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

lucielle

Hope you hear soon and it’s good news. 

L

Suffolk_lass

16  as if!

milann

So how many servings were in the Swiss roll….4?

EssexHebridean

milann said:

So how many servings were in the Swiss roll….4?

Spot on - although frankly we'd both have been happy just splitting it straight across the middle and eating it between us on Saturday evening. We were very good though and didn't! 16 servings in an easter egg made me laugh though Cheery! 

Thanks to all for the crossed fingers and toes - you may uncross for now though as unfortunately these viewers were not our flat's people. We'll carry on hoping for the next ones, and the feedback has given us a couple of minor jobs to think about doing as well, so that helps. Onwards and upwards. (but yes, I did have a grumpy hour or so having heard from the agents on it this morning). 

Banks checked and all good - I've double checked that there is sufficient in the joint account to cover not only what will go out through the rest of the month, but also one more feeding of MrEH's Oyster card, and the fuel we'll need for the weekend - MrEH's car was topped up yesterday so we'll get down to Devon OK but will need more to get back.

Spendiness:
- I will get my car back tomorrow so I'll know then how much we owe Neil. once his bill is paid I'll transfer any surplus in the offshoot car account across to the main one where it will earn more interest as *fingers crossed* we shouldn't have any car costs to pay out for a while after that.
- We added a small HB visit to the shopping total for the weekend yesterday - actually, we didn't, as it doesn't come from the grocery budget (it being toothpaste, toothbrushes and a couple of other odds and ends) £6-odd though.
- Also spent £26 with the RSPB yesterday - we needed more birdseed so decided to combine a nice walk at one of our fairly local reserves (which has a shop) with buying that. Will come from the household pot. 
- Big spendiness was booking the ferries for our upcoming Hebrides trip - £171.00 and the first night accommodation too, £31.99, just a travelodge on the way up so we can get up country and get a decent head start and a far more leisurely journey on the first day of the actual holiday. We settled on our usual ferry crossings in the end after some discussion about other possibilities - it is a longer crossing, it is more likely that we could find ourselves with last minute changes - but it's by far the nicest! I'll transfer the money for those two from the holiday account once everything has actually hit the credit card. 

Food is planned out for the week - we had the final tub of the christmas ham from the freezer yesterday, along with what ended up being the last of the tatties as roasties, so that does mean that my planned "Sausage, mash & beans" for Thursday will need a bit of a change. Pasta tonight, couscous (standard!) tomorrow, and chilli & rice on Wednesday. 

Other than that - ticking along. Interest trots in on the bigger savings accounts over the next week or so, and I'll have some bank twiddling to do later in the week when I can change the amount for the garage rent - I'm mentioning it here as much to keep it in mind as anything else. Oh - and we've a final amount available to stick into MrEH's ISA too - we may as well top it off with joint money as he's not got any solo savings to add at the moment - I'll get him to confirm the amount and then I can work out where that will come from. 

milann

Sorry they weren’t the folk for your flat. Maybe next time.

Drawingaline

Sorry to hear about the flat viewing. 

Love planning trips. No hebrides trip for us this year though. 

beanielou

They obviously have no taste. 

EssexHebridean

Thanks all - Beanie your comment made me laugh! DAL planning trips IS fun isn't it! Taking them even more so! Milann - finger crossed for next time! 

So onwards and upwards - and we're now planning how to make a few small tweaks that might help things a little.

Last night was voluntary role work, and tomorrow will be too, we do feel that a bit of progress is being made now though which is always good!

Spendiness again today as I've done another booking for holiday related stuff with the first two nights accommodation over on the islands - the lovely little "Hobbit Home" glamping pod we always use at our favourite little campsite. It's 10 years we have stayed with them now - in a room in their bunkhouse, in our own tent, and for the past few years in the pod, they are a lovely little business and we always enjoy catching up with them each year! it's also super cheap for a roof over our heads at £60 a night (this year saw their first price increase in literally years!) as well. So planning there is gradually falling into place - we still need to make a final decision on the way back accommodation and that is looking like being expensive too - but somewhere we've driven past before and thought looked interesting, in a good location and would suit our needs well, so will probably go for it. 

Banks checked and all good - I did the quick tot up on the way home last night of what we still have to pay out on holiday and we established that basically we'd be short of the general spending money which covers food and diesel - not surprising because our current  monthly transfer to the holiday account used to be supplemented by both the excess accumulated in our old "Clubcard plus" (first time round!) account - usually around £200 - £300, and loose change collection (which usually used to come in at well over £100 but since covid and using cash so much less has really dropped off. Plus of course this year we are also short of the three months that is the "overlap" in holiday years. As long as we can leave the "feeder" account for the monthly saver account largely untouched we should be OK to meet the shortfall from that - we will also be looking to have a frugal few months on the shopping front where we can and hopefully we will accumulate some spare in the food account that can be taken into account. There is also personal spending money that can be used to top things up, so all in all we're pretty well sorted for it I think. 

Pasta last night was tasty - and I remembered to get the lamb out of the freezer for adding to tonight's couscous as well, left to defrost gently in the fridge to help keep the cost of running that a little lower than it otherwise might have been. 

Also found a "shopping from home" (© Foxgloves!) opportunity as had been musing about buying a diary - I don't yet have one for this year and have been relying on making rough notes of plans. Instead though I'll break out my old "Bullet-ish journal" and get a couple of pages of that ruled up into a year planner and start using that again - I can bring it into work tomorrow so I can get it sorted out at lunchtime. It will only be a small saving but might as well keep my pennies in my pocket!

EssexHebridean

Today I have been a grown-up and booked my long overdue eye test. Hurrah for me (and about time too!) 
I have also got a message to the GP's surgery by way of the repeat prescription request and got a text message back with the "actual" times you can call to make appointments - ie not just "from 2pm onwards" as they have been saying for as long as I can remember, at which point there is a scrum equal to anything seen at the 6 Nations (nobody talk about the England result we are NOT speaking about that) and you can't get through for at least an hour. Instead, apparently "lines are open from 8am - 6.30pm - now just imagine how convenient THAT is?! Imagine how much more convenient it would be if they advertised it to anyone whatsoever who might actually be able to make use of it?! 

OK - I'm done now, As you were... 

themadvix

Well done on booking the eye test. 

And while the lines are open during those hours for the surgery, I wouldn't bet that you can actually make an appointment during the whole of that period - the scrum is surely because once the appointments are gone (released at 2pm?), they're gone!