EH - Essex > Hebrides...the next step of the adventure?

WannabeFree

Hope all is well EH

x

EssexHebridean

Oopsy - where did March go?!

All ticking along nicely here - including a lovely trip up to Yorkshire over the Easter weekend. we managed to get out and about and do lots in spite of it being ridiculously wet for a fair bit of the time. The majority of the weekend was paid for from various budgeted means too - the accommodation was last month's council tax & water rates money, a couple of meals out will come from our joint fun budget, and odds and ends of spending came from money not spent over last month from the joint account so all good there.

Surveys have slowed down rather although it does feel a bit like Prolific has picked up in the past couple of weeks thankfully. OnePoll is ticking along slowly. Got a Secret survey site one this morning so that will be £3 to cash out in due course, and the others are just ticking along really. Managed to put an extra £10 to the 0% card last month but it really needs to step up a gear now if I'm going to get it cleared without using the money I set aside for it.

Spending - well the weekend away of course, all planned. Also planned was my purchase of a dedicated running watch last month - I was keeping my eye on the one I wanted online, but it was refusing to dip to quite the price i wanted to pay so I held off. Then someone recomended a different one to me and in the course of looking at that Amazon threw me up an offer for £99.99 on the Garmin that I really wanted. Used it a couple of times now and I'm really pleased with it so that was money well spent. MrEH's car had a mini service and health check and will hang on a bit longer by the looks of it, which is good. Mine will need a new tyre fitted after hitting a massive pothole on the M11 on Monday but I'm hoping to claim that money back from the Highways Agency - we'll see how that works out.

Fitness and running stuff continues although I had a rocky patch with running for a few weeks - a very bad run that knocked my confidence rather. I'm getting back into it again now which is good, the new watch has helped as it's given me added motivation to get out there and do it, and I now have a couple of fitness challenges to get stuck into as well which is good. Aiming to throw in a bit more strength training from now as well I think as that will help with the running too.

beanielou

Glad that you had a nice break.

stepuptothepl8

Hi .. word to the wise re pothole claims.. you may not get anywhere if they have an inspection and repair policy in place, unless they've either not done the inspection in time, or haven't repaired it in time once it's been inspected. Definitely worth a go though. PM me if you need any extra info

Which watch did you get?? I got a garmin 235 for my birthday and I it

EssexHebridean

stepuptothepl8 wrote: »

Hi .. word to the wise re pothole claims.. you may not get anywhere if they have an inspection and repair policy in place, unless they've either not done the inspection in time, or haven't repaired it in time once it's been inspected. Definitely worth a go though. PM me if you need any extra info

Which watch did you get?? I got a garmin 235 for my birthday and I it

Ahh thanks for that info - I'll see how I get on I guess. Some of those on the M11 have been there for ages getting steadily worse and worse mind you - I knew about the ones I hit but not that the left hand one had spread sideways across the carriageway making it unavoidable.

Mine is the "baby" version - the Forerunner 35 - debated about the 235 but decided that I couldn't justify the extra spend. The 35 also has the "virtual pacer" function on it that I wanted (and that I must try out at some stage!) - briefly looked at some of the TomTom offerings but it was the Garmin I'd really set my mind on so I was pleased to be able to nab it for the right price!

General money good news here this morning - my CC PPI "Plevin" claim is apparently being paid out on. We now have a mini sweepstake running on quite HOW small the cheque will be when it arrives - I've guessing it might be around £10 at most - the card never had a high balance on it as far as I can recall although I did use it for a fair number of years back in the "pre cashback-cards" days so we'll see. It's not going to be enough to retire on though that's for sure! :rotfl: Still better in my pocket than in theirs, though!

Tomorrow will be a day of getting odds and ends done I think. That tyre replacement, a shopping list and a meal plan, a walk to Aldi & back - onions, and limes from the S6 this week for definite I think - maybe avocado, tomatoes and garlic too depending how they look. A trip to ThaT supermarkeT or possibly sainsbugs - I have a voucher for there thinking about it. Might try to get the bike out of the garage and get some air in the tyres to work out if they need replacing or not too. General house type bits. "Day off" you say? Hmmm!

Pippilongstocking

Morning Moonbeam and friends. Enjoy your day off, I'm having one too.

Happy Friday.

Cheery_Daff

And me with the day off :j :j Although mine is at the tail end of a fortnight off so feels rather bitter sweet....

System

Hope all ok in EH land , and that your Plevin ppl claim got paid out . Plus how is the running going ?

EssexHebridean

Ooh - yes, the Plevin thing, well remembered Cumbria! It did indeed get paid out - and easily once Barclays finally accepted that they REALLY didn't need any of the other info they were demanding from me as it was all irrelevant - initially they were determined to treat it as a full reclaim - which it wasn't, and I didn't want it to be! Anyway...my estimate of "how much" was a bit low....it was £218! :T:T:T Very chuffed with that - and have split it in half, so 50% has gone into long term savings and the remainder is covering purchase of new running kit.

The running is still happening - and I'm signed up to another "race" next month - back at the Olympic Park again which I'm looking forward to. Did parkrun on Saturday morning and while it wasn't my quickest it as probably my best run to date - felt really good throughout and happily ran on at the end to do the additional 0.65 miles to round it up to 3.7 for the "Finish for Matt" thing in honour of the chap who didn't get to complete the London marathon. I've donated to his charity too.

Need to think about getting money shuffling sorted out as we'll both have been paid by the end of today. There will be some changes in surplus amounts this month as MrEH's pension contributions have increased and for the first time ever I now HAVE a pension. Feels worryingly grown up, that! :rotfl: It won't build a vast amount but I guess in the future every little bit will be helpful.

MUST get back to hammering away at the surveys if I'm going to get the 0% card balance attacked before the interest free ends. I'm currently hovering just under £20 on OnePoll so it's feasible to get that paid out pretty soon allowing for the new level. Prolific seems to have gone quiet again. YouGov has now crawled to the 3,125 points level but that's taken so long I have almost no hope of ever getting to payout point! Most of the rest are in a similar state - not really feeling like I'm making much impact.

Meals are all planned for the week and shopping is done too. At various points we should be eating: Chicken stir fry & noodles, Gardeners Pie, Bolognese and something with Pasta. :T

EssexHebridean

Wooo - happy 10 year MSE Anniversary to me! :T:T:T Amazing it's been that long I've been lingering about here - and what fabulous pals I've made as a result!

Money shuffle for the start of the month is all done. We've currently elected to not open a new ISA for this tax year so funds that would previously have gone to that are now going to the TESCO internet saver account instead. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for ISA deals that look like they might work, and might well switch things about if needed. I'll need to keep a track on when that accounts introductory period on the rate ends too as the rate will drop then.

Double checked the finances for our upcoming islandey trip - to Lundy this time so rather further south than we would usually be at this sort of time in the year! The accommodation and ferry was sorted by the pal we're sharing accommodation with and have already been paid back to him, the overnight stop the night before we go is booked as is both of our travel down there which will be split between car & train for both of us - I'll drive most of the way down leaving the car at a suitable spot for MrEH to collect later, then get the train & bus on top Ilfracombe. MrEH meanwhile will hop on the train from London after work and will then collect the car and drive the final bit. All food & drink spending while we're there will go on a tab which gets settled on the last day and I'm confident we have enough stashed away to cover that. There's no spends other than food and drink there as there's nothing to spend on! :rotfl:

Surveys have picked up a bit - managed to get up to about £4 on Prolific (of which £2 is cleared and £2 pending) and up to £21.20 on OnePoll so hoping to kick on a bit with that and maybe get that paid out for the end of the month. Could really do with getting some more Populus stuff but all I've had lately has needed a different computer setup than the one I've been on when the surveys have come through which is a bit annoying.

Had a slightly spendy week as have been invited to photograph my friend's baby's christening on Saturday - a very long way from the sort of thing I usually photograph but very excited to be asked even if rather petrified about it! :eek: Anyway the first thing that worried me was what on earth was I going to wear - I have pretty much no "smart" going out clothes at the moment as of course nothing fitted me so what I had went to the charity shop...popped to Matalan on Tuesday lunchtime though and found a couple of dresses to try - one of which fitted like a glove (How? Dresses NEVER fit me!) and looked nice on as well - hurrah! Added a white thin cardigan as well - total spend of £32, and hoping I can get away with existing shoes with it but need to see about that as they have heels and we'll be on grass for some of the time. Might have to pop out tomorrow and get a suitable pair of flats, but I'll see what I think.

Heading off camping for the weekend - fortunately the location of the christening tied in with where we were going to be anyway - so looking forward to that - although getting changed into smart clothes on a campsite may prove a challenge too far - currently trying to think of where else we might be able to change rather than trying that!

Also waiting to hear from my friend about airshow tickets - he is going to be at some of the shows this summer with his Squadron and had already told me he'd see if he could get tickets - he finds out today if he's got the first lot he's asked for and if he hasn't I'll need to crack on and get that one booked before it sells out. Be handy if he can though as that'll be a nice saving. I've not got quite as much stashed away in my airshow account as I'd like this year so need to think about what I'm planning and work out if it's all achieveable I think - that's probably a job for tomorrow.