Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

@savingmore, not an ignorant question at all. It's self-patterning sock yarn, which comes out either stripy, sort of fairisle or a mixture of both. 
F x

foxgloves

Hello Saturday Savers,
Sharp frost overnight & a really icy car this morning, but quite sunny for most of the day & none of the snow & hail showers we kept getting yesterday. Useful morning in town. Higher grocery spend than a 'normal' week, but this included a pantry stock-up of quite a lot of items at A*di & as we were already going there, we decided to mitigate the extra cost by also getting as much of the rest of our grocery list as possible. Other small shopping wins: Found 2 books I've been wanting in the charity bookshop, 2 little Easter gifts bought for under £4, got a 3 for 2 on the make-up item I needed & we shared a half price scone with our coffee. 
Free exercise this afternoon as have hoed a large flower bed, re-cut the edges & cleared a dank corner I had been ignoring. Re-planted 2 self-seeded cornflowers, 2 calendula & an aquilegia. Love plant freebies. Also watered greenhouse plant babies & fed sweet-peas, which would have been planted out this week had it not been for the plunge in temperatures. They're hardier than a lot of the summer flowering stuff, but still better to wait than put them out when the nights are sub-zero. Checked outside seed troughs - spring onions are germinating, also perpetual spinach & radishes. Rocket looks like it might be thinking about it.
Mr F has forgotten to buy beer & this is a Bad Thing. I'm wondering if he is going to crack & pootle off to the C**p. Atm, I am well out of the way up in my little HQ room, as he's just gone downstairs & is now dealing with what I can only describe as a 'two joss-stick' litter tray - from the conversation I can hear him having with Soot, I think the situation is going to require some serious patchouli!
Intending to do very little tonight - it's not my cooking night - N*tflix & a bit more of the mini-rug project from my craft stash, which I started yesterday & reading a few more chapters of my book.
Wishing everyone a peaceful & pleasant evening, unless anyone planning on painting the town red, in which case, have a good one!
F x

Sun_Addict

Oh dear to the forgotten beer and litter tray 😬

foxgloves

@Sun_Addict - The forgotten beer is going down worse than the litter tray, but he hasn't cracked yet, lol.
F

foxgloves

Greetings Sunday Savers,
A no-spend day as we decided to postpone our walk around local-ish gorge & tackle some garden jobs instead. Good for free fitness - Mr F has continued hedge thinning & digging out lots of invasive stuff, mostly brambles, ivy & briony. I've forked over & weeded half a large bed. I also harvested 2 trays of compost from the worm composter....well, 3 trays really, as the rain had washed quite a lot down into the sump. I started the worms off for the new season in a tray refilled with kitchen scraps & shredded paper & they will get to work now turning that into compost, as well as providing plenty of supplies of free 'worm tea' plant food. Dug half of it into the space I like to grow sweetpeas & got the wigwam in place. I like a rustic one made from branches & long prunings, so Mr F helped me get these tied together & in place.
Energy saving? Well the thermostat is still at 18 so only coming on when it falls below that. We've stopped lighting the stove in the evening. We've managed 2 baths from 1 lot of hot water today & I'm going to look at tomorrow's weather forecast before I decide whether to put the wm on timer for early tomorrow morning, in view of wanting free drying.
Feels like a free roast dinner tonight, as I froze some leftover sliced roast pork in gravy a while back, which will just need heating up & veg to be cooked. 
Interesting article in the 'Guardi*n' today about significant increase in the number of people opting for IVAs & how these are being miss-sold. I feel for people who are having to worry about this on top of bills & prices shooting up all over the place.
Ah well, time to see who I have to snog around here for a cup of coffee (yes, @Sun_Addict, it's one of my fave seasonal films too!) & to enjoy a read of my book.
Peace,
F x

foxgloves

He didn't crack re the beer, & hasn't today either. A small saving there, even if he did have a bit of a face on last night, lol.
F

Sun_Addict

foxgloves said:

He didn't crack re the beer, & hasn't today either. A small saving there, even if he did have a bit of a face on last night, lol.
F

Progress 🤣🍺 Wish Mr SA was the same, he would cry if he didn’t have any beer.

foxgloves

Aaaghhhh! So much for checking the weather forecast before pegging out my laundry!! Supposed to have been wet this morning with less chance of rain (13%) from lunchtime. Naturally it has happened the other way round. I pegged out expecting a good 3 hours of it blowing around & instead, it has so far rained much more than it did this morning. Pointless fetching it in, as it will be soaking. I am still hoping it will get a solid 30 mins to an hour of drying to blow out the worst of it then I will race out & bring it in. Damn nuisance. 
And here's another one. Was expecting the builders this morning but nobody has shown up. It's probably because of the wet weather but I don't know which jobs can be done in the rain & which can't, so would have appreciated a quick ping to say they weren't coming. I have the car today & could have gone out. Pigged off!
On a more positive note, I have done a few useful things - Monday morning budget updates, including sorting out transfers of funds from savings pots, updated all 3 spreadsheets & got my head around the new mobiles bill following changing my phone last month. Have also poached a selection of fish (mostly trimmings from when I divvied up our recent Grimsby fish box) & hard boiled a couple of eggs ready for making fish pie tonight. I'm intending to make a big one so that it will do tomorrow as well. Use-it-up potatoes going on top.....they are a bit sprouty but will be fine for mash. Have also wrapped 2 small edible Easter gifts for relatives using materials from my recycled wrappings stash as ever. 
I've synchronised my diary with Mr F - I've said before that being organised always saves us money. Even knowing which days he can take a microwaveable packed lunch is helpful, as it means good use of leftovers & nice to have something hot on these cold days. We've pencilled in an outing for the weekend, as we both feel we'd benefit from a change of scenery & fresh air which doesn't involve using too much petrol. 
And that is pretty much today's unexciting day in which I could have gone out if I'd heard from the builders & could have had dry laundry if I hadn't believed the weather app. Ah well, I am going to tuck up on the sofa with a hot water bottle & a book now & wait for a dryish break when I can dash out & recover our sodden clothes. Not in the best of moods - wondering if baking some biscuits might provide an uplift. If not, eating them might!
Stay cosy (although using as little gas & electricity as possible, of course!)
F x

Deni_debt-free_dreamer

hi foxgloves
i think you should definitely make (then eat) some biscuits
It is so annoying that the builders haven't been in touch - it would take 10 seconds to send a text
Deni x

foxgloves

My thoughts exactly, @Deni_debt-free_dreamer - I've cheered up a bit though, as it's stopped raining (prob not for long), Mr F has made me a coffee & I've done 3 surveys, inc one for £5, so I've not succumbed to baking therapy yet, though the cats are in the kitchen meowing & mithering for their biscuits. They honestly think that whenever anyone goes into the kitchen, they should have food!
F x