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

Cheery_Daff

I've still only had one survey from Populus, which had expired in the few hours since I received the link, so I'm about ready to give up on them!

Thanks for the reminder on Prolific though, not been checking it lately...

EssexHebridean

I've just decided life is too short to be mucking about with survey sites which don't seem to want to play fair with us. I clicked 50% of the way through a Populus one last week only to them strangely "not be the demographic they wanted" but I'm afraid I just don't believe that the information I've already given wasn't going to be used for something! 

I think it was you put me on to Prolific in the first place - when you actually knuckle down to remembering to check it it's a cracking earner isn't it! 

EssexHebridean

Another small MSE win is that I have cancelled a magazine subscription that I didn't feel I was getting value from any more. Had the confirmation that it has been stopped through today, the DD has been cancelled and I will still get one more issue (it's a quarterly) from what I have already paid. It's only £17 a year, but better in my pocket!

On a less MSE (but planned and budgeted for) front I have just booked our tickets for the Good Food Show - first time in years we've paid actual money for them, usually it's Clubcard vouchers but they're not on the deals this time. Did however get a 15% off offer yesterday, which I clicked through from but didn't actually purchase...meaning I have been sent a 20% offer today! 

Cheery_Daff

EssexHebridean said:

I've just decided life is too short to be mucking about with survey sites which don't seem to want to play fair with us. I clicked 50% of the way through a Populus one last week only to them strangely "not be the demographic they wanted" but I'm afraid I just don't believe that the information I've already given wasn't going to be used for something! 

I think it was you put me on to Prolific in the first place - when you actually knuckle down to remembering to check it it's a cracking earner isn't it! 

Certainly is! I've just checked and have £2.76 in there 🙄 But I did a study for another £1.50 while I was there so a good job I checked!

amber03

I had a subscription for a monthly magazine, that basically covered the same subjects each month, so much so I think some months I didn’t even read it. Then found out that my local library had a E magazine section online, that if you had a library ticket you could register, log on and “borrow” the magazine and read it on my I pad. It’s free which is the best thing and the magazine I used to subscribe to is one of the magazines I can borrow.x

savingholmes

Well done on the survey completion. I used to find I always got screened out so in the end I gave up. I did get a couple of free holidays from either that or competition entries on here though - they were linked to the share and time thing but as long as you can say no that was still okay.

EssexHebridean

LOL Cheery that’s pretty much what happened to me the other week when I remembered about it again! 🤣

Ahh Amber that’s a really good tip - I do use the library app for some things, although this particular publication won’t be on there, there is certainly other magazines on the same subject - photography - that I can access instead though, thanks for the reminder! 😁

Renewed my gym pass as planned earlier and went straight there from work. I’d not been sure how well it would work but I had a good run back and got there at 5.45 which meant I had an hour and a quarter for my workout including warm-up and cool down. I can feel some achey legs coming on tomorrow! 

A few more bits on Prolific this evening - all being well I reckon I’ll be able to cash out tomorrow! 

EssexHebridean

Morning all - another grey gloomy day here, although I did stay dry on the way to the office, which was a pleasant surprise!

SH I missed you there - I think we cross-posted! Free holidays are great - I get bored really fast with the survey sites when they take the mickey with screen-outs - I can usually do odds and ends during the day at work though so the likes of YouGov etc are pretty good when I actually get focused on doing them.

As hoped I had a couple of oddments confirmed on Prolific by this morning so have just cashed out £20.16 and paid straight off the 0% card. Also got a penny bonus as they paid me £20.17 - suspect that will even out in due course though! Also snared a 10 point survey already on OnePoll this morning. 

0% card now stands at £311.84 - it started at £699.00 at the beginning of the year though so coming down nicely. The monthly payments are still rolling along at £40 p/m - this means there will be £31.84 outstanding at the time the 0% ends - so my first target is to create that amount in "free money" from surveys etc to get to "break even" point,  then I'll start working on bringing the pay off date forwards a bit. 

Now - today *should* be a NSD - I do have those ferry tickets etc to book, but am currently leaning towards leaving that lot to do on Friday, and there is nothing else we need. Tea tonight will be a lamb & butternut squash curry using up cooked lamb chunks from the freezer and the remainder of the cheap butternut squash I bought a couple of weeks back. should be relatively quick to throw together and we'll have it with rice. Need to freezer dive for tomorrow - decided that liver & onions will wait until next week though as we have tatties coming in the veg box which should make mash. 

I might need a list for Friday...

EssexHebridean

Apologies - a few posts incoming with planning, lists and random thoughts, I suspect. 

First up - meal planning - need to get back to it as that is the ONLY way to successfully eat our way through the freezers. 
Tonight - already planned - lamb & butternut curry, rice. 
Thurs 21/10 - Pork steaks, mixed grains (packet) veg.
Fri 22/10 - fry-up from freezer.*
Sat 23/10 - burgers, onions, dip & chips. 
* this will use up the last of the mushrooms from the fridge, plus I reckon I can use the one remaining tattie to make https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/user/65852/recipe/potato-scones - we have bacon, sausages and black/white pudding in the freezer. Might need to get eggs, or simply tell MrEH we're having it without eggs! 

Next week we have the veg box arriving on Sunday morning - contents should be: Potatoes, Onions, Peppers, Cucumber, Lettuce* (Living, Red Leaf or Romaine), Cauliflower, Squash, Fennel, Mushrooms. have also added a bag of soft citrus to the order 
Need to plan in a salad to use the salady bits. The cauliflower will probably go at least 50% to making piccalilli as it's that time of year - I'd like to negotiate the other half to make a meal from though - maybe a variation on this:   https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/spicy-cauliflower-halloumi-rice
Sunday will be slow roast pork I think - not decided whether to do this barbecue style in the SC again - it was gorgeous done like that last time. (this is not the recipe I used, but sounds fantastic! https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/slow-cooker-pulled-pork ) - I grabbed a big chunk of reduced pork in T's the other night so it will be good to bounce it straight out of the freezer again! There should be enough for two meals for the week plus a couple of servings to go in the freezer again as well.
Monday 25th - Liver, onions, mash, veg
Tuesday 26th - tuna salad
Weds. 27th - Pulled pork with sauteed fennel, pepper, mushroom & courgette
Thurs 28th - something with cauliflower...

Shopping list:
Tomatoes
Dip
Tortilla chips
Brioche buns
Apple Juice
usual milk, fruit etc 

That is quite literally "food for thought" isn't it! 

EssexHebridean

List for the remainder of this week - stuff that needs doing! 
- Get pork steaks out of the freezer for tomorrow night
- Re-set the electricity monitor with the right rates & time
- Book Ferry Tickets
- Book Travelodge
- Decide on and book return overnight stop
- Make Lakeland purchases (bread maker, bread tin, stayfresh bags) using 20% off voucher 
- Sort out Santander banking login
- amend transfers from new joint account
- Remind MrEH he  needs to sort out his S2S transfer which failed last week
- Sort out shopping list - above
- Another gym visit 
- shopping
- buy next batch of premium bonds
- Charity Shop trip (saturday morning probably)
- financial discussion - we do these from time to time and it's about time it happened again!

One big thing for us to work on is the planning for the next lot of refurb work on the flat. MrEH contacted the plasterer we plan to use today - he's recommended by the electrician we use and trust - and he's about to go away but has said if we can get back to him in a couple of weeks he'll be able to come and quote, and if we want him to go ahead he should be able to do the work in December so that's a good start. 
Stuff to think about - the extent of the plastering we want to get done right now -
- Hallway walls & ceiling 
- Bathroom ceiling? 
- Front room
- bedroom - window / door recesses where the windows were changed? Suspect quite a lot of the previously very damp wall will need doing too.
Flooring - what sort of thing, are we sticking with the bamboo we have seen samples for?
Flooring - can Steve the Handyman do flooring? If not can he recommend someone else who can? If not the bamboo, can he do the tiled section in the porch area? Do we want this to go right into the recess - I think probably yes.
Can Steve do skirtings, coving etc? How will the coving even work allowing for what it has to be fitted around? 
Decorating - this will be Steve I think. Colours? 
Hallway lighting - need to decide on what and probably whatsApp Lee the Electrician to check it will work OK without needing lots of faff. LED fitting?