Sat 22/Sun 23 August - What small DFW things will you do this weekend?

foxgloves

Afternoon Frugalistas,
Beautiful day here until I went out into the garden with my pink stripy chair & my book and then it started bucketing down & hasn't stopped yet! Cat has just come in drenched smelling like a wet sheep.
Today's money saving efforts, such as they are:
*Went to historic park/garden up in the north of the county. Got in free on NT membership. Took picnic & flask of coffee which we enjoyed in an old walled garden, while watching a baby robin. Spend = NIL
*Called at in-laws. M-i-L gave me 3 bags of jam jars for my preserving. There are some really good ones, including a few of the spring-clip kilner jars.
*Dinner as per meal plans - pork slices in gravy, which I froze last time I was doing rubber pork duty......good job you know what I mean, or I think eyebrows might be raised there........
*Picked first bundle of runner beans of this year. Looking good.
*Did a few surveys, but got tired of being kicked out for being wrong demographic, so gave up. There's only so much rejection a girl can take!
*Re-listed my unsold ebay items again, as we have been given another 100 free re-listings, but the usual 2 days to get them done, so never quite as useful an offer as it initially sounds.
*Loaded washer for a cheap overnight wash, but am going to watch weather forecast before I commit to setting the timer, as no point doing it if tomorrow is set to be another wazz-down.
*Read energy meters & updated spreadsheets.
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & work snacks.
*mr f treated me to an ice cream at our lovely local ice-cream parlour (naturally on the understanding that I treat him while we are on holiday......he didn't specify what I'm to treat him to, which presumably means I can use my imagination).
*Free leisure activities later - carry on with my book, knitting, TV series we recorded, etc.

DNMS - Yes, isn't it funny the justifications we try to find for buying take-aways we neither need nor can afford. Our justification last night would have been that mr f has saved us £16 a month on our Virgin Media package so that first £16 would easily cover 2 pizzas & a side from our local indie pizza place.....except that the new tariff & therefore the saving does not kick in until September, so the pizza money would actually have come straight out of our account. I even tried to strengthen my case for a pizza by saying I thought I needed to increase my intake of Omega 3s, so picking a topping with anchovies on would be good for my nutrition. Never mind the 8 billion calories!! Anyway, we didn't have one. And you didn't either. So hurrah for us!

Bob - Glad to hear that the Coin-Star King has been at it again!!
f x

allydowd

Money Off Your Water Bill?

Meant to mention this earlier.

While most people are aware of water meters, how many know that they pay for all the surface water (rain) that runs off a property and into the public sewerage system? If your drainpipes that take rainwater off the roof of your home aren't connected to the sewerage system in England or Wales – and millions of properties aren't – you can apply for a rebate of between £17 and £50 a year.

The water companies – or to be precise, the sewerage companies – apply a charge to treat that water, and if it's not applicable, then you don't need to be paying for it. This, again, is a little-known fact that the water companies don't exactly shout about.

You have to fill in a form, and it may require a visit to your home. If you can show that the rainwater running off your property goes into soakaways, you can apply for the rebate. Curiously, there is no onus on the company that provides your sewerage services to automatically apply the rebate; you only get it if you apply.

Worth looking into the Surface Water Drainage Rebate and checking your terms and conditions!

Here's Ofwat's factsheet on it. (Link)

maria3104

Hi All

Bob, I would compost broad bean plant. I put mine in incredibly late and they are flowering now so I am hopeful of some BB before end of autumn.

Steady rain all day. Son has finished sheeps bums and now gone to a neighbours to do milking cows. Very agricultural.

Anyway back to MSE stuff. I did get going. Made:
2 victoria sponges, 1 with stork 1 with butter.Stork one rose better, but butter one is yummy. Dilemma here.
2 chocolate sponges already in freezer.
2 banana and pecan loaf sponges. already in freezer.
2 trays of flapjack.
1 plum crumble from depressing miserable plum harvest.
1 fougasse. which we gobbled with our salad lunch.

So a busy day. Also done ironing.Washing. Chatted to hens. Most obliging with their eggs. Would hate them not to feel appreciated.

So am now watching Miss Marple whilst having a lie down.

Happy money savings everyone.

Maria x
ps Foxgloves love the idea of a stripy deck chair.

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi all, Ally that applies to us, however, when we looked into this way way back we had to get some sort of special plan to show where our water went and it was going to cost money. Maybe worth looking into it again.

Tired tonight. The lovely DWP have paid me £40 less than I was expecting, not sure why. I currently have about £6 to last till the end of the month when all the bills have been paid.

I am going to plead my case to Amazon for the voucher. Oh and I must order some school shirts for DS!

Baileys_Babe

Hello Everyone, Ziggy Thanks you getting us started

Well I've been missing for the last few days. Friday we went to visit OH's parents for the day, which was very enjoyable. Me and ds received our birthday presents, they had bought OH some tools he was after at various charity shops/car boot sales and dd had a few little bits they had picked up for her. We also came away with some home grown produce, HM jam and HM cake as well as some resources they had spotted which will be useful for home educating. After lunch we all strolled into the local town and had a look round the charity shops, the grandparents gave dd & ds £2 each to spend but neither of them found anything to spend it on so that has gone in to their money boxes. OH bought 2 pairs of trouser both look brand new

Yesterday it rained and didn't stop, so we tackled the kitchen, still lots to do but it was a NSD. I also stewed the rhubarb, chopped the marrow we had been given to make chutney, chopped the remainder of a large bag of onions which had seen better days 1/3 for chutney 2/3 in the freezer, checked under the apple trees for any windfalls as needed apple for the chutney and found more than enough all nibble free, any apples that don't go in to the chutney I will make fruit leather with possibly apple and cinnamon, blackcurrant & apple, blackberry & apple or mixed berry (what ever berries we can find, blackberry, raspberry, strawberry et c) & apple.

Today started out warm and sunny so after ys croissants in a tube, we started on our neglected garden, I attacked the grass, which was a slow job as we haven't cut it for over a month either it has been raining when we are free or we have been, busy, ill or out when it has been dry and then I sent out some information about an upcoming HE event I'm organising. OH power washed the front path and cleared weeds from between the flags and then started on the back path. The children helped OH with the power washer, had a water fight, enjoyed playing and mucking about in the garden and are now watching a film from our dvd stash. We managed to dry 2 loads of washing on the line today. About 4 pm the sky went very grey so we decided to bring the washing in just to be on the safe side, 20 minutes later loud rumbles of thunder and down came the rain, 2 hours later it is still coming down not so heavy and no thunder, but heavy enough.

Still to do:
Pack snack bag for tomorrow
Soak porridge overnight
Set DW to run overnight
Set HW to run overnight
Meal plan for the week
Sort out clean washing, so each person can put heir own laundry away (if I don't post it here it won't get done as it is a job I avoid and the laundry just sits there
Write shopping list for tomorrow

crazy_cat_lady

Lol Foxgloves my husband would be absolutely thrilled if I treated him to a night in front of the football with no nagging.
It's been a busy old day - the football tournament went on longer than I expected, so once we were done at 2.30 DS wanted to go to Mr S to wash his hands and face. It would have been rude not to yellow sticker shop while I was there. For £6.60 I got 2 pizzas, 2 garlic bread, a pack of chicken nuggets, 2 chicken breasts, 4 giant croissants (TTD no less), a loaf of bread, 9 vanilla cupcakes and a pasta salad for hubby. I was quite pleased but there is literally not a single cm of space in my freezer now.

crazy_cat_lady wrote: »

[STRIKE]:) Get DS to football tournament [/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]:) Make packed lunch for DS to save £[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]:) Meals from stores[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]:) Get tortie out of her cage for walking but no climbing[/STRIKE] DD is totally on the case with this
Do some exercise (Lazy Daisy)
Read my book (no time)
[STRIKE]:) 15 mins housework and declutter[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]:) Tutoring (should make £25)[/STRIKE]
Find out if there are any post offices open today to post eBay parcels (none close by)
Chill out a bit

I did way more than my 15 mins - cleaned out a couple of kitchen cupboards and got some OS advice on what to do with a load of on the turn fruit so I've been mad busy in the kitchen most of the afternoon. I haven't hoovered yet, which is a good job because DS is wandering around dropping vanilla cake crumbs everywhere.

katy_ann

Afternoon all! Sorry I've been a bit AWOL, I got a promotion at work a few months ago and its just so busy! On the upside to that though the wage is better and any overtime I do is paid at time and a half and that usually about half hour a day, which all adds up! Anyway I hope everyone is well Today I have

- Been to our local airshow on the seafront
- Checked online banking - Managed to move another £10 into my savings account
- Done MySurvey's and Swagbucks
- Listed 1 thing on Gumtree
- Checked my Ebay - No sales as of yet!
- Dinner from stores - unfortunatly I had lunch out with my fianc!e, so -£5.20 approx

I think that's about all, will go and check my Swagbucks again as haven't met target yet today!

Take care all x

Bobarella

maria3104 wrote: »

Hi All

Bob, I would compost broad bean plant. I put mine in incredibly late and they are flowering now so I am hopeful of some BB before end of autumn.

Steady rain all day. Son has finished sheeps bums and now gone to a neighbours to do milking cows. Very agricultural.

Anyway back to MSE stuff. I did get going. Made:
2 victoria sponges, 1 with stork 1 with butter.Stork one rose better, but butter one is yummy. Dilemma here.
2 chocolate sponges already in freezer.
2 banana and pecan loaf sponges. already in freezer.
2 trays of flapjack.
1 plum crumble from depressing miserable plum harvest.
1 fougasse. which we gobbled with our salad lunch.

So a busy day. Also done ironing.Washing. Chatted to hens. Most obliging with their eggs. Would hate them not to feel appreciated.

So am now watching Miss Marple whilst having a lie down.

Happy money savings everyone.

Maria x
ps Foxgloves love the idea of a stripy deck chair.

Thanks Maria I will then. It has only produced 2 bean pods in any case.

Do you mean you have a dilemma because you've no more freezer space or whether to bake with marg?

I have to say I'm team butter. Or at the very least lurpack. I don't like the taste of marg in baking. But we are all different.

foxgloves

Crazy cat lady - whooo- hoo! Great ys haul!

Bob - That lonesome broad bean needs to go on the compost as they are annuals. If you fancy an early crop of them next year (June, or possibly end of May in your more southerly neck of the woods), they can be sown outside in November. They are pretty hardy unless we get arctic conditions.
F x

Baileys_Babe

Bobarella wrote: »

I have to say I'm team butter. Or at the very least lurpack. I don't like the taste of marg in baking. But we are all different.

I also only bake with butter as I can taste the difference, people often praise and request my sponges and flapjack, the delicious flavour is all down to using butter as a pose to a amazing skill of mine. If money was so tight I couldn't afford butter to bake with, I would stop baking, thankfully our finances are not that bad.