And now we go again...

Seasidegal58

@Makingabobor2 - my local BS store is a couple of miles away - I usually stock up on a few tins of the butter when I go in occasionally to tide me over. The BS website says they are taking in recycling of other brands as well as their own. 

lucielle

As busy as ever EH. I take magnesium it help with the monthly symptoms IyKWIM. 

L

EssexHebridean

Morning all - actually, it's not is it, today seems to be trucking by at a decent enough pace for a Monday - so good AFTERNOON! 

More interesting chat around the question of various supplements I see! The possible side effects of magnesium are a very good reason why I'm introducing it as a half dose first off - so far no issues at all on that front though. As for low iron, it certainly shouldn't be as I'm already on high-dose iron tablets daily thanks to chronic anaemia (I ended up in hospital a few years ago with critically low levels and until such time as TOTM decides to s0d off, the iron tablets will be a fixture!). Those can have the opposite gastric effect, although mercifully I seem to have mostly escaped that particular side effect! I do have a medication review due shortly though and one thing I will be absolutely insisting on with the surgery this time is that I have a blood test - I am meant to have them not less than annually but trying to persuade the surgery of this is an absolute joke. Sadly I've had RLS for years though - it pre-dates the anaemia by an awful lot of years so I suspect that's not in any way linked - I rather wish it was as had it been the iron tablets would probably have made it go away! 

Breathlessness definitely can be a sign of low iron - no question, but ironically enough it can also be a sign of high iron levels - indeed, very helpfully, the majority of symptoms of low iron levels also mirror when levels are high - great eh?! One very good reason not to self-medicate with iron without having a blood test to check things out. 

SSG that BS cleansing butter sounds nice. I have to say although I've only used it once so far I am quite impressed with the Al's one too. I definitely plan to re-buy the Cl1n1que one too though as that's a firm favourite now, but it's always great to have possible alternatives lined up for things like that in case they get discontinued, isn't it! . 

Blackcats said:

@EssexHebridean - I wanted to pop in and say thank you for your posts - you really remind me to keep focussed on all aspects of money management - household, groceries, travel etc.  you are so organised and efficient.  

No - I give the impression of being organsised and efficient - this is what, in my manor, is known as being able to "talk a good story"! I do find a written note of what's going on is hugely helpful to help stop everything falling apart around our ears though, hence this diary being handy. And if it helps others too then that's a win in my world, so thank you for saying that! 

It's distinctly chilly here again this morning - it was minus 2 when we left home and looks like it will be somewhere about that again by the time we get home tonight too. I suspect the heating will kick in at some stage during the day - it's due to go back on again at about 5.30 so will hopefully be cosy by the time we get back, but I have a feeling it might drop below our daytime temperature in the living room this afternoon. 

MSE Stuff:
- The fire has been lit each evening through the weekend which did at least reduce the amount of other heating needed, and was also super cosy! 
- Yesterday's roast pork will earn it's keep - it will feed us twice more this week, and I have a tub of chunks and a tub of slices in the freezer for future meals too.
- Council tax and BB have gone out today and those should be the last DDs for the month. 
- one set of airshow tickets booked over the weekend - I have already transferred the money across from my airshow account though.
- Also booked an Inn of the Premiere variety for a weekend away next month catching up with various different sets of pals - there is more spendiness to come along with that but we did the sums around which one in the town we're staying in to book allowing for a mix of convenience and cost.
- Meals for this week will be  combination of freezer raids and making use of that pork - that will do a stir fry one day and will go alongside pan fried veg with couscous for another. There is one day currently blank on the meal plan but I think I will go with another super-easy option of doing soup and part-baked rolls.
- I'm expecting a heavy week on electricity as MrEH's home office will take some heating with the outside temps being as cold as they are.
- the towels I washed yesterday also got a half-hour tumble dry for fluffiness purposes - the excellent news was that was far more inexpensive than I expected it to be too - I've never really looked at the individual costs of the tumble dry part of the programme so that was interesting to see. They're finishing off drying on the airer anyway.
- we've managed to forage several decent sized bits of tree over the weekend which will all be chopped down for kindling - handy as we are starting to run short. 

In less good news MrEH has to start doing an extra day in the office from the beginning of next month which is a bit of a pain as of course it will give us an additional day of Oyster costs. we had a feeling it was coming - the hope is now that he gets to choose his days rather than them prescribing them as that will potentially carry a higher cost as if they insist he goes in on a Friday that means extra diesel as well. 

I want to remember to load the WM this evening ready to run tomorrow, also we will also probably  need to run the DW as well. Aside from that I need to get the initial run done on the new multi cooker (yes, still, meant to do it over the weekend but never got round to it!) and once that's done I can get in touch with the watery shop about sending the faulty one back. 

I do need to pop to T's tonight too - as we completely forgot we were meant to go in yesterday for a couple of bits still needed from the list! That means that MrEH has had to take a cereal bar for his breakfast this morning but handily we had those in after finding a bargain in Al's a couple of weeks back. 

Cheery_Daff

Grrr, that's annoying about having to go back in the office. Things do seem to be going that way, don't they? I can't see my employer insisting on it - they've been very vocal about using 'everyone's working at home' as a reason for open plan offices and hot desking, so if they start insisting everyone goes in all the time, they'll have both a desk issue and a mutiny 😂 But then I'm in a very big organisation, and I suspect different teams within that will be subject to different teams...

Anyway, I hope he at least doesn't have to go in on Fridays (although I suppose that gives you the house to yourself!)

Completely sympathise with feeling like everything will fall down round ears if you don't pin it down 😂 i was trying to explain to a friend the other night that while yes, I look and indeed AM organised, it doesn't come naturally - it's the product of being terrified of the chaos that will result from NOT organising things 🙄😂

savingholmes

Annoying about return to office requirement - my place is unlikely to do that as they are planning to divest themselves of some of their surplus buildings to bring in much needed cash.

Seasidegal58

My friend still works at my old firm.  They made a policy just after all lock down finished that everyone had to be in the office at least three days a week. They did an overhaul of the office space and what would be needed going forward and removed half the desks and stipulated that you had to book a desk if you went in. They then bought out another company whose staff would be using the office and found they didn't have enough desks!  The WFH rule has changed to state staff only need to be in office two days now!😆

rtandon27

Our default is in the office, unless you had an agreement pre-covid to wfh.  Luckily I always worked from home on a Friday so that stands and atm I'm also on a return to work plan after a long illness so I get the Wednesday as well to accommodate medical appts!  While working from home does have it's uses (clean house & laundry) I honestly prefer working in the office, it's just the commute that's a mare!!!

EssexHebridean

Yes, RT, the commute is a good part of our issue too - it's only 19 miles but even on an average day can take an hour plus for the driving part, then I have a 20 minute walk from where I have to park the car which is a nice start to the day when the weather is good, but grim when it's not! MrEH has a short walk from where we park to the tube, then into London, so while his is longer, timewise it's not that different. 

Funny about your lot managing to screw things up with the number of desks they would need SSG - I can see that being a problem for MrEH's firm as well, I think that's the reason why they are talking about putting a rota in place, although we're hopeful that he won't have to be part of that as his department do all have their own allocated desks. SH - his firm were originally talking about shedding office space but they couldn't find anyone to take it on - I think if they had they would be far more content to leave people WFH much of the time. 

Cheery - that final paragraph just sums it up! Yes! 

Another bright but chilly start to the day here, and MrEH once again earned himself brownie points by going out and scraping the car for me, what a love, eh? It makes such a difference to me as it means I don't start my day with freezing, painful fingers that I then struggle to warm up again. The office is a little warmer today too as I dropped the heating temperature overnight and only put it to 16, so we're already up at 18 which is a massive improvement on this time yesterday.  Heating at home has been increased to a through-the-day temperature of 16 rather than 14 - means it should be a little warmer for MrEH at lunchtime and should also warm up to the usual evening temperature faster tonight.

Spendiness:
- Nipped into T's last night as planned - bananas and tomatoes now obtained, also a card for a family member which was needed - must remember to get that in the post today. Also saw that they had all their winter duvet sets reduced to clear and managed to nab a nice double set for £10 - that went straight into the washing machine and will go through on a wash later. 
- Grocery spend for this week has ended up at £27.18 - that includes the card, and also includes the fact that I stocked up on tinned tuna of course. (The duvet set has come from the household pot)
- Checked on the state of play with our train tickets for a trip later in the year and realised that the tickets are now released for the way up - managed to nab London > Dundee plus Dundee > Edinburgh for the pair of us for £73.39 which I'm very pleased with - we will need to renew our railcard beforehand but that's fine, that was always the intention, and it will be done using Clubcard vouchers anyway I think. 

MrEH has volunteered to pay the hotel bill for next month's trip which is lovely - it was booked on the basis that he was going to pay a little more towards it, so I am grateful that he's done it this way as it's easier all round. I just need to remind him to transfer that to me so I can pay it off the CC, and I will then see where we're at in the card balance, but it should be back at zero then I think.

DW ran through this morning so I'll need to empty that this evening - there will be a bit of washing up to do as well unless MrEH gets to it first, which he might with luck. I'll also need to get the new duvet set up onto the airer as well. 

rtandon27

WOW EH - you are a hardy lot in your house!  16 is very BRRRRR!

I nag OH to keep the house at 17, especially in the morning while I'm getting ready for work & swelter next to the radiator!  He's of the view that 21 is civilized, but we both start getting cold at 19.5!  He's sure that the temp on our thermostat is incorrect & I'm inclined to agree as it lives on a bookshelf in the dining area, nicely insulated in a cubby of sorts.  Given that it's portable, I'm of the view it should live wherever we are stationed, be that living room, kitchen, bedroom or spare room/office!

lucielle

Well done on the duvet set. It’s very brrrr here today. 

L