Viking's Diary

savingholmes

Well done for returning. Happy New Year.

Viking_mfw

Rescued 5.5kg of sprouts from Olio which no-one else wanted which are going in our freezer tonight when I get a chance to parboil them. We are trying a new approach to food this year: HelloFresh for four evening meals a week which is keeping us from the lure of the takeaway (and is less than the cost of one) and actually doing a good job on portion control; community larder then providing a range of stuff which we are using for lunches and other things; (very) small top up shop of absolute essentials. I'm also trying to use up things in the cupboards and freezer - found the tail end of a jar of oats in entirely the wrong place looking for something else so I promptly popped that into some flapjacks for the kids. Flapjacks seem relatively easy and they have replaced the ubiquitous oaty bars which actually cost quite a lot at the rate my children go through them. It seems to be working well so far - we're going to give it a couple of months and then review. 

Sold the wardrobe out of DS2's room yesterday - only £20 but the people came and took it down and took it away which was the essential thing. We bought it for our lodger and it's entirely the wrong thing for a small boy. Next job is acquiring a chest of drawers for him, preferably second hand, in pine. I have identified a new one we can order if I can't get one in a reasonable period of time. 

I am also having a clearout of grown out of Stuff - it's slow going but I want them to go to people who will use them, not just toss them. It's interesting to see what shifts on different facebook groups versus Olio versus freecycle. One of the maternity hand-me-on groups also produced a couple of broken cots from which I plan to build veg frames for the summer.  

Also need to make sure I sort out the 0% credit card which we bought the car on a couple of years ago. 0% comes to an end Feb 1st but I've had to send off for another online login to be able to clear it. We have the money in savings and it would be insane not to pay it off, but I am still feeling slightly anxious at the hit the savings will take. Still, can then switch the credit card payments into savings to build that back up. 

savingholmes

I sympathise on not liking to see savings drop. It's what they are there for though presumably. 

Well done on the decluttering. I too am doing furniture swaps via FB effectively...

Viking_mfw

Well life is getting expensive. Our 5 year fix is up in October so looking to fix again now. We are looking at paying a 20k lump off the mortgage (my husband got an inheritance this year) in order to fix at a payment which is £100 more per month, even given the increase in value in the house. Given the slim difference and my suspicions about which way things are going, I think we are going with a 10 year fix. 

Squid energy increased our monthly payments from 150 to 270, although when I gave a meter reading this morning I was made to re-enter the gas because they didn't believe we'd used so little. But the central heating hasn't been on at all... At the moment I am not sure the increase is warranted but am giving them a couple of days to work out what our credit balance really is. I would prefer to remain in credit, despite the lack of interest. 

Luckily I was given a payrise a couple of months ago which covers these two increases if nothing more. 

Just finished reviewing a book proposal for a publisher, which you can opt for a larger payment in books or a smaller cash one. Given the smaller one would then have tax removed, and then I'd probably spend it on books... I have a nice list of things waiting to be requested, including some for the DS1 and a Christmas item, and a couple of books I had been resisting buying in hardback. 

savingholmes

Ouch to fixing this year - but great to have certainty. Good that you have inheritance to knock off the mortgage but still difficult. Glad you have had some pay rises.

I am consciously building up credit on utilities so it's not such a jump in winter.

Book proposal sounds exciting. 

Viking_mfw

Weather has definitely shocked me into future proofing. I don't think of our house as the forever home, so it's very hard to think about investing a lot of money into it. But we have discussed it and realistically we are not going to be able to afford what I would actually like (not very different to what we have - same village, slightly larger/ better arranged reception rooms and a larger garden) esp as the interest rates increasing are going to cause an issue for us. So: 
1) Solar panels. We have investigated these before but not had much response. This needs to be a priority though as we evidently are going to need to run fans a lot in summers. Also the change in utility prices means the cost/benefit has changed and they will pay for themselves a lot faster. 
2) we are going to investigate a masonry burner - these are woodburners that are not hot to the touch (small children essential!), you load them up once and they provide radiant heat for 14 hours. They can heat, allegedly, a three bedroom house. Since our central heating is rubbish and making it better would involve a lot of pipe being laid, this is probably about the same cost, and it's more eco friendly, and probably also more cost effective on an ongoing basis than gas. We have a combi boiler so hot water will still be available on tap. You can attach a back boiler to the masonry heaters but that would be a lot of work we don't need. 
3) replacing some of the windows which you can see round to the outside. 
4) we also need to redo the bathroom, including taking down a wall. This will get us a more useable space, and also fix the bad leak which comes from the bathroom down into the playroom, which we can't plaster until we've fixed the bathroom. 

Otherwise I also need to do something about the garden because everything is getting fried to a crisp. Need to replan the way it's laid out so that the vegetables last to fruition. I'm also thinking about more rainwater storage from the winter - we have 4 large butts as it is but that's not going to be enough if the climate instability continues like this. 

Lots of plans to make and things to do. In the meantime, we're on holiday in my parents' caravan in Scotland and had an amazing thunder and rainstorm this morning which was quite the relief in terms of weather!

LadyWithAPlan

This weather certainly makes one think about water butts and solar panels! Sorry to hear on your fix now but sounds like with your pay increases you can make it all work.

savingholmes

Enjoy your holiday

Viking_mfw

Back to earth with a bump after 2 weeks off. Picked 2.4kg of blackberries with my mum on Saturday and have got blackberry vinegar infusing, blackberry syrup collapsing and some fruit leather my mother is continuing to dry out and will bring to us in a couple of weeks. 

Needed a new lightweight rain coat and went to look in the Mounta1n War3hous3 sale where I found a lovely fitting one reduced from 79.99 to 54.99. I was intending to go home and buy it online as there was an extra 20% off online, but instead I noticed what looked like an identical jacket on the other side of the shop, high up, for only 27.99. Asked what the difference was and when the very young shop assistant came back she said her manager had told her to price match the women's one to the men's price! So I bought it then and there and wore it to walk the dog this morning. Very satisfactory. Except for the cat, who freaked at the fluorescent yellow... oops!

Viking_mfw

Dinner was chicken and ham pie with chicken from the roast at my mum's, tinned ham and carrots from the community larder and the parmesan I had to cut the mould off when we got back! Made jam tarts with the offcut pastry which cooked at the same time. 

Our garden is completely dead after 2 weeks with no watering and I think one set of rain. Need to pick all the tumbling Tom's and do something with them. 

Transferred money from regular saver and claimed my account "rewards" so will buy £357 PBs tomorrow and then start September with a clean slate on my salary. I need to redo the budget with fhe new mortgage and energy figures and also DS1's swimming lessons which are moving to dd. 

Claimed the bonus £2 on tcb thanks to @edinburgher - bought a £5 cafe Nero voucher as I intended to go mark there this week anyway - quiet and comfy and air conned. 

Couple of items listed to go free on Fb etc. Getting it out of the house!