EH - Essex > Hebrides...the next step of the adventure?

EssexHebridean · 6 June 2017 at 4:12PM

Another Prolific payment got approved so I've cashed out - £10.60 less the fees. :beer:
Not 5 minutes later another payment got approved so I'm already back up to £1.20! :T

Just checked the T's CC+ account and there is still £54 in there - it's top-up date is tomorrow so that's pretty good going.

enthusiasticsaver · 6 June 2017 at 5:39PM

I thought I would check out your diary EH as I have seen you commenting on others. I have not been to the Hebrides (long way from Cornwall where we live

) but it sounds lovely.

I hope your kitchen is finished soon. I think that is the worst room to redo as so often used and usually most expensive. Ours is 15 years old so probably needs redoing but we went for composite worktops and integrated sink which still look brand new so reluctant to spend out on redoing it at the moment. They were expensive but so hard wearing.

EssexHebridean · 7 June 2017 at 10:54AM

Hey Enthusiastic - thanks for popping by! That's great to hear what you said about the worktops etc in your kitchen still looking good after all that time - it's exactly what we were hoping, that spending a bit more now will enable us to keep it looking good for years! I'm quite jealous of you living in Cornwall - love it down there!

Latest from the builder is that he should be back fit and well next Monday - so hopefully, all being well, we should be back on it then. We've already decided that we're going to put one of the cupboards into use as of tonight as keeping on carrying stuff through the flat is getting beyond a joke!

No sign of my prolific money yet but will buzz over there in a bit and see if there are any studies available.

EssexHebridean · 8 June 2017 at 3:09PM

Another few oddments from Prolific & OnePoll today and a £2 survey from Populus too.

Still no sign of the payout money from Prolific but I am now up to £5 between cleared and pending on there again. Definitely liking that one a lot for easy pickings!

Last day of work this week for me today so might need a list for my day off tomorrow. Need to pop to the Doctors and want to go swimming, but aside those not a lot that I *have* to do. Might try to get a bit ahead of myself for the following week with shopping, meal plan etc and absolutely MUST do some houseworky stuff too, and also need to carry on with my photo processing from last weekend.

EssexHebridean · 8 June 2017 at 4:23PM

A further thought - in the light of the way the kitchen is dragging on, I have to find a way of accessing some of the food & cooking bits we have packed away in order to make cooking "normal" meals easier.

We've already taken steps to put one cupboard back into use, so I intend to spend some of tomorrow getting bits and pieces back into there from the spare room. The aim is to hopefully make the spare room feel a bit more like "ours" again and also make life easier and reduce the amount of walking from one end of the flat and back again we have to do just to cook a meal. Although hopefully the builder will be back on Monday there's no reason why us having a single cupboard in use should prove to be any sort of a problem for him. (and if it is, frankly, he's just going to have to get on with it!)

We had a chat last night about general food stuff and agreed that we do plan to increase our food budget a bit going forwards - it will still fit inside our existing £150 top limit, plus the £25 monthly additional amount into our separate food account, but we'll look to be spending closer to that amount and not saving as much. We're NOT desperately strapped for cash now, and although we're not going to start buying pre grated cheese or buying lunches rather than making them, we do want to incorporate more meat and fish into our diet. I've noticed from my fitbit tracker that my protein levels on an average day can be quite low, so need to address this ideally, particularly as I'm now doing a lot more exercise than I was.

enthusiasticsaver · 8 June 2017 at 4:52PM

I think I would be tempted to put all of the kitchen stuff in crates/boxes in the cupboards and just move it out when the builder back to do electrics should he need access to inside the cupboards. I am surprised the electrics weren't done first before units assembled actually or was there a reason they weren't? My OH is a seasoned DIYer as he was an electrical engineer and he always used to do electrics/plumbing before the decorating then put in the units/worktops/appliances and tiling/flooring/finishing touches last.

It will be great when it is finished. Cornwall is lovely but a bit damp here today.

EssexHebridean · 12 June 2017 at 11:26AM

The basics are there on the electrics Enthusiastic - it's just they're not wired in to appliances/sockets etc as yet! We've colonised a single cupboard and Dave-The-Builder will just have to work round it - there's no reason why anything needs doing inside the one we've chosen anyway so should be OK! Flooring is in already as it's gone right under the units to avoid the hassle of struggling to pull appliances out when the flooring only runs up to them - we've had that ever since we've been in this place!

Anyway - GOOD KITCHEN NEWS - work is back on today! :T:T:beer::beer::j:j Desperately relieved to hear that it's moving forwards again! :T

I achieved my aim of reclaiming some space around the flat on Friday - reorganised stuff in the spare room and got enough cleared that the airer has been able to go back in there so our bedroom is feeling a lot more "ours" again. Small things that make a big difference - I'll try to get another 15 minutes of tidying done in there tonight.

Shopping done on Friday/Saturday and all within budget - and we've got a meal plan at least roughly in place. Also just updated my signature below to include the £10.10 from Prolific which has been transferred across to the card now. Winning!

Weekend spendiness wasn't too bad either - Hotel for saturday night was £66 which I was happy with - made full use of the swimming pool etc too so got value for money!

Saturday night I met some pals at a pub, just a few drinks and £3.95 for a pizza. And took food with me as planned for the airshow yesterday so actually didn't spend anything at all at the show itself! :T

EssexHebridean · 13 June 2017 at 11:12AM

NSD yesterday - in fact thinking about it Sunday was too! No plans to spend anything today either so I wonder how far through the week I can get without dipping into my purse? Ooh - I do like a challenge!

Food should all be sorted for the week I think - I did Chicken & couscous last night (very impressed that I've managed to sneak wholewheat couscous into use without OH even noticing it until he saw me pick it up off the shelf last week! Shame I can't do the same with rice too!) The rest of the chicken with salad tonight - got a bag of Jersey Royals to cook to go with that. There's risotto for another night, using one of the packs of beautiful smoked salmon we brought back from the Hebrides. Hmmm...need to find my notes of what I'd planned for the fourth day, evidently!

Might do something involving rice and lentils for myself & MrEH can have an omelette as I know we've got eggs in.

Got a small Prolific survey this morning (70p for 4 minutes - bargain!) but nothing else from either there or OnePoll as yet today. I'll keep looking.

Silver_Queen · 13 June 2017 at 11:19AM

EH - I had a really good morning for Prolific. Managed to do 4 x surveys totalling
£4.45 in about an hour, and one's been approved already! :T

Hope you have a good day x

EssexHebridean · 13 June 2017 at 11:23AM

Ooh great work Silver - reckon they've all been and gone before I got on there then!

EH - Essex > Hebrides...the next step of the adventure?

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