Scuba's Saving the Ha'Pennies

scubaangel

Ordered a new oven shelf, theres a ridiculous amount of satisfaction in knowing I don't need to clean the thing - cost me £10 inc next day delivery (albeit after the cut off for tomorrow so will arrive on Wednesday, normal delivery would have been Friday at the earliest).


Lady came over and took the two remote control cars, so while I was waiting for her I cleaned three of the four sets of blinds in the flat.



Bathroom is inching towards clean, I think I've finally beated the limescale from the taps and the loo is mainly clean (bleach applied to the under rim area tonight before I left to try and get that looking better).


Oven is mostly clean, there are still some tough to remove bits on the door glass and aound the lip so I'll attack those again tomorrow.


Pulled the fridge freezer out and swept behind it and cleaned the top, I've left it pulled out as I'll sweep and mop that bit tomorrow before I do push it back. I need to turn it off and clean it all out so I'll probably do that over night tomorrow, since theres about enough milk left in it for tomorrow and I'll get some more Weds morning.


I've got a car full of random stuff again, another bag of stuff for the tip, a couple of boxes I need to bring in the the flat here for a more thorough sorting out. Also my biggest suit case which currently contains all of my random backpacks and odd smaller bags - the two smaller suitcases in that set are still cluttering up the bedroom here. I'll sort those out later.


I did two trips to the storage unit today, the stuff out of the car from last night. The flat packed shelves, tv, aquarium and aquarium stuff cabinet. All those need some more sorting out as they're not particularly tidy but they're in there.


I dropped off some of the stuff to the charity shop.


Tomorrow I want to walk in to town as my magic sponges totally disintegrated while I was cleaning the walls, I'm pretty sure the cheap shop has similar which will be less than the £3 Mr T charge for them. While I'm doing that I'll take a big bag of stuff to the charity shop in town, and the box of books to the drop off shop. I'll probably grab some lunch while I'm there.

scubaangel

I spent yesterday not seeming to make much headway. Today things seem to have come together nicely though.


All the blinds are cleaned, and dusted off again since the flat is ridiculously dusty!


I finished the oven today, and cleaned out all the kitchen cupboards - I think I need to give a couple of them another wipe over tomorrow, same with the doors - they're the silly shiney ones so mark really easily.


Bedroom is done, swept and mopped and the door is closed hopefully I'll not need to go back in there tomorrow other than to show its clean when the landlord comes to do the checkout.


Bathroom is pretty much there too, might have to give the bath a wipe down and a quick polish up of the tiles as they were looking quite streaky as they were drying this evening.


Living room needs mopping, same with the entrance and utility cupboard. I'll probably need to sponge some more marks off the walls down there too but the light isn't great down there so wasn't sure how bad it was this evening. If I have time I'll give the outside wood on the door frame a wipe over with a damp cloth tomorrow too.



I need to empty the car before I head over in the morning, it was raining quite hard when I got home tonight so I didn't want to mess around with the stuff in there. Once I get back there tomorrow I need to finish the cleaning bits and get all the boxes in the car. As long as I can get the beanbag in there I'm good barring possibly moving the bin bags (not sure if the landlord will be funny about me leaving them in the bin cupboard). I'm tempted to put all my bags out on the end of the carpark, so I can go home unload the beanbag and boxes then go back to take those to the tip so I'm not leaving it all behind.



I just hope I'm not underestimating the size of the beanbag compared to the size of the back of my car :rotfl:

scubaangel

Flat handed back, ,little bit annoyed as the landlord turned up two hours earlier than we'd agreed so I wasn't finished. But they agreed that everything was as it should have been, just waiting for them to release the deposit now.


Done another run to the storage unit today, had a shuffle of whats in there and made better use of the space - I'm not looking forward to emptying it out though. But thats a year away at least!


Planning an evening IKEA trip with my friend as she can be child free this evening. So we're going to treat ourselves to dinner in the restaurant....not so long ago we'd have gone straight to 'Spoons and stayed until we fell over or were kicked out. When did old happen??


I just want a few more storage boxes for the wardrobes, goodness only knows what we'll come home with.

scubaangel

While tidying up some bits that had been put in the wrong places on Saturday I realised I'd not seen a necklace which has sentimental (as well as actual) value, for quite a long time. One of the first things I did before I moved was pack my jewellery and move it in to the males so that it wasn't in the flat while viewings were happening, I remember at the time thinking I'd not seen it but not worrying about it as I'd worn it fairly recently so thought I'd have put it in a trinket box in the living room rather than the bedroom where I normally kept things, or as I thought I remembered putting it on the bedside table that it'd fallen down the side - again didn't worry about it since that area was an absolute tip and I didn't have time/couldn't be bothered to rummage and find it at the time.


Then quite honestly forgot about it, I had so much going on I just didn't realise I'd not found it while I was packing.


When I realised on Saturday I'd rather hoped I had found it and popped it in the box with my other jewellery without remembering I'd done it, but I haven't. I've now spent three days looking for it here, I've checked every box, bag and pocket, I've unpacked every storage item and shaken out every item of clothing. No sign of it.


Thinking back to when I last saw it I'm convinced it was in the tray on my bedside table, as I vividly remember(or have told myself I remember) looking at it and thinking I needed to make sure I packed it safely just before I did pack all my jewellery. Rather frustratingly I didn't mention on here that I'd moved the jewellery boxes so I can't cross check to see if it was when there had already been any viewings of the flat - I don't want to say someone stole it but given I have moved, handled, and packed every object I own over the last few months and either kept, binned or charity shopped them all it seems really weird that a necklace that means so much to me hasn't turned up and been put where it belonged.


But I've not checked in the storage unit yet - there are places I want to check in there like the bedside cabinet drawers - I have kept some things in them so theres a possibility that it fell in and was stuck in or between something, but they're right at the back so I'll need help to essentially completely unpack the unit to get at them. I'll have to unpack and recheck every single box I packed as well.]


I've asked my Dad if he has any record from when he bought it to try and track a replacement down, the box has no branding in it, and googling I can't find anything like it and I don't have any clear enough photos to try an image search. If it doesn't turn up I'll be absolutely gutted!

scubaangel

Still no sign of my necklace.


Walked in to town today with two carrier bags for the charity shop, and the box of books for ziffit.


Had confirmation that my flat deposit is being returned in full - so yay!


Spoke to Nielsen scanning panel and requested to change my equipment to the type that doesnt need a phone line (our phone line is really awkward to get to and theres nowhere near it to keep the handset).


Missed a parcel delivery so I need to walk back in to town tomorrow to pick that up - one of the big benefits of having moved is that I'm technically in a new postal town so the parcel office is a 10 minute walk away in the town centre while the office from where I used to live was in another town entirely. Expecting a couple of other bits I'd ordered on amazon.


We also got the new council tax bill, for the two of us its only £1 less than my single person discounted c.t was at the old flat. Crazy.


I've set up a payment to the male for my half of the bills and will amend it when we find out what the additional bills are going to be. I need to send him my part of the shopping from the weekend too, but as I ordered him a small tool using my amazon account I'll be taking that off what I send. Hopefully in the next few weeks we'll get to grips with how to handle the more general household finances.

scubaangel

Cancelled all my old DD's last night, the collection of emails advising me that if I don't reinstate them I'll get charged is rather hilarious.


Two are from companies I haven't had any connection with for over a year (my old gas and electric supplier and an old ISP).
One is from Bulb, who warn me they might not be able to take or refund payments - they've refunded me the outstanding credit that was on my account which is what prompted me to cancel all the other payments as well.
One is from the TV Licence people which considering I posted the cancellation forms to them three weeks ago is pretty unsurprising, eventually I'm sure I'll get the refund I'm due via cheque as requested.


In the meantime I walked in to town for my parcel, it was the coffee filters which is surprising as they had the longer lead time and would have gone through the letter box. It just means my poor little fish are staying in their temporary home a few days longer.


I decided now was a good time to look at how I'm going to save towards the future plan of buying a joint home in a couple of years. My back of the beer mat calculations show that if I'm sensible (yeah thats the problem area right there......) while saving the equivalent of his mortgage payment every month I can get myself debt free in under 18 months. So I've been investigating savings options for about £440.



So because I prefer not to tie it all up on one place at least to begin with I've applied for the Scottish Friendly ISA for £100 a month, it's a big enough sum to make a difference if it performs well over the next few years but small enough it'll not hurt too badly if it doesn't by the time we're looking to sell his flat and move and I need to cash it in before the 5 year anniversary. I applied through TCB so all being well should get a nice chunk of cashback on it too in a few months, knowing me I'll forget though so it'll be a nice surprise when it does come through.


I'm also looking at other savings accounts, for the remainder of what I plan to save - roughly £340. At the moment I've set up a sweep from my main account in to a savings for it but I'm looking to see if anywhere offers better rates than my Santander instant access savings (or indeed any other Santander account since thats my main bank). Currently giving myself a headache trying to work it all out, most banks want you to change to their fee paying current account product for the best rates which given I'm not going to be paying any monthly bills directly (aside from my phone contract) most of them aren't really worth it for me. Although if I can keep my Santander account with enough cash in it to get enough interest monthly to cover the account fee it'll be worth leaving my arrangements as they are according to the current maths - I've waiting to hear back from my local branch to see if they've an appointment next week so I can go in and sort out my options with one of their advisors.

scubaangel

So the ability to be sensible.....as mentioned above.



I ordered myself a new mermaid tail (skin), and fin a couple of days ago - the one I have has frustrated me as it's a single footpocket and strap and I find it won't stay on my feet when inside the skin. So I've ordered a new fin which has two straps and dual pockets, and as the fin is a different shape I needed a skin to match.


In an incredibly fortuitous twist my Dad came to visit today - he brought down a pile of random documents he thought I needed (?), including two letters to Santa, an old secondary school photo, my school reports from Year 11 (common themes, quiet, needs to ask for help, would do better with more homework completed ontime/revision), the cycle registration scheme documents from two bikes, weirdly one which is still in my Dad's garage, the other that we must have got rid of years ago, my driving test pass certificates (theory and practical), and the fortuitous bit. The bank books from an old NS&I investment savings account, the last entry being from 1991 a few months before we moved from the house in the West Mids, back home to Lancs. Goodness only knows how over the years it's been missed or ignored when Dad had to deal with finances (apparently my sister and I both have one, and they were in the document box with his mortgage papers).



From the sounds of it my sister filled in the tracing service paperwork and sent it a few weeks ago, and has had an acknowledgement of it and is just waiting for the money to arrive. No idea how much as the book is slightly water damaged and the last entry is impossible to read but given the other amounts recorded it could be around £240 plus whatever interest may be due.


He also brought down the running leggings I bought from a woman in the village via fb marketplace as they were a bargain and totally appropriate fabric.



While he was here we went out for a walk around Frensham Ponds and Common. It was a bit damp through to just plain soggy with the rain but a very pleasant walk nontheless.

scubaangel

Busy weekend, and early part of this week.


Worked all weekend, including running a 10k trail event on Sunday morning before I headed in to work.



I was off on Monday but at my work venue as I had been invited to attend a dinner event, and was given a comp room for the night, so I arrived as close to check in time as I could to make the most of the spa access before dinner, same again yesterday morning.



I was a little bit delicate all day yesterday, going to bed at 5am when the wine ran out was not a good idea! But I survived my shift and have today off to recover further.



Getting ready to go in to town, need to change my address with Santander, for some reason whenever I submit it online the OTP doesn't come through until 24 hours later which has been driving me nuts since I need a statement to prove my address for the new savings account I'm trying to set up!


I've text the male to see what his plans are so I can work out if I should be doing dinner for both of us or just feeding myself.

scubaangel

Home from holiday. Overall costs £300 changed to Euro (for me and the male, we brought back about 150e for next time), £75 car hire while there (84 euro, it costs 45 euro for a taxi to or from the airport), £34 for the parking at the UK airport. Male paid for the flights £250 each so we paid roughly the same amounts for the trip.


Before we went I'd cashed out £50 from yougov which has landed in my account and £25 from swagbucks - not yet arrived.

scubaangel

Dealing with the build up of emails from while I was away before bed tonight.


I've redeemed £5 from answerpoints for amazon, with another £5 to come as soon as tonights survey stops pending.
£5 paypal from pinecone.
£2 amazon from a junk mail panel


I have however had a rather spendy morning, I paid for my entry in to Tough Mudder classic, and the Jubilee River swim again in June (they're all of a week apart so I suspect I'll be swerving the climbing obstacles more than normal!).


I've also got a few ideas for the male things Festive season gift, need to do some research and see if I can get it on amazon and if I can how much I need to redeem in gc to pay for it - I expect I'll be able to get a chunk from shop and scan if they have vouchers available.