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

EssexHebridean

MrEH isn't a fan of heights Milann - you used to be able to go outside onto the balcony round the top of that lighthouse and he was never terribly happy out there! I'm claustrophobic but can cope with the quite enclosed spiral staircase up to the top of the lighthouse because there is a room part way up with a window you can use to break the climb, plus I know how much light and "outdoors" there is once I'm at the top! 

Thanks for popping in RS, L, GAP, SH, Beanie & ES! 

Managed to slot in a longer cycle back to the car last night in spite of some nasty spitty rain, and also a slightly extended route to the office this morning - this evening will be a swift shortest route back to the car as I'm planning on heading to the gym - I've not decided between strength and cardio as yet - although I might be a rebel and do a mix! Probably partly depends on what time I get there to be honest. 

Banking checked - all as it should be and I've reminded MrEH about doing his transfer to the N@tionw1de reg saver. 

Surveys are trickling along - has anyone else noticed the mug on the "waiting for surveys" Prolific page today? A nice touch! (It's in Ukrainian flag colours, for those who aren't on there!)  Planning to keep checking back on Ipsos through the day in the hope of picking up enough points to cash out - that'll go to iTunes credit I think, if I can work out how to do that! 

Tea this evening will be a "use up" meal - I've got the cooked chicken sausages out of the freezer, plus a tub of roasted tomatoes, and those will go with pasta, along with an onion, one of the veg box red peppers and the last of the bag of spinach, plus probably the last bit from the tub of soft cheese and a spoonful of the creme fraiche. I love a dinner like that - it's so satisfying to make an impact on using up oddments! 

GeorgianaCavendish

Great news on the Premium Bond win! I got £25 this month as well  

You are nearly at your first cash out with Ipsos too - that's really great news! I'm edging closer to a £10 cash out with Storewards, I should be there during March. Getting closer to £20 with Shoppix too but it takes longer with them, so more likely to be May time

EssexHebridean

I’ll consider that good company for our win then GC! Good work on the extra earnings too - and yes, pretty close on Ipsos now, just need to work out how I go about converting to an iTunes voucher! 

Ended up not going to the gym last night as realised at about 4pm I’d forgotten to put my trainers in the car. Technically I could have gone and done a strength session in the walking shoes I had on, but I prefer to leave three days between strength work so I decided against in the end. I did go today, and got a decent session in including some more running rehab on the treadmill. Signature updated - now sub £30 a visit! 😆

The £68 TCB money has been transferred to MrEH’s 0% card - it was handy it coming through today because they took the regular DD for it today as well so hopefully that means that they won’t not bother to take next months because we’ve paid a chunk off! 

We have a meal plan for next week, and a shopping list for tomorrow. And the good news is that the freezer is starting to look a bit more empty so I can stock up on frozen veg again! I’ve thrown a few routine storecupboard bits onto my list again as well - particularly the 20p spaghetti as I have a feeling that the days of that being *quite* so cheap may well be numbered. (Based on nothing bar a hunch, and the fact that the spag has been 20p for a LONG while and surely it’s days must be numbered?!)

The other job done today was to tot up our annual electricity use by peak/off peak units - not only have we brought the total down from last year, but we’ve also increased the day/night split to 25%/75% which is reasonably impressive. I know also have a projection for monthly costs for next year too - which roughly tallies up with what UW reckon. My hope is we can still bring down use a bit more yet too, but we’ll see. 

Plans for tomorrow are shopping, rugby training for MrEH, probably a bike ride for me if the weather behaves, and not much else! 

beanielou

Have a happy weekend 

boxofpaws

That is good work on your leccy bill, indeed. We don’t have a split tariff but I’ve been making a conscious effort to use less power during peak times for the ecological aspect. I suppose if we can all even out of usage in the long term, using power at night particularly, instead of the grid having to burn fossil fuels to feed us at peak times, we all win. 

savingholmes

We all need to reduce energy use. Crisis is a wake up call.

Glad you got to the gym. Price per use coming down nicely. I pay monthly and if I go twice a week works out around £3 a time

EssexHebridean

Yes, completely agree about reducing energy use although ai think we’d struggle to get ours all that much lower now. We used a shade under 5,400kWh electric last year (plus almost no gas - our DD is set at £9 a month which should pretty much cover our use going forwards. Most of it is the standing charge!) - that electric usage is pretty good for a household which uses electric heating. That said though we are still looking to reduce where we can. I’ll make a mental note to do the sums again in a couple of months as the period I looked at last night is Feb 21 > Feb 22 so covers a very cold period and lockdown time too. 

Having done 4 NSDs on the trot I ended up in three different supermarkets today! Al’s first for the weekly shop - just under £23 there. Popped into sainsbugs later as I was passing to see if they had something specific - they didn’t but a T-shirt, a pair of reduced Belgian buns and an orange Twirl all insisted they needed to come home with me - £7.12 in total. Finally T’s to buy the tissues I’ve been forgetting for the last umpteen weeks!  Anyway that’s the final food shop of the CC month, and included several storecupboard items as planned, so I’m happy enough with the spend. 

Also got 7 miles in on the bike earlier, and a three mile walk this afternoon. (plus walked to Al’s and back this morning too - go us!) 

With the way diesel prices are increasing I think we’ve decided to top MrEH’s car up tomorrow. It’s a little under half full, and could easily do the three journeys into London and out again that it has planned for this week, BUT realistically it’s only going to be more expensive if we leave it, so makes sense to top up sooner, I think.  Mine’s mostly full, and will get to and from Lincoln at the end of the week on what I have. 

lucielle

Fuel is shooting up every day. I keep looking at the amount of oil I haven’t got and wonder if I should eke it out or fill up. 

L

RelievedSheff

Might fill the van up today while we have it out. That won't be cheap 🤔

Only needs half a tank but that will still be about £80!

savingholmes

That energy use is low. Well done