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

EssexHebridean

Took me a while first time I saw Big River site too - you’re not alone @Makingabobor2 !😂

Redo it used to be an excellent day out - the year before covid seemed to be victim (we think) of them upping and prices to regulars and so meaning a lot of the old guard exhibitors pulled out (we miss Carte d’Or ice cream being there - they were incredibly generous with their samples and their vouchers!) Last year was really quite disappointing - we actually hesitated about booking this year but decided to take the chance on one more year and fingers crossed the exhibitor list is looking a lot better again.

Small win for the day yesterday was grabbing a couple of ends of bread batons that MrBoss was going to throw away before I left the office last night. The first got sliced and left to dry overnight and will shortly be pulverised in the food processor, the second will follow suit once slicing and drying has happened. That’s the breadcrumb shortage sorted and free of cost at that, although they won’t do the bread sauce as the batons are tiger bread ones. While in the kitchen doing that I will also hard boil the final three eggs in the box ready for lunch. MrEH put a loaf on overnight so I’ve had toast for breakfast and we have bread ready for lunch as well.

Banking checked and OK. PetrolPrices app also checked and the decision is made to fuel up MrEH’s car in Birmingham not down here - there is currently looking like around 7 or 8p difference in price! 

The dehumidifier ran overnight in the front room (I remembered to set the scheduling correctly AND turn the thing itself on, this time!) and as a result I also dropped the input slightly on the front room storage heater - a good decision as it’s 19.4°C in here at the moment. I think I’ll shift the dehumidifier to the bedroom for a few hours in a bit too - although I’ll need to make sure the air’s not so dry in there that we struggle to sleep later - with colds etc often slightly more humidity feels more comfortable in my experience.

I think I might trundle to the nearest T’s later on - I can get that voucher converted to an iTunes one and also might use personal spends money to grab a treat of some sort for after tea tonight as we don have anything pudding-like at the moment. I’ll also use their cashpoint to withdraw the cash we want for Sunday I think, then we can leave it in the Travelodge room tomorrow night rather than dragging excess cash round Birmingham. It’ll have the added bonus of getting me out for a bit more fresh air too.

Seasidegal58

Enjoy the food show!  It sounds fun!👍

EssexHebridean

Hello all - hope everyone is doing OK! It's turned distinctly chilly down here in the past few days - although today is at least quite nice and bright. 

The food show was indeed good fun SSG - we really enjoyed it. As expected it was a spendy weekend, but all within budget. 

We were right about there being an increased number of exhibitors this year - and although we still went round it all far faster than we used to we think in part that's knowing better these days how it all works, and being able to tell far quicker if the stalls we're wandering past are anything that might be worth a stop and look. It was definitely worth the ticket cost this year - and we came back with plentiful cheese, goodies for christmas, various savoury biscuits, an entire year or more supply of peanut butter for me (the "Proper Nutty" stuff in the 1kg paint tins - we first found them at the show a few years ago and I've bought their PB ever since. A really nice little company, and a great quality product too - they usually do 2 tins for £10 at the show which is a definite saving on what I'd pay for it elsewhere, and of course they get the benefit directly rather than a middle man being involved too) and lots of other odds and ends. As usual we ended up grazing on various samples of things as we went round - the first actual "meal" we had all day was an Indian takeaway in the evening. (Typical cracking Brummie Indian - looks grim as you like on the outside but the food is fantastic!) All good - and I have already transferred the money for the spends to the CC as well - the amount in our dedicated account we budget into for it covered the spends at the show, the Indian on Sunday evening, the meal in a pub on Saturday night and breakfast at the Toby Carvery (another tradition!) on Monday morning with about £20 left to spare so we were pretty pleased with that. We stopped on the way back - first for a walk at the RSPB Reserve at Sandy, then again at Welwyn Garden City to get the shopping as we were going not far past a Mozza's so decided to take advantage of that. Oh, and we did indeed fill MrEH's car up in Birmingham - saving about 6p a litre on what we'd have paid at home. 

I'm still coughing but am back on the bike for the car > office commute. The cough is still too much to let me go back to the gym as yet though - maybe by the weekend hopefully. Definitely well and truly fed up with the flipping thing now! 

MrEH has been paid - I shall give MrBoss a nudge tomorrow if he doesn't do mine in the meantime. The joint account surplus was somewhat dropped at the eleventh hour by an Oyster Top up this morning which Mr EH hadn't warned me about, however some of that is offset by a small increase thanks to the National Insurance changes. there was still just over £200 remaining though which will be being transferred over to the 0% card when MrEH gets round to it. Oh - and we'll likely be blowing the grocery budget again this month - we'll wait and see but I can't really see us getting the final two shops in inside the budget. 

Spendiness : the food show stuff, diesel, other travel was just a £4 bus ticket for each of us the two days we were out and about. 

Other MSE-type stuff: Surveys trotting along - Prolific will be cashed out at a minimum of £13.61 for the month, possibly more depending what else I get and anything else that pays in time. A few more points added to both OnePoll & Ipsos this morning. I opened the FD Reg Saver last night as well as they have now announced the interest rate on that heading up to 7% from tomorrow - seemed too good a deal to miss! Other than that, things are mostly fairly quiet! 

foxgloves

I haven't been to the Food Show for over a decade, @EssexHebridean. Used to enjoy it, but it was an expensive day out & it fell off our calendar once we got going on the debt-busting. Mr F used to take the acquisition of free samples very seriously. He was appalled on one occasion when an elderly woman muscled in on a fresh plateful of sausage samples & gobbled them all. He couldn't believe that with his height & bulk advantage, he hadn't been able to cut her off at the pass. Her husband said '"Oh, she's always like this. She hasn't had breakfast & won't bother with lunch - she just eats all the freebies on her way round!".......which is of course what Mr F likes doing too, but that's different, lol!
F

milann

I’m very tempted to get tickets to The Good Food show. It sounds right up my ds street.

EssexHebridean

The GFS certainly is a pricey day out Foxgloves but it's formed a traditional part of the calendar for us for a lot of years now. We both dump a set amount each month into a savings account specifically for the purpose, which means we can go, and spend on ;pts of lovely things, and it's all budgeted for. I am of a mind to think that we might up those contributions next year to cove the ticket money and the hotel too - assuming we're going to do it the same again and make a weekend of it. Sadly there definitely aren't as many samples as there used to be! 

Milann - I should think DS would love it - there's a summer version as well but we've never been to that.

Oh - and while I think to mention it...the threatened new diary has landed... https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6407348/ding-ding-all-change-please/p1?new=1