🌞 Happy Days in our Golden Years 🌞

Fortune_Smiles

Ouch!

Mr F and I had a chat about winter fuel yesterday. We have half a tank of heating oil at the moment but will need more to get us through the colder months. It seems unlikely that prices will come down anytime soon and will, probably, continue to increase for a while yet. So… we bit the bullet and ordered a top up. Ouch! The price was almost exactly 100% more than we paid last year. And that was shopping around to get the best price and nabbing a code for £10 off. We also changed our electricity tariff to a two year fixed rate… although I pressed the wrong button first and changed to a one year tracker 🙄 so there might be some too-ing and fro-ing with the provider to get that sorted. I emailed them straight away about the wrong rate so well within the 14 day cancellation period. The price cap is due to go up significantly in January so a fix should reduce our bills in the short to medium term. 2028 is more of an unknown but we decided we'd prefer to have a known quantity going forward.

Mr F made his signature boiled eggs for breakfast and we had the last of the bao buns from the freezer for lunch served with a cucumber, tomato and red onion salad with soy sauce, garlic and chilli dressing and

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/egg-fried-rice

I used a sachet of microwave rice and swopped two of the eggs out for some peas as we'd already had eggs for breakfast. Supper was an easy pizza from the freezer as I run out of oomph by then.

Other than that we had a slow day. Mr F mowed the lawn (one of his favourite things to do) and I did a bit of Court prep just to keep things fresh in my mind.

I'm going to try gym class again today but will take it very easy. I'm desperate to get back to normal but still have a slight cough and limited energy. I feel getting out of the house and having some social interaction outweighs the risk of overdoing it.

Happy Monday folks.

Fortune x

Humboldt

Morning @Fortune_Smiles, just catching up. Pleased that you are on the road to recovery. I can highly recommend meditation to help lessen the symptoms of anxiety. It takes a while to settle into it, especially when you are already anxious, but if you persevere it can be a game changer. Sorry to read that your oil cost 100% more than last year. Our current fix ends 28 Feb 27, so I am unsure what to do for the best. Hope that you have a good week.

greenbee

I sympathise with the oil price hike… and am really glad I bit the bullet and got the heat pump installed over the summer rather than putting it off! Although I'm currently a bit nervous about how its running and how to get it to work efficiently with the solar/battery/smart tariff! But hopefully it'll be less stressful than watching the level on the oil tank.

Fortune_Smiles

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82173241#Comment_82173241

Hi there @Humboldt 👋 I am persevering with the meditation and finding it helpful. I seem to feel more grounded throughout the day and am able to keep some perspective. Yes, the increase in heating costs is a blinder and I would absolutely prefer not to have to pay that much. However, we can stretch to it and I know many people will be unable to this winter. So I'm counting this as one of my gratitudes 🕯️

It is very difficult to know what to do for the best regarding utilities at the moment. A crystal ball would be useful 🤭

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82173341#Comment_82173341

Nice to not have that worry @greenbee. It's not an option for us though due to various factors including having restrictive planning constraints on the property and living in a designated heritage area. Our closest neighbours have just been refused planning permission for a heat pump for the same reasons. I'm sure you'll figure out how to get things running effectively. These things usually require a bit or trial and error don't they.

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

Is this the beginning of the end?

I went to exercise class this morning and felt pretty good all the way through. I didn't work as hard as I usually do but got through the whole hour without watching the clock and feeling it was a struggle. Hoorah 🥳 I even had enough energy left over to do some housework this afternoon. Just an hour's worth and then I sat down and put together the menu plan for the week and did the grocery shop. We came in a bit under budget this week. Shopping was a struggle this time as I'm trying to avoid all the new added folic acid that seems to be in absolutely everything 🙄 It seems the trick is to buy italian and french products although I've yet to find a croissant.

Mr F did boiled eggs for breakfast again and we had

https://theflexitarian.co.uk/recipe-items/leek-apple-stilton-walnut-quiche-vegetarian/

for lunch. It used up the last of our orchard apples and a couple of leeks from the veg patch but I think there are better quiche recipes out there. I'm cooking supper at the moment - Loaded Crispy Potatoes, to use up some of the small potatoes and a courgette from the veg patch. No carrot though because I don't have any in.

Our few remaining leeks have Leek Leaf Miner 🙄 They will be ok to eat as the caterpillars tend to infect the outer layers only but we'll have to pull them up quickly to prevent the proliferation of the pest. They are a relatively new thing, first found in the UK in 2003.

I went on line to check our electricity tariff and we are on the right one despite my pushing the wrong buttons with my fat fingers so that's good.

Taking it easy this evening. I'm going up for a hot bubble bath and some telly in a mo then an early night. Hopefully this having energy thing isn't a fluke and I won't pay the price tomorrow for a busier day.

Have a lovely evening all.

Fortune x