And now we go again...

rtandon27

Oh my what a mare - glad to know you are back safe and sound!

PennysIntoPounds

Fab pic and lots of positives- bah to the car but at least you got a seat on the train 🍻

VintageHistorian

duffy11 said:

VintageHistorian said:

You can also find Le Creuset very heavily discounted in TK Maxx, although it's very much left to chance whether you'll find the right size/shape/colour.

Also with curtains, we got ours made to measure from Curtains2Go, they tend to do 10%-15% discounts around bank holidays and the like, if you sign up to their newsletter then you get notified when sales are on.

Hi there Vintage - I know this is an old thread, but wanted to ask whether everything was ok w Curtains2Go in the end? They have an amazing offer but recent trustpilot reviews suggest they're not far off an outright scam... Many thanks in advance!

Sorry @duffy11 I hadn't spotted this and thank you EH for tagging me!

So the last time I bought from them was a good few years ago and it all went fine. Over the past 9 years we've had 2 of faux-wood blinds, 1 roller blind, and 3 pairs of curtains, all of which have been absolutely fine. I think the last time we made a purchase was about 3 years ago.

Looking at the reviews it definitely looks like they've been struggling recently. I do need to get a new curtain for the front door so personally I'm going to take a look after Easter, in the hope they're just struggling with Christmas demand.

Baileys_Babe

How dare the weather and the car conspire against you, glad you are safely home 🤗

EssexHebridean

Thanks all! yes - it wasn't the ideal situation, but definitely one of those things when you realise quite how much worse it could have been - had the fault manifested itself on the way up, in the dark and the pouring rain it would have been a LOT less pleasant and easy to resolve.  Also makes you focus a bit on both privilege and goof choices - thank goodness we have the breakdown cover, and that I then had the ability to simply get  myself home via public transport - it would have been far more tricky for a lot of folk to manage that aspect, even! 

Anyway, the car is now on its way down to Neil I gather, so he will take a look in the next few days and then let us know what he thinks will be needed and of course the cost - not looking forward to that bit! The car account isn't quite as well filled as I would ideally like, but this is exactly the sort of thing where our emergency fund will get pressed into use if required! 

MSE Stuff then:
- Main grocery shop done yesterday and we are still on plan for that frugal month as just £14.74 was spent. 
- Yesterday's lunch was a mini christmas dinner - turkey and gravy, red cabbage, runner beans and bread sauce from the freezer, and roast potatoes and parsnips from the 5p veg (actually I think the tatties are probably still the "free" Lil's bag, now I think about it!). Felt like  proper little treat, AND used up the dregs of a jar of cranberry sauce as well! 
- The electrical works were done on Friday - although the under cabinet lights strips themselves do unfortunately need replacing too. The outside light is fitted and looks great though, very pleased with that, and the two replacement light switches make a real difference - not having to try several times to get a failing dimmer switch to "click"! 
- I have just moved money out of the long term savings to cover the cost of those works - although a good chunk will get replaced out of surplus at the end of the month. 

Saturday's trip into London was a little spendy - beer, food and travel, although the food and some of the beer was at one of the weather/cutlery chain pubs - not the cheapest as their central London prices are steeper, but still less than elsewhere. Our friend had a fine send off and would have been both astonished and delighted at the folk who turned up from all over the country I think - it was certainly far more "her" than the funeral, in many ways! 

Christmas stuff went into the loft yesterday and we also took the chance to sort out the job lot of old maps we bought on the Bay of E - there were absolutely masses of them, including some very old ones (some from the 1930s, and one which appears to be 1912! Other highlights included a number of maps which included our local area, and a Barnetts town map of our town - tricky to work out exactly when from but must have been mid 1970s I think, looking at the progress of building in the town. Anyway, everything is now on the shelves, and we've reorganised things a little to ensure we know where things are. There is another smaller batch arriving in the next few days as well but those should be easy to slot into the sets they belong with now. Other than that and the shopping, yesterday was a much needed gentle day. 

lucielle

Sorry to hear about the car troubles, I feel your pain as one of ours is at the car doctors. Also had a day fitting outdoor lights. 

L

rtandon27

Glad to hear you had a lower key gentle day!

EssexHebridean

Thanks both!

A small but useful item of spendiness that I think I forgot to mention was that Al's had their planner books in when we went in on Sunday - I had previously looked at the meal planner one but it didn't quite do anything I would find that useful, so I had dismissed it, but I hadn't spotted that they also had a monthly/weekly planner too. Initially I could only find a single copy, and that with some damage and missing its paper "cover" that gave the barcode etc, so I guessed it would be a faff and wouldn't easily be able to check the price. Kept looking, and MrEH spotted one in the very back of the basket that I wouldn't have been able to reach - but he could! Got it to the till and scanned - £2.99! I'd already decided that if it was under £5 I was going to buy so for that price I snatched it up!  Very useful - it replaces my normal journal book for this which I'd largely stopped using for the purpose as it was a faff to rule everything out - this has everything already marked, tasks, reminders etc, so far easier! There are bits I probably won't use - but also an awful lot that I will, so all good! 
- Spendiness today will be a dimmable lightbulb of the correct fitting type for the lamp in the front room - with the new switch it's not working well with a standard non-dimmable.

Car:
- Now with Neil, and he has had a quick look at the diagnostics and has reset the warning message/light. He will be giving it a test drive today to see if the fault replicates, but his hope is that it could be a sensor playing up and needing replacing...fingers crossed as that should be a LOT cheaper than a new DPF! He also got  my overnight bag out of the boot and passed it to MrEH at training last night - it was just one more thing I couldn't carry back on the train so handy to have that back. 

MSE Stuff:
- two small grocery spends over the past couple of days, and both because of using the Al's car park near work. 48p on 'nanas and 99p on onions - the latter would have been 19p cheaper had I bought the "wonky" ones but I am NOT trying to deal with pickling-size onions for regular cooking!  
- MrEH's car has been fed this morning, and will need another tankful before the month is out
- His Oyster was fed yesterday, and will likely also need another top up before end of month
- I need to keep an eye on what goes on with my oyster too - I added £10 credit on Saturday but then ended up using my standard contactless on my phone. As I didn't touch in with the Oyster, the credit hasn't been added, but it has exited the bank!
- I have taken the scan of my rail ticket and receipt from Friday ready to email across to the breakdown insurers for reimbursement - need to send that email today ideally as could do with that money back! 
- Electrical work is paid for to date and I have let Luke know that it will probably be next month when we give the go-ahead for the under cabinet lights to be replaced. £150 for the two visits to sort the downstairs circuit, and £346 for the other bits - that includes all the switches and everything he's used too aside from the outside light itself which we bought. 
-washing was done overnight into yesterday and MrEH stuck it all on the line first thing - by the time he got it back in again late afternoon it was pretty much dry bar a little bit of dampness, so

Yoga was done last night, AND I used foot cream and hand cream before bed - go me! 
Also did the 15 minute tidy round I'd noted in my planner as a task for last night - go me again! 

rtandon27

@EssexHebridean - so with you on the self-care and the power tidy - I find both give me a boost and set up a lovely feeling for the next day.  My potions of choice are a gel eye cream and facial mosturizer!

greenbee

You can regenerate the DPF so hopefully that's all that's needed (I bought my diesel when I was driving long distances, then promptly started working from home and only driving around 10 miles max, so used to take it out periodically for a run on the motorway). Hopefully it's just a fault on the sensor and the DPF will regenerate once the fault is cleared.