Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Deni_debt-free_dreamer

hi foxgloves

I enjoy reading about your garden progress even though i don't have green fingers!
I have been to the zero waste shop today and filled up on wash up liquid and more reusable cleansing pads.  I am using the shop more and more as they have most dry goods, household stuff, oils - balsamic vinegar, olive oil etc.  I'll be going back in a few weeks for ground almonds and SR flour so i can make raspberry bakewell sponge without wasting anything

Hope you've had a nice day and seen some sunshine 

love Deni x

Deni_debt-free_dreamer

I also did 2 more surveys and cashed out my balance of £52 from Prolific - terrific 

foxgloves

Well we all deserve a treat sometimes, @marionmgcars, so I'm glad you enjoyed your hotel stay.
Yes, our grandparents wouldn't have been able to pop to a big nearby garden centre to fill a trolley with planty loveliness from all corners of the globe. I too think they'd have swapped plants & picked them up for pennies at garden stalls & church/village fetes, etc. It's still possible to turn up some good bargains that way. Also worth asking family & friends for a little cutting or division.
F

foxgloves

I STILL haven't checked out our local zero-easte market stall, @Deni_debt-free_dreamer. I really must get the ample backside in gear on that one.
Well done on the PA cash-out. I have £37 PA earnings to transfer from PayPal but am waiting for our Ziff*t payment to land so we can take it all together. If I don't get a sizeable wriggle on, my May cash-out is going to be a truly pathetic amount.
F

foxgloves

Hello Sunday Savers,
Well the weather forecasters must have had a night on the pop, because our day of rain, thunder & lightning has not materialised & I've actually pegged out a whirlygig's worth of laundry.
Pleasant weekend. Think grocery shopping came in under target -will know tomorrow which is a planned number-crunching/admin day. We've spent the weekend filling our new front courtyard bed now all the renovation work is complete & it looks so nice. I have another long narrow strip of bed to fill but intend to tackle that next week - you see, it's going to be 100% spend-free to get this one planted so I need to take a few more divisions & sort out a selection of home grown summer bedding.
Mr F did a BBQ last night to celebrate all the work finally being finished & we shared a bottle of cava. It was a nice low-key, relaxed evening. 
Now, bbq-ing brings out Mr F's inner troglodyte & he tends to over-buy meat for these occasions. I have come to the conclusion it isn't worth having a pithy discussion in the shop, he just simply gets the red mist when confronted with open air meat grilling possibilities so I have to manage it. So I always tell him to 'cook plenty' to make sure we can get another meal from it the next day. He put plenty of leftover marinated chicken in the fridge with some other bits & pieces, which we'll eat cold with home made jacket wedges, salad & coleslaw tonight. I also suggest he doesn't open everything.....if he is still hungry (he never is), he can always go & get a couple of things to chuck onto the coals but if he isn't, the unopened stuff can go in the freezer for another meal or two. He sees the logic of this so this time, a pack of lemon & pepper chicken thighs & some unopened pork steaks have been frozen. The lovely Mr F is built like a brick privy with an appetite to match but there is no way he could chomp his way through the amount of chargrilled meat items he thinks he can! Those extra packs will be appearing on future meal plans, there's no doubt about that, & tbf, he did get an impressive amount of meat from our market butcher for £15.
Well, I'm sitting on our coffee bench, where I've been reading the latest Camilla Lackberg novel. Another productive week planned, but I MUST begin it by checking in to our household financials.
Enjoy your evenings all,
F xx

Deni_debt-free_dreamer

hi foxgloves
sounds like a lovely eve with Mr F 
I love our zero waste shop - eventually i hope to get at least 80% of my stuff from there.  They do toiletries, shampoo bars etc - I've only had food (dry goods), oil, wash up liquid, liquid soap and washing liquid from there so far...
The owner is also trialing a clothes swop event - i'm away that weekend but hopefully they will do another one
love Deni x

Humdinger1

@foxgloves,  your friends in the soft South have been dancing the thunder and lightning polka on your behalf  today! The weatherman warned us of 'thunder troughs' this morning; I'd never heard that before but it is a darn good description! It might be heading north tomorrow; we were expecting lovely sun after yesterday but it was not to be. ..ah well, we can still keep budgeting, regardless of the weather love Humdinger xx 

foxgloves

I suspect you might be right, @Humdinger1. It's been raining overnight & looks very grey & overcast - it's humid too, so I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a bit of storminess today. Not a problem as I need to spend time at my desk. Am 2 or 3 days late with my mid-month budget check-in & I really need to do it. I want to see how things are bedding down since the last of the renovations budget was paid out. So it's going to be plenty of coffee, calculator & trusty Money Book for me.
F

foxgloves

Hello Monday Money Savers,
I must go out & get some fresh air in a minute - we've just had some colossal rain, but it's stopped now & I might even be able to persuade a couple of naughty cats to go & burn off some steam. To be fair, Ash did go for a wander earlier, but then thought he'd come & dry his soggy fur on my sleeve.
Hadn't planned an exciting day - mostly budget updates, followed by my regular mid-month budget check-in. This is something I started back when we were first engaging with budgeting & trying to find a system which worked for us. I still do it. It's kind of a peace of mind thing to make sure I'm still on track, to head off any lurking nasties well in advance of my Big Budget Day. Well, I'm glad I did get onto that good & early because when I signed into my credit card account to check something, I discovered 2 pending transactions (both the same) which I didn't recognise. I absolutely racked my brains over what they could be but as they were still pending, they were under the name of the payment platform, rather than the actual business. I phoned my card provider & sat in a long queue to speak to someone. He was not able to tell me the name of the business but he was able to tell me the exact time, to the minute, when the transaction was made yesterday. That told me all I needed to know. I NEVER use my mobile phone for online shopping, only my laptop, & I didn't even have my laptop out of its bag yesterday, let alone sign it on. So card cancelled...... advisor said I must keep a close eye on my account over the next few days just in case, as he says we have to assume that is fraud. Usually, anything I've bought online on my CC over the weekend appears on my account on Monday as 'pending' then the transaction goes through on Tuesday so I am glad I spotted it at the pending stage. I can't help wondering how a fraudster has acquired my card details, though. 
Other money saving wins: Did a couple of surveys, complained to the online book trader I used recently as they paid me £1.10 less than I expected. I assumed that one of our items hadn't met their criteria, but when I checked the list, it said 'item not received'. Hmmmm. A likely story, as I not only checked the list off manually while prepping to pack them, but also counted them all into the box to ensure I'd got the right number. Sent assertive email. Prompt apology received & they are going to pay me for that item. I know, I know, it's more than £1.10's worth of my time, but that was an unusual out of print book & I'd rather have kept it if I wasn't even going to get the promised price for it. Have also tried to resolve a longstanding problem I have with YouG*v. I used to do well on this site. They sent me regular invites (my account is set to 'as many as poss') & yes, it takes a while to get to the £50 cash-out but I was back up to over £37 again so I was over halfway. Then I stopped getting any invites at all. I tried signing in to see if my settings had defaulted to something different but I couldn't even access my account. I would wait for the access code which is 'valid for 10 mins' but they don't arrive within 10 mins.....in fact, they don't arrive at all! This means that they are sitting on £37 of my earnings, but I am unable to increase it to £50 because I can't access any surveys whatsoever, which is a bit of a swizz, I'm sure you'll agree. I submitted a complaint via their email proforma but it was clearly answered by a bot because the reply was irrelevant to my question. Again, it's only £37 but it's the principle of the thing. I've earned that money fair & square!
Oh I've had my assertiveness head on today, for sure. I need to walk around a bit now, get some practical tasks done & see if my rolls & pizza dough have finished proving yet. I also want to have a scan around for any use-it-up items in need of attention. Might be able to wangle one or two into Mr F's packed lunch or use for my pizza topping. Also need to go down the garden to cut some salad.
So , I'll leave you there, m'dears. Hope nobody's had a really horrid Monday anyway,
F x

Deni_debt-free_dreamer

Hi foxgloves
I share your frustrations with UG*v - my settings are the same and i haven't had any surveys for ages.  I also got a book rejected by z1ff!t for being water damaged - i packed it up well so it must've happened in transit - next time i will complain too on principle!

Love Deni x