Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Had a little bit of a price conundrum today. Here's what happened. I went in a little local independent shop & bought an item on my shopping list for £12, even though I knew I could buy it at our local W**trose for £10. This goes against the grain with me these days, but I was happy to do it. The little indie shop has on two occasions ordered products especially for me when I've been unable to purchase them elsewhere, & has a good range of ingredients (including more unusual stuff) in stock in different sizes with minimal packaging. The owner is very knowledgeable about his stock too - something which isn't as obvious in a supermarket. So I spent that extra couple of quid with good grace because I would miss this small business if it closed.
I kind of made the money back through not having to pay for parking, as mr f was working in our local town today & he also donated his coffee loyalty card points so I could have a free coffee & biscotti!
Off for a soak in the bath now.....over 12,000 steps today & my daily target is only 7,000. My feet feel like plates of mince!
Cheers all,
F x

crazy_cat_lady

I definitely feel your pain with the step count Foxgloves :rotfl:

foxgloves

Lol..I've spent all my life being an exercise dodger, CCL, but when I watched a programme a few years ago (I think it was 'Horizon') about the importance of NEATS in weight loss, it really motivated me to think 'Move' rather than 'Exercise'. I remember 3 couples calorie expenditure being monitored over a morning & the couple who walked around town just doing their shopping before cleaning their house, burned more calories than the couole who did an intensive workout at the gym but then sat down for the rest of the morning. So I don't do nearly as much sitting as I used to. Every single item of exercise paraphernalia I've ever bought has just been a waste of money as I never used any of it after the initial couple of days of novelty. At least with my bike I can use it as a means of transport!

Onebrokelady

Well done for supporting a local business,I know the prices are normally slightly higher but so long as it's something you need and they aren't charging ridiculous amounts I think it's a fair trade off, last year I needed a deck scrubber for cleaning the chicken run, I had seen a fancy wooden one in my local Wilkos so went to buy it but they had sold out so I went to the local hardware store and they had the same one but it was actually cheaper, I always check there if Im buying any hardware

foxgloves

Agree re local indie businesses, OBL. I read somewhere that for every £1 spent in a local independent shop, around 80p of it stays in the local community. When we spend in big chains, esp those with HQs abroad, most of that money goes straight out of the country.....& of course tax affairs are often 'organised' to avoid paying a fair share in the UK, aren't they? I'm happy to pay a little more to support a local small business....as long as the price differential isn't a p*sstake.
F

enthusiasticsaver

I have to say that providing you can afford it and have the time then supporting local businesses is well worth it. We have an independent bookshop which I know the owner has given 2 years to see if it can sustain given competition with kindles, online amazon sales of books or supermarkets. I have resolved only to buy from here as long as I can afford it and the books get lent out or given to charity shops afterwards. Same with our local bakers, butchers and greengrocers. We used to have loads of these shops and now we just have one of each in our town.

I can see our town being full of hairdressers, estate agents, charity shops and cafes in a few years time if people don't start using the local shops. Fine for those of us who can drive or use the internet but many elderly people cant. It might be a little more expensive but saves on fuel.

foxgloves

Hi all,
I was just patting myself on the back for having budgeted so well in advance for our imminent camping trip but before that, we now have to fit in a week in London. It's to deal with an ongoing family crisis & I haven't budgeted for this additional week away at all. Had a chat to mr f about it today & we think we'll be ok if we do low-key free stuff - we'll be hospital visiting for quite a lot of the time - & keep reminding ourselves that any additional expenditure will have to come from a pot of money destined for something else. Our resolve is now pretty strong. Hope I will be reporting back sensible frugal behaviour in a week or two!
One worry about this extra trip has been picking our lovely supplies of hone grown fruit & veg so that it can be dealt with before we go & not wasted. Yesterday I picked the greengages & turned them into lots of little pots of compote for the freezer. Today I've made & frozen 4 portions of aubergine curry, 7 portions of Cranks tomato & lentil soup (we love this one) & 6 portions of pesto. More freezer tetris. Loads more courgettes to use but we will need to eat while we're away so I might pack a modest veg box to take with us. Anyway.....it's good to see all these meals stacking up in the freezer. They'll come in useful throughout Autumn, that's for sure & help keep grocery budget spends on track.
Ok, time to enjoy a bit of a sprawl on the sofa with my book.
Cheers all,
F x

foxgloves

Agree, Enthusiastic Saver......especially re butchers. Have had some great bargains (& service). Our local village butcher usually rounds the price down to the nearest £ & will cut a big joint down to make it the amount of money I'm looking to pay. Also a great source of those cheap tasty things like ham hocks, bacon bits, oxtail, ox cheek, etc. The other week, I asked for a lb of pork ribs & as it was nearing the end of the day, he gave me what was left on the tray for the same price. I've also had free beef bones in the past for making good stock, french onion soup, etc. As with all these small shops, if we don't use them, we lose them.....& we lose so much knowledge with them.

foxgloves

Afternoon Money Saving Pixies,
Well, I got off to a right start this morning & I was only trying to be money saving!!! Bah!!! Here's what happened:
I've got a sore ankle at the moment - it's achillles tendonitis. I've had it before & it rights itself in the end, but it does benefit from at least occasionally adopting the NHS advice of resting, icing, etc, etc. I no longer have a wheatie bag for putting in the freezer for these occasions. It developed a distinctly odd whiff, so I binned it. I have a bag of frozen sweetcorn but that's food & I didn't want to waste it. Ice packs are useless as they are hard, rectangular & won't 'sit' comfortably around the back of an ankle. I've used ice cubes wrapped in a tea towel, but they melt too quickly & drip all over the sofa. So I've been casting around for a non-spend, resourceful idea & first thing this morning, a great 'shopping from home' idea occurred to me!
Some months ago, our beady door curtain in the conservatory broke. It had been mended loads of times, so I took it to bits & washed & dried all the thousands upon thousands of tiny glass beads. I couldn't think of anything to do with them, as I no longer make jewellery, etc, but they were glass & good quality so I poured them into a Qu*lity Street tin & stored them with my craft gear, in case I came across anyone who might use them.
Fast forward to this morning when it occurred to me (& I hadn't even had any caffiene yet!) that if I poured the beads into a cotton pillowcase, tied it tightly & put it in the freezer, I'd have the perfect cold compress for my sore tendon. Leapt out of bed to pursue this stunner of an idea. Picked up the tin & headed onto the landing to fetch a clean pillow case from the linen cupboard.........& that's when the lid flew off, I dropped the tin & oh my days, you would not think beads could travel so far!! Well, mr f stood there offering really helpful advice like 'Why didn't you put the lid on' & 'We're going to be finding those for years' & I just lost it. I hurled the pillow case at him, kicked the beads even further & stood & swore like a docker until he decided it was probably best not to offer any more advice but to go downstairs & make me some toast & coffee. I'm one of those people who is placid & laid back up to a point, with oodles of patience, but when I 'blow', it's generally pretty spectacular. So after some caffiene, I tackled the beady deluge & recovered enough to go ahead with my 'free shopping from home' ice pack, which is currently in the freezer waiting to be tested out. I hoovered up the rest of the beads as I never want to see them again. I had to hoover 2 bedrooms, my little HQ room, the landing, stairs & linen cupboard. I think we truly will be finding the bloody things for months! Oh well, it was a good idea & I am looking forward to trying it out on my swollen tendon. If it works, then the hassle will have been worth it, if not....well, it was free, wasn't it? (Apart from the electricity used for all that damned hoovering......)
Have subsequently calmed down & successfully done my mid-month budget check-in. No nasty surprises, though a need to be careful while we are away. I think we can do this as mr f is definitely on board with it & it's so much easier, isn't it, with all things budget-related, when both people are singing from the same hymn sheet?
Hope everyone else got of to a better start than me - oh, & I should add that the entire tantrum was conducted while I was still stark naked! I'm surprised mr f didn't just fall about laughing!
F x

crazy_cat_lady

I really, really hope it has worked. You had such good (and moneysaving) intentions. I would have similarly lost my temper, but I have to say that you don't strike me as the screaming banshee short