2020++ - smiling and waving and looking so fine

savingholmes

Glad the wifi is good. May look into the 50s thread...

Sarahwithlove

Great news. Glad it's working well for you

ohdearhowdidthathappen

I've looked into Virgin, but they have a bad rep in our area for dropping signal unfortunately.  Shame, as they have some great packages... we're with BT and although I haggle each year, it's still a bit on the pricy side for my liking!

mark55man

yes - we heard those stories about Virgin, but in the end we decided we would rather have it blistering fast when it was there then p.poor all the time!!  in extremis, we all have quite a generous shared mobile data plan so if it gets terrible we can just burn up the mobile data

our bins are finally back to their normal day - its been so confusing and we nearly missed it last weekend but I think that's the end of xmas impact really, except we are still using a couple of xmas mugs for our coffee because in some un-definable way they are just right

looking forward to pay day - these last 10 days or so are going to be looong - although I have been moving reasonable chunks of money around in my pension, in the real world its literally been a spend free month in terms of luxury items so any seasonal gremlins emerging from the xmas and lockdown spends are already covered, and the question is how cheaply can I get through to the end of the month and build up a CC OP.

been helping DD sort out a tenancy issue - in terms of what she should expect by way of rebate for living one room down while the agency farted around with workmen.  I know its lockdown but they were more than a bit slow.  anyway she should get the decision some time tomorrow as next months rent is due soon after

savingholmes

Good luck with the budget.

mark55man

Hurray for the weekend.  DIY planned - DS1 keen to help

Spent the evening doing a little more fiddling with the virgin box to get it wired up OK to my various smart boxes (Hive, etc), and there are a couple of cold spots for signal which I need to ponder about

My work expenses for my busy period running up to Christmas came in today so I paid that straight off my CC1 (work and forgot my wallet items), I will clear that balance on pay day and then see what I have left over for CC2 (0% until May PayDay) 

I got my car on the 12th Jan and in 10 days I have done 16 miles, and 9 of those were getting it back from the seller.  I think this month will be the least driving I have done since I passed my test (in the last century!!) .

mark55man

So a productive morning, it was like blue peter in here honestly.  I took an empty cereal box, folded it double and covered with foil and created like a flexible book cover and placed one half of it behind the Virgin box, with the movable half strategically angled to bounce signals up to DS1 room in the attic but by excluding the 2 other bedrooms that don't need it more of the signal is coming downstairs.  I'm just going to tweak the router now to set up separate channels for 2.4 and 5GHz as that apparently helps the Apple fan-bois in this house (not me!) connect properly  

Also cancelled a credit card (which had been a BT card paid off in 2019) but which I hadn't closed down as it was nearly £20K limit, and somehow that impressed me in a non MSE way.  So now I am down to 3 (which is still too many, but CC2 will be paid off in May this year and then closed in June) then I will probably keep CC1 my main emergency/lost wallet card, and CC3 will become backup because who knows and its is on 0% purchase until June 22. 

DIY not started yet all the young adults are asleep - and I need some help

mark55man

snow interrupted DIY plans as decided not to go to hardware shop and play out instead.

last week before payday so hopeful not very spendy.  am trying not to obsess too much with the spreadsheets

weighed in this morning and down another kilo, so that's slowly beginning to head back to my pre christmas weight.  OH is doing much better so that's motivating

savingholmes

HI Mark - well done on the weight loss and sorting of the router. It is satisfying seeing the debt go down too.

mark55man

well I sorted out the router signal strength, but it turns out the virgin superhub 3 is a POS.  The router equivalent of the Austin Allegro (which I had so I can cuss).  I decided to spend £80 to get a separate router so that I am paying virgin £30pm for blisteringly fast internet and I have paid a one off £80 for a much better single box, with potential to buy additional add-ons that will mesh the wifi into the garden.  Not delighted, but OK, plus it was kind of fun!!  

hopefully that's all folks