Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Suffolk_lass

rtandon27 said:

foxgloves said:

...Glad you find my diary interesting. I often feel I am posting the same or v similar stuff every day...

@foxgloves - never doubt for a moment that there is beauty in consistency!

I find your life rhythms very inspirational, as I'm sure many of us do!

That is exactly the point about rhythms I was about to make. Great for nudging for different things

foxgloves

Hello Diary Readers, 
Stiff & achey when I got up this morning, but worth it when I waved Mr F off on the doorstep & saw those pretty tubs I planted up. And I felt much more limber once I started moving around. 
Quite a busy day - generally money saving elements as follows:
*After a gpod sort through, only 3 items required ironing so a bonus there of saving a tidsy bit of electricity. Also a gas saving as the thermostat was sufficiently high for the heating not to have come on at all yet today, not even first thing.
*Cast on the final pair of socks I need to knit for a December birthday present.
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
*Wrote next week's meal plans based around what we cook on Sat & Sun feeding us for 4 days, then prioritising freezer stores.
*Did my slightly belated Monday morning budget updates - which involved grocery budget, both our personal spends & 3 savings pots. Divided our premium bond winnings between the House & Garden Pot (which covered Sunday's bulbs) & the Presents Pot.
*Did a couple of surveys. I need to recover my mojo with this.
*Swapped all my stuff from my old to my new handbag. There is so much room in it. I can't remember the last time I paid under £80 for a handbag. This one was £29, which barely made a dint in my Personal Spends because I just don't fritter money away any more.
*A nice unexpected bonus of £138 landed in my account - my half of Dad's latest composer royalties. I said, "Good old Dad!". How I wish he could know that his books are still selling. Will almost certainly add this to savings pots, but haven't decided which ones yet.
*Garden pickings: Bunch of carrots.
*Liaised with my sis about Christmas present ideas for my oldest nephew (student). She said his rent is very high this year, so he might appreciate groceries. I suppose we could do this as a nice bag of choccy biscuits, coffee, etc, to unwrap, along with a supermarket gift card. Something else to think about.
That's it for today....apart from my good deed rescuing a starling. He flew at speed into our kitchen window & knocked himself out cold on the courtyard. Not wanting him to come under Soot's radar, I picked him up & carried him to a wide fork in the pear tree. He lay there for about 10 mins, then started looking around & next time I looked, he'd gone, so hopefully that was a happy ending.
This is another long post about not a lot really.
F x

foxgloves

@rtandon27 & @Sun_Addict - Well, I'm a bit of an old pagan at heart, so the rhythm of the seasons & their associated activities are important to me. 
F x

PennysIntoPounds

I always love hearing that your Dad has sent you a bit of money. Where do you feel is an appropriate place for it?
Glad you were able to rescue the starling 😊
That's a lovely idea for nephew's Christmas present, a few 'nice essentials' and a bit of supermarket credit to spend when he needs 

KajiKita

I always rescue birds that daze themselves by flying into windows 😊

Yaay for the royalties - that’s a lovely top up to funds. If I recollect correctly, you sometimes use them for treats? 

KK

Sun_Addict

How lovely that you still get gifts from your dad 🙂 He’s still looking after you. 

We rescued a bat that flew into our patio doors. It was stunned for a bit but flew off eventually. 

Debsnewbudget

I have been known to pop an upside down bucket over a stunned/dead bird to give it a chance to recover/or not !

Stops the cats being interested until its made its mind up 

kayannie

A work colleague who was involved with RSPB once told me to pop the stunned bird in a cardboard box with a lid & leave it somewhere quiet for a short while.  Recently, a bird that I thought had almost certainly killed itself by flying into a window, revived & was released after a short while..

Makingabobor2

How lovely that you still get gifts from your dad.  I get nothing from mine anymore, and he is still alive with a more than healthy bank balance.  He even stopped sending Christmas money now as he says he doesn't need anything at 92 years old, so I should not give him a present anymore and it will save him having to give us anything......lol.  He just keeps saying to me and my sister that we will "get it all when I'm gone"....lol.  The way he's going he could live to 100, and to think we thought we were going to lose him after mum died in 2020.  Sorry, that was a bit of a waffle wasn't it?

Florafauna

Just started following this thread and  am loving it . I've been resourceful today using up some dried beans,  bottom of the salad drawer veg and nearly dead tomatoes to make a yummy soup. I'm recently retired and love make do and mending, and using money and resources wisely.  Nice to meet you all