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

EssexHebridean

Hi SH! Photos go on social media mostly - I used to sell stuff here and there but ultimately it's something I prefer to do as a hobby rather than as any form of employment so these days I don't market towards sales. I can be found on twitter under the same username as here.

EssexHebridean

First £9 transferred over yesterday to the savings account to offset against the camera service thanks to a payout from Pinecone - yay!

Also established yesterday I'm only a handful of points away from a cash-out on PopulusLive and that will be £50 when I get there.

[Deleted User]

EssexHebridean wrote: »

First £9 transferred over yesterday to the savings account to offset against the camera service thanks to a payout from Pinecone - yay!

Also established yesterday I'm only a handful of points away from a cash-out on PopulusLive and that will be £50 when I get there.

Fingers crossed those last surveys come round quickly for you, it always seems to take forever when you're only a few points away lol x

EssexHebridean

SSDD23 wrote: »

Fingers crossed those last surveys come round quickly for you, it always seems to take forever when you're only a few points away lol x

Doesn't it just! OnePoll is the classic for that I've found - they can make that last 10p needed drag out for weeks! :rotfl:

EssexHebridean

A little lunchtime spendiness:
-Hair dye needed - Superdrug do the one I wanted, and still had it on the 2 for £9 offer (£5.79 bought individually) so I bought the two as I now know that it's one I get on with and will want to use again.
- Had a 15% off voucher for Matalan and knew they had a skirt that would work for me for work so nipped in to try that on. Also remembered while I was in there that I needed a new pair of work trousers - their £6 basic ones work a treat for me particularly as I'm only wearing them about once a week now so grabbed a pair of those. (Size 12 skirt exactly the same size as the size 10 trousers - great sizing policy Matalan!) Also picked up a pack of 3 x pairs of thick tights. Total spend just over £22

On the subject of tights - I am probably going to take the patterned ones I bought in Peacocks the other week back. They are a size "small" which is usual for me - and are meant to fit size 10-12 - 5'1" - 5'4" - I'm a pretty standard size 10 (other than in Matalan skirts as established above) and very definitely only 5'1" and yet they are a SERIOUS struggle to get on and not comfortable once they ARE on either. Realistically I'm not going to wear them again through choice so I think I'll see if I can get my £5 back. I've given them a fair go - wearing them twice to see if a wash would "relax" them out, but it really hasn't.

MrEH has just messaged me to tell me that his rugby match at the weekend has been called off - not sure he thought it was funny when I asked him if they were expecting a typhoon... Does mean that we now have an entire weekend to ourselves mind, which will be nice. It also means now though that I have to factor in going out for a run on Saturday morning while he will almost certainly still be in bed - that will NOT be so nice...Might persuade him he needs a haircut - that will sort that one out.

[Deleted User]

I got a Matalan voucher through the post the other day with a new membership card, plan on using mine for some discounted Christmas presents :rotfl:

I agree, sizing is a real pain, I try to ignore the sizing labels now as they vary too much and just go with what fits, but I really don't see why it's so difficult to get the sizing the same across the board?! :wall:

Hope you get to take back the dreadful sized tights

EssexHebridean

Thanks SSDD23! Yes - my "standard" now is to take in a 10 and a 12 of whatever I'm trying and assume that either one or the other will fit, or one will be too small and the other will be too big! :rotfl: Weird Fish are excellent on sizing I've found - their 10's really are pretty consistent at least. It's frustrating as there is meant to be a UK standard for clothing sizes!

Another small MoneySaving win today - just switched my gas contract and discovered that rather than as I'd assumed, losing a few days off the end of the old one, in fact the new one will take over when the old one finishes. Bargain! As I said previously there was no decision on where to switch it to and it was literally as easy as clicking a button, then clicking another one to say yes thanks, I was sure!

beanielou

Interesting on Weird Fish.
Up until last year I found their sizes consistent.
Bought a cardigan in my usual size of of a 14 & it was miles and miles too big. Because it was so big and the 12 was then out of stock I went with a 10 & would say it is still to big. Sigh.

EssexHebridean

Ooh that's an odd one Beanie - although I've found there is currently a tendency for particularly jumpers to come up mahoosive from all sorts of places - I tried a "medium" in Matalan a while back and it swamped me, and the small size was STILL huge so that got left on the rack!

OK - update time.

Decent progress on the "offsetting" of the camera service - a TCB payout of £74 got split 50/50 between my savings and our joint ones, plus I've just cashed out £24 on Prolific today as well - so currently I'm at £70 of £99 required (Yes, I originally said it was £100 but it turns out that the bill came in slightly cheaper by a few pennies so I wasn't going to argue!) I also finally hit payout level on Populus too so when that cheque arrives (£50!) that will clear the final balance on the service and start contributing towards the annual fee I pay for photo storage on Flickr. The fee for that is going to be taken later in the month I think and I'll know for definite how much it will be when it leaves because it is on dollars.

On the subject of things in dollars I also need to nudge my friend who made the purchase of the new iPad on my behalf in the states to check how much I owe him - although some of it will be offset against some accommodation money that he will be owing me shortly as well I think. once I know the balance there that will be my next financial offsetting challenge I think! :T

Other than that things are ticking along
- I've been sent some decent vouchers which make a Sainsbugs shop this week seem sensible - and have stashed those in my purse - there are also some vouchers via the Nectar app that I have activated too. I'll still call in at Aldi as well as there are oddments I want from there which will be better value than the Sainsbugs equivalent but I should easily enough be able to do a £20 sainsbugs shop which will trigger the saving on the first voucher.
- Aside from an accommodation deposit that I will get back in due course CC spends this month seem reasonable so far. Aim for the next few weeks is to keep spending on that low though - so continue to use cash for "top up" food spends like the Aldi shop.
- Planning a takeaway for Friday night I think - need to remember to reimburse MrEH the money spent on that.
- My car won't need any more diesel for a while yet - this is a very low mileage time of the year for me and I may as well capitalise on that so I'm aiming to get as close as possible to the end of the month before I fill her up again I think.
- we have another 2 monthly payments to go into my regular saver account before that reaches term and closes - although we've now identified an account which we'll probably start using from the New year - although it pays half the interest rate it does allow double the contributions of my current one (which is not available any more) so will work out around the same.

Topping up the EF again is making decent progress and we're planning to continue until January with diverting the money that was previously going to MrEH's regular saver plus any surplus from the joint account.
Paying off the 0% card is trickling along as planned - that will get it's next "big" impact from my regular saver in January.
As alluded to above we have agreed that my regular saver when it finishes will be split 3 ways - between boosting the EF, paying a chunk off the 0% card and going towards our longer term savings pot.

The interest rate on our long term savings takes a hit soon with the Tesco Internet saver dropping to paying peanuts - as there is not one to transfer to within Tesco now so far as we know we'll be looking at the Coventry Building Society account recommended on the main MSE site I think.

savingholmes

Lots of mse positives there. We had a regular saver mature this month too - and got £48 one of our best ever I think... I'm looking forward to the day when a much bigger proportion of our income is passive.