EH - Keeping on track. (AKA focus Woman! FOCUS!)

EssexHebridean

Fantastic to meet you too Caz - and the power did indeed stay on for us, so well done you! that cafe will definitely be getting another visit if we're up that way again too - ace recommendation, thank you! :T

Weekend was LOVELY. It's always brilliant spending time with Pippi anyway, and the beautiful surroundings and interesting places to visit just make it even better. Spendy-wise, not too bad - we'd previously lumped £72 onto the CC to pay for flights out to Papa Westray on Monday, but when Monday arrived the weather wasn't playing ball at ALL, so we got a full refund on that. Only other CC spend over the time away was the ferry from Scrabster to Stromness on the way over £35-ish I think if I remember rightly. We drew a lump of cash out of our Tesco account and came back with £20 of that still stashed away in MrEH's wallet, so put £10 each on our Oyster cards when we got back to London. All good.

Got 2 days work this week (at higher rate - first two days in each week for these clients come in at a slightly higher rate than subsequent days) and a cheeky jaunt to Lincolnshire tomorrow to photograph some more noisy RAF stuff. Should be fun. The loaned camera goes back to my pal then too - MUST remember to pick it up before I leave in the morning!

CC bill was waiting for us yesterday. Was a gulpingly shocksome sum on there - but after I'd picked myself up we knuckled down and shuffled funds as needed. With the best will in the world when one develops a taste for pricey bits of camera gear CC bills will never make pretty reading. Lots of random travel costs on there too...top ups on Oyster cards notably, which need to be kept a bit better track of. Few little odds and ends that neither of us could remember what they related to, as well. All in all a bit of belt-tightening called for over the next month I think. Nothing's disastrous, but I'd just rather know that there won't be too many dribbly-spends between now and our Hebrides trip which is creeping up alarmingly fast. Sadly that *might* mean no camping trip over the May bank holiday, but we'll see.

Income-wise, MrEH's money this month should increase a teeny bit with the new Tax threshold. It won't make a huge difference but whatever difference it does make will get diverted straight to the mortgage OP account, so all good there. I've got 15 days to invoice this month as well which is respectable...should mean I can make my "standard" addition to my tax-account, which should hopefully in turn mean that my next tax payment for the year (due in July) is in place and ready to pay across. Always nice to know that's the case. I use my tax account as a sort of "extra savings account" too, as I over-estimate what's needed to be set aside, and in fact it looks likely that the money I "borrowed" from there to cover the shortfall on the camera purchase might not need replacing after all. Hmmm....food for thought there.

My bank account tells me that I have £20 in it...and my purse has got £18, and as I have NOTHING planned to do over the weekend, that should be just fine and dandy!

EssexHebridean

Small Money Saving Thing: registered my Nectar card with all 5 train sites. Have also been cheeky and registered the same card on MrEH's Scotrail registration, so we'll see if that trick works, won't we! If it does - 1200 points coming my way. If not, 1000, which will do!

starnac

Welcome back EH. Gosh your passports got some working didn't they only joshing, they haven't voted YES yet

Glad you had a fab time. Little bits of money spent on the cc isn't the end of the world as you are so good with your money, you'll have it covered in no time. Although I bet your bill was a bit :eek: if you put your camera on there :eek: on the up side I bet your points are looking pretty good at the moment

youareallhelpingme

Its pouring down in Lincolnshire at the moment so you might need your wellies!


Your trip sounded wonderful, nice to just get away.

EssexHebridean

It was just one of those months Starnac - a car service and 2 x tyres for my car, MrEH had some dental work and a new waterproof coat (which he nearly lost on the way to Orkney - it went on to Wick and back to Thurso on the train as it dropped off the rucksack as we got off and neither of us noticed.) Anyway, all money shuffling now dealt with.

Me - the weather forecast has been DREADFUL but thankfully has just started improving for tomorrow - fingers crossed. It's Display Authority day for both the Typhoon display AND the Battle of Britain memorial flight which should mean LOTS of stuff flying, and the roar of those lovely Merlin engines from the BBMF stuff up close too!

Cheery_Daff

Ooh - nectar points on train tickets?? Must investigate - only just got a nectar card and don't really know how they work I spend up to about £200 on work train fares each month - won't be booking specific trains in advance but can certainly buy day return tickets in advance if it means I get free stuff! :j

Pippilongstocking

Oh no something else to learn for the 'civvy street' life.

Sighs.

Nice to see you both too and most excellent puffin hunting.

Greying_Pilgrim

YAY EH is back :j:j:T:T

I was just telling DP about your proposed trip tomorrow - forest green I tell you, forest green <--- DP (a photo )

And I think that starnac expressed things beautifully, if there is anyone that can make mindful purchases with their cc, then I agree - it is you. Because a) you will have it covered in no time, as you've done all the planning/prep/saving and b) you've already tallied up how many points/how much cashback you'll receive and have factored it in to accomplish the next uber frugal trip/purchase or experience :D You're a star woman!

And I do hope you've got a mountain of deliciously slushy and fluffy, oooey and ahhhy photos of those puffins for us to delight over :D

Glad to *see* you back

Greying

EssexHebridean

Oh my - SUCH praise! :D

I have NO pictures of the puffins at all - disappointingly. I'm still getting used to how the battery charger for the new camera works, and what I thought was it, on, charging a battery....wasn't. So my main battery went flat within a few minutes of getting across to the little island with the Puffins on. Then my second battery went into the camera....and showed empty, in spite of the fact that I was certain it wasn't. (And then got jammed in the camera which caused a few minutes of panic). I can rustle up assorted pictures of birds though - so those will be going up on the blog/flickr/website at some stage soon-ish.

Got some pics of "warbirds" from yesterday as well - aka the BBMF's Spitfires, Hurricane and Lancaster, as well as their Dakota - first time I'd seen her fly. Having the Lanc pass overhead sub-100 feet while myself and my pal were walking down the road yesterday was...astonishing, if I'm honest. You KNOW they sound something special whenever you hear them, but when they come over that low, and then you remember that for the Dambusters raid, they were substantially lower even than that, well, it makes you stop and think. (And have to swallow back a bit of a lump in the throat, if I'm honest). (sorry poor DP ---> for rubbing it in!)

WELL worth the trip up - and the car averaged 62mpg over the trip which means I should have enough diesel-juice left to get to Ipswich for speedway before too long. :dance: Managed a NSD too - I'd got my food sorted the night before to take with me, and was tempted to stop on the way back and grab a bar of choccy or similar but resisted, so didn't spend a penny (or rather I did, but that was free too!) :rotfl:

So - working today due to swapping my regular day off for yesterday...need to fathom a few plans
- Weekend: not much planned (although I do want to get over to the local Airfield for a bit to see if the Gnat Display Team go out - they've confirmed this morning that they're planning to be active) Can combine that with a trip top the Saturday market too which will work well. Photo processing from yesterday. Bit of a walk at some stage.
- Money: - Still got £10 in my purse (A Scottish one! ) so I don't actually *need* to take any more out for the weekend, bearing in mind we have no real plans. Hmmm. Got to do some shopping at some stage - that will be Tesco this week. We have transferred a fair amount from the Tesco CC+ account into the Holiday account, and also used some of the money from the CC+ for Orkney spends...there is about £60 left in there currently and it gets "refilled" around the 8th of the month, so only 2 weekly shops still to get from that...so that's fine.
- Food: - Still got a freezer-full - we'll be aiming to eat through that over the next month. Will need tatties at some point (only got two small sweet potatoes left - scary stuff) and other fresh stuff. Also been sent some of those handy vouchers for money off things we'd buy anyway, so will grab some of those odds and ends while we're in. I need to do a meal plan. (Subtext - someone PLEASE kick me if I confess to not having done one by a few days time).

Daffs - Nectar points on train tickets could be a real winner for you - you'd only need to buy in advance the night before and then pick the tickets up at the station in the morning. :T

starnac

Nectar points on train tickets?? That might be handy for DH as he sometimes catches the train into work if the weather isn't suitable for cycling. Thanks EH