Learning to walk before I run

savingholmes

Your wife sounds lovely. Moderation is good

edinburgher

My wife is lovely, I must remember to tell her more often 

QueenJess

You’re brave drinking when you have little ones. The trouble is that they don’t have a mute button 😂

Karmacat

Totally get where you're coming from, Ed - I stopped drinking completely in my late 20s (because I'd had enough of the bad things happening) - and nowadays, I *can* have a couple of drinks, but I don't, I just don't fancy it any more, even though the idea is appealing.

Food, though - argh.  I miss ordinary bread, cheddar, chocolate, and I can't, I literally *can't*, have any of them in the house, I just eat them till they're gone.  We're humans, we don't always manage!

edinburgher

Mayhaps a gentle edinburger have a moan?

Since I last complained about our builders they have a) forgotten to agree with the stair manufacturer (sub-contractor) whose responsbility it was to board under the new staircase (£780 to us) and b) laid our beautiful bamboo flooring incorrectly on the attic staircase. All the treads will now need to be removed and re-done and those suckers are stuck down with construction adhesive! Builder's attempt at a "defence" was that he hadn't read all the messages I sent him with diagrams of the kit etc. and where I asked him how much to order. The only problem with that is that he's talking ****, as he responded to several of the messages that he supposedly didn't read. He proposed a fix whereby he'd basically glue a threshold strip onto the join between each tread/riser and I told him that it would need to be re-done. Guess I'm off the Christmas card list. Why does it feel like such a battle? It's like employing a surly teenager who doesn't concentrate, but who has your permission to actually wreck your house!

Also bad news on the car front, as we are having massive problems with the gear stick. It was so stiff the other day that Mrs E got stuck on the main road during rush hour and had to be "rescued". Garage think it is likely to be a clutch replacement, which could easily run to £700. This is the 3rd serious repair we've required on our car in less than 5 years (we will have spent over 20% of the purchase price with these). I wouldn't usually name a business without substituting characters to fool Google, but Dacia Sanderos are bloody terrible tin boxes that nobody in their right mind should ever buy. We will repair it and are now planning to sell. Which is the worst timing ever, but we're not willing to drive a car that feels fundamentally unsafe and unreliable Don't know how to fund it - either credit cards, loan or 0% Scottish Government loan if we can find a secondhand electric car that costs less than all the money.

In an attempt to inject a little bit of positivity for the day (my blood pressure needs to come down now), it has been a good week for studies (£20+ from Prolific), work was a little more bearable and DD2 has had her most recent round of vaccinations and doesn't need any more until she is 1

Edit: No PB wins, but a little bit of money added to the EF from savings interest, ISAs topped up for DD1 and DD2 and all our bills paid. I've also received our FIT statement, so that's £178 being sent over next week. I used to pay these into my SIPP, but I think present day Mr E might need it more! Also on the energy front, we managed to use 0 units of gas in August, I suspect the fact we were out of the house helped

badmemory

You've reminded me why I even hate thinking about getting jobs done.  But just saying, I have been here all month and still only used 1 unit of gas.  I do not turn my heating off or even down in summer.  If you are cold it does not matter if it is August or January.  You are still cold.

shellstar

I've just finished reading your diary form start to finish! The incremental paying things off has inspired me to start doing surveys again and I've just signed up to quidco. Sorry the builder is being a pain. The definitely should bare the cost of re-doing if they didn't follow written instructions in my view. 

On the stiff gear stick - I had that problem in a car once. Actually injured myself trying to drive it to the garage. Did it get stiffer over time or was it sudden? Mine got stiffer over time (and then got stiff quite quickly) and turned out if needed an oil change in the whatsamaeejit. It was a lot less than £700 to fix. Just mentioning in case the diagnosis is incorrect, though I've definitely noted the advice on which car not to buy in future. 

edinburgher

@badmemory - I take it you don't use gas for cooking?

@shellstar - welcome, you must have been bored! Prolific, Y Live and YouGov are my main ones 

Here's hoping the fix is cheaper than expected. I think stiffer over time, but only over a month or so

Cheery_Daff

So sorry to hear about your builder woes 🙄 They do seem to just take in half of the information and make up the other half sometimes. Grit your teeth, it'll be over soon. I'd much rather DIY - and I say that advisedly after many dreadful years of having a rotten time doing both 😂 

Clearly not practical or for all jobs (I'm just about to try and get someone in for something I can't do myself...) but definitely my preference - I'd far rather be utterly filthy and wielding a hammer than trying to project manage a builder any day. Urgh. 

Still, it will be over soon and you will have your beautiful new house and this will all be a distant memory!

badmemory

I do use the gas oven or top virtually every day for the best part of an hour but it doesn't seem to use that much.  I have records going back a good few years & last year seems to be the highest for summer gas usage ever.