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

RosaBernicia

Thanks for the tide wheel pointer, those look great.  Have you seen the Sharon Lee tide chart posters?  They don't offer ones for all the UK coasts yet, but if they suit you or anybody you're buying Christmas gifts for...  

EssexHebridean

Rosa aren't those lovely! The little footprints are a lovely touch - brilliant!  The tide wheels are excellent - for anyone else interested they are called "Quicktide" and are extremely easy and practical to carry and use. 

Anyone else just had the email from BBC Good Food telling them the excellent app is going over to a subscription model? I'll hold off until I see what the costs are but I think it's unlikely I'll be paying for it. It's a shame, it's my go-to for recipes, as I know it is for a lot of others on here too. I must start to think about printing off the ones I use routinely as well...bread sauce springs to mind! 

milann

I’ve just been looking at Gluten Free minced pies to take when we go away over Christmas on the Good Food site. Better copy it out because I’m not paying for it 👍

Staffordia

EssexHebridean said:

Rosa aren't those lovely! The little footprints are a lovely touch - brilliant!  The tide wheels are excellent - for anyone else interested they are called "Quicktide" and are extremely easy and practical to carry and use. 

Thanks for this, I've just ordered 2 for use next year.  A quick question though, does the "North" one cover Shetland Isles, I can see it mentions Lerwick but just wondered if it would be useful there?

I also liked Rosa's link, but fear that my office wall space is already maxed out!

RosaBernicia

EssexHebridean said:

Rosa aren't those lovely! The little footprints are a lovely touch - brilliant!  The tide wheels are excellent - for anyone else interested they are called "Quicktide" and are extremely easy and practical to carry and use. 

Anyone else just had the email from BBC Good Food telling them the excellent app is going over to a subscription model? I'll hold off until I see what the costs are but I think it's unlikely I'll be paying for it. It's a shame, it's my go-to for recipes, as I know it is for a lot of others on here too. I must start to think about printing off the ones I use routinely as well...bread sauce springs to mind! 

I think they're great - delighted they did my area for 2022 and already have it framed in the hallway! 

I don't use Good Food at present, but did just buy Plan To Eat on discount as I do need to get more organised... might have a look and do some printing.  I'm rather hoping Santa will bring me the Becky Excell gluten free cookbook

EssexHebridean

@Staffordia It does I believe - Shetland isn’t shown on the map but there is a colour code for it which means you can get the tide times. If in doubt there is a phone number for Duncan on his website http://www.quicktide.co.uk/ so you could check. 

Milann, I’ll not be paying for the Good Food content either I’m afraid. Much as I love their recipes I have masses of cookbooks so I’m not short of things to cook from! 

Rosa Plan to Eat sounds interesting - although I am categorically NOT having more subscription stuff at the moment, just not! 😂

I decided against the gym purely on the basis that I didn’t feel like it, no better reason than that. I walked along to the rugby club with MrEH when he went down for training, then walked back, had my tea and I’m now catching up on some TV stuff. Had to put the oil filled rad on as well as it was 17° in the front room, just too cold for sitting in! It’s slowly creeping up now, but still not properly cosy.

Sun_Addict

I had the email about the app too. If it’s only 99p or similar I might be tempted but not paying more as I don’t use it that much. I would think that you’ll still be able to access the recipes via the website for free. 

EssexHebridean

SA that's precisely my thinking - a token charge as a one off is fine, I'd go with that, so let's hope they don't get greedy! 

Update: 
Prolific: £1.05 paid/£4.89 pending
OnePoll: 975 points
Electricity overnight: £1.65 (NSH's, water, WM, plus a shower for me first thing)

We were well over £3 for the day for electric yesterday which gives an idea of where we'll be at during the colder months - as a general rule last year we only passed that mark on the most bitter of days. Sigh, well we all knew it was coming. 

*Clarion call to all the PB'ers for Agent Million Day - @Cheery_Daff you wanted reminding!* 

I was thinking about putting together some targets for December but actually I think Christmas, getting to the Hebrides and some other stuff going on might be enough to think about. I'm not setting a NSD target as I know it's not practical with present buying etc to occur - better I just do stuff like that as I remember it really. I also need to look back on my November list and see how I did, I guess!  

We were hoping to plan a get together of some friends in the new year - the people who we work with at the big beer festival in August, but so far the two festivals we would ideally have met up with them at have been cancelled. We did pick out another possibility but the accommodation in the city it's held in is far too expensive - so that's not a goer either. we'd hoped it might be past the point where large events were cancelling now, but seemingly not, which is a shame. 

Cheery_Daff

No Agent Million for me, and I've checked the high value winners list and we're not on that either sadly. Pah!

EssexHebridean

November +'s and -'s

Positives:
+ Plenty of physical activity again, including being able to reintroduce some running
+ Meal planning has been done, and then stuck to
+ Taking specific "time out" to recharge a bit
+ A bit more yoga/stretching - just under 4 hours
+ Good focus on "getting things done" indoors with the "one thing" approach
+ PB's added to
+ Setting up a dedicated saving account for extra to put towards heating bills
+OnePoll ticking along nicely

Less positives:
- Could have done more gym stuff
- Lost focus a bit on "one things" in the last week or so
- lost out on cashback AND the sign up bonus on the broadband changeover - due to taking my eye off the ball
- Could have paid a bit more attention to checking Prolific in the evenings/weekends.

Delighted with being able to start getting some running in there again, but now very keen to make sure I continue to not overdo time on feet and not introduce outside running until I'm confident that my foot is right. It is still getting a bit sore if I spend a lot of time on very unrelenting surfaces (like the NEC, as I discovered on Sunday!) 
taking specific time out includes actually booking a couple of days off "just because" - one I had plans for originally but I *think* those plans may yet get cancelled. 
"One thing" is something I need to really focus on to take forwards as it definitely makes a different. It's evolving slightly for me now too into my own form which is working well. 

Mini goals for December - I want SOME stuff to aim for, after all! 
- Increase PB's again
- Start to create a proper "one thing" list as I see stuff that suits to be added to it
- Yoga - aim for my 7 hour Strava goal
- Add another £50 to the "Extra for heating" account
- Take the 0% card below £100
- Continue to be mindful on CC spending
- ALL MrEH's travel spending plus one tank of diesel to be from Joint Account. 

EssexHebridean said:

Financial goals for November 

- start to build towards a 1 month buffer in the food account
- meal plan - always aim be a full week ahead 
- start to reduce use of CC - no personal stuff for example
- keep an eye on electric use particularly once the heating goes on! 

- surveys > my 0% card, cash out OnePoll, and cash out prolific at least twice…
- my 0% card to be sub-£230 by the end of the month (currently at £311 - monthly payment is £40)
- watch spends generally and apply MSE principles
- aim for zero food waste 
- use baths at night rather than showers first thing particularly once the clocks change and the cheap rate finishes earlier. I need to be in the shower before 6.55am on hair-wash days. 

On this:
- ended the month with £26 left in the food account - that will get added to this month's usual budget, but I hope the spending is below budget when I come to do the CC shuffle...
- Meal plan - yep, pretty much!
- Reducing use of CC has definitely happened - we were both careful to put beers/travel at the weekend on our own cards, for example. There are still some bits to shuffle, but I'm on top of those and some will even be done in advance. 
- I'm not going to continue with daily tracking of overnight electric use I don't think but it's been an interesting experiment to see how different things change it. 
- Cashed out onePoll and Prolific three times I think! 
- 0% card was at £193 by month end, so £118 in a month which was pretty good. 
- Spending was a LOT more considered this month - partly due to less social stuff, in fairness. 
- Probably didn't *quite* hit zero food waste but reasonably close I think - it's salad stuff from the veg box that gets me, I need to remember to nudge MrEH about adding it to lunchtime rolls. 
- The bath thing is working well - best when it falls on a day when we both use the water (himself is quite happy to get in after me, I have no shame in admitting I would not be as happy the other way round!). It's falling into a pattern of a bit of a mix - sometimes I just bite the bullet and get up in time for a night-rate shower.