Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

@Sun_Addict - No, he hasn't had a chance to look at it properly yet. We actually think the problem may be 2 separate things, so he thinks it may now take a bit longer than just unchecking a box, although that should sort out the Co-Pilot part of the issue. We'll soon see, anyway.
F

foxgloves

Hello Sunbeams,
Not a no-spend day as I know Mr F has filled up the car with fuel, but no spending other than this. Busy day & still working through everything I want to achieve. Budget-friendly stuff as follows:
*Sorted clean laundry & ironed only what really needed it. Iron-use reduced by not bothering with a couple of very wintery items as they will shortly be packed away into my seasonal clothes bag & stored until Autumn.
*Made dough for tonight's pizza & a small batch of rolls.
*Did budget updates - groceries & Personal Spends mostly. 
*Emailed the strawberry plant supplier to complain that they only sent me half of what I paid for.
*Did one minor survey then cashed out of PA with March earnings of £44-05. I still have £6.08 outstanding so that will get me off to a start with April's earnings.
*Having watched 'GW' on Friday, decided to give all the geraniums the Monty Don treatment. All of them have overwintered so no need to buy any new ones for baskets & containers. 
*Transferred all my tomato plant babies down to the greenhouse & made sure I have sufficient bottle cloches & see-through large yoghurt pots/salvaged plastic beer glasses to cover them until the night are warmer. Bubblewrap at the ready too. Aubergines have stopped sulking but are having another night or two indoors in a colder room before they too are moved to the greenhouse.
*Pot up a selection of the largest flower seedlings (still to do this afternoon)
*Plant out autumn-sown parsley plants.
*Hoe a weedy section of troublesome flower border - the area I've been repeatedly hoeing is showing a marked slow-down in weed-growth so must remember to do a little hoe-wielding every day as it saves the more back-breaking type of weeding later.
*Make tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
*Greenhouse watering inc seaweed for the tomato babies. Got to look after those future food supplies!
*Wrote a list of where I'd like to be with garden tasks by the end of the week.
*Spoke to my sister about solicitor slowness which is to do with a rather complicated (but small) thing they needed to do regarding cemetery ownership prior to adding an additional headstone inscription, & about which they had completely forgotten! Our elderly relative would have had plenty to say about that! She was a tiny old lady but very vocal when jobs weren't done to her liking.
Right, must crack on or I shan't get as far as I'd like with greenhouse potting up. And I am still hoping for half an hour out on the bench with my book.
Take care, m'dears,
F x

foxgloves

I finished everything except planting out the parsley plants so shall aim to start with that tomorrow.
F

foxgloves

Forgot to mention the biggest money saver of the day.....first day with no central heating, which was switched off last night. Let the credit build-back begin!
F

foxgloves

Morning Campers!
Off to a good start today - I did say I wanted to make this week count & am holding myself to that. Budget-friendly bits & pieces as follows:
*No-spend day.
*Contacted company again about the shortfall in my recent order. I did at least receive an automated receipt of my message this time, so am wondering if something wasn't working properly with the message function on their website on Monday. This is one of the key problems with lack of company phone number being included in the 'Contact us' details. Will complain via FB if this doesn't raise both an answer & the outstanding strawberry runners.
*Wrote meal plans for next week prioritising what we already have in stock.
*Talked ourselves out of ordering the latest of our local butcher's mega-deals. It is an amazing offer, but we think it is probably a bit too big to accommodate just at the moment, with there being just the two of us, & we'd also want to buy a leg of lamb for Easter. Have agreed that we'll keep eating through the freezer & will contemplate the next one.
*Wrote grocery shopping list.
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
*Checked bank account for receipt of PA earnings & moved to Personal Spends.
OK, I've done all the above. Other tasks I'm going to do today, starting as soon as I sign out of here.....
*Plant out the Autumn-sown parsley plants as this fell off the list yesterday.
*Plant out October-sown sweet-peas which have been hardening off in the open cold frame for a few days. Cold nights atm so will use my trusty sheets of salvaged glass (old fridge & bathroom cabinet shelves!) around them for a bit of protection.
*Pot up cavolo nero seedlings.
*Finish planting my assortment of freebies, both from self-seeded pot-ups, cuttings, etc. 
*Moving plants around for aesthetic appeal.....still getting 2 borders to my satisfaction following hedge removal & installation of fence by neighbour. It won'ts involve spending any money, apart from the delphiniums I have put on my birthday list to make up for the ones which were munched by the mollusc army last year during the perma-rain.
*More hoe-wielding - good free fitness activity.
*Sort out the seeds I put aside for direct sprinkling & decide where to put them. (All free ones)
*Cheapo nosebag tonight as it's jacket potato night - Mr F has got out an array of odds & ends, so if his isn't going to be Man-Stew, I'll be amazed. I'm thinking of feta & fruity coleslaw on mine.
Basically, garden jobs are pretty much open-ended atm as while I always have priority jobs, gardens are always a work in progress & never 'finished'. Had a chat with Mr F about getting a little bit more done in the ongoing veg plot refurb before we sort out the gravel, etc, but this is dependent on some money I'm waiting for. I do thinks it makes sense to get it done together though, Once we have gravelled the area we are refurbing, I don't want to be scraping back gravel to site further smaller raised beds & we won't need to buy as many sacks of it either. Still thinking......
Right, time to get a move on. Already looking forward to my next coffee, although not as bad as Ash, who charged in through his flap at 9.30am on the dot & requested his lunch! 
F x

rtandon27

I just love that Ash's belly works as an alarm clock!

Blackcats

Poor Ash - I blame the clocks going forward for his premature lunch demand .  You can't blame a boy for trying!

foxgloves

He loves his food, but he doesn't usually pester for it as much as Soot, who I'm afraid I called Mr Creosote earlier when I found he had been up on the kitchen worktop looking for non-existent food.
Off for a welcome bath now as am going to be achey later from all the digging & triffid-wrangling I've been doing today. Potting up seedlings felt very restful in comparison.
F x

foxgloves

Hello Frugal Diary Friends,
Haven't achieved as much as intended as received some news which rather threw me off whack, but the budget-friendly stuff I did achieve is as follows:
*Baked bread.
*Defrosted the last of the bacon-rib & lentil soup for tonight's meal with either scrambled eggs or cheese on toast. Bargainacious!
*Wrapped Easter goodies & card for posting tomorrow, making use of a box, tissue & brown paper from my stash of salvaged wrappings.
*Watered greenhouse plant babies.
*Planted out remaining sweetpeas (grown from saved seed).
*Planted out 5 more plant freebies - more labour-intensive than it sounds because I had to keep digging out pestilential hawkweed roots as I went along.
*Moved a pot of still-in-bud daffodils into a gap.
*Mr F pinged to say he has some Waitbloom vouchers for some of the items on our not-very-long list.
That's it for jobs today. My head has been all over the place. I was at my desk writing a letter to my sis & had just written about how long a silly error (not ours!) will hold up our deceased elderly relative's estate (it's dragged on, initially because the Land Registry didn't have a record of ownership of her house then other things). We are both beneficiaries. I knew my sis was as money was known to be left to godchildren, but I didn't find out till quite a lot later that I was named as an equal beneficiary. Our relative spent her last 2 years in a care home so of course, I assumed we might be lucky enough to inherit a couple of thousand once their bill was settled - the important thing being that as someone with no close family at all, she was safe & cared for - but just as I had finished speculating in my letter whether it might possibly be enough to buy a new garden bench & 2 or 3 small extra raised beds for our veg plot revamp, because I'm reluctant to use Savings Pots money, my phone pinged & it was a message from my sis (she's been 'next of kin' contact throughout) to say she'd just had a communication from the solicitor with the actual amount. All I can say is that it's MUCH more than I was expecting & I feel very grateful to have been included.
I almost shan't believe it till it lands in our bank account but we will defo need an Extraordinary Money Summit meeting to sort out best use of it. Again, it wasn't long before I thought what a good job it is that I am sensible with money these days & understand the benefits of savings. So that's why I've not achieved as much today. Been thinking of my relative too....especially as a clump of fancy daffodils she gave me years ago are flowering right next to where I've been digging today.
Anyway, enough yakk, time to go & bubblewrap the plant tinies.
F x

Makingabobor2

Oh wow, that sounds like some incredible news and we know you will use it wisely, however much it is. Sounds like Project Surbiton might get a bit of boost.