. In Currys they seemed clueless when I asked about wireless networking. And Comet managed to let us walk out of the store not one but twice! :eek: The first time the staff were chatting amongst themselves, the second time we had to go chasing around to find someone to let us listen to the television. A very negative response, and so slow that we left!

So we came home and selected a Samsung LED slimline model for £720 from Laskys. Tried to order through Topcashback for an extra 4.5% (£32) off but the site hangs when I go to pay!! :mad:

Have completed yet another IPSOS survey for 125 points: definitely on a roll this week!

Fire_Fox

Screened out of three surveys today, but at least I earned 10 points from GTM which takes me 30p closer to a payout! :T Phone call from Mr. Fire Fox's credit card provider to check that the attempted transaction last night was genuine; apparently we should be able to complete the transaction later today. However we have missed the free delivery for the day we selected. :mad:

The recorded delivery letter is from Staples claiming they have written to me twice before. :rolleyes: They have completely ignored the fact that I have said I can't be without my computer and insist I pay for a report on the faults!! Popped in to see an old acquaintance who runs a net cafe and sells/ repairs computers who is going to sort it out for me.

Fire_Fox

Have applied for three freebies in the last couple of days - energy saving products from British Gas for people on benefits (I don't pay council tax as a student), a massive sample of Bisto bouillon paste for people in catering (Mr. Fire Fox is a chef) AND a Firefox add-on that tells you about cashback every time you visit a website. Just discovered there is cashback for MySupermarket!!

Checked the Laskys website and we have ordered TWO televisions. :eek: Laskys won't speak to me as it's not my account, and Mr. Fire Fox is at work ... so I have e-mailed them from the website as I have the password! Clearly the credit card provider did not convey to Mr. FF that the order was queried as we'd spent £1440 and not £720. Oops.

Finally inspired to attack the oven after the OS board recommended to clean a baked-on Pyrex dish with oven cleaner :cool: so looks like battered fish is not on the menu for tonight! Considering a Spanish omelette as we have eaten a lot of meat in the last few days, and eggs are very MSE ...