Giving every £ a job

foxgloves

The cheek of those in-laws, @Blackcats!! I am so glad that their outrageous request for money was firmly kicked to the kerb! And also glad that your refusal was garnished with a selection of choice expletives.
F x

Blackcats

Yes indeed foxgloves the power of "no" can be very liberating.  The expletives MrBC used were rather strong but there can certainly be no doubt about the refusal of the "cash injection".

very excited that my new ninja air fryer arrived tonight - haven't unpacked it yet and consequently there is a box the size of a small nation in the hall.  The model we chose has the big drawer that can be divided into 2.  It's got a bread proving function which should be useful.
we shopped around, used £co and our cash back credit card so we made it as cost effective as possible and I'm paying for it with my vinted sales which feels very, very grown up 😇

joedenise

You'll love the Flexdrawer - I use it mainly as the full drawer although have used it as 2 different functions a couple of times.

savingholmes

Enjoy your new toy fryer. I don't have the energy to learn how to use something new like that right now.

Glad Mr BC has stood firm. Good boundaries.

Blackcats

@joedenise - thanks for popping by.  I am already enjoying the new air fryer - cooked a whole chicken in it yesterday and have also made bread - very nice to have a proving drawer - makes me feel like I'm on bake off 😀

@savingholmes - when you have more headspace I think it will be worth you investigating air fryers.  I don't think we will need to use our oven again except for Christmas lunch!  

I've been feeling a bit bleurgh about money saving for a couple of weeks.  I think it's because I'm in month 1 (of 3 1/2) of lower income and higher expenses.  It's not unexpected and is worth it from a future proofing perspective.  From June onwards we will be considerably better off.  I think that not having money to save has made me uncomfortable and ironically made me less enthusiastic about managing my spending.  Just at the time I should be focussed I had started to become less focussed.

so I've had a firm word with myself and am now back on track and hopefully haven't jeopardised my membership of PIP's Tuppence Club.

I've reminded myself that I have control over some money matters that will make the short term impact better and make me feel better -

gas and electricity - I've got good credit built up and my monthly DD has been reduced from 1st March.  We can be careful with usage

grocery shopping - keeping accountable on the grocery challenge thread and I think I'll have £34 underspend this month.  Can try for a
reduced budget next month 

discretionary spends - I can be thoughtful about these.  I'll keep our personal spends budget intact as I think this actually makes us spend less

Try to do plenty of surveys and put this money into a savings pot - possibly the holiday pot to build that up

keep encouraging/nagging MrBC to list on ebay and use any earnings to top up a savings pot

keep myself accountable on my diary and on the grocery challenge

I've also taken £150 from February's budget underspend and divided it across some saving pots and that is motivating.

so, belt is tightened and enthusiasm is coming back.

Sun_Addict

Is this your first Ninja? Glad you’re enjoying it anyway, I love mine. Not used my oven for around 3 years.

PennysIntoPounds

Glad the enthusiasm is coming back, that sounds like a great list of things you can do currently. I'm somehow -90p for the rest of Feb so I hope *I'm* still allowed in Tuppence Club!
How was your decluttering from a while ago going, have you done everything you wanted to? If not, you might come across something you could sell for a couple of quid, or at least feel productive
But also, be nice to yourself, it's not long since you retired and it's bound to take time to adjust practically and sense-of-self-wise, and it is the last week of February. It has been cold and dark forever and if anyone is being their best self right now then they have a screw loose imo 😁

PennysIntoPounds

P.S. I think Tuppence Club was co-founded if not started by @foxgloves, just putting that out there as she has the craft skills to make us emblazoned team cardigans 😂

lucielle

I tried doing a chicken in my air fryer, it was awful!  Not sure what went wrong. 

L

joedenise

I love cooking a whole chicken in the air fryer.  It's always so moist.  @lucielle - did you air fry?  I always use roast as I think the air fry is a bit vicious!  I cooked a half chicken last week and that was also really moist, roasted potatoes and veg at the same time.  The Flexdrawer is so versatile.  I think I've used my oven twice since I got the air fryer and that was because I was cooking something else at the same time as the roast dinner so made sense to use it.