And now we go again...

Debsnewbudget

welcome back

sounds like you have had some fun

Chase has a regular saver at 6.5% but its for a year

EssexHebridean

Ooh - visitors, lovely! Thanks all, it's nice to BE back!

Blackcats astonishingly we actually never got to any of the breweries, they are firmly on our list for next year though particularly once we realised that the vintage buses were doing runs to Goddards, and also to Wight Knuckle! Did definitely enjoy some local beers in the pubs though!

SA that's a good reminder about YBS - I need to take a look at them I think as our regular saver numbers are dropping off quite a lot - although to some extent that is a conscious thing as it all got a bit silly a while back with so many to try to juggle!

MSE Stuff:

• finalised a Mozzas order for this week, that will arrive tomorrow.
• Started filling the basket for next time with offers that will still be on but that will be closer to the end of the month, I think.
• Checked to see when the final day for the free delivery pass will be - 25th, so need to make sure that last order is in for delivery before that.
• A further look at options for a change of gas tariff, but still nothing that looks to be a particularly good deal, all things considered.
• Soup made for tea last night that will also feed us tonight - lentil and bacon, and i will nip into the c0-0p later and see if they have any Y/S'd bread.
• began to rough out a meal plan for next week as well - I would like to work back up to running with a month at a time ideally, although a fortnight might be more manageable.
• Banking checked and all good
• CC cleared to zero - a night's accommodation I booked for next year's holiday which I thought was to be paid closer to the time has gone through, although I suspect I simply selected the "pay immediately" option rather than it being anything untoward. All good, the Holiday pot contains money - although it now contains £83 less!
• A full listing of all the accommodation we have booked for that trip is now in progress — that will ensure we know what we have booked where, how much, and when any payments not yet made are due.
• Conversation this morning around getting fuel in MrEH's car - he's fine until the start of next week, so we will probably line up for a trip to the cheap petrol station near my work.

Spendiness:

• a bit fat nothing!
• there will be that pop into the c0-0p tonight, and also Thursday Night Beers - those from our personal spends of course!

I think one of my tasks for tomorrow is to sit down with my budget book and get all the financial stuff up to date - and also probably some updated figures for future holiday planning, as we need to at least assume that fuel prices are unlikely ever to fall back to where they were prior to the Giant Orange Toddler's big game of toy soldiers. That of course has knock-on effects to everything else too - energy prices increase which puts up the cost of accommodation, increased fuel costs put up the price of food, and then the travel costs themselves also… indeed, rising costs are not just affecting holiday planning either!

EssexHebridean

Morning all - a grey, dreary wet one here, hopefully others have got something at least a bit more cheerful!

MSE Stuff:

• found a 64p YS'd loaf in c0-0p on Thursday evening which sorted breakfast and lunch on Friday and saved using the breadmaker on pricey electric!
• Weekend was a pricey one on food spending but we are now pretty well stocked up on tinned and dry goods.
• managed to show some restraint at the farmer's market - just over £10 on the meat stall, plus our usual pricey but delicious sourdough loaf!
• Food account has just over £100 in it for the rest of the month, there will be one more Mozzas shop using the free delivery pass this weekend, which will be just over £40, but that should leave us well set for some fairly low spend weeks to come.
• MrEH's car filled up at the cheapest petrol station we know of after work last night.
• Emailed the octopods at the weekend to get a new gas fix arranged for when the current (cheap!) one finishes - it will knock 4p off the SC but nearly double the unit cost so that will be painful although some of it will be recouped on savings on SC through next summer, of course.
• Planning for holiday next year is well underway with all accommodation now booked apart from the 5 days in Uist - I need to email about that.
• Notes made of all the accommodation costs too - next task is to note estimated costs for the ferries, plus some sort of estimate of mileage so we can check the finances.
• Firm decision made that we are not going to the Good Food Show this year - we didn't miss it last year, and the exhibitor list looks uninspiring!
• Heating is now on when needed - just evenings at the moment but that may change.
• New account opened with better interest for the money that feeds a couple of the regular savers.
• New account opened with better interest for my airshow savings.
• 2 x free electric hours used on Sunday during which we roasted a tray of home grown toms, and another of squash, and I cooked two pans of soup, giving a total of 8 portions. 2 portions eaten for lunch on sunday, the remainder to the freezer.
• Also used the underfloor heating during that time as well which saved a bit of gas when it got chilly later.

Spendiness:

• £3.49 on a plastic box for the bits and pieces of the garden irrigation system which MrEH dismantled on Sunday.
• That food spend as mentioned - £90, but that includes a LOT of stocking up!
• Holiday accommodation - from holiday account.

EssexHebridean

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82169457#Comment_82169457

Sorry Deb - missed you there! Annoyingly I can't get a Chase account - it refuses to accept my ID, which is irritating as for the last few years they've had some decent offers. That regular saver might tempt me to give it another try mind you!

Blackcats

EH - we had the best Sunday lunch we've had for years at Goddards. I think you'd find the aviation museum near the brewery an interesting place to visit. And it's free!

Your efficient money management has prompted me to make 2 spreadsheets for our 2 (so far) 2027 holidays. I had guesstimated a monthly saving amount which was too tight to generate the amount we realistically need.

Cheery_Daff

And you've prompted me to remember I need to think about the octopods tarrif too. We're on agile - do we want to stay or shift to the normal one? Not sure, and the comparison app I had has updated itself and is just showing me the current one, not the comparison, so I need to reset that.

Also need to use some free electric - good idea to use for the oven!

greenbee

Cheery - you have an electric shower. Make the most of it!

I'm sticking with Agile for now - I may regret it as there is very little sun at the moment and while the battery does support the heat pump, there isn't enough sun to keep it topped up as much as I'd like given the current pricing on Agile!

Cheery_Daff

I do indeed have an electric shower! But it's in an unheated utility room 😂 so it's not quite the treat you'd imagine - especially as the other shower works fine now the boiler is fixed! 😂

I'm sure Mr C can muster up a lot of electricity hungry ancient musical equipment, and Henry Hoover can so a good tour of the house!

Baileys_Babe

We have been using our free Octopods electricity in 2 hour blocks, to make the most of it we:

• Run the dishwasher
• Run the washing machine
• Use the dehumidifier
• Use a plug in electric radiator
• Charge everything up
• Use the oven, last time we baked 2 hams, baked a loaf and a gluten free loaf
• Boil water in the kettle and keep hot until later in the day
• Make a pot of tea

I'm sure others will be along with more suggestions.

EssexHebridean

It looks annoyingly like we could be in negative this Sunday, which may mean my final two free hours are going to go to waste. That said, negatives at a point where we can use the underfloor instead of gas for heating is always a winner and having an entire day to get things done rather than just a two hour slot is definitely preferable, so not not annoying! we've been doing much the same as BB mentions, plus:

• Using the electric heating
• Using water boiled in the kettle for any washing up
• making sure the timing coincides with a point where we can cook lunch!

Anyway, we have another grey and soggy day here - it almost stopped raining at lunchtime but I popped out for a walk which of course meant it rained again! I did get a few photos I wanted for a blog post though, which was the reason I'd gone out in the first place, so all good, and not too damp!

MSE Stuff:

• Banks checked and all good
• Had a chat with MrEH on the way in about upcoming expenditure - another Oyster top-up this month, but hopefully no more diesel.
• We plan a decent mortgage OP probably early next week, which will knock off an odd nearly £200.
• MrEH found reduced bread and mushrooms in Al's yesterday morning and managed to get it into the freezer too!
• Dishwasher ran overnight on not "cheap" electric, but at least around about the SVR level.
• Shopping delivery booked for Friday evening
• Just noticed that the Octopods have decided to reduce my payment from next month - and by quite a bit, at that. (£90 down to £58) Yes I'm in credit - but in October that is a very deliberate choice on my part! I'll let the one month go out lower, but will then adjust it back. Others out there who like a decent credit ahead of winter, it's worth checking whether they've done this to you as well!
• Overnight electric looking FAR better though - and much of the day tomorrow as well.

Spendiness:

• Two small Al's spends yesterday - MrEH's in the morning, and mine when I used the car park.
• Travel insurance renewed itself - not in itself a bad thing, although I had intended to do some investigation around it - still might be able to do that, but probably not make changes to this year's policy without charge now.

I have decided on November being a grocery spend challenge month. This month has been consciously high spend, although still just about within budget I think. we now need to make an impact on the freezers ahead of Christmas though otherwise the christmas food and all those lovely leftovers will have nowhere to live! no specific figure to aim for, just "as low as we can" I think.