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

Cheery_Daff

Good tidying, well done! :j :j SO exciting to be within sight of the end of the mortgage too

EssexHebridean

Spendiness has occurred - but planned spendiness so that's OK, yes? :money: The CD player on our stereo has been knackered for yonks - we've got around it by using the DVD player and playing it through the stereo, but it's a bit annoying having to do that, so we decided to replace with one of the new little micro systems - DAB radio, CD player and the ability to play from USB essential - we found a nice little Sony unit in Curry's for £79 which was promptly Tracked down on Amazon for £10 less. Handily enough of course we'd got £7 free amazon credit from that sneaky deal of :money:'s - plus the £50 of gift cards we bought before christmas to qualify for the £25 cashback on the Nationwide CC. Even more handily Mum and Dad in law gave us money for Christmas...so that re-pays our £50, pays the balance, and leaves us some change for treats! :T Anyway all being well the stereo should arrive today.

Other than that nothing much to report - first batch of marmalade was made (admittedly mostly by MrEH) at the weekend and has set wonderfully. Meals are going to plan. In fact I must remember when I'm pretty tatties for mash tonight, along with the last parsnip and a lump of swede that's kicking about in the fridge, that at the same time I can make my life easier by prepping an extra one into cubes ready for fritatta tomorrow night. It's so cold at the moment that all I want to do in the evenings is snuggle up indoors so my working through photo processing is going well - the main drive on the laptop has been fully backed up now and the stuff on it is nearly all deleted. just got two more folders to check and can then go onto the other drive on there. :T

Jobs for today:
Book Air Tattoo ticket
Stick £10 credit on my Oyster
Check bank
Transfer weekly spends that I've nicked from my tin at home into the relevant savings pot
Next load to washing machine
Write labels for first batch of HM Marmalade
Make second batch of HM marmalade...:D
Sort out clothes for Manchester.
15 minutes...5 minutes bathroom, 5 minutes front room, 5 minutes bedroom.:A
More photo stuff.

Planned spendiness:
I'm going to need to add more backup storage for photos at some stage. Need to start shopping around now for exactly what to replace with I think
Need to get the car hire booked - or at least start keeping an eye on prices - for the Northern Ireland weekend
Also must start looking at holiday stuff that needs booking. That's all budgeted for though.
MrEH's car MoT & service at the weekend... :eek:

starnac

That sounds like a good deal on the stereo. Bit confusing but it sounds good

Ooh HM marmalade sounds lovely. I need to have a go at that I think. Unless you fancy loaning me Mr EH? :rotfl: plenty of proper rugby around here to keep him occupied

EssexHebridean

I'd happily loan him out for marmalade making purposes Starnac - as for proper rugby, he's definitely a fan of that, not the soft girls game they play Oop North!

As for the stereo deal - confusing? You should have tried sorting it out! :rotfl: It's not arrived yet anyway - something to do with them trying to deliver to a business address at 7.30pm last night! :mad: Numpties. they're meant to be trying again today

Failed on all those jobs apart from batch 2 of marmalade making, the washing machine and more photo stuff yesterday. I'm useless. Will try again today, except for the airshow ticket as I'm holding off to see if I need to book for my pal too - he's letting me know his plans.

Cheery_Daff

Still sounds like you got plenty done to me EH! :j :j :j

Completely forgot about marmalade! Mind you, the state of our house at the minute I'd probably get it mixed up with the polyfiller or try to paint the walls with it :eek: :rotfl: Perhaps best left for my shiny new kitchen next year :rotfl:

EssexHebridean

Remind me next timer I see you Cheery and you can have a jar of ours! Hope you like it super-chunky though!

Just checking in to see what was on that list that I didn't do yesterday...seems I'm doing quite well though...
Bank checking & transfer was done at lunchtime
Oyster top up was also done at lunchtime
15 minute tidy-up has been done this evening
Clothes are ready to pack for Manchester
Bedding & towels to the washing machine

New stereo finally arrived at 4.59pm - literally 1min before their delivery deadline! :rotfl: Even the delivery driver was laughing! Got that set up when I got home and it's sounding great. Very pleased with it - it's nice to finally have the windowsill in the front room free of speakers too - the new system is so tiny it all sits on the TV unit happily enough, AND the TV is more central on the unit too so the whole thing looks a lot tidier. :T

I'm now working through some photo stuff while catching up on TV stuff - currently drooling over David Tennant on Jamie & Jimmy! I'll do another quick tidy round in a minute once that's finished...

Pippilongstocking

that was a good show wasn't it and well done on the tidying!

EssexHebridean

It was Stripes - I really enjoyed that one!

So, Manchester weekend was a laugh - lovely to catch up with lots of pals and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Next weekend will be another fun one with luck - heading up to Lincoln Thursday night, meeting pals in the pub for dinner then going back to Claire's overnight, then photographing of those Little Red jets on Friday...:T Then on Saturday we're looking at whizzing up to Telford for a pals 50th birthday, all being well.

So, jobs for today:
Book Airtattoo tickets - Ant & me for all three days - Kate for Sunday only at the moment and she'll sort any others she can do later.
Book hotel for next Saturday night
Prep Cottage pie for tomorrow night's dinner - just needs bunging in the oven when we get in tomorrow evening then.
Sort out memory cards ready for Friday.
Collect MrEH's car from outside the garage
15 minutes = Bathroom & Kitchen, spray & wipe surfaces.
Washing > machine.

MrEH's car SAILED through it's service & MoT thank goodness - bill came to £237 if I remember rightly but won't be payable until the CC comes due next month so that's good. The money will be in the car expenses account in any case.

New savings account is now showing as properly open - next month's £500 contribution to that will be made up by money-shuffling from elsewhere effectively, plus the money we don't pay in February for council tax & water rates. We'll have that for use for the same purpose in March as well of course.

Cheery_Daff

Good work there lass I spread our council tax over 12 months a few years ago which is mostly fine but we don't get those free montgs, which was nice Water we don't pay Dec to April though :j

EssexHebridean

I completed my list! :T:j:beer: Yeah yeah, I know, but I like celebrating the small stuff!

Tickets came to £225 - which has gone on our cashback credit card, so a win there, AND we save a weeny bit on booking fees too as we only get charged one fee between the three of us. So that and the fact that we've all saved by booked early means it's as :money: as it could possibly be.

Mr EH's car actually came to £251 - and there are a few advisories, one of which is a tyre that's on the limits apparently, so will need doing soon-ish, and brake pads beginning to get "a bit thin" - we'll probably note that down for needing doing in a few months OR assume that as it sounds like it'll need discs on the front too, simply leave them until they start squeaking.

Bank checked and money OK - not sure whether I should be slightly alarmed not to have been contact for any details from the payroll people here...I'll ask the question later I think as it could be a bit of an issue if no money arrives! In fairness it may be that my bank details etc have simply been passed on, but I was sort of expecting to hear something from them...