Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

Well, as @EssexHebridean would say, "What a lovely lot of visitors I've had" since yesterday's post!
@PennysIntoPounds - Yes, it is lovely to receive those payments every so often, especially as my sister & I can remember him sitting at the dining room table composing. Haven't decided where to put the money yet - Savings Pots certainly, but need to give it some thought as to which one/s.

@KajiKita - Yes, the royalty payments often go towards buying concert tickets. As a professional musician, Dad was always really interested in what classical concerts we were going to, & he'd love to know we are carrying on the tradition & still attending when we can.

@Sun_Addict - Oh, I really want to rescue a bat now!
@Debsnewbudget & @kayannie - Both good ideas for concussed birds - thanks.
@Makingabobor2 - That sounds a bit curmudgeonly, but there again, at 92, he probably does have all he needs.....as long as he doesn't then complain if he doesn't receive anything!
@Florafauna - Hello & welcome! If you like making use-it-up soup, make-do & mend & being resourceful, you'll fit right in here!
F

foxgloves

And now for today's post.
Hello Diary Readers,
Quite a productive day on the whole, though I am getting nicely ready to do not-a-lot later on. Today's generally budget-helping efforts:
*A good 'green gym' session cutting down 2 large buddlejas & wrestling the chopped-up branches into the council garden waste wheelie. Double bonus here - free exercise with all the bending & stretching - plus the wheelie is being collected tomorrow & I do like it filled to capacity to make the most of my annual £37. 
*Made dough for tonight's pizza & a batch of rolls.
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
*Picked some salad leaves. The summer lettuce trough (now in greenhouse) is still producing plenty of leaves, the September-sown mizuna is now at the stage where I can cut a few leaves & the rocket I sowed only very recently has already germinated. 
*Had a ferret around in the tomato-ripening bag to see if any more had ripened.....about another 500g so added them to the ones I prepped on Monday & did some more bottling. Honestly can't see us needing to buy any tinned ones for a very long time, which I suppose is what grow-your-own is all about.
*Postie brought our Home Insurance renewal docs & I was ready for them. Had set a modestly increased amount in my head which I would be prepared to accept, & it was well within that, so I shall let it renew & update Spreadsheet 1 (Regular bills/DDs) with the new amount. It is the same provider we use for our car insurance & I have to say that they were extremely good when that idiot driver staved into the back of our car earlier this year. I was expecting a more significant increase in our home insurance this year because ours is a riverside village which floods regularly & last year, some houses a couple of streets away from us, which aren't usually affected, did flood badly, so I was thinking this might have flagged our postcode as iffy from a big fast flowing river point of view.
*Did a few surveys, not of them very high paying, but there is still plenty of month left for these little bits & pieces to accumulate into a useful sum.
*Titchy bit more present knitting.
Right, that's it for today. I just need to create a topping for my pizza base - it'll be a hot veggie one with peppers, sweetcorn, jalapenos, tomatoes (of course!), onion, basil & cheese. I fancied anchovies tbh, but we don't have any, so that's my hard bun! Might do some piano practice, might not!
F x

badmemory

Isn't it funny how the mind works.  I just read about your home insurance docs arriving & it suddenly occurred to me that perhaps my home ins people need to know I now have solar panels.  It has only been almost 3 months.  Oh dear!

joedenise

@badmemory - we've had solar panels for 10 years now and haven't ever told our house insurance people.  Don't think they've wanted to know about them, they've certainly never asked.

kayannie

joedenise said:

@badmemory - we've had solar panels for 10 years now and haven't ever told our house insurance people.  Don't think they've wanted to know about them, they've certainly never asked.

We had solar panels fitted last year & the company fitting them advised us to tell our insurers so we did.
KA

foxgloves

I don't know anything about how solar panels might or might not affect home insurance policies. My only two penn'orth would be that insurance companies have a tendency to look for ways to avoid paying out, so I'd generally lean towards mentioning it, personally. However, as we have no panels & no current intentions to purchase any, I'm not sure my view is of much value.
F

foxgloves

Hello Sunbeams!
What a pleasant day it has been, & productive too. On the 'Any little thing which helps the budget has to be good' front, I can offer the following activities today:
*Free fitness! 15 mins of walk-fit moves to kick today's step-count off in the right direction.......followed by....
*2 good sessions of 'green gym'. Continued working on front courtyard. Cut back & weeded a flower border, pruned 2 shrubs & then planted winter pansies, violas & mini-daffodils ('Jetfire' as they are so cheery). 6 trugs for the garden wheelie which was emptied this morning so plenty of room for further autumn clearing activity. Also planted up 2 large tubs of full-sized daffodil bulbs from Mr F's tetris box (can you believe he had got 54 bulbs in there?!) using some of the recycled grow-bag compost I saved for exactly this purpose. 
*Filled a few gaps in the just-cleared border using freebies I'd grown from cuttings or self-sown stuff (a white mallow, an aquilegia & a penstemon).
*Picked more salad leaves (2 types of lettuce leaves, rocket & mizuna all pickable atm)
*Picked the last bunch of frilly pink cosmos to bring indoors for my flower bottle.
*Started off some red Russian kale microgreens on the kitchen windowsill (free seed)
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
*Wrote grocery shopping list & pinged to Mr F who will call in & pick it up on his way home from work. Not a long list & he reckons he's got money-off loyalty vouchers for a couple of things on it, so I added two more Christmas cake ingredients.
*Fed sourdough jar.
*A bit of present knitting over my lunch hour.
*1 survey done.
Mr F announced last night that he wants me to write him a job list & as you can imagine, I am already on it! Apparently he is looking for heavy-lifting/tall person/caveman type jobs which will help me progress the Autumn garden clearing. Suffice to say 3 of those on the list already!! Right, off I go....I need to do a little bit of a tidy-up & quick sweep of the kitchen floor, but am looking forward to watching 'GBBO extra slice' later & starting my new library book.
Hope everyone has managed at least a reasonably decent day.
F x

Sun_Addict

Starts writing a list of tall person/caveman type jobs for Mr F and sneaking it in with Mrs F’s list in the hopes no one will notice 🤣

KajiKita

Sun_Addict said:

Starts writing a list of tall person/caveman type jobs for Mr F and sneaking it in with Mrs F’s list in the hopes no one will notice 🤣

Sneaks in a few more for the KK’s garden too … 😉

KK

foxgloves

Lol, you two! I think there's a small business idea right there. Rent-a-Caveman for all those jobs which are too heavy, too high or require brute strength!

Hello Friday Frugalistas,
Not much to report today. I've been busy all day & am shortly heading for a nice hot bath to un-knot my muscles. I'm enjoying my 'Green gym' activities but having stepped it up a bit this week, I am Mrs Achy of Croneville today.
Anyway, today's budget-helpers:
*Cleaned most of the house in a not-as-thoroughly-as-usual manner with the usual minimal products & washable cloths. Was too intent on getting outside to do garden tasks while the dry weather holds.
*Free exercise clearing the remaining front bed. Planted the remaining daffodil bulbs from Mr F's expertly packed bargain box......they were a National Trust range of bulbs so I think 54 for £6.99 was excellent. Only wish either of us could remember the variety! Filled a couple of gaps with free plants I grew from cuttings.
*Picked up another decent couple of windfall pears - these are pretty much at an end now.
*Wrote a revised list for our city centre trip tomorrow & put a possibly relevant voucher in my purse so I don't forget it.
*Baked a sourdough.
*Received 10 free packets of seed from gardening magazine for my letter they recently published.
*Very small amount of present knitting. Soot decided to sit on my lap & the thing with him is that he isn't remotely bothered by moving yarn, then suddenly he really, really is!
*Did 2 surveys - 36p.....be still my beating heart!
*Made a paper template to take with me tomorrow - I want to buy a cake box & board from the watery shop. I've seen one which looks perfect but I want to be absolutely sure that it will fit the bigger of my cakes when it is marzipanned & iced. It's the one which will be travelling to London so while I don't want it moving around, I do want to be confident that it will fit in the box in its finished state. Paper template is so I don't waste the money or have to faff around returning it & needing to source something else at short notice. 
Right, that's today's efforts. Off to run a hot bubble bath now. Hopefully it will help ease my aching muscles.....if not, well, at least I will hopefully have succeeded in getting all the old bits of crumbly leaf out of my hair!
Enjoy your Friday nights all,
F x