And now we go again...

savingholmes

I hadn't realised Victor was behind the 'choose your response' idea but it is one I try (and often fail) to live by.

Sun_Addict

Sadly thanks to my youngest cat, there is one less bird to count in my garden (wood pigeon) little devil 🙁 

Greying_Pilgrim

savingholmes said:

I hadn't realised Victor was behind the 'choose your response' idea but it is one I try (and often fail) to live by.

Not sure VF was necessarily the originator of the 'choose your response', but his experience and life's work focused on such human reactions.  His work developed the 'what happens next'.  Although I am very much at the 'choose your response stage', I am beginning to see how it changes the 'what happens next'.

Happy bird spotting EH - interesting to see that the top birds on the RSPB website are all ones we have in our tiny patch.  Also interesting to see that the good folk of Lancashire are topping the spotting table!

Greying X

EssexHebridean

Morning all - thanks to all for your lovely conversation and thoughtful responses, and also the inspiration to “do better” which is so often provided on here. I don’t mean that in a pious way, but more generally - you see other striving to do something differently or create a meaningful habit and it prompts a “I wonder if I could do that” response. 

Greying your Wren reminded me that we heard and saw our first singing Dunnock of the year yesterday - they have such a delightful song but they are such shy little souls mostly, it’s only as spring approaches that they show themselves more. 

Some MSE-ness has been achieved…
- got our water bill on Thursday - monthly payments will drop from £34 to £20 in March, and they confirmed that a refund was being issued too for the amount we will have overpaid. Hurrah for that! I suspect it will need to be adjusted up a little by the next bill but that’s fine.

- meal plan done for next week, and shopping list created from that. 

- got MrEH’s milk in the C0-0p yesterday morning, and also remembered to check the YS’d items - a punnet of mushrooms, still nice and firm and slightly cheaper than they would have been elsewhere, which we were able to use the “20p off veg” offer on too. Ended up with a total price of £1.80 for 4 pints of milk and the mushrooms which we used some of the cash on our card for so cash neutral. 👏🏼 - also remembered to check that thr member prices were applied correctly with the offer coupons.
- main shop done in Lil’s as planned - and happened to spot that they had the same tea bags I was intending to get in BeeandEmm for the same price so saved myself the walk. Added a couple more packs of the ready to wok 39p noodles to the trolley as those are worth stocking up on. 

- nipped straight back into Lil’s for my free loaf, and they’d restocked the nice rye ones so I was able to get my first choice (and most expensive option - haha, take that “BIGSoopermarket!” 😂)
- A lovely bright sunny day yesterday meant that I was able to get 2 - yes TWO - loads of washing out onto the line. They didn’t dry completely, but they were a lot drier by 4pm than they would otherwise have been, and better that moisture outside than in! Now finishing off on the airer.

- further discussions on the solar/battery question…
- checked banking this morning - I’ve been paid (hurrah) but as my payslip hasn’t yet arrived I will almost certainly need to ask Madam Boss to adjust it to take account of the new NI figures. She will have paid me because she’s just done a batch of billing which is fine, I can just get the additional but transferred later easily enough I’m sure. 

- refund from the water Co has landed too - £97.21. I have now transferred that plus a bit to the mortgage so we have a round figure (£111,200.00) to end the month with - pleased with that. 

- there will immediately be another £100 to send across at the beginning of the month too which is always the aim.
- must remember to adjust the regular transfer to the OP pot for the  “money we didn’t know we had” by £14 from March to account for the water bill saving. 

- fitted our free water saving shower head yesterday morning - it gives a nicer spray than the one that was there before so that’s another win.
- set up my “Meters” app for the water rates figures as well - so will be able to keep track going forwards. 

- tasty tea last night of bacon and blue cheese burgers with seasoned wedges - all from freezer/fridge/veg basket supplies. I think that’s the final two YS’d burger buns though. 

A pretty decent few days, all things considered. 

A few jobs to get done today:
- restock logs into the basket in the front room
- sort out stuff to go to the tip tomorrow
- MrEH will be heading off for Rugby a little later, I may go for a run once he’s gone, slightly undecided at the moment. 

- need to decide what I have for lunch - could be soup and bread, or curry and rice, or a cheese and bacon butty (which would make use of the bacon that needs using so actually probably that.) The butty could turn into a toastie - and with the addition of some Tommy purée will make a pizza style one, so probably that, in fact… 
- must get the chicken out of the freezer for roasting tomorrow. 

Right - time for me to wander off and get myself washed and dressed I think. Catch you all later - have a wonderful Saturday!  😁

savingholmes

Nice win on the water bill. 

Enjoy your bird watching. I've been listening to an audio book on that - and it is encouraging me to do something practically to help the birds at my new place - however I'm mindful of my cat too and would hate to encourage them into danger!

girlatplay

Great news on the water bill.

I like coming here to be inspired to do better.

Makingabobor2

That's a good price for water bills. We are not on a meter & last year we were paying £69 a month!

amber03

We’re not on a water meter, just got our bill for the next year and it has gone up from £70 to £78 a month. Tho I don’t think it went up much last year, just waiting for the household rates now.xx

savingholmes

You can ask to swap to a meter if you are confident it will save you £ - but can't swap back again later.

EssexHebridean

The not swapping back thing I think varies between water companies - in a lot of cases you do have a right to revert to water rates again within the first two years - it's one to check. Martin's rule of thumb is also of course that if you have the same or more bedrooms in your home than people then a meter may well be cheaper. 

I'm certainly glad we are finally metered - we were on an assessed bill at the flat as unable to have a meter fitted and were paying £32 a month there I think so we're definitely making a good saving. 

We did the birdwatch and got reasonable numbers although were disappointed that our little family of Long Tailed Tits didn't show up - I saw them fly through and thought they were in the bushes along the way but couldn't identify for sure in the binoculars. Ah well! MrEH submitted all the details yesterday  and we were above local averages for numbers on most things, at least. 

Lots of time spent over the weekend sorting things out in the shed - although annoyingly we missed the boat on booking a slot at the tip, so will have to do that next weekend now - in fact MrEH has already booked us in for Saturday morning so we will have to be up and at 'em! We do have the stuff from Mums back at ours now - collected that yesterday afternoon - so that will make life easier. As for our own stuff - lots of old guttering sorted out into smaller stuff which is being kept as we may be able to use it, and larger stuff - al cut down into manageable sections ready for disposal. quite a lot of old electrical trunking and cable housings also cut down and bagged ready to take. A box of old electricals is ready to go as well, plus some pots of paint that we are realistically unlikely to make use of (there is only so much white emulsion that two people could need!). one knackered garden chair is flattened too - eventually the others, and the big garden table which we inherited from the sellers will also be going (it's ludicrously to big for both our needs AND the garden!) but the table at least will need to be taken by the council I think so they may as well take the chairs as well at that stage. We should have a car load this time round anyway, and the garden looks a lot tidier already! One the two big paint tubs are gone we'll be able to work more on getting things finally sorted in the shed, but there is already a lot more room in there.

MSE Stuff:
- Banks checked and all good
- still no sign of my payslip but I'll keep checking back during the day, then I can let MadamBoss know about the shortfall. 
- we checked the seed box yesterday and began to throw together a few ideas for stuff we both want to grow this year. The next job will be to work out what we will be able to put where, and then what we need to order/acquire. 
- Agreement made that we are going to go ahead with the solar thing, although we are still undecided about the battery side of things at the moment - notably the question of whether to go for something larger from the a start for a degree of future proofing. We can crack on with getting the survey visit booked though and I need to get the deposit paid across this evening so we can secure our discount on the quote we have. 
- Spotted the TCB £2 offer and booked the train tickets we will need for our upcoming trip from Derby to Burton on Trent - the money was going to be spent anyway, we already know the timings, and it made sense to nab the extra cashback. 
- Stripped the meat off the chicken carcass after lunch yesterday - the meat itself is all in a plastic tub in the freezer, the carcass has been frozen and there was a even a smidge of gravy leftover which has gone in the freezer too.
- Realised that there was more veg than we needed when I served up and separated some out into a tub which will get thrown into tonight's risotto.

Plans for this week:
- Two habits I want to continue to work on - one is being mindful of posture both when sitting and walking. The other is to get back to regular yoga - I've started Yoga with Adriene's annual 30 day challenge and intend to keep going with a simple focus on "most days" which is plenty good enough.
- mustn't forget the tip booking on Saturday
- We have a trip into London on Sunday so I'm starting to throw together some ideas for that aside from our planned Hidden London tour. The tour is part of MrEH's Christmas present but as usual we will aim to make best use of the day. 
- Meals are planned for the week, and as things stand there will probably be a takeaway on Friday. 

All ticking along! Happy last Monday in January (finally!) all!