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

flipflopflo

Thanks for the information @Cheery_Daff. 

Hope you’ve had a good weekend @EssexHebridean

EssexHebridean

flipflopflo said:

@EssexHebridean, please could you tell me a bit more about what a smart plug is. Ta very muchly ⭐️

Hello - yep, Cheery has nailed the smart plug perfectly - it is indeed exactly that one that I have, too! It's extremely good - and fascinating to be able to see what various things use either as a "one off" or indeed in normal use. I chose the one I did as we were intending to purchase a new digital timeswitch to replace an older mechanical one - had seen some good reviews of this particular model and it seemed sensible to buy something which while only costing a couple of £s more than the timeswitch would, also gave us the option of energy monitoring. It told me that on Saturday night when I asked it to switch on the vacuum cleaner battery for charging that charging used just 0.066kWh - which I was quite impressed with. It appears that Tapo are making ongoing improvements to the functionality as well as the most recent firmware update introduced new features including energy use to single watts. 

Norwich was indeed very lovely - and the festival was great fun including catching up with a very good friend of ours who moved to Luxembourg a few years ago - and we so rarely see him now, it was fab to spend so much time with him (and his Dad - who is also lovely!) as well as other friends too. It WAS quite spendy, but we were rather expecting that it would be - so all good, and all budgeted in from our own "fun" money too. Once everything has hit the credit card from the joint spending I'll divvi it up and we will get it cleared off. Best bit was getting to catch up with my lovely friend who lives just outside Norwich on Friday evening - it's been a stupidly long time since I'd seen him so it was fab to sit and chat! Had a nice walk yesterday at one of our favourite RSPB reserves - we've decided to make a point of setting aside one weekend day a month to try to get somewhere like that too. November will be our planned visit to the London Wetland Centre using some Clubcard vouchers - as we have some more expiring in February I think I'll see what the shortfall on admission costs will be and consider changing some more up. 

Hopefully the flooring man is now busy at home where MrEH is WFH today - I'm really excited to have that last big bit of progress on that job underway. I'm not absolutely sure whether he'll finish today or if it will run into tomorrow - we'll see how things go. 

MrEH has been paid now so money shuffling has been done - my contribution to the joint account is moved across - I've put the surplus from my Spends account into my Sant-And-Er 2.75% savings account, and the surplus from the joint account for October has been transferred to the CC against the cost of the flooring. Decisions will need to be made as to where the remainder of the costs for that will come from - I suspect probably C0v3ntry though as that has the lowest interest rates of our longer term savings at the moment. 

In terms of savings, we have decided to sit tight for another week to see what changes happen once the BoE rate increase (we hope - sorry people with mortgages!) is announced. Realistically if neither C0v nor M@rcus buck their ideas up at that stage then we will probably be shifting both somewhere new. They have both been increasing, but not at a rate which matches the base rate rises, as there is a limit to how long we're prepared to accept that. There is a decent looking At0m 6 month fix which might bridge a gap at 3.55%, but equally there is a possibility that others may compete with that after Thursday - we'll see. At some stage I will make a full list of precisely what is where at the moment - and in particular where there are joint funds that are currently in sole names so we can keep track.

I finally got the FD paperwork in the post - it must have arrived in the batch of TEN letters that turned up on Saturday. I'm had another moan at Royal Fail but it'll do no good, I know that. Our local MP wants us to email him with details though as I think he's had enough of the problems with them locally now. The dates on the various bank letters in this batch varied from 17th - 21st October which is jut ridiculous considering a fair number of them were supposed to be handled as 1st class. 

What else then...hmmm - not much I don't think. A quiet week planned (hurrah!) and I've already decided that if come Thursday morning I am feeling frazzled again I will probably see if I can take my stray half day's holiday in the afternoon. Food is planned out for the week and we shopped on the way back yesterday - £27.02 spent in L1dl where we managed to get almost everything we wanted including several nice cheeses which was a bonus. Need to go and update the grocery challenge with that. 

beanielou

Remember RM have been on strike which is having a big impact 

RelievedSheff

We have not had any post for a couple of weeks now.

Your post has reminded me that I do need to have a look for a savings account with a better interest rate. I have just been lazy and used the one attached to my current account with the Red bank but the interest rate is pitifully low. The money may as well be earning a bit of interest while it is sat there waiting.

Must make that a job for this week.

EssexHebridean

LOL Beanie the strikes aren't making a massive difference here - we've been getting once weekly or less since the beginning of Covid - in fact until a few months ago the local sorting office we still claiming Covid as the cause of any problems they were prepared to admit to! From hacked off local postmen though we know full well it's down to changed procedures at the sorting office that by the sounds of it effectively mean that a good proportion of the staff are permanently working to rule. Everyone in the town pretty much still has huge stocks of covid tests as when they were available free everyone knew that because they were on a tracked timed delivery if you were waiting for anything specific in the post and didn't want it to take a week, ordering a box of tests meant they delivered the rest of your post with those!  

RS - the savings board on here is pretty decent for advice on the best rates. If you're looking to put money into a fixed rate I'd be inclined to wait and see what the various banks do after the BoE announcement on Thursday. If you're saving regularly then Sant-And-er have a 2.5% regular saver account which will take up to £200 a month - there are a few building societies offering better on regular savers too - and if you fancied dabbling with bank switching (open a regular current account to act as a donor for the switch) then First Direct have a linked 3.5% regular saver to their 1st Account - opening the current account in the first place would also earn you the switch bonus of course. 

Our new hallway flooring is down and looking fabulous - I'm honestly delighted with it. Davy the flooring chap is back today to finish the last thresholds and skirtings, and re-hang the final two doors - it really is looking so good though, I'm so pleased we decided on the bamboo as it looks superb - much nicer than ordinary laminate. There will be an uplift on the original fitting quote as essentially every door in the place needed trimming - typical! The matching bamboo doorway thresholds are a little thicker than a standard brass doorbar would be but they look so good it's worth the extra hassle with having to have the doors cut, and Davy's done a nice job of those anyway. So chuffed!

I'm pleased to say I finally got round to doing a long put-off job last night and running the WM through on a 90 degree empty wash with some white vinegar - I was reluctant to do it overnight due to the extra heating involved, so I decided that a day when power use was already high due to tools being used etc might as well get a bit higher. Hopefully that should help to clear out any gunk in the pipework anyway - I have a hunch it's got a bit poor on the drainage recently too so fingers crossed that might have cured that issue. I have set reminders on my phone for repeating that job once every three months, and for vinegar/bicarbing the plugholes monthly too as routine ongoing maintenance. 

I sat and listed all our main savings accounts last night - in between joint ones and my personal ones it was quite a list! We have three different regular savers on the go each at the moment - two of those will be finishing in January and while I think we will likely go back to C0v3ntry for another one next year as they accept larger payments in than most, I think we will probably use the FD one I will now have access to as a replacement for the others in the longer term. My hope is that NWide will open one up again as they've had a good history of doing decent rates on reg savers - the current one is paying 3.5% now which is the same as the FD one will be. I do want to simplify things a bit though as it's been quite complicated this year keeping track of what goes where, what is automated and what's not, and also when everything reaches its 12 months and finishes! I think we're still planning to follow plan A with the reg savers as they finish - half will go into PBs and the other half will go to easy access in the short term and then straight into ISAs when the new tax year starts - so that will be MORE keeping track that will be needed then! 

Lovely pasta with salmon, veg & cream cheese sauce last night - and that finished the last of the bag of orecchiette pasta which has been lurking in the larder for ages as well - it's probably not something I'll buy again as I invariably find that if the middle sections are cooked, the edges have gone over. It's probably something that I'm doing wrong in the cooking although I can't begin to imagine what if so, but no, it's not for us! Tonight is couscous night as MrEH will be rugby training - I'll do roasted veg and then I've got feta to have with mine and MrEH will have a couple of eggs, probably fried unless he remembers to HB them today. I did remember to get the tub of roasted veg out of the freezer although it will need some more added to it...

lucielle

I really need to look into bank swaps and savings.  We've got quite a bit in PB so need to get my act together.  Flooring is sounding good.  When I had my washer repaired there's a cycle that does a drum clean which I never knew about, it did take about 3 hours!
L

milann

I’m pleased you’re happy with the flooring.
im another who needs to look at savings accounts.

EssexHebridean

Apparently MrEH tells me the flooring is done and looking really good - can't wait to see it when I get home! 

I've just requested almost all the money out of our C0v3ntry account - it should hit the current account tomorrow when I will transfer it into M@rcus - I'd far sooner it was earning 2.5% there than 1.85% in C0v. I'll almost certainly eventually close that C0v account altogether - I've left it open at the moment though as I can't recall if I need another account with them to keep the Regular Savers open! 

Sadly no Agent Million call for me today - and we're not included in the big winners list either. We'll have to keep our fingers crossed for the shrapnel distribution tomorrow I guess!

beanielou

Flooring sounds just great.

savingholmes

Pleased for you on the flooring. I still love my flooring downstairs and have an eye on doing similar upstairs if £ allows at some point.

On savings. - With B you can have up to 5K in a a 5% plus one if you have their linked bank account.  Not a reg saver so can get a full year benefit. With L you can get 5% plus - with linked bank account - and have reg saver going in of £25-400 per month.