A new royal start

themadvix

I would have thought your oven is probably hard wired in Jess, rather than on a plug - I think it should be. So no chance of testing that anyway. Do you have a smart meter? I find the display for that is pretty indicative of cost/kWh for oven in any case (Not as good as our Eve plug but good enough). 

We took our plug to the in-laws yesterday and discovered that their 2nd fridge freezer (they have two fridge freezers and a chest freezer 🙄) would cost them about £1100/year to run… they are now considering replacing with a small under counter fridge that would cost £160/year to run (don’t even go there on suggesting that they could be normal and just have the one fridge!!)

QueenJess

Bluegreen143 said:

Working a school day is amazing, highly recommend as that’s what I do (I do also have a Friday off but may change this when Bambi goes to school). If you do it every day, you can do 30-32 hours per week (depending on start time) and in most workplaces that’s the same as working a four day week. I’d personally MUCH rather work five shorter days with leisurely afternoons/evenings than four longer rushed ones and once both kids are school age it means no term time childcare costs.

I would say my chances of that are zero though as I have to be available for calls 3-5/6pm due to some significant time differences between countries 😕. Might be able to wing it one day though.

QueenJess

themadvix said:

I would have thought your oven is probably hard wired in Jess, rather than on a plug - I think it should be. So no chance of testing that anyway. Do you have a smart meter? I find the display for that is pretty indicative of cost/kWh for oven in any case (Not as good as our Eve plug but good enough). 

We took our plug to the in-laws yesterday and discovered that their 2nd fridge freezer (they have two fridge freezers and a chest freezer 🙄) would cost them about £1100/year to run… they are now considering replacing with a small under counter fridge that would cost £160/year to run (don’t even go there on suggesting that they could be normal and just have the one fridge!!)

£1,100 😱. Wow! No smart meter here, but I don’t think we are generally wasteful. Just some areas to monitor and tweak and hopefully make a bit of a difference before my bill goes up in 2023. I could just read the meter more regularly as it’s just outside and easy to get to and I may start doing weekly rather than monthly readings, the trouble is that when the heating goes on it is impossible to tell anyway what is other usage and what is just the heating being on.

Edit: that would make more sense re: the oven, but someone came to fix the oven not that long ago and I watched them take it out and say it was a stupid design. Makes no sense, but there you are…

QueenJess

Tiny electricity use changes (in case it helps anyone):
1. I got DH to change the sensitivity on the outside lamps as they came on if anyone was breathing outside anywhere.
2. I turned the indoor filtration fans back down to average from high. They were only high to try and make it cooler in the summer when it was really hot. The filtration system is to provide air into the house, extract from the kitchen/bathroom and pump heat from downstairs into upstairs.

QueenJess

Well, what a nightmare 2 weeks.  Work has been utterly crazy and I've been working ridiculous hours to keep on top of it.  Just got to the end of it on Friday... phew!  Sadly DS gave DD his cold/cough virus thing and then I didn't stand a chance.  I've been working so hard through it that I've been struggling to shake it off and have been working from bed for about 3 days and been half resting this weekend as I'm still not better (but getting there).

House is in a tip, and I'm behind on all home stuff.  Was feeling quite down in the week as I have no time to do anything I want to do or anything I personally value (i.e. spending more time with the kids) and it just felt pointless.  I have come to the conclusion that come April next year I will ask for part-time (3 days a week) and assuming they accept, I can still leave if it doesn't work for me and I can afford to do that.  No point in working hard and missing out on the important things if I don't have to do it to live.

Although I've still got things to do at work next week, my plan is to work less than my hours to make up for serious overworking in the prior two weeks and average it out.  Work at least don't actually care as long as the work is done.  Really hoping I will have a more relaxed working week now for the rest of the year.

To stop myself being overwhelmed with all the stuff I haven't done, I have a vague plan to achieve 3 things a day minimum and then I am allowed to relax in the evenings.  I can do more, but no obligation.  Hopefully I'll start to catch up slowly.  Today I've done more than that already by:

• Finishing all the clothes washing/putting all the dry clothes away
• Renewed all the library books due tomorrow to give me more time
• Read the electricity meter
• Prepped all the cooking apples I picked up free locally by cutting out the middles and stuffing them with butter, brown sugar, sultanas and cinnamon.  Will throw them in the oven with dinner and they will be a nice pudding for the next few days with the vat of yogurt in the fridge.
• Written a shopping list for tomorrow for the urgent things we are running out of.  Will pop there first thing and just start work a bit late.
  

If I get time later I may look for the wild flower seeds I want (couldn't get them in the local garden centre) and order the duck food as it's getting low.  We have the smallest grass verge of all time down our road (not council adopted) and it has barely any grass on it anymore.  No one wants to spend time seeding and looking after grass, so I thought I'd throw some wild flower seed on it when no one was looking and see what happens.  It may not work, but it's worth a try.

I'm trying hard not to write down all the things I need to catch up on as it is overwhelming..  Just thinking of a few things at a time and once ticked off I'll add a few more.  Will see how it goes.

Dinner tonight is the farm shop beef pie (expensive but so good!) with broccoli and carrots.  Pudding is baked apples and yogurt.

QueenJess

Struggling to figure out a work life balance this week after working ridiculous hours for the past two weeks. I mean I worked to reach the deadline and then only after I’d finished I was told that we’ve never been this advanced and on time before 🙄

Been very slowly trying to catch up with all the millions of things I have on my home to do list. House is looking tidier, but the to do list is still pretty epic. I’m writing a few things down to do next and only add more when I’ve crossed some off.  I did manage to book myself a flu jab (free through work) for next week and used up my garden centre vouchers yesterday morning before work. They were going to expire otherwise and I didn’t really need anything, so decided to get some better bird feeders for free as mine are pretty bulky and annoying. I am hoping I can hang these ones from some of our trees when I get a minute to do that.

No heating on here as it isn’t quite cold enough yet. As soon as DD’s room is too cold I will have to put it on as she feels the cold like me. It’s annoying for washing as it’s taking a lot longer to dry now, so I’m going to have to be a bit more organised with that. I struggle to get to sleep at night as I get really cold feet, so I’ve treated myself to a hot water bottle. I’ve not had one since I was a child. It arrived last night and is so much better! Been slightly cold working from home, but I have thicker socks I can wear and I’ve started having something warm for lunch that really helps. Yesterday I made red pesto spaghetti with mushrooms (used up all the red pesto from the fridge). Dinner was salmon stir fry with sweet chilli sauce to get rid of tons of veg from the fridge (including broccoli stalks), use up more of the rice best before end Sept and the really annoying sweet chilli sauce that was near the end and so stored upside down in the fridge so it was falling into everything.

DS is totally different and is always hot. He point blank refuses to wear trousers to school and so has been in shorts all week. He’s the only one and makes me feel like I’m a bad parent 😬

Pudding last night was the end of the baked apples from the fridge (with the end of a tub of yogurt - DS had the last half of the ys chocolate eclairs). I also made a fig and apple crumble last night we can have tonight with vegan cream and stewed loads more fig and apple for the freezer for a crumble another day. It filled the oven and then I left it open. That plus more bodies in the house was enough to increase the temperature in DD’s room (above the kitchen) so no heating needed.

Today is busy and my eyes already hurt with tiredness (think it’s all the work, plus the end of this cold thing I can’t shift, plus DD waking up more often at night). At gymnastics with DS at the moment, then home via DH’s brothers house to post through his bday cards, lunch, then back out again. I’m taking DS to a Lego exhibition and as it’s a way away, DD and DH are coming and going to a farm park. Then we’ll all meet up again for dinner out, then back home to put DD to bed. We will all have pudding at home and I will take some biscuits for DD’s pudding for the journey home.

Got lots of random food to use up in the fridge at the moment and now some in the freezer as I went on a ys shopping trip to M&S on Thursday. It’s one of the closest supermarkets to us and on a Thurs morning you can shop entirely alone and they have all the ys bargains out. I like to go every now and again as it is nice to get some treats and I often have vouchers from survey sites/CC etc. I now have 8 fish cakes in my freezer for about £4 and a really nice pack of beef mince. I now have a £20 voucher for there, so I will have to go another Thursday.

Been ordering a few things this week. Both kids needed socks as they’ve managed to wear them through. I spent more on non slip ones for DD as she’s very accident prone and we have a slippery tiled kitchen floor. This way she can have warm feet and hopefully still be safe. I got better ones for DS as his last cheap ones were awful. Hopefully these will last and can be passed onto DD. Also got a huge bag of duck food as it’s cheaper that way. I still have tons of toilet paper wrapping paper I saved as it looked nice. I’ve already used 10 to fold into bags (no glue, no sellotape) that I can fill with duck food and easily grab when we go out. Just a million more of those to make at some point! I made a different bag this time that I can roll down and therefore not use any tape. Will see how they work out.

This post is becoming very long! Better go as DS comes out soon.

QueenJess

Working hard again at work, although nothing as crazy as before. Just the usual thing where no one has done it properly before, so it takes 5x as long. I am definitely underpaid, especially as I should have been promoted 4-5 years ago until the idiot arrived (and subsequently left due to incompetence). We also heard about our yearly salary increase today and I am distinctly underwhelmed. They framed it as “you are lucky to get anything at all” which rather annoyed me…

Anyway, annoyances aside, I know we are really lucky and I feel terrible for those really struggling. You know things are bad when the Tories are threatening to revolt if they cut benefits.

Did an enormous shop on Monday without a list which was dangerous. I got about 2 months+ of food with other top ups needed. Not the cheapest shop, but I haven’t the time to shop around and there were a couple of things I needed specifically from there. I’ve accepted I don’t have time to make my shop the cheapest with working full time, but I will at least use everything up and waste nothing.

DH is working late tonight, so just me and DS for dinner. Lazy jacket potato, cheese and beans, then we’ll watch Frozen Planet together that he’s really enjoying. No Bake-Off without DH, so will be watched tomorrow instead. Pudding is the last of the fig and apple crumble. Need to plan food for tomorrow’s dinner/pudding, but my brain is mush at the moment and I still have an hour of work to do later 😬. Hopefully some inspiration will appear later and I can organise myself!

Will reduce the weekly veg box back down to small and see how that goes as I currently have slightly too much each week. A medium every other week would be cheaper, but not sure yet if that would be enough. One step at a time! Also need to amend the milk order tonight as I need one less pint. Should all add up.

I also picked up some free Xmas crackers on the buy nothing site. I wasn’t picked initially, but they had a failed pickup. Was perfect as I only get them for the kids, are outrageously expensive and I just walked round the corner to get them. Should save a little bit at Xmas time.

QueenJess

Another day trying to squeeze two lives into one. Woke up late this morning as DD is waking me up a lot at night at the moment (probably growing again) and rushed some breakfast before my first work call.

Mozzarella, sun dried tomatoes and spinach toasties for lunch. It doesn’t matter how much spinach I use, there always seems to be the same amount left. Maybe it’s still growing in the fridge?! I’m never going to get through the bag!

Rushed out to pick up DD to feed her and then transfer her to DH’s car to take home and put to bed so I could go to the nursery open evening thingy. There was an ice breaker and I suddenly felt like I was at a corporate workshop or something. We also had to write down aims for our kids for the year. I mean what? She’s 18 months old…

Rushed back again to make dinner (pesto pasta with peas and broccoli) whilst simultaneously teaching DS about Roman numerals (he showed an interest when he was confused that Frozen Planet II looked like eleven). He then started making his own symbol system with the magnetic letters! Got round to watching Bake Off, but DS fell asleep and I carried him up to bed. Next week is dessert week, but surely pastry should be before dessert week? I’ll have to have desserts next week otherwise I’ll be sad watching it!

Bluegreen143

Crap attitude from your work on annual salary rise. A lot of companies are giving bigger ones as it’s often linked to inflation - not less.

We all got just under 10% this year which I think was really fair and was based on the madness that is current inflation. That said, my husband gets no cost of living/inflation rises at his company 🙄 so I suppose it’s not guaranteed. 

QueenJess

Bluegreen143 said:

Crap attitude from your work on annual salary rise. A lot of companies are giving bigger ones as it’s often linked to inflation - not less.

We all got just under 10% this year which I think was really fair and was based on the madness that is current inflation. That said, my husband gets no cost of living/inflation rises at his company 🙄 so I suppose it’s not guaranteed. 

Wow 10%! I didn’t expect 10, but was hoping for 5. We got 3 ☹️. Just another reason in the big list to leave!