Lois_E begins a long MFW journey

CathT

That was still a pretty cheap takeaway, I always end up buying meals instead of bit and pieces which are often tastier.

Had a quick glance at the SS, i tried to save it to experiment with at some point so hope it worked! Thank you for sharing it.

greent

Hello!!! Just read your diary from start to here - am subscribing so I can continue to follow it

summerday

Sounds like your takeaway was pretty frugal really! Spending money on eating out is my and OH's biggest weakness, but we really enjoy it and love the way that it saves on cleaning up the kitchen, cooking dishes to wash up etc!

Sometimes with Chinese takeaway we have ordered the 'Set meal for 1', there is always so much food in it, 2 or 3 small dishes, there are normally leftovers after feeding DH and me, great value!

Hope you're enjoying the hols. x

Lois_E

Thanks for the encouragement, everyone. And welcome to greent.

Yesterday I tried cycling to DS & DD's school with DD, to see how long it would take and consider whether it might be a way of saving petrol once term starts again. It took us just less than 23 minutes. I might try it if we can manage to get ready early enough.

To start with, it would just have to be on the days I'm not working, though. Maybe one day I'll be able to cycle that distance and then on to my work without arriving in desperate need of a shower, but I'll have to get a lot fitter first. If we do it on the days I'm not working maybe I can get fitter, but we'll have to see.

One thing I did learn was not to try to travel too light when cycling. I decided I didn't need to take my handbag, but then when we cycled through the park my hayfever suddenly kicked off, which I wasn't expecting because I don't usually get it this late in the year. If I'd had my bag with me I'd have been fine - I keep my eye drops in there, so I could have put some in straight away and been symptom-free in a matter of minutes. As it was, it was horrible - itching eyes and streaming nose. So next time I cycle anywhere I'll sling the whole handbag in the cycle pannier.

ETA Annoying expense of the week: two new computer mice, £6.06 from Amazon. The really cheap ones I got last time just don't last. This one I'm using now is OK on the left button, but keeps thinking I have pressed the right button twice instead of once - very irritating. And DS says the other cheap one for the desktop downstairs doesn't work at all now. He's got the mouse from my work laptop down there now - I won't need to take it back to work until September, so that's OK.

Lois_E

Today I set up a new page on my financial spreadsheet. This one is going to track water, gas and leccy usage on a weekly basis. I'm going to read the meters on Wednesday evenings, so I can start tonight.

I've looked at the "your account" page on the BG website. It shows me not only my usage, but the usage for my house last year, before I owned it. (??? Data protection??? :eek:) I can also compare myself with other average households. Rather than compare with my local town, I compared nationally but for the same size and age of house and number of occupants. I'm doing better than average for gas (so the extra insulation I added in Jan is doing its thing) but worse than average for leccy. Lots of potential for using the weekly readings to motivate the kids to turn things off, because at the moment they almost never turn anything off at all. :mad:

Hope everyone is feeling positive about progress, and enjoying the sunshine.

Lois_E

NSD today. A friend came for coffee and our kids played together, and she told me about a friend of hers (whom I know a bit but not particularly well) whose teenagers will babysit for £10 an evening, which is cheaper than I usually have to pay.

Still haven't sorted out DD's chaotic muddle of clothes - I said I was going to do that days ago. Really must do it this evening.

CathT

Lois_E wrote: »

Today I set up a new page on my financial spreadsheet. This one is going to track water, gas and leccy usage on a weekly basis. I'm going to read the meters on Wednesday evenings, so I can start tonight.

I've looked at the "your account" page on the BG website. It shows me not only my usage, but the usage for my house last year, before I owned it. (??? Data protection??? :eek:) I can also compare myself with other average households. Rather than compare with my local town, I compared nationally but for the same size and age of house and number of occupants. I'm doing better than average for gas (so the extra insulation I added in Jan is doing its thing) but worse than average for leccy. Lots of potential for using the weekly readings to motivate the kids to turn things off, because at the moment they almost never turn anything off at all. :mad:

Hope everyone is feeling positive about progress, and enjoying the sunshine.

I really should keep an eye on my gas and electricity usage. Since I switched over to B Gas market monitor tariff I have received nothing from them! I should probably at least log into my account so will put that on my 'to do' list tomorrow.

Lois_E

Continuing my attempts to decrease my shockingly high utility bills, a day or two I dug out the "owl" monitor that we used to use before we moved (which was months ago), put new batteries in both ends of it and connected the clamp thing round the electric supply cable. I've just been talking to DD about it, and she realised that it must be the owl that's been causing the phantom doorbell ringing that's been going on every so often all day.

The doorbell even woke me up this morning, when I had planned a bit of a lie-in and set the alarm for 9am - I didn't get home until gone midnight last night, and had done a lot of driving to see family, so I was tired and since I've got lots more driving tomorrow, I thought I'd make the most of this morning. When the doorbell went off, I woke suddenly and I was out of bed and half way down stairs wondering who it was and what they would think of me for not being dressed at what I presumed was nearly 9am-ish, when I looked at the clock and saw it was 6:30. :eek: Then I found there was nobody at the door, but by that time I was thoroughly awake and didn't get back to sleep until about 8ish, so I eventually woke up when the alarm went off at 9, feeling dreadful.

So I have disconnected the owl and taken its batteries out, and the doorbell is behaving itself again. Unfortunately it is not the sort of doorbell where you can change the wireless channel, so it looks as though the owl is useless for now.

cha97michelle

Do you know what. My doorbell has randomly been going off for ages, and I had considered all kinds of things affecting it, but not the OWL. How funny. Thanks for mentioning that one.

pammyj74

I have woken up thinking I have heard someone knocking the door but there has been nobody there, its annoying.
I did attempt to use my energy reader and for a while it was a great gimmick but then I got bored with it. I still have to persevere with the kids to make them turn lights off etc It still drives me mad but they still do it.

As for the cycling, I wanted to do that too but there is nowhere at kids school for them to leave their bikes which is daft.