Simple living in the country - back to basics

Cheery_Daff

Karmacat said:

Wishing well to Bessie. 

I'm also wondering about the break out room, that's new to me    I'm glad it gave you time to post here, at least  

Breakout rooms on zoom are kind of like little side rooms that you'd get at a normal meeting. In this case, most people stayed in the main room discussing the main thing, but if you had a conflict of interest for the thing they were talking about, you got put into a separate zoom room. Last time they put us in with the other people who had a conflict of interest, so we could have a little chat 😁 This time they just threw us into a waiting room - which is a slightly different thing, means you're not in the main meeting but don't get to talk to anyone else either.

Anyway, finally it's finished! And thank goodness. The vet eventually turned up, had to retrieve her from up the road despite giving her the what three words thing - there was a diversion and everything got confused. I had to keep popping in and out of my meeting, then in the middle the geezer who planted our trees randomly turned up asking if he could have a nosy at them 😂

Poor Mr Cheery was meant to be at a band practice but I had to ask him not to go because this meeting was a big and important one that I couldn't just get out of. He's finally left, as has everyone else, and my meeting has finished, and I wish I could have spread things out a bit! Didn't even get to say a proper goodbye to the vet!

Anyway, Bessie wasn't impressed with being mauled, but she seemed fine after cheese and grapes 😂 She's had a new implant, and we've got the drama of giving her antibiotic tablets twice a day  for the next week 🙄 Between that and the call out fee I'll be surprised if there's any change from £500 😱

Going to have a hot chocolate and try to get my act together in relation to work - behind on so many things after a day in London, 5 days of strikes, today's all day meeting and several days of prep for it, a whole day of teaching yesterday. Big stuff is getting done, but the little things are piling up around my knees...

Might try to have a nice bath before Mr Cheery gets back as well!

apple_muncher

The break out / waiting room sounds like being put on the naughty step!

Cheery_Daff

Oh, and Mr Cheery had a letter from HMRC today, with reference to tax year ending April 2021. Letter says he owes £78.40 (although the accompanying sheet says it's actually class 2 NI contributions) - there was no way to pay those when he did his tax return.

Confusingly, it says 

"Our calculation shows that the tax due under self assessment for 2021-21 is £78.40, due by 31st January 2022.

Your return was received after 31st January so it has not been possible to collect Class 2 NI through self assessment"

That's nonsense, of course - he left it to the last minute and did it ON 31st but not after 😂

Anyway, blah blah, another thing to sort out.

Cheery_Daff

Oih, more MSE news! 

Just rang the LPG company. We've been paying 43.9 pence per litre, and when I asked about a new fix a couple of weeks ago, they offered me a 2 year contract, fixed at 47ppl in the first year, then a variable rate in the second 🙄

Didn't take it, then regretted it after reading what others were being offered on the LPG thread 😮 so rang them back. They've now offered 49ppl fixed for the first year - or a 2 year fix at 50ppl.

You HAVE to have a 2 year contract (it's a weird LPG thing) but I've only ever been offered a 12 month price fix, then they can charge what they like in the second year and you can't switch, which is most annoying.

Anyway, I've bitten their hand off at a 2 year fix. Over our annual consumption it works out roughly £17 a month more than our current price, which given the volatility of things at the minute, seems worth it for a bit of certainty. We can definitely work on reducing it as well - already on the case with energy efficiency, and I'm going to get to grips with the timer on the boiler this week as well 🙄

Right, must get back to work!

beanielou

Wishing good wishes to wee Bessie.
Good news on through first round for promotion.

Karmacat

Thanks Cheery - as apple said, there's definitely a naughty step vibe to the breakout room, to those who don't use the software    LPG news is good, vet news bad financially, but I bet Bessie enjoyed both cheese and grapes 🐔

Cheery_Daff

Vet is definitely bad news financially - they just rang to confirm before they sent blood tests off - the total is £627 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱

I think with the new ones, we're going to have to get into the habit of going to the local, less specialist, vet. Can't bring myself to do it with Bessie, but this is bloody ridiculous.

Local friend texted this morning - she's moving later this year and had asked if we'd take in her chickens. She has more than we do now, and I was very daunted by potential cost implications if nothing else! Thankfully she's found someone else to take them as I suspect we'd be bankrupt before too long!! 😮

Definitely have to raid the premium bonds now, probably before the end of the month 😮😮

joedenise

Great news of the LPG fix.  A 2 year deal is definitely worthwhile in the current climate, who knows what it's likely cost in 12 months time!

Well done on getting through the first round of the promotion.

That's a huge price for the vet but it's one of those things that need to be done.

You might have to raid the premium bonds but at least they are there for emergencies like this.

Cheery_Daff

Yes, I did almost shriek when they offered me a 2 year fix 😂😂 I was on hold for ages, and while I was waiting I worked out annual and monthly cost for 50ppl, 55ppl, 60ppl etc just so it would be easier to make an instant comparison and therefore an instant decision. Definitely worth doing.

I've figured out the timer on the boiler now so hopefully we'll be able to just put it on a few times a day rather than most of the day. That should make a difference. But while I don't mind sitting with an extra cardi and a hot water bottle while I'm working, it's counterproductive to let myself get too cold. Not yet worked out if it's cheaper to have the central heating on or just my little oil filled electric radiator to heat just the study - that's usually what I do when there's only me up, but there's no point if it's more expensive than running the central heating! 

We'll see...

Elisheba

Cheery_Daff said:

Oih, more MSE news! 

Just rang the LPG company. We've been paying 43.9 pence per litre, and when I asked about a new fix a couple of weeks ago, they offered me a 2 year contract, fixed at 47ppl in the first year, then a variable rate in the second 🙄

Didn't take it, then regretted it after reading what others were being offered on the LPG thread 😮 so rang them back. They've now offered 49ppl fixed for the first year - or a 2 year fix at 50ppl.

You HAVE to have a 2 year contract (it's a weird LPG thing) but I've only ever been offered a 12 month price fix, then they can charge what they like in the second year and you can't switch, which is most annoying.

Anyway, I've bitten their hand off at a 2 year fix. Over our annual consumption it works out roughly £17 a month more than our current price, which given the volatility of things at the minute, seems worth it for a bit of certainty. We can definitely work on reducing it as well - already on the case with energy efficiency, and I'm going to get to grips with the timer on the boiler this week as well 🙄

I think I read somewhere that we get our LPG from America, so I suppose technically no real reason for it to sky rocket - possibly why they are comfortable offering a 2 year fix?