And now we go again...

Sun_Addict

Glad all is well and you were awol for a happy reason. We’ve missed you 🙂

EssexHebridean

Morning all - and thank you again, it's nice to be missed!

MSE Stuff:
- Made use of a £10 off a £35 shop coupon in A's on Sunday, although was a little miffed to discover that in spite of not saying so anywhere, you can't also use a cashpot reward voucher on the same shop. The initial member of store staff seemed to think I should be quite happy just losing out on the £10 as "after all, you have been able to get £25 off!" - yes, but that £25 was earned by me as rewards under THEIR scheme! Thankfully I subsequently got dealt with by someone who was every bit as outraged about it as I was, and who managed to reinstate both vouchers so I still have the £25 one.
- Freezer is utterly crammed so I am once again back to trying to plan meals around that. (not least as there is stuff in the fridge that will need to go into there before all that long... 
- rough meal plan for the week involving quite a lot of salad (excellent - less cooking)
- Cooked off a pan of chicken drumsticks on cheap electric on Sunday so those will feature highly this week.
- Agile electric still working well for us - we're not making any earth shattering savings but we're already on over £4 cheaper for May, with a unit price of 17.5p, and it meant consistent small savings for every day we weren't at home, which was nice.
- Energy account is now sitting at just over £200 credit which I'm perfectly happy with - that will gently build further as we head through the summer and I will then review the DD in the Autumn to decide when (if) it needs an increase.
- Central heating went on for a quick boost on Saturday morning, and then got turned back off and hasn't been on again since.
- MrEH is going to give a nudge about our expenses payment for our voluntary role stuff as it's not been paid and we're not sure whether there is an issue with it or it's just been missed. It's not massive, but I'd like some of it to cover a night's accommodation we need to book to attend an upcoming meeting (Not expensable in itself as it's not a core part of our main role)
- Prolific is trotting along nicely - I cashed out £50 in the gap between trips away, and am now up to £5 payable and £5 pending - I will cash out again at the end of the month.
- Finally got round to opening and dropping some money into a S&S ISA which is a new departure for us. Plan is to still mostly focus on the cash ones for this year - at least until we see if that limit is going to be dropped - with the £250 payment that was previously going into the C0v3ntry reg saver heading to the S&S ISA on a monthly basis to get that properly underway.

Plans:
- We have a trip into London for a pal's birthday pub crawl on Saturday which should be fun
- There will be a now-traditional Celebratory Indian Takeaway at the weekend at some stage to celebrate our wedding anniversary which is early next week
- Lots of stuff to get done for the voluntary role now so that will take up a lot of time over the next couple of months
- I am away for three days over the following weekend at my first airshow of the season - three of us sharing a house for the weekend which should be a giggle

I need to have a bit of a sit down with the finances at some stage - get the budget sketched out for next month, work out where last month's surplus is going (Although half of THIS month's accidentally went to the S&S ISA after I managed to make a transfer twice - oops!) and just generally see where we are at on everything. Also want to review where we are at on regular savers and whether there will be any worth opening once the current ones mature. 

Blackcats

Good to see you back.  Were you on Alderney for Liberation?  We were on Guernsey for Liberation Day but I think Alderney was liberated after Jersey and Guernsey.  
 

PennysIntoPounds

So many lovely things coming up! Very nice to see it, after all that's what the ol' mse-ing is ultimately for isn't it, to be able to enjoy without stress 😊

EssexHebridean

Blackcats said:

Good to see you back.  Were you on Alderney for Liberation?  We were on Guernsey for Liberation Day but I think Alderney was liberated after Jersey and Guernsey.  
 

Frustratingly we were on Guernsey for a couple of hours on their liberation day but weren't able to actually see any of it as we were just at/around the airport, and then we left Alderney on THEIR liberation day and the same applied as our flight was midday so we just went straight from the Fort to the airport! There was lots being geared up for though and clearly a lot of pride and excitement about it all. 

PennysIntoPounds said:

So many lovely things coming up! Very nice to see it, after all that's what the ol' mse-ing is ultimately for isn't it, to be able to enjoy without stress 😊

Exactly this! That's an aspect of "being MSE" that I think often gets overlooked - the obvious stress relief of clearing debt takes centre stage, but further down the line is very much the aspect of being able to live your life without perhaps being "rich" in any sense, but with the ease that comes with knowing that the finances are running as they should, and there are no nasty surprises round the corner!

MSE Stuff:
- more garden bits done last night - some winter squash seeds sown, 4 Bishop's Crown chilli plants planted on into a growbag, some relocation of things to begin to create the space we'll need/want for tomatoes. Also a quick stock-take of big pots for those too - we think we're OK on that as we'll use growbags for the little bush ones anyway. 
- a list is being compiled of the work needed on MrEH's car - ouch!
- The rough meal plan says chicken pasta salad for tonight - and I am thinking I will make sufficient to cover me for lunch tomorrow as well. Then tomorrow evening will be another regular salad to use up assorted leaves, half a cucumber and some other bits.
- last night's couscous made use of some self-seeded fennel plants from the veg patch - we potted up half a dozen of them at the weekend and one has already gone to a neighbour, two more will go to Mum, and I may plant one in a gap in the front garden as well I think. I also threw in some savoury and some oregano as both those plants are doing really well.
- transfer done to the A's CC this morning for the food shopping at the weekend - a higher than normal spend week due to the farmer's market and needing washing liquid too. (Note to self - MUST buy loo rolls!)
- I will probably suggest that we shop at A's again at the weekend I think allowing that we have that £25 reward voucher sitting waiting to be used, and if we shop on a Sunday the car park doesn't cost us anything either. 
- £200 from last month's surplus shifted to PB's this morning, plus £50 to the ISA. 

More voluntary role stuff done last night - and we now have the full picture of everything we need to order. On the flip side we also now have a full picture of all the people who have not responded to the original batch of orders sent out, so the first lot of chasers were sent last night. Tonight we will tackle the remaining chasers and then hopefully get on to some data entry. 

EssexHebridean

Morning - and a happy cheerful Friday and long weekend to all! We have a decent mix of plans and downtime factored in - although today my main focus will be a bit of a reset on the house as it is a bit neglected after several weeks of gallivanting! 

MSE Stuff
- deciding on something for tea this evening which we already have everything in for means I don’t need to shop today, beyond…
- …a walk round to the C0-0p this morning while we were out anyway used a 25p off MrEH’s daily paper (which he has a subscriber voucher for the cost of) against a bottle of milk - meaning 4 pints of milk for £1.30. Not a huge saving but they all help. 

- shopping will now be done on Sunday using that £25 A’s reward voucher we couldn’t make use of last week

- one load of washing run overnight on cheaper electric slots - the second is running as I type
- free drying - load 1 is already outside, the second will follow it later
- free exercise in the shape of that walk I mentioned
- annoyingly the expenses payment we’re waiting on still hasn’t appeared in spite of MrEH chasing it - hopefully it will drop in to the account at some stage later. 

- MrEH fed his Oyster yesterday - my car may need fuel over the weekend depending on what we do travel wise.
- Banks checked and all good
- we spotted a decent deal on a 1 year fixed ISA earlier in the week so MrEH got one of those opened and then transferred one of his ISA’s to it - I need to look at somewhere with a better rate on E/A to move one of mine too as well as that money needs to be kept E/A (emergency fund) but the rate is about to drop. 

- in spite of a chilly night (frost again, !!!!!!!) the heating has remained off. 

The plan for today is to use timers to get stuff done in bursts I think. In spite of having spent much of the last 6 weeks on holiday there has been a lot of running around “doing stuff” - mostly really good fun stuff, but still, lots of busy times. Add to that the week on Alderney being entirely spent with other people around me - for various reasons I was sharing a room with someone other than MrEh - and although those are all people I love dearly as really close friends, still, it was a lot of “peopling” for me - and as a result I do feel that I need to pace myself a bit today rather than running round frantically trying to get stuff done.  That said - there are things to get done, so at least a rudimentary list will follow…

EssexHebridean

- 1 hour voluntary role stuff just getting things organised a bit better so we feel more in control of the process
- living room - clear table, clear sofas
- living room - jaws!
- loos, both, cleaner and leave to soak (blooming limescale!)
- kitchen - general clear just moving stuff to where it’s meant to live
- kitchen - wipe surfaces and clean sink
- bathroom - S&S and downstairs loo too
- read electric meter
- get stuff out of freezer for tea tonight
- meal plan! 

- check bread supplies for breakfasts
- garden - shed - a few minutes general tidying
- garden - open coldframe and mini greenhouse now it’s warmed up
- sort out bits to go to the tip into bags ready to take straight to my car - started this
- next load of washing to line when finished
- next load of washing to machine but not run yet
- Walk to chemist to check on my prescription 

that looks like more than it is - a lot of it will get done in relatively short bursts of activity. 

Right then….GO! 

Also done…
- empty all bins
- prune last year’s dead growth off fuschia
- 1 more section on the shed rubbed down ready to paint
- Office - half an hour thorough sort out and tidy to make it easier to work out there for the voluntary role stuff. Several cardboard boxes and some paper packaging sent to the recycling, shelves reorganised, a small box of assorted pens, markers, and general office based toot from when we moved sorted out and at least a bit more organised. And a USB stick I have been looking for for ages might have turned up too - I need to pop it into a computer to check, but fingers crossed… 
- called in at Al’s while out as remembered we needed loo rolls - also spotted 1kg satsumas for £1.39 on super 6 so that sorts me for citrus for the week. 

EssexHebridean

Evening all, I hope everyone is having a lovely bank holiday weekend?

A spendy but thoroughly enjoyable day yesterday on a pal’s birthday pub crawl round South West London. A nice lunch at a cafe in Vauxhall, LOTS of beers, and ended up on the last train back home! 😂  As we all know there is nothing like a spendy day - even a fabulously fun one - to make us tighten our MSE belts!

MSE Stuff:
- in spite of a slight state of merriment I remembered to check Agile prices when we got in last night - good job I did too as they had already gone negative and were set to stay there until 4pm today.
- DW emptied and set to run again on a 65° wash empty
- WM loaded up with towels and set to run overnight ending with an hours tumble dry
- MrEH popped on the U/F heating in the office, and the light (old fashioned fluorescent tube) in the shed
- I set the U/F heating in the bathroom for overnight too. always a treat to not have the shock of a chilly floor when getting up in the night for a wee! 

- bread machine set to bake a loaf to be ready this morning. 

- When I got up the towels got a bit more tumble drying to get them thoroughly  dry.
- bread machine run again late morning with dough for rolls which were popped in the oven at the “cheapest” point of the day
- bed stripped and another load through the WM plus an hours T/D, then finished on the line while we were out this afternoon
- shopping done in A’s using that £25 cash pot reward plus another 60p one I won on their 60th birthday promotion after last week’s shop - ended up paying £6.61 cash which is pretty decent! 

- some decent Y/S’d bits and pieces nabbed - sandwich fillings, posh fish cakes and salmon fillets - all now stashed in the freezer.

Garden wise some of the things we sowed last weekend are starting to pop their heads up - salad leaves, basil and rocket plus hopefully a cucumber. I’ll feel happier when we see some signs of life from the tomatoes and beans mind you. Ideally we’d get some more bits sown tomorrow but the greenhouse is rammed at the moment to the point where airflow is a problem. We also need to fathom out some form of squirrel protection for the troughs once they are ready to move out of the cold frame of everything will just get dug up again - that needs some thought.  

The tip run got done - so that’s a bit less clutter gone, the garden especially feels better for it.

EssexHebridean

Hey all - happy Tuesday that feels like a Monday! It's a damp and soggy one here - annoying as I really want to go and shift my car closer to the office shortly, but I'd rather not get wet. 

The rest of our BH weekend was pleasant, uneventful, and relatively cheap. I say "relatively" because there was an indian takeaway last night in honour of our wedding anniversary today (our 25th - my goodness there is nothing like that to make one feel ancient!) however we were pleasantly surprised at the cost being lower than last time we ordered one, I think. It was extremely tasty anyway, and we were both stuffed afterwards! 

MSE Stuff:
- a couple of outstanding bits of shopping yesterday done in Al's - we opted for walking there rather than taking the car elsewhere. We got the bits we needed and nothing more though.
- LOTS of garden tidying achieved through the day yesterday which was great - and has really made a visible difference to the look of it.
- More sanding and repainting done on the outside of the shed - although we will need to factor in it needing some significant work at some stage I think as the original installers/our predecessors really did a poor job of protecting the timber. 
- I drilled holes in and finished painting the outside of the two wooden boxes I want to plant herbs into.
- Started digging out the compost bin but found an ants nest so everything was piled back in in the hope that the ants will relocate. The good news though was plenty of evidence of worms!
- Banks checked and all fine - nothing much occurring there as we are in the "dead zone" now of course. 
- Lunch yesterday was a delicious brunch style meal involving the end of a sourdough loaf and a pack of bacon with only 3 rashers left (both from the freezer), the final 4 duck eggs we brought back from the Hebrides, and a handful of salad each - really tasty and all using up things we had. 
- STILL no sign of the outstanding expenses which is annoying - I think if we've had no sight of it in another few days it will need a further chase. 
- The super cheap Agile prices on Sunday netted us 31p credit across the day in spite of all the host of things we managed to get done. Great to be paid to cook, wash clothes etc!
- Further low pricing (although not negative) yesterday means that the WM has had a hot wash with white vinegar as well.

Right - time to brave the sogginess and go and collect that car, I think! 

Sun_Addict

Happy Anniversary for yesterday 🥳