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

foxgloves

I think it's the right course of action to straighten out your energy account so that you know exactly where you are as we all head into Autumn. It's common sense. I'm doing the same....although our problem isn't that our account doesn't show the correct amount of credit, but that our smart meters no longer talk to their automated system so they are not getting readings. I suspect the issue may be at their end as we no longer get the little message arriving monthly on our monitor, informing us they are taking a reading. Either way, it's not a very smart meter if it can't cope with literally the one job it needs to do!
I agree that it is time consuming & annoying having to sort these things out. There is a lot of credit on our account (for historical reasons dating from 2020) & I am watching that like a hawk in case it disappears while the meter problems are resolved. I have a suspicious mind!
F x

I used to like making the Venetian liver recipe from 'The Pauper's Cookbook' - very simple & tasty just with some plain rice.

Suffolk_lass

I'm another fan of liver - either calves or lambs (not pig though), and I also like it sliced very thin and flash fried (lovely with crispy smoked streaky bacon, onions, mash (DH does mash cooking the potatoes with a veg stock block and makes sauce with the starchy stock), and preferably savoy cabbage and a spoonful of baked beans!

Our electricity bill ticks along with Scottish Power, with quarterly bills, on our fix until the end of July 23. Feeling very relieved that we are not in the melee at the moment. We don't have gas though. I just took the plunge and ordered another 500l of heating oil. Over £1.00 a litre (four times higher than two years ago). I will have enough until at least Autumn 2023 with this delivery - maybe longer if we adopt the warm jumper, no heating approach and rely more on the log burning stove

EssexHebridean

Hello Milann, Foxgloves & SL - thanks for popping in! The liver was delicious - I did it with onion, some bacon that needed using, and a pile of mushrooms - super tasty and I ended up not needing to do any additional veg with it thanks to the amount of mushrooms involved! SL that's a genius idea of using stock to cook the tatties for mash and then using the stock for the sauce for the liver - I'm going to steal that one for the future! 

UW have gone suspiciously quiet since yesterday morning - I suspect they're panicking about how the hell they are going to avoid an ombudsman complaint! (As if they end up with one of those there will be a whole load of shoddy activities we'll be flagging up at the same time - we've warned them of this!) I'll give them a few days then send a further email asking them to reply, please. SL I saw that cost for the heating oil - and of course those who rely on that are seeing no additional help, are they. 

MrEH filled his car up last night (I'd said leaving it on fumes for me today was going to be considered grounds for divorce so he dropped me home then went and did it after work last night!) - £67 of ouchiness right there. The petrol station on our way into town from the motorway is now at 197.9 for diesel - the local supermarket petrol stations are hovering around 189.9 which I believe is what MrEH paid last night. It'll be interesting to see if the more expensive ones locally resist the temptation to hit the dreaded £2 mark or whether they just say "s0d it" and go for it anyway. 

Banks checked and all OK - although I've muddled myself with the credit card by deleting the draft email I had in place detailing payments made before I should have done. I overtyped it with the new month's details too so I can't even yank it back from deleted items. Sigh. It'll straighten out - I have a feeling there is a payment that currently hasn't ended up where it should have though. 

Surveys are still trundling along - I realised I'd not updated on that recently, I am still hitting them most days though. So:
Prolific £19.52 paid/£2.47 pending (will cash out once it passes £20)
OnePoll 2342 points - that needs a brutal attack over the next few days to get to the cashout level!
Ipsos 832 - again, a bit of effort there ought to net me my next cashout in the next few days. 

My pal is trying to talk me into doing Duxford airshow on Saturday - I should technically be at a meeting for our volunteering role but I may just leave MrEH to pick up the slack on that and head to Duxford instead...might check the weather forecast and see how it looks. I was already thinking I might amble up there on Friday afternoon too - with the show the following day there should be a decent amount of flying occurring so it would be a good day to make use of my membership! 

milann

I’m sure Dh will be able to cope without you at the meeting…l.think of all the Brownie points he’ll earn whilst you enjoy the air show 👍

EssexHebridean

Well I've now looked at both the weather forecast and the flying line-up and decided that my money is better saved, I think! Friday is looking like a glorious if roastingly hot day here so I will likely drive up there in the afternoon to see what's going on!

Prolific cashed out at £21.72 - paid to Paypal at a penny more, and transferred across to the "Gym Neutral Fund" - signature updated. trying to keep a close eye on the signature now as it had like a lot of others reset back to March details a few days ago - no idea what happened but it's correct again now anyway - I was glad I was able to remember what all the updates had been! 

I've put in a chit for a few days holiday from work - one in July which will enable me to head away to RIAT at Fairford early - I can't get a ticket for the airfield itself for arrivals, but I can ditch the car near where I'm staying then wander a couple of miles along the road where hopefully I should get a decent view of stuff going on - fingers crossed! Then two days in August - one to possibly go to Cromer for a Reds display, and the other day for the first day of the Eastbourne show, which I already have accommodation booked for. Think that leaves me with three days to book, and still the week for the beer festival and our fortnight's Hebrides trip booked but not yet taken. 

savingholmes

I'm glad you are doing things you enjoy. Have fun when you go (and before if you like

EssexHebridean

Haha thanks SH - I'm sure I will! 

Banks checked this morning - the mid-month stuff has gone out now leaving slightly more surplus than I was expecting - I think this reflects slightly less travel for MrEH so far this month. Some small bits of shuffling to the VSP accounts has tidied everything up - I'm quite impressed to see that the Sant-and-er one I opened a few months back has over £80 in it already - that's more than I was really expecting at this stage I think, and definitely goes to show how that method of saving works.  I'm holding off on throwing some of the current surplus at PB's at the moment  until I see how the rest of the month pans out - MrEH will need to top up his Oyster again yet, and we'll need some more fuel in his car too. Mine should hopefully make it through the month I hope although I can't totally remember how much is in it - and if I do go to Duxford on Friday that will drink a gallon or so. 

Food is as planned so far through the week - couscous last night was lovely, and I pre-made the pizza pasta bake for tomorrow night too - throwing masses of veg into the sauce so we can have it without any additional veg alongside so it will be as easy as blast it in the microwave, chuck some more cheese on top then 15 minutes in a hot oven to crisp the top. Tonight is chilli and rice - the chilli base has been left to defrost in the fridge which should hopefully have had a minor impact on the running costs of that, too. I do need to give some thought to food for Friday evening - although it sounds like it's going to be so hot the main driver here might be nothing that produces too much more heat to cook! 

Mum's ordered herself an air-fryer which I'm quite jealous of - I'd love one but we just really don't have the space, sadly. Hopefully it should save Mum a fair bit in terms of cooking cost as it'll save her turning the oven on for a lot of stuff.  It's arriving today so I'm expecting lots of excitement from her later! I was thinking that I should do some further evaluation on whether it's realistically likely to be cheaper for me to use the microwave on combi mode more than the main (gas) oven - but it's difficult to do a real comparison as we have a monitor for the electricity side but any measurement of gas use can only be by looking at the meter, doing the calculations and realistically probably applying a bit of guesswork too. Allowing that our gas cost right now is still ludicrously low - my DD is set at £10 a month and will need tweaking to £11 at some stage, but not yet - I'm inclined to think that the savings if there are any would be so low my time is probably better used NOT fretting about it! (and allowing that such a huge chunk of our monthly costs on gas are the Standing Charge - even less so!)

Fitted in a short additional cycle on the way to the office this morning and currently am planning something longer this evening I think - probably the trails by the river again I think as that might offer some more shady areas. I was originally debating about the gym but I think two visits this week allowing for several weeks absence prior to that might be more sensible - I'm still feeling Monday night's workout at the moment too so had visions of being very sore indeed tomorrow if I went tonight! I reckon Friday morning will definitely be better used in a cool air conditioned gym than doing a bike ride, too! 

savingholmes

Good you are listening to your body and pacing yourself.

It sounds like you are having a good £ month

EssexHebridean

I'd go with "reasonable" on the money front SH - it could yet diminish dramatically once diesel and tube travel is taken account of - hopefully not too much though! 

Little update on the hallway refurb project. We'd about given up on our original plasterer as when MrEH contacted him a few weeks ago to see when he could come and do it initially he said he wasn't sure as he'd had covid and was running behind as a result - then when we said ok, fine, but give us a rough idea so we know where we're at, he reckoned he couldn't...which we were less than impressed with. Lovely Steve knew someone else who he was happy to recommend though, so all good - we were just waiting for him to confirm a date. Out of the blue yesterday our original chap came through and asked if he could start on Monday - we've juggled things so he can, so all good, and we're going back with him as it is still within the timescale we felt was reasonable. So hopefully by the end of Tuesday we should have a plastered ceiling and porch area! Next step now will be to find out when Steve can do the main decorating bits - oh and the minor detail of deciding on a paint colour - never  my favourite bit as I really struggle to decide! Then it'll be flooring and skirtings etc - and finally sorting out a new light fitting - currently we have a bulb on a flex which was what Lee the electrician fitted after the big leak through the ceiling incident. The plastering will make an enormous difference I reckon - and should help with making the paint decision too. 

So at some stage between now and Monday we have a final two nails to extract that were holding the old skirting on, two timber battens to remove (currently supporting the shelf where the coffee machine and grinder live - no way Mr Eh is going to say goodbye to THOSE until sunday!) then we should be all good to go we hope. 

I've been proactive on this one and been clear that MrEH has to be MUCH more involved with the management of this project - I project managed the bathroom and kitchen myself - and both were hideously stressful - in part because we had issues with tradesmen and in part just because of the scale of the jobs. The hallway *shouldn't* be anywhere near as bad so it's a good one for MrEH to get more involved with, and that in turn means he can also have more to do with the other stuff we still need to get done, too. 

milann

Pleased the plasterer is coming soon. It will look so good afterwards 👍 Hope you like the chosen colour 🤞