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

lucielle

Sounds like you’ve had lots of fun!  

L

Makingabobor2

sounds like you had a great time. We've not been to Fairford, since DS was with the Arrows. I remember that being a cold, wet weekend as well. 

jwil

Glad you had a nice time.  A friend of mine was there too, and shared some great photos.

EssexHebridean

Morning all - and thanks for popping by! 

I called in at T's last night for shopping - it was a bit on the hoof I confess as I'd not quite found the time for a meal plan, but hopefully my planning while in the shop will work.

The sausages and mash last night used up the last of the tatties (in the nick of time too as they were starting to go manky in a few places) and also half a pack of tenderstem broc that I'd expected MrEH to use over the weekend but I found still in the fridge. 
Tonight is couscous which as I've said before works great for us on a night when we are eating at differing times. I bought a pack of chicken portions and those got shoved in the oven last night - I cooked the sausages in the oven at the same time - so we'll each have a thigh and a drumstick with the couscous and some roasted veg tonight (I bought a butternut squash as that's a multi purpose veggie for me!) . Tomorrow will be chicken salad, and I'm hoping there will be enough chicken that I can do a chicken and butternut squash risotto for Thursday. Friday is currently a mystery but as it is the nearest weekend to my birthday we just might push the boat out and have the traditional celebratory Indian Takeaway - our local very good Indian have moved away from JustEat and their prices have plummeted as a result so it makes it more feasible to get back to using them again - I think when we ordered for MrEH's birthday last month it came out less expensive than the chinese would have been!  Just over £20 spent in T's, plus MrEH popped by this morning for a few bits that I couldn't carry last night (I still had to walk back to the car which was a mile and  a half away) and spent another £5. 

MrEH did indeed feed his Oyster yesterday - I'm hoping that will see him through now for the remaining commuting days this month. His car is also about to cost us money as it's booked in for it's service and MoT test on Friday - we'll drop it to Neil's house on Thursday night and collect it back from him at some stage over the weekend - it may even be he will drop it at the rugby club for us if he's going there anyway, we'll see. The money for that is sitting in the car account ready anyway  - hopefully he won't turn up anything unforeseen.  It's also nearing car insurance and breakdown renewal time for us - I'll need to remember to get quotes next week as we'll  need to get that set up ahead of going off to the beer festival ideally. I'm hopeful that AXA will continue their habit of not trying to fleece us on renewals - they will retain our business if so. Again - the money is sitting there and waiting.

I will have a small personal spend shortly as I'll need to renew my prescription Pre-pay cert for another 3 months. I've requested all 4 prescriptions in one go - and I'm hopeful that I should be able to get another 2 requests for my iron tablets at least (I may be able to get 3), plus another HRT prescription out of the new certificate. Allowing that I will probably also get one more order for each of the other two prescriptions I have too (won't need more than that) this is now going to be very good value. If I can make it work as I am hoping then it will make more sense for me to continue to get the 3 month ones as needed rather than buying the annual HRT specific one. 

House move stuff is seemingly trotting along - we now have our survey back and MrEH has emailed our sellers about sorting out a second viewing so we're hopeful they may be able to do that over the weekend some time. The survey made the usual "interesting" reading - had we been the type to take it all at face value we'd probably be panicking and running for the hills, but frankly once you break it all down there is only one item of real concern, we've already kind of estimated that a spend will be needed in that area at some stage in the next 5 years anyway, and so all should be well there. I need to send the acceptance form back to the removal company. 

That's about all from me I think - we're in the money dead zone now as the DDs for the month have gone out and aside from a couple of bits of interest dropping in to various accounts it will just be a case of keeping an eye on things for the rest of the month. I think we are on target for a reasonable surplus to the New House Fund again this month. I've just done a quick actual-figures run-through if where we are at financially and it looks like we should need to take slightly less from our main long term savings pot than I'd originally thought for the purchase itself, although there will still be a need to raid that pot for the incidentals - the NHF should pretty much reach the SDLT figure I think - and of course has already paid the mortgage fee, search fees and sales pack fee. 

themadvix

Being able to cover the SDLT from the NHF sounds excellent!

RelievedSheff

All sounds like it is ticking along nicely.

foxgloves

Hello @EssexHebridean - You have been rushing about all over the place! Re house buying surveys, yes, I agree. Unless you are buying from somebody who has spent their last few years there spending oodles of cashola getting the entire place completely renovated, there will almost certainly be areas which require work. We are still years away from moving, but when we do, I know that as soon as any prospective buyer comes back to wave his or her survey at me to say this or that is going to be spendy, so could we just knock a bit off the price, etc, that I will launch into a list of all the home improvements we have done in the time we've been here. I will say 'These are the big jobs we have done, so those will be the few last things or changes YOU will need to do". I agree with you that there are invariably things which will require a bit of a cash injection. Even newbuilds are not completely immune to this. Mr F had recently bought a newbuild just before he met me & he insisted there were almost as many cracks in the plaster in that as there were in my little 1902 house!
I expect you are getting really exciting about moving now. I always think it's a time full of promise.
F

badmemory

Make sure you are sitting down when you read your car ins quote.  Mine has more than doubled - up 135%.  I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry.

jwil

Glad the survey came back ok.

starnac

Sound like it is all ticking along nicely. I hope this continues throughout the move for you. 

Weekend sounds fab. I'm glad the more expensive tickets were actually worth it for you. Sounds like you made a good decision there.