So close, we can smell mortgage freedom!

themadvix

Morning all,

It's miserable here this morning... I will need my waterproof when I go out in a bit. Up early to finish a couple of bits of work before I go. Have also cleared a few MM surveys and a PA survey and done clicks and HW.

Lasagne for dinner last night was lovely and we've got more again tonight and there's one ready to go in the freezer too, so pretty pleased with that. Have also dried the remaining pasta, so will work out what to do with that too soon. Yoghurt came out well too - at last. Turns out using milk powder past its BB isn't a great idea after all!

I have a free Costa drink owed from bean collecting, so I intend to grab that today as a treat on my way into the office. I'll take lunch with me and keep the one guy in the office today (out of a team of 5 plus me) company before I head back, but I'm aiming to be home by 4 at the latest. Just hope they can sort laptop out and get it so that I can do what I needed it for!

Not sure we'll get much solar at all here today - it's so dark! We've upped the battery charge level overnight again now though, so at least we can use cheap electricity, even if it's not free.

Suffolk_lass

We are also charging our solar battery overnight, and might go back to using the DW overnight again now. 14.84 PPKWH overnight vs 35.37 in the day. We are still dithering about whether to go with a Smart Meter as we do like the white economy 7 one and we are reasonably savvy about using it. In the meantime I might go for the 12 month fix at the same rate as now.

themadvix

I'm not sure what the difference is between economy 7 and the EV tariffs - have you looked into them? We have Octopus Go which gives us 9p/kWh between 12.30 and 4.30 - charges the car and the battery. Or you might be better with Agile or Intelligent - we would be if we had a car with a bigger battery (as it is, we need to charge it every night for it to be of much use, with a 21 mile EV range (plus ICE, of course)). It depends on your battery size and usage I guess - although with the range going on, you'll be using all your battery I imagine and need it charged rather than just being able to top up as and when.

Have looked at weather forecast for weekend - 11 degrees on Saturday! I know it's more like it should be, but that's going to be a shock to the system! And I'll need to wrap up my oca at the allotment and bring in the last of the French beans and raspberries and pick my squash, which are not ripe yet - so will no doubt be a bit tasteless. 

Question for you SL - you mentioned overwintering your chillis - will you do that indoors? If so, do you wash the roots thoroughly and repot to avoid fungus gnats etc. or do you just bring them in? It seems like an awful faff, but equally I don't want all the wildlife indoors either. My plants still have ripening chillis on at the moment, so I don't really want to prune them right back yet either.

themadvix

Well, change of plan... someone is having a much worse day than me and as a consequence the trains have been cancelled. It's now hammering it down outside, so quite glad I'm not out in it. So glad I hadn't bought ticket and checked the trains again before I left.

In good news, I attempted a free spin on one of the bookies that had 'gubbed-ish' me - always 'no win', so I hadn't had a go for a while.... and I won £50!! £40 withdrawn and I'll leave the rest in there to keep the algorithms happy for now.

I've got some of my work which I'll get finished today - I don't think it'll actually take too long - and will do the Cambridge work I can do. I might arrange a meeting with the other staff member I do some work for as I've heard she wants a chat. Otherwise, I'm going to get housework done, make the thai curry paste I've got the ingredients for (and freeze it) and maybe do the odd survey.

Suffolk_lass

My chillies are on the benching in my unheated greenhouse. The ones in the window-box on the ground will stay there too. I'm not sure if any will survive, but I'm going to try. No special measures.

Karmacat

That's great about the £50 win!  Well done you  

rtandon27

Free money! I'll say that more than makes up for a cancelled train!

themadvix

rtandon27 said:

Free money! I'll say that more than makes up for a cancelled train!

It certainly does! Especially as I'm now going in, probably for the whole day on Tuesday (although I may see how other work commitments are). And I've got plenty of work to be getting on with for Cambridge anyway (as is always the case after a meeting with boss/friend). Have just arranged flowers for a colleague who's had a baby, so that was a nice job to do!

themadvix

Morning all,

Another grey, wet and miserable one here. I've been paid by Cambridge and done some money shuffling, but I'm waiting for my Amex to be statemented before I pay it off (might be a couple of days). Have paid the 'mortgage' for the month - i.e. the minimum payment on the cc (£62)! Savings for the balance are getting there. Will be glad to have got it put by - should be by end of year at the latest (but I am now putting money in my S&S ISA, which I wasn't doing when we were trying to really get the balance down before paying it off).

No wins on the HW this morning, but I think I'm in credit there for a while! Clicks done and cleared some more MM surveys yesterday evening. I think I may give them up when I reach payout. They're not bad surveys, but they are slow to accumulate and probably not that well paid.

I put a Wanted post on Freegle for some water pipe to make net supports for the allotment and someone has come back to me with a huge reel. They're a way away, but definitely worth it to collect. I think I'll have more than I need, so I can share with other allotmenteers if they'd like some. It is quite expensive to buy new and even sells well secondhand, so this is a big saving. And to think, I nearly didn't ask!

Have done a fair bit of Cambridge work this morning and have another little bit to do later, but am currently doing a quick job for my main client. He's sent me another slightly longer bit too, so hoping to get all of that done today (unless I have to go and collect this pipe). Wanted to get to allotment today and I guess I might still, but only when it stops raining! And I'll need proper shoes too. Will submit my timesheet for Cambridge later today - a decent amount for a week at home, but I'm definitely taking on more work from them at the moment. 

MS things:
* MM surveys
* Clicks, HW
* Some comps entered
* Free water pipe (hopefully)
* Dinner last night was reheated lasagne, with hg coleslaw and spinach
* Tonight's dinner will be roasted BNS, chilli and lime risotto - I roasted the tiny BNSs that I pulled off my vines a couple of week's ago - will see what they taste like (not a lot, I imagine, hence the chilli and lime - which is zest I forgot to put on something last week - it's dried nicely on a plate in the kitchen - no waste here!)
* RHS have sent me two money off vouchers - £5 of a £10 spend in their cafe (am going next week with my ex-Brownie friends, so that's handy!) and £5 off a £35 spend in their garden centres or online - not sure whether I'll spend that one, but I'll take it just in case! (I've found their garden centres to be reasonably priced and obviously good quality plants).

Gratitudes:
* A warm welcome from the other Freegle mods
* A very generous Freegler!
* House is still warm - no heating needed here... although I suspect that won't be the case from tomorrow. However, midway through October before even a touch of heating is pretty good going.

Have a good day all!

Karmacat

All looking good here!  I haven't used freegle for ages, when I get my mojo back, I'll sign up again, I think.  Will you combine your trip for the pipe with anything National Trusty out that way, or is it not that sort of thing?