Little by little, and with love

Alchemilla

Was the robot mop not good?

RosaBernicia

Alchemilla said:

Was the robot mop not good?

I couldn't get it to work Alchemilla - it only spoke Russian to me and refused to connect to the app. 

RosaBernicia

Sooo bit of an update...

• Plodding along ok.  Seem to have got muddled with YNAB CC budgeting and need to untangle it once some refunds have come through.  Which are taking a while, though one is possibly because I appear to have sent stuff back to the wrong company... oops!  But at worst it looks like I am using half of August's spare pay. 
• Holiday things got rearranged so it was mostly a staycation though there was a rushed ferry trip in there too.  It did mean costs were lower than expected though. 
• Pet costs have gone up, basically doubled, since so have the pets - new pup!  Sooner than I had originally planned but working out well. 
• Thanks to a hire car driver my car insurance will go up and I will probably end up paying most of the excess.  Nobody was hurt, thank goodness, and it didn't stop the trip, so I guess that's to be grateful for.  But am now trying to get estimates to have repairs done locally because the approved repairer apparently can't sort anything til mid September!  Fortunately I have money in the car budget and all being well, no major budget commitments for the next few months. 
• Wondering whether to swop the car and campervan for a dayvan.  It would save me the double running costs and I think careful use of power packs, LED lanterns and a plug in coolbox might serve my needs for the van.  I've messaged a local dealer hoping to view some as the only one they have in stock at present is older than I'd like. 
• Still debating an air fryer... dithering which one and annoyed the best deal I can find so far is 10% off and 7% cashback...
  

kerri_gt

Congrats on the new pup! 

I did invest in an air fryer recently...i just need to get it out of the box now 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

RosaBernicia

kerri_gt said:

Congrats on the new pup! 

I did invest in an air fryer recently...i just need to get it out of the box now 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Thank you!  Pup is a delight.  And I'm spending less on this one since we have so many toys already

Interested to hear how you get on with the air fryer... I keep dithering which one so haven't actually pressed pay yet. 

RosaBernicia

Emergency fund busted... I have bought a new washing machine. 

Feeling a bit guilty as it maybe wasn't absolutely urgent, but the seal just went on the current one and it's been making slightly off noises recently.  I have never liked it and decided rather than the hassle together with the cost of getting someone out to fix it, especially with the risk that it's about to have other issues anyway, I'd rather put that money towards a new one.  I really miss my old one that I left at the old house so have bought a similar one and again with a huge capacity so that I can just throw bedding and towels for the week in there in one go, as well as wash duvets at home instead of taking them to the cleaners. 

Car costs are not too bad so far but waiting on authorisation from the insurance company to actually get back.  Fingers crossed for that asap.  Thinking I will get it sorted and then go talk to the dayvan people in another few weeks as hopefully their season might be lessening as we move into autumn. 

Mortgage application needs one more form sending but they have confirmed it is otherwise ok.  Rather glad I got that started early, very much hoping it comes through. 

Energy bills are not great, I have been doing a lot of washing and drying with new pup and also had the heating on some cooler evenings here as I've not been well so wasn't moving about much.  Need to be a bit more organised with that as we move into winter. 

Have hopefully found some help with the garden which will get that back under control and mean I can spend time actually doing the smaller jobs instead of avoiding the major ones.  I already put aside some money in the budget so hopefully that won't be more than my guesstimate. 

Buffythedebtslayer

YOU HAVE A PUPPY?????????????????????????????????

This is amazing news!!!!!!!! 

Am so jealous! How is your dog taking to the puppy? 

The washing machine is a good plan, I wish ours was bigger. And am intrigued by the "Dayvan" I shall google  

XXX

RosaBernicia

Buffythedebtslayer said:

YOU HAVE A PUPPY?????????????????????????????????

This is amazing news!!!!!!!! 

Am so jealous! How is your dog taking to the puppy? 

The washing machine is a good plan, I wish ours was bigger. And am intrigued by the "Dayvan" I shall google  

XXX

Yes I do and pup is so lovely!... they are getting on fine, playing a lot, but I am going to start doing separate walks and training sessions with them soon so that each gets some individual attention. 

Still a little shocked at having bought new washing machine but not sorry as looking forward to having it. 

A dayvan is sort of halfway house between a totally unconverted one and a campervan.  I'm going to do a bit more homework on this myself but am seriously thinking it would make more sense than paying double vehicle costs.

RosaBernicia

Sunday shuffle... as going to try and get back to a regular post to keep on track. 

I'm weirdly thrilled with the new washing machine - it has loads of options and is much quieter than the last one. 

Pet insurance cashback finally turned up and the costs for garden work are less than I expected... but that extra hasn't exactly made it into surplus budget as I have bought a rather expensive air fryer oven.  I wanted an air fryer to use the Becky Excell recipes, as I have to eat gluten free, and after a lot of dithering have gone for one of the posh multifunction ones.  It should be less expensive to run than heating up the oven, though that doesn't really excuse the cost.  But if it helps me eat better - and especially if it means I buy less prepped gf stuff - then that will be great and also cheaper.  I've not been eating well recently and that needs to change now that other things are getting sorted.

Jellytotts

I've only recently found Becky excell on Instagram, she has some interesting recipes. I've not tried any of them but do find it handy to see what other Coeliacs do and don't eat to get some ideas.  We have a very basic tower brand of air fryer and it's fab, it gets used so much.