And now we go again...

PennysIntoPounds

Do check if any of your social away plans/fancyings are covered by the Shepherd Neame deal in case it's cheaper, think it runs til March 

milann

Your extra couple of hours at home sounded lovely. The £2 bus fares are great…..hope they continue but I suspect they won’t.
We we’re going to have solar panels many years ago - we even put a deposit down. Before the work commenced we decided we’d be stretching ourselves too much…and we cancelled. I’ve often regretted that decision. 

beanielou

Solar panels would be fab for my house but beyond my budget sadly.

Blackcats

Weekends away are definitely more expensive.  Hotel prices have increased and whilst I understand the additional costs that hotels are incurring I struggle with the per night cost.  If you only stay for 1 night then check in is usually at 2 or 3pm and checkout at 10 or 11 so it really feels pricey.   However, we do like a short break so we do budget for these and try to be as cost effective as possible.  We just got £8.00 back from £co for a hotel stay last summer so that was a nice boost.

EssexHebridean

BM that was exactly what it was - I suspect the template letter had that information copied into it erroneously and of course it should have been removed - phew! 

SH - the solar thing is interesting although I currently feel a long way out of my depth! 

GAP - absolutely about compromises, and let’s be honest, it’s really a first world problem isn’t it! 

PiP - that’s a good point, but I think they’re almost entirely in the south east aren’t they, and most of what we’re planning at the moment is north of the Watford Gap! 

Milann you never know your luck with the bus fares - I think they have encouraged people to use the buses so that might be an incentive to keep them going, who knows! 

Well I am entirely delighted that my working week is now done - it’s all got a bit stressy over the last couple of days and I very much need my weekend now! I did end the day on a triumph though having tracked down a vital bit of paperwork that Madam Boss absolutely had to have RIGHT NOW - I mean it had been emailed to her previously, so she could have saved it then, but there you go! 😆

MSE Stuff:
- I got our second solar quote today so that’s food for thought, although right now I think it has created more questions so those will need answering before I can go any further with it. Currently though I’m happier with the kit one of the two specifies, but I think the other is going to be substantially better on price, as well as more willing to fit as many panels as we should have room for.

- Nudged MrEH about some pension related stuff he needs to tackle. If he knew what a frog was, it would be one. Anyway he has at least taken the first step, now I just need to keep gently nudging to get the rest of it done!  

- having reported the multi cooker to the water based shop yesterday due to the slow cook function not working, the replacement arrived today - talk about impressive service! I need to get that set up tomorrow, check the various functions seem to work OK, give it its pressure cook test, then the old one can be packed into the new box and go back to them.
- Banks checked and all good
- payments I made to the CC yesterday have all cleared through and that just left the balance from my travel on Monday - so that is now transferred over as well and I’ve have a nice zero balance tomorrow! 
- small amounts TT’d into the VSP’s 
- We’re looking into whether switching our existing Sant-and-Er 123lite account for the Edge one is a good plan - as it very much looks as though we’ll get more cashback plus we can use the savings account attached for one of the savings pots to gain a bit more interest. MrEH is double checking my figures on it to see if it looks like a sensible move. 

- stir fry for tea tonight - pork chunks from the freezer, lots of the week’s veg used, including the last of the Christmas red cabbage, and a pack of 39p Lil’s ready to wok noodles. Did them satay style with a blob of peanut butter let down with some dark soy and a splash of hot water, plus just enough kashmiri chilli powder to give a gentle warmth. (Thanks to Cheery for the inspo there!)
- meal plan is basically done for next week already, shopping list is started and I’ll do the last few bits tomorrow morning.

Spendiness:
- £5.85 in the footwear related chemist for the magnesium tablets I was wanting to try. The ones I’ve bought are 2 a day but I’m starting off with half dose to see how I get on with it. While I wouldn’t imagine for a moment the single dose I’ve taken so far could have made a difference, my restless legs are much less problematic tonight - interesting.

Tomorrow’s main challenge will be how little can I spend in Lil’s when I shop I think. I might also swerve into F@rmfoods for that tuna - it needs buying and it makes more sense to go in on my own than with MrEH. At some stage over the weekend I’d like to venture out for a run - but I’ll see what the weather does! 

Seasidegal58

You've reminded me that I've got to check out moving my DCS pension to another provider......

girlatplay

My friend was talking about magnesium tablets recently. I can't take them because of my other meds but she seems to think it really helps.

rtandon27

I'm a huge fan of magnesium at bedtime!  Calms all my limbs and prevents muscle spasms at night.  On the nights that I forget to take it, I notice a more restless sleep!  For easier digestibility, I recently switched  from magnesium hydroxide to magnesium citrate. If I remember correctly there are 9 types of magnesium and they all absorbs slightly differently into the body!

foxgloves

That sounds like a particularly nice pork stir-fry, @EssexHebridean. For some reason, it suddenly made me think of Madhur Jaffrey's lovely Vietnamese Pork recipe in her Curry Bible book. .....there's something that needs to be going back on the menu at Foxgloves Manor.
F

EssexHebridean

Afternoon lovelies,

SSG - glad to have been of assistance! 😁 GAP, RT, I’ve heard so many good things about magnesium - I’ve been meaning to try it for ages particularly to see if it could make a different to the RLS, and as that’s been a nightmare lately it finally gave me the nudge to crack on and give it a try I think. My sleep was better last night too, but I’m still very much trying to not make too much of it yet because confirmation bias is still a possibility! 

Free exercise this morning via our usual Friday morning walk this morning - got out a bit earlier than usual too so ended up doing nearly 5 miles, including up to the edge of the common which is a favourite place to walk. 

Various house jobs done including emptying the dishwasher, fresh towels, logs in for the fire (MrEH will sort coal when he finishes work) and the grate cleared and a shout - fire now relaid ready to light later. 

Shopping list finalised and a quick dash round Lil’s - £15.23 spent there, then stopped in at F@rmf00ds for the tuna - their special offer of 2 6-packs for £8.50. Resisted all other temptations there too. There are two items we still need to get in T’s later in the weekend, but hopefully we can get those without any other spending!
Prepayment certificate bought and prescription now collected. Also had to divert in to the surgery to ask them again to please change our address (we’d already returned the forms, and they acknowledged this) before the pharmacy refuse to issue the prescriptions because the address I’m giving doesn’t match what the surgery have given them. Had to fill in another form, they tried to tell me I needed to return with ID again too, but I pointed out that on the basis they had a note that we had already done all that once, asking us to do it again because they had lost the first form wasn’t particularly fair - she checked with the practise manager and they are just going to action the change now. 

Nipped in to Al’s as I was out anyway - restocked on ladies supplies and as they had their hot cloth cleanser in stock I bought one of those to try as well. I’m approaching the end of my Cl1n1que cleansing balm and although I will be buying another of those if the Al’s one is as good as people say that might be good to alternate with the (much) more expensive one. Those bits were from personal spends.

MrEH has sorted himself out a rugby match for tomorrow so I’m on for a nice relaxing day. Do need to nip to Mum’s at some stage as she’s been sing and there is a spare Lemon Drizzle loaf cake heading our way which will be delicious! I might run over there, and walk back once MrEH has headed off to rugby - as I wanted to get a run in anyway and that will roughly work for distance. 

I’ve got a single portion of veg curry out of the freezer for tea tonight, and a tub of cooked Turkey chunks to turn into a second curry too - I’ll do rice with that. Was considering making a daal but decided to just make use of what we already have in the end. The spicing for the turkey curry will be a half sachet of laksa paste that was also lurking in the freezer. I’m thinking I might be able to stretch that to an extra portion for my lunch tomorrow - I’ll have to see how it goes. 

Now though, I’m about to close the curtains, light the fire and wait for MrEH to finish work so we can start our weekend properly.