Simple living in the country - back to basics

Cheery_Daff

Yeo, that's what I thought! Seems to be higher than the rest listed on MSE at the minute.

Checked earlier, and ecology account is at 3.15% which seemed great at the time, but now seems quite paltry 😂 I do want to support them, so will leave some in there, but may look at moving the rest elsewhere, but I do want the bulk in an easy access account. 

A one year regular saver at 8% would be a nice addition though, and I can keep an eye on it in the app. I think it's about £104 interest over the year, not to be sniffed at. The small one will give £67, but not til Jan 25 - again, not going to turn it down! 

Definitely autumnal today. A lovely mist and bright sunshine earlier, now it's clouding over but still dry, I've just stuck some washing on but it may end up being dried inside, we'll see.

Cold though 🥶 Central heating thermometer says 14 degrees 🙄 When the heating on, we usually have it set at 16 - it's down at 11 for the time being so it's not automatically going to kick in yet, but not long I don't think. Currently being fmvery grateful for the 'festival blanket' poncho I found in a charity shop for £3.50 last week 😂

EssexHebridean

8% interest is excellent - best on the market at the moment I think, so thanks for the heads-up on that. Slightly disappointing that Nationwide hadn't told me about it themselves but hey ho!  Might have to have a think about how we can shuffle money to make best use of that I think, although frankly reducing the amount I'm paying to the Cov one might be the way forwards. That or funding from other savings until one of the other Reg Savers finishes. One to ponder! 

You ARE a hardy soul too - my thermostat is set at 16 degrees - and will probably get tweaked up as winter draws closer. I'd be utterly frozen at 14 degrees in a main living area! having said that, so far I've not seen the temperature in the living room drop below 21 - might have to shift it around the house a bit tomorrow to see what the rest of the place is looking like! (For comparison it was 14 degrees outside when I left home this morning).  

Cheery_Daff

Stingy rather than hardy, I'd say 😂😂😂 I'd happily be warmer. My poncho is great though - my other one is fab but it's really big and gets trapped in the wheels of my office chair 😂😂 This one is shorter, very light, and is also joined at the sides a bit, so doesn't get in the way while I'm trying to cook or anything. And it's got a hood 😂😂 I think it'll be a permanent fixture now til next May 😂😂

Never sure how accurate the thermostat is. Ours is in the entrance to the warmest room (the living room) so it'll be considerably cooler elsewhere! I've got the greenhouse thermometer in my office, that said 15 this morning but the sun was shining on it 😂

Mr Cheery isn't well today, which may scupper our plans for a seaside trip 🙄 I felt decidedly ropey this morning myself, not sure what's going on there, I don't think we've eaten the same things. Possibly just sickening for a cold or something. He does look decidedly pasty and is still in bed 😕

NWide didn't tell me either, there was a story in the news mentioning it, and it's listed when I click savings tab on their app. Maybe they only announced it today? Who knows.

Right, lunch!

starnac

Was just reading your post and getting annoyed at NW for not telling me about it either! Will have to investigate that. Thank you. 

Hope you are not both coming down with something. I am starting to think about putting the heating on soon. When I'm working from home then I have a jumper and a blanket so it won't be long before the hot water bottle is out

beanielou

NW only announced today I think. 

themadvix

It's still pretty warm here at the moment, thankfully, although I did wonder if the heating would be kicking in soon. (While I will suffer lower temperatures until a certain date, Mr MV relies on the thermostat, set at 17 - his logic is if it's set to that then it will come on if it drops below it and that's the point at which we want it on, regardless of the date!). I'm typing this sat in a t-shirt though, so hopefully we've got a while yet.

Karmacat

Yup, it's a bit warmer here too ... speaking of which, I'm glad I've got the cat-sitting so soon - the first time he came to me, the whole country was covered in snow, and I had to have my living room door open to the hallway, which is **freezing**.  That cat cost me a lot of heating money 🤣

Sorry you're both feeling lurgified, Cheery, I hope you can shake it off really quickly and manage your seaside trip, the coastline is so dramatic round you.

Cheery_Daff

Ha, KC, I bet that cat was worth every penny of heating money! 

We have decided against a seaside trip at this point. We did go out last night, and had an utterly lovely time, but we were both still undecided about the seaside, so we'll save it for another day. 

I've been out scything this morning, not done any for a couple of weeks while my back has been playing up, but it was nice to be out there this morning. Definitely a nip in the air. Of course we've passed the equinox now, heading for the shortest day... 

Sun's shining, but it looked like it might rain, so I've brought yesterday's washing in.

Not sure of today's plan. Mr Cheery isn't feeling right still, so I'm going to assume he's not going to be doing anything today. Here's a list for me, in no particular order:

* more scything
* hoover, including study and upstairs, which usually get missed out
* meal plan
* food shopping
* get petrol for the strimmer! Been on the list for weeks!
* batch cooking
* flute practice - rehearsals start again on Sunday and my summer of playing did NOT materialise 😂
* maybe some strimming, depending on the weather later
* return Natural England survey letter (apparently we're within one of their random areas for their natural capital and ecosystem assessment programme)
* dig out POA notification forms to take to my mum tomorrow
* ring mum at some point and tell her we'll be near her tomorrow 😂 

Just checked the weather, and it looks like it'll get more grim as the day goes on, so I'll go and do another half hour of scything now, then sit with a cuppa and make a meal plan 😊

Going to resist the urge to figure out how to put the shelves up myself although if they're still in a pile next weekend that's what I'll be doing. Might do some more stone cleaning instead while the weather holds - feeling a desperate need to make some house progress this weekend!

Cheery_Daff

Well, it started raining as soon as I'd typed that 🙄 So I've washed up and cleaned the kitchen, dealt with some post, and opened an email from the electricity company saying their flexible tariff is dropping from (i think) about 69.6p per kwh to 66.9p. Need to check if we'd be better on a fix, maybe a job for later today, we'll see. 

Next up - meal plan and shopping I think. 

Karmacat

Cheery_Daff said:

Ha, KC, I bet that cat was worth every penny of heating money! 

He really was 😺⭐

I'm glad your back's feeling good enough to start scything, that's promising - but don't overdo it!  Oh, I've realised it's raining for you now - yeah, that works as a gradual re-introduction to physical work  

You're making me think with this PoA business.  That has to go on the admin list, I think.