And now we go again...

foxgloves

Your fireside looks very cosy @EH, & I like your bargainaceous table find.
F

savingholmes

Great the get a discount on the show. 

The woodpecker sounds gorgeous. I don't know if I'd recognise one but I do sometimes hear them in a nearby park.

Your home sounds like its coming together.

EssexHebridean

I bet you would actually SH - Woodpeckers - at least Great Spotted ones - are a doddle to ID - basically a black and white bird, but with a big patch of bright red underneath below the tail - usually found clinging to treetrunks and frequently pecking at them with a long pointy beak, albeit not always with the distinctive sound (that's the drumming noise rather than the "woody woodpecker" theme!) males have a patch of red on the back of the head too but that's not always so easy to spot. Lovely birds though - and yes, it was fab to see the one over the back of the garden! 

Well here we are at the start of another money saving month - and once again sadly Agent Million will NOT be knocking at the door (I've optimistically checked!) but thankfully our monthly budget was not hanging on that possibility. The regular first of the month bills have departed however, and the mortgage payment has gone at it's slightly increased standard amount (we've rounded the payment to the next £5 level to keep it tidy at the moment - and will stick to adding any more extra payments in separately). 

MSE Stuff:
- Banks all checked - and all as they should be. 
- My FD regular saver is now fully funded - but I think this one continues to run on, I'll need to check the detail on that. 
- Pretty sure that both our Pr1nc1pality Reg Savers are also now full - that again needs checking. 
- the above means we need to sit down and discuss what our plans are for the contents of those - although MrEH's Principality might go funding his N/W 8% one, in the first instance at least. 
- My fixed ISA should mature tomorrow - I'll be sorting a transfer of that across to this year's I think as the interest rate is better than anywhere that its current provider is likely to offer.
- I remembered to transfer the monthly £50 lump from my personal account into my little N/W reg saver account
- £18.64 withdrawn from Prolific - so now the challenge is to see how much I can build in November. At the moment I've shoved that into my gym-neutral pot, but as I'm not convinced  I am going to get back to the gym any time soon meaning that currently this year's cost-per-visit is not a figure I want to dwell on overmuch, I also don't think I will be rejoining for next year! 

I think it's time we had a financial summit - I mentioned this to MrEH recently and he is in agreement so we'll need to work out when we can do this now I think. We need to make a decision on what we are doing about regular savers as well, allowing that we have already both taken on the N/W ones, and I don't particularly want to drop the amount going to FD. I'm still keen to symplify the regular saver situation as much as possible too - although right at the moment it doesn't feel very simplified! We also need to review how the budget is looking a couple of months in - although currently it all looks to be about right. 

Food still well under control for the week - and I made a start yesterday on writing an ongoing list of stuff available to us to eat from the freezer with a view to building next week's meal plan from that.  I don't have any time available for batch cooking this weekend, but will probably be able to the following one, and I rather think that a tagine might be on the cards using the shoulder of lamb I have in the freezer. Much as I'd love to do this in my actual tagine (pot) I think the more sensible route might be to use the slow cooker for a bigger batch, then I can portion it up and freeze some. 
Might also change next week's Tuesday couscous night to be a jacket tattie night as I'm sure we have a couple of single portions of various bits lurking in the freezer that might work well for topping potatoes. 
This evening we're having black bean soup with pita breads - and I even remembered to get the pitas out of the freezer last night! 

We seem to be in for a wet and blustery few days again now don't we - I hope those in the badly affected areas have rocks ready to stick in pockets (there's a reference for those who remember the good old stripey socks days!) and that everyone stays safe and cosy. 

lucielle

Love a financial summit meeting!  

L

milann

Stay safe and dry….
The plans all sound good. You can always serve from the slow cooker to the tagine. 

savingholmes

Good that your budget seems about right. You are being very disciplined with transferring across end of month surpluses too. The 8% offer is great. Shame it's only for £200 a month though. 

EssexHebridean

SH completely agree about wishing the N/W reg saver was for a higher monthly amount - I know we get the advantage of being able to open one each, but still! 
Milann - much as I love using the tagine I think we'll probably forego the additional washing up!  
L - me too - we would usually have had our one for this time of the year by now but for various reasons it's not happened yet - in part because of knowing we needed to settle in fully to the new budget before it would be much use. 

Happy Thursday thrifty ones - I hope those of us in southern parts are all staying dry - I did get mildly damp walking from the car this morning, and suspect I  may repeat that experience when I go back to get it again at lunchtime to shift it closer to the office...looking at the radar picture that's a near certainty in fact, and possibly not just "mildly" either! The wind has started picking up here in the past little while as well, and I had to drive through quite a flood as I left the town this morning too - so will be avoiding that route when I head back later.

No movement on when we will have our financial summit, but we have remembered that we must do an hour of voluntary role stuff this evening as we have bits and bobs we need to get prepared to get sent out fairly soon. 

MSE Stuff: 
- Banks checked and all good
- the Octopods have dropped our initial usage costs for October on to the account this morning - actual billing will take a few more days but we did continue to add to credit last month which is handy...
- I have adjusted the DD for them up a further £10 next month too - although I fully expect the tipping point to be reached on spending more than we are paying, in spite of it! 
- Fixed rate ISA has now converted across to a standard cash one, so I can organise applying for the transfer on that in to this year's one. 
- I am currently thinking that I am also going to add a further sum to this year's one from other savings - there is nothing else that I plan to be spending on right now that won't come from the pot that will remain (my personal EF, if you like) and in any event, the ISA is one I can withdraw from without penalty a certain number of times, so that seems sensible.
- MrEH got his notification of tax owing through yesterday - this is relating to interest payable on savings, and although not a particularly large amount, we think we may organise just paying it outright rather than it being taken by means of an altered tax code.  
- I have just changed my address on Government Gateway as MrEH's letter arrived via the postal redirection which acted as a good reminder to do something that it hadn't occurred to either of us we needed to do! 

Thoroughly looking forward to the venison stew tonight - I'll do the remainder of the pack of reduced potatoes with it I think, although I've not entirely decided how exactly to do them as yet - possibly just either boiled or steamed though.
Last night's black bean soup didn't look like a particular generous serving size when I went to heat it up, so I tipped in a tin of cannellini beans as well and that made a far heartier bowlful. It was heated in the microwave again - honestly, that is one piece of kit that can't know what's gong on since we've been in the house - I've never used it so much! It definitely often makes more sense than even using the multicooker though. 

Plans for tomorrow are currently delightfully few - although I will get the weekly shop sorted out I think as that then frees up time during the weekend. Also need to work out what time we are going out on Saturday to travel to our friend's 40th party. Thoroughly looking forward to that as well - it'll be great to have some time with pals including people we don't see all that often.

themadvix

I was only saying last night to Mr MV that I don't know how my mum lives without a microwave! It's so efficient and quick for some things - custard and porridge in this house most of the time, but veg, reheating stuff... it's got it all covered! I find it and my IP are definitely used for different things.

Your 40th at the weekend sounds rather fun. I'm hoping we get a few 40ths to go to in the next few years - everyone seems to have finished getting married more or less now and I do like a party!

Sun_Addict

Microwaves are great for heating things up. We used to have a fancy combination one a few years ago but realised we hardly ever used the fancy bits so when it died just replaced it with a bog standard one that does the job we need it to do. 

How fabulous to have a party to look forward to 🍻

joedenise

We thought the same @Sun-Addict but when we went to buy it Mr T's had a combi on special offer and it was only about £5 more than a standard one so we got that.  Don't use the convection part often but handy to have occasionally.