Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Baileys_Babe

@marionmgcars what car snacks did you buy at the garage? Could you take something similar from home? Or is it the association of buying the snack whilst on a drive?

Good to hear Mr. F is ensuring you are still taking it easier @foxgloves

marionmgcars

Prepared myself a nice small flask of coffee, and some pre-peeled orange segments.  It was the chocolate and packet of sweets that were demolished within 30 minutes of the garage visit.  I always stop half way to stretch my legs - the car park space was just outside the chip shop !  Well it was lunch time 🤣🤣🤣.   I just get so bored driving the 100 mile journey.  I’m trying to listen to talking books rather than the radio.  X

foxgloves

Morning Campers,
Not a no-spend day today, as Mr F has already popped out for an Observer & we are planning to visit our village farm shop cafe later for breakfast. All Personal Spends though, so budget neutral.
I have heaps to do in the garden -particularly planting - but think I have come up with a way to make gradual inroads into this without all the usual bending. It will involve my long-handled fork, grabber & a raised surface (I'm thinking wheelbarrow) onto which I can pop out a selection of home grown plug plants. It's got to be worth a try. My back has definitely improved & I don't want to find myself back at square one because of lots more bending & reaching.
It occurred to me earlier that tomorrow is my regular mid-month budget check-in day, which seems to have come round very quickly.
F

Moorviews

A farm shop breakfast sounds like a lovely start to the day. I was sorry to hear about your back and hope that your planned way of working still enables you to get some things done. I do think that most of us gardeners tend to do our backs in at some point or another! Extended reaching, heavy lifting and heavy digging are the real baddies for me. Much as I find it annoying having to ask for help I try to remember to ask Mr MV to do these for me. 

Good luck with hearing back from HMRC. It is like writing into a vacuum. Mr MV is currently appealing against a fine due entirely to them not following their own processes. It makes me very cross because the fine has to be paid first and then appealed. He hasn’t heard back from them at all. 

marionmgcars

Well today is a trip from home into Edinburgh on bus then train to Manchester to meet friend.  Continuing on with a tram to her home.  I’ve tried to prepare by making a snack for train, and have a voucher for C*st for a coffee.  Won’t get bored as have brought a magazine and my knitting for train.  Thinking positive and prepared 😊

EssexHebridean

Glad to hear you are on the mend Foxgloves - painful backs are awful, and it's so easy to forget, move as you usually would and make the whole thing worse again isn't it! 

Hopefully your mid month budget check in has all gone to plan and not turned up any surprises! 

foxgloves

@EssexHebridean - Yes, you are so right re backs. I was so careful over the weekend when I was out in the garden. No bending, no reaching, no heavy lifting.....then I had an hour on our sunny bench casting on some complicated knitting. I had the pattern laid out at the side of me so I could set the foundation rows.......& of course I sat twisted to the left so as to read the pattern!! Later on, it became clear that my dodgy back muscles didn't like that at all!
F

foxgloves

Hello Monday Money Savers,
Productive day. Keeping busy helps curtail all the overthinking I am doing atm. Small money saving wins today:
*Did 2 loads of laundry & pegged out to dry for free.
*Rubber chicken duties. It did us a roast dinner yesterday & I divvied up the leftovers for 3 further main meals plus a chicken dijonnaise roll for Mr F's packed lunch tomorrow. (He's interviewing all day, so watch that squidge out down his white shirt all ready for meeting the afternoon candidates!)
*Fed sourdough jar ready for baking tomorrow.
*Copied a section of knitting pattern into larger print & accompanied by a grid as an easier way to monitor rows. (Expensive shawl kit received as gift & I really don't want to bog it up & waste any of the yarn).
*Potted on courgettes & squash.
*Tied in the cucumbers.
*Sorted out some spare plants to sell cheaply (from our drive) for charity. Not money saving for me but nice to start a tin of money to help somebody else.
*Tracked down the big slug who spent last night in the cold frame gobbling 5 of my baby lettuces & transported him to a wild area of garden regularly foraged by blackbirds.
*Rounded up 2 rolls & half a pack of pittas for freezing rather than wasting.
Am now gearing up to see if I can get more questions right than Mr F on 'University Challenge'. He is very competitive......though says he isn't.
F x

foxgloves

Hello Diary Readers,
Not a lot of money saving relevance to impart today, but it's not been a bad day on the whole. 
*Ironed yesterday's laundry - switched off the iron to press the last garment.
*Took advantage of another bright blowy day to launder a couple of crochet blankets & line-dry them for free,
*Baked bread - a sourdough & a gluten-free loaf - the latter a first for me - what a strange mixture that was! Looks OK now it's baked, but I haven't tried it yet.
*Did a few surveys. PA earnings still below where I'd like them for halfway through the month, but I haven't really put in as much effort as usual, if I'm honest. Still time though.
*A portion of the leftover roast chicken I divvied up yesterday will make a stir-fry with rice for tonight's meal. Will also be chucking in a 'Freeze it or lose it' pepper which I froze a while ago.
I can feel it starting to drop chillier, despite there still being plenty of blue sky, so I must pop down the garden to shut the greenhouse in a minute.
Love F x
Oh, & I have resumed having Tuesday as weekly Weigh Day. While I haven't gone mad (haven't been feeling as full of beans as usual), I have had my birthday & 2 bank holidays so there have been treats. I hadn't weighed in for 3 weeks & had expected to have gone up, but I had actually lost another 0.3kg. I expect I did go up a little but have pulled it back over the last few days. Anyway, I'll take that - it makes a total of 7.3kg off - & am feeling back on track with it.

Makingabobor2

Think its not just you that is having a slow month with surveys. I am only 1/3 of the way towards my target. Its been really slow....blame the bank holidays....lol.  
Well done on the weight loss.