And now we go again...

PennysIntoPounds

Glad you eventually got to have your day out! And how nice (and mse!) of your mate 

jwil

Glad you had a nice time away

EssexHebridean

Morning (well it was when I started typing!) all - another wet and gloomy one here too sadly. I'm in London - with my own car - and MrEH is WFH and has rugby training this evening so we will be ships that pass in the night a bit today.

MSE Stuff:
- CC money shuffle done to balance off weekend spending - that should be back to showing a zero balance tomorrow.
- Need to find the HM receipt from Sunday as MrEH bought some bits which I paid for from my spends account to avoid us having to go through the till separately. He'll transfer that across to me once I confirm how much it was though.
- odd pennies and pounds transferred from my personal budget account - that's gone into my tech replacement pot rather than the VSP for a change. 
- odd pennies and pounds transferred from my spends account too!
- A nice random-for-a-monday tea last night with those curries and the rice. I must remember that separating out odd portions like that can work equally well for a speedy weeknight tea as for solo lunches or whatever, and it was lovely just being able to heat it all through in the microwave and cook the rice, too. The plan to always have something easy to prep on a Monday night is working really well, too. 
- Remembered to get chickpeas out to defrost to go with this evening's couscous. 
- interest has started being paid on odd accounts - it was my personal savings account with Sant-And-Er's turn today. 
- Had notification of the interest rate dropping there in a couple of months though so will need to be ready to look at shifting that balance - as things stand it would go to Mark-us but obviously will depend on what gives on the rates at the time. 
- Plunge taken to book a hotel rather further north than normal for our travel up on holiday - it means a few hours extra driving that first night, but then leaves us with relatively speaking little further to travel on the next day, and if all goes to plan should actually mean we can get more sleep, as well. At a pinch it would also put us in a decent location to be able to switch ferry route if we needed to as well - and you can never be sure that won't happen, when Calmac are involved! £71 for that - we've opted to use a rate which will mean we can cancel up to 28 days before and get a refund and will still keep our eyes open for any better options, although as things stand I think we're pretty comfortable with it. 
- Also checked through our holiday planning stuff - and the finances associated as well. The amount needed for the cottage balance is now sitting in the Holiday fund  anyway, so the next few months payments in will go to bolster the food and diesel etc spending balance. We have a small amount of coin from the roadkill/spare change pigs that needs to get paid in too, and also some more coin (50p's and upwards) to take up with us which will form our initial cash spending kitty. 

I've also just realised I was having a brain fog moment around this month's finances. I was thinking we looked a bit lighter than I would expect in the joint account, and that I ought to check back to see what was going on - but of course, no CT to pay this month, but I have already taken the amount out and transferred it to the mortgage haven't I? So in fact the picture I'm seeing now is as it would usually be AFTER the 15th! Doh! Well that's good news anyway - and means we are on target for the surplus I was hoping for! 

Plans for tonight are tea, yoga and chill I think, and just a little bit of a general tidy round as well. Hopefully the traffic going home will be a heck of a lot better than it was coming in this morning too - there was a major incident on the M25 and that caused a knock-on effect back to my route so that was grim! As a result I am parked near to the office with alarms set to make sure I remember to move the car when needed - the next shuffle will be from T's car park to the limited time parking outside, and then at 1400 I can shift to one of the back streets and that will be me sorted for the rest of the day! What a faff! 

lucielle

Parking sounds a right nightmare. Hope there’s lots of empty spots. 

L

Sun_Addict

Glad you had a good time away and got to see the Reds in the end. 

I love a cheeky Monday night curry, feels so decadent 😆

themadvix

Can’t remember if I’ve shared this link with you EH, but it’s great for rice in the multicooker: https://greenhealthycooking.com/instant-pot-rice/. Spot on every time, although of course you might have already cracked this.

savingholmes

Glad you were able to stay over and see the clear sky version of the air show. Sounds very worthwhile.

EssexHebridean

Haha - L there were certainly NOT plenty of empty spots - I ended up parked next to a metal bollard that left me with a teeny-tiny-breathe-in-as-much-as-possible-and-squeeeeeze gap to get out of the car, which obvs I then had to repeat when I went back to the car to make its next move. Sigh. Ah well - better than a 20 minute each way walk in the pouring rain! 

Thanks SA & SH - I'm really fortunate to have a friend who is more than happy for a last minute house guest like that! And yes to the curry - that's exactly how it felt, probably because we associate a curry more with a weekend meal! 

Vix that's a useful link - thanks! At the moment my failsafe for rice is my microwave steamer  - 2 bursts of 3 minutes 20 seconds each and it cooks by a mixture of boiling and steaming and comes out brilliantly. I would say that I've had that steamer for years - but that's not quite true as I managed to select combi on the microwave for the original one and melted it (yes, really!). Thankfully Mum got one at the same time as I did originally, and as she didn't use hers, she donated it to me - I'd be lost without it. I suspect the  instant pot method might work well if I wanted to cook a batch at a time though which I may well do from time to time. 

A bit few and far between on the MSE Stuff here today:
- A small cash out on TCB - just £7 odd on its way to me by bank transfer - it will go to the OP pot when it lands.
- Couple of YouGov surveys - not seen any of those for a while. I'm still a looooong way off cashing out though.
- The decision to keep the windows open for the Tr@vel0dge and Pr3m13r 1nn sites proved a solid one as I spotted that the Tr@vel0dge in a slightly more convenient position was now offering a cheaper fully flexible price than we had previously paid for partially flexible from Prem. Inn. Original room now cancelled and new one booked at a £7 saving. While it's only £7, that's better in my pocket than someone elses, and the added flexibility might mean the difference between us being out of pocket and not if the ferries get screwed up. I'll need to remember that the £7 needs shuffling back to the holiday account when the refund lands. 
- Turkey out defrosting for stir fry tonight - turkey satay noodles should prove tasty and quick to prep. 
- Holiday day that was booked for tomorrow has been cancelled - I have no need of it and may as well save it for when it's more needed! 
- Don't think I mentioned but I have opened a sacrificial current account ready to do another bank switch. I have suggested that MrEH does the same, but we will see if that happens! Once again it will be one that requires no DDs etc as I can't be bothered with that degree of faff. I'll need to feed some money in and out of the new one though just to give it some semblance of actually being a used account. 

We're beginning to plan some stuff around Easter - although we've decided that we'd mostly like to have time at home, in the garden etc, we are planning on one day out, and at the moment it's looking like a good old favourite with a trip to Minsmere RSPB (will mean we can stock up on bird food as well) followed by a visit to Aldeburgh for fish & chips for tea. We can play by ear which day we go so making the best of the weather with any luck. 

Makingabobor2

that's why I've never bothered with bank switches, all the DDs having to change etc. But if there is one around that doesn't need that, then its worth having. 

Sun_Addict

Makingabobor2 said:

that's why I've never bothered with bank switches, all the DDs having to change etc. But if there is one around that doesn't need that, then it’s worth having. 

I finally switched last year to N@tionwide after being with Halif@x for well over 25 years. I was very hesitant but it all went very smoothly, didn’t have to do anything and I don’t regret it in the least.