Put away your purse & become debt-averse

joedenise

That's a great idea having a pot which you fund entirely from interest on your bank account. Think I'm going to pinch that idea for days out from next year. We get interest and cash back from our current account plus cash back on one of our credit cards. That should tot up quite nicely throughout the year!

Denise

foxgloves

DNMS - It's hard when you can't get partners on board fully. I did have my LBM earlier than mr f & that threw up a number of tricky moments, but since then, we're on the same page. I don't think he finds my management of our budget 'controlling' - he has said that actually, it is doing the budgeting which facilitates us being able to buy things & do stuff. We do always have our monthly 'spends' money to do what we like with. I did start the debt busting journey on my own though, as he wasn't quite ready back then to acknowledge our debt levels as problematic.

foxgloves

Good evening my little Christmas crackers,
Have had a very pleasant afternoon baking. Made a nice big wodge of pastry which I made into sausage rolls & mini cheesy rolls (the Delia veggie alternative which get absolutely hoovered by our family). Had a bit of leftover pastry & as we have a zero food waste policy in our house, I rolled it out, sprinkled it with 25g of leftover cheese from the cheesy rolls filling, then a sprinkle of onion powder, cayenne & salt. Folded it over, re-rolled & used biscuit cutter to cut out Christmas tree shapes. Brushed with the leftover eggy wash & sprinkled with nigella seeds before baking. Took a couple in to mr f still warm from the oven (the biscuits, not mr f!) & he said they were fab, just right to go with some beer, etc, & what were they?
'Leftovers', I said.
I should have invented a la-di-dah fancypants name like 'Golden Seeded Festive Fir Tree Nibbly Bites', but it had been a long day & I needed coffee & a sit down in that order.......so they are called 'Leftovers Biscuits' - they're surprisingly nice though.....& a bit of a freebie too.
Hope everyone's had at least one or two little wins today.
F x

Onebrokelady

Mmmmm they sound yummy:beer:

joedenise

I used to use LO pastry by scattering mixed dried fruit over it and then folding and retooling and cutting into strips. They looked a bit like dead fly biscuits (Garibaldis). The kids used to love them.

Have to say I think your version would be much better now that we're all older!

Denise

foxgloves

Ooooh, that sounds nice, Denise. I like home made Garibaldis - so nice & buttery compared to shop ones, so I bet this would work really well with pastry leftovers. I'll try it at some point - thanks.
F

foxgloves

Hi Christmas Eve Pence-Wranglers,
Well, just when you think you are well on top of your budget, some or other appliance or tech item has to go kaput, doesn't it? In our case, our blu-ray player. It had been working perfectly well until Friday night, then it suddenly announced that it wasn't playing any more, & what's more, it was taking its ball back! AV/Home cinema kit is a big hobby of mr f's & we'd got a couple of box sets lined up for Christmas as well as films, etc, so he was very keen to get it sorted. Now, we've both been spenders, but unlike me, one of his Big Problem Areas back in the Spendy Decades, was exactly this sort of thing. I have to say he is a really reformed character these days. Firstly he tried all sorts of things to try & mend it himself, none of which worked. Then he tried an update via a download. This also failed as it's now considered an old model & is no longer supported by the company in terms of update 'patches'.
I must admit I was kind of dreading the next stage, as the TV is the same age & I know he was planning to upgrade the old Blu-ray player at the same time as the TV, when it carks it. I suddenly found myself really hoping he wouldn't want to do this the other way around......i.e 'Oh the blu-ray player's died, we may as well replace the TV at the same time as that'll be the next thing to go'. I know full well that in the past, he'd have done exactly that & sallied forth to the nearest city centre to buy them. But his approach is very different now. He said it wasn't time to replace the TV. Firstly because it is still currently working fine, & secondly because he hasn't had time to do the necessary research to ensure the best purchase for both our entertainment needs & our budget.
So he bought just a reasonably basic blu-ray player. We don't have a tech-replacement 'pot' atm, but we were able to meet most of the cost from the ebay sales I've been busy with in the last couple of months, so that was all fine. No more has been said about a replacement TV. I genuinely think that hobbyist thing of wanting to upgrade stuff regularly has left him since we've been successfully budgeting & become so debt-averse.
Anyway, must go & make some lunch now, but not before wishing Yuletide Blessings to you all.
Love from F xx

DawnW

joedenise wrote: »

I used to use LO pastry by scattering mixed dried fruit over it and then folding and retooling and cutting into strips. They looked a bit like dead fly biscuits (Garibaldis). The kids used to love them.

Denise

Yes, I do something similar, but dot butter and sprinkle sugar sparingly before scattering the mixed fruit. The kids called them 'pastry things', and they were very popular. I still make them sometimes, to avoid waste and bought biscuits potentially containing palm oil and certainly with far too much sugar - DD2 was very excited when she came in the other day as there were some just out of the oven. She is a mum herself now, and wasted no time in introducing her 5 and 1 year olds to them

Onebrokelady

Yuletide blessings to you and Mr Foxgloves,glad you got the blue ray sorted and I hope you have a lovely time xx

crazy_cat_lady

Merry Christmas Foxgloves - hope that the day has been fantastically festive