Squirrel's Smiley, Smart and Solvent Diary

redsquirrel80

Just posted this in running thread but it's diary-worthy too I think..

Was waiting to hear about a charity place in VLM but not felt entirely comfortable with the whole system or confident in my ability to raise £2000, so have emailed them this morning to withdraw my application. Doing the Kilomathon for the same charity and going to enter the Sheffield Half as well and do those two as my fundraising thing for next year with considerably less stress than aiming for that amount!

Still would like to aim for a marathon eventually, maybe later next year.

Karmacat

googled vlm - all I get is Finnish Airlines and a computer code about streaming on demand......... what is it, Squizz?

redsquirrel80

Oops.. Virgin London Marathon.

redsquirrel80

Hello all. Not a lot to report today except for the early morning arrival of the hamper food and ooh it looks good! Very glad I got it half price though, it's very nice stuff but I'd have been reluctant to spend £100 on it! They did send me a few free samples of their fresh produce though so am about to tuck into some organic tomatoes etc with lunch... they smell incredibly tomatoey! It all came in a big box that I'm going to cover in paper to pack it all in I think, just want to pick up some good wine and a few other bits over the coming weeks (maybe make a few too, chutney etc) and I think it's going to look pretty impressive, fingers crossed!

Karmacat

Excellent! And thats the thing about using reductions to buy presents - you spend your budget, and cos you're getting it cheap, it goes further, and you buy type/quality you wouldn't normally buy. Enjoy the tomatoes!

beanielou

Sounds just fab red

redsquirrel80

I'm particularly liking the 5L can of olive oil You're right Karma, and it means I can get more than I would have done at full price. Picked up another few bits in shop yesterday, including mustard with basil, some posh sugar (:rotfl:) and nice chocolates.. think I just want to get coffee, tea, pasta, arborio rice and a bottle of wine.. maybe some more chocolate! Found a jar of apple chutney that I made last year so may pop that in.

Oh and the tomatoes were very nice!

Just got phone bill and it's a bit more than I was expecting (again) Need to do a few sums...

redsquirrel80

Bank account balance: £790.51
Still to come out
Rent: £500
Phone: £62.08

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Balance: £228.43

Maybe TV license to come off too - not quite sure what is going on with that at the mo, they don't seem to have taken D/D - seriously considering getting rid of it anyway as it's barely worth paying for a couple of hours a week. Just had a look at the TV Licensing site

What if I only use a TV to watch videos/DVDs/as a monitor for my games console? Do I still need a licence?

You do not need a TV Licence if you only use your TV to watch videos and DVDs or as a monitor for your games console.
You can tell us that you do not need a TV Licence by using our online declaration form. One of our Enforcement Officers may visit you to confirm that you do not need a licence.

How do they check though, I suppose if you don't have an aerial/ freeview box plugged in?

Karmacat

They check on whether you can receive pictures from a satellite or an aerial. Their sensor vans have pickups for the radiation that tvs give off. Unless they can get access to your ISP provider, I don't know how they can tell if you watch online, but for all I know they track that stuff. I'd be *really* careful about winging it.

Other utilities: my first phone bills from Virgin, after I got cable, have been absolutely horrendous, because I can't use a cheap access number any more, so I've now got their free evening package as well, which is fairly good value at £3.45 a month. But still, with BT I used to pay a fiver a month for all my calls, all of them. I hate Virgin! Whats your downfall with the phone calls?

redsquirrel80

Karmacat wrote: »

They check on whether you can receive pictures from a satellite or an aerial. Their sensor vans have pickups for the radiation that tvs give off. Unless they can get access to your ISP provider, I don't know how they can tell if you watch online, but for all I know they track that stuff. I'd be *really* careful about winging it.

Other utilities: my first phone bills from Virgin, after I got cable, have been absolutely horrendous, because I can't use a cheap access number any more, so I've now got their free evening package as well, which is fairly good value at £3.45 a month. But still, with BT I used to pay a fiver a month for all my calls, all of them. I hate Virgin! Whats your downfall with the phone calls?

Thanks for that - well I can't watch online anyway as my laptop is b*ggered. Obviously I have an aerial (I knew 'arial' was the wrong spelling yesterday, I've just edited my post :rotfl:) so maybe if I cut the end off it, then if they come round they'd be able to see that I can only use my DVD player? I'll have a think about it anyway - it just seems that for the couple of nights a week that I'm at home, it's a lot of money and I'd be just as well spending my time reading and watching the odd film.

With the phone it's a few long calls to friends and far too much texting, I think I just need to be stricter. Actually I've still got a PAYG sim and it might be cheaper when I reach my contract limit to put some money on that for the rest of the month...