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

RelievedSheff

girlatplay said:

I guess we have to, once again, thank past us for making it possible for current us to be in a position to get through these tough times.

I love risotto too.

We were only saying last night that we are so thankful that we decided to tackle our finances a couple of years ago.

We would be struggling now had we carried on as we were doing. I don't know what we would have done.

As it is now we will feel the pinch, as I'm sure most people will, but we are in the fortunate position that we can shuffle money around and find the increases.

EssexHebridean

I reckon the majority of us on here feel much the same about being relieved we took the plunge to sort the finances out. There’s something reassuring about even the little things like knowing where your “base level” is for money and just how little you can manage on if required. 

LOVELY ride out on the bike this morning - ended up doing 9.3 miles which is the furthest I’ve taken it. Right out round the town and because of our wonderful network of shared/cycle paths almost entirely traffic free too, the odd bits of road I did use were quiet ones. Such glorious weather although definitely still chilly in the wind, the views up over the common were fabulous though. I’ll be using that route again as there’s a couple of decent paths I can use to extend it a bit further too, which will be fun to explore. Just the one flipping great long hill (lots of smaller ones too mind!) which I confess I did dismount and push up the last bit of - but that was a lot less of it thanI walked up last time I rode it! 😁

Right - now for all the jobs to get done! 

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, that sounds like a lovely bike ride! Well done! Pushing for less than last time is always an achievement!

milann

You’ll be riding to ghetop before you know it 👏

boxofpaws

I’m on my bike at the minute because I darent drive my car but you’ve made me feel all enthusiastic about biking up to my mums later. I love my Ebike so much.

I wonder if there has been a little flurry of sales across the country of arborio rice since you posted about your risotto. I have some in the cupboard so guess what I am planning (in an entirely non-commital way) for next week?

savingholmes

Glad you had nice weather and exercise

redofromstart

We have dodgy plaster on the lower half of various walls, wainscoting is going to hide a multitude of sins!

EssexHebridean

Haha Paws - I do sometimes wonder if when folk post various meal idea on diaries on here there is suddenly a little rush of folk buying the various ingredients from Al's & Lil's stores up and down the country!  SH the weather over the weekend has been glorious - so nice to get some sunshine! And Redo - absolutely in favour of covering dodgy areas over where possible! 

Contact from TCB this morning confirming that the ticket I raised for the non tracking cashback from V0daf0ne has now been concluded and the cashback (£68!) is now showing as confirmed - which I'm delighted about! Well worth having. We should also be getting a £15 bill credit from V0da themselves too after their firmware update to our router caused the PC and both laptops to lose wifi connectivity - for some daft reason they've sent out a firmware update that means routers have a good chance of choosing channels 12 or 13 to run on - but in the UK we only use channels 1-11 - meaning that if, as ours had, your router chooses 13, most devices then stop being able to see the network. Sigh. Poor MrEH spent nearly 2 hours on online chat with them on Friday afternoon trying to get it sorted. Just need to keep an eye on that one to make sure it comes through. 

So - last day of the month. MrEH has been paid (hurrah) and all being well I should be today at some stage too. The £100 I sent across to PB's last week IS showing in the account today, so that will be eligible for the April draw. And there is a teeny £36 surplus from the joint account last month after all the other wrangling that will shift to Marcus. I also now have a savings account linked from the joint account for a "virtual sealed pot"/tilly tidy/sweeping account - whatever you want to call it, as the old one is linked from n@ti0nw1de and so of course wasn't easy to sweep straight from the joint account into.  My personal "spends" account will get the usual amount thrown at it this month, and my DD's account will probably just get topped up to the starting point it was at last month as that was plenty, so the balance there will get lobbed into savings.

I'm planning to crack back into the exercise stuff again this week having taken last week as a lighter "recovery" week - so there will be 3 gym visits, and hopefully a good bit of cycling too, plus lunchtime walks each working day - just a mile or so each of those but enough to get out for some fresh air and movement. Subject to the weather I'll try to slot in a longer bike rider over the weekend at some stage again too - Maybe a slight extension of the one I did last week. 

I got a little flurry of Prolific stuff one evening over the weekend so there's now a bit over £5 there waiting to be paid. I'm only 100 points or so off being at a suitable cashout level on ipsos too, and 772 points on OnePoll - that seems to have slowed down quite a bit with rather a lot of screenouts but it does that from time to time so I'm not too concerned. 

enthusiasticsaver

I love payday too (or pensions day for us).  Those of us who are seasoned MSE ers, including yourself are in a good position to cope with the price increases here or coming soon.  I heard someone say they expected inflation to hit 8% which is unheard of in recent years. 

EssexHebridean

It honestly wouldn't surprise me ES - I find myself feeling incredibly grateful for the life-lessons that my...goodness, 14 years I think it is now - have given me. The knowledge that even when you're already living thriftily, belts can always be tightened another notch is needed really is infinitely valuable. It proved to be a lifesaver for us when our income went through the floor some years ago, and will definitely come in useful again now. 

I've now been paid as well - and the money shuffle is done. At some stage I'll visit a cashpoint and get some actual physical money out to stash in my purse - I don't expect to use it any time that soon but I'd be more comfortable knowing I'd got it! 

Must remember to shift the council tax & water rates money to savings tomorrow, and also the £50 to the energy buffer account. Also there is regular saver money to be shifted I think - I don't *think* I set up a regular transfer for mine, although MrEH may have done for his, I'll need to double check.  I noticed this morning that our little e-saver accounts that I set up with Sant-And-Er are paying a few pennies a month interest - feels good after getting practically nothing from the N@tionw1de equivalent for so long!