And now we go again...

lucielle

Disappointing about the food show. Not sure if we’re going to bother putting any decorations up this year as we’ll probably be away. 

L

beanielou

A busy weekend then. 

Sun_Addict

I was very tempted to book the GF show but decided it would be too much of a faff getting Mr SA there in a wheelchair. Quite glad I didn’t bother now. I’ve noticed that since the pandemic a lot of things like this aren’t as good as they used to be sadly. 

milann

Pity the GF show wasn’t what you expected. We found the same with the caravan show we visited at the exhibition hall near us. They didn’t even have the whole centre open they still had dividers up. The last one we went to ( which was a while ago to be fair) was much bigger encompassing the whole building.

Blackcats

Sounds like a good charity shop visit.  It's nice to find yarn and make use of it.  My "use it up" crochet blanket is nearly finished but as I've added some new wool to my stash it has breached the trade descriptions act and hasn't even nearly used it all up.  However, I'm going to start "use it up 2 - the sequel" as I find it so relaxing to sit and crochet in the evening.

EssexHebridean

Haha - PiP, emergency pub made me laugh, but that is exactly what it was! 

L - we got out of the habit of putting decorations up when we were going to be away over Christmas too - either it didn't seem worth it or I refused point blank to come back in the New Year to them still being up! 

Beanie - yep, although a nice mix of busy and fun/relaxing! 

SA, milann - I think there has been such a squeeze on costs for events to run since Covid - it's getting increasing tough to put on events of the same size while still keeping admission costs reasonable - but I think the food show people have also done a lot to alienate previously regular exhibitors. I know I've heard comments from some who no longer attend that they found it annoying that new exhibitors got charged a lot less for the stands than they did. 

Blackcats - that definitely sounds like a legitimate reason for a second use-up project! I was delighted to find the bag of yarn - in fact they had several but that was the one with the pretty stuff in!  I've been casting around for a scarf to do next I think, as I'd love to actually produce something to wear, and I think most other clothing projects are probably beyond my capabilities! 

Delighted to be on the final day of my working week, although less so since Madam decided to put the office heating down to 14 overnight again - not sure how long she'd been in for when I came in, but the thermostat was still showing 14 at that stage. I'm hopeful that she might finally have grasped the fact that the office will basically cool down to the level the thermostat is set at at this stage in the year - it only tracks about 7 - 8 degrees above outside temperature with no heating, so will easily drop to 14 in this weather! It's just crept up to 18 now, but my fingers and toes are freezing! 

MSE Stuff:
- Not sure we did too much during the Octopods savings session last night - it's a time and a day when we would both usually be out, and we were, so we'll see what the figures show. The Home Mini suggested we used about 200Wh though, which might be low enough to register a bit of a drop at least.
- In spite of being below zero overnight the heating didn't kick in overnight last night at all. MrEH does have the heating on in the office though (again, spying via the HM!) and the DW ran overnight and the WM this morning so it's going to be a heavy day on electricity I think! 
- banks checked and OK - I was paid yesterday, and MrEH was paid today, so we can eat and pay the bills! Money shuffling is all done too.
- £200 transferred to the mortgage yesterday, and there will be a small start of the month payment to go across tomorrow as well, during which I may take the chance to even off the odd pennies too...MrEH will be delighted - NOT!  
- balance of £55 from the joint account surplus transferred to the EF/long term savings.
By some small miracle I did have a little surplus in both my personal accounts this month - the budget account £30 is being transferred to my fun account which is looking a bit light, and the spends surplus is going to my personal savings. 

Spendiness:
- I need to get organised for Christmas. I've already got odds and ends for both MrEH and my Mum, and I have MrEH's main present too. Mum has already done her list, but we still both need to do ours. 
- We're out tomorrow at the beer festival we visit every year at this time. Meeting up with some pals there as well. There are train tickets to buy, and of course there will be beer and food there, but I'm not expecting it to be hugely spendy, and it will come from personal spends anyway of course. 
- Next week/ the weekend will be heavy on travel spending - both cars will need topping up from almost empty, and MrEH's Oyster will need feeding at the beginning of the week too. 
- Food spending this weekend should be fairly light as we are very well stocked at the moment. I'll try to find time to put together a meal plan for next week and make a start on a shopping list too - that may be a job for this evening although the shopping itself might be a first thing saturday morning job. 

This evening's food will be sausages (Heck ones bought at the food show) mash & probably peas I think. May even push the boat out and do onion gravy! 

milann

Have a good night out 👍

foxgloves

Morning, @EssexHebridean. Just caught up with your diary & made a mental.note that it's pretty pointless bookmarking the diaries I usually follow if I then don't look at the bookmarks!
A thumbs up for Adnams from Foxgloves Manor.......they make good gin too!
F x

savingholmes

Just caught up again. Sorry the show and the first pub was disappointing, glad you were happier at the second. Oops on the accidental disposal of Xmas decs - but nice your Mum has replaced them. I'm unsure how many to put up this year and when as it feels such a slog to put them up and down and hopefully should be moving soon.

EssexHebridean

SH - I usually adopt the approach with Christmas decorations that they go up a few at a time, then by the time we reach the point between christmas and new year I'm bored with seeing them, and so taking them all down again gets done in a big rush but feels no hardship at all!  Hello Foxgloves - yes, I agree about Adnams gin too! 

Milann thank you - it was a lovely night out!  Lots of pals caught up with, including a few folk we don't see all that often, and some tasty beers drunk too! 

MSE Stuff:
- Remembered to go via TVB when buying the train tickets VERY late on Thursday evening, and spotted at that stage that they had one of their occasional "spend £10 anywhere and get £2 cashback bonus" offers on - apologies for not mentioning it here but it literally had about another hour to run on it so I figured it would just be a sort of "this is what you could've won" by the time anyone saw it! 
- Food shopping done on saturday between T's and Als - although the Al's shop was mostly christmas treaty bits so I need to work out the split there as to where the money is coming from. A small live Christmas tree in a pot got added to the T's shop as well - the hope is that it will be suitable to live outside during the year and get used again next year and if so then the £15 will be well spent. It's outer metal pot is a decent enough one - that will get popped in the christmas decs box so it doesn't rust outside. 
- Banks checked and all good - the beginning of the month payments have all gone and we are about where we should be
- Another £100 sent to the mortgage this morning 
- A little over £132 billed by the Octopods for November which actually seems fairly reasonable. Account will still be showing over £500 credit once the December payment shows up and that's plenty. 
- Some CC money shuffling done - taking account of food spends and a few other bits, including some christmas present oddments. 
- £15.34 claimed from Prolific and that has now winged its way to the bank! 

Spendiness:
- My personal spends at the beer festival came to £26 including food which I'm happy with. The train tickets are paid from our Joint Fun pot. 
- various christmas related oddments bought over the weekend - the tree, some food and a couple of decorations. That will all be accounted for from the Christmas pot.
- Bought the towel radiator for the bathroom, and I have emailed Jamie to let him know we have it and ask when he can fit it as well. That was £58 and the fitting will be around £160 - the costs for that will be met from the long term savings pot. 

My main mission for this week will be to get the Christmas list sorted and across to Mum - and an edited version to MrEH as well (removing the bits I've suggested Mum might buy for him!) I need to get cracking with Christmas stuff now.
We also both need to get sorted for putting in for holiday dates for next year as we're getting a clearer idea of what is going on now.