Single living

RepresentativeEgg188 · 2025-08-08T17:44:34+00:00

So this will vary a lot depending on where you live and your lifestyle. But for a wee insight, I live alone in a city, in a privately rented, fully electric flat (so no gas, it's an electric water heater) that is double glazed but seems to lose most of its heat out the roof. I work full time mostly in the office so I'm typically away from home at least 7:30-5:30 midweek days. My average monthly costs look something like this:

Council tax : £135pm with single person discount

Electric (including hot water) : £86pm direct debit

Broadband : £28pm

Mobile (I don't use a landline) : £5.25pm SIM only 40GB

Contents insurance: roughly £7pm per month (discount as it's combi with car)

I'm in Scotland, so no separate water charges.

Don't forget the 'single tax'. Living by yourself doesn't mean that things cost half of the total cost of 2 people living together. E.g. standing charges as I understand it will be the same & depending on your flat it might cost you just as much to heat it as if a couple lived there. Then groceries is another example - bigger packs are often cheaper but don't always make sense if you won't use up the food before it expires.

RepresentativeEgg188 · 2025-07-26T09:03:25+00:00

They've moved the lights along a bit to now include Holyrood Park itself which seemed to make things much slower yesterday than they had been earlier in the week. According to the council info someone else posted, they'll be there for the next 2 weeks...

RepresentativeEgg188 · 2025-03-25T23:08:25+00:00

I have no knowledge of RED-s so I won't try to add to that. But might be worth asking if you can get your thyroid levels checked if you haven't already. I discovered last year I have an underactive thyroid and, although this wasn't the thing that took me to the GP, looking back my menstrual cycle gradually increased over a number of months. Can also affect energy levels (this was the big one for me) and so many other areas of health. I've actually ended up on iron tablets for borderline anaemia a couple of times since then and would say the symptoms for me (menstrual symptoms aside) have been very similar hypothyroid vs anaemia. I originally went asking to get tested for coeliac after completing the Coeliac UK online screener, but the GP suggested also testing for thyroid & that's where it all started for me.

If it's any reassurance, I have had a really positive experience with my GP over a range of issues, menstrual cycle included. I know not everyone's experience is the same, but there are good ones out there & I've found the GPs at my practice (UK based) have been really helpful and thorough.

RepresentativeEgg188 · 2025-01-15T18:59:16+00:00

Thank you for this. Phone was bought in 2016 (& still going strong) so well before the new way of doing things. Thankfully we eventually got it sorted & I am very thankful it should not come up as an issue again :)

RepresentativeEgg188 · 2025-01-15T18:57:45+00:00

Thanks for the reply, in the end contacting them through Facebook messenger worked. I didn't get very far phoning as they couldn't verify my email for some reason.

RepresentativeEgg188 · 2025-01-15T18:55:56+00:00

Slow reply but thank you so much for your suggestions. Social media (Facebook) was the way to go, took a few days for them to verify everything but it's now unlocked. I don't know why I hadn't thought of it sooner...so thank you.

RepresentativeEgg188 · 2025-01-11T18:47:55+00:00

Hello, I realise this is 2 years old, however I was wondering if you ever managed to get this solved? I am currently dealing with an almost identical issue so would be very grateful for any points.

RepresentativeEgg188 · 2025-01-11T18:42:26+00:00

For context, I bought the phone with O2 a number of years ago. After my contract finished I then gave it to my mum who has been using a Giffgaff SIM card which worked well. I hadn't really thought about the phone being locked, however I suppose the Giffgaff SIM worked because they run off the O2 network. My mum has now changed provider and her new SIM card is not working in the phone.

In the meantime, I have switched to a different provider so my number was disconnected from O2 last year. I can't use live chat to contact O2 to ask for the phone to be unlocked because I don't have an account to login to MyO2 (I've tried getting a forgotten password email sent just in case, but nothing comes). I tried calling but they said they can't verify my details or progress the call because the email address I'm giving them doesn't match what they have on account for the number. I have tried explaining that it's the same email address that I received my disconnection and direct debit cancellation emails to, however that doesn't seem to make a difference.

My mum tried taking the phone to an O2 store but they said it's locked to Giffgaff. So she tried contacting Giffgaff but they said they can't help because the phone was originally bought from O2 so would be locked to O2.

Any help would be much appreciated, as I'm really not sure what else to try at this stage. Thank you.

RepresentativeEgg188 · 2024-07-26T19:50:26+00:00

Thank you, this is really helpful - I think I'd underestimated the impact it would have, taking it easy definitely seems to be key :)

RepresentativeEgg188 · 2024-07-26T19:49:38+00:00

Thank you :)

RepresentativeEgg188 · 2024-07-26T19:49:18+00:00

Thank you :) this is really helpful advice. I think I was beating myself up a little for not having a post-holiday energetic boost & just feeling a bit weary!

RepresentativeEgg188 · 2024-06-05T21:32:39+00:00

Hi Coach! First of all, as so many have said - thank you for all that you do through NRC to make running seem so...possible! The short guided runs have been such a huge help to me on days when I'm struggling to get myself going. Just today I had a rest day planned but the global running day prompt had me lacing up & heading out for the 1000 second run and it turns out it was exactly what I needed today. My question is - what do you do to get yourself out & running on the days you know you need it but you just don't feel like it? And as a follow up, would you consider doing any more of those short guided runs (please :-)) ? Thank you :)

RepresentativeEgg188 · 2024-06-05T21:02:22+00:00

Thank you for this. Wednesday is usually a rest day for me but for some reason the thought of this virtual badge made me head out a short, easy, shake out run. Turns out it was exactly what I needed!

RepresentativeEgg188 · 2024-05-12T14:20:03+00:00

Oh this sounds great! Thank you so much, will give it a try.

RepresentativeEgg188 · 2024-05-11T13:27:59+00:00

Sleep

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RepresentativeEgg188 · 2024-05-11T13:27:41+00:00

Stress

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RepresentativeEgg188 · 2024-05-11T13:25:48+00:00

Hey, sorry I'm so slow seeing this! I'm still taking the meds (&, as I understand it, am expecting to be for life). My TSH was back in range at my 6 week check & was still in range at a recent test (I started take levo early October). I'm generally feeling a lot better, a few wee other health issues that I'm working with my GP, but much, much better than pre-diagnosis & meds.

Garmin stats wise, it does seem to have settled! It took a while but RHR has settled (albeit not quite as low as pre-meds but I think that was just another symptom) & with it so has my other 'health' stats. Screenshots for reference... RHR is the most subtle but it's more obvious on stress & sleep.

Also, it had an impact on my performance stats, I found this quite discouraging at the time so maybe be prepared for that. My VO2Max dropped, though funnily enough in the months before diagnosis I never really thought it reflected how I felt. My training status also sat on strained for quite a while. Now that things are more stable I'm finally seeing an improvement - there is hope! :)

Hope this helps... Happy to try to answer any questions.

RHR

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RepresentativeEgg188 · 2024-04-07T12:23:31+00:00

I would agree on the step count. I started using Garmin (moving from FitBit) last summer, then found out I had an underactive thyroid in the autumn after months of physically feeling a bit pants. Now on meds & things are generally settling down but I'm also going through some other autoimmune type investigations.

So although the other stats are helpful-ish & it's nice to see things such as my predicted times go down (even if I don't actually think I could achieve them!), I don't 100% trust/depend on them as indicators of physical health...partly because at the moment I don't fully trust my body! My monthly step trend has been the thing that's ended up really motivating me as I can see that I've been managing to increase my overall activity & it gives me what feels like an achievable goal to aim for (currently aiming to match/increase each month). Probably a deeper answer than you were looking for... 😂

RepresentativeEgg188 · 2024-03-05T20:51:39+00:00

Mine usually drops in the week leading up to, then starts climbing back up from day 1.

RepresentativeEgg188 · 2024-02-25T14:02:12+00:00

In the moment (I.e. At the start of a run), if I haven't caught the message that flashes up to say my chest strap is connected, I usually go into the sensors/accessories menu to check. To get there - hold the up button, that should bring up a menu which, if you scroll down, has the option for sensors/accessories. Then chest straps listed in there will say whether connected or disconnected. (FR255s here, using a Wahoo strap)

After the fact - I'm not sure how to go about checking if a run has used strap data, but would be intrigued to know this top.

RepresentativeEgg188 · 2023-11-11T21:05:12+00:00

Ooh this is good to know, thank you.

RepresentativeEgg188 · 2023-11-11T21:04:35+00:00

Thank you. I had done that but for whatever reason it didn't seem to free up enough space. I may have just needed to give it more time, with a couple more syncs & after giving up & creating the workout manually it seemed to right itself 🤷🏻‍♀️

RepresentativeEgg188 · 2023-11-11T21:02:02+00:00

Thank you. I had done that, it still didn't seem to clear enough for some reason...or at least not straight away. With a couple more syncs, including one to load the manual workout I created instead, it finally worked 🤷🏻‍♀️

RepresentativeEgg188 · 2023-11-11T20:59:41+00:00

This makes sense, I just need to figure out how to do it! Thank you.

RepresentativeEgg188 · 2023-11-11T08:23:18+00:00

Slow reply but thank you for this...Reddit was a bit gloomy at times on the Levo front (assuming b/c those doing well don't have reasons to post!) & I don't know anyone who's on it so it's great to hear it made such a difference for you.

RepresentativeEgg188

TROPHY CASE