The Edcawber Principle

edinburgher

@Suffolk_lass - dinner sounds fab! Think I'm going to treat myself with a (small) sirloin steak and salad for dinner this weekend 👍

I did get the headaches as well, but they have passed now. You're probably right in that they relate to sugar, I just assumed it was my body revolting because of my poor treatment of it!

Late breakfast of ham, eggs, a wee bit of fairly brown guacamole and salad, looked colourful if nothing else. Took DD to grandparents in the snow, horrendous driving conditions!

beanielou

@Suffolk_lass. My humour is often not appreciated so not to worry 😊

beanielou

@edinburgher. That is an amazing loss. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

edinburgher

@beanielou - thank you very much - I am feeling proud of myself

I am continuing the abstemious behaviour with a dinner of steamed brocolli, a mug of HM miso soup (can't beat it for a cold evening) and some flavoured sparkling water (approximately 3g of carbs per litre). I picked up treats at the supermarket - two sensibly sized sirloin steaks and some 0% alcohol coffee/chocolate stout from a nice Scottish brewery (Harviestoun). Let's hope it's as tasty as their alcoholic offerings - it's only 10g of carbs per bottle or thereabouts!

A bit disappointed as I had forgotten that mortgages are paid in arrears. This means I need to pay c. 6 weeks of mortgage on my next bill, meaning it will only be £45 or so lower than usual. £267 lower from March, but March feels a long way away at present...

On a more positive financial note, stock markets appear to be going wild, we've gained £,£££ in a week

Right, budgets trimmed and holiday now 35% paid for. Just in time for me to hear mutterings from the internet about E@syjet cancelling flights booked for next summer already! Fingers crossed we're ok, Zante is a very popular destination.

Suffolk_lass

My weight has stuck this morning (tried twice! lol) and I think we are filling up a bit too much. That and not enough garlic. Last night we each had a four egg omelette/frittata with shallot, butternut squash and cheese. It is freezing here and with no heating I think we both need more comfort food, hence the squash. I'm planning more of the same today with the rest of the leek soup and then chilli this evening. I'm really enjoying an handful of semi-defrosted Morries Wonky fruit with a big dollop of Greek-Style yogurt as a permissable dessert.

That saving on your mortgage is amazing, very impressed. I've just started to look at what I do with my £250 a month that I put in a regular saver (2.75%) for which the last payment goes at the end of January. I can get 1% ( ) from the same provider (HSBC) and have not seen a better one yet. The accumulated £3k plus interest pays for the house insurance (about half) and any away travel we plan. It might be buying DS a new computer as an early birthday gift as his Mac is sickly. We got him (well he did, under my guidance) a chromebook to be going on with. He can collect it on Monday evening from the big shed place about 4 miles from his house. I hold his card for him that has his emergency fund and budgetting money in it - £450 this month with Covid impacting his work.

Staffordia

Hi Suffolk Lass, I don't know if your user name gives a clue to your location? If your postcode fits Saffron BS criteria, they were offering a RS with 1.5% on up to £500 a month. 

edinburgher

@Suffolk_lass - I am on the slowdown too! Your dinner sounds higher calories than I am eating at the moment (400+ at a guess)? but are you actually doing 800 cals, or just "cleaning up" food a bit to stick to a Mediterranean diet more? I'm a wee bit confused on that front, I know you're more of a "macros" woman than a calorie counter

I lost a mere 0.4lbs today, so I guess my holiday excess and water weight has now departed I am allowing myself a little bit of a cheat/refuel today with perhaps up to 1,200 calories. Food plans were a "big" breakfast (4 rashers of unsmoked back bacon, a hot dog and a coffee with cream (glorious!), a light lunch (probably miso soup and a small portion of honeydew melon (DD wanted some and can't eat the whole thing) and dinner of a sirloin steak, a salad and a double G&T) I make no excuses and am quite happy with this choice.

Budgets trimmed and monies added to holiday fund.

Starting to wonder whether my disappointment yesterday re. remortgage was a little premature - the letter from the new provider says that they released £164k, but I am almost definite that I logged into online banking for the old provider about a week ago and the balance was £162.8k. The new provider has definitely billed me from the date of completion, so perhaps there's a chance that this discrepancy (if I've not just imagined it) will make its way back to me as an account adjustment from the old provider?

Off for a play in the snow with DD and Mrs E - have a good day all.

Suffolk_lass

Staffordia said:

Hi Suffolk Lass, I don't know if your user name gives a clue to your location? If your postcode fits Saffron BS criteria, they were offering a RS with 1.5% on up to £500 a month. 

Thank you. There is a Branch in 3rd closest town that is open only to let people withdraw cash or pay in to cover bills. A quick look online unearthed the condition that you must have held a mortgage or savings account with them for 12 months before you can open this. We have two £250 RS currently but I would be happy to save regularly for a year with them at a lower rate to be able to do this - we probably have too much in shares for our current situation (too much risk exposure) so might do a shuffle. The 0.8% accounts rate is higher than one of our cash ISAs that "matures" its rate around June. With any luck I could move it then and actually go in (vaccination permitting). I have looked before and should have done something before. I like their ethical approach.

edinburgher

@Suffolk_lass - if you have a NW current account they offer 3% on a tiny £50/max per month, up to £1,000 total. Might be ok for a slow drip feed, but I only use it as it was convenient as I'd already switched a donor current account to them.

Play in the snow was good but exhausting, we built a snowman, threw lots of snowballs and made snow angels

The rest of the afternoon was not so amusing. I had to drill fittings into DD's walls to hang a toy hammock, but the instructions were crap and despite my best efforts (used 4 different drill bits going carefully up in size), I ended up drilling one of the holes too big. It cost me £8 for a caulking gun and a tube of grip fill to (hopefully) fix it. Left a scathing review - what kind of product comes with the fitting instruction "use the appropriate sized drill bit for the fittings"?     

Am now exhausted and cranky, oven on for reverse sear steaks

Edit: on a totally unrelated note, can anyone recommend a good website for cushions? Mrs E is after some for the sitting room - she's a classy lassie, not afraid of a bit of colour and we'd rather buy something that will last than a pair of supermarket cheapies.

rtandon27

edinburgher said:

Edit: on a totally unrelated note, can anyone recommend a good website for cushions? Mrs E is after some for the sitting room - she's a classy lassie, not afraid of a bit of colour and we'd rather buy something that will last than a pair of supermarket cheapies.

Try here Ed - they have a huge selection - our current cushions are from them & really good quality.