And now we go again...

savingholmes

It's a shame about the solar - however keeping your bike sounds important. On the bin store - you can buy those wooden bin stores that look nice and keep them in position. Don't know if you'd be allowed those where you are? I think solar will improve. They reckon 20% of people never make back their £ on solar... 

PennysIntoPounds

I'd say hold off anyway until a bit after the general election as a new government might introduce new environmental grants. They might not but no harm seeing what's what in the forthcoming year for big spend decisions 

RosaBernicia

I was just thinking could you put the bins in a covered unit, like SH.  I have my bins in a K3ter store - I resent giving up space in the back garden for them, and when I first moved here nobody else had them visible at the front, so I figured it was a reasonable solution to have them in a store goes well with the house.  We get gales here so it's also sensible anyway.  I've had other boxes from that make before and they've lasted over a decade, and much easier to put together than wooden ones.  If you look about in sales and discounts etc you can usually get that size 2-bin store for about £100. 

EssexHebridean

Greying_Pilgrim said:

EssexHebridean said:

MSE Stuff:

- Also nipped in to FFoods on Friday morning while waiting for MrEH's car headlight to get done thanks to whoever it was who mentioned that they had well priced tins of pulses. The 6-pack of tinned toms for £1.99 was an unexpected win, remembered we were running low on tinned tuna so got a pack of that as well, plus some tinned lentils and chickpeas. 

Ay up sweetie - I don't know if someone specifically mentioned it on you thread as well, but mumtoomany definitely mentioned it, over at mine the other day 😁 So good that you were able to get some well priced pulses - so useful for regular recipes or times when 'meals in moments' are needed.

I think you're right about the technology developing/changing for solar overtime, although it is such a pity that you've invested so much time and effort already.  I totally get that you're thinking about where the bins would be located, or that you would have to sell your bike or whatever, as you're living in your home and want solar panels to improve and enhance that lifestyle, not make you compromise to the extent whereby you can't actually live how you'd prefer.  

Greying X

Yes - this is exactly it! Obviously the money saving aspect is part of it - and clearly there is a saving to be had, BUT having a bike I can use in place of a car is ALSO money saving, almost more so in some ways as the bike didn't even cost  me anything, as some folk here might remember! Greying you have completely nailed why the apparent "1st world problem" of the placement on the front IS a problem! 

L - we've been liking the look of the integrated panels for a long while - they have obvious advantages up around you for sure, and yes, I think if we were having the roof replaced we probably would explore that option for definite, it would seem daft not to! Milann we are also seeing a lot of new roofs being done locally - again this is something I am very slightly uneasy about with the panels too - will we end up with panels that have a longer life-span than the roof they are attached to?!  

SH I looked at some form of wooden shed arrangement for the bike originally too - but technically we wouldn't be allowed one of those either, whether for bins or bike. 

PiP - you may well have a point there, although whether we would be eligible I have my doubts. It's looking like it will be being held off on for now anyway, so we may get the chance to find out! 

MSE Stuff:
- CC money shuffle done last night - just waiting on MrEH transferring his bit to me.
- Still holding out against transferring the money for my lens across - It can spend another week in my savings yet! 
- Nipped into T's last night as needed female-specific supplies and they are currently the only people with a special offer on those. Spotted while in that they have good sturdy ceramic plant saucers - £1 for the larger size, 80p for the smaller, so got 2 of each and may well pop back in for more. I was hoping that they might have had troughs as well, but sadly not. 
- Last night's stir fry was tasty and made use of lots of veg. 
- Annoyingly one of the peppers in the bag had gone squishy - thankfully it had not passed its squishyness on to any of the others so that has been separated out for composting and the remaining two are now in a stayfresh bag.
- MrEH's Oyster got fed yesterday - annoyingly a day before I had hoped it would need it. 

The solar stuff is now confirmed as a no-go which is annoying - I have had an email from them while writing this, confirming that they are processing the refund of the deposit back to us. I have a feeling there is something more going on as initially the idea of installing the battery in one location and the inverter in another was all fine, and now that is apparently a significant issue and can't possibly be done. Each time I have offered a possible solution to the problems something else has then been raised too - so reading between the lines there is something more that means that they aren't keen to continue. (The latest is the "300mm clearance" needed on all sides of the invertor, meaning there isn't sufficient space to fit a canopy - but my reading of the requirement from the manufacturer is very much that this would not apply in the same way if the inverter was outdoors and not being fully enclosed...) For now, we will back-burner it, and re-designate the "Savings for solar" pot to something else, in any event. I will also apply for the new C0v3ntry reg saver account that is being offered as that will take some of the money that had been diverted to that pot. 

Small personal challenges:
- water - day 1 ticked off, 2 large, 2 smaller cups of tea, 1 litre of water at work.
- Yoga - 15 minute gentle stretching session done last night. 

EssexHebridean

Lunchtime financial wrangling:
- My old ISA transferred to a new one with a better rate (Same provider, so that is already appearing there)
- New Reg Saver opened - 6.75% variable, will take £250 a month
- £250 initial payment sent to the new reg saver.
- standing order set up for the  new reg saver.
- email sent to MrEH reminding him that he might want to think about opening one of those too
- decision made that the "Savings for Solar" pot will fund another reg saver MrEH has on the go when the pot he is currently using runs dry, and any balance can then just be transferred to other savings. 

Jobs to do:
- Update budget book so I know where we stand with payments going out
- Update savings list so we have a complete list of everything that is going everywhere, and where it is being funded from.

PennysIntoPounds

Well that's a shame about the solar panels but nice to have your solar pot money free to be played with to other pots!

beanielou

That’s a pain on the solar panels. 

badmemory

beanielou said:

That’s a pain on the solar panels. 

It is indeed.  I was hoping to do some serious brainpicking.  What it has shown me is I need to find out a lot more before I even think about quotes.  If I have them I want them all singing all dancing.  If I haven't the room or am going to upset my neighbours then I won't do it.

themadvix

That's very frustrating about the solar. Would you consider getting the panels without the battery for now? Battery costs and sizes are improving all the time - I don't think there's likely to be much movement in panel costs though (potentially the wrong way if relations with China continue to worsen). A lot of the cost is in the scaffolding and installation of the panels. The batteries are more or less plug and play. It does sound odd that they don't seem to be keen... I take it the loft is not an option for your battery?

EssexHebridean

We have discussed that TMV. The problem is that for a lot of the week the panels will just be covering the background use and feeding back to the grid rather than us being able to actually use what they generate, without a battery, and that would be pretty frustrating. There is also a chance that situation could get worse if MrEH's firm insist on them all going back to the office 5 days a week - at the moment he is mostly doing 3, and there is no sign of them changing that, but our assumption is that it will increase at some stage. (Of course with that in mind then that guarantees that the days that we could make use of things like running the WM and DW off the generation it would be cloudy and not viable!)  It wasn't even suggested as an option by Octopus either, which was a bit strange, and underlines the point that they just seem to not be keen, all of a sudden. The loft isn't an option annoyingly - we knew it wouldn't be for the large battery as it is just too heavy, but even if we switched to the smaller one, they have said that they weren't even prepared to mount the inverter up there "because it's a party wall" - but surely the only viable brick wall in ANYONE's loft is a party wall? We think they must mean that they can't be sure that it isn't just a single skinned fire wall - but it holds the boiler OK, and you'd think if hanging stuff on it had been a problem that too would have been ruled out!  

Badmemory I do have a thread running (on the green & ethical board, I think) with various questions about our plans, so that might be worth a look for you as it got a lot of input from folk who definitely know their stuff on this! 

Well good morning all, and happy Wednesday! We seem to have the hope of a slightly less breezy day today - but also dry! (Which is slightly annoying as last night it said it was going to be dry all day but then rain about an hour before we got home tonight, meaning I opted to NOT run washing through last night!) Ah well - washing this evening it is, and that can go on the line tomorrow! 

Managed to get a few odds and ends done in the garden when I got back last night - MrEH had already made a start on breaking up the largest of the chunks of concrete that needs to go to the tip. I got some cucumber and some Pak Choi sown - the cucumbers are inside in a propagator and the Pak Choi have just gone into the mini greenhouse for now. MrEH reported back this morning that we now have 7 chard plants coming through, so we will probably move those out to the mini greenhouse at the end of the week, at which point I will need to work  out what needs to be moved out to make room - probably the tub of mini carrots as that is massive. The next lot I sow will be in a trough anyway so will have to stay outside! Also got a bit of weeding done round the gooseberries, and one of those has now been staked as it was being spectacularly laid back and I know from experience if you let them behave like that for too long that's how they stay! Also staked up a couple of broad beans that look to have been victims of the wind - I expected that they would get a bit bigger before needing it.  Garden diary also updated so that we have a record of what we have done and when. Lush to be able to potter about out there in the evening, though! 

MSE Stuff:
- Banks checked and all good
- Discussion about MrEH opening a C0v reg saver as well - he is going to do so. 
- Having not found well priced plastic troughs anywhere else we have now ordered a set of 4 60cm ones from the Big River - they will come out of the £100 credit we have sitting there from that insurance purchase incentive as well so that's a win as that makes them budget neutral
- Noticed that Sant-And-Er now have a decent cashback CC option - so will discuss with MrEH whether we look at applying for that. If we are going to then it makes sense to get it sorted ahead of holiday. I was going to say "but I don't know whether I would be accepted" but in fact I have just realised that there is a soft-check available for it, so have run that and yes, I would!  it pays 2% cashback for the first year, but comes with a £3 monthly fee, and would also mean us changing the way we do some stuff it returning to putting fuel and MrEH's Oyster top ups onto the card rather than from the current account...realistically though in even an average month we'd spend at least £400 on it, so we ought to be in pocket still... it would be more touch-and-go after year 1, though. Discussion needed.
- Food sorted for tonight - I discovered a tub of chilli in the freezer so that has come out and will be eaten with rice. Tomorrow is still slated to be "something with eggs" - it might also be "something with sweet potato" as I still have a huge one of those to use up. 
- opted to use both the remaining two (small) peppers last night as was wary of any more going squishy. The couscous was topped off with those, plus a pack of large flat mushrooms bought YS'd at the weekend, the other half of the pack of green beans bought YS'd at the weekend, and halloumi, plus toasted seeds and a good sprinkle of sumac. Can I also just say that I am LOVING having herbs to go out and pick again - at the moment most of my parsley is coming from my supermarket rescue of a few weeks back, but the seedlings are also coming on nicely. 
- MrEH informs me that he is out on Friday evening (rugby stuff) so the curry will be on hold - I will use a ready-meal from the freezer - it was bought a while back YS'd and was waiting for just such an opportunity! 
- This week's C00p offers including 25p off MrEH's newspaper and 20p off milk - so allowing for his subscriber voucher this realistically means 45p off the milk, so worth a wander round that way on Friday morning. 
- Also got a 200 points when you spend £20 in T's, so will probably pop to Lil's to get the free loaf, then head on to T's for the weekly shop, this week. 

Small personal challenges:
- water - 2 large and 2 smaller cups of tea, 1 litre water at work - 2/5
- Yoga - 30 minute gentle full body (YWA) done last night) - 2/5