When life sends you Lemons, just bake a cake

Lemon_Tree

well what's on the cards today? unfortunately still sick, but also sick of doing nothing so will try and sort some stuff out today.

so the dishwasher is on so that's something started.
financy wise, i got the leccy bill yesterday and they want to decrease the DD, this DD is going up and down more than a tarts knickers, i thought they were only suposed to do it once a year. It does my head in. When you solely rely on leccy for heating it's good to be in credit at this time of year, we've only just started winter so to reduce the monthly payment is rediculous. Guess i'll have to give them a call.
i also need to check the online banking stuff and sort out my signature with the effect of the windows. I also need to recalculate my DF date again what with the changes.
well that will keep me out of mischief for a little while

EssexHebridean

You feeling a bit better today LT? Sounds like you are so hopefully the lurgy is on the run!

We did the "try a new recipe" thing a while back - went through a stage of cooking something new every Friday night, and to be honest might go back to doing either that, or making Sunday dinner something a bit different for a while as it is fun to do and means that some of my mahoosive stash of recipe books are getting some use! I generally have at least one out somewhere just to browse through - currently it's the River Cottage Everyday one which I love - although all the RC ones are brilliant. I think that OH might have bought me a "British Regional Cookbook" for christmas - hope so as that looked excellent when we bought a copy for MIL the other week!

Any news on a date for the double glazing yet? I'm waiting to hear when the storage heater man can come!

Re the DD, it tok me ages to get British Gas trained on that front but they are quite well trained now thankfully. We went through numerous conversations along the lines of "You've written to me to tell me you're putting my DD down - well you're not" and of course it's close relative "About putting my DD up - would you like to explain to me how that's justified please?" The last couple of converdsations have been far more reasonable - I have told them how much I want to pay, and why, and they have said "Yes Mrs XXXX - certainly!" :T It's a bit like training a puppy - you'll get there in the end but there might be a few little mishaps along the way! :rotfl:

**Kat**_2

I LOVE that explanation EH - we are the same although just let them get on with it. One minute we owe them hundreds and the next they owe us. Went through a phase of having to pay well over £100 per month for gas and ele to catch up with THEIR changes - think I will take your approach lol.

starnac

hey LT you have a diary. will have to subscribe so i can [STRIKE]stalk[/STRIKE] i mean find you over here

Lemon_Tree

i've always tended to challenge what they state, one minute up then down. They always sound very surprised when i say they can't reduce it then fight me when i say no to a price hike. Bloomin computers.
a bit more progress today, i'm showered and dressed, that's got to be a good sign hasn't it? Working my way though squash bottles at the moment. I don't really do coffee or tea and only have the hot choc. you need to use with hot milk so as i don't fancy my usual water i'm flavouring it. I don't particularly like squash though but i'm surviving.

Lemon_Tree

hi starnac glad to see you. Thought i'd see who drifted past, i'm terrible at just sticking to my subscribed diaries so am trying to look through the other forums more.

Lemon_Tree

i've been playing with my spreadsheet this afternoon to see what difference getting the double glazing will make to my DFD and if i continue to spend as i am on non essentials (ie not much at all) then i should be only adding to my DFD by 6 months which i'm pretty pleased with, i think i can live with that.
the things i really need to tackle are the thoughtless spending i do on occasion and our grocery shopping. We set ourselves a budget of £120=£150 for two people, two cats, a rabbit and two guinea pigs which should be more than enough, especially as i'm good at getting whoopsied items yet we always seem to spend a lot more than that. Part of the problem is OH picking up bits on his way home or going to work. Also he has a habit of getting two or three of everything even when it's not on offer, or is likely to last quite a while.

EssexHebridean

Have you inventoried your freezer LT so you know exactly what you have? That's a good start I think. Is your £150-ish just food, or also toiletries, cleaning products etc? Do you think of meals for the week and then buy accordingly? Or buy stuff and then work out what to do with it. Which way you work best very much depends on what sort of cook you are. My meal plan on my diary will change as I have stuff that needs using - I know at the moment I have a squash, some cherry tomatoes and half a pineapple in the fridge to use up so will incorporate those somewhere. I also try to shop according to what is good, and in season, as that tends to be the stuff that's cheapest. I will be in Lidl tomorrow morning as I know they have a special offer over the weekend on clementines, parsnips at a good price, and limes reduced to 15p each. If you have a Lidl nearby their fruit and veg offers are a godsend. If you have a local Tesco open until 5pm on Sundays try going in at about 4pm as that's probably when they do their second round of reductions. Likewise on weekdays our Asda do a massive reduction at 8pm or thereabouts - packs of rolls and loaves of bread for 5p! I have a spreadsheet that works out what our average daily spend over a month is - for the two of us we've hovered around the £3 per day mark - that includes lunches as we both take lunch to work from home. Days I'm home at lunchtime I tend to have cup-a-soup and pitta bread, or pasta & a spoonful of pesto - cheap, healthy enough and reasonably filling. I'm expecting this month to be about the same, but next month will be heavier as we'll have washing powder, cat litter and probably cat food to buy as well. It's quite interesting tracking the spending, and does make you think about what you're spending, and also what you waste!

chevalier

LT well done you finally got a diary *applauds*. nice one. Shivers at the idea of the room only being 15C brrrr. defo need that double glazing. Well done on getting the extra discount nice one
chev

Lemon_Tree

hi Chev nice to see you here.

EH yes we have a list of what's in the freezer, we sorted it out a couple of weeks ago, surprisingly enough it's full of healthy stuff!

our shopping money also includes cleaning products and animal stuff and toiletries. 9 times out of 10 i take lunch to work but this is something i'm still working on with OH. I think our biggest downfall is getting home from work tired and either not being organised enough to defrost something before we go out or just not having any ideas of what to cook. I also find that it doesn't help that sometimes OH doesn't get home till half 8 which is too late for me to eat but i like to eat with him so i try and wait. But then he doesn't always want a proper tea at that time of day. Argh the excuses i can come up with!

anyone want a cold? this one has outlived it's welcome and i need a proper nights sleep so i'm willing to give it away for free!