The 9 year plan...hold onto your hats and here we go!

EssexHebridean

Tried the showergel this morning - far thicker than shower gels normally are, in fact felt more like cleansing cream for the body. Lathered a bit but not as much as normal either. All in all quite impressed though.

Today has been mostly about eBay - managed to get 24 things listed - most of which are only pretty small but 23 of them will contribute any proceeds towards the challenge fund. The other is my camera flashgun which is being replaced imminently and so needs selling to fund the purchase. Those proceeds will NOT be heading to the challenge account!

We had the final lamb leg from our whole lamb bought earlier in the year for lunch and it was delicious - there are still some other bits of it remaining but that was the last joint. I reckon I'll get at least another two, probably three meals for the pair of us from the leftovers too so my meal plan needs rejigging a bit!

Discovered earlier on that the Cowboy Contractors have decided to saw off one of upstairs drainpipes - meaning that when they use their bath it drains out all down our wall. Nice. I can sense a compensation claim forthcoming on that one. The poor neighbours were really embarassed because they've had an ongoing problem with their overflow leading to water splashing down - they understandably felt that we would feel it was their fault but MrEH could clearly see when they pointed it out where the pipe has been sawn through! :mad:

Just off to make savoury muffins to have for tea and will then be back for a catch-up.

yukkibear

Well done with Ebay. I failed miserably this weekend with that, but I don't think I have anything particularly high value to chuck on at the mo, so not too worried.

EssexHebridean

Final two items listed - the Harry Potter DVD (Feel safe listing it now I've had the despatch email) and the Take That CD. Hopefully both will sell although if the Harry Potter one doesn't I'll send it back to Tesco for a refund I think. Also made a batch of mango chutney tonight with the mangoes MrEH got from the market on Thursday - ten mangos and two big carrier bags full of limes for £4...some of the limes will make it into the in-laws christmas hamper, and the rest will be made into lime cordial, lime pickle etc.....!
One of my CD's on eBay already has a bid which I'm pleased about, and my camera flashgun has FIVE watchers already!

Right - bed time for me. Nighty night everyone!

EssexHebridean

Sold one of the CD's on eBay on a buy it now - £9! :eek::eek::j TBH I just chanced my arm and stuck it on at the same price that another had sold for previously, along with a £4.50 auction starting price....was gobsmacked when I saw it had sold! Now got 14 :eek: watchers on the flashgun, and bids on several more silly (and deeply straightforward to post hence ideal to sell!) items too, including one thing which I honestly thought was just rubbish and nobody in their right mind would want!

British Gas took the electric DD out in spite of printing on the bill that the next payment would be January....so have made a formal complaint and told them I will be enforcing the direct debit guarantee which should = compensation. Have also requested £100 refund off the now massively in credit account so that'll come in handy.

Better go - meant to be wrapping christmas pressies! :rolleyes:

boredofbeingathome

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Sold one of the CD's on eBay on a buy it now - £9! :eek::eek::j TBH I just chanced my arm and stuck it on at the same price that another had sold for previously, along with a £4.50 auction starting price....was gobsmacked when I saw it had sold! Now got 14 :eek: watchers on the flashgun, and bids on several more silly (and deeply straightforward to post hence ideal to sell!) items too, including one thing which I honestly thought was just rubbish and nobody in their right mind would want!

British Gas took the electric DD out in spite of printing on the bill that the next payment would be January....so have made a formal complaint and told them I will be enforcing the direct debit guarantee which should = compensation. Have also requested £100 refund off the now massively in credit account so that'll come in handy.

Better go - meant to be wrapping christmas pressies! :rolleyes:

Well done on the sale:D

I do love a good stick it to British Gas story...:D They are pains. I remember when i cancelled and they delayed the transfer, i had stopped the DD and because of this they charged me alsorts of rates for the bill- absolute nightmare. I got my money back eventually but i was skint for two months because of it.:mad:

EssexHebridean

We had nightmares with them when we first had our LBM last year and I started getting my (our! :rolleyes:) act together - we were owed about £250 in credit but it took ages to make them send it. I seem to have them fairly well trained now though - last time they wanted to increase the DD I rang them about it and came away with it lower than when they started.....I'm sure I could hear the man on the end of the phone scratching his head as he tried to work out how his conversation had gone quite so wrong...!

I really do need to be wrapping some presents......:o

mineallmine

Morning,

Ref direct debit - it's called the direct debit mandate scheme and if any "debit" is in dispute then the retailer/supplier cannot take any monies. Will see if I can find any info to quote. Sounds EH like you know your stuff here. Just think if this was happening to a more vulnerable or elderly person, makes me sick!

Ate out yesterday. Extremely long day at work and very disorganised at moment. The good thing is that the meal was a lot cheaper at a local pub than was expecting, as they have a special xmas menu on at the moment.

I must get organised with xmas pressies. None are wrapped! No tree is prepared. Yikes! Only a few more things to buy though. Also am totally avoiding buying gift cards (even before the mention of this in this week's email) as was stung last year when Zavvi suddenly went into trouble.

What's the plan today EH?

EssexHebridean

The bit of the DD mandate thingy that is of particular interest is the bit where the retailer / supplier undertakes to give notice of intention to take money - British Gas did, they told us our next payment would be in January but actually took it in December instead. I intend to get my moneys worth out of this, more so because there is no sign of the refund being processed yet either.

I have made a start on the present wrapping tonight and may do a few cards in a moment too. Found a whole load of paper, tags etc in the drawer under the bed so I'll add those to the lot we bought this year obviously! :rolleyes: Handily though also found a Mum & Dad card that I obviously bought last year and didn't use....as I've already bought one this year for my folks that will do for Mum & Dad-in-law instead so that's handy! That frees up the two home-made ones which are lovely and tactile for OH's Gran and my Great Aunt, neither of whom have the best eyesight.

The roast lamb from Sunday has also now done a shepherds pie last night and a curry tonight - it will do another meal yet too as I've frozen some slices for use for a future sunday lunch. There is a little bit of curry left for tomorrow evening for one of us - need to come up with something for the other one yet though. Possibly a stir fry.

I'm waiting for one more withdrawal to come back to my account from BB but have transferred the last £5 to the challenge account and put the £20 deposit money back into the savings account I temporarily liberated it from. Shopping list for this week will once again be limited to milk and a bit of fruit, although we may well be naughty and get a pizza on Friday night using the Pizza Hut 50% off offer assuming that applies for Friday nights. It's fine though, Martin said in his email it's a good deal! :money:

taxi73

Well done on the sales.Christmas sounds like its well and truly coming together.You'll be relaxed when it arrives..lol

Lemon_Tree

the other thing of interest on the guarentee is the full and IMMEDIATE return of the money. When i've had to invoke the guarentee i've been told the money won't be back for 48+ hours and i've said 'i don't think so!' the guarentee says immediate therefore it should be the day the money was taken out or NOW at the very least.
Have fun, i love doing such things with my bank and the utility companies, or basically any company (took my CC 6 mths to sort out the mess last time even with me telling them they'd made a mistake which helped me stay out of my overdraft during the whole process). I know .... i'm very sad!