Drowning, not waving :-(

chevalier

Sorry to hear the home working didn't work out also that you have been in such poor health. phew for the remortgage though. hope 2011 is better for you
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EssexHebridean

Just noticed how many ferry disruptions Calmac have today - 21 showing now! :eek: Guess you're suffering a bit with the weather - I see Oban/Castlebay/Lochb' are all cancelled (next Oban > Lochb' sailing on SUNDAY?!!! :-o ), but good old MV Hebrides is still plodding back and forth from Skye!

Although being ill is ugh, it's always nice when you can count losing a few lb's as a silver lining, isn't it! hanks for the warning about the potholes too - looking forward to those already - not!

hellnearth

Yea, schools closed at one and north ford causeway at 2 pm cos they're expecting tidal surges. Have had thunder and lightning and power is going on and off :-(
Yes was a pity about the catalogue call work, but it was quite a stressful job and I've had issues with my phoneline and/or equipment and haven't felt well enough to persist with it. But there are a few local jobs coming up so have applied for two this week.
Have had time to get back into more of a DFW routine too. At the moment I'm:
-getting back into surveys. Have had a few amazon vouchers and paypal payments. Best ones for me are Valued Opinions, Ipsos and the revamped Lightspeed
- got some cashback from Top Cashback. Have a tendency to forget to use it tho!

- meal planning in order to budget and use Coop discount vouchers when they are doing them
-picked up a few tips on the PAD threads so when I do my online banking, I round of
To the nearest 5 or 10 pounds and pay the small amounts to my personal and business credit cards. It's quite satisfying chipping away at the balances!

EssexHebridean

Glad they are actually closing the causeways when needed these days - I guess lessons were learnt after 2005.

Good luck on the job applications. On the subject of surveys, have you tried New Vista via TopCashback? Pay out 70p cashback per survey done, and I seem to get a reasonable number - in fact, I am also registered with the survey site in their own right but so far they've not sent me any! I'm going to try to see how many of those I can do in a month.

hellnearth

Yes I joined New Vista .... I think! Joined so many I've kinda lost track. Also joined Tesco Home Panels. So far have had two different night cream trials and one to compare two window cleaning chamois. fun! least successful ventures are bingo and competions, but I still dabble a bit if they're free.
I got my loft insulated through the Energy Saving Trust and qualify for new central heating. The surveyor recommended storage heaters but when they phoned to tell me a company would come to measure up it was for solid fuel. Had done a lot of asking around and oil is what was most recommended.
Met a woman today and, even with the grant, she would have to pay £5000 for oil heating!
Have heard a few horror stories about storage heaters but she says more recent ones are easier to control.
I'd just opened a PO online savings account to start saving for the first lot of oil!
In a bit of a quandary as what to go for now.

EssexHebridean

We have storage heaters H - our two bed flat currently has three in use - the ones in our bedroom and the front room are both pretty new, and the one in the hallway is substantially older. we find the running costs to be not too bad - useage in December was horrendous, but then I expected that considering the weather. I suspect that we would find it slightly more expensive to run central heating than to run the storage heaters we have. Remember also that with storage heaters you do get the benefit of being swapped to an Economy7 tariff, which means that you can reap the benefit of cheap overnight electric by using washing machine, TD etc on timeswitches. The downsides are lack of controllablity and the need to be a bit of a weathergirl on the side - if you get up in the morning and think "Brrr - it's freezing!" then you will have a 24 hour wait until you can do anything about that situation without using additional heat sources. Also to heat water overnight using the immersion is good value, but as and when you have to use the immersion during the day to give it a boost, it does rack up the cost a bit. Fine for us as it only ever goes on during the day if one of us wants a bath, and we're both more inclined to shower, than bath. (She says, remembering that it is on RIGHT NOW so she can have a bath later! :rotfl:)

hellnearth

Thanks EH. My friend yesterday was saying that you can get a mixture now of storage heaters and some sort of panels that can be switched on for instant heat which sounds good. Apparently there is a huge wait for the oil installation but electric is being done within a few weeks. She was also told for oil that she would have to move out of her house - with all her stuff - for three days while it's being installed!
I like my coal fire, but it's messy. At the moment I'm paying a DD of £60 per month for the electricity and in the winter we go through about 4 bags of coal per week, so that's another £120 a month. There's kindling too, but good friends of mine chop up pallets and stuff for that and are very generous I trade her for knitting wool when she needs it. It would probably be sensible to keep the coal fire or try to get a wood burning stove or Aga for when there's power cuts. Decisons, decisions!
Well, the last couple of days' storms must have knocked my Sky satellite dish off. The ITV channels were getting a bit disrupted in wind and heavy rain, so now ITV1 has gone altogether Never rains but it pours, specially here !!Have been swithering about switching from Sky to Freeview anyway. If the satellite repair/replacement is free and they offer me something like a Sky+ box, I might stay with them. I'm not great at haggling, but needs must.
had a nice long lie this morning after not sleeping too well the last couple of nights cos of the howling houlie :-) Have got DS uniform on to wash, tidied up the kitchen and made some scones. Plan to clean the fridge and get some other housework done today and pop over to friend's for a drink tonight.
DS has his friend over to stay tonight, a welcome break from studying for his prelims. We;re having a 3 for £10 chicken I had in the freezer for dinner, with roasties and stuffing. Yum!
Have a good DFW day, all

EssexHebridean

I'd say definitely keep the coal fire - even if you didn't light it every night on a really cold evening you can't beat the warmth from that. It will also be good for the house of course as it will send heat through the walls from the chimney. Add to that your relatively frequent power cuts and it's a no brainer. Can you subsidise the coal with wood from the beaches or even newspaper "logs" if you could lay your hands on one of the devices for making them? (If needing Newspaper and passing by Clachan on N.Uist, the paper recycling bin there often has bundles of newspaper in it as the stores there recycle the unsold ones as it's cheaper than sending them back! Handy having pals up there who have tipped us off to useful stuff like that!) Otherwise is there any way you could barter for a small supply of peat?

I wonder if, up there, storage heaters are seen as a better option for anyone who may come to buy your house in the future, due to the uncertainty of oil costs etc? If it were me I think I would go with the electricity option for sure - with the rapidly increasing cost of oil, the worry of being unable to fill the tank when the time came would simply be too great for me. Good luck with your decision making!

hellnearth

Yes I think I am leaning more toward the electric too as filling the tank is a concern. Must ask around for some peat. I love the smell and it burns slowly and well.
My to do.for today:
- strip the chicken carcass for chicken pie and boil for stock
- meal plan for next week
- ironing
- there's a skip at the end of the village so take opportunity to get rid of some clutter from house and garden
- email mileage claim
- order printer ink. £15 Amazon cert from Toluna processed which helps
- check for vouchers and order hoodie for school and jeans for DS
- fill in application for job at Cothrom
- write to Opal cancelling phone line

hellnearth

Nice DFW start to the day with a £10 Amazon voucher from Valued Opinions redeemed to my account :j
Got my job application in to Cothrom yesterday and also applied for another at the hospital as a trainee Healthcare Assistant.
Need to do a biggish shop today so am going to go to Neelie's in Balivanich as an experiment. The heating friend also told me that she is now boycotting the Coop as there prices are so much higher and that Neelie's is more or less on a par with the mainland.
She has now found a company - Uist Express - who will accept and deliver orders from Tesco online and says, even with the delivery charge, she is saving over £50 a month. Something to look in to.
Got lost of bits and pieces to do to day and a catch up on the housework as I didn't get that much done at the weekend cos my stomach was playing up. Roll on the hospital appointment - I hate 'em but I just want to find out now what's wrong and get it sorted.
Right, have a few Toluna surveys, so off to do them.
Have a good day folks