Ding! Ding! All change, please... (now replaced with new diary on MFW)

EssexHebridean

badmemory said:

There must be some deep psychological reason why so many of us get so much more annoyed at the minor mistakes we have made than the major ones others do.  Of course it could just be that we expect more of ourselves than we do of other people.

This is it isn’t it - generally I only get annoyed at mistakes made by others when they can affect other people. Folk deliberately spreading misinformation enrages me because that can do real harm, it’s no exaggeration to say that there have been deaths as a result of misinformation around childhood vaccines for example (and that there will continue to be!) and so I will never see that unchallenged. And I know that’s often deliberate rather than a “mistake” but it does often originate in the “mistake” of blindly believing things that they are told without employing proper analytical thinking! Otherwise, yep, I’d be the first to console someone who has just cost themselves hundreds by making a silly error and telling them that anyone could do it - if I’d done it though I’d be raging at myself! (As in - 32p!) Honestly - what are we like! 

MrEH is now down in Devon again - and has taken his suit, shirt, tie and shoes for the funeral in case he doesn’t return in between ties. If he does we have an interesting sounding talk to attend at the London Transport museum on Monday evening - I’m leaving it up to him what he does though - if he elects not to return before then I’ll need to sort out my own transport down on Wednesday. 

No more house news - and I intend emailing our estate agents later today to make them start working a little harder for the several thousand pounds in commission they will be expecting from us in due course! MrEH has also emailed the chap who did the EPC as currently it has an outlandish energy use per m2 stated on it which if possible really needs changing. I will be asking for feedback from the viewing, plus room sizes to be added, and more detailed room descriptions on the listing too - particularly in the case of the kitchen. I know I’ve been steering clear of listings where there are no room sizes so I’m assuming others would, too. 

My plans for today are to finish pushing jaws round the place shortly - I did the first half while waiting for my porridge to simmer. Then I’ll get my stuff sorted and head out to the gym, probably coming back via the new big fancy Lil’s store at the bottom of the town to get some oddments of shopping (we won’t need much for this week and I might even be able to get everything there) including stuff that will work for meals for me over the weekend of course. I might go with a cheeky takeaway one night I confess - it will likely be a Chinese if I do, and will come from my personal spends money. Otherwise I might fakeaway it with a Lil’s pizza and some garlic bread - will see what they have! I’m also going to keep an eye out for likely looking TGTG bags as well I think.

I’ve just checked banking - all good, and I have also done some tidying up of payees from the joint account too, a number that were no longer relevant have been deleted. Also made MrEH’s Pr1nc1pality Reg Saver payment for him so that’s all done and accounted for. Just occurred to me to check whether I could easily set a standing order to that from the joint account  too - and it turned out I could so that’s another small job ticked off. 

No PB wins for us this month, and as that is now just 3 x £25 in over a year on what is now nearly an £11k holding I definitely think their days are numbered. “Average luck” would suggest that we ought to be seeing a better return than that, and realistically if I’m seeing below average luck for whatever reason logic says no point in persisting. Gut feeling is that we will stick with plan B and use most of what is there towards the cash deposit at some stage - if we do then that means we now have enough to cover that from between there and the account that the recent regular saver maturities have been emptied into - which is excellent. They can stay put for now though.

Tweaked the heating down a little last night and the energy monitor is showing thr effects this morning with roughly 4kWh reduction on overnight use. Allowing I’m sitting here in short sleeves I might even risk tweaking a little more tonight too - I’ll see how it pans out. The sun is streaming in at the moment too though so the solar gain will help for a bit of extra free heating!

right - I’m off, Jaws, Gym, shopping…will almost certainly be back later! Happy Friday all! 

RelievedSheff

I think I have cancelled out any solar gains we are getting by having all the windows open to air the house while I have the chance 🤣🤣🤣

Forgot how nice it is to sit in the kitchen with the patio doors open on a sunny day. Roll on summer when we practically live in the garden 😃

milann

What is this sun you speak of. Grey and drizzly here. 

All sounding good on the cash front. I agree the EA needs a push. How can you have a listing with no room dimensions 🤷🏻‍♀️

redofromstart

Floor plan is essential for me, ideally with measurements

10k at 3% picks up £25 a month if you don't get hit for tax. PB is more of a gamble now that the interest rates are higher. 

EssexHebridean

Dispatched a rocket off to the EA earlier so we’ll see what response comes back! Definitely agree that no room sizes is a killer too - when we were looking I was basically dismissing anything where I couldn’t fathom out the dimensions! I’m sure they said originally that the EPC guy would also be doing that for them but he didn’t ski any measurements at all while he was here according to MrEH. 

Apologies to those who didn’t have sun today but it was utterly lovely down here - I had a lovely wander at one of our local nature reserves, didn’t see anything much of interest but it was really nice being out and surprisingly warm.  Sadly it looks like we’ll be back to grey and cloudy tomorrow! 

Managed most of the shopping at Lil’s this morning I think - including a pizza and some garlic bread which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed for my tea tonight. A fraction of the cost that the takeaway would have been and half the garlic bread is in the freezer for another time too - bargain! 

I’m debating whether to do some shifting of money. At0m now have their instant access saver at 2.95% which is the best I’m going to get with any provider I already have an account with. I was holding on and hoping that M@rcus might pull their socks up but there isn’t any sign of them doing so yet, and I don’t really want to be opening accounts with new providers at the moment with the mortgage application hopefully not too far away. Sant-And-Er have already announced their rate changes and there’s nothing worth shouting about there, and N@t1onwide are quite astonishingly silent on the subject of any rate increases! Hmmm.  

Most expensive gym visit of the year done this morning 🤣 - I’ll update my signature shortly, but at least from here it starts dropping! Might try to get a run and a bike ride in over the rest of the weekend but will see what the weather is doing. 

Makingabobor2

Hopefully the EA will get off their backsides and start working now. Maybe you should try an online agent instead. Our neighbour has had his house on market since October, and only 3 viewers so far. He is using a local agent and the photos are awful, there is no floorplan and its well overpriced. I really don't think some of these EAs actually know how to do their job. Hope you get some luck soon

lucielle

Hope you get some viewings soon. Well done on the gym visit   

L

milann

A friend has a flat for sale in London and they haven’t had any interest either. When they put a house on the market about 6 years ago it was sold the same day with folk offering way above the asking price. 

The pizza sounded delicious….I won’t buy pizza from any takeaway - they seem so expensive compared to what you can buy or make.

EssexHebridean

Thanks all! MAB - definitely not using the likes of the mauve-hued brick people as having had the misfortune of dealing with them at work I know why how carp they truly are! Ultimately they might choose to charge half of what  bricks and mortar agents do, but they also provide well under half the service! Allowing that we’re already on  RM, Zoopla, OTM there is probably no real advantage either. 

Milann I love a HM pizza but struggle to justify it when I’m on my own so the budget bought option is an excellent alternative! I am really hoping that the market is going to pick up - everyone says February is better so fingers crossed! 

L- I was chuffed with the gym - legs are killing today though! 🤦🏻‍♀️

Evening all - just a quick update.

A chunk of personal savings shifted across to a new instant access At0m account at higher interest than I was getting - if one of the others raises their game I’ll shift back but allowing that neither the Spanish lot or N@ti0nwide are showing no signs of increases so I’ll vote with my feet! (And my money!)

A small spend at Al’s today - partly as I wanted to squeeze in a walk, some odds and ends though and including humours and falafels for tea this evening - they will do lunch tomorrow too. Also took the bigger bike out for the first ride of the year this morning - went for a loop round the town and ended up doing nearly 10 miles so I was chuffed with that. My legs genuinely are screaming now though! Also did my yoga workout this afternoon as well - a good lower body stretch which was much needed. I’m making zero promises about a run tomorrow now though! 

In less “money saving” news I am trying to get a group together for an early season airshow visit - always a fun one and would be nice if there was a few of us. I think I’ll be booking it for sure though. I also need to give more consideration to whether I want to upgrade my camera this year. My current main camera is going to hit 7 years old this year which is literally ancient in digital camera terms - but equally Canon haven’t released a straight successor in my area of the market, just the mirrorless upgrade. To switch to that I also need either a new lens though or a convertor to make my existing lenses work - which MrEH was originally going to get for me when needed as a 50th birthday present but this isn’t a great time for him to be coughing up for extra spending! I’m keeping an eye on prices but they’ve been holding steady for months now. I’ve just message my good pal/photography mentor to ask for his input. 

Also just spoken with MrEH - he’s heading back here tomorrow so we’ll juggle travel to suit Monday and Tuesday before heading back to Devon on Wednesday. We’ll be able to go to the talk we were booked for on Monday which is good, I think the distraction will be good for him too.

Makingabobor2

Glad you said that about PBs. We had often talked about using them when we eventually move. I'll make sure we don't now and we'll seek out the best of the local ones.