Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

Morning Campers!
Soggy day here. Soot moping as he was wanting to go out looking for crickets & has now started biscuit pester early.
Friends over later for non-BBQ....same food but cooked indoors. Have dealt with most of yesterday's garden pickings. 2 more bags of french beans prepped & frozen, blackberries added to freezer box, chillies too. Have roasted an aubergine, courgette, shallots, garlic, cherry tomatoes, beans & chilli to make veggie couscous for tonight. It's just cooling. The only ingredients not from our garden are salt, pepper & turmeric, which felt quite satisfying while I was chopping everything. Will bake scones later so that they are freshly warm from the oven when our friends arrive.
Still lots of tomatoes without a job so I think that given the chock-a-block state of our freezers, I shall be doing a bit of bottling next week.
Mr F had another lucky break on PA. He did a survey yesterday for £15, was paid straight away, & told he could participate multiple times, so he has done it again this morning & really given his Aug earnings a boost. Apparently, he could still do it again if he wished! (He didn't)
Absolutely chucking it down now. Far too wet to slosh out to pick salad. Shall make dining table look pretty instead.
Hope somebody somewhere is seeing some dry weather, but it isn't us!
F x

Blackcats

There always seems to be at least one other cat "owner" deliberating at the cat food section.  Jelly or gravy, meat or fish, chunks or pate?

The only choice we don't seem to need to make is cheap food or pricey food !

milann

Hope the dizzies stop soon. 

weenancyinAmerica

Just spent an hour debating what flavors of cat food to order - and whether it should be pate or gravy or both. Ended up ordering both.  

KajiKita

weenancyinAmerica said:

Just spent an hour debating what flavors of cat food to order - and whether it should be pate or gravy or both. Ended up ordering both.  

Here it is chicken or fish and it is ALWAYS both! 😉

KK

foxgloves

Lol, I can identify with this. Luckily Soot & Ash are not too fussy, but Ash (who used to forage from bins in his feral days) does prefer Persian Queen as his pouch of choice. He will eat other brands, but by the time that the latter half of the box is hoving into view, he is generally displaying a sort of 'ennui' about his meals......presumably to signify that he'd like to see a return to PQ variety next time we shop.

Morning all,
What a change from yesterday's brisk showers & general greyness. The day has dawned bright here - blue sky, a nice breeze & although we have decided to spend the BH weekend at home relaxing, I shall definitely be enticed down to the bottom of the garden to the reading bench with my book. Really enjoyed yesterday's indoor non-BBQ with our friends. They brought us some plants (friend is very green-fingered), plums, a few unusual variety cherry tomatoes to try, plum jam & some chocs, so have been busy unpacking all those goodies this morning. 
On the money-saving front, we have plenty of leftovers from last night so will be making a buffet-style meal from those tonight, as well as a few leftover scones. 
Garden pickings - not sure yet, as haven't been down to have a proper look, but defo a courgette & a big marrow (which interestingly has grown from one of the pumpkin seeds I sowed. This can happen with saved seed where the original variety has been grown in proximity on the allotment to something in the same botanical family, as there can be cross-pollination) Mr F already eyeing this for the lovely WW lamb & marrow bake he likes to cook at this time of year. There will probably be more blackberries too, to add to the current freezer box.
Other bits & pieces: Did a survey, though I don't intend checking in on these again today. Mr F spotted this morning that the £15 PA survey encouraging multiple participation attempts was still available so he did it for the 3rd time - he'll be cashing out a useful sum next week for sure! 
Was able to use a 25% discount code on my planned order of deodorant refills. This reduced the overall cost including postage by £4-50, which felt worth having.
Also pre-ordered a geeky blu-ray box-set which Mr F has been waiting for "for years" to put away for Christmas or his birthday. No discount or anything, but the cost will be covered by the Presents Pot & it will be a present crossed off the list when I get to the festive planning stage. Also ordered myself a better 'grabber' which is apparently also usable to pull up weeds. I am determined not to let the garden go to rack & ruin if I am to be bothered with this bloody vertigo for much longer. Am looking forward to that arriving as with my long-handled fork, I think I can make decent inroads without tumbling headfirst into the undergrowth. 
Really am intending a day of leisure so will be enjoying the nice weather outside with my knitting  - I'd like to get to the end of the easy section of my shawl so I can knuckle down to mastering the much more complicated part -  & reading my current book. Despite reading 4 chapters in bed last night (kept awake by Ash having prolonged verbals outside with another cat), I am no nearer being able to put together a theory as to what has happened to Charlotte Salter, despite there having been an interesting development!
Oh, & Soot not had a blameless night either, as has left a large dead mouse on our back courtyard. However, despite having to bury it, I am aware that we are getting closer to the months when we have traditionally had some really quite troublesome indoor rodent incursions, so I'm looking more favourably on his nocturnal shenanigans than being kept awake by our naughty stripy boy!
Best wishes to everyone for a lovely weekend,
F x

foxgloves

@ladyholly - I think you may have posted your diary post on my diary by mistake, but no worries this end. Yes, replacing various minor things can still add up, can't it? And I'm with you on the rain. If I decide to water the garden because the weather forecast sounds vague, you can pretty much guarantee it will rain later that day.
I have the 'Sharpe' box-set & have re-watched several times, though not recently....partly as I love history & tbh ......well....Sean Bean in that uniform......coo-er!
F

foxgloves

Hello BH Money-Savers,
We've stayed home as we have a city centre visit & a mini-break coming up, so felt we'd rather save our money for those. It's been a laid back but really useful day with the following budget-helping activity:
*Tied up tromboncino plants with Mr F's help & trimmed back big squash plants to help the pumpkins ripen & stop the others potentially reaching Doncaster by this time next week.
*Today's garden pickings: Tomatoes & coriander.
*Cooked a big bowlful of pears & blackberries for dessert this week.
*Did my regular Monday morning budget updates - mostly grocery budget, Personal Spends & a few items from August's buffer zone. It's Big Budget Day tomorrow so I wanted everything shipshape.
*Did 3 surveys & also received a £3 bonus from one I did last week.
*Over lunch, did some really useful planning with Mr F. Freezers are chocka & garden producing well so we decided to do meal plans up to when we go away for a 3-night mini-break, really concentrating on using stores & our own produce. Also wrote a list of jobs which need doing before we go, packing list & what food we'll need to take. Defo taking a picnic lunch & flask for the drive, as that will be around £20 saved even if we were only to stop off at a supermarket cafe.
*Discussed the Holiday Payment Schedule as Mr F wanted a reminder about when the balance on next year's holiday needs paying. We also discussed booking somewhere special to us for Autumn 2026 which will be our Silver Wedding Anniversary. Feels so much better to plan these things in advance so as to have the money saved, rather than sticking it on a credit card like we'd have done back in the Spendy Years.
*Also discussed breakdown cover renewal quote....an increase of over 37%. Current UK inflation rate about 2.25% I think, down from 6.60% this time last year, so I think 37% is difficult to justify when we have not called them out for several years. I may add phoning them to tomorrow's list. When we did need them, for a rather unusual rescue involving Mr F, they were very good, so of course that needs to be factored in too.
*Warm breezy day so finished this week's laundry first thing AND did the ironing...only 3 items as the creases had blown out of other stuff I'd usually iron. I shall miss free drying once we get into the colder months.
Right, that is today's efforts. Mr F is busy making the curry paste for Malaysian fish curry tonight. I'm going to read some more of my book. Am 2/3 of the way through & still haven't got anywhere near solving the mystery!
Love F x

Makingabobor2

A very productive day for a Bank Holiday.  I have been researching Octopus smart meters and tracker tariffs. Not sure we'll go for a tracker, but may decide to get a smart meter installed as not got one yet....still deciding. 
I agree about planning trips in advance. We have already started saving for 2025 and 2026. I have a bucket list trip I'd love to do in 2027 as it will be my 70th birthday, but not sure if we could ever do it. All depends on how quickly we get this mortgage and debts paid off and save even more.   Fingers crossed....  
Good luck with planning your trip

ladyholly

foxgloves said:

@ladyholly - I think you may have posted your diary post on my diary by mistake, but no worries this end. Yes, replacing various minor things can still add up, can't it? And I'm with you on the rain. If I decide to water the garden because the weather forecast sounds vague, you can pretty much guarantee it will rain later that day.
I have the 'Sharpe' box-set & have re-watched several times, though not recently....partly as I love history & tbh ......well....Sean Bean in that uniform......coo-er!
F

Sorry foxgloves. A senior moment. I thought I had lost it and wanted to get on so didn't repost it. I must have been half asleep.