Things can only get better

Sun_Addict

That's Monday almost done.

Went into the office until lunchtime then WFH this afternoon. Popped into Lidl on the way home as Mr SA has run out of face cream and he likes their own brand.

Monday money shuffle and finances check done. Have sent £200 to the regular saver, some oddments to the Christmas pot and cleared the cc balance. I noticed Octopus took out the lower direct debit amount, I had put it back up to what it was before but maybe requested it too late to affect this month. Another £100 overpayment made to the additional borrowing part of the mortgage.

Booked us in for our flu jabs next Monday, just need to book in the Covid boosters now. Mr SA is getting worked up about his MRI tomorrow. I wasn't going to remind him until tomorrow but the hospital phoned him this morning to remind him!

Exercise has been walking to/from work, should hit 20,000 steps by tonight. Going to do a strength training session from the FitOn app later.

Trying a new recipe from Deliciously Ella tonight - veggie and butter bean orzo. On the subject of Deliciously Ella, I've had the app for a few years now and have been paying 99p a month for it, well worth it in my opinion. However, like a lot of places at the moment, they are putting up the price to £2.49 a month, although upgrading the app considerably. I realised I'd be better off paying £19.99 for the year so went to change it when I noticed if I paid the old price for the year of £9.99 before it went up on 1 October I'd be craftily saving myself £10, so I got in there pretty sharpish 😁

foxgloves

We've also received a call to book our flu jabs so will do that as soon as I know I'm testing negative......still have lots of symptoms so it hasn't felt worth wasting a stick now that we have to pay for them. Flu is utterly vile, so there's no way I'm going to miss an opportunity to get jabbed.
I also had the reduced DD amount collected by the Tentacled Ones. I deliberated for ages about what to do for the best. We do have a lot of credit for historical reasons I've covered on my diary, but I did still think at first, that I'd put the DD back up to the usual amount to keep the credit balance buoyant now that the colder months are here. In the end, I decided to leave it at £66/£67 & to use the money saved to build up some of our Savings Pots, as various areas of expenditure are now being affected by inflation. If I change my mind, I will just adjust it back again when they send the usual monthly nudge email about the DD collection. I am also watching our energy account balance like a hawk. I can see from the numbers on our smart meter monitor that the price increases are kicking in........for example, by lunchtime the other day, we were on over £1 of electricity used. That doesn't sound a lot, but we have no electric heating, cooking, kettle & I'd done no washing. Boiler is also gas. So that was fridge, freezer, lights on first thing & 2 uses of the coffee machine. It certainly concentrates my resolve.
Hope Mr SA gets on ok at the MRI tomorrow. It's not pleasant being in the machine.
F 

ladyholly

I am suppoed to phone my GP re flu jab but it takes so long I keep puuting it off. Tried to book covid jab for Mr LH but the wbsite gives the nearest as our city and gives the distance as 13 miles away. I have checked the route and it is actually 16.5 miles away. I know there is a centre in our town but it doesnt show on the website and he refuses to travel that far when there is a local place. I will have to ring them as well.

abaka

Foxgloves - Just remember that the boiler also probably uses electric if it’s a modern boiler!  

And you probably also have a router on for internet that’s never switched off.

Any Amazon echo devices also are common in peoples house nowadays and they forget they have them on also!  

I may or may not have been obsessing over electrical use this weekend and have identified every thing that is drawing power in a single moment.

I’m losing the battle to turn the oven off at the wall as it apparently will knock the timer off….which we’ve never used to set times for anything! And we have a wall clock!!

Blackcats

Hope all goes well with the scan.  It's always stressful in the days leading up significant hospital tests.  Do you get the results quickly?

Sun_Addict

@foxgloves I’ve definitely noticed the cost rising on the smart meter. 

@ladyholly our nearest Covid vaccination centre is over 10 miles away, we’ve no chance of getting there without transport. However the receptionist at the doctors said Boots are doing walk-ins. 

@abaka I’d like to switch my oven clock off too but if I switch the oven off at the mains I can’t use the hob without switching it back on. 

@Blackcats we don’t officially get the results until he sees the consultant in February. They’ve told us if we don’t hear anything by 2 weeks then all is well. He hates the MRI as he has to wear a helmet to keep his head still and they inject him with dye halfway through. Thankfully the scans are down to annually now. At first they were every 3 months. 

Sun_Addict

Morning, happy Tuesday.

WFH this morning until lunchtime then off for the scan. Decided to walk there and back (with Mr SA on his scooter) for 3 reasons: convenience of not having to wait around for a taxi, step count (for me) and it will save £20 in taxi fares. It's only a bit further to walk than work so not miles away. Depending on what time we get back home I might log back on to work for a short time.  Of course if it rains that's the walking plan out of the window, it's very cloudy here but can't see that rain is forecast.

Other exercise will be a live resistance bands class this evening. I'll miss the bums & tums as we'll be en route to the hospital. It's a shame as it's Ibiza week this week which is right up my street. Hey ho. 

Mr M shop delivered and packed away. No missing items or subs. This week's offer was £1 off household. 

Tonight's dinner is a portion of veg lasagne from freezer stocks with the last of the salad bits from the fridge. 

I need to sort out the freezers yet again as I've let them get a bit out of hand.

maggiem

Do check around for COVID places. I work as a vaccination steward at a site and when I checked on the app that site did not appear but is running every weekend and takes walk ins too. Might be worth checking locally where vaccinations wer held last year. No idea why some sites are not appearing on the app. 

Sun_Addict

Sat waiting for Mr SA to have his scan and I can hear them saying to him no not that way and lie still 😬 At least I don’t have to go in with him these days to hold his legs down. We got lost in the hospital grounds and were 10 minutes late but luckily they weren’t busy and he went straight in. 

foxgloves

@Sun_Addict - I think a few more Covid vaccination places might still yet appear in our county. I know that our main B**ts in town is doing them again  - we had our boosters there last December, but I have also read that another couple of local pharmacies are likely to be offering them soon, too. One is an indie, which we pass on our way into town, but the other one mentioned was our local branch of 'Evans' pharmacy. I've certainly had my flu jabs done there before, so I could go there if they are defo offering the latest covid booster too. I think this pharmacy has other branches in the county, so might be worth checking.....though I don't want to send you on a wild goose chase, as it may come down to individual branches' decision, I don't know.
F