Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Deni_debt-free_dreamer

Welcome back foxgloves !
I was born in Norfolk I took my DDs for a holiday near Cromer in autumn a few years ago, we drove along the north Norfolk coast, it was stunning and so peaceful 
love Deni 

foxgloves

@Sun_Addict & @Deni_debt-free_dreamer - Thanks. yes, it's a lovely part of the country - we were in an old stables not far from Cromer.

@Blackcats - Yes, they were....if they intended to stage a sulk, they forgot as soon as they were home, as they were on laps very quickly.

@Themadix - I'd assumed they would stick like tortilla wraps, so it's useful to know that they don't - Thanks.

@FourSeasons - I haven't forgotten the fudge recipe....tomorrow or Tuesday, I intend to dig out various Christmas baking/festive recipes to decide what to bake this year, so I will find the fudge recipe at the same time, as I will need to make some for a present.
F x

foxgloves

Greetings Sunday Savers,
It's been a relaxed, but useful day today so far. In the continued spirit of decluttering my little HQ room (it will need to sleep a nephew over Christmas), I've got on & finished a few projects. It hasn't felt at all arduous, yet the bin is overflowing & that makes me feel I've been nicely productive. I still have lots of printing to do but ran out of ink, so will need to wait for new cartridge to be delivered.
Have also:
*Shopped a new A4 notebook from home - one which belonged to Mum but she'd only used a couple of pages so I rescued it when we were clearing our old family home & had completely forgotten about it. A small saving there, anyway.
*Did a survey. Unfortunately a 2nd one had been incorrectly set up & would not progress to the next page, so earnings were very much at only a pence level today.
*Added our CC loyalty vouchers to stash - £9 of M&S vouchers for the Clothes Pot & another £15 of JL ('turkey tokens').
*Liaised with my sister about when exactly they are arriving for Christmas then sat with Mr F & did meal plans for the 3 days they are with us. Felt it was worth putting the time in now to save on faffing around later.
*Having sorted out the above......wrote Christmas food shopping list. 
*Cast on a pair of socks for the Presents bag (2023!) My sister was given a ball of sock yarn in a colour she doesn't like, so she offered it to me, thinking I wouldn't like it either.....well, I don't, but it's a very good colourway for a family member who likes my handknitted socks, so it seemed sensible to accept the donated yarn & cast a pair on as my current easy TV-watching project. 
Mr F's cooking night tonight & he's doing roast chicken, so I will be on rubber chicken duty tomorrow morning. I really need to get back into routines tomorrow, as well as progress various things which are threatening to pile up/fall behind. I also want to resume going out for a daily walk as my fitness levels (never very impressive) have never got back to where they were pre-pandemic & I think it would be foolhardy to let them drop further. 
So m'dears, hopefully a productive week ahead on all fronts.  Anyone else in need of a virtual kick up the 'arris? Let's see what we can do.
F x

Cheery_Daff

Definitely in need of a virtual kick here! I shall endeavour to be inspired by your activity. You've reminded me I've got a ball of sock wall somewhere in a blue tit inspired colourway (which I do like!) so that might be a nice wintry evening project for myself 😊

foxgloves

Get 'em cast on, @Cheery_Daff. Knitting in the winter months even makes me feel warmer.....I know that's psychological, but I'll take anything! 
F

EssexHebridean

Glad to hear you had such a lovely time away Foxgloves - I think you know I'm also very fond of that area - to the extent that after our weekend in Norwich recently we headed north rather than south before heading home to get a walk on the northern coast, albeit further west than you were. 

I am now craving roast chicken as I think yours is the third diary I've seen today mentioning it in some form or another! 

foxgloves

@EH, yes while my heart is in Suffolk, I am also very fond of Norfolk & we did have a lovely time. One of our best city breaks years ago was 3 nights in the purple budget hotel in Norwich - there was so much to do, easy walking distance into the city centre, we enjoyed the shops & historic sites & we keep saying we must go back & do it all again before too long.
F

foxgloves

Hello Monday Money Savers,
Oh my days, I feel like I have been sitting at my desk all day number-crunching. My regular Monday morning budget updates were much lengthier than usual because we were on holiday last week, so there was lots to do. Then, to add to the steam coming off the calculator, it also happened to be my mid-month budget check-in day. Well, as all us reformed characters know, the regular updates need to be done first, so as to enable accurate figures from which to work for mid-month reconciliation. There wasn't anything particularly difficult & we look to be pretty much on track with where I thought we'd be, but it was just the extra time it took. I budgeted £100 for holiday expenses, in addition to our normal grocery budget for the week we were away & a small underspend from the previous week. That turned out to be more than enough as we had £40-58 leftover from the £100 pot. I used £36 of it to pay the additional cattery cost  - I'd budgeted for a shared pen before Ash started getting chippy with Soot a few days before we were due to go, but phoned to change to 2 separate ones  - & that left £4.58, which I wasn't going to do anything with, but then thought of @Sun_Addict squirrelling these little amounts over to her Christmas Pot & how every little bit really does add up, so I sent it to the Clothes Pot.
I was just finishing everything off when Mr F pinged to say the car is booked for its first service next week, which will be £150 & then the fish lady phoned so I ordered a fish box. Decided both of those can wait until my next budgeting session. Mr F also enquired about the servicing plan - we used to have one of those on our previous car, where we paid a monthly amount to cover our servicing costs. He has the figures & we're going to discuss it. The old plan did have some advantages, but it wasn't perfect & of course, we still needed to run a car maintenance pot ourselves to pay for the stuff that isn't covered, such as tyres, etc.
Anyway, apart from number crunching, I've also done the following:
*Baked a granary loaf
*Free fitness going for a walk around the village in the fog
*Done rubber chicken duties - It did roast dinner yesterday. Divvied up sufficient for curry tonight, spicy chicken couscous tomorrow, an Epic Man Stew, a sandwich & some soup. Already had a carcass & various stock bits in the freezer so have got a double-strength stock bubbling away in the slow cooker. I will use some of that when I make the soup & Mr F has already put first dibs on a large container to be frozen for him to make Christmas Day gravy!
*Entered 5 competitions.
*Did 2 surveys, including a £4 one.
I didn't get everything done today that I'd hoped, but tomorrow is another day & guess what, there are some more days after that too, so I will press on & just aim to be feeling more in control by Friday close of play. I've jotted the tasks in my diary which I need to prioritise tomorrow morning, so no faffing around. One will need more number crunching, as it's my decision & reply to the quote letter re the private dental work. Oh my........
Love F x

milann

What a productive day you’ve had. You’re very organised planning your Christmas food already. I have budgetted this year, but other than that haven’t even thought about food - and we’re hosting this year. Better get on with my making my Christmas cakes. 

foxgloves

It helps spread the cost, @milann, & if we know what we need, we can take advantage of any good offers we see. It also helps keep Mr F in line because he can soon get the red mist over things like pigs in blankets & posh crisps, so it is useful to sit down in good time & work out how much we need & how much would be a ridiculous amount because these are not conversations I want to be having in the supermarket iyswim.
But I am a planner, it's true, in all aspects of life.
F x