Giving every £ a job

lucielle

Yes I did use roast but the texture was flobbery. 

L

Blackcats

@Sun_Addict- we previously had the dual drawer Ninja and decided to swop to the flexible drawer as I hope to cook cakes, whole chicken etc in it - although not at the same time!  MrBC listed the "old" one on eBay yesterday and it sold last night and has been sent off to its new home already - handily in the box and packaging that the new one came in.  We got a good price for it too.

@PennysIntoPounds  -10p is probably ok to the end of the month if you ignore leap year's day.  

I did think about Tuppence Club sweatshirts but I think you are right hand knitted cardigans are for more appropriate.

Thank you for your reminder about being kind to ourselves - I was in danger of not liking the tighter months so ignoring them and potentially making things far worse than they actually are.  We are still paying into our regular savings and 2 x 1p a day Christmas challenge.  One Christmas challenge pot is for us and I'm going to split the other one with our children so they can have an extra Christmas treat.  One family has a Christmas Eve takeaway, another likes a cinema treat so they can use their share of the money for that type of thing.
I can return to de-cluttering and potentially add some more things to OH's "things to sell" pile,

@lucielle  - that's a shame about the air fryer chicken @j@joedenise is right - roast is the best setting.

small wins today (but evidence of getting back into the right frame of mind)

old air fryer packed and despatched
Listening to a book from the "free" audible plus catalogue rather than buying extra credits.  My new credit is due next week and I finished my book yesterday.  Actually the freebie is quite a good book called The Rip by Holly Craig.  Reminds me a bit of Liane Moriaty whose books I enjoy.
making use of little odds and ends of wool for the crochet blanket.  The middle circle hardly uses any wool so I really can use up scraps.  
Bed linen has more or less dried outside after getting soaked in a downpour yesterday

going for a swim soon which is a nice way to finish the afternoon/start the evening.  

Sun_Addict

@lucielle I cooked a chicken in my Ninja using the pressure cooker bit first then air fried. I don’t eat meat so can’t verify but DH and DD said it was lovely. 

joedenise

@Sun_Addict - unfortunately no pressure cooker function on the Flexdrawer so really depends on what Ninja @lucielle has whether that would work.

foxgloves

Lol at team cardigans, @PennysIntoPounds. Nope, I wouldn't knit anything like that.....it would smack rather of 'organised fun', to which I am severely allergic!
@Blackcats - It's interesting how you were finding you were less motivated despite it being a month, financially, where you needed more motivation. I know you had a Spendy Era similar to my own & identified with some of my 'debtisodes' from my previous diary (though not the triffid top, of course....) I am wondering if that is a tiny last vestige of old financial attitudes, sort of "I haven't got the amount available I'd usually have for our savings, so I may as well just do this, buy that, or whatever"..... I'm not saying you've done any of that, but it's a little bit like healthy eating. It's all fine while it goes well, but once it isn't quite as good, the temptation of extra treats starts hovering. Putting money away into regular savings still feels like quite a novelty to me. We need to remember that we have both been Spendy for many more years than we have been reformed characters!
F

PennysIntoPounds

Great news on another ebay sale and getting a good price! And well done on the swim, was leisure centre cat there at that time of day?

savingholmes

I sympathise on the spending more than you wanted. I'm struggling currently to find my mojo to be more money saving as the big bills feel slightly out of control - and therefore the small bills e.g. crafts etc feel almost irrelevant in comparison - even though they are not.

Blackcats

@foxgloves - helpful insight from you which I'm grateful for.  On reflection I think it's a combination of "oh well a few £'s here and there won't make much difference" - as @savingholmes describes.
the other behaviour is definitely from the spendy era and the kitchen drawer habit.  Way back when bills, bank statements and credit cards plopped onto the doormat I would scoop them up and shove them into the kitchen drawer.  They were often unopened so that I didn't need to concern myself with money owed and could kid myself there was no problem.  A bit like a cat sitting behind a curtain thinking they can't be seen although their tail is protruding from the curtains.  Whilst things are going well with banking and savings i like looking online at what's happening but I've definitely been hiding behind the curtain for a couple of weeks.

anyway I'm motivated to work hard to manage our household budgets well to get us through until mid May with as much of our contingency fund in place as I can manage.  There is no need for any more spending this month - we are well stocked with food, cat has plenty of food and treats, car has petrol in it, blanket making basket has lots of wool in it.  No spending until the end of February will leave surplus money in the grocery pot, personal spends pot and entertainment pot.  My strategy is to keep the excess in the pots and top up in March to the usual monthly levels - a bit like topping up the petty cash tin in the office in days gone by.  I'm going to drop the grocery pot by £25 this month though just to stretch us a little bit.

we got lots of washing almost dried today in the blustery conditions and it's now on the airer to finish off.  We had leftovers for tea - beef stroganoff, root veg mash, broccoli and carrots which was really yummy and cosy, comfort food.

@PennysIntoPounds "Jim" the leisure centre cat seems to visit on weekdays which makes me think their owner is at home at the weekend and probably has the heating on.  Jim was there today asleep in the lobby and didn't seem in a very sociable mood today - they were curled up with their back to their adoring public.  Probably just the Monday morning grumps 😾

EssexHebridean

Oh goodness me the unopened letters from the debty days. Ouch - even now I get a bit twitchy if I spot a letter which has been overlooked - even though these days I know it won't be anything significant - that cold chills down the  back feeling takes a lot of getting past though! 

Your cat analogy made me laugh. HRH used to sit behind the valance over the bed base with her tail poking out, and was positively AFFRONTED when we pointed out we could see her! 

dawnybabes

PennysIntoPounds said:

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 😂

You’d possibly get arrested in Sheffield with cardigans saying ‘Tuppence’ on @PennysIntoPounds