Steadying the ship - a perilous voyage across the financial middle

Suffolk_lass

Not for Laithwaites but Morries have 30% off three with a few of their good wines in there. I like the Chianti and Douro that are in the offer, although I know you do like French wines, I would suggest you try them - and of course my regular favourites are their Provencal Rose, Vinho Verde, DOCG Prosecco (we have abandoned Champagne for this as Mr Sl finds Cardonnay grapes give him heartburn!). They did have a lovely Soave of their own but it isn't online. You might find it in store, but apparently not in the offer now. Is it wrong that I bought for seasonal festivities this week using this?

edinburgher

@Suffolk_lass - Most alcohol offers are either not available in Scotland or have local equivalents that are less generous. As such, I'm finding more interesting options and offers from "ship a box from a warehouse" type sellers.

Nothing wrong with stocking up for festivities if you have more self control than we do!

Suffolk_lass

It's all got a bit out of hand, to be honest. Two wine racks (1x50, 1x25) are mostly full. And most of the time we drink 0% alcohol (G&T for me, Guinness for him) - I need to reset. We are coming to Scotland next week (stopping at Mum's then on to Arran (Lochranza this time) for a week, then back to Mum's for her 97th birthday. I shall be raiding our stores and thank you, that is a good reminder

South_coast

BF and I had a Laithwaites habit a few years back and still have a groaning wine rack as a result 🤦‍♀️ Though I do take it as a badge of proper adulting honour that we have retained bottles of wine long enough for them to go dusty (his house, I would have dusted!) and not just guzzled them 😀😀😀

edinburgher

Did nothing at work before lunch then far too much after, drafted a completely new way of showing demand using Copilot analyst to draw together three datasets that don't currently play together. Got an email shortly before I'd finished asking for something different 🤦🏻‍♂️ Emailed folk I was working with, already gone home. That's enough IT for one day 😂

Won 5,000 Nectar points! £25.

Off to Englandchestershire for a family birthday tomorrow.

KajiKita

Wow, that kind of think drives me crazy at the wasted time and brain effort …

🥳🎉🎊 for the nectar points! 🤩😊

KK

edinburgher

It has been a wild week at work, I have gone down as many AI rabbit holes as it is possible to visit while creating a really solid bit of forecasting work which is absolutely not something my service generally has the skills for 😅 I have historical experience of such things (over a decade ago) and used Copilot to help bring me back up to speed with Excel developments, dynamic links between documents and the like. Nearly there, today will be a short day after going skelly-eyed after 9 hours of screen time yesterday.

On the moneysaving/AI front, I was able to copy my Nectar points offers from the Nectar website into a Word document, delete the ones I won't use, and then have Gemini turn them into a one-page list sorted by aisle that I can use while whizzing around the shop. Means I only use the ones I want, I don't need to constantly jump between the app and reality, and I will hopefully save time. I know that loyalty cards are used to drive consumer spend, but I'm not perturbed if I was going to go shopping anyway and it's my "main" supermarket.

I miss the spinning Martin emoji…

*Edit: Freed up some money thanks to good budgeting, £126 paid into Mrs E ISA and £119 into mine.

South_coast

OK, I think you've written....a shopping list 🤷‍♀️🤣?

greenbee

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82140934#Comment_82140934

But it's a 'man' shopping list. One that uses the tech equivalent of a power tool (with the associated environmental impacts - sorry Ed) rather than just a pencil and paper stuck to the fridge!

rtandon27

@edinburgher - I love that your shopping trip has time constraints! - The exact reason I try never to set foot in a shop these days. Online shopping is much more time efficient!