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

Makingabobor2

Doesn't stew always taste better when you're using the 2nd lot?  So much thicker & more flavour. I batched cooked a whole lot of mince & veg the other week & froze it in portions, then made dumplings for one lot the other night,,,,very filling comfort food. 

EssexHebridean

Makingabobor2 said:

Doesn't stew always taste better when you're using the 2nd lot?  So much thicker & more flavour. I batched cooked a whole lot of mince & veg the other week & froze it in portions, then made dumplings for one lot the other night,,,,very filling comfort food. 

Oh my yes, it really does. I'd say the same for curry too - the flavours just deepen!  You've reminded me how nice savoury mince type things are too - I might well do something along those lines for my next batch cook! 

Makingabobor2

Yes mince is so easy and versatile. I use turkey or pork. Yuk to curry though......lol

savingholmes

I'm another who likes the flavour if its allowed to steep for longer.

EssexHebridean

Hello all - and here we go again with another new PM - let's hope this one lasts longer and is rather more efficient than the one we've waved goodbye to, eh?! 

Lovely trip to Grantham on Saturday - the meeting we were there for went well (possibly better than we thought it might in fact) we seem to have had some productive discussion too. There was spending - but we knew that - the diesel will be claimed for in expenses but the hotel bill, beer festival entrance, food and beers are all down to us as it reasonable. It'll be a straight 50/50 split of costs between us I think. We're off again this weekend for a long planned trip to Norwich - the accommodation is already settled on that one, and we're making a mental note to book it in better time for next year's trip as it ended up rather pricier than we'd like. Our own fault for leaving it too late mind you. That trip will involve seeing a fair few of the same people we spent time with in Grantham too, which will be nice. I'm also hoping to see one of my very best friends while I'm there - although he may yet now be able to make it along, we'll see how that goes. 

Elsewhere then - MSE-ish stuff. I rather think that we're going to have to accept that UW are going to get one over on us with the full value of the amount due to us coming back - it's annoying, and clearly the chap from the EO office is equally as hacked off about it, but they are just making things entirely impossible to make ANY sense of at all. Their latest thing is claiming that a credit amount shown on a bill "doesn't mean that amount has been paid, just that it should have been" - they are also claiming that there was a failed DD early on in proceedings - of course they feel safe to claim this as it was at the same time as our bank account switch was happening - it definitely didn't happen though, I just can't prove it! Hopefully the investigating officer at the EO office does now understand how and why they never actually gave us the £25 goodwill credit though  so fingers crossed we'll get that...it would be nice to think that what we get back does actually cost UW something on top of them just returning our own money to us!  I certainly have my original stance that they seem to be deliberately making things difficult to follow/understand so that people get confused confirmed though as the EO officer was in full agreement about that! 

Grocery spending is under control - we're at £128/£200 currently with one more veg box and two more weekly shops to come - the freezer is absolutely rammed though so that sorts out the "building blocks" for the next fortnight's meals with us just needing basics hopefully. I did the "cook once, eat twice" thing with a cauli & pasta cheese bake cooked on Sunday evening - that fed us last night, and will feed us again probably tomorrow I think. Tonight is omelettes - that will use some of the remaining bacon from the pack I opened to put some in the bakes, and the last of that will get used for liver & bacon on Thursday. I'm trying to make use of the concept of "rolling ingredient plans" again too - so that a thing bought for one meal then rolls over into several others - an example being this week that bacon, and also that the big box of eggs bought for the omelettes will do a tortilla next week, and probably sandwiches for lunch at the tail end of next week too. 

Spendiness: The flooring for the hallway - did I mention that already? It got ordered last week and has been delivered today - which reminds me, I must let the flooring chap know it is with us now. That was a bit of an ouchy spend and of course there is still the installation to cover as well but it will be SO lovely when it's done! On a more minor level I ordered a pack of little coin sized batteries for my bike lights - albeit having done so I discovered that the lights actually come with a spare battery already in them - still, I'll need to make sure that there is still a spare in place, and the same size batteries also feed our kitchen scales, so still a needed purchase. A grand total of £4.59 there anyway so not bank-breaking! 

Tonight's task - to get last month's CC bill sorted out finally and establish exactly what's needed to balance it off. Might also sort the flooring and the weekend just gone's spending off it as well. 

lucielle

Sounding as busy as ever EH.  I'm trying to use more food items in different ways but do get fed up cooking the same thing but too lazy to find new things!
L

savingholmes

Interested to read about your meal rollover plans. 

I'm struggling to make myself cook this week. Think will end up freezing some of mine which is frustrating. 

The flooring is a great investment I'm sure. 

Ouch to on-going saga with UW

foxgloves

I'm also a fan of rolling ingredients into further meals, @EH. I think it's a good way of making sure they are used efficiently. 
Today I managed an entirely 'free' meal. I made a fish pie (smoked haddock & leek, as per meal plan) & when I came to put it in the pie dish, there was too much mixture..So I added extra potatoes to up the quantity of mash & made two pies. I do want plenty of gardening time tomorrow, so having dinner rtg will be a bonus.
F

EssexHebridean

That was my thinking with the batch cooked pasta bakes Foxgloves - Mondays and Wednesdays are the nights we get home later as MrEH is in his office too so I wait for him before travelling home - it's always a huge bonus to have something quick and ready to go for those nights as it then means we have more evening left to ourselves.  L - I'm with you on sometimes getting a bit bored with the same things hitting the meal plan too often - I do have a "central fund" of meal ideas somewhere and what I ought to do is dig that out and mix things up a bit more than I sometimes do. SH I'm seriously looking forward to the flooring - and it should actually save us money on heating as well as there will be far less cold rising up from the floor than we've had previously.  As for the UW situation - it was really interesting to hear the perspective of someone who has now investigated them impartially, let's be said I would now reiterate my suggestions for others to avoid them like the plague! 

Well - last night's omelettes went down well, and thankfully the veg box lettuce I was slightly concerned about had indeed not only survived well but was still delicious and crispy too so that was a bonus. The side salad that formed the base of also used the last red pepper from the last veg box too.  Tonight will be those pasta bakes mentioned above - the veg alongside this time will be some lightly stir fried bits and bobs I think - that again will work to use up some bits that might get overlooked otherwise.  I'll do the bakes in the microwave again as that worked really well on Monday - they will get a couple of additional minutes microwaved on high before moving on to the combi setting though.

I've lost my focus a bit on the surveys again, particularly with Ipsos - realising that thanks to having to use their "market" area to purchase iTunes now - and only being able to purchase the vouchers for that in increments of 1000 points means that it's largely impractical TO use them for iTunes has left me feeling a bit disillusioned. It's occurred to me though - there is no reason why I can't change up points for T3sc0 vouchers instead - and then use those vouchers to buy the iTunes gift cards. It's a faff, and a bit annoying that by using that method I'll create waste plastic, where being able to do them directly online of course doesn't... I do wonder whether it's possible to buy them online, digitally though - need to investigate I think. Anyway - current totals stand at:
Prolific: £11.93 paid/£0 pending
OnePoll: 1072 points
Ipsos: 1249 points 
Need to get my survey mojo back I think - Prolific will get cashed out at the end of the month anyway - I'm seeing nothing at all during the day at the moment, not sure whether that is relating to my work computer blocking them somehow or just that I'm not getting offered many studies. 

Did finally settle down and try to get my head around the credit card last night - goodness me what a right old muddle I've created there by taking my eye off the ball! I *think* I have tracked down everything that still needed sorting - but the learning curve from this is that if I'm going to continue to do the thing of balancing stuff up as I go along, then I also need to keep my email record of what has been cleared down as I always used to. I've started the one for this month already with the note of the "current" transfer I made last night. I think all I can do is assume that if I *have* missed anything that was due to be cleared next month, I'll just have to let that come out in the wash at the next statement date - I'm calling last month dealt with and finished now though regardless. The DD will sort out any shortfall anyway so I have that as a safety net. My only excuse for this is pure laziness so it's entirely my own fault - serves me right! 

Astonishingly Mr Boss has already paid me this month - although at the moment I'm working on the basis of just ignoring it - I'll recognise its existence on Friday or possibly even Monday when I will also do all the usual money-shuffles. The joint account is looking a bit thin on the ground this month - I've already dipped into it for some of the cost of the big boat vacuum cleaner, and we've also used £100 to fund a higher interest savings account that MrEH opened. there is still a small surplus left, but not as much as we sometimes would have - what there is will be transferred directly to the CC to cover some of the cost of the flooring. I'll be raiding a savings account for the balance of that and the costs for the installation - that is planned spending though.

I'm currently intending to get to the gym tonight - I did some extra cycling this morning as well including my least favourite hill. However, I also used a few minutes this morning to twiddle with my brakes and hopefully have them slightly better adjusted now - I think the cable gap on the front one was left slightly shorter than idea at the service - probably because they were trying to allow for it stretching between now and its next service - it had meant that as the brakes had settled back in though they were dragging - I've had an ongoing issue with one side on the back doing the same thing. My work bag now has the addition of a set of small screwdrivers and so if the problem arises again I should be able to readjust. The net result of the twiddling this morning was a PR on the aformentioned hill according to Strava, and riding a couple of other segments substantially faster that I have been recently too. If I get to the gym tonight I'll take a view on whether I go on Friday or not - I may decide that the time is better spent elsewhere. 

We also have some voluntary role work to do tonight - plus our (currently weekly) check in on the email account. 

foxgloves

I'm having a renewed 'push' on surveys atm, @EH. I'm going for JL vouchers where possible ("turkey tokens" which need to be primed & ready for Christmas Eve's pick-up) & both Mr F & I do P/A surveys & add the earnings to our respective Personal Spends amounts. I'm up to over £40 for cashing out this month, with last month's £20-something still waiting in Paypal. I've just missed a £9 survey this afternoon....I've got the tab open on my screen, just in case it reappears.....I find the long ones occasionally do - I suppose people begin taking part, then have a distraction or incident to deal with & can't get back to it. If it reappears, I'm on it! 
My recent CC statement was also a muddle but both 'problems' turned out to be due to my grey cells having a bit of a 'moment'. Firstly, a payment I'd made didn't make it onto the current statement, but will be on the next one, so I was correct in my initial assertion that 'no way do I owe that!' For the other issue, I was very glad of my 'CC payment log-sheet', which I fill in whenever I make a payment to a credit card. It sometimes feels like a faff when I'm doing it, but the reality is that it takes me all of a minute or so & regularly comes in useful if I want a quick, definitive check as to which items I have paid off. Payments obviously just show up as a credit amount on a statement. I can check back to my log sheet & see that when I paid across, say £77.35, it included grocery shop Week 1, a pharmacy, coffee shop, compost & bulbs, etc. 
F