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

Cheery_Daff

Ha, love the idea of decluttering bread for breakfast! What a super way to get the day off to a nice achieve-y start

EssexHebridean

It is a sneaky bit of TaDa’ing I confess - Good to start the day on a win though! 😂

so - list:

Jobs for Sunday 24th

• balcony tidy - lift tiles to dry?  Front ones lifted, balcony far tidier
• MrEH’s car needs a wash
• My bike needs dropping to the shop to get them to check on a random slight creak
• Freezer inventory 
• Hoover right through
• 15 minute tidy - spare room.
• Wipe down all windowsills 
• Washing from outside to inside airer to finish drying - it was all dry! Amazing!
• Washing from machine > outside
• Get clothes, bag etc ready for Monday
• Meal plan 1st week of November? 

So just that meal plan to do and that’s not actually needed immediately - feels like a nice productive yet also fairly chilled day. Did a bit of garden tidying too, just cutting some stuff back and a little bit of weeding, and just a short time in the spare room left it far clearer which was a nice win. Stuff all ready for tomorrow and I’ll have a bath before bed which means I won’t need to shower in the morning so that will save a few minutes which I’m firmly in favour of on a Monday! 

Now the pork is well on its way to finishing off in the SC - just need to decide what to put with it. Smells fabulous too! We’re hoping to get a start made on making piccalilli this evening too - it’s a 2 night job so really needs to be tonight/tomorrow. 

Cheery_Daff

Good work! Sounds like a nicely productive and chilled Sunday!

savingholmes

Looks a great balance to me. Fantastic.

EssexHebridean

Thanks Cheery & SH! 

Start of another week then - this year seems to be rocketing past now doesn't it!

SO glad I took the bike in for a look over yesterday - they adjusted the gears a little - just a bit of cable stretch there which is to be expected. They also spotted though that the cable for the rear brake had pulled tight - to the extent that it was actually pulling the pad against the wheel. It's a folding bike, and the way it folds means that this cable moves a lot so this wasn't something to be concerned about but it was something that was of course  making the bike harder to ride because I wasn't aware of it. Now I am, and it will form part of my daily pre-ride checks, and judging by this morning it will make a whole world of difference! No wonder hills were feeling ludicrously tough at the end of last week! 4 miles done on it this morning anyway - the longer loop from the car to the office plus an extra bit on the end too. Aiming for my highest cycling mileage week on Strava this week.

On the subject of activity challenges I've just had the email confirming my submission from the organising company for the "Air Tattoo 50" challenge I did - this was a virtual multi activity challenge with a choice of competing 50km or 50 miles - I went for miles, and split mine over cycling, swimming, running and "purposeful walking somewhere special" - so Cornwall and Edinburgh basically. Should get the medal and a t-shirt at some stage in the next few weeks which will be lovely. Cost £35 to enter but that came from air show savings as there were still a lot of cancellations this year. 

Also on the activity subject, I've decided that once Christmas is out of the way I will take a year's membership to my regular gym. This will also mean I can use one which is about a 15 minute cycle from work which will be useful and possibly mean I can go a third time in the week, and will also mean should I want to I can use the gym at unstaffed times - the Hussle membership doesn't allow this. It's £330 a year if I join my local one - so breaks down at £27.50 a month - the cheapest I can get Hussle for is just under £35. The reason for waiting until just after Christmas is that there *might* be special offers around then - there often is. I'll pay the initial upfront cost from savings but then one of next year's focuses will be to try to offset that cost as far as possible - I think ongoing Prolific/other survey earnings have found a home! 

This week's missions then:
- crack on with Prolific - I have my eye on another cash-out this week!
- OnePoll - aim to get to 2100 points minimum
- Any other surveys that come along at a suitable time
- All meals from plan
- Book that night for the way back in January
- Set out plans for November MSE aims/challenges
- meal plan for 1st week November
- Remember the joint account owes me £38 food money from the spend on Sat that went on my card not the CC
- keep an eye on what goes on the CC
- Sort out new prescription prepay cert
- order prescriptions

 

EssexHebridean

Bleurgh - things seem to have reverted to snails-pace on OnePoll which is annoying having set that target! A couple of small bits this morning and nothing since. Did get a Prolific survey during lunchbreak though and am now up to £9.98 paid and £8.21 pending on there so definitely creeping up on the next cash-out. 

I got the confirmation that the linked account details had been changed for the M@rcus accounts this morning as well so have transferred my lump of savings over - it will definitely earn more there than it would sitting in the N@tionwide! 

I'm suffering from end of month twitchiness at the moment - got to wait for the last few DD's to come out before I can do anything about allocating surplus anywhere, but I'm impatient to get on and make progress! 

Also slightly miffed as I have had an email from L@keland saying that three items from my order have been dispatched, but the fourth - the breadmaker of course - is now showing as "not currently available" - I've gone back to them asking whether that means it is not now going to be back in stock - they've been quick enough to take our money! I've also said that if the breadmaker IS going to be back in stock this week I'd rather they sent the lot together - otherwise allowing that they use Hermes it's simply two chances for everything to get nicked off the doorstep - which is undoubtedly where the Hermes driver will abandon it! 

savingholmes

Gym plans sound good. Hope your breadmaker is not too delayed and that your parcels are safe...

EssexHebridean

Thanks SH!

Just checking banks etc. My savings transfer has now cleared into M@rcus which is good. The additional £100 to Premium Bonds has also hit the account - no god for the next drawer but who knows, might get us a little christmas bonus in the December one! 
- Looking through current CC spending - associated costs from the Edinburgh trip which we know about and will need to juggle. There will be costs from this weekend coming that will hit it too but we'll try to keep most spending to personal accounts so it will mostly be meals etc. Food is currently at £67 half way through the month (Cc bills on the 10th) so I'm happy enough with that - should be less for the second half of the month too. Diesel is £130.52 which is on the high side but fingers crossed taking my car at the weekend might mean we don't need any more this month. will have to see on that one though. MrEH has put one £50 top-up on his Oyster card so far and will definitely need at least one more. Couple of "going away at Christmas" items which the money will just transfer across from. some personal spending which we will both just transfer in. manageable at the moment - just need to keep a bit of a lid on things for the remainder of the month.
- MrEH's pay will be in on Friday and there should still be a bit of surplus in the joint account at that stage. It owes me £38 for the Aldi spend and I need that ahead of the weekend but that should be fine. My pay is likely to be the start of next week. It's done as a manual bank transfer and can sometimes be a bit "fluid" depending on how busy my Boss is!  

£13.91 now showing as paid in Prolific. £4.71 pending. 

We made the piccalilli last night - just under 5 full jars and used up all the green tomatoes, a good number of runner beans, a big chunk of courgette, a bit under half the cauliflower, and about half the cucumber that was in the veg box - the rest will go into tonight's salad wraps. I love preserves like that which are good for using up things that you have - it's annoying that we got very little out of our tomato plants this year but just one of those years I think but at least the green ones weren't wasted.  

MrEH has rugby training tonight - I will go to the gym on my way home and then have a nice sofa-based evening of catching up on TV planned.

Nothing more MSE to report today really I don't think - it's that irritating time in the month isn't it! 

EssexHebridean

List update:
This week's missions then:
- crack on with Prolific - I have my eye on another cash-out this week! Currently at £15.49 paid
- OnePoll - aim to get to 2100 points minimum Currently at 1940 points
- Any other surveys that come along at a suitable time Just had a nice 150 point YouGov - then another 10 point quick one straight after
- All meals from plan
- Book that night for the way back in January still debating
- Set out plans for November MSE aims/challenges
- meal plan for 1st week November In progress - aiming to post tomorrow I think.
- Remember the joint account owes me £38 food money from the spend on Sat that went on my card not the CC done 27/10
- keep an eye on what goes on the CC Reviewed this morning
- Sort out new prescription prepay cert Done - £30.25 paid
- order prescriptions All three ordered
- Friday - collect prescriptions

Phone has been charged at work - it just gets plugged straight into the USB on my pc and they're not in the least fussed. The Garmin will get done here tomorrow as well!

Did an extra bit of cycling on my way to the office this morning - 4.5 miles rather than 1.7 or so if I use the "usual" route - then took the bike back to the car at lunch trying the quick, straight route. That will work brilliantly for getting back to the car as it's almost entirely downhill - not so well in the other direction though! Steps will be low today although will add a few more at the gym and then pottering around tonight at home. Nearly 12 miles of cycling so far this week though so that's decent. I'm really starting to (mostly!) enjoy the bike now, and trying to get a bit of extra distance in this week while the roads are quiet - it's half term round here.

Cheery_Daff

Excellent cycling there! And I love all the financial sorting you're doing at the minute, most impressive. Good work on Prolific! I confess I'd forgotten all about it again - I just checked and I'm at £5.72 (and I did another 43p survey while I was in there). I'll withdraw at the end of the month regardless of the amount - it would be nice to have got up to £10 though!