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

EssexHebridean

Morning all - another blue sky morning here, I decided to walk from the car to the office rather than cycling this morning and it was a glorious morning for it! 

Today's Update:
Prolific: £12.77 paid/£2.40 pending - Still no change from yesterday - even more grrr!
OnePoll: 525
NSD's: 12/18
Electricity overnight: £1.05 (2 NSH's, WM, hot water, shower for MrEH first thing)

The sudden slow-down on Prolific is a little irritating. one Poll is still ticking over reasonably though. I've got a YouGov one sitting there to be done which I can turn my attention to at some stage today as well.  Starting to have a think about the various survey sites - I said I would give YouGov one more go, and I will see it through to payout, but I may well finish at that stage. I'm not so far off getting to cash out point with Power Of Opinions too but I seem to get so many  screen-outs/surveys being pulled before the deadline with them, I'm considering ditching them once I reach that point too.

I used the m0ney.c0.uk link from the Banking board on here to set up a new Sant-And-Er Everyday current account yesterday - I was planning to do it anyway as I want a solo account to switch across to FD in due course - and using the link will theoretically give me a £20 Amazon voucher too although I've had no confirmation of that bit so we will see. I just need to print out and fill in the form they've sent across and get that back to them with copy ID and they can link it to our other accounts in the app. 

Broadband change was done last night but I'm kicking myself a bit now - I thought that Voda deal in the weekly email last week which included the £130 voucher had expired, so went straight through from TCB - then after finalising everything realised that the deal had been extended but with a lower value voucher - pah!  Annoyingly it is also looking like the TCB might not track now either - it's on the clickthrough list currently but greyed out which I suspect means something blocked it from tracking properly. I'll give it a week and if it doesn't rectify itself I'll try raising a ticket and see what happens. Ultimately we still have two years faster-than-current speed broadband, with a speed guarantee, for £4 a month than we are paying at the moment, AND the voucher and/or cashback were only ever the icing on the cake anyway, I never rely on stuff like that definitely coming through. By the time I got up this morning the "Sorry you're leaving" email from Shell (which actually came across as more passive-aggressive and snarky than sorry!) was already through and the switch should happen on December 3rd, all being well. 

Holiday time - I have 6 days left to take, and will be booking one of those for a couple of weeks time, and another will get used for a day to head to Scampton next month. I've asked about carrying over and they are fine with that so I will probably carry over three, and find a suitable day to book the remaining one for. I'm feeling a bit wiped out at the moment which I think is probably a bit of a combination of whatever lurgy I had last week - and there was clearly something - alongside this being my usual "low energy week" anyway, and the wretched commute being grim in both directions this week as well. I'm finding doing he commute on my own 50% of the time feels like far harder work than the car sharing too which probably shouldn't be all that surprising.  Anyway, I've just looked and there are only 5 weeks to Christmas which is both awesome and alarming. I'll finish on the 23rd, and am then off for 18 consecutive days which is rather nice to consider.  

Email sent to UW pointing out that a week after I had contacted them on a "2 working day" response time customer service contact form, and 5 weeks after making a payment, I have still had no substantive response on it and that it needs escalating. We've moved from "polite" to "very polite" now - I'll reserve "positively icy" for another few days and see what I get back. The word "unacceptable" has been deployed...  

milann

The time off over Christmas sounds just what you need. And a day to recoup in between times sounds good too.
I'm so impressed the way you keep on top of the little things like surveys…..which advert is it that used to say ‘every little helps’ 

Cheery_Daff

Excellent keeping track there! 

Mr Cheery may also have deployed the word 'unacceptable today, when the council randomly mentioned they're closing the road again tomorrow, and maybe a few days next week, but they're not sure which ones 🙄 At least there's a bit of notice this time (although only because he randomly went past) but we'd already been told they were finished! Gah!

EssexHebridean

I'm fortunate I that I can do some of the survey stuff during my working day Milann - that helps! As for keeping on top of stuff, I've not done that YouGov one yet...

Been out for my lunchtime walk, and also done some research on LED bulbs, and am now planning an order and collection from Screwf1x in the next few days. Found dimmable ones which will suit the front room top lights (not used much, but enough to make it worth it), plus also doing the spare room (on for several hours a day on days MrEH is WFH) and the table lamps in the front room (our main source of light in there) and bedroom (similarly, main source of light). LED GU10 equivalents will replace the current standard GU10's in the kitchen (just need to get MrEH to check those tonight to make sure they are still standard ones) and even found a pack of LED candle bulbs for our front room cabinet lights - at the moment we don't use them much as there are 8 bulbs in there so they drink electric with loud slurping sounds of appreciation, pretty much. A big-ish expenditure to start with, but should last a long while, and the savings will mount up... So thinking around the flat:
Hallway - will leave as is as we will be getting a new probably LED fitting when the decorating is done. It's currently got an ordinary low energy bulb.
Porch - will leave as is as almost never gets used. Again - ordinary low energy
Front Room - Once the above is done the only thing using "standard" bulbs will be my "sparkle lamp" - think a glittery version of a lava lamp!
Bedroom - the top light is a three-bulb fitting which currently has regular low energy ones in - they are a "reflector" type, so will be pricey to replace, and the fitting is horrible so will be getting completely replaced at some unspecified time in the future anyway. It doesn't get put on that  much and so isn't worth spending on bulbs for. The Lamp most used will go to an LED bulb, and the other one (rarely used) has a standard low energy in it.
Spare Room - only has the single-bulb top light which will be going over to LED
Bathroom - the new fitting in there is an LED one
Kitchen - the lighting we use most is a combination of LED strips on top of and under the cabinets, and an LED spot in a dark corner. The top light is the GU10 one referred to earlier which will go to LED. There is one more set of led strip to go in there when we get the last "proper" job done - fitting a shelf above the breadmaker for flour etc. The only "standard" bulbs in there will be the ones for the cooker hood.

Another "every little helps" thing - and also counts as my "small thing" for today as I've been thinking about it for a while but not actually getting around to doing it. In further "not prevaricating" spirit, the Sant-And-Er form went into the postbox at lunchtime. If anyone needs me this afternoon I will be over here, feeling smug...

capuchin

Any particular reason why you're buying PB's? They are, for all intents and purposes, pretty terrible.

You'd likely be far better off with low risk investments and at least trying to beat the coming inflation.

(Sorry that sounded very judgmental lol! It was not intended as such )

EssexHebridean

It’s a sensible enough question! Right now we’re not in the market for anything long term, and to my mind, if looking at “proper investing” even if in a form like a S&S ISA for example, you have to be assuming that it’s going to be there longer term. I’m too risk averse to put money into anything that “might” make a quick buck, but then also might lose the lot. The Premium Bonds give us an easy access place to save money and, as time  goes on, we “might” win something. If we do,the return will probably be greater than we’d get in any other form of EA savings. Normal Easy access savings accounts are paying very little right now, although we are still putting the bulk of our savings into them - but one way or the other if the right Hebrides property came up tomorrow we could need to access money - and a high proportion of our current savings, almost immediately.

Oddly enough a few posts ago (probably buried in some other waffle, I know I do ramble!) I did note that we are also starting to look towards longer term stuff as well - but it is only at the “starting to look at  it” point at the moment, it’s getting closer though I think. 😁

Irony alert - I actually bought this month’s batch of Premium Bonds this afternoon - so another £250 to add to the tally! 🤣🤣😜



capuchin

I was thinking more of a small hedging sort of investment. When my sister/whoever asks how to sort things, I'm working under the following assumptions for the next 12-18 months.

1. Inflation will rise to at least 4% in real terms and likely more

2. Sterling will remain weak and likely get weaker.

Just thinking out loud, with that in mind, I'd be looking at something tangible like gold. Renewables are also likely to be great currently. (yes they can fall, but you'd never lose much unless margin trading) - Commodities are also super easy to get rid of. Could also go for a REIT ETF if you wanted to be more snazzy.

Problem with savings is if for example Frost and Ole Boris decide to trigger article 16 or something similarly stupid, it could put sterling into a bit of a tailspin, which combined with inflation could wipe out lots of value.

(I'm the opposite by the way; because I've decided to pay off my debt 'the hard and painful way' to 'learn a lesson' I have no savings to my nue, but lots of fungible (though less liquid) assets so I'm vulnerable the other way; if the economy shoots for the stars I'm left behind.)

By the way, what's wrong with a Hebrides self build?!

greenbee

Well done on getting the lightbulbs sorted - boring but useful. I've gradually changed over to LED in most lights - except where I have energy saving daylight bulbs already (they were hugely expensive at the time, and look like there's a sunbed in the room from outside). In my office the LEDs are also daylight ones. Everywhere else I've got warm white ones - different kinds depending on the type of light. Kitchen, utility and bathroom have Aurora LED inset spots (again, expensive, but have lifetime guarantees). 

I've done more painting (upstairs and the utility room are  finished for now) and filled the holes where the curtain pole has been taken down. The new one was delivered today, but the batten won't go up until the 27th. I have an estate agent coming round tomorrow... 

redofromstart

Similar logic for us with the PBs, we will need to be able to access cash in a hurry if the right place comes up and without being vulnerable to stock market problems.  It could be earning a few pence in my Marcus account.

I will shift mine when the rates improve elsewhere.

EssexHebridean

@capuchin We were originally thinking self-build, and do still think it’s a possibility, but we’ve also had to acknowledge that we’re not really “new build” people - what we really like for up there is “cosy”, and that’s quite hard to achieve from scratch as it’s not got the history. Our favourite place we’ve stayed up there was an old Croft-house - one and a half storey, lots of odd angles, just a bit quirky really. We’ve also stayed in a few smaller cottages which we’ve loved, but would be too small to actually live in permanently, so we’re starting to get a feel for the sort of thing we want. I suspect what we’ll end up with it somewhere that we can add on going some way - either with a roof-space conversion or some sort of extension. 

@redofromstart Yep - that’s exactly it. I’m also not quite ready yet I don’t think for anything with risk attached - the idea of investing is quite alien to me anyway - I come from a background where generally you only own shares if you’ve had them through a sharesave type scheme type thing, so mentally it’s quite a plunge to take! 

@greenbee In my usual spirit of impatience I got the lightbulb box down when I got home and discovered that we already had some LED bayonet fitting bulbs! 🤦🏻‍♀️ Not dimmable  ones, but it means we’ve already changed over the hallway (as what was there turned out to be an old incandescent one - I think the previous low energy one got discarded on the electrician’s orders after the water-through-the-fitting incident), spare room and front room lamp. MrEH is hesitating about doing the bedroom lamp at the moment as the light from these is quite a lot brighter than we’re used to, but it’s got a low energy one anyway so may stay as it is. I do remember buying one of the LED ones, but we also had a box of 4 more and I have zero idea where they came from! 🤣

In the process of going through the bulb stocks we’ve also sorted out some we no longer need to go to the charity shop next time we drop off. One of our usual ones won’t take them, but the other will, so they can go there. 

Also got the WM emptied and reloaded - and last night’s load of towels and bedding are on the airer - if it’s bright tomorrow I might transfer them outside, to let tonight’s load go onto the airer.