*sigh* this may take a while

ohdearhowdidthathappen

EssexHebridean said:

Well done on the booze and the steppage - definitely get some additional strength training in there too though even if it's just squats while waiting for the kettle to boil! A sneaky one that I heard someone mention earlier in the week which I keep meaning to try is to stand on one leg while brushing your teeth - 1 minute on one leg, 1 minute on the other. The movement of your upper body really challenges you to keep your balance and apparently it's great for strength and stability! 

So glad you both had a lovely time on your London trip too - that's some lovely memories to have together!

Will give the one leg thing a go
Yes, lovely memories

lucielle said:

Sounds like you had a great trip!  
L

Was lovely thanks  

mark55man said:

wow - I know the show you mean - I don't like musicals (sacrilege) but our friends have been a few times and loved it every time.

I think a similar show is one called Six or just 6 about Henry VIII (spoiler - they don't all make it through). Maybe next time! as it seems to be such nice thing for you

That's what we've got on our radar for the next show, spooky!! Can't believe you've spoilt the ending for me now though

 savingholmes said:

Glad you had a nice time in London. Everything I've tried to book recently has ended up being cancelled. Debating whether to try again or not.

Definitely go for it, most things are going ahead now

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Drawingaline said:

Can't believe how expensive it was for the train. We are 45mins out and even without a Railcard it is around £30 for a one day travel card each. I have a network Railcard and a friends and family one. My 17yr old also has a young person's one. They pay for themselves with two trips. But then we do go to see shows regularly.

Glad you liked the show. We saw it on Disney in 2020 when they streamed it, I wasn't keen, but actually enjoyed it. Enough to think about going and seeing it in the cheap seats (I am a bit of a bargain hunter with theatre tickets) but daughter wasn't keen and actually fell asleep when we watched it on Tele so might have to find someone else to go with. I am going to be missing my theatre partner if she does go to uni in the depths of the countryside!!! Time to cultivate some new theatre friends.

Think it's because we stayed overnight, couldn't do the 1 day travelcard thing.  And then it was £8 each for both days for tube.  Meh.

I agree, saw it on Disney and was vaguely underwhelmed, daughter loved it though which is why we went to see live show.  Honestly, Disney didn't do it justice... it was excellent, best west end show I've ever seen  

EssexHebridean

Yep, even in London now travel’s not cheap - My travel on Friday cost me over £12 on oyster. 

ohdearhowdidthathappen

I switched our bank to M0nz0 last year and in general I love it.  BUT there are a few bug bears I've discovered over the months:

1) paying cash in - have to find a PayPoint and get charged £1 for the privilege
2) paying cheque in - have to post it
3) Low cash withdrawal limit - £300 a day across both joint and sole accounts.  So I recently needed to get out £1k and it took me 4 days to do it in dribs and drabs, before that I'd always assumed I could take £300 out of sole and £300 out of joint, but no.  And DH couldn't take £300 out of joint because I had?!  And obviously no high street bank branch to go to, to do it in one go.

These are all minor inconveniences and I just rolled my eyes.

But the biggest one is withdrawing cash.  So recently we went away for the weekend to a little seaside town and wanted to do a boat tour.  They only accepted cash the town only had ONE cash point and it was out of order.  No problem, we thought, we'll go to post office and withdraw cash there.  But when we went we found they don't accept M0nz0!  Very odd. 
Anyway, it wasn't a massive thing, we just didn't do the boat tour.  But I've been left feeling a bit uneasy that we couldn't access our money when we wanted to.
Have decided a short term solution is to just open a bank account with the Spanish bank (our mortgage is with them so was easy) and then that way, we can just transfer money to that card in an emergency, pay cash into that one and transfer across and pay cheques into it too.
But I'm wondering if I should just move all our banking now as I like having everything in one place.  And if so, to which bank? Plus I should probably wait a while if I do as otherwise I'll be opening too many accounts in a short space of time.  Gah! 

lucielle

I have a Lloyds account and from that I can set up savings accounts and name them, so they’re like pots. 

L

Drawingaline

I have friends who love monzo, but I get the impression it has been set up really aimed at the younger generation, so cash and cheques are less of a problem with them. My daughter ha an account and likes it, but has her nationwide to have her wages paid in and will probably get that changed to a student account, even though she will use the monzo for day to day use. I use ynab so don't see the need for a monzo account (our friends keep trying to convert us).

I have two current accounts Lloyds and nationwide. Neither are better than the other, although I prefer the app with Lloyds. 

EssexHebridean

We've got accounts with N@tionwide and Sant-And-er. I pulled away from being just N@tionwide because we felt that their customer service and the benefits that members got had really dropped off. No way am I walking away entirely as I have over 30 years history banking with the, but I wanted to do less with them overall. So far very pleased with the Spanish mob, including some excellent customer service in-branch the other weekend. I still plan to migrate my secondary solo account which is with them across to FD eventually though. 

I've heard a lot of good stuff about Monzo but somewhere along the line I just don't quite feel it's for me - and reading the comments above confirms that. 

Drawingaline

Same as you EH I have the history with Lloyds, nearly 30yrs. Nationwide I did as an account switch and dropped my newer Lloyds account, but I feel no loyalty to them. But all my kids have them as they seem to do a decent 11-18 account.

ladyholly

I have several accounts with Lloyds include one for save the change (tilly tidy).

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Thanks Lucielle, DAL, EH and LH
We banked with HSBC for years (since teens) before switching to M0nz0.... there's a Lloyds and a Natwest locally, all the other banks have closed their branches.  TBF we never really used the branch which is why we thought the switch would be a good one. I looked at the 123 account before opening just the everyday one and FD get good reviews.  I do like the pots with M0nzo though. I'll see how I get on with having the secondary account for mopping up the quirks