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EH - Essex > Hebrides...the next step of the adventure?
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Eurgh - hope you're feeling better now RT - sadly I'm not going to have that as an option, with the other one being on holiday there's only the two of us in the office, so as long as I can actually stay upright...
Welcome aboard fivebyfive
Well the cold/cough has taken a hold with a vengeance. If anyone knows where my energy levels have gone, or can find me the ability to NOT feel tired an hour after getting up, I'd be MOST grateful.
Remembered last night that electricity meter readings needed submitting. Well I say reminded - was actually reminded by one of my good pals up in the Hebrides who (with some assistance from yours truly) has been hammering her own costs down rather substantially over the past 6 months or so. The energy company are still overestimating our useage a fair bit - although in fairness I think *some* of that might be that our overnight costs for the water heating have dropped to a degree thanks to the new cylinder/immersion heater. Anyway - prior to entering our readings last night we were showing £190 credit - which I am extremely happy with, going into the winter. :T My phone app too shows our readings being lower this year, than last, which is good, considering how much work we'd already done on trimming our costs!
Last night's lasagne was extremely tasty - and I quite deliberately made double the amount of cheese sauce that I needed so the other half is now frozen along with the remaining half packet of lasagne sheets and we'll be having something similar again in a few weeks.
Today *should* be a NSD, unless anything unforseen occurs.
I need to sort out getting the old ISA transferred across - the rate has plumetted and the new one is now higher enough that I'm happy to just shift it over, I think. However, in the interests of perhaps retaining an easy route into an account with that lender, I'm considering withdrawing all bar £50 and paying back in to the other ISA rather than doing it as a transfer. I KNOW Martin advises against this as a rule but in our case we have the scope in our allowance (thanks to withdrawing the lump to clear the mortgage) so I can't think of any reason not to? Anyone spot anything I'm missing, though?
Got it - reply sent! x
Oi! I never said nuffink! :rotfl: I used my BP with plain flour last night, but as it's getting to the bottom of the pot, I think it might just be on the wane, as the breads didn't puff up overly much, despite adding yoghurt. No matter, they tasted ok and helped shovel soup along. Job done
Thank goodness you weren't trying to book train tickets to Nottingham with that cold! .......... Although you're far too young to remember THAT advert
Hope Madam is behaving and you're able to soldier on.
Greying X
Hope that cold boogers off pronto. Ace ticket purchasing lady.
Have a good night and get some rest lovely.
Total debt as of 28/4/19 £7867.38:eek:
minus 112.06 = £7755.32:money:
:money:Sleeves up folks.:money:
Today = NSD :T
It's turned really cold down here - heating is still off so far but I have had the oil filled rad on this evening as I'm in on my own and it was distinctly nippy. I need to have a look at the weather forecast to see whether we need to put at least the hallway storage heater on I think. The bathroom towel rail is doing an incredible job of warming it in there - it's only a small one but the difference it makes is amazing. We're running it via a timeswitch too - so it comes on at 5am and is now going off at 6.45am - so fully on the cheap rate.
Freezer audit this evening confirms we're doing a decent job at eating our way through it. I've got a chunk of beef skirt that I got yellow stickered, which I think I'm going to cook into a rich smokey ragu - I see that Lidl's Pick of the week has red peppers which will work well with that. I can then use the rest of the lasagne sheets and the cheese sauce with that. There's also another tub of beef stew - that *might* do sunday evening though as we're hoping to get out for the day ( Pre-fab hunting in Catford...) - If so the last of the yogurt will still be OK for flatbreads, too. :T
Oh - Greying - I forgot to tell you, I stole inspiration from you and put a scattering of nigella seeds in the flat breads last night - that works SO well!
On the subject of food (as we so often are!) tonights pasta sauce was a triumph of "using things up" - the rest of the free chicken breasts I got last week (alright, but not half the flavour of free range, I'm relieved to say), the remaining 'shrooms, the last of a carton of passata, the final splash of cream. With an onion, some frozen peppers, and a clove or two of garlic, it made a really nice meal. (And left the fridge looking rather more empty!)
Shopping list is a work in progress, as is meal plan. Shopping at Sainsbugs this week is in the plan though as I have vouchers.
Steal away love, steal away. Loves nigella seeds does I
Greying X
Car's gone to the garage today for MoT & Service. Had a call a little while ago to update me on prices - could be worse - handbrake cables are stretched (which I knew) and that's causing the back brakes to bind - which accounts for the "pulling" on braking and the slight juddering feeling I was detecting too. That was the only fail on the MoT though - not bad for a 9 year old 120k car! By the time that, plus the service are added up though it's going to cost me £400 - thank goodness for our car account - by the time the credit card bill for that lands there will be about £450 in there so all is not lost.
On the opposite end of the "spendy scale" I dived into Lidl while Mum collected Dad's prescription and came out with 3 red peppers, a kilo of onions, and a bag of parsnips - all on the "Pick of the Week" and a grand total of £1.45! :T I'll still have the balance of the shopping to do but that'll need to wait for me getting the car back tomorrow - I'm not carrying 8 pints of milk back across from the other side of town on foot! :eek:
Meal plan is starting to come together - no specific days yet but:
Butternut squash & chickpea (or bean) curry
Beef stew & flatbreads
Lasagne
Chicken risotto
Buddha Bowl/omelettes
Needs work, another scout through the freezer and my "use up" list, a shopping list and some pre-prep.