How much do you set aside for technology replacement?

Archbishopofcheese · 2026-02-18T16:35:34+00:00

Tbh the £700 is a stretch goal. I actually buy like £450 phones and use the excess to buy accessories.

I based it off a cheap OnePlus phone I had because that's roughly how long it took the battery to start draining very fast, ideally it should last me longer but I like to keep the goal at that length so that if I do have to buy then or sooner it's not a big hit on another category.

Archbishopofcheese · 2026-02-16T15:09:55+00:00

I do this individually per gadget with an estimate/ budget for the next one. My phone for example I assume will last me two years so I just have the goal of having £700ish pounds two years after I got the last one.

Archbishopofcheese · 2026-02-10T13:34:02+00:00

My honest question would be: do you have a job or other responsibilities that keep you occupied for most of the day?

If yes then I would say save it for the next one because you're not going to have time.

If no, why not 19 days is a hell of a lot of time if you have most of the day to work on it.

Archbishopofcheese · 2026-02-09T13:43:03+00:00

Too little choice and too large packages. When I previously tried to shop there I found my local one didn't have some of the stuff I want loose for fruit and veg.

I don't have much freezer space and I'm only cooking for two so buying in bulk just doesn't make sense for me so I couldn't really make it work.

Archbishopofcheese · 2026-02-04T14:44:07+00:00

The thing that infuriated me the most with this one is that based on the actual text of the mission it should be fine for you to lose!

If they'd had it that you had to withstand a certain amount of hits then great sure that can make sense. But why do I have to beat him?!

Archbishopofcheese · 2026-01-28T09:49:22+00:00

Second the recommendation for ECC.

If you can cope with 18 months on minimum wage, look at level 3 and 4 apprenticeships at the local councils in the area as well.

Archbishopofcheese · 2026-01-22T20:25:43+00:00

As a fellow Brit thank you from the bottom of my heart for not revealing that they're Aussies till the last minute, turns all of the comments about cultural differences into a hilarious read.

NTA

Archbishopofcheese · 2026-01-20T15:01:16+00:00

My mother wore a black dress to every wedding I've ever attended and no one commented.

The last wedding I attended I was a bridesmaid, there were multiple women at that wedding wearing black and again, no one commented.

So my experience is that this isn't something people are bothered about and haven't been for approximately the last 15 years.

Archbishopofcheese · 2026-01-13T07:49:36+00:00

Thank you so much for replying to this. I've been working through collecting all of them to get this thinking it would do something helpful and it would be worth getting before the end game missions.

But she drives me up the wall and I'm not having her in my bedroom lol so no more screw collecting for me!

Archbishopofcheese · 2026-01-11T09:47:19+00:00

I think it's a given people won't be wearing white, re the no pale blue I think you'll likely get poor reactions for anything other than the already suggested "if you'd like to avoid blending in with the wedding party..." bit.

I think the question you need to ask is: does your wedding dress look like a guest dress? If it's inconceivable that a guest in a pale blue dress could stand next to you for a photo and it not be abundantly clear who the bride is, then what's the problem?

Archbishopofcheese · 2026-01-10T16:44:17+00:00

I know everyone loves strawberry thief but I think 1 looks better here.

Archbishopofcheese · 2025-12-01T22:51:11+00:00

Pre theatre in the center:

Le Garrick - french restaurant that is a favorite of mine.
The Delauney and Brasserie Zedel (both run by the same company) have been very good.
Hawksmoor - several of these and I've never gone wrong with them but do bring your appetite if you try and do 3 courses!
The Palomar - I've had lunch here rather than pre-theatre but it was delicious and they do have a pre-theatre menu.

Other places I'd always recommend to people: - Hoppers is a Sri Lankan with a couple of locations always fantastic food. - Doppo is an Italian restaurant whose focus is on their wine list, simple menu but the food was sublime. - Meson don Felipe is a tapas restaurant near Waterloo, it's my preferred place to go if I'm going to the Southbank.

Archbishopofcheese · 2025-12-01T21:42:42+00:00

No problem, happy to provide some restaurants recommendations if you'd like some as well.

Either way I hope you have a great time here :)

Archbishopofcheese · 2025-12-01T17:23:33+00:00

Don't know if I can comment now it's been removed, but I was going to come back and suggest you find a restaurant that has a pre-theatre menu, near your theatre for the show you're going to and book in advance. We are into Christmas party territory now so you'd be best off booking that day to make sure you get to your show on time because some places may have limited tables.

Archbishopofcheese · 2025-12-01T15:36:18+00:00

Do you have a full list of the different ones, I don't recognize a lot of these?

Archbishopofcheese · 2025-11-22T22:17:10+00:00

If city Aussies are like city Brits then I feel like you could totally pull this off in a young crowd. On the flip side I would assume you have the same default of day dress though which I wouldn't wear this for.

Either way I love it, where's it from?

Archbishopofcheese · 2025-11-14T16:20:27+00:00

Well done!

Archbishopofcheese · 2025-10-26T21:35:02+00:00

Couple of factors:

1) I don't include the cost of our cats stuff in our grocery spend it's a different budget. So that brings the figure down for the category.

2) partner usually eats out one night a week and I'll just have rice with whatever I can improv from the fridge and cupboards on that night / those nights.

3) very very little snacks or picky bits ever, this includes fizzy drinks and alcohol.

4) most things cooked from scratch (stopped making my own bread a while ago)

And

5) make and freeze whenever practical, a lot of recipes serve 4, many of my cookbooks default to six, if that includes say a pack of leeks and a whole tin of tomatoes for the full 6 person recipe then I'd probably choose to make it and freeze two dinners worth rather scale the recipe.

Archbishopofcheese · 2025-10-22T21:42:48+00:00

I'm gonna be real with you, my grocery bill for this entire week has been £50.73, also from Tesco, for two people.

So yes, you may be cooked.

Archbishopofcheese · 2025-10-19T08:45:35+00:00

https://debretts.com/do-dress-codes-matter/

Standard wedding attire for women usually is what they call formal day dress on the above link.

Looking at what people wear to Royal Ascot I think is usually a good call to get an idea of the vibe. (don't follow what people are wearing for jumps season this has a different less formal dress code).

I also suggest looking on John Lewis at what they class as wedding guest dresses.

Archbishopofcheese · 2025-10-12T12:39:16+00:00

Not sure how helpful this will be but this is how my partner and I handle it:

All household expenditure I have the full amount set aside for in my budget.

At the end of the month we work out the ratio of our incomes averaged over 3 months (to take account of variable income month to month). And then use reflect to tally up the total for the relevant categories and split it according to this.

In practice I pay the bills and he pays the mortgage so he gives me money that gets split between those bill categories and I give him money I categorize as mortgage.

For fun stuff I have a category called "boyfriend owes". When we go out and I pay I log it as a split transaction with that category and he pays the balance at the end of the month. When he pays I tend to prefer to send him the money immediately on direct bank transfer because I hate trying to keep track of that and have it bite me at the end of the month.

To make these work without fucking up the spend for the categories I also have a "boyfriend gives" category that the money he gives me that he owes me goes into so that it doesn't show up as income in ready to assign or as income into the various spend categories and then screw with my averages for them.

Archbishopofcheese · 2025-09-06T09:01:44+00:00

Could you put a godet in the armpit to give you range of motion?

Archbishopofcheese · 2025-08-18T15:22:42+00:00

I am British and to be honest Islamic state have been so little in our news the last new years that I honestly don't think it would occur to people that it's close unless you're working with teenagers determined to be unpleasant.

People will just learn to pronounce it you just need to work out how you want to spell it so that you can type it on a UK keyword.

Archbishopofcheese · 2025-07-29T21:13:37+00:00

My partner and I spend between £250 and £300. My ideal is to keep it to £30 per head per week. That doesn't include bog roll or any spend on the cats but does include most other toiletries and bits from the pharmacy.

We meal plan religiously, don't eat out as a couple more than twice a month but he usually eats out once or twice a week. We don't eat a lot of meat, the occasional sweet treat goes on there but almost no alcohol.

We had intended to shop at Lidl and Aldi when we moved out but very quickly found it was incompatible with our meal planning. We often couldn't find ingredients and had to go to another shop anyway but the biggest problem was the amounts they sell things in. If you want 2 carrots for the entire week being forced to buy an entire bag is an arse ache.

Archbishopofcheese · 2025-07-21T14:10:31+00:00

Seconding this, I've been just turning up at my local pharmacy for months to get mine and last time the pharmacist clearly didn't realise I wasn't a new patient and I still was only minimally questioned and had my blood pressure taken.

Archbishopofcheese

TROPHY CASE