It's time to begin.....

Kakiste

That's my take on it as well. I feel like I'm having my pay whittled down by DD as well as debt repayments so I'm looking ahead to see what I can get rid of as a monthly expense over the next few years.

Kakiste

Well it looks like camping is off.
Gale force winds and rain here at the moment- wind will continue all weekend apparently and there are multiple thunderstorms forecast for tomorrow. 
I'm a bit disappointed that we're probably not going and I've obviously lost the £50 pitching fee but we'll save on the additional food costs. 
On the positive side there is lots in the cupboards right now so will only probably need to spend about £10 on food to take us through to next Friday- we're away next weekend (to visit friends) so will probably do a week of cupboard/freezer meals to use everything up. 

joedenise

@Kakiste it's worth contacting the campsite and see if they were let you move your dates so you don't lose your pitch fees.  A lot of campsite owners are very amenable at the moment.  It's certainly worth a try.

Kakiste

Thanks. I'll ask and see what they say. 

Kakiste

Have asked campsite but so far no response. 
Regarding food stretching the weeks menu currently looking like this 
Yesterday - burgers and salad
Sunday- Tuna and sweetcorn pasta bake
Monday- Homemade vegetable pizza
Tuesday- sweet and sour chicken and rice
Wednesday - Chinese noodles
Thursday- Jacket potatoes, beans and cheese. 

Went to the shops yesterday and picked up a big thing of milk, butter, a loaf and some ham. £5.45. Only things I need to buy to make the above meals is a carton of pineapple juice and cider vinegar to make the sweet and sour sauce with. Food shopping for the week therefore will be under £10.
Sewing project continues well- making another projects. Did another hour yesterday and theyre about 30% done. Friends round today so will crack on with them tomorrow and see if I can get them to 60% ish. 

joedenise

@Kakiste do you have white wine vinegar?  If you do you can use that instead and not need to buy cider vinegar.  I usually use white wine vinegar even though I've got cider vinegar!  I think you can use any vinegar, although I wouldn't want to use malt vinegar in a sweet and sour - that's definitely for chips!

Kakiste

Thanks. Sadly have no other vinegar except for malt so it's a requirement!

Kakiste

Got onto a good multiple survey on prolific in the last 4 days. It was basically a daily mood tracker and a food diary (I think I can guess what they were studying!) Completed the last one and it's made me £15.50 for about 3 minutes work each day for 4 days. Not too shabby. They've also paid very promptly so already have been paid all but £4.70 of it- and I'm expecting that this afternoon. Nice little end of month boost. 
My in laws have decided theyr e dropping round tomorrow so I've been sewing this morning before my friends turn up- I've done about an hour so far and it's about up about 40% total project completion. My aim is to have them done and listed by Wednesday evening and if they sell by Friday afternoon I'll have some money for meals out/activities when we get down to friend's house at the weekend. I'm going to list them for £25 each plus postage on a wider sewing selling group first before my own group (that way I can charge slightly more) so there's a potential £150 there. If there's no takers by Thursday evening Ill list them on my own group for £20 and see if they go. 

Kakiste

So I've got a plumber being sent by the letting agency this morning for round 8 of the 'fix the damn shower' saga. 
The shower in my ensuite has been broken since 2017! The tiles in there loosened and started leaking and they replaced the tiling with plastic siding; but in doing so they took out the fully working (and great) electric shower and replaced it with a gravity shower. 
This probably would have been an issue except that the water tank is in the landing cupboard and therefore parallel to the shower. So the shower (Which now requires water to drop down into it- had a flow akin to a drip.) you couldn't possibly shower under it- it wouldn't actually be effective to wash your hands under. 
Anyhow- this happened 3 years ago. Since then every school holiday I ring up and complain, they send a plumber out who shakes his head and then attempts some kind of "fix" that never works due to the simple fact that a gravity shower requires water to drop down into it and not slowly travel sideways. 
The actual problem is that the estate agents have messed up (at this point we reckon they've probably spent £400+ in call out fees and parts and don't want to fork out just under £100 for a new shower. They are also terrified of my landlord (decent landlord but he's a local Traveller kingpin and there are really scared of him as he has a habit of turning up ij their office with a bunch of his very big mates and yelling whenever he doesn't like anything they've done) and he paid them to fit a new shower in 2017 and they used the money on small fixes instead so don't want to ask him for any more. 

So it will be fun to see what today's proposed 'fix' will be. 

Kakiste

In a surprise twist the shower is now fixed! There was a brand new plumber who looked everything over, ranted a lot about the incompetence of the previous people and has installed and plumbed in an electric pump and the shower now works brilliantly! There's currently no plug in the airing cupboard so we need to run an extension lead across the hallway every time we want to use the shower (apparently an electrician will be out tomorrow to fit a plug in the airing cupboard) but it's still a workable shower! 
I'm so pleased! We've been making do with a mixer tap over the bath in the other bathroom for the last 3 years but its a bit pathetic pressure wise. This one is ace- proper power shower pressure.