22 Foxhole East

f0xh0les

Just checked my Ant&Dere  bank and a shiny £200 switchy bonus bribe has been paid in, so off to RBeeS this afternoon to start  their switchy bribe - should take less than a week.   I do not need to  apply for any kind of credit check this year - house insurance was March, and car is Dec/Jan, so it does not matter if I turn up the tart behaviour.

Paying off the mortgage was a big hit to the score.   Just got to get the next £200 bribe and the ambient income will have topped the renovation fund to £40k.  Then all I earn is fun money.

Gas and Electric bill went up 25% on last month (screaming blue haired emoji please - insert your own) have read the riot act to the kids about leaving stuff charging, or switched on, or extractor fans, but really fear it is DH and his tumble drier habit.....

Right, off to do a small shop for bread and tat,  have made a meal plan for the week, containing lovely things such as spinach fatayer, falafel, (mostly potato and carrot) curry, a seitan satay, a butternut squash soup, and a tomato and red pepper soup.

Most of it is from stores, but you try  keeping a pot of peanut butter in this house and see where it gets you.  So it is bought as and when required, or the pantry fairies just clean out the contents for you in the night. DH eats it by the spoonful in his bid to diet...It is most amusing to try and carry out a conversation with someone holding a teaspoon behind their back and making 'yes dear' noises whilst pretending they do not have a mouthful of peanut butter, silently fantasising they were a giraffe.  Well, that is what it looks like to me.  Each to his own.

Budget is £20 max. because the kids got given £20 by their grandparents in cold hard folding, and one by one, they will come down and ask me to convert it to their bank account Human ATM in reverse.

Today will also include doing laundry and line drying, making a crumble with d-f-i-l's scrumped rhubarb, and trying to catch soddin' rattuses.

KajiKita

Hi Foxgloves,

I have read the whole of this diary (took me a while) and I have really enjoyed reading all about your adventures in the house, with the locusts you live with and your adventures in retail! I also really appreciate you being a bona fide vegan - I live with an omni and a certain amount of eggs and butter are creeping back into my diet - I am going to try and eliminate those again!

So hugely impressed by your ability to save and take a creative approach to minimise spending. I can't CS very much (I am very time-poor) but I did buy required new tops (needed for a funeral) from V1nted this week so you are inspiring new habits in me  

Oh and thanks to you I have tracked down a 'wading bird' shop - not close to me but in a town that I got to for a haircut every 8 weeks. My next cut is in 2 weeks time so I shall be in there first thing (8am!) for a recce! 

The mental image of your OH hiding a teaspoon behind his back - too funny. I'm amazed he thinks he can pull that one over you!    

KK

f0xh0les

Hiya @KajiKita welcome onboard!  - Foxgloves is another lovely poster on here, mostly on the old school boards, and we get mixed up all the time. You learn so much from other people on MSE, every little tip and trick helps.  Good luck with your journey, and don't be a stranger!

KajiKita

I have read @foxgloves' thread too Hence why I am 'shopping' from my own stocks held in the house! (MiL's Birthday card for Mr KK last night, for her birthday tomorrow!) 

Thank you for the welcome  Very much appreciated.

KK 

f0xh0les

DH has just had an email from The City Bank to tell him to close his account as they have decided unless you are using their wealth management service in the UK, they do not want his money.  So  after he stopped laughing, he tried to switch out for £200, but it seems The Bank of Cities have not signed up to the switchability service. Oh well. So he tried to transfer his money out of his  account and ended up with a phone call from the security department as it was a suspicious transaction - trying  to empty an account they told him he would soon no longer be able to use. 

Make up your flippin' mind CB peeps.

Busy day down at the foodbank today. Quite a few people who had never had to come to us before. Bless.   They won't be so frightened next time. Good work done. Made a difference.

Came home, made a big falafel meal for supper. was stuffed to the gills on one portion,  as I have been on short rations since coming back from Ireland. Was really happy with my loss so far this morning, hope it stays that way after the biggest meal I have had in 4 days.  It is still nothing compared to what I was packing away a fortnight ago.  Still, there is always tomorrow....

f0xh0les

I am under 13 stones for the second day in a row.  So glad I am in the 12s, and bizarrely, after really not giving a fig for the last 2 months, I am utterly motivated and in the right head space.  Weird how that happens.

 I had a cup soup for my supper last night, because I was not particularly hungry, and thought, just have a banana and a soup then!  Made the kids leftovers - terrible mother that  I am -  so 2 portions of miso noodle soup and 2 portions of pie were reheated with  added oven chips, the leftover rice  was fried with leftover veggies , then rhubarb crumble, and nutella cake were served up with ice cream, and are now all gone from the fridge. 

So today the fridge will have a clean, in my head I am making my meal plan for the week with what we still have left

-leek pastries can be made (small chilli salty fried dumplings of gorgeousness called boolawnee),

- we can have  steamed buns and potstickers with a miso soup - they are in the freezer and just need steaming

- Spinach fatayer, probably with a za'atar - just to keep the kids full and happy

- Griddled aubergine, peppers and roasted butternut squash salad with feta style cheese -no way the kids will touch that though!

- Hungarian paprika potato stew (with sausages I will need to buy)

Which is not a bad position to be in after the weekend, and before the shopping.  Of course, a spag bol,  and beans on toast are in reserve just in case we need a quickie meal.   DH goes away on Friday morning for his weekend in a field with mates holiday.

Yesterday I went on a trawl of the charity shops, the first one I went in I found a pine frame for my large Dalek poster, £5, I can paint it black for the desired effect and hang it in its final resting place while DH is away next weekend, along with my Shipping Forecast poster - I feel a hammer attack coming on - as I have a mirror or two to put up as well.  

Found a white shirt for work £2), and a white shirt for work once I have lost an inch off my ribcage (not working until July anyway!) (£3) and a crochet hook and a shirt for DS3. A pair of shoes for work (£4) that may have been worn once, possibly, if that - the paper labels are still on the bottoms, and a brand new 25l daypack for DS4 for when he goes on his 4 day school trip in June (£3.75).    Not bad for a morning's trawl, then I came home and watched us lose the football.  Shameful.

Lovely evening geeking out,  catching up on Picard,  The Mandalorian, and starting series 3 of Daredevil - not sure you are supposed to actively dislike the 'hero'.

apple_muncher

'a crochet hook and a shirt for DS3'. Hmmm. Apple is wondering why you need these 2 items for ds3...

f0xh0les

For C-word 2 years ago he asked for wool, knitting needles and how to knit books.. he did nothing with them, then decided he wanted to crochet so I got him a crochet hook which he promptly lost, thus ruining all his chances of playing the crochet professionally and gaining a scholarship to Harvard.  So I have replaced it out of misplaced maternal guilt.  The shirt he was just rude about.  It doesn't have a sportswear logo on it you see. 

f0xh0les

Just had confirmation the IrishBank account is open, and I have a card, and as soon as the card reader calculator wotnot arrives, I can log on, and transfer money in, and out, and then I should get the £200 in the next 7 days.

I started all this switching with DirectFirst Bank, about 18 years ago, for £125 but  could not get on with their system at all, switched to the coop because it was closest to the house, it worked, but still niggles, swapped out to the H0lifax for their switch bonus about 10 years ago, love their banking app and all that goes along with it, had to open various current accounts with other banks we had mortgages with so that I could see the  mortgage balance online (so awful!! ) and some would only accept overpayments without charge by a linked bank account. Grrr, it is easy enough to open a second current account online with your main bank. I have never been rejected - bit odd when you consider I did not have 'an income' per se.  Had to open other accounts due to probate and keeping everything separate, so decided this year to switch out rather than close it. 

I think the Shanghai bank and Clyde'sdale have been the only ones I have ever just closed and left in disgust, but they are the same group, and the internet banking was shockingly shoddy for what I wanted it for.

Now I do not have credit/mortgage I am not worried about the length of my relationships with banks. I am keeping H'fax cos I like it, and thinking that if (when) Ireland unifies / if DH gets a job outside of UKPLC, then having a bank account on The Island of, will be a good idea, even if they have pulled out of the south, next stop will be to get a TeEsBe account  when  they next offer a  bribe - who even knew they were an Irish bank?   Not done anything about getting Irish passports yet.  It is still on the list.

KajiKita

I want to look at getting an Irish passport (and becoming a European again!), but my father (who is full Irish - Northerner I think ...?) is being very reluctant to help me ....  I have a vague idea that I could possibly do it via my Grandpa (deceased) - do you think I might get away with that? 

I am totally with you on Halif@x being easy to access and use and I find N@ationwide is pretty good too. Not had much experience of the others. As a savings account @tom's security is faffy to set up but once it's done that is also very easy to use as well. I had NO idea that TEE Ess Bee was an Irish bank either!   

KK