Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Bah!! Still waiting for email reply, so sadly Frog 1 was only a half-swallow & Frog 2 still on the bloody plate waiting. Tomorrow is another day, I suppose.
F 

Sayschezza

A tablespoon of your chicken stock mashed into soots leftover meat will do the trick. Unfortunately you will then have ash expecting the same treatment.

2Scratters

Well morning Peeps,
our purse is well away this week as completed a annual budget and have got a list of contents of the freezer. We wont be hungry for sure. I found some odd meals and they have now gone, yum yum. However there have been many meals added and an unexpected batch cook yesterday and I even managed to glean some left overs of chicken and mushroom pie contents as there was a washy bit left found the mayflower curry mix in the cupboard so 4 portions of chickenish curry and made the rice. Another set of meals for work for me. Total in the batch was 10 meals. Even complimented by DH he enjoyed the pie There is a LO portion ready for his tea tonight. 
We have had more rain overnight - sorry for those who have not had any. We are trying to use the excess water from the water butt and use for the loo flushes. All swings and roundabouts with the money savings trying to make ends meet for us all the benefit of aggregational marginal gains :

Have a good weekend all and stay safe
2 Scratters x

foxgloves

@Sayschezza - Thanks for that suggestion. I'll try it next time I have some defrosted. Soot isn't very interested in treats of 'human food' - he'll occasionally eat a little piece of chicken, but I think he's one of those cats, much like an enormous ginger & white lad we owned years ago, who only likes cat food........& sometimes (naughty, naughty) only the jelly off cat food! Ash is quite different & loves little tastes of things.....wish I'd had my phone handy to video him when we put a little piece of hot-dog sausage next to him when he was asleep.

@2Scratters - You've been busy with your batch cooking. It's a key plank, I always think, in terms of those aggregate marginal gains. I think lots of us on here would endorse this as an approach. I know some of my energy saving measures are truly tiny but in aggregate, over a year, two years, etc, they will add up to a saving & when other areas such as meal planning, make-do & mend, shopping from home, growing food, making presents, re-using, recycling, & everything else are factored in, we know we can save really noticeable amounts of money. Also.....simply not buying it! An extra garden bench, a vacuum (that's to Mr F's liking, unlike our current one which we inherited from my Mum), a new compost caddy, new bathroom curtain fabric.......all things which I'd like, but cannot justify in the face of the coming economic storm. 
F x

foxgloves

Hello Frugal Diary Friends,
Didn't get round to posting yesterday - I did have a productive day, but the email I was awaiting didn't arrive, so Frog 1 remained unswallowed & Frog 2 untouched. 
I did get a big Annoying Job done though. Since we had a walk-in pantry installed two years ago, our fitted pull-out larder kitchen unit has been largely redundant. We have continued to use it for jars, packets, etc, which are already open & various bits & bobs, but this just means we need to look in 2 places for ingredients & on at least a couple of occasions, we've opened a new pack of something already open & also re-bought items we have in stock because I'd neglected to check both stores. So yesterday, I transferred all food to the pantry & scrubbed the pull-out larder baskets clean. Then I re-filled it with cooking/baking equipment from a desperately over-stuffed cupboard. I took the opportunity to lower a couple of the baskets too, as they were certainly not put in by someone of my 1.62cms height. It is now so easy to find things without knocking stacks of other stuff over. I have turned the other cupboard into storage for baking tins/trays - it's one of those corner cupboard with revolving shelves & I can now turn them around to reach things without bulky items getting caught & falling off. It does feel good to have things working better & without spending a single penny. Just how we like it,
Today OK so far - unfortunately a terrible night of insomnia & once I was awake, I got stuck in a loop of catastrophising anxiety. I managed to talk myself down from one subject by saying firmly to myself "I'll deal with this when & IF it happens" only to find my naughty mind simply moved onto something else! I do feel tired now & still a bit jittery, just because those sort of nights (I don't have many of them these days, thankfully) are so awful. But some positives too as BOTH frogs have been swallowed. I phoned to find why no response to my email & received such a nice apology......the admin/reception team have been severely depleted by covid & another lergy so emails have built up. The frog was dealt with then & there and by such a kind helpful member of staff, I didn't even feel it going down! Having dealt with this, I was then in a position to deal with Frog 2, which turned out very well. So there we have it - double consumption of troublesome amphibians! 
No money spent today, & nor will there be, as have been catching up on cleaning & admin, as well as making a sourdough. Decided to take advantage of a breezy day to get a load of towels washed & pegged out and I have also put a colour on my yukky roots. I still have today's garden pickings to do, which I think may just be tomatoes, as did courgettes & windfall apples yesterday & am fairly on top of harvesting things. Next Annoying Job will be sorting out my jam jar stash ready for chutney making. I think I may leave this until Monday & tackle it while listening to my audiobook.
Friday again, Frugalistas....where did that week go? 
F x
 

marionmgcars

Agree with everyone here that planning is a key to success.  I’ve not had a no spend week, but added a few gifts to the gift box for later.  I knit a little jumper for a friends new baby & got a lovely pair of “jeans” to complete outfit.  Wool from stash and Tesc0 sale for jeans.   One fail this week was going shopping hungry when I bought a whole cooked chicken - so tempting , but so expensive.  

Cheery_Daff

Sorry to heave you've been having anxious nights ☹ I had a very gloomy morning myself, most unlike me, but spent 2 hours driving and thinking about all kinds of things going wrong while Mr Cheery happily snoozed in the passenger seat 🙄

Excellent work on the annoying jobs though! I am so super impressed, and might even take a leaf from your book!

foxgloves

@marionmgcars - Fab little jumper. Love the pattern.
@Cheery_Daff - Yes, it's easy to get stuck in that groove of catastrophising, isn't it? It's certainly a bad mix with insomnia.
I can recommend tackling longstanding Annoying Jobs. It's giving me a sense of achievement because of them being those kind of things which irritate me every time I walk past them.
F

foxgloves

Afternoon Saturday Savers,
Town & a few jobs for me today. Mr F is listening to geeky podcasts while painting the shed.
Today's small budgetary wins:
*Posted my sister's big parcel & got the price down by £6 simply by selecting Tuesday for guaranteed delivery instead of Monday.
*This week's grocery shop hasn't been added up yet, but will be under budget.
*3 more £1 coconut body creams bought from the shop that rhymes with toys, now that I've thoroughly tested it.
*1 x Scandi-crime novel bought in charity bookshop plus went halves with Mr F on a dvd box set.
*Things I didn't buy: Greens (decided to cut a bunch of homegrown chard), Cheese scone (I did have a skinny cappuccino but thought of weigh-day & saved my pence), bird seed (they can finish off the last of the peanut bag & have new seed when I've cleaned & disinfected all the feeders).
*Today's garden pickings: Tomatoes, courgettes, jalapeno chillies, a pepper, blackberries, french beans & rhubarb.
*Borrowed Thomasina Miers' new meat- free Mexican book from the local library. Nice book for a summer browse..Have started off a fermented vinegar drink recipe from it already, as I had all the ingredients.
We chatted about small aggregate gains theory over coffee - we both think that this is our current approach to money-saving, but that it needs to be cranked up a few gears in the face of the coming recession (the one that Ms Truss thinks we can talk ourselves out of!)
Off to see if the shed painter requires a drink, then off down the garden with my book.
Wishing everyone a peaceful weekend,
F xx

Cheery_Daff

Sounds like good work done in the foxgloves household this weekend, well done! 😊😊

Small aggregate gains is always a good plan I think - often it's the only one available but it does work!