greent's mfw journey

Tahlullah.H

All those small sales do add up, and although time consuming, worth it.  I think the charity shops will be over-run when they open because everyone has been doing the same thing.  Lets hope they have enough storage space!

greent

I think they will be massively overwhelmed with donations - our local one often is anyway! Plus if you factor in the possibility they won't touch any donations for 72 hours that will further reduce space. Still, the things are doing no harm in my garage, so they can wait until an appropriate time  

Bonus bit of money arriving later this month - totally unexpected - school 2 emailed today to say I'd be getting a goodwill gesture payment for what I would possibly have worked as cover supervisor in Summer term - it's  <£500 gross, but the reality is (as they know) I was unlikely to work much in Summer term, due to invigilating at school 1 for much of it, so it's possibly a tad more than I may have got if we were without c0vid. Undecided whether to OP it to BTL or add to Florida funds for when we can eventually go.... I guess I could 50/50 it

Have some spends planned for this month - new f1tb1t (mine has broken and is waaaay out of warranty and I really miss it), new dishwasher (been broken since Nov.... miss that, too - just can't find one that is *exactly* what I want), new laptop for DS2 (his is truly rubbish and I'd prefer he has a better one for Y10 onwards - no major rush to get something not right, though). Still also trying to find someone to repair kitchen ceiling/ get  the electrician to fit new lights (he has new baby due any time now but I can't get him in until we have plasterer sorted) and finally to pay for the replacement cupboard door for the wm housing (we received the money for that from wm installation co, as they irrepairably damaged the door back in Dec - but we had to have new door custom made and then c0vid happened...) Laptop is the least priority in that (although DS2 may disagree! ) 

greent

So after spending maybe 10 hours or more researching dishwashers this week (and an awful lot of time prior to this week), I've finally ordered one - and it's being delivered/ installed next Friday - super excited!!! (really miss the jumping emoji right now!) - have also gone for the extended warranty, on the basis it's the same price as 2 call-out charges from our local friendly electrical repair shop. I don't normally pay for such things but our record with white goods lasting is not good!  

I've also been researching f1tb1ts and was going to go for the Chg4, but may downgrade to the Chg3 - I am unlikely to use the GPS (I dislike running - I've tried to like it!) nor the swim function - so can save myself c £40 if I downgrade Will ponder some more before fully deciding

Very glad it's Friday Burgers planned for dinner - as usual, not as simple as it sounds - 1 x fish, 1 x chicken, 3 x beef and 1 x pasta (doesn't eat burger things) - relatively easy dinner, tasty (have some fab condiments from Ginger Beard Preserves in Bristol) and feels like a 'Friday treat'   Probably with hm wedges, coleslaw and onion rings - yum Will  also use some of the lettuce randomly growing in the strawberry bed  

We've had the full refund from BA for our flights and car hire to our CCs - I've already got mine transferred to the c/a - and then transferred it to the Hol Fund account when it arrived earlier today Need to get DH to arrange his credit bal transfer back to c/a (c £8k) - but he hates doing stuff like that  - if it was a small balance I'd just spend it - but it will take us quite a while to spend that on CC.... I'm just about to write the letters to go with our park tickets for return/ refund - will need to post them by RM Special delivery, so will pop to PO tomorrow (I say 'pop' but it will involve queuing outside for probably some time... - I will combine it with pet shop (for gpig food) and Tesc0, as they are in the same run of shops - that'll be my morning taken care of! )

South_coast

Mmmm, sign me up for the wedges, coleslaw and onion rings 😍 

Suffolk_lass

I second that - DH fried up some cold new potato chunks last night and a little dish sprinkled with salt flakes, black pepper and ground chilli flakes appeared as tapas while I was Zooming with my girlfriends (a 2 hour epic with 15 of us!). Yum

Tahlullah.H

Great news about the holiday refund and the new dishwasher.  Don't know how you survived without it for so long!  What were the specific functions you wanted that others could not provide?  I'm happy that it cleans the dishes and fits into the allocated space.  After that, I'm not really interested.

Moneyfordreams

Tahlullah has a good point? what does a dishwasher need to provide? I'm about to buy one. The last one we had years and years ago got used to store crisps and biscuits. I'd be happy if it didn't leave the dishes with a crumby texture. 

greent

Re: the dishwasher - It's not necessarily what it could do, but also what it couldn't - I didn't want one which automatically opened at the end of the cycle as the heat/ steam would damage the housing, as it's real wood - so I've gone for one which shines a light on the floor whilst it's running and then the light goes out once it has finished. I also needed one to fit our dinner plates in - the one I was set on ordering said it couldn't fit the same dinner plates in that we have in one of the reviews. I didn't want an upper full cutlery tray. I wanted a cutlery basket or 2 (we previously had 2) which was not set at the back and didn't have silly little holes for cutlery. I wanted metal inners, not plastic. Foldable down plate stacky areas if possible as these are good to fit larger items in more easily. Fully integrated, in stock and available for delivery and installation, not certain brands (think problematic washing machines) and not a silly price. Oh - and had to fit into the housing the existing one goes into. And had a good amount of customer reviews (say min 50, ideally more) where the overall rating still managed to come out at over 4* (out of 5) It was a lot harder than I remember it being last time we ordered one! 

Rain here this morning, but sun from mid afternoon onwards - which means 2 large loads of washing have dried on the line Weather is set to be hot over the next few days - will get DS1 on lawnmowing and helping me elsewhere in the garden. He has finished uni / studying until Sept, whereas DD, DS2 and DS3 are still working (dissertation and schoolwork), so he has more free time to help Plan for Weds (weather is meant to be lovely) is DH to take a day off work - DS3 won't be at school as Weds is deep-cleaning day and only key worker and vulnerable children are in - and all of us go for a picnic/ barbecue in the forest - am hoping it will be quiet(er) as it is mid-week - plenty of space out there, though Will be nice to actually go somewhere as a family - the only places I've been since lockdown are supermarkets, GCentre (once), Matalan (once - emergency summer shoe shopping for DS3 - and it's less than 1.5miles from my house), blood donation centre (twice), my Nan's house (twice - to check on it for insce purposes), post office (next to Tesco - 3x), petshop (also next to Tesco - once) and the school run. All our walks have been local on foot from our house - so canalpath/ field ones. Oh - and DD and I drove to her flat in Wales to collect things and clean it for end of tenancy - that was the most excitement we'd had in months! (Not that I'm complaining in any way - I'm very thankful we're all safe and well and I have no desire to go into town/ a shopping centre etc - right now we don't need to buy anything

Tahlullah.H

Wow GT.  I didn't even know you could get Dishwashers that opened at the end of their cycle.  Mine just keeps beeping until you do and switch it off.  Or, you ignore it long enough and it sulks. And naively I thought all dishwashers had baskets and a top shelf that could be lifted up and down to give more clearance for big plates below.  And again assumed that they all came with folding racks for bigger items.  I hope my dishwasher has no plans to break soon.  The choices are too complicated.  Glad you found what you wanted.

Suffolk_lass

I would add I like our current DW that has a rapid hot wash too - so I use that for the cleaning cycle. I don't usually set it going because DH does that (although his habit of re-stacking seems to have stopped since I mentioned it) but some cycles leave it dry and some wet. My only gripe with ours is that it flips plastic boxes over and leaves them full of water