Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Moorviews

Happy Easter 🐣 It’s a perfect time of year to be in the garden- weather permitting! The simnel cake looks fabulous and will no doubt be delicious. 😋 

marionmgcars

Good journey back yesterday, with prepacked flask and snacks.  Saved spends at half way point cafe.  Also got a Too Good To Go bag from Aldi with lots of goodies, so will be processing that today 👍 .  Start of new month, sorting out the accounts, and trying to be mindful spending this month.  Happy Easter everyone - wonder how long I can resist my chocolate Easter Egg for 🤣🤣

foxgloves

@Moorviews - Thanks, yes it is a nice tasty cake. It's Mary Berry's recipe.
@marionmgcars - It's definitely a money saver on long journeys, making sure that you are packed up with flasks, lunch, snacks, etc. We particularly like to do this on our drive over for a week's holiday wherever we are staying, as once I'd had the big LBM, it seemed such a waste of our holiday funds to spend some of it it on service station sarnies & coffee before we'd even arrived. No need to resist your chocolate egg, it's Easter! 

Morning Frugal Easter Bunnies,
Having a nice lazy day today. I have had my laptop on for about half an hour to do a very few bits & bobs, but after all yesterday's gardening, we both decided we'd have some downtime today. Small budget-helping offerings will therefore be thus:
*Cashed out March's PA survey earnings at £53-27 (me) & £34-83 (Mr F). Now added to our Personal Spends.
*Signed into the savings account containing our Emergency Fund & Car Fund to see if annual interest had yet been added. It has. Shows the difference that a bit of a higher interest rate can do. Naturally my first thought was still, "Hmmm, what shall we do with this?" but as our everyday spending needs are pretty much covered by our Spending Pots categories, it makes sense simply to leave it where it is, so that is exactly where it will stay for now.
*Checked this month's Premium Bond draw date just in case Agent Millions is planning to venture our way (ROFL!)
*Checked veggie babies, especially the tomatoes & chillies which are now all in our unheated greenhouse. Aubergines are in the conservatory (sounds warmer than it is!) & one of them is being brave & trying life without its bottle cloche today. Peppers will be potted on this week. They were the last of the 'tropical' veg to be sown & are the smallest.
*Mr F is roasting a big leg of lamb today  - we decided to have our traditional Easter meal today as we could see that Sunday was going to be the better gardening day from a weather point of view. I have made some stuffing (smug feeling of having breadcrumb box in freezer, lol) but that will be my only contribution as he loves making a roast dinner. My role will be divvying up the leftovers tomorrow & assigning them to further meals.
*Make tomorrow's packed breakfast & lunch - if he doesn't say 'stuffing cob' for his lunch, then I will eat not only my hat, but my shoes too!
Apart from that, I intend to do very little. I'm thinking read (currently 'Birnham Wood' by Eleanor Catton), knit, eat chocolate, maybe watch a film & possibly have another go at the RT crossword. I am usually absolutely hopeless at cryptic crosswords, but have astonishingly managed to do a few clues, so I may attempt to persevere with that.
We are trying not to dwell on the situation with our car. The latest pre-Easter update was that the Lincoln branch cannot repair it as the level of damage is too bad, so it was put back on the low-loader & conveyed to Manchester. Not the news we wanted to hear, but as I've said to Mr F, the situation is out of our control. We now have an actual physical letter from the other chap's insurers stating that he has admitted full blame. Also clear from the letter that his insurance company would also like to deal with our side of the claim. Mr F has told them that this is not going to happen & that they will be dealing with our insurers for the duration of the claims process. 
Right, that was rather a long woffle to tell you that there is very little going on.
F x

joedenise

Sounds like when Mr JD had an accident where someone ran into the back of him when he was stationary.  The other driver admitted liability, they exchanged insurance details and then his company (Tesco!) wanted to deal with it all and even sent quite threatening emails which we just forwarded onto our insurance company to deal with.  Would never use Tesco for insurance after that!  Horrible company.

PennysIntoPounds

That sounds like a delightful bank holiday Monday, enjoy 😊 Let us know how you get on with the cryptic crossword!

badmemory

I wouldn't go with tesco again.  Their left hand didn't seem to have a clue what their right hand was doing.  At least the car got sorted quickly as there weren't the parts problems back then (year 2BB).  I dread to think how bad it would have been if I had been at all at fault

Onebrokelady

Sounds like a lovely day 🙂 sorry to hear your hands are playing up it’s a bummer isn’t it. I might have to retry CBD oil .I used it for a while but the flavoured ones irritated my mouth and I can’t stomach the taste if it’s not flavoured 🤢 I’ve seen one that you massage in but I’m not sure if that would actually work .

Makingabobor2

Cake looks very tasty. Hope you had a lovely weekend FG. x

foxgloves

Thanks for all your comments. I think it's lovely how so many people contribute. There are always money saving ideas & experiences to share, aren't there. Always something new to learn or think about.
Busy day getting back into the swing of frugal housekeeping, etc, at Foxgloves Manor, after a very enjoyable relaxing Easter. Today's budget-helping efforts as follows:
*3 loads of laundry pegged out for free drying. I shall probably have to finish some things off on heated airer but it will still be an electricity saving.
*Cut up yesterday's leftover lamb joint. It did us our Easter roast yesterday & having divvied up & assigned the rest, it will do 4 portions of lamb bhuna, 2 portions of lamb pilaf, 2 portions lamb & butterbean stew, 2 portions lamb slices in gravy & a pan of Epic Man Stew. The bones are simmering in the slow cooker for stock. Also froze 2 foil parcels of leftover stuffing, which can be added to a couple of future roasts.
*Did my Monday morning budget updates - a day late, but no matter. April Week 1 grocery budget a higher spend than I'd have liked, but not unexpected with a few Easter/BH goodies. Plenty of food in, which we will factor into April's master meal plan (not yet written).
*Moved 🍆🍆 babies down to the greenhouse but will keep bottle cloches on them for another couple of days to acclimatise.
*Potted up baby 🫑🫑 & remaining 🌶️. 
*Triaged seedlings to decide on potting up priorities starting tomorrow. Watered the lucky winner.
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
*Free resources - made another bottle cloche & spread tub's worth of plant labels, added a nice strong A4 envelope & card to my wrappings stash.
*Fed a bowl of veggie scraps to the worm composter & treated the wigglers to a new moisture mat - I don't buy these as find a circle of strong cardboard cut to size does the job for free.
*Knitted a few rows of cardi over my lunch hour & will do some more tonight.
Hope everyone has had a lovely Easter. Onwards into a new month & for food-growers/gardeners, things are getting busier by the day.
F x

themadvix

Having followed your lead with my worms, I too have never bought a moisture mat Foxgloves! Such a good tip!

Yes, everything is getting ever busier in the garden - it's such an exciting time of year.