Cheery's buttling diary: tea in one hand, plant pot in the other, running shoes on

Cheery_Daff

How very sensible you both are i shall ring the nice man first thing tomorrow :j :j

i've been hula hooping SUCH fun! i'm actually pretty good at it :rotfl: :rotfl:

Mind you, i was quite horrified at having to look at myself in thr mirror for a whole hour :eek: won:t be wearing fitted top and leggings next week that's for sure!! :eek:

actually not sure i'll be going next week - currently ache like i'm 96 years old and can't lift arms above head. Marathon is in 10 days and i need chance to recover!! :eek: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Karmacat

It sounds like its a really good workout! I notice I can dance about in the living room when I'm listening to a track I like much easier than if I'm doing po-faced exercises :rotfl:

10 days! Maybe you need *more* hula-hooping, not less

Cheery_Daff

Think I need a rest more than anything today!! :rotfl: :rotfl:

Had a late slightly tipsy night :rotfl: and just getting my act together for a day of House Buttling

Just did a bit of banking first - everything seems in order for once :j And car maintenance fund looking nicely healthy - I try to allow £300 for MOT since we always have older crappy cars, but it only cost £90 this time :j :j

Right, a trip to the tip, a bit of gardening, a trip to Wilkos, and perhaps we might use some of our Groupon cinema tickets tonight too :j

Cheery_Daff

So... one whole car full of stuff taken to the tip (and there's a LOT of room in our car!) :j :j Mainly stuff from the cellar, an old door, mouldy and useless bits of wood, broken mirrors, broken glass, broken all kinds :rotfl:

Also dumped stuff from the garden - a bench that fell apart and was repaired SO many times but now won't even hold a screw, some glass I've meant to make into something for years but never got round to, and various other bits. And popped into a friend's house and took a few things for him too.

And then went and bought ourselves a new hoover Old one SO noisy and crap at actually *hoovering* but this one seems (a) quiet and (b) effective, and was only £40

Food money spent, but other than that(whispers) so far it's been a NSD... :j

Cheery_Daff

Not much practical activity going on here now :rotfl:

But I did ring the plumber and booked him to come in 3 weeks :j :j :j VERY excited to see what the difference will be to our heating bills :money: (probably not much in the winter, but we'll see!)

Also read gas/electric meters and filled in on the website. We're on a flexible direct debit thing with Ovo, and it lets you change how much you pay. It was £150 a month before we switched to this :eek: but given how much we'd used last year they recommended £120 a month, so that's what we've been paying (and putting the rest straight into savings each month :money: )

Just looked and based on current usage they're now recommending £108 a month, so I've switched to that and will put the extra £12 a month to savings for the rest of the year :j :j

Apparently we've got a £461 surplus there at the minute, which should help going into the winter :j They pay 3% interest on everything you have surplus with them, which is more than the bank Great ploy to encourage people to build up a surplus! :j

starnac

Fantastic decluttering going on there Cheery. Also good news on the plumber.

I've never heard of an utility company that pays interest on your surplus! Wow!

DedicatedDFW

Well Done on the decluttering Cheery :T Is that all of the cellar finished now?

And good news regarding your utility bills too :T I just pay the bill when it comes - somehow seems to work better for us than monthly direct debits.

That sounds like a bargain vacuum - we need a new one but unfortunately our budget needs to be more but hopefully it will at least pick stuff up :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

"is that all of the cellar decluttered now?" :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

sorry :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

honestly, you should *see* it :rotfl: floor to ceiling with 'useful things', went down to read the gas meter and had to peer practically from the doorway cos there was nowhere to put my feet :rotfl: suspect it'll never be clear but we'll keep trying (slowly!!) :rotfl:

Thanks for asking though

Picked some lavender a few weeks ago and hung to dry, just been crumbling into a jar, smells gorgeous and i'm all nicely relaxed

rtandon27

Thanks for mentioning Ovo - we've had a look & seems like a better deal than we get with npower - also tipped as having the best customer service unlike our current provider!

Cheery_Daff

We moved from npower to Ovo a few years back - npower refused to talk to me on the phone (because it was in mr cheery's name) but wouldn't write either, and Mr Cheery doesn't do arguing with utility companies on the phone, so I just set up a new account with Ovo and we never had any interaction with npower again :rotfl:

Ovo have been fab. Really easy to deal with, really straightforward website, simple tarrifs to choose from (and only a couple!), website shows you in graphs what you use compared to last year/other people.

We have some kind of online discount so just submit meter readings online and get email statements. Suits us fine. But they did say if we ever had an issue we could call. Fab people, more than happy to recommend

Mainly went with them for their green electric - i believe they invest in renewables rather than just offsetting like some of the big firms do. Also I believe all enegy companies have an obligation to offset/invest/offer a certai percentage of energy as renewable (can't remember details!) - many offer green tariffs but only to the point that they cover their obligation, Ovo go beyond that.

No idea if they're the cheapest any more (they were the cheapest with a green electric scheme i was happy with when we switched a couple of years ago) but quite frankly good customer service and not taking the !!!! will keep me loyal for a long time!

Oops, enough ranting, time for bed! :rotfl: