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

savingholmes

Making lots of progress. You sound very disciplined on food too

EssexHebridean

Cornwall was lovely but MUCH spendier than we would usually be on a trip away - always difficult when you’re with others who don’t really budget, so just need to accept it, do the money shuffle and move on. We ended up eating out most of the time - MrEH and I usually  do one meal a day out and the other cooking at the accommodation or taking a packed lunch when we’re away. One definite win was doing the Eden Project entirely on Clubcard vouchers - and even managing to get £4 of change credited back to the account too - that was all from vouchers which were due to expire quite soon too so even better. There will be some money to comeback from our friends too - we paid for some shopping and a couple of meals out so that will need splitting out and balancing off with the bits they paid for. 

I’ll do a proper round up tomorrow on where we’re at, but for now, will try to add some photos… 

Early morning view from the house at Coverack

Eden Project

view from St Michael’s Mount

Lizard Point


Lowland Point

beanielou

Looks awesome

savingholmes

Beautiful photos and scenery. I bet it did you the world of good to be able to see it, walk around the area etc. Well done on the voucher use...

EssexHebridean

It was GAWJUS SH - it was so nice to be able to get back there after loving it so much earlier in the year! 

Right then - what are we here for again? Oh yes - money stuff, that's the one.

Bank account switch has happened and I was delighted and relieved that even the old internal transfer standing orders from the J/Ac to the savings pots have gone across with it too - that makes life a whole heap simpler. Just need to keep an eye on things now for the next few weeks to make sure the DD's go as they should - although I see no reason why they wouldn't. Mr EH also needs to check next week that his pay is set up to transfer to the new account too. 

I need to print off the credit card statement to sort out the finances after the last few weeks where the spendy elves have been running amok. It's sortable, that I know, but right now feels daunting, and I'm not up for daunting today, so it will wait. I *have* realised that this weekends shenanigans in Edinburgh will fall into next month though - a bit naughty I know but that is breathing space, and I AM up for breathing space. 

Prolific is starting to build again since I've discovered that I can relatively easy do their studies on my iPad. not sure why it hadn't occurred to me before, but now it has so hurrah for that. quite happy to have a quick look to see what there is either during my lunchbreak, or in the evening, and as before I will pick the better payers and/or the super short ones. Got just under £15 sitting there at the moment with another couple of £ pending, as previously as soon as I get to £20 I'll cash out. Money from that will go across to my 0% card - the one that the phone cost is sitting on.

Topcashback also has just under £15 ready to go - that when I claim it will go to the other 0% card - the one that took the car deposit, the money for my foldy bike and the balance of what was owing on the previous 0% from the laptop...

...And on the subject of the foldy bike, I've given up on Halfords. Also - a note to anyone who might be considering purchasing from them - their website reviews are a load of shameless bunkum as they simply refuse to publish anything negative now. I've tried twice, and been kicked back both times. Apparently you can't make any reference to customer service in a review - unless it's positive customer service, looking at the other reviews...hmmm. Anyway - after the 3rd bike had to go back due to assembly faults, and they were unable to sort it out in well over a week, I simply demanded and got a refund. I've now purchased a replacement from a local firm - still a chain but not the massive chain that Halfords is. Not quite a good to ride as the Raleigh sadly, but I expect I'll get used to it. It did come with a £70 cost saving too which was nice - £10 of that has been spent on a set of lights which I was going to need anyway, the balance will be bumped across to that 0% card as that was where the bike costs ended up.

Talking of refunds for things, to my astonishment we have the refund from our credit with Bulb already - I was expecting that to take FAR longer AND to need chasing up too! Turns out in spite of their insistence that we would need to re-set the DD as "we'd end up owing them money" in fact they owed US £70.70 back....well fancy that, eh?! That will be shuffled across to an advance payment to the account with Utility warehouse just as soon as I work out how to do that. I've shifted it into the Household account for now to make sure it doesn't sneak off.

Shopping this week has been a grand total of £17 split between Al's and Mozzers, and that should be all we need for the week now. Tonight's dinner will be the other half of the lamb stew I made on Sunday, and I will do a freezer dive for something nice and quick to prep for tomorrow. 

Hmmm...what else. We're still waiting for EDF to bother to tell us how much they will be charging us for Gas. Oh and the Council are up to their old tricks with trying to charge the leaseholders in our block for stuff that shouldn't be chargeable - I think MrEH is going to pick up the mantle on that one in due course. 

savingholmes

Sounds like you have done a good wallet workout there - and delegated where needed

Good that the surveys are going well and that you've got your refund. 

We had bad experiences with H@lf0rds too. Some of their bike set ups have been dangerous.

beanielou

Halfords sound dire.

EssexHebridean

Interesting to hear that about Halfords SH - that is certainly my experience - the second one I had could quite feasibly have killed me had I just wheeled it out of the store without checking it. The final one could easily have lead to serious injury - it damn nearly deposited me under a bus! It scares me that people buy bikes from their kids from there too - and there is pretty much no way of making the issues known to other potential customers on the website as they won't publish reviews which are negative. 

Beanie - 100% dire!

Well I left the house this morning on a dinner fail - was meant to freezer-dive to work out what we were eating this evening but forgot, so now need to think through what we have to use up to plan something. It might be a quite entertaining meal! 

CC shuffle now mostly done. The "joint fun" spend in between Cornwall, the weekend in St Albans, and a hotel booking for Norwich for the end of the month was quite eye watering but I'm consoling myself that we did after all do almost nothing last year, so this is kind of just catching up...that's what I'm trying to convince myself anyway! Just waiting for MrEH to transfer his share from the new joint account to the card account - I think he thought I was going to do it but there's no reason why he can't, I've just realised, so that will be one less job for me AND might make him get around to setting up the app. 

The Halfords refund has now landed on the CC as well - and I have reminded Mr EH that he needs to transfer the £60 extra over the cost of the replacement bike to the 0% card in his name. On the subject of the bike I was still having issues with a slipping seat but *think* I have now sorted it out - it was certainly better for the final part of my ride this morning, so hopefully it will hold OK this evening too. Oh and I've gained the last of a bottle of chain lube that my Boss no longer wanted, so that will save me needing any of that for a while!

The plug on our bathroom sink is sticking again - I think the brass mechanism must fail after a while - it seems to last about 3 years before needing replacement. I've done a Prime order for a pack of 6 of the mechanism bolts so fingers crossed that should keep up going for a good while so long as I remember where I've put them when they turn up - £8.99 spend - by far the cheapest way of buying them too - a pack of 2 would have only been £1 less. It's at times like this I remember why we pay the Prime membership! 

EssexHebridean

Tea last night ended up being cheese 4-root mash, topped with fried eggs, and the last of a lump of hogs pudding we brought back from Cornwall. The eggs also came back from Cornwall - there were only 3 otherwise I might have gone the omelette route - the cheese in the mash was a rather elderly piece of gouda which might have been a bit hard to eat any way other than grated, and the mash also used up the remaining swede and parsnips, and another bendy carrot, alongside a couple of tatties. 

This evening needs to be quick - and so will be jackets with beans and cheese. Quick, easy win! 

Yesterday was a NSD (I'm not counting the credit card payments as that is simply relocating funds from one place to another) but today will not be - we'll need to put some diesel in MrEH's car before we head off this evening. Planning on leaving home as soon after 7pm as we're ready as our section of motorway closes from 9pm I think so we want to be sure to not get caught up in that. This evening we're going as far as Retford, with onwards travel to Edinburgh tomorrow morning. Very much looking forward to catching up with some great friends who due to the past two years beer festival being cancelled, we've not seen since August 2019! Breakfast tomorrow will be something grabbed on the run, Saturday will be Wetherspoons, most likely, as we need to be somewhere with wifi to join a virtual meeting at 1100, and Sunday we will try to find something a bit more interesting. Will also need lunches for the three days - Sunday will probably be a sandwich grabbed on the way back - or possibly a stop somewhere for fish & chips if we return on the A1. I've researched a few budget options for tomorrow , we'll only need something light though. Tomorrow evening's meal is highly likely to be haggis & chips from our favourite Edinburgh chippy, and food on Saturday evening is taken care of at our friend's birthday party. Spendy, but under control and planned for. Tomorrow and Saturday afternoon we're just planning to wander round the City I think - been a while since I was last up there and Edinburgh is gorgeous in the autumn! Got a few spots I want to visit for photos, too. Might even have a wander around the Botanical Garden which is fabulous!

Nothing much else MSE-ish to report really. I feel as though I'm settling into the new folding bike OK although she HAD decided to be grumpy and throw her chain off this morning - it's just because putting her into the car means the gearing mechanism can get knocked though I think - it was off when I dragged her out and is easy enough to pop back on, I just need to make it one of my routine checks. 

EssexHebridean

Sigh - OK, today has NOT been a NSD as I remembered that we will shortly have a need for travel insurance so have sorted that out, and also remembered that I needed a couple of bits from ZipVit so have also ordered those. Positives - went via TCB for both - only 55p on the travel insurance but theoretically £3.80 from Zipvit - although that one *might* fail because I also used a code for £4 off - sometimes they just pay regardless though so fingers x'd. Zipvit has already tracked so we'll see... Further positive - the travel insurance was only £33 which seems pretty reasonable - I mean fair enough we only need basic cover, but still. 

I opted to buy a years supply of both things from Zipvit too - far cheaper than buying in smaller amounts even if a bit ouchy right now. Did get a free one month supply of multivitamins too mind - that'll sort out my vitamin D requirements for a while.