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

EssexHebridean

I'm not buying that it's Stripes Junior (1)'s fault Pippi - we KNOW how good he is with dosh!

Sausage pasta was delicious - and extremely budget friendly too. 2 leftover sausages, last 4 mushrooms, 2 small peppers from a T's "value" bag, 1 leek from the Aldi Super 6 bag. 1 tin of chopped tomatoes, seasoned with dried basil, mild tabasco, and sweet smoked paprika. Oh and pasta, obviously! Nice grating of parmesan over the top - and yummy it was. :T

Tomorrow might not be a NSD if I get around to booking some travel I need to sort.

EssexHebridean

Bank checked - annoyingly there is a 25p charge for going overdrawn for a day when MrEH's car insurance came out - because for once he arranged it himself, I took my eye off the ball on the bank stuff. Pfft. Oh well - we saved more than 25p (in fact more than £25!) by shopping about for it so I'm going to let that one go. It's the reason why we've not yet switched the Joint account over to the interest paying option to be honest - the combination of the fact that the current one gives us free travel insurance, and only charges on a percentage basis for the odd straggle into the red like that. We'd not earn the equivalent value in interest on it.

Credit card bill was there so I have transferred the money that went out to Canon for the repair to my lens straight to it. £363 - thankfully for some unknown reason when I bought the lens I paid out for an extended warranty on it (I NEVER do this!) So in the region of £335 has already come back to me on this. Bearing in mind that Canon also did an additional repair to it for me (I managed to crack a bit of plastic on the front end when I first had it) and I was expecting to pay £70 - £80 for that I'm happy enough with the £28 or so I had to pay for the shortfall. (It was a tiny bit short as the funds had to come from the USA by Paypal so there was an exchange rate difference and some fees). That means the rest of the CC bill is still to sort but I'll do that when the actual paper bill lands. Easier that way.

Had a glum, gloomy sort of day yesterday - in part I think due to the change in the seasons. I hate it when I can feel myself slipping into a mood dip like that - and hate even more that I can do nothing about it. Minor stuff seems to get unmanageable and anxiety takes over. Meh. I'm rubbish at talking about this stuff - tend to just ignore it which doesn't help. It hit me the other day that it will be 10 years next year since I was first officially told that I was suffering from depression though - and that's quite an odd thing. Thankfully that's also the worst it's ever been - and I'm now far better at picking myself up from the edge of the blackness - distractions work for me thank goodness. Last nights "distraction" was a rather stunning drawing that an artist has done from one of my photographs - he's done a beautiful job of it and now tells me that it will be exhibited next year which is rather lovely. :T Followed that up with a text chat with my brilliant pal (who also happened to be the subject in the photograph!) in which he grumpily informed me that work are trying to send him to a somewhat remote set of Scottish Islands of which I'm rather fond. Wish I could hitch a ride! If he does end up having to go (he's hoping not to!) it's lovely to think of him getting to "see" my Islands at last in more than just photos.

Greying_Pilgrim

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Followed that up with a text chat with my brilliant pal (who also happened to be the subject in the photograph!) in which he grumpily informed me that work are trying to send him to a somewhat remote set of Scottish Islands of which I'm rather fond. Wish I could hitch a ride! If he does end up having to go (he's hoping not to!) it's lovely to think of him getting to "see" my Islands at last in more than just photos.

*ahem* and there is the [STRIKE]excuse[/STRIKE] potential to "visit" him - for support and friendship sustainance...... natch

Greying X

EssexHebridean

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

*ahem* and there is the [STRIKE]excuse[/STRIKE] potential to "visit" him - for support and friendship sustainance...... natch

Greying X

I wish! No sadly one of the reasons he's grumpy about it is it will be a short visit! Oh well - only two and a half months until we're there ourselves!

EssexHebridean

Phew - and there's a working week I'm glad to see the back of - "Madam" in the office has been a flipping nightmare ALL week. Himself is off on holiday in a couple of weeks too so I'm hoping she's improved a bit by then. Honestly, working with someone QUITE so stressy really is a bit of a pain.

All generally under control elsewhere I think - tomorrow will be a spendy sort of day - no idea how much Dave-The-Builder will be charging us for lining out and re-shelving our airing cupboard but frankly I trust him and know he won't over charge and I just want to have my storage back now! I'm also going to pick his brains about the kitchen, and get him to give us a proper quote for the work that wants doing on the storage shed outside, too. All quite exciting! While he's fiddling about with stuff here I intend to go and sort the shopping out and ideally drop a bag of stuff to the charity shop too - that might wait for Saturday though as the bad seem to be ever increasing in size and weight!

EssexHebridean

I have a beautifully lined out airing cupboard! :T Absolutely lovely job - he's also straightened out a pipe that was at a funny angle, put in an extra bit of shelf that we didn't think would work but he said it would (and it does!) Re-fixed the switch for the immersion heater, fitted the shelves beautifully around pipework, boxed in everywhere that previously stuff would have fallen through and ensured that all our switches and valves etc are accessible. Oh and turned up the thermostat on the immersion too so we now have wonderfully hot water. :T:T:T Very happy with that.

Elsewhere today's been a decent mix of outgoings and unexpected incomings. Stopped at Sainsbugs this morning to put some diesel in the car - and on paying promptly got handed a "Swipe & Win" voucher for 2,000 Nectar points. :T Decided due to the risk of forgetting to do it otherwise, I'd change my plans a little to divert to the main store and do some of my shopping there so I could get the points added straight on. Decided as the "entry" for the promotion was a minimum £10 spend I may as well shop to that level to have a crack at winning some more - spent £10.20 and walked away from the checkout with another voucher for ANOTHER 2,000 points! Did a small further spend to get that one added on, too.

No particular plans for the rest of the weekend - might go to the Farmers Market tomorrow, as it's our local one.

EssexHebridean

Didn't go to the Farmers Market - we very sensibly decided that there was nothing we needed, so we'd save our pennies. I did dispatch MrEH off to the nice bakers though from where he came back with not only a nice loaf of Sourdough type bread ( I know Mrs Stripes will appreciate that one!) but also cake. Him going, not me, means I can claim a NSD, and by some amazing fluke I can claim another NSD for yesterday too - go me!

Three day week for me this week as I'm off to Devon on Thursday. Eek - need to collect my train ticket! :eek:

Meal plan is all done and will be starting off with a rather posh YS'd pie from the freezer for me tonight - almost certainly with a jacket tattie alongside. The pie was one of two that MrEH found for 29p a while back. He has rugby training tonight so will cook himself either an omelette or pasta when he gets home.

Today will not be a NSD as MrEH's car needs diesel-juice.

enthusiasticsaver

Congratulations EH on being mortgage free. Freedom completely from debt and very hard won I dare say. We started to dabble in stocks and shares isas and additional pension contributions once our mortgage was finished (and helped DDs with houses and weddings too) and OH retires in 2 weeks at 58 years old and I finish next December at 57. Is early retirement next on your list of targets or are you too young?

Enjoy Devon. We live in Cornwall and just taken my one year old grand daughter down the park in this lovely autumn sunshine.

EssexHebridean

Aww thank you ES! Our next plans now are to get some work done on our flat - we've gradually started doing odds and ends over the last few years but there is still quite a lot to be done. Eventually we have a big move planned - that will most likely involve renting out the flat and using it as income so it certainly makes sense to get it spruced up and ready now - plus then we get the pleasure of living in it all spruced up for the next few years, too! : We're also starting to look into what will be best from here on for savings - we're currently using a combination of Regular saver accounts which pay decent interest, and an ISA which pays less, so ways of maximising our money are on the list to research.

MASSIVE congratulations on achieving your early retirements too - how fantastic to know that you are set up to enjoy life together from now on! :T:T:T


Did a sneaky deal with MrEH that he collected my train ticket last night if I put diesel in his car - that's a win all round. Another win was that his usual train route was having issues last night so they let him get the far faster train through to an alternative station on another line - meaning less sitting around waiting, for me. Another win!

MrEH also reminded me yesterday that he's out with work tonight, so that threw the meal plan out a bit. Except when I came to think about it, it didn't - I switched his share of tonight's beef stew to last night for him - he had it with a couple of slices of leftover posh bread from the weekend. I still had my pie etc as planned. Tonight I will have MY share of the stew only as I have enough time mine will be with dumplings. (Don't tell him, he'll be jealous!). that means the only *theoretical* change from the plan is that the omelette he was going to have last night, he'll now have on thursday, which means the eggs won't get left. :T

Trying to plan out the next few weeks now - I'm in Devon this weekend - travelling down by train on Thursday and MrEH will drive down on Friday night so we'll travel home together in the car on Sunday. Then the following weekend we're in Norwich for the beer festival - hoping to catch up with a pal there but need to wait and see if that can be worked out - he's in the RAF and they've helpfully sent him on a fortnight's training course that spans that weekend. :mad: He's currently debating whether he'll head home for the weekend or not.

Next week, regardless, needs to be a "freezer week" - we have Goat curry, Mutton Stew, tomato sauce and assorted other things in there needing used. Also some frozen scallops which I'll almost certainly team up with black pudding to make a "nice" Friday night dinner. (Think alongside a big pile of fluffy, buttery mash, and a whisky & cream sauce...:cool:) Yum.

EssexHebridean

I have, sitting next to me, the piece of paper from the Land Registry which confirms that there is now no mortgage on the flat. :T:T:T:j:j:j:beer::beer::beer::money:

VERY exciting and for the first time it's starting to feel real!