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

EssexHebridean

I’ve been there with the gardening related stiffness in the past Foxgloves - after a busy weekend on the allotment years ago I could barely move come Monday morning! 🤣 SH not a sign of the money from UW - bunch of shysters that they are. I did remind them earlier in the week that we’d heard nothing from them on the complaint - got back a confirmation that they would remind the case handler and have heard nothing since. 🤷🏻‍♀️🙄

Well today has been a nice mix of active and restful so far. A walk first thing - not that far due to threat of imminent rain (which never materialised past an occasional attempt at light drizzle while we were out) but a nice leg stretch nonetheless. A brief conflab on return and we both agreed that porridge season had started so that sorted breakfast. Then MrEH headed to start work and I got myself sorted for the gym (must update my signature)- opting to take the car rather than the bike because of risk of 🌧. Realised on the way back that I could go past Sainsbugs so popped in there and got my deodorant refill - not much cheaper than the direct online option, but far more convenient and I can just get one at a time as needed which is easier too. I’ll still keep an eye out for decent online discounts though.  Home, lunch (mackerel pate made from a piece of peppered smoked mackerel I rescued from the freezer last night) then popped to my friend as she’d messaged to say she had some apples that she was given which we could have some of if we wanted - a definite yet! Also came back with a large unopened jar of mincemeat from the mince pies she didn’t make last Christmas - it’s coming up to its best before date and she won’t use anything once it’s gone past that. We tend to do quite well out of foods that go out of BB date in her cupboards, it won’t surprise you to know, and she is constantly astonished we’re not dead from eating them all!  I know have a bag of apples to do something with - and it might well end up involving the mincemeat too, at least in part, as I’m thinking a nice spiced apple and mincemeat crumble base…and possibly some to use with rice pudding as well.

Having got back I’ve wrangled the unproductive bits of the tomato plants - chopping back the excess growth that has no fruits on it at all and hopefully giving the fruits that are there a better chance at both light and what energy the plants can give them. We’ll see. Also lopped off a few over enthusiastic bits of winter jasmine which we’re getting in the way of the bird feeders - I’ll pop back out and fill the feeders in a little while once I’ve drunk my cuppa.

Tea last night ended up being “sort of tagine” using mostly bits from the freezer, alongside a tin of chopped tomatoes we brought back from holiday and lots of spices. All simmered together with a handful of sultanas thrown in, it was pronounced delicious and duly disappeared in short order. That in turn frees up the first of the two haggises (Haggii?) that we brought back from holiday for tonight - I’ll posh it up a bit by doing it with saffron mash I think - we have very little milk left so I’ll use lots of melted butter to steep the saffron in instead - that should work.

Ooh - just discovered that we have the Ombudsman decision on the UW matter. Annoyingly the Ombudsman service have been taken in by UW’s claims that they did finally apply the manual payment to the account - however they have also decided that we should be paid a further £75 in compensation for all the hassle - so if we accept we will still be a small amount up overall which is something. Complaint upheld almost throughout, and I suspect that some questions will be being escalated about UW’s methods of dealing with vat and how un customer-friendly their processes are. Need to discuss with MrEH because I confess I am super-annoyed that ultimately they will be using our own money to pay us the compensation - but we may end up accepting purely to put an end to it all and working on the basis that they will have had a rap on the knuckles, and we’re not out of pocket. It’ll need some thought.  

Right - time to wrap up my day with some odd jobs round the house I think - starting with that bird food! 

greent

The w11d refills are often on offer at approx 3.50 - or I have also had them on my n3ctar prices @ 3.75. I tend to pick up a couple at a time:) 

girlatplay

In my head it's always been haggai but that's probably the phonetic spelling.

Bit annoying about the UW result.  Good that it's mostly upheld but nippy about whatever wasn't.

savingholmes

Good to have a resolution but sounds irritating still.

You then have to ask is it worth any more life energy...

leftatthetrafficlights

I think with the UW outcome it's probably better to accept the outcome - the fact that the ombudsman has upheld most of your complaints is an affirmation of their validity and probably the best you can hope for against the corporate machine...the reality is that you have not backed down, you have held them to account and for your own peace of mind it's probably better to put it to bed now 😉

Whatever you decide to do be proud that you had the tenacity to take them on! 

EssexHebridean

Thanks all for popping by - on the UW thing we’ve decided to go back through the billing in detail and check everything - and then if it still appears that they are lying about having credited the manual payment fully to the account in the end we will decline the decision as it stands and explain why. We had to do something very similar when we did the FO complaint re Virgin Money years ago and the Ombudsman was extremely cross that the wool had been pulled over their eyes, and issued an even sterner rebuke as a result of us bringing it to their attention. I can help but feel that US are probably feeling mighty smug st the moment that in real terms the compensation they’ve been ordered to pay will not cost them anything! We’ll see - if it’s going to prove impossible to actually manage to uncover the trail of funds then we’ll just go with accepting. 

Shopping done this morning although it was a bit “on the hoof” as I realised as we were about to go out of the door that I had neither meal plan nor shopping list prepped - that’s the affect of several weeks of not really using either such thing of course! I’d already decided that I would get either a decent sized FR chicken or a decent sized pork shoulder joint anyway, and base meals on that, so as there was no FR birds on the shelf at all we’ll be having pulled pork tomorrow. That should do a couple of further meals too. Also grabbed eggs, mushrooms and a pack of streaky bacon as that sorts out another night by way of an omelette. I’ve got a butternut squash that I will probably roast - that with some of the mushrooms and bacon will make a risotto, with squash to spare which I’ll freeze.  Some storecupboard bits bought too - tinned stuff, a packet each of sunflower and pumpkin seeds, some crackers (for cheese, not Christmas!). Definitely noticing the price increases now though having been away from it for a couple of weeks - chickpeas are up at least 6p a tin since last time I bought them, my 2pt bottle of skimmed milk was £1.25 which is more than we paid for a 4pt not so very many months ago, kidney beans at 54p a tin seemed pricey - need to check the T’s value price on those, a box of muesli went through the till at 10p more than the SEL (I couldn’t be bothered to challenge - it’s such a faff in Al’s and all the while folk looking at you as though you’re Mrs Tightwad!) My Greek yogurt was up 20p on when I last bought it a few months back, and in shrinkflation terms the bacon was the same price as last time I think but the pack has shrunk by 10g. £44.09 spent anyway, and MrEH is looking for a few extra odds and ends that we needed and couldn’t get in Lil’s as he’s at the barbers just now and that’s just round the corner. 

I’ve also had a little tidy about just to straighten the place out a bit, changed the towels and put a load to the WM ready to go through tonight, sorted out the background of stuff I was going to take to Mums, and a couple of other little odd jobs. 

Banks checked and all good. The interest has appeared on both Marcus accounts - the interest rate rises are really showing an effect and of course the little lump sum I popped into my own savings is helping too - it’s so nice to see a proper bit of interest going in each month after all the years since that’s been the case - although I appreciate it’s tough on those with mortgages but the flipside is that in the 13 years we had the mortgage the cheapest rate we had was 4.34%, then once we’d cleared it and were building savings almost immediately the savings interest went through the floor! Irony! In fairness it probably is about time we started getting some benefit from one side or the other! 😆

Nice little flurry on Prolific last night means I’m just shy of £5 paid in there now. I’ll probably let it mount until the end of the month and then strip it out at that stage and start afresh for October. 

Right - that’s me rounded up I think - time to head to Mum’s. 

foxgloves

Have a nice time with your Mum, @EH. Yes, you're right about prices of tinned pulses. We used to stock up at Mr M's when they had their 4 tins of pulses/tinned tomatoes for £1 offer, which was fairly frequent. Haven't checked A*di prices on these for a while, but last time I looked, not a huge difference between Mr M's & W*itr*se. Our October budget cycle begins next Tues & I would like to stock up on tins - will research first.
F

EssexHebridean

greent said:

The w11d refills are often on offer at approx 3.50 - or I have also had them on my n3ctar prices @ 3.75. I tend to pick up a couple at a time:) 

Thanks @greent - I’ll note to keep an eye out for the offer maybe appearing in the  n3ctar prices offers now I’ve bought one for the first time. Also that there are offers on them generally too. If I could get them at £3.50 I’d definitely buy multiples at a time as by my reckoning that would make them more cost effective than the Mitchum I was using previously, allowing that they definitely last longer! 

Ahh Foxgloves I do miss the 4 for £1 offers - and even more recently 3 for £1 - I suspect those are a long way behind us now, too! 

EssexHebridean

Morning all! It’s a nice bright sunny one here, and the house is smelling lovely thanks to slow cooker pulled pork having been done overnight and us just having had toast for breakfast! 

The other thing that was done overnight was a load of washing - towels, on my usual 50°C setting but the shortened programme. Happened to get up in the night and glanced at the electricity monitor… 😱 Towels and bedding will now be getting downgraded to a 40°C wash than you very much! In fairness I think the high use was probably simply while it was heating up as the overall overnight cost was actually fairly low - but regardless, it made me question whether there is really any advantage with modern detergents of that additional 10° heating. Of course it COULD be that the shortened programme was to blame as that means additional agitation by the machine to achieve what more soaking does in the longer one - it’s incredibly tricky to work it out though, not least as the plug isn’t accessible so ai can’t plug it in to a socket-based monitor while I experiment.

Anyway, breakfast eaten, some noodling about on here done, and MrEH has just made me my third brew of the day - he’s a keeper! Only solid plans for today are for him to make rolls for the week’s lunches, me to get the butternut squash roasted, and for us to walk across town to where he left the car last night and retrieve it. I might also pop into Sainsbugs as I need new slippers - mine have gone to the sloppy flat-as-pancake stage leading to me ending up shuffling about in them - not a good look! I know they do some with arch support so I’ll go for those this time I think. When I’m indoors they are always on my feet so it’s probably a good move. Other than that it’s general odd jobs I think. Oh and sorting out those apples. 

milann

Interesting that Sainsbury’s do slippers with arch supports…..never knew there was such a thing - will investigate 👍